The Anthropocene Reviewed

From the Introduction
 
When I reviewed books, I was never in the review. I imagined myself as a disinterested observer writing from outside. My early re­views of Diet Dr Pepper and Canada geese were similarly written in the nonfictional version of third-person omniscient narration. After Sarah read them, she pointed out that in the Anthropocene, there are no disinterested observers; there are only participants. She explained that  when people write reviews, they are really writing a kind of mem­oir here s what my experience was eating at this restaurant or getting my hair cut at this barbershop. I d written 1,500 words about Diet Dr Pepper without once mentioning my abiding and deeply personal love of Diet Dr Pepper.

Around the same time, as I began to regain my sense of balance, I reread the work of my friend and mentor Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who d died a few months earlier. She d once written, For anyone trying to discern what to do w/ their life: PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU PAY ATTENTION TO. That s pretty much all the info u need. My attention had become so fractured, and my world had become so loud, that I wasn t paying attention to what I was paying attention to. But when I put myself into the reviews as Sarah suggested, I felt like for the first time in years, I was at least trying to pay attention to what I pay attention to.


 
This book started out as a podcast, where I tried to chart some of the contradictions of human life as I experience it how we can be so com­passionate and so cruel, so persistent and so quick to despair. Above all, I wanted to understand the contradiction of human power: We are at once far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough. We are power­ful enough to radically reshape Earth s climate and biodiversity, but not powerful enough to choose how we reshape them. We are so powerful that we have escaped our planet s atmosphere. But we are not powerful enough to save those we love from suffering.

I also

John Green is the award-winning, #1 bestselling author of books including Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, and Turtles All the Way Down. His books have received many accolades, including a Printz Medal, a Printz Honor, and an Edgar Award. John has twice been a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and was selected by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. He is also the writer and host of the critically acclaimed podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed. With his brother, Hank, John has co-created many online video projects, including Vlogbrothers and the educational channel Crash Course. He lives with his family in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can visit John online at johngreenbooks.com.

Praise for The Anthropocene Reviewed

  The book is a review of humanity: how we grow, how we build, how we destroy, and how we observe ourselves. Many books succeed at making the personal universal, but this one also makes the universal personal.

This is a book about culture, about science and medicine, about Green himself, but really it surpasses these designations. It is essential to the human conversation. John Green whispered the truth of humanity onto the page, and as with all good secrets, you ll need to lean in closely to hear. Library Journal, starred review

The Anthropocene Reviewed is the perfect book to read over lunch or to keep on your nightstand, whenever you need a reminder of what it is to feel small and human, in the best possible way. San Francisco Chronicle

There is something of the sermon in [Green s] essays as he mixes curiosity and erudition with confession, compassion, and wit, searching for illuminating life lessons amid life s dark chaos. His particular mix of irony and sincerity enables him to embrace both the sublime and the ridiculous. Booklist

Lyrical and beautiful, funny and hopeful, intricate and entertaining all at once.... Green may have made his name by writing fiction (and for good reason), but this first foray into nonfiction is his most mature, compelling, and beautifully written book yet. Shondaland.com
 
What Green is really telling us with these unexpected stories about Sycamore Trees, Canada Geese, and Dr Pepper is how much there is to love in the world and why that love is worth the effort. NPR.com

  Each short review is rich with meaning and filled with surprises and together, they amount to a resonant paean to hard-won hope. Publishers Weekly, starred review

  Each of the entries in The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet, is a small gem, polished to near perfection . What