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Falling from the Moon
Pounding drums in the woods, a missing father, and a glimpse into the world of peace and healing gatherings unite in Falling From The Moon.
Two young women face the harsh realities of growing up surrounded by direct action, marijuana culture, and baking bread in the woods.
25-year old Sapphire embarks on a quest to find her father, who vanished when she was ten and who, she believes, holds the key to her future. Her journey takes her to a peace and healing gathering where a community of counter-culture characters dispense advice and marijuana around late-night campfires. Along the way she hooks up with, Lauren, a pregnant environmental activist from California's North Coast trying to imagine a future that leaves her on the sidelines of tree sits and chaining herself to bulldozers, a Vietnam veteran with blood on his hands dedicated to helping others, and a teenage boy with mental health problems. Together, they create a future out of tragedy.
Two young women face the harsh realities of growing up surrounded by direct action, marijuana culture, and baking bread in the woods.
25-year old Sapphire embarks on a quest to find her father, who vanished when she was ten and who, she believes, holds the key to her future. Her journey takes her to a peace and healing gathering where a community of counter-culture characters dispense advice and marijuana around late-night campfires. Along the way she hooks up with, Lauren, a pregnant environmental activist from California's North Coast trying to imagine a future that leaves her on the sidelines of tree sits and chaining herself to bulldozers, a Vietnam veteran with blood on his hands dedicated to helping others, and a teenage boy with mental health problems. Together, they create a future out of tragedy.
- GenresFiction
332 pages, Paperback
First published January 6, 2020
2 people are currently reading
2898 people want to read
About the author
Karin E. Zirk
2 books33 followersDr. Karin Zirk is a mythologist and writer who is motivated by trying to understand the way the world works. An environmental activist in her spare time, she works as database geek (a.k.a. DBA).
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 5, 2020
full disclosure: I've known Karin for many many years and she is one of my favorite people. I also am the official publisher. This book really gets at the heart and the beauty of California's Sierra Nevada and the excitement of being at an action to save these amazing trees. This book also features time at peace and healing gathering where people have come together to create a special intentional community to pray for peace where two young women will become good friends while each is challenged by her own expectations ... and find their own power within. You'll fall in love with the caravan of characters and the landscape and you'll find hope with these two women
May 4, 2021
I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway.
This book is full of nice ideas about being close to nature, appreciating the Earth, caring for the environment, and attending a huge gathering where people will peacefully share, communicate, and support each other. It is very uplifting when this happens.
Realistically, there are also times of disagreement, drug use, and some violence. It is not presented in an offensive way, and it fits with the theme of helping one another.
Sapphire is an engaging main character who has come to the gathering in hopes of finding the father who left the family 15 years prior. Her journey is one of growing, maturing, and of learning to help others even when it is hard, and facing facts about life.
Lauren is an environmental activist whose unexpected pregnancy is going to mean rearranging her life plans. She is a bit ambivalent, but also seems to grow and change as her friendship with Sapphire grows.
I enjoyed reading this story of people and this Gathering while also finding food for thought.
This book is full of nice ideas about being close to nature, appreciating the Earth, caring for the environment, and attending a huge gathering where people will peacefully share, communicate, and support each other. It is very uplifting when this happens.
Realistically, there are also times of disagreement, drug use, and some violence. It is not presented in an offensive way, and it fits with the theme of helping one another.
Sapphire is an engaging main character who has come to the gathering in hopes of finding the father who left the family 15 years prior. Her journey is one of growing, maturing, and of learning to help others even when it is hard, and facing facts about life.
Lauren is an environmental activist whose unexpected pregnancy is going to mean rearranging her life plans. She is a bit ambivalent, but also seems to grow and change as her friendship with Sapphire grows.
I enjoyed reading this story of people and this Gathering while also finding food for thought.
June 1, 2021
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK - the story was exciting and not one page was boring (I couldn't put it down!). I enjoyed the character development and related to Sapphire. 100% recommend you read this!!!
October 30, 2020
This is a beautiful story about a woman searching for her roots in the group where her father found his own. The author's imagery is impeccable, her storytelling is profound. In thirty years this will be held up alongside Watership Down and To Kill a Mockingbird as a "Classic".
August 3, 2021
DISCLAIMER: I received a copy through a GoodReads giveaway.
The novel follows two women as they participate in the Rainbow Gathering of 1990, a large annual gathering of people who inhabit national forests for a week or two each summer. The goal is to create a community based on the ideology of peace, harmony, freedom, and respect. One woman travels there seeking her estranged father who left her mother & her when she was 10 years old. The other woman is a regular participant whose gathering has changed due to her pregnancy. The reader accompanies these women as they navigate their past and future.
The flow of the story and the wording of Karin make the book hard to put down. The novel is so well written an outsiders such as myself can grasp the concepts and become invested in the characters and the plot.
The novel follows two women as they participate in the Rainbow Gathering of 1990, a large annual gathering of people who inhabit national forests for a week or two each summer. The goal is to create a community based on the ideology of peace, harmony, freedom, and respect. One woman travels there seeking her estranged father who left her mother & her when she was 10 years old. The other woman is a regular participant whose gathering has changed due to her pregnancy. The reader accompanies these women as they navigate their past and future.
The flow of the story and the wording of Karin make the book hard to put down. The novel is so well written an outsiders such as myself can grasp the concepts and become invested in the characters and the plot.
August 26, 2021
Falling from the Moon is about a young woman who attends a hippie gathering in 1990 in the hopes of finding her father. What is supposed to be a mecca for peaceful pacifists quickly turns into a chaotic and dangerous circumstance for some. Sapphire, the young woman in search of her wayward father, meets Lauren and other characters. They soon become friends, then enemies, then friends again. Both are childish and mad at the entire world. They cannot accept the life they have and where it got them. With hormones and emotions raging, they are currently being too stubborn to face facts.
The days go by and, Sapphire, the artist who paints life in a unique and colorful array of imagined scenes, soon learns there are more important things going on in the world than her pity party. Lauren, her accidentally pregnant friend is knowledgable and strong-willed, but also a tad phony when it comes to peace, love, and the earth is my mother. She doesn't even want her child and is considering abortion. It takes a tragedy to wake them up from their selfishness and realize they are part of a larger picture that needs them to grow up and take responsibility for their actions.
If you have ever been a young woman who is determined to save the world and wonder what happened to that, you'll enjoy this book. It's a reminder of how idealistic we are in our youth and maybe, just maybe that's not such a bad thing after all.
I enjoyed this fast-paced book from beginning to end. Although, it ended too soon. I wanted to hear more about all the crazy characters.
The days go by and, Sapphire, the artist who paints life in a unique and colorful array of imagined scenes, soon learns there are more important things going on in the world than her pity party. Lauren, her accidentally pregnant friend is knowledgable and strong-willed, but also a tad phony when it comes to peace, love, and the earth is my mother. She doesn't even want her child and is considering abortion. It takes a tragedy to wake them up from their selfishness and realize they are part of a larger picture that needs them to grow up and take responsibility for their actions.
If you have ever been a young woman who is determined to save the world and wonder what happened to that, you'll enjoy this book. It's a reminder of how idealistic we are in our youth and maybe, just maybe that's not such a bad thing after all.
I enjoyed this fast-paced book from beginning to end. Although, it ended too soon. I wanted to hear more about all the crazy characters.
July 17, 2021
I won this book through a Goodread's give away. I enjoyed it very much. It exposed me to a community of people that I found extremely interesting and wouldn't mind learning more about.
April 23, 2022
I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway. I really enjoyed this book. In 1990, the main character, Sapphire, is looking for her father who she hasn’t seen in 15 years. She attends a environmentalist gathering for 2 weeks, and faces many hurtles in her time there. Her personal growth becomes exponential as she trudges through these hurtles.
At the beginning of the book, I found Sapphire to be quite annoying and immature as a 25 year old woman, throwing huge, self centered, tantrums over everything, instead of addressing her own trauma. Over the course of the book, I loved seeing her personal growth and her journey to become so much less self centered, and learning to go with the flow. She faces her trauma head on and comes out on top, though the way she goes about it may be very unconventional (and quite entertaining!)
TW: this book does deal with themes such as rape, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and mental health issues.
At the beginning of the book, I found Sapphire to be quite annoying and immature as a 25 year old woman, throwing huge, self centered, tantrums over everything, instead of addressing her own trauma. Over the course of the book, I loved seeing her personal growth and her journey to become so much less self centered, and learning to go with the flow. She faces her trauma head on and comes out on top, though the way she goes about it may be very unconventional (and quite entertaining!)
TW: this book does deal with themes such as rape, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and mental health issues.
Read
November 16, 2020This is a great book which truly gives a sense of Rainbow Family values. Having been to eleven gatherings including one international gathering in Costa Rica, I can say that this book makes me long for "Home", to again participate in this loving, learning experience of gathering - of helping bring water, peel vegetables, look for Montana Mudd, hike the trails in search of the Faerie Camp, find the yoga tent, share food around Main Circle, and fall asleep with my heart beating to the drums.
A wonderful read which puts you in the heart of the forest, and lets us know that yes, we have negative thoughts sometimes, we are all learning, afraid, powerful, striving, cranky, angry, joyful and holy - a book which is a model giving us hope for the future, despite the corruption, destruction and waste which surround us.
I highly recommend this very enjoyable book.
MaryAnn VanHoomissen
A wonderful read which puts you in the heart of the forest, and lets us know that yes, we have negative thoughts sometimes, we are all learning, afraid, powerful, striving, cranky, angry, joyful and holy - a book which is a model giving us hope for the future, despite the corruption, destruction and waste which surround us.
I highly recommend this very enjoyable book.
MaryAnn VanHoomissen
July 8, 2021
I received a copy after entering a giveaway, but my opinion is 100% my own and honest.
This book took me on an emotional ride, with a cast of characters I spent as much time wanting to yell at as I did wanting to hug and join around the fires. Along the way to lessons about growing up, letting go of our ideas of how things were or should be and accepting how they are as well as when to trust ourselves, our own intuition and that we are capable of so much more. I enjoyed it a great deal more than I had anticipated when I entered the giveaway looking for something different than the PNR smut I had been devouring. Will revisit this book, probably more than once, and recommend everyone at least give it a try.
This book took me on an emotional ride, with a cast of characters I spent as much time wanting to yell at as I did wanting to hug and join around the fires. Along the way to lessons about growing up, letting go of our ideas of how things were or should be and accepting how they are as well as when to trust ourselves, our own intuition and that we are capable of so much more. I enjoyed it a great deal more than I had anticipated when I entered the giveaway looking for something different than the PNR smut I had been devouring. Will revisit this book, probably more than once, and recommend everyone at least give it a try.
April 20, 2022
*2.5 stars*
**I won this signed finished copy as a part of a Goodreads giveaway sponsored by the author, Karin E. Zirk. Thank you to any and all parties involved for sending this book my way!**
The book was pretty average but for the most part I was kinda bored. The plot seemed interesting but it just did not hit the mark for me. Pretty much everyone else that read it enjoyed it a lot more than me so it might just be a me problem LMAOOO
**I won this signed finished copy as a part of a Goodreads giveaway sponsored by the author, Karin E. Zirk. Thank you to any and all parties involved for sending this book my way!**
The book was pretty average but for the most part I was kinda bored. The plot seemed interesting but it just did not hit the mark for me. Pretty much everyone else that read it enjoyed it a lot more than me so it might just be a me problem LMAOOO
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews