Julie Yeiter Yeiter itibaren 39232 Cadalso, Cantabria, İspanya itibaren 39232 Cadalso, Cantabria, İspanya

A visionary look at the fate of the earth should humans suddenly depart. What happens to our infrastructure and the endless things that require daily human maintenance to exist (subways, buildings, nuclear facilities and storage, oil refineries, etc.), not to mention plants, animals, and the environment in general? Does climate change suddenly halt? Is equilibrium restored to the earth? Do the remaining inhabitants of the planet benefit from our absence, do the mass extinctions cease, or is it too late? Are we playing games with our own destiny? Despite being called "hopeful," (I suppose because of earth's endless capacity for self-healing), I found this book depressing...yet I couldn't put it down. Never preachy, this book highlights our rapacious and indulgent selves while teaching that a species as creative and intelligent as humans should be able to do better. I finished it thinking, I really hope so.

There are some sections and characters that don't play as well as the rest for me, but that's the only thing that keeps this one from being a 5 (which I think of as something like "not written by human hands"). Here, I'm harsher on the imperfections because of the parts that really were transcendently good [Jonathan Franzen, as you are undoubtedly reading this, take note]. The opening chapter had me grinning ferociously at the pages in front of me, and many of the later passages transcribing Alfred's mental deterioration (and Alfred and Enid's interactions) were fantastic. It's about a family (Alfred and Enid are the aging parents), and about adult (more or less) children coming home for Christmas; it leaps outward and back into their pasts from there. Lives falling into ruts, falling together, falling apart. There's quite a lot of humor. But the alarm bell has been ringing for years.

This is a really lovely book that focuses on relationships & not just romantic relationships. If you're a fan of Susan Mallery (like myself), a little warning, this isn't one of her usual romance/HEA type of book. However, for me it was a refreshing change & more realistic. For me, it took me on an emotional journey, but I really enjoyed exploring all the varying relationships of the characters. A really good book that I will read again & again!