Sarah Wilson’s I Eat the Stars offers a guide to navigating a collapsing world

📚 Does the looming environmental and cultural collapse keep you up at night? It probably will after reading this book. I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World by Sarah Wilson reflects many global anxieties while helping readers make sense of the grim state our planet is in. The book began as a series of essays published on the Australian journalist’s Substack before being collected into a single book, published last June.

What to expect: Modern life often means carrying on against a backdrop of destruction and confusion, much of which we have to sweep under the rug just to get through the day. Wilson chooses otherwise, confronting head-on the realities of our current world with agonizing clarity — from environmental ruin to political polarization, civil unrest, economic instability, and more. Her starting point is surprisingly bleak, rejecting hope as the answer to change. From there, she describes a strangely liberating acceptance of reality — and a sense of relief — that can actually leave us better equipped to face it.

What we liked: Wilson’s startling honesty. After dropping enough world-ending facts to make you feel like humanity is fighting a losing battle, she lays bare a candid progression toward a hard-earned clarity. She is appropriately witty, funny, and warm with her words — a welcome counterbalance to the dark subject matter. Her urgency and emotion feel so palpable they practically jump off the page.

The verdict: I Eat the Stars isn’t an easy read, per se, but an existential one that meets your doomsday worries with grace. The book reads like a collection of confessions and diary entries from Wilson, making for a vulnerable read. Despite clocking in at more than 300 pages, much of it flies by, as Wilson highlights the value of holding on to faith in humanity while letting go of futile despair. If you’re looking for something to snap you out of your own bubble, make you a little uncomfortable, and perhaps approach the world differently, I Eat the Stars is worth a read.

WHERE TO GET IT- You can place a special order for the paperback version through The Bookspot. You can also get the eBook version on Amazon and Kobo.