The Overstory

The Overstory

By Richard Powers

“The most wondrous products of four billion years of life need help.” (p.165)  In Richard Powers’ novel The Overstory, trees, the powerhouses of the Earth, draw in a cast of characters from vastly different backgrounds. 

There’s Nicholas Hoel, whose family has spent generations documenting the growth of the Hoel Chestnut tree with one photograph a month over a series of lifetimes; Olivia Vandergriff, whose college party days are stopped dead by her electrocution; and Mimi Ma, whose Chinese immigrant father instilled a love of trees in his three daughters.  There’s Neelay Mehta, whose fall from a tree made him a paraplegic, an accident which spurred him to create digital worlds that take gamers beyond the bounds of Earth.  And there’s Patricia Westerford, a dendrologist whose studies have brought tree communication to the attention of the scientific community and beyond.

There are many more characters as well, each of whom has a moment of insight which focuses their attention on the plight of the forests.  Each is moved to do something to save them. Nicholas and Olivia, in fact, spend an entire year living in an old-growth tree to prevent its destruction.  

When Nick and Olivia team up with Mimi, Adam and Douglas, all of whom have been inspired to join the ranks of the anti-logging movement, they begin to plan their own actions that grow more and more dangerous.  Protests lead to arson, which leads to something far beyond what they expect.

Meanwhile, Neelay continues to expand his digital worlds, realizing that the Earth can no longer meet the needs of human desire.  And Dr. Westerford continues her research, proving that trees have communication systems, can sense impending disaster, live in tandem with surrounding animals, and provide untold healing and pharmaceuticals to humans.

All of these diverse characters and stories are linked by the overarching story of the tree.  Powers fills The Overstory with scientific facts and a wealth of information about trees and the forest.  Part epic, part popular science, part political manifesto, The Overstory is a riveting and timely tale.  As each character takes a stand to protect the forests, whether it’s in the protest camp or their own backyard, readers are forced to consider their own position and whether the long term damage we inflict on the Earth can be justified by our ever-growing desire for more.

Commonwealth

Commonwealth

by Ann Patchett



Ann Patchett’s new novel, Commonwealth, grabbed me from the first page. Some stories take a while to get into, but this one had me from the opening section of the novel, set at a family christening party. It flows — from character to character and room to room and even house to house — with such visual grace that it’s almost like a movie. Everything is vivid, from the sounds of the party to the scent of the drinks. Patchett is descriptive but not flowery, an author who always seems to know just what needs to be written.  

The novel focuses on two families, the Cousins and the Keatings, and their messy association. Stories about dysfunctional families can tend toward cliché; it’s become a rather well-worn device. This isn’t that, a woe-is-me tale of divorce and hostile step-children. The novel surprises at every turn and I rarely knew what would happen next due to its layered characterizations. 
 
I’ll give you the bare minimum: the two families become interwoven by events that are set in motion at an orange-and-gin saturated suburban party. Fix Keating- a police officer in Torrance, California — watches as Bert Cousins, a co-worker who is barely an acquaintance, turns up at his daughter Franny’s christening.  This will have a disastrous effect on Fix’s marriage- before the night is through, Bert will kiss Beverly Keating. Bert eventually leaves his own wife and children, and he and Beverly will take the Keating daughters and move to Virginia. Franny is as close as this novel gets to a main character, though the novel regularly follows Bert, Fix, Beverly and others.  

The novel shifts very successfully between past and present, covering five decades in the lives of these characters. It’s both funny and poignant, and as I began to reach the last pages of the book I already knew I would miss them. You won’t find a huge overarching plot, it’s just life — just the lives of a number of semi-regular people- and that Patchett can bring such energy and interest to it is a sort of magic. Highly recommended.

To Rise Again At a Decent Hour

by Joshua Ferris

Healthy teeth are much more important to one’s overall constitution than I ever gave them credit for. It all ties in, as I learned from reading Joshua Ferris’ To Rise Again at a Decent Hour- not a dentistry textbook but an offbeat novel about a dentist who becomes the victim of an elaborate stolen-identity mishap.

Paul O’Rourke is an anxious character and that feeling of anxiety, that on-the-edge-mental-game between suppression and collapse, permeates the novel from the first to last. Paul is coddled by his routines and hampered by his inability to hope for anything better- a sort of secret nihilist (“Of course I alienate myself from society. It's the only way I know of not being constantly reminded of all the ways I'm alienated from society”). The twist occurs when our hapless dentist discovers that someone has created a website on behalf of his dental practice-in the guise of O’Rourke himself. He has previously refused to create one, staying away from the internet and social media full stop, and his initial thought is that the website has been hoisted upon him by one of his three employees- which includes former girlfriend Connie. Then comes an unasked-for Twitter account, with someone tweeting about religion under Paul’s name, and emails on a mysterious religious group called the Ulms. Paul’s distress mounts as he attempts to uncover who is this other Paul O’Rourke and what is he doing.

There are moments in the novel when the history of the Ulms bog down the story, taking on such breadth and detail that it feels more like Ferris was having too much fun to rein it in. Nevertheless, the writing is so impressive that I genuinely mourned the end of the novel’s characters, world, and idea. There are quotable lines to be enjoyed, such as: “…the minute he takes up the floss, says to himself, What’s the point? In the end, the heart stops, the cells die, the neurons go dark, bacteria consumes the pancreas, flies lay their eggs, beetles chew through tendons and ligaments, the skin turns to cottage cheese, the bones dissolve, and the teeth float away with the tide”.

For a book that so often delves deep into the uncomfortable feeling of anxiety, this is nevertheless a hopeful and often hilarious novel.

Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black

By Piper Kerman

Usually I like to read the book before I watch the show but in this case I went a little backwards. Orange is the New Black, the Netflix show, is one of my favourites, I had not even thought that it was a book first so when I saw it on our library shelves I snatched it up right away.
My favourite part of the book is that I get more details about Pipers past and readers get a deeper understanding into Piper's thought process. The reality of the situation that Piper found herself in is written out in dreadfully fine points.
For those who have not seen the show Orange is the New Black is the true story of a young woman who's past has caught up with her. When she was in her 20's Piper Kerman was looking for a little adventure after she graduated from college. She found this in a girlfriend who introduced her to international travel, fine dining and the world of drug smuggling. Piper escapes the world of drugs and makes a very different life for herself with a career, boyfriend, and comfortable home until, one day, a knock come to her door. Piper is arrested for a crime that happened a decade prior. This is the story of Piper Kerman and how she deals with life behind bars, the other woman that she meets and the reaction of her family and friends on the outside.
Richmond Public Library also has this book available in many forms, not just hard cover but also; audio book on Hoopla, audio book from Overdrive, Large type, and e-book.

Me before you

Me Before You

by Jojo Moyes

I had heard the name Jojo Moyes buzzing around the book blogs in the past year or so, but I hadn't read anything by her until now. Me before you is fantastic. Dealing with some very serious issues that make you think long after you've finished reading the book.

Heart-wrenching, funny, thought provoking - an overall great read. Jojo Moyes is now on my favourite authors list, and I can't wait to read the sequel, After you.

Who do you love

Who do you love

by Jennifer Weiner

Rachel Blum (pronounced Bloom) and Andy Landis meet each other for the first time in the Emergency Room waiting room when they are only eight years old. Rachel has a congenital heart defect and has just undergone heart surgery to save her life. Andy is there for a broken arm. Rachel is surprised to find out that Andy is at the hospital all alone. She decides to tell him a story to help him forget about the pain. However, Andy's mom soon arrives and he leaves to see the doctor - both believe they'll never see each other again. However, soon after Andy and Rachel's live become intertwined in one way or another. Linked by a night that changes both their lives.

This is a sweet and heart warming story about the importance of love, even if it may break your heart.

Americanah

Americanah

 

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Sweeping love story meets meditation on race relations: this is Adichie at her best.

 

Ifemelu grows up in Nigeria and in high school, meets Obinze, the love of her life.  Sounds cliché, but Adichie’s writing makes it so real, so heartfelt, that even the most jaded readers will want this love to flourish.

But, as often happens after a high school romance, things change.  In a country where children are primed to move abroad when they reach adulthood, Ifemelu moves to the United States.  It is there that she discovers the concept of race.  In Nigeria, race is not something she ever thinks about.  In the U.S., her life is defined by race.  She must learn her place in a complicated racial hierarchy and discovers that she is on the bottom.  As she struggles to find work, Ifemelu begins to blog about her experiences.

Race is a central concept in the book as Adichie touches on everything from the acceptability of wearing your hair in braids, to the racial divide between light-skinned and dark-skinned blacks.

Her life evolves in the U.S., and Ifemelu begins to thrive.  But something is pulling her back to Nigeria.  Which brings us back to Obinze.  Now married with a child, Obinze and Ifemelu find each other again.  Will their love return after all these years?  What follows may bring some readers to tears.