THE QUICKENING Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth

Helen Laser narrates with a thoughtful style, a smart cadence, and an empathetic tone. Author/environmentalist Elizabeth Rush weaves three strands together: an ocean adventure; her life with 57 others on the NATHANIEL B. PALMER, a research vessel traveling to Antarctica; and her personal struggle over whether or not to have a child.The title has a dual meaning, implying both seeing a glacier calving and feeling her own baby's first movement. Laser emulates the author's probing journalistic style when she interviews her shipmates on their experiences and captures Rush's personal struggle as she contemplates bringing a child into our environmentally compromised world. Laser vividly delivers Rush's thoughts and experiences, including an account of giving birth the year after she returned. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2023]