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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Practically perfect ... except if you have an eye for it, there's little humbling the landscape as indigenous land, and yes, Shattuck does include Joe Polis's part in the trip to Allagesh, but it's the principle in the writing to show an indigenous perspective in sequence before Thoreau's walk. It's rather indicative of the straight, white cis-male author.
Which leads me to another issue.
Thoreau clearly had interest and yet no interest in human sexuality, and I don't understand why Shattuck treats Henry's paradoxes as a personal learned lesson. Yes, that's the point of the book, but at the same time, lay respect for complicated nuances of historical person's sexuality or lack thereof if they, like Thoreau, tightly yet loosely associate it to a greater state of being. There's a sense of a lack of ancestral respect in being so flippant that one chooses or wants, what people call now, an acesexual, pantheist lifestyle so someone centuries from now can find life in opposition to a life previously lived. Basically, an internalized, secular Christian-bred exceptionalism behavior many people, and even writers with or without contemporary privileges, tend to illuminate the most on paper. It's no one's fault but nature, human nature, Thoreau-observed.
Which leads me to another issue.
Thoreau clearly had interest and yet no interest in human sexuality, and I don't understand why Shattuck treats Henry's paradoxes as a personal learned lesson. Yes, that's the point of the book, but at the same time, lay respect for complicated nuances of historical person's sexuality or lack thereof if they, like Thoreau, tightly yet loosely associate it to a greater state of being. There's a sense of a lack of ancestral respect in being so flippant that one chooses or wants, what people call now, an acesexual, pantheist lifestyle so someone centuries from now can find life in opposition to a life previously lived. Basically, an internalized, secular Christian-bred exceptionalism behavior many people, and even writers with or without contemporary privileges, tend to illuminate the most on paper. It's no one's fault but nature, human nature, Thoreau-observed.
Ben Shattuck goes on a journey of healing as he follows Henry David Thoreau’s historic footsteps across the beaches of Cape Cod. This, right here, is my favorite kind of writing. The kind that wrings your heart, emptying you of all your feelings, and then fills you until you’re overflowing. The kind that leaves you all at the same time happy and sad. So glad to have read this book again at this point in my life.
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Just some beautiful Henry David Thoreau passages and the quest for self discovery
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
A quiet, lovely meditation on life and nature and values told through the frame of six walks taken over the course of a decade in the paths of Henry David Thoreau. I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook, and definitely recommend it to fans of short memoirs! So relaxing and hopeful, especially if you live in New England.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Blood
Minor: Sexual content
Beautiful, lyrical, reminiscent of Martin Shaw, though more earthen. Whenever I read books like this, I end up in the woods and this was no exception. Hoping to do some of these walks, but mostly I just hope to feel the world as deeply as Shattuck clearly does.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced