Rivera’s Recommendations For Your Summer Reading List

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The mesa sea world outside my door in Taos, NM.

It seems I am a voracious bonfire hungry for words these days. I consume them by the armload from the library, the used bookstore, the forgotten recesses of my shelves. Here’s a bit of illumination and warmth thrown back to you in my recommendations:

Barbara Kingsolver’s Small Wonder. Elegant essays, succinct and to the devastating point. She nails our relationship to our earth and to each other in ways that make you want to jump for joy and dive into activism at the same time.

Pablo Neruda’s Isla Negra: a notebook in the bilingual translation by Alastair Reid. At times a romance language brain twister, at other times a lyrical exposure to Spanish, his verses are always a relishing and refreshing romp through great intellect, soul, and beauty.

Joanna Macy’s World As Lover, World As Self. Ever want to redefine your relationship to life in general? This incredible living treasure, Joanna Macy, will guide you through environmental awakening and spiritual discovery with the precision of a ship captain through the rocky shoals of our contemporary world.

Jean Giono’s Second Harvest. Sensual, lush, and sparse all at the same time, Giono’s writing never fails to plunge you into your humanity, regal you with simpler times, and break your soul open to the slow return of life after a long hard winter. Short, and beautifully written, this book with its woodblock prints is a textual joy to read in print.

Enjoy! And send me your recommendations in return. I will read them among the green tomatoes of our garden and let all things ripen in their time. Rivera