Published : 2021 || Format : print || Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El
Last month, Ash and I read Eaarth by Bill McKibben for Leif Reads. Eaarth looked at the current status quo in all things environmental from a holistic standpoint. Reading Eaarth gave us a more complete picture of how things stand and gave us a good idea of how we want to go forward. This month, we're reading Slow Death by Rubber Duck by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie. This is a really interesting book. Remember pollution? Toxins? Asbestos? The big P -- Plastic?
For a long time, pollution was an external thing. It happened in the air, the water, some parts of the land. It happened near factories, and then from car exhausts too. We knew some part of it wasn't good to our health. There was all this hue and cry over pollution and how we needed cleaner air. Pollution now feels like last decade's hot news. I barely hear that word anymore. And rightly so. Rick and Bruce essay out a really wonderful case for how pollution effects have migrated from the outside to the inside of our body. How you can no longer see it (smog anyone?) but instead is very much invisible. How it's no longer localized to some place or object, but instead is everywhere. How it's no longer the big bad things causing it, but the small harmless everyday stuff, like rubber duck. And also how it used to cause sudden reactions once upon a time, but now just subsists forever bringing about the damages years and years later. Almost everything we do nowadays seems to have an effect generations from now.
For a long time, pollution was an external thing. It happened in the air, the water, some parts of the land. It happened near factories, and then from car exhausts too. We knew some part of it wasn't good to our health. There was all this hue and cry over pollution and how we needed cleaner air. Pollution now feels like last decade's hot news. I barely hear that word anymore. And rightly so. Rick and Bruce essay out a really wonderful case for how pollution effects have migrated from the outside to the inside of our body. How you can no longer see it (smog anyone?) but instead is very much invisible. How it's no longer localized to some place or object, but instead is everywhere. How it's no longer the big bad things causing it, but the small harmless everyday stuff, like rubber duck. And also how it used to cause sudden reactions once upon a time, but now just subsists forever bringing about the damages years and years later. Almost everything we do nowadays seems to have an effect generations from now.
Ash and I are really excited to talk about this book this month. In fact, Ash is doing this week's post over at her blog! Don't forget to check it out and share with us what you think!
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