Rebecca Solnit and Jenny Odell SOLD OUT

An in-person event to celebrate the release of Orwell's Roses
Rebecca Solnit Orwell's Roses Jenny Odell Point Reyes Books
Saturday, October 30, 2021 - 6:00pm
Dance Palace
503 B St
Point Reyes Station, CA 94956

Tickets: 

$28 + tax (each ticket includes a copy of the book)

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

A free livestream of this event will be available at ptreyesbooks.com/solnit. 

Join us for our first in-person event in a year and a half as we welcome Rebecca Solnit to Point Reyes to celebrate the publication of her latest book, Orwell's Roses (Viking). Rebecca will be joined in conversation by artist and writer Jenny Odell, author of the bestselling How to Do Nothing.

We require proof of vaccination for all attendees. Depending on County guidelines, masks may be required. Please reserve your spot early, as we expect to sell out quickly. We will also provide a streaming option for those unable to make it in-person. Each ticket purchase includes a copy of Orwell's Roses.

“A kaleidoscopic view of a man we thought we knew, by a woman who keeps surprising us with her dazzling mind.  Solnit has written an exquisitely layered book soaring in its reach, subversive in its scope, and joyous in its pleasure to read.  Her exploration into how and why cultivating beauty matters, alongside fighting injustices as Orwell’s garden supported his fierce critique of fascism, reminds us of the singular fact: life is both flower and thorn. This profound and graceful book not only redefines what is ‘Orwellian,’ it reimagines how we might live a life of greater intention by opening our hearts to what is beautiful, brave, and of Earth.” —Terry Tempest Williams, author of Erosion

About Orwell's Roses

“In the year 1936 a writer planted roses.” So begins Rebecca Solnit’s new book, a reflection on George Orwell’s passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, and the natural world illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and the intertwined politics of nature and power.
 
Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the surviving roses he planted in 1936, Solnit’s account of this understudied aspect of Orwell’s life explores  his writing and his actions—from going deep into the coal mines of England, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, critiquing Stalin when much of the international left still supported him (and then critiquing that left), to his analysis of the relationship between lies and authoritarianism. Through Solnit’s celebrated ability to draw unexpected connections, readers encounter the photographer Tina Modotti’s roses and her Stalinism, Stalin’s obsession with forcing lemons to grow in impossibly cold conditions, Orwell’s slave-owning ancestors in Jamaica, Jamaica Kincaid’s critique of colonialism and imperialism in the flower garden, and the brutal rose industry in Colombia that supplies the American market. The book draws to a close with a rereading of Nineteen Eighty-Four that completes her portrait of a more hopeful Orwell, as well as a reflection on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance.

About Rebecca Solnit and Jenny Odell

Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books, including Recollections of My Nonexistence, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, The Faraway Nearby, A Paradise Built in Hell, River of Shadows, and Wanderlust. She is also the author of Men Explain Things to Me and many essays on feminism, activism and social change, hope, and the climate crisis. A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she is a regular contributor to The Guardian and other publications.

Jenny Odell is an artist and writer who teaches at Stanford and has been an artist-in-residence at places like the San Francisco dump, Facebook, the Internet Archive, and the San Francisco Planning Department. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, The Believer, The Paris Review, and McSweeney’s, among others. She lives in Oakland.

 

Staff Pick Badge
Orwell's Roses By Rebecca Solnit Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593083369
Availability: NOT AVAILABLE
Published: Viking - October 19th, 2021

Staff Pick Badge
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy By Jenny Odell Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781612198552
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Melville House - December 29th, 2020