travel

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

Someone who doesn’t care if they get Tater Tots or turnip slurry is a person who has given up on life.

This novel came close to making me feel the way American Gods did: like I could do anything. That everything was possible. The writing is brutal at times, but Anders manages to keep a sense of humor about the end of the world.

The story opens with Patricia and Laurence as kids who met in middle school. They part ways when they’re both basically exiled from their tween lives. Patricia and Laurence meet again in a San Francisco (and world) plagued by the ecological collapse. Ultimately, it’s up to Patricia and Laurence to either save the planet or bring about its destruction.

The apocalypse is the backdrop for a story about love, friendship and loyalty. Although, the ending wasn’t as satisfying as I hoped it would be, getting there was so much fun. The characters were real, and when the book ended, I missed my new friends.

I also found a list I’m dying to check off

100 Must-Read Sci-Fi Fantasy Novels by Female Authors

I visited Des Moines, Iowa

And drank a latte at Scenic Route Bakery.

Started reading

Serialized in three parts in The New Yorker, where President John F. Kennedy read it in the summer of 1962, Silent Spring was published in August and became an instant best-seller and the most talked about book in decades. Utilizing her many sources in federal science and in private research, Carson spent over six years documenting her analysis that humans were misusing powerful, persistent, chemical pesticides before knowing the full extent of their potential harm to the whole biota.

Rita Florez | freelance writer

This week I finished listening to

I also found a list I’m dying to check off

I visited Des Moines, Iowa

This week I read about

Started reading

Visited