Icebreaker sails with a phlegmatic Finnish crew into threatening and threatened polar waters... Clare’s witty prose, filled with vivid descriptions, bears witness to the melting skin of our fragile planet and all that its loss might mean for our souls

Clare has a gift for pinning to the page all that comes his way. His is a joy in framing with such precision and flair that it is the opposite of indulgent, allowing the reader to share in his own marvellous encounters... nimble, vital, unexpectedly affecting

Icebreaker has many of the pleasures of classic travel writing: a pure sense of visiting another world in the company of an eloquent guide. But this is not a backward-looking book, and its warning for the future is clear… The Met Office estimates the Arctic could be seasonally ice-free by the 2040s. It may not be many decades, then, until Clare’s travelogue is a record of a vanished world

Light fills his writing... Mr Clare is a great enjoyer -- of people, landscape, and above all of language

Salted with excellent topographical language... Clare has an ear and an eye for words... one can't have enough of the big white

A voyage into the Arctic on an icebreaking ship with one of Britain's best writers of nature and place. You feel the cold leaping off the pages

Clare's prose is so brilliantly evocative and so rich with awe, this book could sit as comfortably next to Grimm's fairytales as it does in the travel section... With an elegiac Keatsian sensibility, he depicts "the making and melting of ice" so seductively that reaching the end of this wonderful book feels like stumbling out of a Finnish sauna into a cold shower

Offers some telling and often amusing insights into the Finnish way of life while at the same time explaining how the work of an icebreaker crew fits into the increasingly complex geopolitical picture in the far north… he writes with perceptiveness and precision about the ways in which global warming are already starting to change the geography of the region... powerfully evocative

A hilarious, off-beat travelogue in the tradition of Eric Newby and Redmond O’Hanlon. Warm and witty, Clare catches an important moment in the unfolding of climate change, and shows why we should all pay attention to what's happening in the ice

Captivating… Clare himself is a charming companion for the reader. His narrative encompasses both the past and a highly charged now – Finnish history interwoven with instantaneous thrills as the ship grinds and slides through a world that most of us will never experience... a delightful mix of mariner-rime reportage, local colour and Finnish history

Takes us to Finland to consider the fragility of our world; Clare's wryly philosophical and wonderfully humorous travelogue crackles and coruscates. From overheated summer to ice-bound waters, both books peer at potential disaster with brilliant wit and exquisite observation

A highly original reflection on military rivalries – and on the beauty of compacted sea ice and diamond northern skies.

A powerful and stirring account.

A brief but compelling journey.

Intelligent, lucid and refreshingly unpretentious.

The book contains many gems… compelling… accompany the author as he peers fascinatingly into the future.

Harari’s purpose is admirable. He wishes to empower ordinary people with his clear thinking.

It feels urgent and necessary, as though it is capturing a crucial moment in time… It is a direct call to action and probably the most genuinely impactful of all three Harari books.

I’m predicting that 21 Lessons for the 21st Century will complete a Harari hat-trick of classics… The clarity of Harari's vision is astonishing... thanks to him, the world makes better sense to many more of us.

Compelling reading.

This is an important book.

21 Lessons is another extremely readable volume [from Harari].

With Harari's incise vision and measured prose this is a book to convert those dormant anxieties and Evening-News-induced insomnia into a deeper, more empowered comprehension.

Harari effortlessly jumps between diverse topics.

A thought-provoking, provocative, informative, terrifying, fact-filled series of essays which get the reader thinking, worrying and hoping.

Harari essentially takes the pulse of society today and worldwide.

[Harari] is a rare voice of calm reassurance, slicing through chaos.

Vividly written and spiked with references to Monty Python and The Lion King, Harari’s essays are thought-provoking and accessible

A rollercoaster philosophical review of where we find ourselves today… 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is an absorbing, realistic, stark, yet hopeful book.

A bold and provocative read that expands one's frame of mind on the present-day world as we know it with the author's unique perceptions.

If there are people around to write history books in the future, they will look back at the @ExtinctionR protestors and think they were the sanest people of our time. Read The Uninhabitable Earth by @dwallacewells if you don't know why.

If we don't want our grandchildren to curse us, we had better read this book.

David Wallace-Wells argues that the impacts of climate change will much graver than most people realize, and he's right. The Uninhabitable Earth is a timely and provocative work.

Trigger warning: when scientists conclude that yesterday's worst-case scenario for global warming is probably unwarranted optimism, it's time to ask Scotty to beam you up. At least that was my reaction upon finishing Wallace-Wells' brilliant and unsparing analysis of a nightmare that is no longer a distant future but our chaotic, burning present.

A lucid and thorough description of our unprecedented crisis, and of the mechanisms of denial with which we seek to avoid its fullest recognition.

Brilliant at the futility of human action.

A masterpiece of operatic proportions … What Powers means to explore is a sense of how we become who we are, individually and collectively, and our responsibility to the planet and to ourselves … A magnificent achievement: a novel that is, by turns, both optimistic and fatalistic, idealistic without being naïve.

His masterpiece.

You will careen through this book. The prose is driven. You don’t really get to draw breath … The writing is steel-edged, laser-sharp when Richard Powers wants it to be. When he sets out to nail meaning, it’s done. There are sentences you return to and wonder at.

This walk through the woods via words is a passionate paean to the natural world that prompts us to appreciate afresh our place on the planet.

[I]t’s huge, it’s exciting, it’s wondrous … This really deserves to be read.

The Overstory is a book you learn from.

Dazzlingly written… Among the best novels I’ve read this decade… Despite its deep-time perspective, it could hardly be more of-the-moment

A beautiful novel about humans reconnecting with nature in a fascinatingly, inventive world with colourful, rich characters, it will rekindle your love for nature

An intriguing, powerful book

Absolutely blown away by this epic, heartbreaking novel about us and trees

This extraordinary novel transformed my view of nature. Never again will I pass great tree without offering a quiet but heartfelt incantation of thanks, gratitude and wonder

A sweeping novel that skilfully intertwines many different stories of trees and people to create a paean to the hidden power and vital importance of the natural world

Absorbing, thought-provoking and more than enough incentive to embrace your inner tree-hugger

The Overstory is filled with character and incident enough to engage anybody, but it's also filled with philosophy, science, poetry, and colour. It's a celebration of the world and humanity, but also tells of our coming doom. Perhaps above all it's a eulogy to trees. Eulogy is the right word because the novel celebrates the life, the beauty and wisdom of trees-but also their death. The novel also casts a cold-but loving-eye on humanity

The Overstory has the mix of science and fiction that I so love; it widens my understanding and respect for the creatures who share this planet

Stunning... It's been one of those rare books that has had a profound effect on me, and which has changed my perspective on life

Mind-boggling and visionary. The multi-stranded novel is a masterpiece in which science and poetry are deeply intertwined

A compelling read is that is near impossible to put down

The Overstory is a prescient novel that urges us to take responsibility for our actions

A masterpiece of storytelling at its very best. Powers weaves together science, poetry, nature and humanity so beautifully that it makes my heart ache and my mind fly

A wild and expansive novel, knitting together a glorious and diverse cast of characters, some of them human, some of them trees. I defy you not to be moved, and then angered about what we are doing to our planet and these glorious sentinels rooted upon it

My novel of the year was Richard Powers' masterpiece, The Overstory... it's a magnificent read

The Overstory by Richard Powers is likely the most beautiful book ever written about people and trees