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dfarmil's review against another edition
4.0
A bit science writing and a bit adventure writing. Engaging and educational. I also feel that this book really expresses how sacred the desert is to Craig, and how he has dedicated much of his life to knowing and even attempting to memorize the water within its landscape.
orcus_vanth's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Read this cover-to-cover while staying in the Grand Canyon. Surreal and humbling.
bristlecone's review against another edition
4.0
Child's telling of water tracking in the desert southwest reads as a combination of scientific inquiry and adventure novel. His explanation of natural phenomena is clear and interesting and his sharing of stories and knowledge from the indigenous peoples is enlightening. This book made me wonder how I could get a job tracking water in the desert southwest; and reinforced my understanding that sustainable living in the desert southwest is not about transforming the desert by adding water, it is about transforming our understanding and use of water.
mkupfer's review against another edition
5.0
I write this review as I continue a journey from the high desert of the Mojave to the Vermillion Cliffs, where Buckskin Gulch will be where I seek out these cisterns of water and air. Childs writes in a chilling, poetic and simple way that echoes down and reverberates. I am now proceeding to devour the rest of his words that I can find.
msgtdameron's review
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
This is more a love poem to water rather than a book about water and the desert. There is just enough science so it's a non-fiction work. But Childs has a love affair with desert water; from rain filled rock bowls of water, to small seeps that drip at a drop a second to all day to fill a one quart water bottle, to small streams that come and go. These small streams sometimes run all year this year and the next don't run at all. Some run each day from dusk till dawn. Some run every year but disappear after only a few mile or a few tens of meters. Then Childs talks about floods and the desert. Floods can and do kill each time the wash, arour, stream, or dry bed floods. It is in the flood chapters that one see's how abusive Childs relationship with water is. Until he talks of floods he seems a very conscientious and driven scientist. He loves finding water and writing about his finds. Going into the water and feeling it. The different tastes of wild water. Following streams to there heads and then climbing into the cave they spring from. Following the oral histories of the native tribes about where and what each stream and it's spirits flow from and where they go. All of this is described as a lover/poet rather than a scientist. Then comes floods and we read and see that this relationship is really abusive. The chapters on floods show a man almost being killed by two different floods but he says he will continue back to chase those flood waters. (The second flood story is the Epilogue and the flood almost kills Childs again. ) Childs lives in an abusive relationship with his lover. He will chase her across miles and miles of desert and when she gets to violent he stays and lives with her violence. Just as an abused man or women stays with their abuser. It's love and it can be romantic and very passionate, but if he is not careful she will kill him. One day he will be a half second slow and end up as the victims of the Bright Angel flood that he writes about. Great read.
unseen_sonder's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
inthecommonhours's review against another edition
A gift from Al & Ali when we left Oregon. Really enjoyed what I read, so I need to return to it.
mattstebbins's review against another edition
5.0
I wasn't sure what to expect, based on what other Childs I'd read, and I think I'm glad for that. No expectation could have prepared me for the combination of lyricism and science, of prose poetry and succinct description. Nor could I have adequately prepared for how it forced me to see places I'd long ago considered homes in a new way, to better understand them and the dynamics of water at play.
This is certainly a work I'll come back to, and one I want to keep processing.
[5 stars for air, sun, sand—and especially water.]
This is certainly a work I'll come back to, and one I want to keep processing.
[5 stars for air, sun, sand—and especially water.]