Rebecca's comments (member since Jul 11, 2007)

Rebecca's comments from the Nature Calls group.

Hey all,

In case you're interested, advanced copies of my memoir, LIFT are up in the giveaways section.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67929...

Best!

Rebecca

Susan,

I would highly recommend Mark Obasmick's "The Big Year" if you haven't read it. It's about the people who compete for who can see the most birds in a year. Real life...stranger than fiction.

R

Dan O'Brien's Rites of Autumn is excellent and I would start there if you can find the book. I think Bodio's book would be tough to find or I'd start there.

Readily available is Falconer on the Edge, which is also excellent.

Wondering how many people besides myself (and I'm a falconer, so it probably isn't a fair question) have read more than one book on falconry as nature and if they have any favorites.

These two have come in the last 12 months:
Falconer on the Edge - Dickenson
Falcon Fever - Gallagher

And these titles are older:
A Rage for Falcons - Bodio
Fledgling Days - Ford
Equinox - O'Brien
Rites of Autumn - O'Brien
The Goshawk - T.H. White

Anyone reading any great books that came out this year that they would like to share?

As the year wraps up...Thoughts anyone??

This is great, Scott, thanks!! I was just thinking that someone whould do that exact thing for all of us Grays rejects.

I'm not a flyfisherman and yet my all time favorite nature book (novella) is "A River Runs Through It." It's the book I hold all my nature writing up to (and find it lacking.)

Have at it! :)

Great idea requiring more energy than I've had to invest lately. :-) THANKS!

I have read the updated version (after reading the first version), met Mr. Louv and have Cheryl Charles the president of the Children and Nature Network coming out to speak to our Girl Scout Council. Although not an educator(I'm a director of development)that's how profoundly the book affected the way I think about environmental education. I think it's amazingly thought provoking, provides simple solutions and really does make quite a case for the reasons we should implement these solutions. I would be interested to hear if the book influences any changes at your school or in your classroom!

Tom: I consider blogs a fantastic platform for ultimately creating a book. The memoir I wrote in grad school about my first season with a peregrine couldn't have been written without the blog I kept that season.

Blogs are a great way to find good nature-writing as well. I follow quite a few that focus on falconry, working dogs and other outdoor passions. And many of these writers have become friends I've met in person. I feel very fortunate to fancy myself a nature writer in a time like this! Good luck with your blog and the book that will follow!

This is an excerpt (very short) from my falconry memoir, LIFT, which is pending publication from Red Hen Press.

http://narrativemagazine.com/content/htm...

Narrative is a great online magazine and often has writing by Rick Bass, who is a nature writer I admire a great deal.

Anyone else have some writing that has been published online to share??

I work as Director of Development for a Girl Scout Council in Southern California and although I read avidly on all sides of the nature spectrum, I would say that my focus leans toward books that demonstrate how participating in nature changes us for the better. It's not that I shun crusader books. It's just that I'm very clear on how I'm currently best positioned to make a difference. My best shot is to get kids to feel a sense of wonder and then ownership of even a tiny slice of wild. First children must discover and then connect. From here, they will be the next crusaders. My bigger fear is that so many children are so far removed from even playing in the dirt in their own backyards that this next generation won't feel the ownership that we do. Books play a huge part in this as well. So I read books that focus on nature and are readable to children as well.

I have been thinking a lot about "Last Child in the Woods" and "Biophilia". I have been remembering how much "Bambi" -- by Felix Salton, not Disney's bastardized version-- had an impact on me as a child.

As for this forum-- I just figured it was a place to see what everyone else was reading that got them fired up about nature, the environment, the wilderness. Doesn't make a difference what. We can all decide for ourselves if we wish to read it, but at least I'll have the opportunity to find out about the book. :-)

I just noticed that Lance has added a handful of books and each of them screams to be added to my stack. More books, anyone?

Sorry I think I erased your post with all the Ecotone information when I was battling my own multiple posts. Can you repost it, Nance?

I do like the journal. So much of my writing focuses on place. I always get rejected right away though.

Another cool journal is Isotope. It leans more scientific but is literary. There isn't much like it out there.

Riverteeth is another good choice.

Okay, I'm starting to feel like I'm rifling through my rejection slips. I'll stop now. (How depressing!)

Oh yes--- their little slips of rejection are definitely in the stack pinned to my bulletin board. I keep trying though...

That sounds like a great book, Nance! Guess I'm off to ABE Books.... and back. I should have it soon. :-) (This site is bad for my bank account)

I DO love Annie Proulx. I read Bad Dirt just recently. I actually scoffed at "Truck - A Love Story" when a professor offered in in a stack of memoirs. But perhaps I should give it a chance...

Yes! I do need to pick up some Aldo Leopold and refresh my memory. I just read "Out Stealing Horses" by Per Petterson which is fiction, but has absolutely phenomenal landscape. Norway works nearly as a character in the book and that itself (and there's more reasons) made the book worth reading.

If I have to look back and think on what got me started loving nature-centric books, I suppose it would be Kipling's "Kim" and Hemingway's "Old Man in the Sea". Of course, there are more modern books that I love as well. What about you? (and be sure to add books to the bookshelf)