The best books for dealing with a world unexpectedly coming apart

This book was absolutely amazing. The author interviewed many Soviet citizens in the 1990s after the Soviet Union’s collapse. I loved this book because it showed how people dealt with the massive change of the fall of the Soviet Union.

I also happened to be doing research in the Soviet Union in 1990 and then in 1995. So, I had an idea or two about before and after, but what about the people themselves? It shocked me to learn how many people believed in Stalin and how they thought they were changing the world even as it went far astray.

I also learned in the wonderful stories how they struggled to survive, some more, some less. The stories were heartbreaking but also illuminating and even encouraging.

This is a lovely book about a Siberian Tiger that stocked and killed hunters who had been hunting tigers. Vaillant situates this fascinating story into the collapse of the Soviet Union. People on the far eastern edge of Russian Siberia, the Amur River area, were desperate to survive as the economy collapsed.

At the same time, China is taking off, and the affluent will buy tiger parts at great cost to increase their sexual stamina. Thus, desperate Russian hunters arrive. Vaillant does a great job following a game warden as he tries to solve the crime of a tiger seemingly bent on revenge.

I think he shows that good people are still out there trying to do right, no matter the cost.

I had no idea what this book was when I picked it up, largely by accident. The plot mostly takes place in the Great Lakes area. A flu pandemic kills almost everyone on earth, and the question becomes, how do you survive?

There is no electricity, internet, or cell phones. Everything has collapsed. What does survival even mean? In this case, the survival mechanism is a traveling Shakespearean troupe putting on plays in various encampments.

St. John Mandel strings the whole thing together with a graphic novel the protagonist and antagonist read many years earlier, which connects them in weird ways. In the end, someone turns on a light.

I think Cline does a wonderful job explaining how civilizations can and do collapse or survive, but also bringing the distant past to life. The work takes on the tremendous change that happened around 1177 B.C. Yes, climate change, but volcanic explosions also helped push societies off course.

That may well have started the whole series of cataclysmic events, such as extended drought. Empires such as Egypt, Assyria, Phoenicia, and Israel all had to come to terms with massive change not of their own choosing.

I loved how Cline wrestles with how some survived, and others didn’t. Was geography, military, economics, or some level of hierarchy better than another? There is much to think about.

I had to read this one twice immediately and was so excited by it. Kirsch starts with those espousing anti-humanity. Humans have screwed up the planet, less working with and more taking control of all aspects of nature, often in the most negative ways.

For some, we are hopeless, and it would be just as good if humans winked out of existence. I found hope in such dire words because others believe humans are evolving. These are the transhumanists. Hopefully, before it’s too late, we can get off this rock. We can go into the solar system or even the galaxy. We can develop means to amend what we have ruined with robots, nanobots, CRISPR, solar and wind, etc. Kirsch provides hope, and I cling to it.