Gini: After I retired and found time on my hands, I asked Sheri Allen about joining the Humboldt County Library Book Club.
She smiled and offered me the job of organizing one. A simple task as the locale and books were readily available, we launched our group in 2007.
When I perused our notes on each book read over all of these years, I was astounding. We have definitely covered a lot of ground.
This list with brief summaries of each selection and our reading list for 2023 are in our library notebook – just ask for your copy at the front desk. We meet the 2nd Tuesday of every month – next session July 11th – at 5 pm.
It’s fun, entertaining, and free. Laughingly called “The Adult Book Club” we cover a variety of genres, however, steamy romances have not yet made the cut.
Since I will be absent for the next book club and as Debbie and I have struggled to pick just one book for a review, we decided to share Migrations, the July choice. Selected last November by group members in attendance, I’m not sure who recommended this novel, but I have a feeling I am the guilty party as I thoroughly enjoyed it and have so many questions as to the reactions of other readers.
Debbie believes she picked it – so we are happy that it made the cut. It’s fiction and futuristic, categories I often skip because I prefer non-fiction and history, but wow! did this book get my mind swirling.
So many events, so many back and forths between years (another technique that wears me out), the writer’s prose and unique talent for weaving mystery into clarity kept me engrossed. I am about to provide snippets of information to pique your curiosity but I will not divulge the end. That is up to you to discover.
The setting meanders from Greenland to Australia to Ireland, down the Atlantic coastline to Antarctica and more.
Somehow none of this is confusing – it fits. Franny the main character, is focusing on the survival of Arctic terns and traces their migration, studying the habits, dangers, and fortitude of this species.
Hoping that her research will prevent extinction, I felt drawn to this ecological cause. I also related to her personality: the turmoil of life, difficult decisions, the ins and outs of relationships, how events empower or detract from resilience, and the challenges of becoming and staying intact.
Debbie: Beautiful but haunting. I don’t know if I will be able to find the words to describe this book so I will lead with beautiful, but haunting. Migrations by Charlotte McConahay, won the 2020 Time Magazine’s as well as Amazon’s best book of the year.
I personally award it five stars… And I never give out five stars.
Is this a book about climate change and a potentially dire future? Well, sort of, yes, but it’s only one picture of a future that might be. Don’t let that deter you from reading it because it’s really about belonging and family and love.
The environmental concerns are a plot device that propels the story forward to help the reader relate to and understand the characters and situations. This is not preachy at all, but rather just gives the reader something to consider as the story of Franny Stone, a lost soul, a flawed character, in a not-so-distant future, tries to understand life.
Determined to track the Arctic Tern, one of the last surviving birds on Earth, on its migration south, she enlists the help of the captain and crew of one of the last fishing vessels in the North Atlantic.
This story weaves in and out of the past, is often sad, but still hopeful.
To paraphrase one reviewer, “We learn of her life and her need to flee, and the need to return. Just as the birds do.” I really loved this book.
Gini: Another quote, “It isn’t fair to be the kind of creature who is able to love but unable to stay. A life’s impact can be measured by what it gives and what it leaves behind, but it can also be measured by what it steals from the world.”
And I must add, what it gives back. “Migration is a process, not a problem” whether focusing on plants or animals or humans. Movement and change create a strong, open, and wiser world.