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Apr 10, 2010

Shannonpresler rated it:

Every time I read Annie Dillard I become more responsible. In general. Her words are purposeful, she addresses sorrow, beauty and terror with nouns and adjectives that, if you aren't careful, look like every other noun and adjective you have ever read. But this isn't so. There is not a wasted syllable. Read about the Deer at Provenance, a story about a young fawn tied to a tree, resigning to the despair of its own death, and the people that circle around, quietly, and watch. And then read how sh More...

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Jan 24, 2010

Chris rated it:

Not my favorite, though there are wonderful moments here. She seems in "An Expedition to the Pole" to get wrong what she gets so right in For the Time Being. In the latter, she lays her examinations--internal and external--side-by-side and leaves us to connect. They resonate against one another and flare out into unexpected meanings. Here, she smashes her examinations of the lives of arctic explorers together with her impressions of a largely mundane Catholic service in a surreal m More...

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Dec 30, 2008

Stephen rated it:

It’s always good to visit with Annie.

“Teaching a Stone to Talk” is a collection of what Annie calls occasional pieces “such as a writer brings out to supplement his real work; instead this is my real work” from the early 1980s. It's bits and pieces, really. In the signature essay she visits a man who is trying to teach a stone—dark gray, beach cobble—to speak, not sentences but just simple words, an interesting scenario that leads to the lament that nature has gone silent. Can’t we ma More...

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Sep 17, 2010

Kony rated it:

If I love one thing about this book, it's Annie Dillard's bottomlessly curious spirit. If only her essays imparted this spirit with some vitality.

At times, Dillard's prose is exquisite, rapturous. And amidst her descriptions of nature, she interweaves philosophical musings that make you treasure your five senses and compel you to explore the world.

But here's the thing with Annie Dillard's writing here: nothing happens.

I enjoyed "Living Like Weasels," More...

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Sep 13, 2009

John rated it:

This is another wonderful collection of essays from Annie Dillard--carefully observed, primarily oriented around nature, and at times, surprisingly poignant. One of the things I like most about Dillard is her ability to see the mystery in all things. She realizes through her observations of the world that there's more going on than just what we see on the surface. The creature or created thing echo and reflect their Creator.

The earliest essays in this collection are the best, with Li More...

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Oct 23, 2011

Devon rated it:

Another delicious read! Some favorite quotes:

-The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse. This is yielding, not fighting. (16)

-Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God is so mighty he can stifle his own laughter. Week after week, we witness the same miracle: that God, for reasons unfathomable, refrains from blowing our dancing bear act to smithereens. Week after More...

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Aug 02, 2011

Scot added it

Annie Dillard is an amazing nature writer who not only focuses on the amazing places, creatures and phenomena of the world but also uses her experiences with nature as a bridge to the self and the community. A simple stream can untangle life's problems or a solar eclipse can expose the raw and true nature of self or re-visiting an old place can draw forth the lessons and paths we have walked to this point. I can not recommend this collection highly enough if you have either the slightest bit o More...

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Jan 17, 2009

Tricia rated it:

This is a book of essays: some reflective, mostly descriptive. Sometimes I was reading and thinking, "What the hell is she talking about?" But, it's worth it to keep reading because there are phrases and paragraphs that are just golden:

From "Total Eclipse": "The mind—the culture—has two little tools, grammar and lexicon: a decorated sand bucket and a matching shovel."

From "An Expedition to the Pole": "It all seems a pit at firs More...

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Mar 16, 2009

Stephen rated it:

I remember the last time I read Annie Dillard. It was Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, which was making a sensation at the time (1974). Her prose was strong, I thought, and her observations trenchant. But her tendency to go overboard in making a point felt like someone trying too hard. The only passage to stick in my mind from that long-ago reading concerned her amazement at the unthinkable speeds with which the Earth is simultaneously rotating on its axis, orbiting the Sun, and moving with the rest of More...

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Nov 20, 2011

Marcia rated it:

Metaphors between nature and life- wow. Liked the story-'Lenses'- the microscope & binoculars

p. 159 Story- Aces and Eights
…In all the history of the world it has never been so late.
p. 164 The child is riding her bicycle up the hill. I stand and look around; the thick summer foliage blocks the road from view. I turn back towards the river and hear playing cards slap in the spokes. They click and slap slowly, for the hill is steep. Now the pushing grows suddenly easi More...

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May 01, 2011

Jenn rated it:

In this series of essays from Annie Dillard, though herself having moved through several views of God and incarnation, nature is given a newly examined status. It was, again, enlightening. Sometimes poetic, sometimes ridiculous. I love going back to reread what I had underlined years before and seeing with forgetful eyes what I had once found unbelievable and profound.

This book of essays will always be dear to me because of a very good friend in college. Every Thursday for a semester, More...

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Dec 19, 2010

Janice rated it:

I love Annie Dillard's amazement at the natural world, and her wonderful descriptiveness. In this collection of essays, written from many different parts of the globe, she moves from musings about polar expeditions, to swimming among sea lions in the Galapagos Islands, to studying a river in Virginia, and then watching an eclipse in the Cascades of Washington. Some of my favorite lines are in a section titled "Sojourner", which tells of the mangrove trees as they build their own soil More...

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Mar 11, 2011

Derek rated it:

Annie Dillard’s "Teaching a Stone to Talk" starts with an author’s note that struck me the wrong way: “At any rate, this is not a collection of occasional pieces, such as a writer brings out to supplement his real work; instead this is my real work, such as it is.” It’s as if Dillard is saying, “I’m not like those other writers who publish for the sake of publishing. This collection isn’t some hodge-podge, slap-dash, last-minute schlock you can find elsewhere; it is a divinely-inspired More...

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Dec 21, 2009

Janet rated it:

It's only appropriate that my favorite in these essays of expeditions and encounters by another of my beloved writers (raised in Pittsburgh as was I), "Total Eclipse," takes place in the Yakima valley of Washington, where Raymond Carver spent his early years. In this essay, Dillard magnificently details the adventure she and her husband had travelling from their home on the coast to watch the mystery of one celestial object move into the shadow of another. Afterward, over breakfast in More...

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Mar 14, 2009

Maggie rated it:

This was the first Annie Dillard book I read. I fell in love immediately! Dillard has a way with words which will entrance, mesmerize, amuse, intrigue, and capture the reader. Her vast knowledge and relentless curiosity about this world and the universe empower the reader with a sense of awe and wonder. I dogeared so many pages and underlined so many passages that I might as well have just underlined and dogeared the entire thing! I shall revisit Teaching A Stone To Talk and Pilgrim At Tinker More...

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Oct 08, 2008

David rated it:

"Now we are no longer primitive. Now the whole world seems not holy.....We as a people have moved from pantheism to pan-atheism...It is difficult to undo our own damage and to recall to our presence that which we have asked to leave. It is hard to desecrate a grove and change your mind. We doused the burning bush and cannot rekindle it. We are lighting matches in vain under every green tree. Did the wind used to cry and hills shout forth praise? Now speech has perished from among the More...

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Apr 30, 2008

Peter rated it:

On my second round through this book, so I suppose it may be worth others' time. It's a compelling series of mostly disconnected articles about the author's experiences at various places and times of her life and what meaning she sees in them.

I think there are a couple quotes that overall define the general theme of the collection.

The first comes from the chapter Total Eclipse:

"The mind wants to live forever, or to learn a very good reason why not. The mi More...

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Dec 09, 2008

Julia rated it:

I've read most of Dillard's work, but this thin volume of essays and PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK are the only ones that have stayed with me. The short essays in this book once again show the power Dillard has to weave language--as a former English teacher, I'm in awe just at her sentence structure! More important is how her awe about nature shines through--"Total Eclipse" gives me goosebumps, and the title essay is one of the best I've ever read.

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Aug 12, 2011

Wally rated it:

A good collection of 14 essays, or expeditions and encounters, as the subtitle says. Some are short and others are long. Some are observations of nature, others of society. The best one, to my mind, is the opener, which details her experience of a total solar eclipse that occurred in Eastern Washington in 1977. Dillard conveys the awesomeness and awe-fullness of the event beautifullly. She also has a great essay on mirages in Puget Sound.

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Jul 16, 2010

Kevin rated it:

I fell for Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek", and I fell hard. Next, I devoured "The Living" and "The Maytrees", entranced by her accomplishments in fiction nearly as much as I had been with 'Pilgrim'. However, "Teaching a Stone to Talk", while true to her form, left me somewhat unsatisfied. I wanted more of the shorter pieces, especially those written during her visit to the Napo River in Amazonia, and found some of the other pieces less enticing. I sho More...

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Oct 21, 2008

Robertisenberg rated it:

Annie Dillard is, unquestionably, one of the greatest nonfiction writers ever to live, and this, so far as I can tell, is one of her greatest books. I actually enjoyed it more than "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," perhaps because the essays are a little more manageable, like relaxedly eating a bunch of your favorite cookies instead of an entire Black Forest Cake. The opening essay, about a total eclipse of the sun, remains my favorite, because it demonstrates Dillard's style through her most More...

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Dec 10, 2011

Josh rated it:

I plugged away through this collection of essays for the better part of a year. It was really enjoyable this way. Some evolutionary nonsense here and there, but overall, a really great collection. Dillard gets at the "emotion[s] of awe, and ... the force of the immaterial" (Boston Globe's review) that we experience in nature if we're curious enough to slow down and pay attention.

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Jun 29, 2007

Leah rated it:

More global in span than Dillard's other famous works( Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, An American Childhood), yet still incredibly personal, Teaching a Stone to Talk is a worthy member of this incredible writer's body of work.

The book is made up of a series of shorts covering a range of places and topics including the Amazon, Artic Expeditions, Puget Sound and a cabin in the woods. It is in the essays closer to home, particularly the titular piece and "Aces and Eights," that I More...

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May 04, 2009

Taylor rated it:

Annie Dillard has an interesting way of interpreting the details of life. Her observations are thought-provoking, insightful, and sometimes very funny.

This book was a little too heavy on the life philosophy at times, but that's more of a reflection of my current state of mind (overstimulated by school and work) than the author. I definitely think I could get more out of this at another stage in life, especially a pronounced period of self-reflection.

I also recommend Dil More...

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Jun 05, 2011

Sarah rated it:

I started out reading this book rather skeptically, and while there were stories I didn't enjoy and some I didn't fully understand, by the end of the book I was so glad I'd taken the time to give Annie Dillard another try. She has a real way with words and a talent for creating atmospheres through her words. I can lose myself in her descriptions of an evening on the Puget Sound, a day spent deep in the jungles of Ecuador, or an evening in New England. Well worth reading!

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Nov 25, 2009

Roberto rated it:

This is a book of short personal essays by Annie Dillard. It really blurs the line between poetry and non-fiction and is a good example of the art of an essayist. Her descriptions of the north pole and Galapogos are amazing. Her style seems to meander but always returns full circle and the journey is as wonderful as her destinations.

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Jun 11, 2008

Nate rated it:

Never thought I'd give an Annie Dillard less than 5 (or 6 or 7) stars, but this one didn't speak to me quite as much as Pilgrim at Tinker Creek or Holy the Firm or even The Maytrees. Perhaps it's because I'm still in my twenties and see the world from an awestruck perspective (a la Pilgrim) while Dillard has moved on to contemplating her own mortality and the swift passage of time. She also seems out of her element writing about her time in the Amazon and the Galapagos Islands. She just writes b More...

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Jan 08, 2009

Sarah rated it:

My FAVORITE gift to give to introduce people to Annie Dillard. Her writing is detrenched in thoughtfulness that evokes a rich visual feast and a sense of personal responsibility to live life more awake. This book sits on my guest nightstand next to Anis Nin.....gotta give your guests a diverse choice of ways to fall asleep.

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Apr 09, 2009

Brandy rated it:

I really loved this book, much more than Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (which I also liked). It is short stories, which is a new genre for me, and I'm thinking I'm going to have to read more. Similar to Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, the general theme centers on the natural world. My favorite story was Total Eclipse about her experience watching a total solar eclipse. Amazing! I won't do it justice here, you just need to read it. I've made it a life goal to see one at some point.

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Mar 17, 2008

Ruth rated it:

Annie Dillard is a great essayist. When I read the first essay in this book, which was about a solar eclipse, I was all ready to give it five stars. It was amazing. But there was a kind of lull in the essays in the middle of the book, the ones about the Galapagos. I'm interested in the Galapagos, but the essays somehow weren't as magical as the earlier ones. The last essay regained my interest, though, so overall, the book is recommended. This author has a way of mixing observations of nat More...

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