Environmental Fiction: Hollow Kingdom + Resisting Symbolic Violence + Postcards of Biodiversity and Justice + Finding comfort and conviviality with urban trees + more!
Hi Gavin! Linnea here, from the emerging Scandinavian Association of Ecolinguistics (was that what we decided to call it?). Nice to read your newsletter, as always. Special thanks for the recommendation about the novel Hollow Kingdom. I'll put it on my reading list!
For my part, I've enjoyed reading the first three books of the Norwegian author Maja Lunde's Climate Quartet (and the last one just came out in Norwegian). These novels are set in several times – historical, contemporary and future – including a kind of post-apocalyptic world that puts our times in a horrible light.
I've read a couple of other post-(climate-)apocalyptic novels – I might also mention The Wall by John Lanchester, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy – and I think they all provide useful and chilling perspective on the imminent crisis.
However, my best recommendation is Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future, which I'm currently reading. It's set in the 2030s and later, after a lethal heatwave, and it deals with politics and activism in addition to just describing the horrors of unsustainable development. Thereby it suggests a couple of ideas of how to actually stave off the crisis. Quite an inspiring read!
Good luck with your ambitious reading goal (I'm happy if I manage to read 20–30 books per year – in total; including Harry Potter with my nine-year-old!).
Thanks for your work with the newsletter. I learn so much from it.
Hi Linnea, I hope you’re well! Yes, I think that was the name we settled on:) Thanks so much for your kind words about my newsletter, I’m glad to hear you’re finding it interesting! And thanks for all these great book recommendations!
I haven’t heard of Maja Lunde’s Climate Quartet, just looked it up now and sounds fascinating, I will definitely check it out. It might take me a while in Norwegian, so will probably go with the English translations for now:) I’ve also been meaning to read The Road at some point, I think I saw the movie, made quite a few years ago? The Ministry of the Future is on my 2023 list! My office neighbor has a copy, but it looks like a fairly big tome so might have to devote a couple weeks to it. I read an interesting review of that book by Bill McKibben last year, and have been meaning to read it ever since (among the growing pile of other books I've been meaning to read). I’m definitely looking forward to an inspiring read too, it seems like a lot of climate fiction is more on the apocalyptic/chilling side, so balancing it with some more hopeful cli-fi sounds nice.
I’m thinking I’ll probably have to squeeze some audiobooks and a few very short books into my list if I’m going to reach my goal, and 20-30 definitely sounds more manageable. But we'll see. I’ll post updates here too, hoping that sharing my progress keeps me motivated:)
Hi Gavin! Linnea here, from the emerging Scandinavian Association of Ecolinguistics (was that what we decided to call it?). Nice to read your newsletter, as always. Special thanks for the recommendation about the novel Hollow Kingdom. I'll put it on my reading list!
For my part, I've enjoyed reading the first three books of the Norwegian author Maja Lunde's Climate Quartet (and the last one just came out in Norwegian). These novels are set in several times – historical, contemporary and future – including a kind of post-apocalyptic world that puts our times in a horrible light.
I've read a couple of other post-(climate-)apocalyptic novels – I might also mention The Wall by John Lanchester, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy – and I think they all provide useful and chilling perspective on the imminent crisis.
However, my best recommendation is Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future, which I'm currently reading. It's set in the 2030s and later, after a lethal heatwave, and it deals with politics and activism in addition to just describing the horrors of unsustainable development. Thereby it suggests a couple of ideas of how to actually stave off the crisis. Quite an inspiring read!
Good luck with your ambitious reading goal (I'm happy if I manage to read 20–30 books per year – in total; including Harry Potter with my nine-year-old!).
Thanks for your work with the newsletter. I learn so much from it.
Best,
Linnea
Hi Linnea, I hope you’re well! Yes, I think that was the name we settled on:) Thanks so much for your kind words about my newsletter, I’m glad to hear you’re finding it interesting! And thanks for all these great book recommendations!
I haven’t heard of Maja Lunde’s Climate Quartet, just looked it up now and sounds fascinating, I will definitely check it out. It might take me a while in Norwegian, so will probably go with the English translations for now:) I’ve also been meaning to read The Road at some point, I think I saw the movie, made quite a few years ago? The Ministry of the Future is on my 2023 list! My office neighbor has a copy, but it looks like a fairly big tome so might have to devote a couple weeks to it. I read an interesting review of that book by Bill McKibben last year, and have been meaning to read it ever since (among the growing pile of other books I've been meaning to read). I’m definitely looking forward to an inspiring read too, it seems like a lot of climate fiction is more on the apocalyptic/chilling side, so balancing it with some more hopeful cli-fi sounds nice.
I’m thinking I’ll probably have to squeeze some audiobooks and a few very short books into my list if I’m going to reach my goal, and 20-30 definitely sounds more manageable. But we'll see. I’ll post updates here too, hoping that sharing my progress keeps me motivated:)
all the best,
Gavin