The snowstorm

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Nature has many gifts for us, but perhaps the greatest of them all is joy; the intense delight we can take in the natural world, in its beauty, in the wonder it can offer us, in the peace it can provide - feelings stemming ultimately from our own unbreakable links to nature, which mean that we cannot be fully human if we are separate from it. Joy has a component, if not of morality, then at least of seriousness. It signifies a happiness which is a serious business"

He writes of Joy and Wonder, but also Doom: We were the generation who, over the long course of our lives, saw the shadow fall across the face of the earth.

The destructive directions came from Genesis, he says: and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that loveth upon the earth.

And it’s a book about wonder. The loss of nature matters, at least in part, because we lose the opportunity to have ‘Wow!’ moments where we see things that we couldn’t have imagined and that are so beautiful and are part of our, yes our, world. Our only world. George Osborne should read this book – but he just wouldn’t get it. Or maybe he would – it is very engagingly written. Had me on the edge of my seat for the entire thing!… So gripping… I read this book in less than 24 hours.’ @em_reads64 Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.

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This is a book about loss – and about joy, and about wonder, and about hope. There’s a lot about the loss of nature over the last few decades and the author mixes this with memories of personal loss. A love of nature can be a support and strength during one’s life. Hyperbole? You could say so, I suppose. But what can I do, other than speak of my experience? Once, on a May morning a few years ago, I came out on to the banks of the Upper Itchen, at Ovington in Hampshire, and the river with its flowers and willows and the serenity of its flow and its dimpling trout in its matchless, limpid water, all gilded by the sunshine, seemed to possess a loveliness which was not part of this world at all.

This is a very good read from one of our finest writers about the natural world. I think Mike could write well about anything – certainly anything he cared about. But notice, that he is not, and would not claim to be, an expert on nature. Maybe that’s one reason why he sees the joy more clearly than some of us who ‘know’ more. Perhaps that knowledge compromises how much we can feel for nature. Does the head too often get in the way of the heart? I hope not, but if it does then this book reminds us of the richness of nature from an emotional point of view as well as an intellectual one. The harrowing true tale of seven escaped Soviet prisoners who desperately marched out of Siberia through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India. It is this: there can be occasions when we suddenly and involuntarily find ourselves loving the natural world with a startling intensity, in a burst of emotion which we may not fully understand, and the only word that seems to me to be appropriate for this feeling is joy, and when I talk of the joy we can find in nature, this is what I mean...That the natural world can bring us peace; that the natural world can give us joy: these are the confirmations of what many people may instinctively feel but have not been able to articulate; that nature is not an extra, a luxury, but on the contrary is indispensable, part of our essence. And now that knowledge needs to be brought to nature's defence." I wanted to share that feeling with a fellow human, and know that I am not alone in that upwelling. That is a part of this thoughtful book, along with some solid points about the evolution of humans as a part of the world. The connections to our mental health and the world around us are also well spoken for here. I read it in one sitting. People kept asking me ‘why are you glued to your phone?’ Because I want to find out whodunnit, duh! It had so many elements I love…had me guessing almost all the way to the end.’ Goodreads reviewerI have now read all the books on the 2016 Wainwright’s Prize shortlist and I certainly saved the best for last. The Moth Snowstorm is a beautifully written book which explains the crisis facing our planet. I like to think I am well informed about environmental issues, but many of the facts were new to me and some were disturbing in their magnitude.

I thought my best friend’s death must have been an accident. But as I look down at the footprints in the deep snow, I suddenly see the truth: my oldest friends have been lying to me and one of them was the killer… but which one?Alongside this joy is anger, impotent anger, as he describes the pointless despoilation and destruction of Saemangeum in South Korea by the construction of a 23 mile long seawall which has annihilated the rich mudflats upon which countless thousands of migrating birds had depended. On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers. it is clear that the earth did not have to be beautiful for humans to evolve; we could have had a planet which perfectly well sustained us with air and water and food and shelter, without offering us aspects of itself which also lift the spirit and catch at the heart. Wow! So many crazy twists and turns! This book had suspense, intrigue, action, great police work and a great who-done-it!… Had me glued to my Kindle!’ Sassy Southern Books