A monthly book review by The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough.
‘The Myth of Progress,’ by Tom Wessels
The author of “Forest Forensics” and “Reading the Forested Landscape,” Wessels is a tried-and-true master of nature writing. Bringing readers with him through the dense forests, under canopies and across the plains, Wessels has a track record of analyzing the natural forces that shape our world and delivering them to readers in accessible, engaging prose.
In his newest book, Wessels dissects the connection between our capitalist economy and the natural world. The age-old adage “progress for progress’s sake” is the core of the economic system against which Wessels polemicizes.
In our current economic state in which single-use expendability is justified as necessary due to the expectation that our demands and requests for goods and services will be fulfilled almost before the demand has finished being stated, Wessels sees a very large problem — it is contrary to the very laws of nature.
In less than 190 pages, Wessels argues deftly that due to the limits of material resources, the finitude of time itself and the laws which govern the states in which energy can be captured, transferred or lost, we simply cannot expect to progress for no other reason than progress itself. We must have a moral underpinning that grounds and informs our interactions, both economic and interpersonal, within the world we inhabit.
‘The Book of Charlie,’ by David von Drehle
There is something special about every 10th birthday. From 10 to 20, we see children rise to (semi) adulthood. From 20 to 40, we see adults sometimes turn to parents, and from 60 to 70, well, as I write this, I am not even halfway to 60, so I can hardly imagine what happens, but I am sure it is both beautiful and complex.
But that mythical 100, there is something sublime about such a number. It is an achievement to make it that far, and it is historic to do so with grace and happiness. Charlie White, the subject of Washington Post journalist David von Drehle’s biography “The Book of Charlie,” not only crossed the vaunted centennial mark, but very nearly made it to 110.
In this wonderful ode to a life well lived, von Drehle notes that one of the many aspects of his 109-year-old neighbor that made him so resilient and so charismatic was his ability to move with, as opposed to against, the changes that make life so brilliant and colorful.
It is a truly moving, heartfelt, and encouraging look at American life, American culture and how best we can live our lives.
‘The Guest,” by Emma Cline
Temporary employment is scary. It is a recipe for short-term financial “stability” coupled with nearly-constant anxiety about when those very same finances will come to an end. Alex, the main character of Emma Cline’s new novel, grapples with wealth inequality and the lives that wealth can afford in the lion’s den of opulence, East Hampton, N.Y., in the middle of the summer season.
Cline, the award-winning author of the “The Girls,” brings to the spotlight the bacchanalian lives tiptoeing behind the tall hedges and ornamental gates of America’s wealthiest summer playground. Cline’s prose shines as much as it claws, pulling the reader ever closer to the brilliant and frightful truth that Alex’s summer sojourn is substantially more than she had hoped.
Emerson Sistare is owner of The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough.