The Ministry for the Future

 The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

This is one impressive book. Impressive in the sheer amount of knowledge the author had to acquire to write it, in the way it's structured with many different viewpoints yet telling a compelling and coherent story throughout, that the massive weight of the subject matter didn't preclude writing characters who felt relatable and real, and that the quality of the writing didn't flag through the entire 563 pages. 

That's not to say it was an easy read, but it was well worth the effort. I like science fiction to have plenty of credible science, or at the very least science the author makes sound credible. This book is thick with it, and I'm not proud to say I skimmed over bits of the very technical stuff in the beginning. And since I'm confessing...about half-way through I stopped looking up words/terms/references I didn't recognize because it was slowing me down and the book had to go back to the library in a few days. A lot of meanings could be gleaned from context anyway, but I'd probably have come away with a better understanding of it all if I'd taken the time to look things up. So, yes, it took some effort to get through the book, but again, it was very much worth it. 

In simple terms that won't do it justice, it's a climate change novel set in the near future. The problems we're seeing now in our own time have become severe in the novel and countries are desperate enough to work together to seek solutions in weather control, population control, economics, politics, and every other aspect of life on this planet. Some of those solutions seem brilliant to me, but not being an expert in anything much I have no idea how realistic they are. Regardless, I found it all quite spectacular.    

One of the many narrators is Mary Murphy, a Irish woman working in Zurich as director of a new global Ministry for the Future tasked with finding ways to protect the planet and future generations from extinction due to climate change. Another is Frank May, an American aid worker helping at a clinic in India when a killing heat wave strikes, leaving millions dead and Frank alive but deeply damaged psychologically.

Other narrators include a woman living in one of the many refugee camps and a team of workers in antarctica trying to slow down melt rates. In other short sections - and this was fascinating to me - we are addressed by the sun, a photon, computer code, the market, animal herds, history, and a few others I can't remember right now. Strange as this may sound, it works. 

The plot is intense with urgent situations facing various countries, but it's hopeful, and inspiring in how the world did finally, if not easily, work together to change a bleak future. I'm not describing it adequately, but I think to get the full picture you need to read this brilliantly imagined, thought-provoking book for yourself, and I need to read it again. 

It's simply amazing. 

Miss Benson's Beetle

 Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

A rambunctious tale about a reserved, middle-aged school teacher, Miss Margery Benson, who throws it all up one day in an uncharacteristic fit of pique and petty theft, to go searching for a golden beetle she's not entirely sure exists. Her love for beetles began in childhood when her father showed her a book of magical creatures, and when she came to the sketch of a rumoured golden beetle, she felt - she knew - it was her destiny to capture one and prove their existence to the world. After years of teaching girls domestic science, a career her recent actions rendered finished, it felt like time.

When Miss Benson looked for an assistant to travel with her, a most unlikely candidate, Miss Enid Pretty, got the job and off they set. Enid is a flighty, most unreserved young woman with a sketchy background that will come to light later, as will the mis-adventures of another applicant, Mr. Mundic, who refuses to accept that Margery does't need him to lead the expedition.

Through a number of entertaining troubles on the ship taking them to Caledonia in the South Pacific, getting through Customs, socializing with the wives of the Consul, and struggling up a mountain in search of the beetle, Margery and Enid share their personal stories and come to understand one another better, forming a bond of friendship neither expected.

These two women will have ridiculous and frightening adventures, and will both be changed in outlook and attitude beyond what they thought possible. Their comical, heart-warming journey is worth reading. 

The Impossible Thing

 The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer

A unusual story based on a real world crime involving the theft of a rare red guillemot egg. I had no idea what a guillemot was (a seabird of the auk family), that their eggs were considered collectable (because of their colours), or the lengths to which collectors (called oologists) would go to obtain them.  

At the Metland farm in Yorkshire, a young girl, Celie, and a farmhand, Robert, collect a valuable rare guillemot egg from a rocky cliff nest by dangerously lowering the girl through a crevice in the rock. There she hangs, suspended in a rope harness over the ocean, as she reaches into an opening to grab the egg. Once back up, there is an eager collector willing to pay a good price for this treasure. 

A century later, someone breaks into Weird Nick's house to steal a red egg he'd purchased as a curiousity on Ebay. He and his friend, Patrick, figure it must be valuable if someone wanted it that badly, so they set out to find the thief and get it back. This will involve them in a world they hadn't known existed, filled with obsessive collectors and sketchy characters who don't like to play by the rules. 

With dual timelines and engaging characters in both, the story moves along at a good pace and is just dramatic enough (I've read a few that overdid it recently and it gets old fast) to be realistic and make you eager to keep reading. And it was an entertaining introduction to the world of egg-collecting, which I had no idea was a thing. 

A good story with clear, uncluttered writing, an intriguing plot, and likable characters. 

Light From Other Stars / The Walking Drum

Light From Other Stars by Erika Swyler

This is the kind of science fiction I like - lots of credible sounding science, unnerving possibilities, and ordinary (mostly) people caught in the crosshairs. 

Eleven year old Nedda Papas, living in Easter, Florida, wanted her father to take her to the launch of the Challenger space shuttle but he's working in his lab on Crucible, an experiment to manipulate and slow down time, so she watches the launch on tv with her school class. When the shuttle fails a few minutes after takeoff, killing everyone on board including Nedda's hero, astronaut Judy Resnik, the force of the explosion has an unexpected effect on Crucible. The "sky looks weird" as Nedda and her best friend, Denny, are walking home from school, then they find an animal - I think it was a monkey - trapped in some kind of "bubble" they don't quite know how to describe. Before long the entire town of Easter is caught up in the strange effects of an experiment gone wrong.  

In an alternate timeline years later, Nedda has fulfilled her dream of becoming an astronaut and is now aboard the shuttle Chawla, one of four people heading to a distant planet to establish a colony there. When a crisis arises, Nedda realizes that data she gathered from the Crucible disaster could be the key to survival now. 

The science in this was riveting, as were Nedda's relationships with Denny, with her father, Theo, and her mother, Betheen. Her parents are both flawed characters but are written with grace that renders them lovely in spite of their flaws. Their love for Nedda and each other, the yearning in it, was so beautiful it hurt to read.

There were some great metaphors: "Time painted with watercolors". I've been thinking about that ever since. And this - when Nedda's mother tried to hug her - "Nedda stiffened at the touch. Like coat hangers trying to embrace." And "...Denny was part of Nedda too - a bone in her leg that held her up." The whole thing was beautifully written.  

Authentic characters, original plot, and enough suspense to keep you up late. Such a good book!  

The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour

If I was a fifteen year old boy in the 1960s I might eat this novel up. The hero of the story is young, brave, strong, handsome, has a skill to meet every challenge, wins every fight, escapes every trap, falls in love with beautiful girls and they fall in love with him. What boy, or man for that matter, wouldn't want to be him?

Alas, I found him neither likable nor admirable, nor even credible. His attitude toward women is tiresome; he brags too much, even with the odd self-deprecating remark added in a failed attempt to make him a more balanced character; he improbably has the specific knowledge/talent/skill needed to get out of every predicament he gets into; and too many beautiful girls are quick to overcome their initial hesitancy about him and give them their hearts. All we ever learn about the girls is how beautiful they are, making them more like cut-out dolls than real characters. 

The plot pattern - go on an adventure, fall in love with a beautiful face, get into trouble, get out of trouble, escape leaving the girl behind, repeat - wore thin after awhile. On the plus side, it seemed well researched and had some interesting historical and cultural information. That's about the best I can say for it.        

Bach, the Learned Musician/Quartet in Autumn

 Johann Sebastian Bach - The Learned Musician by Christoph Wolff

This is a wonderful book but it was a bit more than I was looking for. I did want a biography of Bach but maybe not quite this detailed. His life is in there, between details about the churches he was employed with and the histories of those churches, the men who ministered there and their backgrounds, the organs in those churches and who built them, when and how they were built, even what type of wood they were made from and where the trees grew. Details upon details, and of course much about Bach's music. I did find it interesting and for a serious student of Bach it would be a great resource, but I'm still looking for something more about his personal life with less history of other people and places, if such a book exists. The library has one more I'll try later this year.  

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym

I have mixed feelings about this one. Four people, two men and two women, work together in an office and are all close to retirement. It describes their interatictions working at jobs so unimportant that none of them will be replaced when they leave, and the routines of each one's daily lives. There's little plot, but is more a study of the characters and their relationships. Reading other reviews makes me think I should have taken more from it than I did, but it didn't reach me on as deep a level as it seems to have others. I wonder if it might be one of those books I'll appreciate more as I continue to think about it. I did enjoy the reading of it but am a little frustrated not to have seen more in it.

The Language of Flowers / Hard Times

 The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Victoria, raised in foster and group homes, turns 18 and is left to fend for herself. She'd had one good year, living with Elizabeth, a wise and compassionate woman who loved her and was going to adopt her until things went awry. Elizabeth taught her about gardening, the types and names of flowers, and what they needed to flourish, knowledge Victoria used to start a small garden of her own even while she was homeless and sleeping under bushes in parks. 

She replies to an ad for a florist's helper and gets the job working for Renata, who sees in her something special and worth mentoring. One early morning at the flower market she meets Grant who becomes first a friend and then something more. Though things are better for Victoria now, the behaviours and attitudes learned from long years of neglect and abuse have a way to throwing a wrench into her best intentions. 

The Language of Flowers is a grittier story than the title implies. Sometimes your heart breaks for Victoria, other times you want to shake her and tell her to stop shooting herself in the foot. She's her own worst enemy, but aren't we all, and you find yourself commiserating instead of judging.

The sad and sometimes harsh story line is relieved by the conversations about flowers, their care and various meanings. Bouquets and individual blossoms are often exchanged to communicate thoughts and feelings, enriching the story and lifting it from despair to beauty. It is a beautiful novel.

The Language of Flowers is about family and flowers and how any of us, no matter how rough a start, can with enough care and attention grow into what we were meant to be.   

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Audio narrated by Frederick Davidson. 11 hrs 29 mins.

The story of a no-nonsense schoolmaster who insists that his students and his own children be taught a certain way: "Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts." But after he marries his daughter off to a man she doesn't love and then she falls for someone else, and his son does the unthinkable bringing shame to his whole family, he begins to realize that people may need more than mere facts to prepare them for happy and productive lives. 

Dickens is one of my favourites. I love the language of his times and his politely worded jabs at pretentious people, but this story didn't appeal to me even a little bit. It may have been partly the narration, but I couldn't get invested in any of the characters and found the plot dull, though it may be blasphemy to even suggest it. 

Sorry, Mr. Dickens.