Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
dark
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Solnit joins the (small) list of people who have their heads screwed on right. Oh man, thank god for Rebecca Solnit.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
This is what I need amidst the chaos of 2025. I've already recommended it to my partner, my colleagues, and my family.
My favorite essays were: Insurrectionary Aunthood, On Not Meeting Nazis Halfway, and In the Shadow of Silicon Valley. It is also so powerful that she includes a two page essay written the night of November 5, 2024 knowing we needed her steady guidance.
Read this book to find your footing and stay in the imagination battle we are currently in.
My favorite essays were: Insurrectionary Aunthood, On Not Meeting Nazis Halfway, and In the Shadow of Silicon Valley. It is also so powerful that she includes a two page essay written the night of November 5, 2024 knowing we needed her steady guidance.
Read this book to find your footing and stay in the imagination battle we are currently in.
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
A timely book during a tough political time.
Uncertainty > optimism / pessimism / despair / defeatism
Longview > short view
The road will be windy and rocky and you don’t necessarily land where you expected/wanted.
Uncertainty > optimism / pessimism / despair / defeatism
Longview > short view
The road will be windy and rocky and you don’t necessarily land where you expected/wanted.
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
This is a wonderfully written meditation on navigating change, resisting oppression, and keeping hope alive.
The collection opens with “A Truce With the Trees,” a reflection on violin production and how their value rises over the years. I didn’t know that this is due to the wood they’re made of. It's a stunning piece, highlighting ecological fragility, artistic endurance, and the power of craft.
There are three parts: Visions, Revisions, and More Visions.
Visions focuses more on politics and its influence on the ecological crisis we're facing. I wasn’t fond of this part because I feel somewhat distant from the political world. However, the other two parts—Revisions and More Visions—hit me directly in the heart.
I’m especially fond of Revisions, where Rebecca Solnit raises questions about equal pay, reproductive rights, parental leave, and dealing with abuse. I knew from personal experience what she was talking about. I was quite hopeless, thinking that society isn't improving in these areas. But Rebecca rightly observes that we often forget the journey society has taken to get where we are; that fifty years ago, things were far worse.
The third part, More Visions, reflects on our perception of change and encourages us to look further ahead. I really liked the notion that some people’s daily spending choices are conscious, yet the banks they use to store their money ruin the planet hundreds of times more.
While reading the essays, I kept wondering why the collection has this title. What’s the uniting puzzle? After finishing, I realized it’s about the many paths to solving the problems of our contemporary world—and that none of them lead directly to a happy-ever-after. In fact, the “happy-ever-after” we imagine may not exist, but that shouldn't stop us from striving toward something better. There is a better world, where people care for one another and the planet. There is hope. Powerful hope.
"The skills of real-world superheroes are solidarity, strategy, patience, persistence, vision, and the ability to inspire hope in others."
I would have given this book five stars if I had felt closer to the first part, so I gave it 4.5. I'm glad I picked it up.
Thank you to Haymarket Books for providing an advanced copy of No Straight Road Takes You There.
The collection opens with “A Truce With the Trees,” a reflection on violin production and how their value rises over the years. I didn’t know that this is due to the wood they’re made of. It's a stunning piece, highlighting ecological fragility, artistic endurance, and the power of craft.
There are three parts: Visions, Revisions, and More Visions.
Visions focuses more on politics and its influence on the ecological crisis we're facing. I wasn’t fond of this part because I feel somewhat distant from the political world. However, the other two parts—Revisions and More Visions—hit me directly in the heart.
I’m especially fond of Revisions, where Rebecca Solnit raises questions about equal pay, reproductive rights, parental leave, and dealing with abuse. I knew from personal experience what she was talking about. I was quite hopeless, thinking that society isn't improving in these areas. But Rebecca rightly observes that we often forget the journey society has taken to get where we are; that fifty years ago, things were far worse.
The third part, More Visions, reflects on our perception of change and encourages us to look further ahead. I really liked the notion that some people’s daily spending choices are conscious, yet the banks they use to store their money ruin the planet hundreds of times more.
While reading the essays, I kept wondering why the collection has this title. What’s the uniting puzzle? After finishing, I realized it’s about the many paths to solving the problems of our contemporary world—and that none of them lead directly to a happy-ever-after. In fact, the “happy-ever-after” we imagine may not exist, but that shouldn't stop us from striving toward something better. There is a better world, where people care for one another and the planet. There is hope. Powerful hope.
"The skills of real-world superheroes are solidarity, strategy, patience, persistence, vision, and the ability to inspire hope in others."
I would have given this book five stars if I had felt closer to the first part, so I gave it 4.5. I'm glad I picked it up.
Thank you to Haymarket Books for providing an advanced copy of No Straight Road Takes You There.
Despite it being a bit too positive for me, I really like the way Solnit thinks and writes. She tackles subjects that weigh on me as well and I really appreciate her thoughts and conclusions.
It does unfortunately have the bias of early 2020 and first years of the pandemic. Reading it now, knowing how everyone moved on and left vulnerable and disabled behind for the comforts of going back to 2019 puts those essays in perspective as I believe Solnit moved on just like almost everyone else. Things written at that time often turn quite sour when reading now and knowing the current science on the health damage being continuously done for the sake of forgetting it has ever happened. And so do Solnit’s essays on this particular subject.
There’s also a part that bothered me about mining rare minerals (cobalt) and how because it’s not as bad as mining coal it is therefore fine. And a sentence of a slight praise for Tesla for not using certain rare mineral in batteries. That really did not age well.
Despite all the negatives, I did get a lot out of reading it and it did remind me again that efforts of mutual aid and continued fight for the better world (or at least for my community) are worth it and doing that in my daily life is fighting the good fight.
What will stay with me the most is what she repeated in Credo “The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving”. That’s the driving point of this book and it’s a really strong and important one, despite how pessimistic my outlook is.
It does unfortunately have the bias of early 2020 and first years of the pandemic. Reading it now, knowing how everyone moved on and left vulnerable and disabled behind for the comforts of going back to 2019 puts those essays in perspective as I believe Solnit moved on just like almost everyone else. Things written at that time often turn quite sour when reading now and knowing the current science on the health damage being continuously done for the sake of forgetting it has ever happened. And so do Solnit’s essays on this particular subject.
There’s also a part that bothered me about mining rare minerals (cobalt) and how because it’s not as bad as mining coal it is therefore fine. And a sentence of a slight praise for Tesla for not using certain rare mineral in batteries. That really did not age well.
Despite all the negatives, I did get a lot out of reading it and it did remind me again that efforts of mutual aid and continued fight for the better world (or at least for my community) are worth it and doing that in my daily life is fighting the good fight.
What will stay with me the most is what she repeated in Credo “The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving”. That’s the driving point of this book and it’s a really strong and important one, despite how pessimistic my outlook is.
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
medium-paced