Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation , Dan Fagin

This was a tour de force of narrative nonfiction, somehow going into medieval dye-making history at the same time as being as readable as a John Grisham courtroom drama and as gripping as any eco-thriller, with the additional impact of being a true story.
This was easily one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year, and one I've recommended to more people than I can remember.
A cautionary tale of pollution, company towns, and industry's toxic legacy, this wonderful book is a "must-read" for, well, everyone.

Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation, James Howard Kunstler

I have been a long term fan and reader of Kunstler, and felt that this was sadly his weakest book yet.
He covers much of the same territory as he covers in The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century, which is a wonderful and eye-opening book, but Too Much Magic is very much a rehash of those same topics.
Kunstler's blog, [...] has long been an interesting read, but I can't help but feel he has lost his way somewhere.

In The Long Emergency, Kunstler neatly and concisely brought together a number of themes- unsupported development, unsustainable lifestyles, crumbling infrastructure, climate change, and so on, and predicted a future that will resort to a kind of agrarian feudalism in many areas. In his novels, World Made By Hand and The Witch of Hebron, he takes those themes and creates a bleak future scenario, with some very dark scenes, and some disturbing twists- in his novels, women are relegated to a status of breeders, and men control the society. In his novels, that is one thing, but in Too Much Magic, he starts to respond to criticism about that issue, and then trails off into ranting, without fully explaining his view of the roles of women in his imagined "long emergency".

He also left this reader worried, when he started talking about how the Moon landing left him terrified and suspicious of technology- it is one thing to be aware of and alarmed by the limitations of technology, and to be worried about energy supply, but it is quite another to come across as a frightened luddite, cringing from images of mankind's achievements.

Another source of MAJOR frustration is that for Kunstler, there is apparently no middle ground- he writes about trying to live with a smaller footprint, but admits that he is (as are most Westerners) responsible for much of the damage and destruction he discusses, but then contrasts that with living with the Kalahari bushmen, as a solar-society transplant, and concludes he would be useless in the Kalahari. I feel like his (understandable) addiction to his own creature comforts is hindering him from seeing a less dichotomous choice- and that by positing the Kalahari bush-men experience as the guilt-free option, he is deliberately being obtuse and ignoring the many more accessable ways we can lessen our own impact on the world.

Truly disappointed in this book, and unfortunately, this bad experience has left me questioning the validity and worth of his previous works.

After the Snow, by S.D. Crockett

Post-apocalyptic ice age neo-feudalism in the woods, with a corrupt government dystopia in the cities. Well done. Willo's outsider skills and Mary's city knowlege were nice touches.

The Toxic Sandbox, by Libby McDonald

Clear and informative (if terrifying) look at toxins that affect children and how to avoid them. Well done, without being too fear-mongering. Made me take a closer look at where my baby's toys are coming from and what they are made of.

I'm With The Bears: Short Stories From a Damaged Planet, by various authors

Devastating and necessary.This collection of short stories, each addressing climate change in some way, is depressing, as another reviewer said. I can't imagine what that reader was hoping for, but yes, the devastation of our environment and our relationship with the natural world is a bit of a bummer, yes.
That said, these stories ranged from the utterly bleak ( T.C. Boyle's The Siskiyou was very disturbing) to the absolutely haunting (Lydia Millet's Zoogoing- I've read it 3 times, and it is still echoing in my mind) to looks at what water deals taking place now might mean for the American Southwest (in Paolo Bacigalupi's stunning The Tamarisk Hunter).
These stories all have a common theme, but the incredible slate of authors each use their own inimitable voices, and the chorus of them together is powerful.
Wonderful.

Chomp, by Carl Hiaasen

As always, a fun, quirky environmentally aware caper from Hiaasen, who delivers exactly what one would expect and nothing more.

The Crazy Things Girls Do For Love, by Dyan Sheldon

Charming, fun, and better-than-it's-cover YA book about what happens after a new hottie student turns the environment club into the hottest club at high school. I really enjoyed this, but did wish that the girls had had more self-respect.

Arctic Rising, by Tobias Buckell

Wow! Straight out awesome climate disaster scifi thriller. Not as well written as Bacigalupi, but a hell of a plot, and out-of-the-box refreshing protagonists made this an un-put-down-able read. Futuristic Arctic cities, climate modification schemes, chase scenes, I want this to be a movie.

Ivy & Bean: What's The Big Idea? by Annie Barrows

Ivy and Bean are marginally less loathsome in this, the 7th of the series, but the book itself was depressing, shallow, and, well, depressing.
Ivy and Bean learn about GLOBAL WARMING from the seemingly dim witted 5th graders in their school, and when the whole 2nd grade class goes into deep funks about the planet's impending DOOM, their teacher assigns them all to do projects that will help save the planet.
Ivy and Bean waste a lot of time, energy (both theirs and consumer fossil-fuel based energy) on a lot of different ideas, before coming to their inevitable and sappy and insulting-to-adults conclusion.
Hideous, on about 20 levels.

The Rapture, by Liz Jensen

Re-read for book group, vivid and dizzying near-future ecological nightmare, with timely references to evangelical Christianity, deep sea drilling gone wrong, and broken weather.

Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl, by Mary Mycio

Well, I wanted to read this to try to get an idea of how the long term damage from the Gulf oil spill would compare to the long term fallout of a nuclear meltdown, but what with the Gulf thing getting worse every day, it doesn't seem like there's any real way to compare the two.
This was fascinating though, how the land has been reclaimed by so many animals that were previously rare in the area, like boars and storks, and the effect of radiation on tree growth was really interesting- radiomorphism affects tree growth in some very funy ways. LINK

Category 7: The End of the World

Fantastically absurd (and endless!) disaster movie. This was great.

Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil, by Peter Maass

Well, what with the oil spill devastating the Gulf, this felt like a timely an horribly appropriate book to be reading. All the usual warnings about diminished supply, overstated reserves, political tensions, peak oil predictions, the requisite cheery end chapter talking hopefully about alternative energy, and some horrible, ominous quotes that I feel compelled to share.

"In 2005, a BP refinery in Texas suffered a massive explosion that killed fifteen workers and injured hundreds. Investigations revealed that BP had cut the refinery's capital budget by 25 percent. Broken or outdated equipemnt had not been replaced, while worker training and safety had been ignored. Months before the explosion, the refinery had commissioned an indepentent report that had warned, prophetically, of "a series of catastrophic events."...A BP official admitted that the disaster had been caused by "incompetence, high tolerance of non-compliance, inadequate maintenance and investments...
This was not the end. A year later, a BP pipeline dumped more than 200,000 gallons onto the North Slope region of Alaska's coast- the largest spill ever on that slope...As one newspaper wryly noted, "For a company that claims to have moved 'beyond petroleum', BP has managed to spill an awful lot of it onto the tundra in Alaska."


They had no idea.

Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi

Intense and chilling near-future YA book. Bacigalupi's dark vision of an overheated, flooded world (as in his incredible, mesmerizing The Windup Girl) is especially disturbing when applied to the Gulf Coast.

Teenage Nailer works as a ship breaker, scavenging grounded oil tankers for copper, wire, scrap, dodging his drug addicted brutal father and trying to stay alive, when a storm brings him the scavenge opportunity that changes his life.

The story wasn't as strong as The Windup Girl, but for teens it seems everything is watered down or given a grain of hope, but some scenes were shudderingly well done:

"The great drowned city of New Orleans didn't come all at once, it came in portions: the sagging backs of shacks ripped open by banyan trees and cypress. Crumbling edges of concrete and brick undermined by sinkholes. Kudzu-swamped clusters of old abandoned buildings shadowed under the loom of swamp trees.
...A whole waterlogged world of optimism, torn down by the patient work of changing nature... if Nailer scrutinized the jungle carefully, he could make out the boulevards that had been, before trees punctured their medians and encroached. Now, the roads were more like flat fern and moss-choked paths. You had to imagine none of the trees sprouting up in the center, but they were there.
"Where did they get the petrol?" he asked,
"They got it from everywhere." Nita laughed. "From the far side of the world. From the bottom of the sea." She waved at the drowned ruins, and a flash of ocean. "They used to drill out there, too, in the Gulf. Cut up the islands. It's why the city killers are so bad. There used to be barrier islands, but they cut them up for their drilling."
"Yeah?" Nailer challenged. "How do you know?"
Nita laughed again. "If you went to school, you'd know it too. Orleans city killers are famous."

This World We Live In, by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The third and last of Pfeffer's Last Survivors series, this book brought together Miranda from Life As We Knew It and Alex from The Dead and The Gone, in Miranda's ruined suburbs. Alex, still protecting his little sister Julie, is a much more likable character in this book, and his insistance on getting Julie to a convent makes more sense in this book than in the last. Still, neither of the sequels came close to the fantastic horror of the first, making me wish rather that Pfeffer had left Life As We Knew It as a stand-alone novel.

Eaarth, by Bill McKibben

Wildly depressing, horribly insightful and hideously timely book about how humans have so altered the planet that it is really no longer the planet we have called Earth.
From water wars to resource wars, to mass migrations, diasporas, and forced resettlements, from agribusiness' reliance on genetic modification to sustanance farmers with dead topsoil and disappearing rainfall, McKibben relentlessly and clearly points to DOOM. What with all the current epic DOOM, I should have been more into this, but I've been on a fiction kick. It was a really well written and accessable look at our upcoming DOOM, though.

The Carbon Diaries 2017, by Saci Lloyd

Fantastic sequel to the amazing Carbon Diaries 2015. In this book, Laura is studying at University, still trying to keep her band moving towards success, when new government taxes combined with droughts send England, most of Europe, the Middle East, America and Africa to civil war. What I love about these books is how the gritty realities of the headlines play against Laura's 'real life' and how she finds it impossible to not become involved. So good- very much hoping that there'll be a third!

Animal Vegetable Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver

I can't believe I almost forgot to add this to the list.
This is a tricky one for me. It was, I thought, beautifully written, but it reeked terribly of smug to me, which is my least favorite reek.
Books about radical lifestyle change for a reason (to build and live in a green home ( Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet, by Tim Glave), to not shop for a year (Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine), or even not to buy items made in China for a year (A Year Without Made In China by Sara Bongiorni), seem like they can be a tricky thing to pull off. Without a great sense of humor (which Glave and Bongiorni have and share), the final product can read very preachy and reek of smuggery, which, sad to say, this one did for me.

City of Refuge, by Tom Piazza

Wonderful, angry and empassioned novel about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on 2 families in New Orleans. Race, opportunity, and the extraordinary failure of government all play part in this sweeping story, following evacuees and escapees to Illinois and Houston. It had a bit of a slow start, but by page 100 it was impossible to put down, and by page 400 had tears rolling down my face. It was funny, it was almost like Titanic- you almost wonder if it's worth seeing/reading because, well, you know how it ended- but Piazza wrote a wonderful novel along with a wonderful indictment of the failures. The characters were well developed, and not entirely sympathetic, which made them so much more real. Wonderful.

Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938, by R.A. Scotti

Re-read for book group, still fantastic non-fiction that reads like a thriller, still made me cry in parts. Hard to believe the devastation that happened right here in Rhode Island.