I really enjoyed this unique style, telling the story of a librarian in crisis, living in a chaotic world. Eager to recommend both Department of Speculation and Weather to readers looking for something a little different.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t like anything about this book. I couldn’t wait for it to be over. It was just so all over the place that It just didn’t click for me.

This is a challenging book to review. The style and structure is unusual, which I found off-putting at first, even while being enthralled by Offill's ability to capture the spirit of her narrator's frenetic life. There's so much wisdom, so many quotable lines, on each page. I encourage the reader to persist if they shared my initial hesitation to stick with the book, for its rewards are many.

Another lovely literary piece from the author of The Dept of Speculation.. A librarian, politics, climate change, there is so much to consider when reading this short novel. Would definitely recommend it.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A young librarian travels through life while raising her son, attempting an honest relationship with her husband, caring for her floundering brother, and loving her impoverished mother from a distance.

Jenny Offil has written a great contemporary novel, the American equivalent to Ali Smith's emerging Seasons Quartet in Britain, works that seek to encapsulate the issues and crises that preoccupy readers at this moment in the 21st century. The main character goes about her days in Brooklyn, worried about everything but struggling to do her best as a parent, wife, sister, daughter, worker, friend, volunteer, New Yorker and citizen of the world. She has issues big and small and views them all through the same questioning, anxious, humorous and loving lens - never irritating with her incessant observations, always entertaining, and truly capable of growth, however painful or unexpected. Offil's spare, precise prose keeps the reader's attention throughout, leaving us with a real feeling of loss when the story ends, not with a whimper or a bang, but a fittingly ambiguous statement from our heroine. We are left bereft, but hopeful, a unique tone that Offil achieves with breathtaking ease.

Written in the same style as The Dept. of Speculation, Offill has again crafted a novel from snippets of thoughts that somehow leave a powerful impression. Although there is a plot involving troubled family members and friends, this book has more to do with the development of our understanding of the protagonist Lizzie, a librarian who is also a therapist in the way of a bartender. Librarians will recognize her astute and caring observations of patrons, and we can all relate to her fears and anxiety about climate change and the political strife of our times. The paragraphs of only a couple of sentences read like stream of consciousness, but are very different from the long rambling approach taken by many authors. What thinking person in this divisive time has not wondered "How can I tell if those around me would become good Germans?" For readers who appreciate sparse and lyrical prose, this book will leave a lasting impression.

This book reads like a fragmented diary scribbled into by a feverish brain, picked up and put down at random, never intended to be read by an audience. This gives the story of a woman who is worried about the world and everything else a sense of deep intimacy and transparency. I read it in one sitting and recognized many of my own preoccupations reflected on the page.

This book is anxiety put to paper and many times it felt like I was reading a transcript of my internal monologue. It doesn't help that I too am a librarian riddled with anxiety for both the physical and social future of our world. "Weather" is the kind of book that I would have a hard time saying that I "enjoyed," per say. The structure of the novel, while it isn't for everyone, added to the feeling of panic and fragmented thought of the narrator. I would highly recommend it to anyone worried about the future, but I'd warn them that it might be cold comfort.

I wasn't sure that this book would be something I would enjoy. It seemed too short in length to fulfill all the promises made in the synopsis, but this book delivers! It was a quick read, written in snippets that moved as fast as a thinker changes ideas. It was just quirky enough to work and not be confusing. The format was focused and entertaining and never boring.

I am not sure I would have finished this book if I wasn’t reviewing it. It all came together in the end, as Lizzie uses the accumulation of knowledge she’s gained while being a librarian. She’s got a marriage, a busy son, a crazy mentor who Lizzie is helping, her brother, a former addict who is now a father and a mother obsessed by God. How can she juggle all their problems along with her own is quite an adventure and I am glad I finished the book. If you are looking for a book with strict plot structure, this isn’t it, but it’s a good look at a woman’s fragmented life and how she copes with everything that she must.

This short little book will sweep you along in its panicked but somehow also soothing tone. Following the thoughts of a woman, an employee, a mother, a person in this world, readers see the world as it is. It carried me along and I thoroughly enjoyed the read.

Jenny Offill has secured her place as a new master. Weather is impeccable, stunning, breathtaking. Offill's unique style opens doors, seeming to let a fresh wind sweep away works that explore similar themes but in familiar and sometimes tired ways. I am grateful for Offill's work, which lends fresh insight and new space to themes of empathy, professionalism, gender roles, relationships, and more.

This is a strange, quick book that I enjoyed despite not really being sure where the author was taking nor why it is titled Weather, perhaps because it is as prosaic a subject as any. The main character is curious, but there are no big changes in her life

Fans of Dept. of Speculation will also enjoy this book. I found her descriptions of the main character's climate anxiety both nervewracking and comforting in its ability to name a feeling I often share. The characters are specific and realistic; the conflict is small but essential.

Jenny Offill perfectly captures the anxiety inherent in living during today's age. I greatly enjoyed this book and will be recommending it highly.

Just a page or two in, and I was already wishing the book was longer… Angsty snippets reflecting the all- too- real and often frightening state of our existence, yet leaving the reader wanting MORE.

I would definitely recommend this to any fans of Offill’s earlier Dept. of Speculation. The style and movement of the prose is very similar to what I remember of that book. Unfortunately, I found this to be a harder read because there’s so much hopelessness built into it. There’s hopelessness in the way the main character deals with her anxiety about climate change, and in the way she approaches her marriage, and in her relationship with her brother. It all feels real and at least somewhat relatable, but it is very heavy. Even many of the (many) sharp, witty, and perfectly apt observations, especially about academics, become darker as the story moves on. Still, I’m not sure I’ve ever read a work of fiction that nails it so perfectly when describing male audience members at an author/speaker talk.

If you are a fan of fiction with a librarian protagonist, like the Time Traveler's Wife, this is worth a read,. As a librarian I liked the authors insights into an academic library's patron base.

Lizzie lives in New York City in Little Pakistan. She works in a college library but is not an actual librarian. She’s a former psychology student who answers email for her former professor, Sylvia (who’s on the lecture circuit and pressed for time), so Lizzie is answering questions sent to a psychologist without being an actual psychologist.
Lizzie is a very real “doomer” and “prepper” for a post-climate change planet, however. She frets endlessly over “the numbers,” her son’s future, and the political direction of the USA. She wonders about what country she and her family should migrate to and build a “doomstead”—a homestead following the climate apocalpse--and she flees to this fantasy doomstead in her head and plots her supplies in detail, when she is supposed to be taking up meditation.

Lizzie doesn’t actually have the money to migrate anywhere—money is short. She can’t even, due to the neediness of her brother Henry, go on vacation to Canada with her family, who go on vacation without her. Since Canada would be a genuine location for her “doomstead,” it is ironic that Lizzie can’t manage to get there. The codependent Henry and his disastrous life seem like more than enough doom for Lizzie to manage—there is a personal apocalypse unfolding in her house. While her family is in Canada, a handsome man catches her eye in the subway. Lizzie gets to know him, and, like the fake shrink that she is, begins analyzing both him and their whole situation to death.

You’d call Lizzie neurotic if she didn’t have dozens of very real stressors plaguing her. Between the students, the professors, her precocious small son, her poor and eccentric mother, her addict brother, and Mr. Subway Temptation, Lizzie isn’t just a woman in a typical “sandwich generation” situation, she’s a tall hoagie. The novel is written with aplomb with Lizzie a very relatable first-person narrator and it reads as intimately as a memoir, only occasionally becoming too vague (in political references, for instance) to confuse the reader. Lizzie's beleaguered and nimble brain spins in myriad delightful directions as the reader hopes that she will get a grip, or find some answers, or that the greater world around her (and us) will become less threatening.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and was encouraged to submit a review.