The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan

Rook review: This is a very thorough exploration of the history, biology and politics of the Great Lakes, the largest body of fresh water in the world. The Lakes have been such an integral part of the history of North America, its easy to take them for granted. The point of this book, I think, is to point out the mess that things are in, and how global climate change is just going to make it worse. But at the same time the resiliency of the Lakes comes through with a hope of optimism. I like these sweeping comprehensive kinds of narratives. He illustrates well how the impact of the Lakes goes far beyond the watershed that feeds the lakes as what happens in and on the lakes has national repercussions.

The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks

Book review: The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks I have been following the author of this book on Twitter for some time. He is a shepherd in the Lake District in England, and the photos he posts of sheep walking in meadows and across streams are gorgeous idealic images. This book is his chronicle of a year in the life of his farm. So you get all four seasons and a description of what happens at different times of years. Also described is the history of the area and shepherding. A charming narrative of a life that I am sure is not easy and not as romantic as you come away with. Between this, H is for Hawk and The Outrun you would get an impression that life in the UK is all country walks and rural fairs. These are wonderful fantasies and maybe says something about who has the time and inclination to write books, but all the urban problems are not covered, no poverty, crime and hardship. Well some of that in The Outrun, but that is basically what she is leaving behind.

Long Haul: A Trucker’s Tales of Lie on the Road by Finn Murphy

Book review: Long Haul: A Trucker’s Tales of Lie on the Road by Finn Murphy This surprisingly interesting memoir turned out to be one I could not put down. I got the iBook sample of this book after seeing something in the NYTimes Book Review, and ended up reading it over the weekend. This is a well written memoir of a life of a middle class raised white guy who took a different path. Part philosophy and part a description of the details of a life and profession that none of us would have a clue about, he describes a life as an outsider who has found his niche. One of the great things about this is the leap he writes about from his young life to being in his 50s. He describes being a teenager, how he gets into the moving/truck driving world. Then at 31 he walks away from it, only to come back to the life at age 51. There is absolutely no description of what he did in the interim 20 years, which whether it was meant to or not keeps the reader engaged. An interesting literary device. This is an example of why I have come to like memoirs so much, especially when they are written by people who are not professional writers but who apparently have a natural affinity for writing.

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Book review: H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald This recent best seller has been much talked about, mainly for its writing. It is so rare to find something that is such a joy to read. This memoir is the story of the author’s year after her father passed away. To deal with her grief she adopts a young hawk, and enters the age old world of falconry. This was one of those can’t put it down books that I will probably go back and read again. She weaves stories of raising and caring for the hawk with reminiscences of her father, her delving into the falconry world and culture with her journey through grief.

Barbarian Days by William Finnegan

Book review: Barbarian Days by William Finnegan The story of a life time of surfing provides a history of surfing over the last 50 or so years. By happenstance the author ended up in surfing meccas so fell into the world of surfing at a young age. He chronicles the changes in surfing from a fringe sport to really something mainstream and gentrified, as we tend to do with some many things on this planet. But he is still able to find those ‘endless summer’ moments, and weaving the story of surfing with his biography and his family creates a very pleasant reading experience.

Late to the Ball Gerald Marzorati

Book review: Late to the Ball Gerald Marzorati The title of this book is a fun pun. This chronicles the life of this man who decided to take up tennis relatively last in life, and the age of 45. So late to the ball refers to both tennis and the concept of taking up something late in life, and the troubles with trying to train your body and mind to do something later in life, that may have been relatively easy if you had started early. This is an optimistic book in that the person taking this up later in life has different expectations that a younger person would. No expectation of a scholarship to college or actually being good enough to be a pro or semi-pro. Just taking up something for the challenge and fun of it, and to test yourself. Again, the neuroscience piece is represented here.

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

Book review: Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker This very entertaining memoir is the chronicle of Biana’s year spent delving into the world of wine connoisseurs. It does provide interesting insights into the lives of these obsessed people, and once again touches on the neuroscience of the brain and how it adapts and changes. She travels within different circles of the wine world, restaurants, retailers, contestants, vineyards and critics. She does a good job of not only describing these worlds, but also of questioning them and posing the asking how valid or how self manufactured some of this is.

Factory Man by Beth Macy

Book review: Factory Man by Beth Macy This is a surprisingly interesting story of the furniture industry in the US. Mostly based in the South, this is really story of what the globalization of this industry specifically but a map of what the globalization of manufacturing is about. The author uses the story of one man to illustrate how sending the manufacturing of furniture has ruined US based jobs. Of course, in some cases the jobs were not great ones to begin with, and the questions arise about keeping the family based industries at home, while preserving jobs, preserves a hierarchy of a system that is basically bigoted in the first place. I think she does a good job of providing information on the complicated issues that arise around isssues of employment and globalization. The issues that are identified with this book are universal, but I like the specifics of delving into one industry as deeply at the author does to illustrate the points.

Coyote America by Dan Flores

Book review: Coyote America by Dan Flores This history of the Coyote is the history of human interaction and intervention with the animal. In particular the manipulation of the environment and the elimination of other predators that allowed the coyote to flourish. Coyotes are now in every state and in every city in North America, and along with the coyote comes the long folk lore that has followed them. From being spirit animals with special powers to the myth of being a super predator that takes down animals many times their size, which just does not happen. An interesting history also of humans trying to manage the environment by poisoning so many things that results in lots of collateral damage.

Never Out of Season by Rob Dunn

Book review: Never Out of Season by Rob Dunn Maybe unnatural history is more accurate. The author outlines how currently in wealthy countries there are no seasonal foods as you can buy any food year round. He also shows how the trend to breed and grow only a select number of crops is depleting the planets resources, and not leaving much room to get back from a catastrophe. When one time of grain is grown, if a pest arises that attached that particular strain the results can be quickly devastating. He provides extensive information on the history of seed banks and their purpose and uses.

Cooked by Michael Pollan

Book review: Cooked by Michael Pollan Well known food writer Pollan provides a classic narrative of how food is prepared. Pollan is well known for his work on nutrition and where our food comes from, so in this book he takes a slight side step and looks at how we prepare food. It has to be handed to Pollan that he does not shy away from being hands on. In this book he describes his experience of ‘apprenticing’ to different styles of cooking, southern barbecue, baking and really getting his hands dirty immersing himself in the world of cooking.

Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr

Book review: Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr As the title perfectly implies, this is the narrative of a year spent living in Rome. What gives this memoir a twist is that the author and his wife go to Rome with their two small twin boys. He is on a year fellowship in Rome, so has some help in getting set up with housing etc, however, navigating a country where you don’t speak the language while trying to take care of two small children bring unique challenges to say the least. This is a nice story of how you can do something that at first seems impossible, and provides insight into living in Rome and its day to day trials.

Shadows in the Vineyard by Maximillian Potter

Book reivew: Shadows in the Vineyard by Maximillian Potter A specific story about wine culture. This is the story of how a person tried to hold for ransom a vineyard in France, threatening to ruin the vineyard if a ransom was not paid. The vineyard in question is one that produces very exclusive high quality wine that is only available to a select few on the planet. Of particular interest in this book is the history of the French wine industry after World War II. The industry was pretty much in a shambles after the war, and a creative group of people managed to completely rebuild this industry to what some consider to be an even superior industry than before the war. While promoted as a mystery/detective story, it is really the background story of the wine culture of France that makes this worth reading.

The Stranger In the Woods by Michael Finkel

Book review: The Stranger In the Woods by Michael Finkel This is the fascinating story of a man who lived in the woods in Maine alone for 27 years. The person lived off the grid, in a secluded area of Maine near vacation homes. Labeled a ‘hermit’ by local people, this allowed him to have a legendary quality about him, and he developed a strong following and also a strong hatred among people. It is an interesting aspect of many public lives, that when you don’t provide a lot of information about yourself, you are given an aura or personality that in some cases has no bases in reality. As a hermit, he ‘lived off the land’ for 27 years by raiding local businesses and vacation homes for food and clothing and anything else he needed. This lead to many people living in fear of him, not knowing when he would show up, if he was in there homes at night when they slept or when he would steal again. When finally caught he was charged with multiple burglary accounts, and left with probation and counseling as his punishment. What I find most fascinating about this story is when the author speculates on whether this person was autistic or some similar condition. This idea is pursued in relation to how someone could have almost zero contact with any other human being for 27 years, and basically like it that way. This brings up many aspects of what it is to be in society, what are the evolutionary traits that allow this to happen, and if this is a genetic trait, how this would not persist as there would not be conditions for people with this trait to reproduce, as that would involve interacting with other people.

The Outrun by Any Liptrot

Book review The Outrun by Any Liptrot This was a very enjoyable memoir written by a women who grew up in the Orkney Islands, north of Scotland. It is the story of her growing up, not leading a very great life with troubled parents, not liking the rural life she was born into and then finding the means to escape by going to college and moving to London. In London she was adrift, getting into various kinds of trouble and ending up in rehab. After rehab she returned to the islands north of Scotland for a ‘visit’ and ended up staying. The island life, the starkness, the geology and the wildlife, which she had zero interest in as a person growing up there, turned out to fascinate her as a sober adult. She became an expert on the flora and fauna of the islands, working for conservations groups, becoming a part of the community that she never could as an unhappy child growing up there. Among her other ruminations, she speculates on the nature of addiction, family, heredity, connection to the land and other themes that are present in other books that are listed here. In particular she talks about the aspects of being alone and in silence, or at least in nature and what this means to people’s lives and well being.