June 2024: The Heat will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell

 Cass has picked "The Heat will Kill you First" by Jeff Goodell for us to read in June. She said, "Lots of great YouTube and media coverage of the author and the book of you need a rabbit hole...."

ABOUT THE BOOK

Most Anticipated by The Washington Post New York Times bestselling journalist's "masterful, bracing" (David Wallace-Wells) investigation exposes "through stellar reporting, artful storytelling and fascinating scientific explanations" (Naomi Klein) an explosive new understanding of heat and the impact that rising temperatures will have on our lives and on our planet. "Entertaining and thoroughly researched," (Al Gore), it will completely change the way you see the world, and despite its urgent themes, is injected with "eternal optimism" (Michael Mann) on how to combat one of the most important issues of our time.

“When heat comes, it’s invisible. It doesn’t bend tree branches or blow hair across your face to let you know it’s arrived…. The sun feels like the barrel of a gun pointed at you.” 

The world is waking up to a new reality: wildfires are now seasonal in California, the Northeast is getting less and less snow each winter, and the ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctica are melting fast. Heat is the first order threat that drives all other impacts of the climate crisis. And as the temperature rises, it is revealing fault lines in our governments, our politics, our economy, and our values. The basic science is not complicated: Stop burning fossil fuels tomorrow, and the global temperature will stop rising tomorrow. Stop burning fossil fuels in 50 years, and the temperature will keep rising for 50 years, making parts of our planet virtually uninhabitable. It’s up to us. The hotter it gets, the deeper and wider our fault lines will open.   

The Heat Will Kill You First is about the extreme ways in which our planet is already changing. It is about why spring is coming a few weeks earlier and fall is coming a few weeks later and the impact that will have on everything from our food supply to disease outbreaks. It is about what will happen to our lives and our communities when typical summer days in Chicago or Boston go from 90° F to 110°F. A heatwave, Goodell explains, is a predatory event—one that culls out the most vulnerable people.  But that is changing. As heatwaves become more intense and more common, they will become more democratic.  

As an award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of environmental journalism for decades, Goodell’s new book may be his most provocative yet, explaining how extreme heat will dramatically change the world as we know it.  Masterfully reported, mixing the latest scientific insight with on-the-ground storytelling, Jeff Goodell tackles the big questions and uncovers how extreme heat is a force beyond anything we have reckoned with before.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Goodell’s most recent book, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, was a New York Times Critics Top Book of 2017. He is the author of five previous books, including Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future, and a Contributing Editor at Rolling Stone, where he has covered climate change for more than a decade. As a commentator on energy and climate issues, he has appeared on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He is a Senior Fellow at Atlantic Council and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow.

May: 'He Said/She Said' by Erin Kelly

For May, Becky has picked "He Said/She Said" by Erin Kelly. She remarked: It is a psychological thriller - and the main characters are solar eclipse chasers. If you have time, I suggest reading it prior to April. It's available immediately on Libby. While recently reading it I looked up when the next eclipse is and found that the "path of totality" is happening on April 8, 2024, in many parts of the U.S. I was like, what a coincidence! Because this doesn't happen for years and years!

https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/where-when/

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

"A tour de force – a gripping, twisting, furiously clever read that asks all the right questions, and keeps you guessing until the very end. I loved it." ― Ruth Ware

"Haunting. Mesmerizing. Unforgettable." ― Gillian Flynn

In the summer of 1999, Kit and Laura travel to a festival in Cornwall to see a total eclipse of the sun. Kit is an eclipse chaser; Laura has never seen one before. Young and in love, they are certain this will be the first of many they’ll share.

But in the hushed moments after the shadow passes, Laura interrupts a man and a woman. She knows that she saw something terrible. The man denies it. It is her word against his.

The victim seems grateful. Months later, she turns up on their doorstep like a lonely stray. But as her gratitude takes a twisted turn, Laura begins to wonder―did she trust the wrong person?

15 years later, Kit and Laura married are living under new names and completely off the digital grid: no Facebook, only rudimentary cell phones, not in any directories. But as the truth catches up to them, they realize they can no longer keep the past in the past.

From Erin Kelly, queen of the killer twist, He Said/She Said is a gripping tale of the lies we tell to save ourselves, the truths we cannot admit, and how far we will go to make others believe our side of the story.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Some stories take longer to 'cook' than others. It's no exaggeration to say that my latest novel, The Skeleton Key, about a family of artists, and a treasure hunt that takes on a life of its own, was a lifetime in the making. As a child, my favourite picture book was the 1979 treasure hunt phenomenon Masquerade, by artist Kit Williams. On every page, riddles were posed and intricate, dreamlike paintings depicted Jack Hare in his quest to deliver a jewel from the moon to the sun. Each picture was bordered by letters that held a clue to the location of a tiny hare, wrought in gold, studded with precious stone, and buried somewhere in England. My favourite page was a double-page spread of a little girl sitting in a field of dog roses while Jack Hare galloped past. I envied her so much: she was in the story, as I longed to be. I thought that if I looked at the picture for long enough, I might fall into it: and in a way, I did. Masquerade became part of me, and forty years later, it has found its way out again in the form of The Skeleton Key.

Aside from The Skeleton Key, I'm known for He Said/She Said, about a young couple who witness a rape and, after the trial, begin to wonder if they believed the right person. It was number one in the kindle charts for six glorious weeks, and spent three months in the Sunday Times Bestseller charts.

My first novel, The Poison Tree, was a Richard and Judy bestseller and a major ITV drama starring Myanna Buring, Ophelia Lovibond and Matthew Goode.

I’ve written six more original psychological thrillers – Stone Mothers, Watch Her Fall, The Sick Rose, The Burning Air, The Ties That Bind.

I had read scores of psychological thrillers before I heard the term: the books that inspired me to write my own included Endless Night by Agatha Christie, The Secret History by Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine. My books are atmospheric thrillers, always about people trying to atone for, escape, or uncover a past crime. I’m more interested in what happens before the police arrive – if arrive they ever do - than how murder is solved.

April 2024: NEW BOOK - 'The Buried Giant' by Kazuo Ishiguro

Amy has picked a new book for April, "The Buried Giant" by Kazuo Ishiguro. People were still waiting for the library copies of her first pick. She said, "I'm choosing this book because its a reference text for a more academic,  theological book that I want to read called Forgiveness: An Alternative Account by Matthew Ichihashi Potts. In his book,  Potts uses 4 novels as a framework for thinking about forgiveness.  This is one of them.  I haven't read Potts book yet because I want to read the framework novels first.  Potts is the co-host of the podcast,  Harry Potter and the Sacred Text,  which I listen to religiously! Crossing my fingers that it's a good book! "

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Buried Giant is a fantasy novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British writer Kazuo Ishiguro, published in March 2015.

An extraordinary new novel from the author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day.

"You've long set your heart against it, Axl, I know. But it's time now to think on it anew. There's a journey we must go on, and no more delay..."

The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years.

Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in nearly a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge, and war.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Life

Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan. When he was five, the family moved to Guildford in Surrey, England, where his father, an oceanographer, had been invited to work at a research institute. In his youth Kazuo Ishiguro first wanted to become a musician, but he studied English and philosophy at the University of Kent and then creative writing at the University of East Anglia, where he earned a master’s degree in 1980. Since then he has worked as a writer. Kazuo Ishiguro is married and has a daughter.

Work

Memory, time and lifelong deception are central themes in Kazuo Ishiguro’s works. Growing up in a Japanese family in Great Britain has colored his thinking and perspectives. His first two novels are set in Japan. His most celebrated work, The Remains of the Day, published in 1989, is about an English butler and his feelings for a housekeeper at the time around World War II. In later works Ishiguro approached genres such as fantasy and science fiction. His language is characterized by restraint, even when dramatic events are portrayed.

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2017/ishiguro/facts/

April 2024: 'The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet' - SEE UPDATE

 * Note - New book picked because everyone is still waiting for this one from the library. *
Amy has picked "The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet" by Becky Chambers for April 2024.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The acclaimed modern science fiction masterpiece, Hugo Award winner for Best Series!

Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe—in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

Also included on Library Journal's Best SFF of 2016, the Barnes & Nobles Sci-Fi Fantasy Blog Best Books of 2015, the Tor.com Best Books of 2015, Reader’s Choice, as well as nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Kitschie, and the Bailey's Women's Prize.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Becky Chambers was raised in California as the progeny of an astrobiology educator, an aerospace engineer, and an Apollo-era rocket scientist. Her first novel, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, was originally funded via Kickstarter in 2012. Her books have been nominated for the Kitschies Award, the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, the Arthus C. Clarke Award and the Women's Prize for Fiction, among others, and won the Prix Julia Verlanger.

After living in Scotland and Iceland, Becky is now back in her home state, where she lives with her spouse. She is a devotee of video and tabletop games, and enjoys spending time in nature. She hopes to see Earth from orbit one day.