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kat_mayerovitch's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
A lovely book of reflections on the interactions between humans and nature.
kirstypotter's review
5.0
'I sail on the surface of understanding, a flicker here, a silence there.'
I fell completely in love with this book from the very first piece, where Jamie visits Iceland to see the Aurora Borealis. She writes with such sensitivity and emotion, and a quiet sort of passion. I wish I had her power of relating natural occurrences to moments in her own life, which creates threads of connections throughout this whole collection. I never knew I could enjoy a non-fiction book so much!
I fell completely in love with this book from the very first piece, where Jamie visits Iceland to see the Aurora Borealis. She writes with such sensitivity and emotion, and a quiet sort of passion. I wish I had her power of relating natural occurrences to moments in her own life, which creates threads of connections throughout this whole collection. I never knew I could enjoy a non-fiction book so much!
katspectre67's review
4.0
This is a delicate and beautiful book. The cover calls it essays, but that suggests a kind of formality that would be out of place. The rigour here is of a much more reflective and questioning kind. Its creative non-fiction, to incisive for a namby-pamby word like "reflection", too poetic and beautifully written for "reportage", but a long way from short story territory. Whatever it is, its lovely.
The only problem with the above is that it probably means people are less likely to pick it up off the shelf: my discovery was a gift. Subject matter wise, if you are the type who kneels in wet grass for half an hour to watch the life and death dramas of an otherwise bug, or are thrilled by the image of a fin in the water or humbled by the gravitas of a whale bone, then this is for you.
Highly recommended.
The only problem with the above is that it probably means people are less likely to pick it up off the shelf: my discovery was a gift. Subject matter wise, if you are the type who kneels in wet grass for half an hour to watch the life and death dramas of an otherwise bug, or are thrilled by the image of a fin in the water or humbled by the gravitas of a whale bone, then this is for you.
Highly recommended.
hramona's review
4.0
Such an enjoyable and warming read. If I could describe the way it was written, I feel it would be similar to the sounds of the sea. Very lovely.