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Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver
4.0
inspiring reflective fast-paced
This collection of essays, which I bought half for the author and half for the cover let's be honest, stems from Mary Oliver's deep-rooted love for the natural world. She casts a wonder-filled gaze around here and notices the minutiae of animal & vegetal life with a delight that is quite communicative, and interlaces her observations with thoughts on creativity in general and writing in particular. Some essays are dedicated to writers she admires (Emerson, Poe, Wordsworth, Whitman), blending the factual with her personal reading of their works. I think Mary Oliver could write about almost anything and make it an enjoyable experience, but I did have a hard time with her descriptions of animal pain & death and her reverence for a writer who married his 13-year-old cousin. 
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