Best known as the founder of Hull House, a community center in Chicago for immigrants and other marginalized people, Jane Addams was also a forceful tBest known as the founder of Hull House, a community center in Chicago for immigrants and other marginalized people, Jane Addams was also a forceful thinker about social issues. This slender volume, first published in 1902, gathers a series of her lectures, all guided by a belief that American society was shifting from an individualistic ethic to a social one—as exemplified by the formation of trade unions, the settlement house movement, and socialist politics. Alas, her hopeful call for the evolution of a genuinely democratic ethic, one that emphasizes the common good over personal greed, makes for melancholy reading in 2020. Advertising, social media, global capitalism, and rule by plutocrats have combined to reinforce a self-centered ethic, elevating private wealth over public good, and undermining any sense that we all bear a responsibility to care for one another and for our shared world. ...more
The roughly 260 brief selections in this slender book are drawn mostly from Merton's journals, ranging from 1939, two years before he entered the AbbeThe roughly 260 brief selections in this slender book are drawn mostly from Merton's journals, ranging from 1939, two years before he entered the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, to 1968, the year of his death. Rather than present the selections chronologically, which would have illustrated the evolution of his thought about nature, the book is organized by topics—rain, forests, mountains, birds, butterflies, etc. For such a small volume, the editor provides a long introduction, with much emphasis on the Catholic sources of Merton’s views of nature, a short acknowledgment of the influence from Zen Buddhism, and scant attention to his sources in the American nature writing tradition. In all of his writings, Merton seems to me most eloquent and persuasive when he is least concerned with translating his experiences into the language of a particular religion. Still, even at his most doctrinaire, Merton’s words reflect a mind and heart keenly attuned to the living world. ...more
Book by book, Maurice Manning is building up one of the most substantial and consequential bodies of work in contemporary poetry. Through six previousBook by book, Maurice Manning is building up one of the most substantial and consequential bodies of work in contemporary poetry. Through six previous volumes, including Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions (2001), winner of the Yale Younger Poets Prize, The Common Man (2010), and One Man's Dark (2017), he has explored his own personal roots in rural Kentucky and the cultural roots of our nation. Drawing on the earthy language of Appalachia, in books such as Bucolics (2007) and The Gone and the Going Away (2013), he has given voice to people who rarely appear in literature, and yet who grapple, as we all must, with the mysteries of love and loss and death. In Railsplitter (2020) he pays tribute to Abraham Lincoln, one of those who, except for a rare gift of spirit and verbal talent, might have remained among the forgotten. Lincoln was born and spent his early years in Manning's own region of Kentucky, and in these pages the assassinated president speaks from beyond the grave, in a voice sometimes melancholy, sometimes wry, and much preoccupied with the arts of reading and writing. In Manning's imagination, "Honest Abe Lincoln" appears to be as much of a poet as a politician. The meeting of these two minds makes for powerful drama. ...more
Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize, Girl, Woman, Other is an ambitious, engaging book, deserving of the wide attention it has received. But it is not so Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize, Girl, Woman, Other is an ambitious, engaging book, deserving of the wide attention it has received. But it is not so much a novel as a series of loosely overlapping character portraits, which collectively demonstrate that racial, ethnic, and gender categories are illusory, that we all belong to one great human family. Evaristo relies heavily on narrative summary, compressing years or decades of a given individual's life into a few pages, so we encounter a large cast of characters but never come to know any of them in great depth. This strategy of summarizing rather than dramatizing lends a sociological feel to the book, as if the author set out to present a cross-section of multicultural and fluidly-gendered contemporary England. The resulting survey is interesting, often lively, sometimes funny, but never--for this reader--deeply moving. ...more
An engaging collection by an Oregon poet with an eye to nature's beauties, human foibles, and the humor lurking in ordinary things. An engaging collection by an Oregon poet with an eye to nature's beauties, human foibles, and the humor lurking in ordinary things. ...more
The animal rights and anti-hunting lectures were heartfelt, but strident; the astrology grew tedious, and bore no relationship to the plot. The surpriThe animal rights and anti-hunting lectures were heartfelt, but strident; the astrology grew tedious, and bore no relationship to the plot. The surprise ending depended on the author suppressing crucial information--what was depicted in a photograph that alarmed the narrator early on--and on the use of an unreliable narrator. Most appealing was the rendering of the rural Polish setting and the characterization of the quirky narrator. ...more
I was disappointed by this sequel to Saramago's superb Blindness. While Seeing employs the sparsely punctuated dialogue, convoluted syntax, and quirkyI was disappointed by this sequel to Saramago's superb Blindness. While Seeing employs the sparsely punctuated dialogue, convoluted syntax, and quirky omniscient narrator for which the Portuguese Nobel Laureate is justly celebrated, it lacks the visceral immediacy and profound reflections on human nature that characterize the earlier novel. Too many pages are devoted to scenes demonstrating the power struggles among government officials, the logistics of policing, the search for taxis and restaurants. When the plot runs out of momentum, as it does midway through, a bomb explodes in the metro station, killing dozens of people and setting things in motion once more. The bad guys are two-dimensional villains. The good guys and gals are few and far between. The only character examined in any depth is a police superintendent who refuses to comply with orders to frame an innocent person, but even he seems more like an allegorical figure than a complex a human being. Saramago's satire is directed at corrupt government leaders, cruel cops, and cowardly citizens--all easy targets. As in Blindness, so in Seeing, a few individuals stand out as honest, courageous, and compassionate. In the later novel, however, they are eventually crushed by the giant machine of organized power. Popular resistance stirs; authoritarianism triumphs. ...more
A brilliant allegory about a plague of blindness that spreads through an unnamed city, causing the army to mutiny, the government to collapse, and theA brilliant allegory about a plague of blindness that spreads through an unnamed city, causing the army to mutiny, the government to collapse, and the social contract to fray. Supplies of food and water and electricity cease, along with basic services such as sanitation and communication. As society breaks down, so do most moral constraints, leading to widespread looting, betrayals, murders, and rapes. The dead are abandoned to rot in the streets and be devoured by dogs. Amid the ruins, however, one small group—led by a woman who has, inexplicably, maintained her eyesight—bands together and survives, witnessing to the human capacity for caring and cooperation even in dire circumstances. The Portuguese title, Ensaio sobre a Cegueira, translates as Essay on Blindness. And the novel bears some of the qualities of an essay, as if Saramago were running a thought experiment, to envision how humans might react in the absence of a functioning society. There are clear parallels in this regard with other classic literary treatments of epidemics, such as Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year and Albert Camus’s The Plague. One quality that distinguishes Blindness is a compassionate narrative consciousness that broods over the whole novel, clearly siding with what Abraham Lincoln called the better angels of our nature, even while acknowledging our potential for savagery. ...more
My wife, Ruth, and I read poems aloud to one another after supper each evening. Of the many poets whose work rewards such reading, none delights us moMy wife, Ruth, and I read poems aloud to one another after supper each evening. Of the many poets whose work rewards such reading, none delights us more than Ted Kooser. We were excited by the arrival of his new collection, Red Stilts, published this month, September 2020, in a beautiful hardcover edition by Copper Canyon Press. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for an earlier book and two-term U.S. Poet Laureate, Kooser is a lucid, eloquent observer of the ordinary world: people glimpsed from a car, storm clouds rolling across the plains, a red fox surprised on a gravel road, the streets and stores of midwestern towns, farm trucks loaded with tools, births and burials, friends and frogs, birds and bread. He sees and ponders what others pass over. Rich with memories from eight decades of living, aware of gifts as well as losses, he is unassumingly wise. If you like poetry, you will love this book. If you think poetry is too fussy or obscure, give Ted Kooser a try, and he will open your eyes....more
I wouldn't post such a low rating and dismissive review for a book by a living writer, not wanting to discourage him or her. But F. Scott Fitzgerald wI wouldn't post such a low rating and dismissive review for a book by a living writer, not wanting to discourage him or her. But F. Scott Fitzgerald won't be affected by my observing that these early stories, first published in book form in 1922, are shallow and clumsy. They strive too hard for humor, dwell too much on money and booze. The characters are two-dimensional, and they are often mocked by Fitzgerald's narrators. The prose is flashy in the manner of costume jewelry. He wrote the stories in his early twenties for publication in popular magazines, which paid well for fluff, and he was twenty-six when the book appeared. Judging by even the two most ambitious stories in the collection, "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," one would never guess that the author would go on to publish The Great Gatsby only three years later and Tender Is the Night just over a decade later. The striking contrast between Tales and Gatsby illustrates why one can never predict, on the basis of early work, the full promise of a talented writer. ...more
Every poem in this dazzling debut collection reminds us that we are creatures, kin with bear and blackberry, turtle and potato, trout and oak. Noah DaEvery poem in this dazzling debut collection reminds us that we are creatures, kin with bear and blackberry, turtle and potato, trout and oak. Noah Davis leads us into a primal world, where people live in direct contact with Earth, as all of our ancestors lived until a few centuries ago, and as some of our contemporaries still do, in places such as the Appalachian valley where most of these poems are set. Here, a lover’s body becomes a landscape of hills and hollows and hidden places, the skin a map of desire. A mysterious “short-haired girl” reappears throughout the book, part sage and part witch, talking with deer, feeding cornbread to the family hog, learning how to read rivers, traveling the risky path from childhood into the arms of boys. Those boys hunt and fish, dare one another to dive from bridges, and dream of finding the drowned body of the short-haired girl. In his attention to the earthy and ordinary, and in his spare use of language, Davis may remind readers of William Carlos Williams, Wendell Berry, James Wright, or Maurice Manning. But the resemblance is only an echo, not an imitation, for the voice we hear in Of This River is utterly fresh. The book leaves us hoping to hear more, much more, from this talented poet. ...more
My book, The Way of Imagination, appears August 11 from Counterpoint Press. Here's a brief description:
Imagination breaks the shell of the status quo, My book, The Way of Imagination, appears August 11 from Counterpoint Press. Here's a brief description:
Imagination breaks the shell of the status quo, summoning up objects that do not yet exist, actions that no one has yet performed, and wiser ways of living. It powers art, science, and all forms of human creativity. My new book seeks to show how imagination might guide us through the current social and environmental upheaval, as climate heating, epidemic diseases, divisive politics, and loss of biodiversity alter our place on the planet and our lives together.
The damage to the natural world caused by our swelling numbers and unbridled appetites has been abundantly documented in books, films, scientific reports, and the daily news. Likewise, we are constantly reminded of the violence and divisions within our society and around the world. Rather than pile on yet more daunting evidence, in this book I seek to understand how we stumbled onto this path toward social and ecological ruin, and how we might change direction. Clearly, we can change direction, because millions of individuals, organizations, and communities, across America and around the globe, have chosen a more promising path, embracing conservation, restoration, and peacemaking. Unless you have been scouting around for alternatives to the industrial growth economy, you may not be aware of these hopeful efforts, because the good news about solutions to our planetary crisis tends to be drowned out by the bad news about Earth’s unraveling. The path to healing begins from acts of imagination. ...more
Two kindred souls come together in this inspiring book. The author, life-long Alaskan Hank Lentfer—a land steward, hunter, forager, and former park raTwo kindred souls come together in this inspiring book. The author, life-long Alaskan Hank Lentfer—a land steward, hunter, forager, and former park ranger—met anthropologist Richard Nelson three decades ago. Separated by almost a generation in age, the two became as close as brothers through their shared love of Alaska’s wild lands and their respect for the traditional lifeways of Alaska’s indigenous people. They hiked, camped, and kayaked together, observing deer and bears, listening to birdsong, scaling glaciers, all the while trading stories, animal lore, and laughter. It was the laughter of Coyote or Raven, mischievous, raucous, ribald, but with a dark undertone of grief. The felling of forests, dwindling of wildlife, melting of permafrost, wildfires in the Arctic, erosion of coastlines from rising seas—all revealed the web of life unraveling. What the companions sought, through all those journeys and conversations, was a recovery of traditional knowledge and the discovery of new knowledge that might enable humans to live in harmony with one another, with our fellow species, and with Earth.
With Hank Lentfer and other close friends at his bedside, Richard Nelson died in November 2019, just shy of his 78th birthday. He left behind several vital books, including Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest (1983), Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America (1997), and, finest of all, his visionary testament, The Island Within (1989). He also left behind thousands of pages of journals, letters, and field notes. Lentfer drew on these written materials as well as his own memories in composing this deeply sympathetic portrait.
In one of Nelson’s letters to his parents, he lamented, “We just weren’t meant to live in this age, where people act as if all the earth is just made to gratify men and machines.” And in another, he wrote, “This is the wrong time in history to care deeply about nature.” For someone who cared deeply about nature, no friend could have been more consoling, more uplifting, than Hank Lentfer. Encouraged by this friendship, Lentfer wrote his own testament of love for place and wildness, the compact, powerful Faith of Cranes: Finding Hope and Family in Alaska (2011). Raven’s Witness is a beautiful book, not only for its tribute to a wildlands genius, whose voice rings through these pages, but also for its eloquent prose and moral vision....more
Best known for his novels, Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe also wrote this quasi-fictional account of the Great Plague that swept throBest known for his novels, Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe also wrote this quasi-fictional account of the Great Plague that swept through London and much of England in 1665-1666, thus far the last time the flea-borne bubonic disease ravaged Europe. Although only a child in 1665, too young to have remembered the plague in detail, Defoe drew on an uncle's diary as well as historical accounts to create a first-person narrative, as told by a man who spent that harrowing year hunkered down in London, while tens of thousands died all around him. The parallels with the current (as I write this) COVID-19 pandemic are striking: the first impulse of governments was to keep the contagion secret; once people began to die, the number of victims was routinely under-counted by authorities; the rich retreated to country homes, leaving the poor in the city to die in disproportionate numbers; every kind of business suffered, including England's worldwide trade; quacks and charlatans sold useless--often dangerous--"cures"; physicians were overwhelmed by the numbers of patients, and unable to provide much effective care; people grew wary of one another, avoiding contact, walking in the centers of streets to avoid houses where infection might lurk; ministers who continued holding worship services contributed to the spread of the disease; fear and false rumors were rampant. Defoe's Journal makes compelling reading right now, if only for what it reveals about characteristic human responses to epidemics. If the book were not so repetitious and haphazard in construction, I would have given it a higher rating. ...more
This book of poetry by my lively, inventive, big-hearted colleague at Indiana University has earned a lot of praise, but I want to add my own. BecauseThis book of poetry by my lively, inventive, big-hearted colleague at Indiana University has earned a lot of praise, but I want to add my own. Because I was asked to write an endorsement, I had a chance to read Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude before it was published. Here are the words I offered for the cover: "In this bright book of life, Ross Gay lopes through the whole alphabet of emotions, from anger to zest. Merely considering the letter 'R,' for example, these poems are by turns racy, rollicking, reflective, rambunctious, raunchy, and rhapsodic. Praise and lamentation rub shoulders, along with elegy and elation, and every page is dazzling." If Ross gives a reading from his poetry anywhere near where you live, go listen, and rejoice....more
When Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio was first published in 1919, it carried a subtitle that has been omitted from many of the subsequent editionsWhen Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio was first published in 1919, it carried a subtitle that has been omitted from many of the subsequent editions: "a group of tales of Ohio small town life." Perhaps commercially-minded publishers feared that a reference to life in midwestern towns would turn away readers, most of whom dwell in cities or suburbs. The Winesburg portrayed by Anderson is a backward and repressive place, stifling mind and spirit, warping its citizens; the only characters with prospects for a larger, richer existence are those who leave, including the young journalist, George Willard, who departs at the end of the book to seek his fortunes in the big city. As someone who grew up in rural Ohio, seven miles from the nearest town, I realized there was some truth in Anderson's critique, but I also realized that he overlooked much that was nourishing in such places. Certainly, life on the back roads can be narrow and soul-killing; but so can life in urban America. In 1919, Anderson could not have imagined a time when interstate highways, passenger airlines, state universities, radio, television, cell phones, and the internet would connect small towns and back roads to the rest of the world. One can be ignorant and provincial anywhere, in the metropolis as well as in the country, and one can equally well achieve deep learning, broad culture, and expansive relationships anywhere. On rereading Winesburg, Ohio at this divisive moment in our nation's history, I still see the book's literary merits--the plain prose style and story forms that inspired Hemingway and others who followed--but I reject Anderson's facile distinction between vibrant city life and stagnant rural life. ...more
Best known for his compelling memoir, Cures for Hunger, and autobiographical novel, Vandal Love, Deni Ellis Béchard is also a keen-eyed, truth-tellingBest known for his compelling memoir, Cures for Hunger, and autobiographical novel, Vandal Love, Deni Ellis Béchard is also a keen-eyed, truth-telling essayist, as demonstrated by My Favourite Crime. The book opens with compelling stories about his tumultuous upbringing by an itinerant mother and a criminal father, and it closes with a series of insightful essays about the influences and motives behind his writing. In between are reports from trouble spots around the world--the war in Afghanistan, dissident street artists in Cuba, protectors of endangered gorillas and bonobos in the Republic of the Congo, and multiparty strife in Colombia, among other places. Béchard is a candid, compassionate, and daring writer, in the mold of George Orwell and John Steinbeck. Highly recommended....more
If you don't yet know the writing of Luis Alberto Urrea, here is a good place to start. The Water Museum is a superb collection, diverse in form, toneIf you don't yet know the writing of Luis Alberto Urrea, here is a good place to start. The Water Museum is a superb collection, diverse in form, tone, geography, and subject. There are touches of the fantastic, but mostly gritty realism adroitly handled. Ranging from the mean streets of San Diego to the poppy fields of Mexico to the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota, the stories explore young love, sense of place, gang mentality, racial divides and reconciliations, climate disruption, immigrant culture, and other gripping themes, all rendered brilliantly by a master of American vernacular. Once you've heard Urrea's voice on the page, you'll want to go on and read The Hummingbird's Daughter, Queen of America, The Devil's Highway, and his other compelling books. ...more
I first read Living the Good Life: How to Live Simply and Sanely in a Troubled World in my twenties, a few months before my wife brought our first chiI first read Living the Good Life: How to Live Simply and Sanely in a Troubled World in my twenties, a few months before my wife brought our first child into the world. The title caught my eye, because I was seeking answers to that ancient human question: What is a good life? As a teacher, a writer, a husband, and soon to be a father, I felt blessed but also bewildered by opportunities. Amid so many possibilities and responsibilities, how could I discover what is essential, what gives meaning? How could I avoid frittering away my days on duties and distractions?
In these pages, Helen and Scott Nearing tell the story of their own search for answers to such questions. Early in the Great Depression, they left New York, where they had been harassed because of their pacifist and socialist views, and moved to rural Vermont, where they homesteaded, growing much of their own food, constructing a house and outbuildings with timber and stone, harvesting maple syrup, and avoiding, as much as possible, the cash economy. (Years later, a neighbor claimed that Helen and Scott had been supported in part by inheritances that each had received from parents.) I had grown up in the country, with parents who gardened, canned, carpentered, sewed, mended, and otherwise met as many of the family's needs as possible through their own efforts and skill. They did this partly for lack of money, partly from principle. So I readily identified with the Nearings' efforts to live simply and sustainably, as much a possible by their own labors, and I admired their values.
The volume cited here combines Living the Good Life with a sequel called Continuing the Good Life. Now in my seventies, I read the Nearings' testaments with a more critical eye, but I still respect their striving for self-sufficiency, their resistance to the consumer economy, and their witness to peace and social justice....more
Entertaining, feisty, funny, insightful essays (which she refused to call “blogs”) posted while Ursula Le Guin was in her 80s. Among the things that mEntertaining, feisty, funny, insightful essays (which she refused to call “blogs”) posted while Ursula Le Guin was in her 80s. Among the things that matter to this author, aside from mortality, are cats, feminism, music, tea, defiance of bullies, peacemaking, storytelling, the Oregon landscape and seascape, science, science fiction, imagination, and a hearty laugh. She told me, late in her life, that the world needed more crones--old women who told the hard truths without caring whom they offended. Here she is, a wise, cantankerous, truth-telling crone. ...more
Best known for her scholarly, revelatory books such as The Gnostic Gospels, about the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other long-loBest known for her scholarly, revelatory books such as The Gnostic Gospels, about the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other long-lost documents from the early years of Christianity, Elaine Pagels focuses here on her own life. The title is a bit misleading, as her memoir is less about religion than about her coping with grief after the death of her six-year-old son, followed soon after by the death of her husband. She writes about catastrophic loss with candor and without self-pity. She doesn't pretend that suffering is a blessing, but recognizes that her own losses have increased her compassion for the suffering of others. ...more
Wendell Berry began writing Sabbath poems in 1979, and the series continues today, in 2020. I return to this volume whenever I need to hear a sane, saWendell Berry began writing Sabbath poems in 1979, and the series continues today, in 2020. I return to this volume whenever I need to hear a sane, savoring voice reflecting on life, on Earth, and on perennial human questions about meaning, mortality, holiness, beauty, and love. This man of letters--master of fiction and essay as well as poetry--can be irreverent in his other writing, as in his Mad Farmer poems, but in these pages he is in a reflective mood, aware of the holy presence shimmering around him on his hillside farm, along the banks of the Kentucky River, among his sheep and gardens, in the country of marriage he shares with his beloved Tanya. To sample the full range of his poetry, read his New Collected Poems (Counterpoint Press, 2012). He is one of my touchstones, as writer and human being....more
The Tao Te Ching is one of those enduring books of wisdom that I return to periodically as an antidote to the shallow and distressing daily news. I'veThe Tao Te Ching is one of those enduring books of wisdom that I return to periodically as an antidote to the shallow and distressing daily news. I've read this ancient collection of teachings in half a dozen translations. My favorite is this one by Ursula K. Le Guin. I favor it in part because Ursula was a dear friend, who spoke with me off and on over many years about her work on this book. Beyond friendship, I favor her version of the book on account of her feisty, witty, always insightful interpretation of this often cryptic text. I'm tempted to quote numerous passages here, but I will content myself with two.
To enjoy using weapons is to enjoy killing people, and to enjoy killing people is to lose your share in the common good.
The greatest evil: wanting more. The worst luck: discontent. Greed's the curse of life. To know enough's enough is enough to know.
As for Ursula's commentary, here's a sample: "One of the things I love about Lao Tzu is he is so funny. He's explaining a profound and difficult truth here, one of those counter-intuitive truths that, when the mind can accept them, suddenly double the size of the universe. He goes about it with this deadpan simplicity, talking about pots."...more
Maurice Manning is a superbly talented poet, deeply grounded in English and world literature, in religion and philosophy, and in the culture of AppalaMaurice Manning is a superbly talented poet, deeply grounded in English and world literature, in religion and philosophy, and in the culture of Appalachia. Although each of his collections of poems is distinct in form and focus, they all reflect a deep sympathy for lives rooted in place, a regard for human dignity regardless of class or race, a deft handling of vernacular language, and a sly humor. He's marvelous. If you don't know his work, The Common Man would be a good place to start. I also highly recommend One Man's Dark, The Gone and the Going Away, and Bucolics. ...more
I found much to admire in earlier collections of Alice Munro's stories. Except for the title story, however, this award-winning collection was a disapI found much to admire in earlier collections of Alice Munro's stories. Except for the title story, however, this award-winning collection was a disappointment. Although gifted at creating three-dimensional characters, Munro seems to assume that readers will be engaged by them only if their relationships fall apart, they suffer violence, or they die. Of course, breakups happen, people suffer violence, and eventually we all die. But that is not the whole of our existence. We also nurture new life, make art and pies, hold jobs, agitate for social justice, fix what's broken, figure out how the universe works, cook, travel, invent, fall in love and stay there, and do a host of other ordinary things. Anyone who writes prose as well as Munro does, who summons up characters and settings and situations as brilliantly, could engage our interest without resorting, over and over again, to betrayal, menace, and disaster....more
The international popularity of this book is largely due, I suspect, to Wohlleben’s unapologetic anthropomorphizing. He writes about trees and forestsThe international popularity of this book is largely due, I suspect, to Wohlleben’s unapologetic anthropomorphizing. He writes about trees and forests in human terms, as creatures feeling, communicating, cooperating, listening, wanting, suffering, and so on. Although he cites scientific papers in his notes, he avoids most technical terms in the text itself, which is written in a personal, colloquial voice. While I enjoyed the book, for my taste it verged too often on sentimentality, as Wohlleben sought to enlist our interest in these fellow beings, the beeches, oaks, and other trees....more
An intriguing if overlong and repetitive book that makes a case for the existence of evolutionarily-derived propensities or constraints in “human natuAn intriguing if overlong and repetitive book that makes a case for the existence of evolutionarily-derived propensities or constraints in “human nature” that make for a good society: cooperation, kindness, social learning, and respect for individual identity. Christakis's argument is a welcome reminder that our evolutionary legacy includes more than propensities for aggression and tribalism....more
A superb book, winner of the 2018 John Burroughs Medal. Haskell's patient study of individual trees on several continents is a brilliant lesson in seeA superb book, winner of the 2018 John Burroughs Medal. Haskell's patient study of individual trees on several continents is a brilliant lesson in seeing, and a demonstration of scientific curiosity at its best. He reveals that trees depend on networks--fungi, microbes, insects, animals, other trees, soils, rain and snow, and countless other factors, all woven into a living community. There is no such thing as a self-sufficient tree. And the same is true of human beings, who are inescapably interdependent, relying for well-being not only on their own species, but on the rest of nature. Haskell's lyrical, reflective work reminds us that what we call science was first called natural philosophy. ...more
This is the classic account of religion, not as a true or false account of reality, but as a fact of human experience. As a psychologist, James descriThis is the classic account of religion, not as a true or false account of reality, but as a fact of human experience. As a psychologist, James describes the "religious propensities" exhibited by mystics, transcendentalists (Emerson is a prominent example), penitents (Tolstoy, among other examples), spiritualists, and believers of various kinds. "Were one asked to characterize the life of religion in the broadest and most general terms," he writes, "it consists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto." Drawing on diaries, letters, interviews, reports, and his own experience, James illustrates such phenomena as conversion, a sense of cosmic unity (what Freud dismissed as an "oceanic feeling"), ritual devotion, religious rapture, theological schisms, and sectarian conflict. Given the powerful, and often destructive, role played by organized religion in our own day, this book makes for timely reading. ...more
While acknowledging that humans have caused much environmental damage, biologist René Dubos argues that we also have the capacity to enhance landscapeWhile acknowledging that humans have caused much environmental damage, biologist René Dubos argues that we also have the capacity to enhance landscapes. Among the many examples he cites is the French countryside he knew as a boy, where he observed a "quality of blessedness that emerges from long periods of intimate association between human beings and nature." To achieve such a harmony, he insists, we must respect ecological limits. "We shall continue to intervene in nature, but we must do it with a sense of responsibility for the welfare of the Earth as well as of humankind, and we must therefore attempt to anticipate the long-range consequences of our actions.” ...more
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