jlye's review
5.0
I enjoyed every essay in this book! Similar to Wild Ones, many essays (though not all) dealt with the theme of human relationship with nature and animals. My favourite was The Pigeon King. As a Canadian, I can’t believe that I had never heard of this incredible and strange story before.
rosemaryandrue's review
4.0
Throughout the essays in this book, Jon Mooallem dives into the pathos and bathos of everyday life.
The first book of essays I ever read was [b:Slouching Towards Bethlehem|424|Slouching Towards Bethlehem|Joan Didion|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611927558l/424._SX50_.jpg|1844], which is admittedly a very high bar to beat. Since then I've read a handful of books of essays, and generally enjoyed them all.
What really works for this book is the sense of gentle tragedy that Mooallem brings to the fore in many of the essays, tempered with an edge of wistfulness. For the most part he tackled issues I'd never heard of, and I liked the very human side he brought out in his subjects. Life can sometimes be very inexplicable and weird, and the author does a good job of showing this.
However, I didn't enjoy the essays that leaned into more mainstream subjects as much as I did the others, though I am unsure why. I think it may be because the author did not tease out the reasons why we should care as much as he did with the more obscure subjects.
My favorite essays in this book were "Why These Instead of Others?," which is about an accident that befell Mooallem's friend in a remote region, and "A Cloud Society, about an amateur society of cloud watchers who identified a new cloud feature.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
The first book of essays I ever read was [b:Slouching Towards Bethlehem|424|Slouching Towards Bethlehem|Joan Didion|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611927558l/424._SX50_.jpg|1844], which is admittedly a very high bar to beat. Since then I've read a handful of books of essays, and generally enjoyed them all.
What really works for this book is the sense of gentle tragedy that Mooallem brings to the fore in many of the essays, tempered with an edge of wistfulness. For the most part he tackled issues I'd never heard of, and I liked the very human side he brought out in his subjects. Life can sometimes be very inexplicable and weird, and the author does a good job of showing this.
However, I didn't enjoy the essays that leaned into more mainstream subjects as much as I did the others, though I am unsure why. I think it may be because the author did not tease out the reasons why we should care as much as he did with the more obscure subjects.
My favorite essays in this book were "Why These Instead of Others?," which is about an accident that befell Mooallem's friend in a remote region, and "A Cloud Society, about an amateur society of cloud watchers who identified a new cloud feature.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
zfletch's review
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.5