A review by caroline_mclaughlin
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

emotional informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.25

I think I’m reading this book at the wrong time. Though the essays have a lot of interesting information and reflection, and they look at humanity in a gentle way that refuses to be too saccharine, the constant references to the pandemic and positioning of the present in 2020-2021 makes it hard to enjoy. Reading it in spring of 2022, when we are on the cusp of yet another variant, I don’t find myself close enough to the initial stages of the pandemic to want to bask in comforting thoughts about our persistence, nor distanced enough to be able to enjoy reflections on the pandemic. Give it ten years and this book will feel like a time capsule of this era, but at the moment, it feels more like a painful reminder.

My favorite essays were Auld Lang Syne and Harvey.