Books

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

Camp Zero starts out as a familiar climate-future story: Americans building a new city in (warming) northern Canada. But it evolves into something much more interesting, told from intertwined and overlapping perspectives. The book spends a lot of time considering how women in particular might experience this "new" world (in quotes because a lot of the "old" predictably comes along for the ride). This was the first pick from a personalized Just the Right Book gift subscription... so far pretty great!

Triptych by Karin Slaughter

We've been loving Will Trent on TV, so tried this audiobook on the drive back from California. The narrator's accents are a little much, but the story is fantastic and I guess it is Georgia after all. Fair warning: some characters are VERY different in the book than the show... enough said. Unbelievably good plot twists!

Cræft by Alexander Langlands

A gift from my daughter, with whom I've spent hours (days) watching Alex and his compatriots explore historical British agriculture in the time of the Stuarts, Victorians, Edwardians and WW2 (but not the Tudors, thanks a lot Tom). In a nutshell, Langlands' premise is that "craeft" is the ability to make useful things within the constraints of an environment. And that, by freeing us from worrying about weather or locality of raw materials, modern industry is causing us to lose craeft skills developed over millenia. Maybe you need to be a nerd to appreciate an archeological study of local roof thatching materials over time --- but Langland's knowledge, irony-free enthusiasm, descriptions and imagery are just amazing. We need more of this in the world!

Roots by Alex Haley

The 1977 Roots miniseries was a big deal at the time, but I was 8 and barely remember it. I picked up the book a few weeks ago, somewhat by chance, and really was impressed. To follow seven generations, from The Gambia to Cornell University, is frankly pretty moving. It's not always a fun read, that's for sure --- but it does leave you in awe of the resilience of families in terrible circumstances, finding ways to live with dignity despite an unfathomable lack of control. Especially these days, Roots ought to be required reading in every American high school.

EarthWreck! by Thomas Scortia

OK, this one doesn't really pass the "good book" bar. But I am a sucker for 60s-70s science fiction, and I couldn't pass this one up at the wonderful Bart's Books in Ojai. After nuclear war has sterilized the Earth, the crews of rival American and Soviet space stations collaborate in an attempt to preserve the species. I expect and generally excuse the gender and ethnic stereotypes that come with this territory, but EarthWreck was a bit much even for me --- keep it in your pants, "Italian" guy! Some solid creative ideas too, but probably a pass at the end of the day. Ah well.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

I won't spoil too much, because the story (starting in medias res, thanks Billy) is just too good and you should enjoy the twists end-to-end. It's 1954 and two you brothers are off to California to start a new life, with just a few interruptions along the way. Each chapter is told from a different character's perspective, sometimes multiple looks at the same events but more often just pushing things forward. I loved them all: Emmett, Billy, Sally, Wooly, Duchess and even Ulysses and Prof. Abernathy. Don't miss this one.

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

This one was recommended to me by the awesome Adam Bosworth, and it lived up to his hype. The main character Eli Bell grows up in a rough part of town, with parents in the lower echelons of the local drug scene, and a (very responsible) babysitter famous as the greatest prison escape artist in modern Australia. His journey is fantastic (and a bit fantastical, but without being too woowoo) and I was sad to reach the end. 

The Wager by David Grann

The amazing, true story of an English warship wrecked on an island off the coast of Patagonia. With basically no ability to survive on local resources, the desperate crew broke into warring factions, eventually striking out in different directions on tiny, hand-built boats. Grann does a great job of telling the story based on extensive (and very contradictory) accounts written by the survivors. Most interesting to me was the contrast between the desperation of the sailors and the everyday nonchalance of the Kawesqar people they encountered --- in exactly the same environment. Our ability to adapt (or not) as a species is pretty incredible.

The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins

This is the second novel I've read lately that considers climate crisis as a tipping point that resets the eocnomic order, to the benefit of "average" folks, and (more interestingly) how that new society deals with the groups judged to have caused the crisis in the first place. I'm drawn to these stories because I believe increasing/accelerating wealth inequality just can't keep going forever, and nobody other than near-term science fiction writers seem to be taking it seriously. Certainly not our political and media establishments. Ah well, even if you ignore all that, the story was fantastic, the kind where you just want to keep reading one more page.

Shantyboat by Harlan Hubbard

Two artists drifting in their self-built houseboat down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in the late 1940s ... I mean, come on! This is an American classic about amazing American characters that shouldn't be missed. I've never spent any real time near rivers of the scope and scale of these inland waterways; Hubbard's descriptions of the natural and human micro-worlds along the banks and inlets and bayous are dynamic and technical and beautiful and and and. Gotta get there one day.