Have you read any books that center nature or the environment lately? In this episode, Ashley and Jen share books they've read recently - including Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) and Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) - that consider the role of nature as part of the story.
These recommendations are perfect for the 2022 Reading Challenge category about the environment.
Bookish Check-in
Ashley - Abdi Nazemian’s Like a Love Story (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Jen - Leila Mottley’s Nightcrawling (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Our Recommendations
Ashley - Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Jen - Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Give Me One - A Favorite Summer Memory
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Bookish Check-In
Ashley was reading...
Abdi Nazemian’s Like a Love Story (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"It’s 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.
"Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He’s terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he’s gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media’s images of men dying of AIDS.
"Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance...until she falls for Reza and they start dating.
"Art is Judy’s best friend, their school’s only out and proud teen. He’ll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs.
"As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won’t break Judy’s heart—and destroy the most meaningful friendship he’s ever known."
Jen was reading...
Leila Mottley’s Nightcrawling (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison
"But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent—which has more than doubled—and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.
"Rich with raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before."
Our Recommendations for Books about Nature and the Environment
Ashley recommends...
Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"From the author of the beloved national bestseller Migrations, a pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands.
"Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska.
"Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she’s witnessed—inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then who did? And what will Inti do when the man she is falling for seems to be the prime suspect?
"Propulsive and spell-binding, Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable story of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves—if she isn’t consumed by a wild that was once her refuge."
Jen recommends...
Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"The extraordinary New York Times bestselling author of The Lacuna (winner of the Orange Prize), The Poisonwood Bible (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize), and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver returns with a truly stunning and unforgettable work.
"Flight Behavior is a brilliant and suspenseful novel set in present day Appalachia; a breathtaking parable of catastrophe and denial that explores how the complexities we inevitably encounter in life lead us to believe in our particular chosen truths. Kingsolver's riveting story concerns a young wife and mother on a failing farm in rural Tennessee who experiences something she cannot explain, and how her discovery energizes various competing factions—religious leaders, climate scientists, environmentalists, politicians—trapping her in the center of the conflict and ultimately opening up her world. Flight Behavior is arguably Kingsolver's must thrilling and accessible novel to date, and like so many other of her acclaimed works, represents contemporary American fiction at its finest."
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