Climate Change Book Club - Playground

A book club about the environment and climate crisis! We read a mix of non-fiction, novels, essays, speculative fiction, sci-fi and graphic novels that provide a diverse lens on the people, places, and spaces that are affected by our changing climate.

This book club is hosted by Jess Schreibstein. Jess just finished a graduate degree in Sustainability from Harvard at the end of 2022 and served as Communications Lead of our local Sunrise Movement chapter during the 2020 election cycle. She has been hosting this book club virtually since 2020 and is excited to bring an in-person version to her favorite local bookstore!

The August book is Playground by Richard Powers

About Playground:

Four lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.

Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.

Playground is available for purchase at greedyreads.com!

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