Reviews

We Loved It All: A Memory of Life by Lydia Millet

emzireads's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

joannema7's review

emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.25

hrk's review

I hate this writing style. Authors use complete sentences 2024 challenge. 

inkreads's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

We Loved It All - A Memory of Life written by Lydia Millet and narrated by Xe Sands is a fascinating collection of essays that are part memoir, part observation about the natural world around us

Xe Sands has a beautiful voice which is perfect for this audiobook, gentle, insightful and clearly with a deep empathy for the content. Perfect

The book is a deeply personal account and this is reflected in the narrative. It is a celebration of Millets family and her beginnings on the road of conservationist. It is a record of species already extinct and of those on the brink. It is an absolutely fascinating listen and a more gentle approach to raising awareness of a very, very important issue

Thank you very much to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, the author Lydia Millet and narrator Xe Sands for this illuminating and heartfelt ALC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

amywoolsey_93's review

informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

Millet's directness in We Loved It All is a breath of fresh air after the bland ambivalence of her most recent novel, Dinosaurs. Compiling miscellaneous facts, memories, and musings into a book that reads simultaneously like one long essay and a series of journal entries, she lays out the web of exploitation that forms industrialized civilization with damning clarity, revealing how intricately linked humans are with nature even as technology creates an increasingly impenetrable illusion of separation. Regardless of whether you buy into her anthropomorphic views of "the beasts" or her spiritual digressions, Millet's passion is undeniable. This is the work of a lifetime.

shmole's review

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

4.5

An established fiction writer's first work of non-fiction can be hit or miss; exploring new things is always challenging. Despite this hurdle, Millet is able to view the world for all its nonsensical exuberance, beauty, and intricacies, and makes you realize just how fantastic our planet is. Her curiosity is immeasurable and the way she links motherhood, climate change, and her love of the natural world is breathtaking. If you speak to plants and animals like an equal other - read this book. If you are confused and saddened by the loss of our planet's biodiversity - read this book. If you are looking for a light in the dark - read this book. 

soapiewater's review

dark emotional funny hopeful slow-paced

4.25

readermeginco's review

5.0

This book is SO good! It's probably best described as a book of essays, but they're more personal than that. Millet weaves together stories around conservation issues, childhood, and motherhood. Because I am not a mother, I thought the motherhood angle might put me off (it usually does), but it didn't at all - in fact, just the opposite, really, because of the way she melds the reminiscences of her childhood with stories of her own children. If anything, this book helped me appreciate motherhood in a way I never have. The closest comparison I can make about her conservation writing is Terry Tempest Williams because its deeply personal as Terry's is. As a fan of her fiction, I also loved her writing about herself as a writer. So, it's essays, it's memoir, it's environmental writing, and it's beautifully, brilliantly written. Wow.