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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 2017)
The Duck Store 895 E 13TH AVENUE, 541-346-4331 UODUCKSTORE.COM The Power by Naomi Alderman. Little, Brown and Company, $26. After Further Review: A Fan’s Guide to Understanding What’s Really Happening on the Football Field by Ken Woody. Maximizing Excellence (self-published), $19.95. The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur. Simon & Schuster, $16.99. The Wildcrafted Cocktail by Ellen Zachos. Storey Publishing, $18.95. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder. Tim Duggan Books, $8.99. Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau. MacMillan, $15.99. No is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi Klein. Haymarket Books, $16.95. If you’re familiar with Naomi Klein’s work, you know what to expect: incisive investigative reporting and an impassioned voice for social, economic and environmental justice. On all these fronts, No is Not Enough delivers and adds to Klein’s stature as a leading writer and thinker for progressive ideals. For those unfamiliar with Klein’s work, go pick up this book — I doubt you’ll be able to put it down. Part election post-mortem and part roadmap for resistance, her book chronicles the rise of Donald Trump and focuses on how to defend against his assault on the commons for the sake of his businessman cronies. Unlike Klein’s previous books critiquing consumer culture, predatory disaster capitalism and inadequate responses to climate change, which are heavily footnoted and at times stall out amidst the dirty details, No is Not Enough is nimble as it moves from problems to solutions. Klein’s ability to pair a hard look at the problems we face as a society with a message of hope for the future will leave you with a stiff lip and a tight jaw as you carry on in the fight against Trump’s agenda. — Carl Segerstrom Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto by Jessa Crispin. Melvin House, $12.79. Jessa Crispin offers a biting critique of modern feminism in her new book, but her criticisms are not followed by actionable ideas. Feminism, she says, has become a marketing campaign instead of a movement. And I agree. I don’t think mugs that say “male tears” do anything to achieve gender equality or justice — those mugs just give money to the capitalists who make them. Crispin argues vehemently against this mass media version of feminism, a feminism of leaning in and busting ass to make it in a man’s world. But, Crispin says, feminism should be about justice for all women, not justice for individuals. “We have the power to do good, but that will not come to much as long as we define ‘what is good’ as ‘what is good for Kalapuya Books 637 E. MAIN STREET, COTTAGE GROVE, 541-942-6143 Across the Shaman’s River by Daniel Lee Henry. University of Alaska Press, $32.95. k A Place of Her Own: The Legacy of Oregon Pioneer Martha Poindexter Maupin by Janet Fisher. TwoDot, $16.95. k The Shifting Winds by Janet Fisher TwoDot, $18.95. The Missing Peace: The Hidden Power of Our Kinship with Animals by Judy Carman and Tina Volpe. Dreamriver Press, $15. k Birth of a Cooperative: Hoedads, Inc., A Worker Owned Forest Labor Co-Op by Hal Hartzell, Jr. Hulogos’i Cooperative Publishers, $12.95. me.’” The question is, how do we make these massive changes? Where Crispin falls flat is in the answer to that question. This is a good read for any feminist looking for an opportunity for self-reflection, or any person who questions the consumerist bent that modern feminism has taken. But if you’re seeking solutions, look elsewhere. — Kelly Kenoyer The Kingdom by Emmanuel Carrere. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28. In the rarified realm of theological meditations and religious memoirs — ranging from Augustine’s Confessions to C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity Failsafe Eugene author Howard Libes debuts sci-fi novel When All Else Fails BY WILL KENNEDY E cological calamity has come to planet Koda. The climate is scorched and uninhabitable. Domes cover Koda’s major population centers, and martial law prevails. Anti-anxiety medications waft through public transportation like air freshener, and shady government agents lurk around every corner to keep the population in check. This is where When All Else Fails, a sci-fi novel by Eugene author Howard Libes, begins. Generations prior, the SEEDER program launched from planet Koda. The program’s purpose: to find a habitable planet for the population to escape to before complete ecologi- cal failure. Vessels left, but none returned, and all hope in the SEEDER program was lost — that is until the spacecraft known as When All Else Fails miraculously reappears. At the helm of the WAEF was Yorlick Vanderlord, a global hero. Vanderlord’s great-grandson and namesake, Yor Vanderlord, is left to solve the mystery of what exactly his ancestor brought home to Koda all those years ago. The secrets Vander- lord carries with him send shockwaves through the Vanderlord family and Kodan society for generations to come. Both dystopian and hopeful, When All Else Fails is engaging and well-paced, mixing political intrigue, police procedural, classic noir and thoughtful sci-fi. Libes took the time to talk to Eugene Weekly about his own family history, Earth’s impending ecological disaster and how an existential crisis brought him back to writing. You hold an MFA in creative writing from the University of Oregon, but this is your first published book. What brought you back to writing? Over the past 28 years, writing has always been a big part of my life. In 1992, I finished a novel but never found a publisher. I was frankly frustrated with the entire process of at- tempting to get my book published by dealing with agents and publishers, so I decided to utilize my writing skills in other ways. In 2014, I sort of had an existential crisis and decided I needed to get back to what truly made me happy: writing fiction. With print-on-demand, I could just release the book my- self, and I didn’t need a publishing company to accept my work for a book to see daylight. 14 December 14, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com How much did your personal family history figure into the book? I was the family historian growing up. The main character in When All Else Fails, Yor Vanderlord, is a historian. I was intrigued by my family’s history, especially the things that I noticed weren’t being talked about — the secrets, the darker moments. I’ve always thought that learning your family history was important to understand where you came from and how that history shapes who you are, both good and bad. Yor Vanderlord is ap- plying that philosophy to understand the past and save his planet. Also, I came from an immigrant family who persevered to achieve better lives for the future generations of their family. The Vanderlords feel an obligation not only to create a better world for their family but for the people of their planet. Can you talk about WAEF and our current climate of anti-science? Scientific innovation is viewed by the Kodan people as a way to survive the impending worldwide crisis, whether it’s finding a new habitable planet or placing domes over cities. The entire Kodan population works toward those goals, and they find comfort and hope in their scientific achievements. I grew up in the time when the space program was booming. I can vividly remember as a six-year-old, watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon. There was a romantic quality to that time. I’m mind-boggled by the way the current administration has pushed away science, but I’m also heartened by people like Elon Musk who have stepped into the breach. WAEF is book one in a series. Any spoilers for the next book? When All Else Fails lays out the Vanderlords’ scheme to make the Kodan population see the truth. The second book reveals Yorlik Vanderlord’s solution to the crisis. Also, the first book revolves around the Vanderlord men perpetuating their plan and in the second book, the female protagonist takes charge. Find When All Else Fails at Amazon.com, HowardLibes.com and in-store or online at The Duck Store Book Department. Howard Libes will read from When All Else Fails 7:30 pm Saturday, Dec. 16, at Slightly Coffee Roasters, 545 East 8th Avenue; free.
