That campaign - the little recycling logos on our plastics, the upbeat videos about a future where plastic was part of a circular economy of use and recycling - convinced us to buy, wash, and sort plastic.
90% of that plastic was never recycled. It never will be.
NONE of those splashy campaigns - the announcement that all NYC school plastics would be recycled, the recycling in national parks - ever worked. They all lasted long enough to get some upbeat press, and then they quietly shut down.
This week’s NPR/Planet Money investigation by Laura Sullivan doesn’t just talk to the ex-chief lobbyists, now serving as belated Oppenheimers, lamenting the impending destruction of our planet.
It also talks to the current round of executives who have announced a fresh round of plans to recycle plastics - completely disingenuous, insultingly obvious distraction tactics to convince us that their projections of TRIPLING production by 2050 isn’t a form of mass murder.
Then Sullivan circles back to those retired executives, the ones who oversaw the first disinformation campaign, and they confirm that this latest round of promises are literally the same tactic, barely updated for a world on fire.
The world is on fire. My sky has been orange all week. Our family’s socially distanced meetings with friends in parks or back yards have been cancelled because we cannot breathe outside.
Exxon - and Chevron, and the rest of Big Oil - knows.
In a secret recording released to the New York Times, oil execs meet to cheerfully discuss how they will burn the world and murder us all but make a buck in the process.
Their plans for climate change don’t involve reducing emissions - they’re building bunkers and hiring mercenaries to keep us at bay when we come for them. They know what they’ve done.
Exxon knows.
Exxon knows.
When I searched for the “Exxon Knew” campaign to find a link for this piece, the top of Google’s search results included a blisteringly expensive ad for a disinformation site, paid for by Exxon.
The sky is orange. The oceans are choking. The air is unbreathable. Your body is full of microplastics.
I just thought it would be neat to have a list of book recommendations with a sort of mild cottagecore vibe or books that would fit into it, despite not specifically being about these things – this is all about the right feeling after all, not specific elements, etc.
Everyone can add to that list – that’s the point, actually – and maybe we can all find quite some good, fitting books.
The point is nice fiction and even non-fiction of any genre, can be country-life related, but doesn’t have to be, ideally of the more uplifting and cosy sort, but that doesn’t have to be either, there’s no strict rules, if you think it fits, it surely will fit, we all have our own tastes and ideas, after all.
So, I’ll make a start:
The books of Elizabeth Goudge, especially
Linnets and Valerians – an enchanting children’s novel; the most cottagecore a book could ever be
The Little White Horse – a more famous children’s novel; also very cottagecore, but in a different way
The Eliots of Damerosay Trilogy: The Bird in the Tree, The Herb of Grace, The Heart of the Family – Extremely uplifting, lovely adult novels; especially the second book, The Herb of Grace (known as Pilgrim’s Inn in the US) is marvelously warm and wholesome, and often thought to be a single novel. If you’re not interested in the entire series, you might still give this one a try!
The Rosemary Tree – also a warm and sweet and wholesome adult novel
her other books, too, I suppose, but these in particular!
James Herriot’s books
His All Creatures Great and Small series of memoirs – A less sweet or cute, but in its own way enchanting recollection of stories from his life as a country vet in the Yorkshire Dales in the 30s-50s; lovely stories of animals and even more intriguing stories of people
His children’s books – often simplified, sweet stories that also appeared in his adult novels
James Herriot’s Yorkshire – with photos by Derry Brabbs; non-fiction, a lovely photo book about Yorkshire and the Dales
I cannot stress enough how lovely to read his books are and what a lovely picture of a hard, but wonderful way of life and a great many different and complex people in paints in such a light and quick manner that one doesn’t even notices it at first. If you want to read some country-fiction that is absolutely positive, but not entirely cottagecore-sweet, read Herriot!
Other adult novels, such as
The Blandings books by P. G. Wodehouse – or any other of his books, for the light and sunny energy and great fun, though the Blandings series is more…country.
The Green Thrush and Fairacre series by Miss Read
Classic romances and comedies of manners (Jane Austen, or Georgette Heyer, for example)
Cosy mysteries and classic detectvie stories (Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton)
Some more gothic novels and romances as well, I suppose? Yes, I guess those do fit in there too, for dark and stormy nights and the smell of wet heather, isn’t it? And classic mystery novels as well!
A lot of what is apparantly called “the feminine middlebrow”. Some of the books I have mentioned fall in that category, it seems, and it has many good fitting picks, I suppose.
Some adult fantasy novels, such as The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, are, I think good fits as well.
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees – another adult fantasy, that I nearly forgot about, and though very melancholy also very intriguing and I think it does belong in this list in some way
Phantastes by George MacDonald – I remembered alongside with Lud; ah, well, I does belong in this list too, I think. Very faerie.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and a lot of the very warm of what is called classic literature (I call it warm, and think that fits)
Other children’s literature, such as
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis – I cannot not include them in a list of recommendations, and they really do fit into this one, which is good
C. S. Lewis’ Letters to Children – Perhaps even lovelier for adults, but I cannot take them out of the children’s list. Lovely, sort, and inspiring.
The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper – These enchanting books really do transport one to their settings and their seasons, whether it’s a hot summer in Cornwall, Christmas in the Thames’ Valley or autumn in Wales; very, very atmospheric and lovely
All that has lovely critters in clothes and things of that sort, whether it’s Winnie the Pooh, Wind in the Willows, the stories of Beatrix Potter, The Great Mouse Detective. You know what sort I mean.
The Happy Prince & Other Tales and The House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde – I was unsure whether to put them here or with the adult books, but as they started out as stories for his own children, here they are; absolutely lovely fairy tales that I cannot recommend enough
Generally classic retelltings for children
Generally fairy tales
I must admit, I am unfamiliar with the Green Knowe books, but I do think they fit in this list, from what I know about them (I need to get around to them) and from the lovely movie I saw
All Anne of Green Gables books by L. M. Montgomery
All Little Women books by Louisa May Alcott
The books of Frances Hodgson Burnett, especially The Secret Garden
Also the books of E. Nesbit
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien – I nearly forgot such an obvious one!
Speaking of Tolkien, his Father Christmas Letters
Also generally classic children’s books
I’m excited to see your additions!
Self-reblog, because most of these are also very much comfort reads, and many of them focused on nature – the ideal books for these times.
I should also like to add, as I forgot about them earlier, the Chrestomanci series by Dianna Wynne Jones, and generally books by Anthony Trollope.
I also generally recommend some poetry, especially by Christina Rossetti and John Keats, as well as short stories and other “little things” that help one dream away when one’s concentration is a bit strained.
And, as I have mentioned Elizabeth Goudge above, her Torminster books, in particular A City of Bells, which can be seen as a stand-alone adult novel, its sequels being for children. And really all her books!
Other users have, so far, made following additions to this list:
Thank you all so much for your help! I know some of the added books, and approve of them heartly, and I am very curious about the ones I am not yet familiar with.
