Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
I have another book recommendation. This one will not keep you up until 3am, unless you get to page 161 and decide that you must read it all over again. As one does. Kayaking with Lambs is a collection of essays mostly pulled from Brian Miller's richly authentic farm journal, A South Roane Agrarian, where… Continue reading The Daily: 19 October 2023
How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) Barbara Kingsolver Harper, 2020 Dearly Margaret Atwood Ecco, 2020 It’s been a rough few years. The roughest bit may be that it’s not likely to be un-roughed. Maybe ever, but certainly not within my lifetime. We’ve lost loved ones to COVID, to violence, to depression. We’ve lost… Continue reading Two Restoratives
The Radiant Lives of Animals Linda Hogan Beacon Press, 2020 This small book of poetry and prose is a love letter to Linda Hogan’s home. It is a narrative of recovery. Hogan must come back to health and strength after a severe horse-riding accident. The Depression-era cottage she buys to hide away and live quietly… Continue reading The Radiant Lives of Animals
Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts J. Drew Lanham Hub City Press, 2021 There are at least 94 reasons to fall in love with this 94-page chapbook of poetry and poetic observations by J. Drew Lanham (one of the two black birders at any given birding festival). This singular collection deserves permanent… Continue reading Musing on Sparrow Envy
The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe Matthew Gabriele and David Perry 2021, Harper To understand racism and misogyny — or any kind of thing-ness — and the violence entrained in these ideas, you must understand the history of the Middle Ages, what we pejoratively label the Dark Ages and what Matthew Gabriele… Continue reading The Bright Ages: Review
The Overstory Richard Powers 2018, W. W. Norton & Company What makes some people so utterly convinced that the only living being with awareness and will is humanity? I understand that many of these people have spent millennia believing in deities that placed humans above the rest of creation, but this seems to me to… Continue reading A Meditation on The Overstory
The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis Amitav Ghosh University of Chicago Press, 2021 In the The Nutmeg’s Curse, Amitav Ghosh presents a sweeping historical perspective of the interwoven crises of our times, showing us that our problems are structural, global and deeply rooted. We can’t say “It’s just capitalism” or “It’s patriarchy”… Continue reading The Nutmeg’s Curse: Review
Ministry for the Future Kim Stanley Robinson Orbit Books, 2020 This is not an exhaustive review of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future. I don’t feel competent to write such a thing, nor do I think it’s strictly possible to say all that could be said in a review in less than several pages… Continue reading Ministry for the Future: Review
Rooted Lyanda Lynn Haupt Little, Brown Spark: 2021 I discovered Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s book, Rooted, in a new releases list somewhere. Being in a rooted mode these days, I immediately put this book at the top of the reading list. I dove into it a couple days ago, while taking yet another break from Kim… Continue reading Rooted: Review
Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving Celeste Headlee Harmony Books, 2020 There’s a good deal to think about packed into this little book. Its essence is yet another reminder that much of our culture, and especially our work culture, is rather bad for our health. (It’s bad for the planet’s… Continue reading Do Nothing: Review
By My Solitary Hearth 