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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
it's so vivid and beautiful! seamlessly and gracefully weaving together discussions of nature, emotions, mental health, autism (including also having autistic siblings) and climate change, this book was a real delight to read. mcanulty is so witty and a beautiful writer and it's absolutely incredible that he was able to write something so wonderful whilst still so young (though of course not surprising as autistic folks of all ages are some of the best writers I know). I really like how he shows that his activism is grounded in his love for nature and springs from that, instead of just being wrapped up in fears and thoughts and facts and intellectualism; it is a real, emotional and personal connection that you feel intimately with. in my opinion, this leads to some of the most sustainable climate activism.
This book was the most amazing surprise to me. I picked it up because it won the Wainwright Prize this year, it's a nature book, and it's written by an Irish writer. The other thing that intrigued me was that he was 13 when he started writing it.
And you wouldn't think it was written by a teenager, because it's so incredibly lyrical and poetic. The opening pages had me hooked, and then I was so drawn in by Dara's family, his difficulties as an autistic person, and his soul-deep love of nature.
Nature really grounds him, and it's lovely to read about him having that outlet, as well as how his family support him, particularly his mother, who, along with his siblings, is also autistic.
This is such an adventurous, loving family, accepting each other in every way. It's so nice to read.
The way Dara writes about nature is incredibly moving. You can feel the peace and sense of home he gets from it, but also the anger and worry he feels about climate change. Being in nature is Dara's way of processing things and decompressing from the difficulties of being non-neurotypical in a world that still doesn't understand or make allowances for that fully.
He finished this book just as he was turning fifteen, and he's already won a prestigious award for his writing. It will be so interesting to see what he writes next. I will definitely be following his next steps.
And you wouldn't think it was written by a teenager, because it's so incredibly lyrical and poetic. The opening pages had me hooked, and then I was so drawn in by Dara's family, his difficulties as an autistic person, and his soul-deep love of nature.
Nature really grounds him, and it's lovely to read about him having that outlet, as well as how his family support him, particularly his mother, who, along with his siblings, is also autistic.
This is such an adventurous, loving family, accepting each other in every way. It's so nice to read.
The way Dara writes about nature is incredibly moving. You can feel the peace and sense of home he gets from it, but also the anger and worry he feels about climate change. Being in nature is Dara's way of processing things and decompressing from the difficulties of being non-neurotypical in a world that still doesn't understand or make allowances for that fully.
He finished this book just as he was turning fifteen, and he's already won a prestigious award for his writing. It will be so interesting to see what he writes next. I will definitely be following his next steps.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
WOW!!
Much has been said in other reviews about this amazing book, so I won't dwell too much on eulogising the absolute beauty and rawness of the writing.
Instead this is a personal comment on my reading of the last few weeks and the strange synergy between three books. I started with "Living mountain" by Nan Shepherd, which was the first book for a long while that really made me thirst for wild places. I did not think I would read a book so soon that would top its raw wonder and observation of nature, but Dara's book flowed along the same sparkling brook into magical places.
Then I read "Kindred" by Rebecca Wragg Sykes about what the current thinking about Neanderthals is. the book showed them to be a much more complex and fascinating species. One of the clues to their sense of wonderment were hints of bird wings at their sites.
Dara, talks often of his kindred, other people who are fascinated by wildlife and who he feels comfortable with. Being Autistic it is not easy for him or his family to fathom the brutality of Homo sapiens stomping around their wonder filled world.
It is hard not to see Dara and his remarkable family as some sort of new branch of our homind family which has evolved to live in a dying world and help heal it. People who can feel the deep pain and make sense of it, that normal consumers completely miss as they pillage and live mere existences of independent bleakness.
He and his siblings have ecstatic hugs, dances and other explosions of activity when they meet wonder. He feels the deep connection to the past when visiting and delights in the beauty of our native language. The family measure trees in hugs and delights in the sensation of contact with the earth.
Neanderthal like, the shear wonder of birds wings and feathers leave traces of a bottomless sense of loss several times in the book. Blanid's joy over finding a jays feather and despair over losing it a moment later, a thread joining us no doubt over 100,000s of years to our neanderthal forebears.
What an absolute beautiful and remarkable family. Thanks Dara for sharing your wonderment and its flip side the sense of despair brought on by venal stupidity of an immature arrogant species. Hopefully you and your generation of eco healers will move us to a higher plain of evolution. So that someday our descendants will look on exhibits of Homo Consumer only to remind them of the horror of the time before the new age of wonder and deep meaning.
Much has been said in other reviews about this amazing book, so I won't dwell too much on eulogising the absolute beauty and rawness of the writing.
Instead this is a personal comment on my reading of the last few weeks and the strange synergy between three books. I started with "Living mountain" by Nan Shepherd, which was the first book for a long while that really made me thirst for wild places. I did not think I would read a book so soon that would top its raw wonder and observation of nature, but Dara's book flowed along the same sparkling brook into magical places.
Then I read "Kindred" by Rebecca Wragg Sykes about what the current thinking about Neanderthals is. the book showed them to be a much more complex and fascinating species. One of the clues to their sense of wonderment were hints of bird wings at their sites.
Dara, talks often of his kindred, other people who are fascinated by wildlife and who he feels comfortable with. Being Autistic it is not easy for him or his family to fathom the brutality of Homo sapiens stomping around their wonder filled world.
It is hard not to see Dara and his remarkable family as some sort of new branch of our homind family which has evolved to live in a dying world and help heal it. People who can feel the deep pain and make sense of it, that normal consumers completely miss as they pillage and live mere existences of independent bleakness.
He and his siblings have ecstatic hugs, dances and other explosions of activity when they meet wonder. He feels the deep connection to the past when visiting and delights in the beauty of our native language. The family measure trees in hugs and delights in the sensation of contact with the earth.
Neanderthal like, the shear wonder of birds wings and feathers leave traces of a bottomless sense of loss several times in the book. Blanid's joy over finding a jays feather and despair over losing it a moment later, a thread joining us no doubt over 100,000s of years to our neanderthal forebears.
What an absolute beautiful and remarkable family. Thanks Dara for sharing your wonderment and its flip side the sense of despair brought on by venal stupidity of an immature arrogant species. Hopefully you and your generation of eco healers will move us to a higher plain of evolution. So that someday our descendants will look on exhibits of Homo Consumer only to remind them of the horror of the time before the new age of wonder and deep meaning.
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Death, Suicidal thoughts
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
A personal journey as well as a nature story. Growing up with Autism and applying tremendous depth of interest in the natural world, birding and ultimately collective environmental action. Beautifully descriptive and well narrated.