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Showing posts with the label non-fiction review

Non-fiction review: Ladies of the Canyons

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One of my friends sent me this book, and I've already managed to forget who. Thanks--it was a good read and I learned a lot.     Title: Ladies of the Canyons: A League of Extraordinary Women and Their Adventures in the American Southwest Author: Lesley Poling-Kempes Publication Info: University of Arizona Press, 2015.  373 pages Source: Gift Publisher’s Blurb: Ladies of the Canyons is the true story of remarkable women who left the security and comforts of genteel Victorian society and journeyed to the American Southwest in search of a wider view of themselves and their world. Educated, restless, and inquisitive, Natalie Curtis, Carol Stanley, Alice Klauber, and Mary Cabot Wheelwright were plucky, intrepid women whose lives were transformed in the first decades of the twentieth century by the people and the landscape of the American Southwest. Part of an influential circle of women that included Louisa Wade Wetherill, Alice Corbin Henderson, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Mary Austi

Non-fiction Review: Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman

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How could I not be drawn to a title like that?! Another report from my on-going perusal of semi-randomly selected non-fiction audio books, especially about women doing cool stuff.   Title: Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman Author: Lindy Elkins-Tanton Publication Info: Harper Audio, 2022. 8hrs 40 min. Hardcover 2022 by William Morrow, 272 pages. Source: Publisher's Blurb: Deep in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, three times farther from the sun than the Earth is, orbits a massive asteroid called (16) Psyche. It is one of the largest objects in the belt, potentially containing the equivalent of the world's total economy in metals, though they cannot be brought back to Earth. But (16) Psyche has the potential to unlock something even more valuable: the story of how planets form, and how our planet formed. Soon we will find out, thanks to the extraordinary work of Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the Principal Investigator of NASA's $800 million Psyche mission,

Non-fiction Audiobook Review: The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder

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The life story of the author of the "Little House" books. Title: The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Frontier Landscapes That Inspired The Little House Books Author: Marta McDowell, read by Donna Postel Publication Info: Tantor Audio 2018. 6 1/4 hours. Original hardback 2017 by Timber Press, 390 pages Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: The universal appeal of Laura Ingalls Wilder springs from a life lived in partnership with the land, on farms she and her family settled across the Northeast and Midwest. In this revealing exploration of Wilder's deep connection with the natural world, Marta McDowell follows the wagon trail of the beloved Little House series. You'll learn details about Wilder's life and inspirations, pinpoint the Ingalls and Wilder homestead claims on authentic archival maps, and learn to grow the plants and vegetables featured in the series. Excerpts from Wilder's books, letters, and diaries bring to light her profound appreciat

Non-fiction review: The Old Ways, by Robert Macfarlane

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  A follow-up to Mountains of the Mind , I grabbed the audio of this book to get more of the author's thoughts. Then I had to get the paperback because there were things I needed to read slowly, and flag, and return to. Title: The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot Author: Robert Macfarlane. Read by Robin Sachs Publication Info: Blackstone Audio, 2012.  Original hardback, Hamish Hamilton, 2012, 433 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: From the acclaimed author of  The Wild Places  comes an engrossing exploration of walking and thinking. In this exquisitely written book, Robert Macfarlane sets off from his Cambridge, England, home to follow the ancient tracks, holloways, drove roads, and sea paths that crisscross both the British landscape and its waters and territories beyond. The result is an immersive, enthralling exploration of the ghosts and voices that haunt old paths, of the stories our tracks keep and tell, and of pilgrimage and

Non-fiction review: The Meaning of Travel, by Emily Thomas

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I've been doing a lot of reading about travel, mostly accounts of travel or adventures/exploration. I'm also getting more interested in the philosophy and psychology of an activity that I greatly enjoy and at times feel driven to pursue. Title: The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad Author: Emily Thomas Publication Info: Oxford University Press, 2020. 261 pages Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: How can we think more deeply about travel? This was the thought that inspired Emily Thomas to journey into the philosophy of travel, to explore the places where philosophy and travel intersect. Part philosophical ramble, part memoir, The Meaning of Travel begins in the Age of Discovery in the sixteenth century, when philosophers first began thinking and writing seriously about travel It then meanders forward to encounter the thoughts of Montaigne on otherness, John Locke on cannibals, and Henry Thoreau on wilderness. On our travels with Emily Thomas, we discover the dar

Non-fiction review: Nature Beyond Solitude

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A few weeks ago I reviewed a book in the spirit of Thoreau, which ended up irritating me a great deal. This book felt like the antidote.   Title: Nature Beyond Solitude: Notes from the Field Author: John Seibert Farnsworth Publication Info: Blackstone Audio, 2020. 8hrs 50 min. Original hardback Comstock Publishing, 2020. 216 pages. Source: library Publisher's Blurb: John Seibert Farnsworth's delightful notes are not only about nature, but from nature as well. In Nature Beyond Solitude, he lets us peer over his shoulder as he takes his notes. We follow him to a series of field stations where he teams up with scientists, citizen scientists, rangers, stewards, and grad students engaged in long-term ecological study, all the while scribbling down what he sees, hears, and feels in the moment. With humor and insight, Farnsworth explores how communal experiences of nature might ultimately provide greater depths of appreciation for the natural world. In the course of his travel

Non-fiction audio book: The Way Home

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Another of my semi-random picks from the library's digital audio books.    Title: The Way Home: Tales from a life without technology Author: Mark Boyle Publication Info: Blackstone Audio, 2019. 8hrs 40 min. Original hardcover, Oneworld, 2019, 288 pages Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: "It was 11:00 pm when I checked my email for the last time and turned off my phone for what I hoped would be forever. No running water, no car, no electricity or any of the things it powers: the internet, phone, washing machine, radio, or light bulb. Just a wooden cabin, on a smallholding, by the edge of a stand of spruce." The Way Home is a modern-day Walden―an honest and lyrical account of a remarkable life lived in nature without modern technology. Mark Boyle, author of The Moneyless Man, explores the hard-won joys of building a home with his bare hands, learning to make fire, collecting water from the stream, foraging, and fishing. What he finds is an elemental life, one

Non-fiction review: Wintering, by Katherine May

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My second of Katherine May's books in just a couple of months, so you know that she's touched something in me. (See review of The Electricity of Every Living Thing ).     Title: Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times Author: Katherine May Publication Info: Riverhead Books, 2020. 245 pages (Kindle edition). Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down. Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered. A moving personal narrative shot through with

Audiobook Review: Surfacing, by Kathleen Jamie

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I tend to wander through the non-fiction audio section of my library's Overdrive and tag books that I might enjoy listening to while I do my daily walks. This was one of those selections, an excellent choice for walking.   Title: Surfacing Author: Kathleen Jamie. Read by Cathleen McCarron Publication Info: Books on Tape, 2019, 6h 45 min. Original hardback, 2019, Sort of Books, 240 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: An immersive exploration of time and place in a shrinking world, from the award-winning author of Sightlines. In this remarkable blend of memoir, cultural history, and travelogue, poet and author Kathleen Jamie touches points on a timeline spanning millennia, and considers what surfaces and what reconnects us to our past. From the thawing tundra linking a Yup'ik village in Alaska to its hunter-gatherer past to the shifting sand dunes revealing the impressively preserved homes of neolithic farmers in Scotland, Jamie explores how the changing natural

Book Review: The Bears Ears: A Human History

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I'm headed to the Bears Ears National Monument in a few weeks, so I figured I should do some more reading about the area. It's not new history to me, but a refresher never hurts, and many details were new. Title: The Bears Ears: A Human History of America's Most Endangered Wilderness Author: David Roberts Publication Info: 2021, W.W. Norton. 336 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: The Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah, created by President Obama in 2016 and eviscerated by the Trump administration in 2017, contains more archaeological sites than any other region in the United States. It’s also a spectacularly beautiful landscape, a mosaic of sandstone canyons and bold mesas and buttes. This wilderness, now threatened by oil and gas drilling, unrestricted grazing, and invasion by Jeep and ATV, is at the center of the greatest environmental battle in America since the damming of the Colorado River to create Lake Powell in the 1950s. In The

Non-fiction review: The War Below (audiobook)

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My sifting through the history audio books at the library (Overdrive) brought me this at times painful read about US submarines in WWII.   Title: The War Below: The Story of Three Submarines that Battled Japan Author: James Scott. Read by Donald Corren Publication Info: Simon & Schuster/Blackstone Audio, 2013. 448 p. hardback, 14 hrs 20 min. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: The riveting story of the submarine force that helped win World War II by ravaging Japan's merchant fleet and destroying its economy The War Below is a dramatic account of extraordinary heroism, ingenuity, and perseverance—and the vital role American submarines played in winning the Pacific War. Focusing on the unique stories of the submarines Silversides, Drum, and Tang—and the men who skippered and crewed them—James Scott takes readers beneath the waves to experience the thrill of a direct hit on a merchant ship and the terror of depth charge attacks. It's a story filled with incredible

Non-fiction audiobook review: Leave It As It Is

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Teddy Roosevelt and saving our public lands.   Title: Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt's American Wilderness Author: David Gessner Publication Info: Simon Schuster, 2020. 352 pages hardback; 12.5 hours audio. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: “Leave it as it is,” Theodore Roosevelt announced while viewing the Grand Canyon for the first time. “The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.” Roosevelt’s rallying cry signaled the beginning of an environmental fight that still wages today. To reconnect with the American wilderness and with the president who courageously protected it, acclaimed nature writer and New York Times bestselling author David Gessner embarks on a great American road trip guided by Roosevelt’s crusading environmental legacy. Gessner travels to the Dakota badlands where Roosevelt awakened as a naturalist; to Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon where Roosevelt escaped during the grind of his reelection tour;