Happy Solstice

& a summer giveaway!

We meant to write this post earlier—much earlier—on this longest day of the year. We’d planned a post about the life cycles of dragonflies and damselflies. But our post isn’t done and it’s already dark, the fireflies glowing in our log-strewn, leaf-littered yard. The girls are in their pajamas, and the upstairs tub looks like it recently bathed five dirty dogs. That’s because we decided when I got home this afternoon to spend the rest of our day floating on the river. It was so refreshing, and we saw a lot of dragonflies—or were they damselflies? We’ll tell you more on Friday.

But we do have something for you, which I’m selfishly excited about. The Frog Trouble Times’s first audiobook giveaway! I have three copies of Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future which I’d love to give to three lucky readers. Just leave a comment, telling us your favorite thing about summer, and we’ll write down your names and pull three from a hat (winners to be delivered over email).

I say selfishly excited because I want more people to talk to about this novel. It was one of President Obama’s favorite books of 2020, and I told a writer friend recently that I think it may be one of the most important novels I’ve ever read. I should have said listened to, because that’s how I’m taking this book in, listening on commutes back and forth to the National Humanities Center and in spare moments—making dinner, taking walks, folding laundry. The audiobook is excellent, with multiple narrators, and it’s well-suited to the format because the chapters are short (meaning it’s easy to stop when you arrive at your destination or finish your chores, etc).

The book is a near-future, deeply-researched science fiction account of the global response to climate catastrophe. Though the topic is heavy—heartbreaking and terrifying, in fact—the book is actually hopeful, placing faith in human ingenuity and determination by scientists, activists, and even government officials to work together make things better for future generations, and for the plants and animals and ecosystems that can’t speak for themselves. I’m not sure how Robinson did it, but he writes convincingly and thrillingly about actual, possible solutions that might be undertaken by a global response. Writing for Vox, Ezra Klein said “If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future." I have been so mind-blown by this book that I’ve actually pulled the car over to write down things I want to look up when I get the paperback copy.

I’ll say more about the book on Sunday, but for now you should leave a comment (your favorite thing about summer)! And win a book!

P.S. Comments accepted through Thursday at 5PM!