Usually I post a book review at the end of the month, but I’ve been reading a few books lately that I wanted to share with you, so this is more of a roundup than a single review.
I just finished reading North Woods, by Daniel Mason. It follows each generation that occupies a cabin in the woods of Maine. It’s a fascinating and superbly written book, that reminds me a bit of Richard Powers’ The Overstory in its ambitious arc. Mason does a great job of bringing in nature, including wild animals, an apple orchard that produces fruit unmatched in flavour, and the wild plants that spring up every time the cabin is abandoned. Each character or group of characters that inhabits the cabin is profoundly different than the previous, showing Mason’s ability to move beyond caricature, and write characters wholly and realistically. The catch is that each resident(s) is peculiar in such a way that it drives their story to the end, making space for the next residents to appear.
Last week I finished Amy Kaler’s Half-Light: Westbound on a Hot Planet. I got it from the library before I realized that it was published by University of Alberta Press—the same press that’s publishing my book! Kaler lives in Edmonton, and drives the backroads across Alberta to see abandoned houses and barns, the ‘big things’ each city is known for (biggest Easter egg, biggest sausage, biggest pinto bean…), and more. She explores the stories of each forgotten piece of history, cementing her place in the west, where she moved to from Ontario 20 years ago. This is a quiet read that brings you to various corners of Alberta that you might not have heard of otherwise.
I also just finished Matthew Crawford’s Why We Drive. I’ve read his previous books, Shopcraft as Soulcraft, and The World Beyond Your Head. They can be hard to get into, as he’s a bit full of himself. But he has very interesting ideas, which makes me persevere beyond my dislike of his all-knowingness. That said, I think Why We Drive is the weakest of his three books. It veers into libertarian territory, as in his rants against speed limits and the “need for speed” on some of America’s highways, regardless of whether or not the cops are after you. It’s somewhat disjointed, and seems to be a paean to scrappy car builders like him, rather than saying much about driving itself. Overall, I found it difficult to find the throughline. I would recommend his other two books over this one.
I’ve been dipping in and out of Susan Shapiro’s Byline Bible. She covers op-eds, writing for regional publications, writing listicles that cover key topics you have expertise in, and writing the personal essay. In it, she claims to have you writing a publishable piece once you’ve finished reading the book and doing the exercises. That’s always the hard part for me—actually sitting down and doing the exercises. I was reading the book on a recent visit to the hospital and read through the op-ed section. I realized there was a topic I was really interested in writing an op-ed about, so when I got home I wrote a first draft, vetted it through two of my writing friends, and submitted it the next day. I got a positive response almost immediately, and it will come out in Nature magazine on October 3. I credit some of Shapiro’s tips for helping me frame the op-ed. It also makes me think I should read her book more closely to get ideas for writing—and publishing—a personal essay.
In digital editions, I read Ellen Wayland-Smith’s The Science of Last Things: Essays on deep time and the boundaries of the self. I wanted to like it because the description and blurbs appealed to me: a book about the nature of life, time, and our place in the world. But I was often distracted, my mind slipping off the words as though they were an impenetrable surface. This could be because I’m more used to reading hard copies rather than digital copies of books. I feel like I have to read it again to get at the meat of it. So The Science of Last Things is back on the to-read pile.
I have other books waiting on my to-read pile, so many I won’t list them here. Well, maybe just a few. Wendy Pratt’s The Ghost Lake, Ramona Ausubel’s The Last Animal, Annabel Abbs’ Windswept. Two books by Geoff Powter: Inner Ranges: An Anthology of Mountain Thoughts and Mountain People and Strange and Dangerous Dreams: The Fine Line Between Adventure and Madness. So many more. There’s never enough time to read all that I want. But I can try.
