Book Club Reading List | Book Chatter

We Are Completely Beside Ourselves b ook cover set against trees and sky.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
By Karen Joy Fowler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2014, 336pp.

The Short of It:

A powerful exploration of a non-traditional family and the impact that one decision has on their lives.

The Rest of It:

The story opens in the middle. This is how Rosemary decides to tell it; for reasons that are explained later. The Cookes are like any other family. A mother and father, a son and two daughters. Except that Rosemary’s dad is a psychologist conducting an experiment in his own home. Young Rosemary loves having the grad students around, documenting their every move. Their comings and goings become part of the lives. Academia, and such.

With the story opening in the middle, Fern, Rosemary’s sister has already been sent away. Losing her sister at such a young age and not really understanding why Fern was sent away leaves Rosemary unsettled. Whereas her older brother Lowell, becomes angry. Very angry. So angry that he eventually leaves home without a word.

As an adult, Rosemary befriends other wayward souls while Lowell remains an unknown, somewhere out in the world doing God knows what. There are glimmers of his existence but Rosemary’s family falls into a deep depression and Rosemary begins to revisit those early years with the grad students. Why was Fern sent away? What role did Rosemary play in it?

I am intentionally not giving you information. This is a book that needs to be experienced. I read a New York Times article about books that stay with you, and this book from 2014 was listed. I had never heard of it but was immediately intrigued. The reporter said to go into it cold. I tried.

It’s a devastating read but when you really dig in, it’s hopeful. Karen Joy Fowler does not consider herself to be an “activist” but in an interview she once said that she considers herself to be a literary advocate who uses her writing to promote awareness of a given cause.

Rosemary’s loss is so palpable. She not only lost her sister Fern, but really her brother Lowell too and a piece of each of her parents. A piece that neither of them seem to know how to get back. Disappointment abounds. But does it?

I chose this book for book club and we had a really good discussion about it. Fowler found her inspiration from two real-life experiments, The Kellogg Experiment and Project Nim. Click on those links if you don’t mind knowing the big reveal.

This is a heart-felt read. There’s much to say about family, science and what is means to be human. Highly recommend.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Nuclear War: A Scenario
By Annie Jacobsen
Dutton, January 2026, 416pp.

The Short of It:

A terrifying nuclear scenario that could absolutely happen.

The Rest of It:

Terrifying? Yes. Realistic? Absolutely. Nuclear War: A Scenario is based on intel from retired military personnel and walks the reader through a nuclear incident as it’s happening. Second by second. In five seconds, this is the impact. Two minutes in, this is what’s happening. You get the idea.

Reading this book while our current President is building a bunker to rival no other, was chilling and infuriating because given the picture that this book paints, no one is surviving. Six floors of a bunker will not save you. This is hard to read about but factual.

In this scenario, the Pentagon is the target. This seems probable to me. Taking out the command center would be the way to go. Once the bomb is dropped, it provides several stages of destruction. There’s the detonation, the flash of thermal radiation, the blast wave, electromagnetic pulse (EMP), and the formation of a radioactive fallout plume. If you aren’t one of the lucky ones to die on impact, you face horrible burns, immediate loss of limbs, burned out lungs.

If you survived all that, then your real challenge comes next. Survival. Water and food, all contaminated. All food sources, obliterated. This goes on for a very long time.

If there is no water, the fires from the blast are left unchecked and just continue to burn which damages air quality and UV filters, creating a nuclear winter; a projected drop of about 35 degrees. That means crops and livestock are wiped out.

In this scenario, it will take approximately 25K years for the earth to recover. Read that again.

Writing this book had to be quite the undertaking. It’s fascinating and you cannot stop reading even though the outcome is so grim. It’s broken down into locations and time. What’s going on in California? Or D.C.? Or at military bases around the world? More importantly, what is the President doing? His cabinet? Held against this current administration I’d have to say that we have NO HOPE of surviving such an event.

Grim.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Chatting with friends about books and life…