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A review by literarybear
The Stubborn Light of Things: A Nature Diary by Melissa Harrison
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
I feel really conflicted about how to rate this book. On the one hand, Harrison’s observations are beautiful and written with a simple elegance. She captures the easy beauty of things that most overlook, without over-explaining or adding too many personal digressions. I appreciated her comments about how changes in her local landscapes have affected various wildlife populations.
On the other hand, I understand that these nature diaries were originally part of a weekly column in the Times and I can’t help but feel like that’s a better format. Reading all of the entries back to back for hundreds of pages takes away some of the magic. There isn’t really and overarching narrative in the book format, so it feels a little monotonous (this is coming from someone who loves nature and gardens). I will likely pickup something else by this author because I did enjoy the writing, but I don’t think this book did it justice.
On the other hand, I understand that these nature diaries were originally part of a weekly column in the Times and I can’t help but feel like that’s a better format. Reading all of the entries back to back for hundreds of pages takes away some of the magic. There isn’t really and overarching narrative in the book format, so it feels a little monotonous (this is coming from someone who loves nature and gardens). I will likely pickup something else by this author because I did enjoy the writing, but I don’t think this book did it justice.