Author Alice Hoffman stated, “I believe we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there's a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us.” Last fall’s read certainly explored the connection. This spring, however, we will look at the human costs of the lack of such an essential and perhaps even sacred element as water.
Under the theme Water, Water Neverwhere the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club 2024 Spring Read will explore the impact of drought, the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, and a dystopian future where access and distribution of water governs life, power, and survival. Explorer and founder of National Geographic John Wesley Powell once suggested that “years of drought and famine come and years of flood and famine come, yet the climate is not changed with dance, libation or prayer.”
So what will change or how do the authors of the books that form the 2024 Spring Read – Water, Water Neverwhere predict the impact of scarcity, whether through drought, unwise practices, greed or climate change?
The 2024 Spring Read features the following works:
The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton, 2018
Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains by Lucas Bessire, 2022
The Water Thief by Nicholas Lamar Soutter, 2012 Plainwater: Essays and Poetry by Anne Carson, 2000
Radio Reader BookBytes will air each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during All Things Considered and Morning Edition. And don’t forget to mark your calendar for the season’s finale scheduled for Sunday, May 5, 2024, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
