From Victorian London to ancient Mesopotamia to modern Turkey, this epic novel took me away from myself and gave myself back to m3rd book read in 2025
From Victorian London to ancient Mesopotamia to modern Turkey, this epic novel took me away from myself and gave myself back to me. Elif Shafak is a British-Turkish author who holds a PhD in political science, has taught university levels and has enough imagination for at least ten people.
Spiraling around the famous poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh (which fortunately I have read, though it was long ago), a gifted child rises out of poverty like a Dickens character, a Yazidi girl tries to escape her destiny as a hated minority on the banks of the Tigris River, and an adult orphan with a broken heart finds redemption and connection through her passion for understanding water and rivers.
Did I need to keep my globe of the world handy? You bet I did! But I also had to thank myself for being a woman who reads too much while this author took me around the world again in 431 enthralling pages while I did not get lost.
After our reading group discussion, during which one of us posed this question: is the amount of water on earth finite, I went home and posed the question to the internet. The answer is that of course it is but it’s the distribution and the amount of living things needing water that complicates the matter.
This is only the third book I have read so far in 2025. A good omen for the rest of the year of reading!...more
Once again, Rachel Kushner has written a strong and compelling novel. I have read all her novels. Not everyone found this one great. I read it for a rOnce again, Rachel Kushner has written a strong and compelling novel. I have read all her novels. Not everyone found this one great. I read it for a reading group and the other two members had less than wonderful reactions.
Sadie Smith (not her real name) is a spy for an unnamed entity, sent to foil the plans of a commune in rural France. That plan is intended to disrupt the agribusiness in the area and save the water table. A Monkey Wrench Gang for the 21st century. She is one cold-hearted and scheming woman. An unlikable character; the sort I call a “bad woman.” I tend to fall for such characters. She is no worse and no better than any spy I have found in fiction.
In fact, all the characters in the story loom large. So do some quite provocative ideas about Homo Sapiens vs Neanderthal peoples in the ancient past as well as scenes set in caves. I was fascinated on every page. The tension mounts in each chapter. This is a wonderfully complex story, as all Kushner novels are. The balance of personal and political is skillfully maintained. The ending was a perfect landing for Sadie ...more
First sentence: “In the Age of Extinction, two tagalong daughters traveled to the edge of the world withI loved this novel with all my heart and soul!
First sentence: “In the Age of Extinction, two tagalong daughters traveled to the edge of the world with their mother to search the frozen earth for the bones of woolly mammoths.”
Their mother is a graduate student in paleobiology, the daughters are fifteen and thirteen years old (best teen characters I have read in a long time), and they are embalmed in grief over the loss of their father/husband.
Adventure, angst, humor. Those are the elements. A woman trying to be seen and heard in a man’s world. Animals both long extinct and newly born.
I am so glad I read it and thank the friend who insisted I do so! ...more
I loved this novel beyond words. It begins with a mysterious scene. A woman is on her way to pick up her mother from the train station. She is filled I loved this novel beyond words. It begins with a mysterious scene. A woman is on her way to pick up her mother from the train station. She is filled with dread. She looks up her mother on the forum devoted to her and finds a photo. I, the reader, have no idea what I am reading!
It is the kind of book where the reader has to piece information together as she goes, not really knowing what is going on most of the time. It reminded me of Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
The Morningside is a 100-year-old residential hotel on Manhattan Island, which in a future time to ours, is slowly becoming smaller as the tides inundate the island. Silvia and her mother arrived when she was 11. They have been refugees from an Eastern European land and have finally been reunited with an aunt by the Repopulation Program. We are in climate change land!
Silvia tells this story from her young unreliable narrator stance as a preteen, but she is observant, hungry for knowledge about her early life, and as resourceful as your favorite characters from middle-grade books. Her Aunt Ena, who manages the building, fills her with tales and superstitions, the kind of tales Tea Obreht is so good at telling.
Ones of the many wonders here is how the telling of the tale made me feel like a refugee entering a place new to me which I had to figure out as I met the characters, found my way around and especially acquired a friend as fascinating yet devious as Silvia’s frenemy Mila.
With her second novel, Lydia Kiesling has joined my pantheon of most-loved authors. I first encountered Lydia in 2009 on the excellent on-line publicaWith her second novel, Lydia Kiesling has joined my pantheon of most-loved authors. I first encountered Lydia in 2009 on the excellent on-line publication The Millions. That was during the early days of book bloggers and she was writing wonderful reviews of older books, specifically those from The Modern Library. At the time I was reading older novels too (as I still am) and running my own blog, so I studied her reviews. She was clearly highly intelligent and not afraid of adding irreverence, quirky opinions, and a first-person voice to her reviews.
Lydia went on to become the Editor of The Millions in 2016. Then she published her own debut novel, California and had launched herself into the role of literary novelist. Mobility is another of her highwire leaps.
I was reading some of the reviews of Mobility here and it seems that some readers failed to understand that her novel is a satire. One could be excused for that because her main character, Bunny, seems so real, so engrossed in her own body image, her attire, her love life, and her road to financial security. I think Bunny is Lydia Kiesling’s stand-in for all of us as we grapple with the way the world is going. It is such a conundrum that all the “progress” and “advancements” we have made as supposedly the premiere species on earth has led us to the possible doom we face.
Can we give up oil? Will money save us? At least, some of us? ...more
I loved this debut novel! It was the December, 2022 selection for the Nervous Breakdown Book Club.
Willa Marks is a heroine I'd like to know. I felt I I loved this debut novel! It was the December, 2022 selection for the Nervous Breakdown Book Club.
Willa Marks is a heroine I'd like to know. I felt I did get to know her as I read.
Raised by conspiracy theorists in prepper poverty, now an orphan, obsessed with fighting climate change, she joins a group of eco-warriers on the island of Eleutheria in the Bahamas. She has left behind Sylvia Gill, the love of her life.
Willa is a determined scrapper, just my favorite type of woman. Her skewed childhood and her search for positivity make her easy prey for the cult mentality. Camp Hope, created by a rich con man, is her cult of choice, but she does not realize for quite a while what a charlatan Roy Adams truly is.
Cults leave their survivors with deep psychic wounds, as I know from personal experience, making this seem like a novel written specifically for me.
I have now read the three big climate change books: Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson, Appleseed by Matt Bell, and this one. Each takes different vI have now read the three big climate change books: Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson, Appleseed by Matt Bell, and this one. Each takes different views and comes up with varying outcomes. They all share large amounts of the science behind the problem and its solutions.
Robinson's keynote is a belief that we humans who caused the disaster are also capable of correcting the imbalances by working together.
Along with science, Ministry covers economic and political forces. The economic stuff, though it often went over my head, taught me more than I have understood before.
There is a plot, but it gets regularly pushed aside for all the teaching points. Once I got used to that, I was fine with it. I have seen lots of complaints about that but I was grateful to learn so much all in one place.
I am not convinced that the author's hope for and trust in mankind is warranted but I would like to think it is. Since I finished the book, I feel more capable of understanding the news about efforts being made to prevent our extinction as a species. The urgency is real and time is for sure running out!...more
Another great story from Neal Stephenson. It was inevitable he would take up climate change. He made it global, he made it scientific, he made it poliAnother great story from Neal Stephenson. It was inevitable he would take up climate change. He made it global, he made it scientific, he made it political and he balanced it all just right for me. I have not had good fortune in studying straight science over the years, so I appreciate novels that teach it to me in ways I can assimilate and apply it to my understanding of the world.
I also appreciate how often Stephenson makes me laugh out loud as I read. I respect how deeply he has studied history. All of these aspects make me able to accept that sometimes for many pages I will be learning stuff while having faith that the action will ramp up again. It always does!...more
Astrobiologist Theo is dedicated to finding life on other planets. He is raising his neuro-atypical son alone after his Richard Powers does it again!
Astrobiologist Theo is dedicated to finding life on other planets. He is raising his neuro-atypical son alone after his wife died while trying to keep up with his teaching and work. Robin takes a lot of care and is under the threat of being medicated for his condition. Theo wants to find another way.
He finds a friend of his wife who is testing an experimental neurofeedback therapy and is willing to take Robin. Robin responds and becomes a calm, outgoing and focused kid. He becomes a one-kid wonder working to raise awareness about climate change and the growing disappearance of wild life.
If you read my last review, you know that I read Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes before reading Bewilderment, because I had learned that Powers was inspired by it when he was writing his novel. If you have read Flowers For Algernon, you will understand why I was worried for Robin all the way through. Would he have a parallel arc to Charlie's in Algernon?
As always there is lots of science mixed into this emotionally charged story. I love that about Richard Powers. He makes me look up so many words!!
This one will for sure be one of my top 25 books read in 2021. ...more
Charlotte McConaghy is one of the most courageous authors around these days. (There are many more and I try to read all of them.) Her novel MigrationsCharlotte McConaghy is one of the most courageous authors around these days. (There are many more and I try to read all of them.) Her novel Migrations was amazing and so is this one.
Wonderments for me were: the climate topic and how rewilding is accomplished, equally damaged twin sisters, the relationship of animals (wolves) to humans, and the interiority of two women who must confront violent men.
I have been reading plenty of climate fiction lately and I love the ways that authors are portraying what we are up against these days, because what we are up against is our fellow human beings and their ability to face up to what we are doing to our world.
The main heroine, Inti, will not be found likable by all readers but I found her to be a deeply realistic character. She reminded me of Janet Fitch's heroine, Marina M, in her two volume set The Revolution of Marina M and Chimes of a Lost Cathedral. When women demonstrate strength and courage, all the while dealing with their inner conflicts brought about simply because they are women, we as readers are seen!
Another connection for me were two books by Nevada Barr that deal with reintroducing wolves into the natural world: Hard Truth and Winter Study. ...more