ddillon2's review against another edition
5.0
Pam Houston is my favorite author. Honestly this book just makes me want to live a life outdoors.
pamiverson's review against another edition
4.0
A series of essays with interesting insights into the life of a writer, overcoming trauma, living in a remote part of Colorado (with a wildfire threatening the area), animals, and more. Thought-provoking -- I like her writing style and I learned about an area and a way of life I knew very little about. And the importance of hope!!
gingerleekretschmer's review against another edition
5.0
This is so good. I wish she were a friend of mine. What a wonderful woman and brilliant writer. <3
wildsage's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
petalsonme's review against another edition
5.0
"Could a person mourn and be joyful simultaneously? I understood it as the challenge of the twenty first century."
momo21's review against another edition
5.0
Pam Houston has the amazing ability to write about both the heartbreaking damage we’re doing to this earth while also expanding on its beauty and hope for the future. She teaches us that it’s possible to “live simultaneously inside the wonder and the grief.” I loved every sentence of this book, someone get me a membership to this woman’s fan club
brandonlouis's review against another edition
5.0
To say I loved this book would be an injustice done to both it and its author. It might even be my favorite book yet. I have no idea why I hadn’t read it sooner, only picking it up in the Ouray Bookshop on one of my many visits to the area I love best: Southwest Colorado. Sometimes I have to explain to people why I love it there so very much, why I have a picture I took off Highway 550 near Silverton tattooed on my arm along with a slew of splashing aspen leaves, and when I do from now on, I’ll be recommending this book. Pam is clearly an especially talented writer, but also an especially keen empath. I needed this book. It’s even inspired me to pick up my writing again. Please, just read it.
hooliaquoolia's review against another edition
4.0
This memoir is at once urgent and languid, an elegy for a disappearing earth and a ode to her many living beauties. It is sincerely, genuinely, deeply felt and deeply written. Her insight into how humans can both terrorize and heal the earth and her inhabitants is singular and invaluable in such a universally dire time. The author is wise, honest, and her empathy for the natural world is so beautifully written that I could feel my heart grow with hers. What an outstanding book. Please read this if you, like so many others, are overwhelmed by the current trajectory of the earth.
bernfarr's review against another edition
5.0
Beautiful writing that's full of heart. I'd give it six stars if I could. The chapter Diary of a Fire is compelling reading.
ktgoldenberg's review against another edition
3.0
An ode to the earth. Feels like being on the ranch yourself, a slice of paradise, sitting in the midst of all that beauty and untouched earth. Pam has a very honest but poignant way of writing and she creates significance in the smallest blades of grass and the widest expanses of sky. I adored her descriptions of the ranch and all the beautiful parts of the world she’s visited. She’s living my dream. The message of the book developed slowly but surely, like a photograph in a dark room. Pam explains how the earth healed her troubled relationship with her parents and her own body, acting as both a “mother” and an inevitable return home. Her descriptions of the beauty of solitude and the unconditional love of animals struck a chord with me. I loved the chapter dedicated to the unwavering love and presence of her baby sitter Martha, and all the stories and personalities of the animals on the ranch. I wasn’t as interested in the more tedious accounts of farm life or technical descriptions of the wilderness, like the wildfire terminology, but her account of the Colorado wildfires was fascinating and heartbreaking nonetheless. If more people took the time to understand and connect to the earth like Pam, I’m confident we wouldn’t spend as much time destroying our planet.
“We are all dying, and because of us, so is the earth. That’s the most terrible, the most painful in my entire repertoire of self-torturing thoughts. But it isn’t dead yet and neither are we. Are we going to drop the earth off at the vet, say goodbye at the door, and leave her to die in the hands of strangers? We can decide, even now, not to turn our backs on her in her illness. We can still decide not to let her die alone.”
“We are all dying, and because of us, so is the earth. That’s the most terrible, the most painful in my entire repertoire of self-torturing thoughts. But it isn’t dead yet and neither are we. Are we going to drop the earth off at the vet, say goodbye at the door, and leave her to die in the hands of strangers? We can decide, even now, not to turn our backs on her in her illness. We can still decide not to let her die alone.”