The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
New York : Henry Holt and Co., 2014.
319 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.

Let's face it; mass extinction is a depressing topic, but Kolbert manages to make it interesting, humane and compelling.  She does this by not only presenting a general outlines of what the 6th extinction is, and where it fits in the history of science - but also by presenting it in understandable case studies and examples from the past and present.  Also, when she focuses on current extinction events - e.g. Panamanian golden frogs, Sumatran Rhinos, and coral reefs - she travels to the place where this event is happening and joins in with researchers and scientists.  The results are moving and interesting vignettes that help any curious person understand both the specific and fascinating events of mass extinction, but also get a taste of the terrible potentials that they hold for the future of the planet and our species.

I'm pleased that this book won a 2015 Pulitzer Prize - it is well deserved and will bring new readers to this critical topic.   I would also recommend this book to any young adult reader interested in the topic or interested in good science writing in general.

Feeling Down About Being Wound Up

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
San Francisco : Night Shade Books, c2010.
361 p. ; 23 cm.

"Feeling down" in the title of this post is not meant to be a negative critique of this book, just a description of how its grim view of the future had me feeling (and thinking) about the grim present we are living in.  

Bacigalupi sets his novel in a future Thai kingdom that has survived the collapse of the global carbon economy, survived the ravages of plant and human epidemics sparked by genetically modified organisms, survived catastrophic climate change, and survived the predatory depredations of global corporate raiders.  Quite a future, isn't it?  But will it survive the infighting of factions within its ruling parties, and the attempts of global genetic corporation raiders from the outside?  You'll have to read it to find out!

Notice that I haven't even mentioned the novel's eponymous windup girl, Emiko.  She is probably the saddest and most troubling character in the novel.  A creation of Japanese geneticists, she is one of the "new people" who is meant to be an obedient servant, secretary, assistant and sexual plaything of the male Japanese elite.  Her genetic makeup (along with strict training) compels her to be obedient, and makes her physically stunning.  Unfortunately her "owner" has abandoned her in Thailand where "new people" are hated, in constant danger, and not accepted as having any of the rights of other human beings.  She survives as the grotesquely exploited show-piece of a tawdry strip-club/brothel, but eventually finds herself at the center of explosive events in the kingdom when a foreign corporate agent takes a liking to her.

Bacigalupi has a wild imagination and has done copious research for this novel.  Unlike Ship Breaker, which was clearly a young adult novel, The Windup Girl is an adult novel, but will appeal to sophisticated readers who want to move past The Hunger Games or Divergent for something more complex and weighty.