The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading another college admission book, The Price You Pay for College by Ron Lieber; I'm reading Olivia Hawker's newest historical fiction, scheduled for publication tomorrow, October in the Earth; and I'm listening to The Great Transition, Nick Fuller Googins's postapocalyptic climate-change fiction.
What are you reading these days, bookworms?
01 October in the Earth by Olivia Hawker
I love Olivia Hawker's books (see links below), and her newest historical fiction is set in Depression-era Kentucky.
Adella (Del) Wensley is the wife of the showy, prosperous, revered local preacher. She's learned to bite her tongue, and she feels like the poor treatment her husband shows her may be deserved, as after eight years of marriage, they haven't conceived a child.
But when her husband pushes her too far, Del hops a train and dives into the transient community riding the rails in search of work and survival.
Olivia Hawker is also the author of The Fire and the Ore and The Ragged Edge of Night, and One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, which I mentioned in the Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West.
I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing. October in the Earth is scheduled for publication tomorrow.
02 The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins
Emi Vargas is, frankly, tired of being reminded that her parents saved the world--and weary of the constant comments about how she's so lucky to have been born after the climate crisis.
But when some climate criminals are assassinated in public show of retaliation for their crimes, Emi's mother Kristina goes missing, and Emi fears that her mother played a role in the deaths.
Emi and her father Larch journey from Greenland to a futuristic, postapocalyptic New York City, ravaged by flooding and storms, to try to find Kristina.
This near-future timeline alternates with a past-timeline account of the brutal experiences of Larch and Kristina during The Great Transition.
03 The Price You Pay for College: An Entirely New Road Map for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make by Ron Lieber
Ron Lieber, the New York Times columnist of the section Your Money, attempts to break down what is possibly the most oblique cost-benefit assessment of modern day.
Who pays how much, and why? What will you supposedly be getting for your money? Are there ways to cut the ballooning cost of college that's breaking the bank for many American families?
Lieber outlines which aspects of a college profile you should be paying attention to beyond the bottom line (for example, how many adjunct professors a college employs; the possibility for mentoring interactions between students and faculty; how much energy and money is spent on showy attention-getters like lazy rivers).