Terry Tempest Williams

Refuge – what an excellent book to bring one up short about prejudices. I knew of this book for years but feared the theme was too religious and nature study for my taste. I knew the author was Mormon and lived in Utah and the book had to do with birds. As soon as I read a few pages, I was very taken with the beauty of the writing, the themes of refuge and grief undertaken by the writer, a naturalist. I even became interested in the different birds described in each chapter and read the book with a Peterson’s Guide to Birds on my lap. The interesting thing about the story is that Refuge might be described by some as a book about losing one’s mother to cancer and seeking a way through grief and loss while others might say it is a book about nature and the birds losing their habitat due to climate changes and pollution. It’s both and richer for it. I can’t recommend it highly enough to both memoir readers and nature lovers and any thoughtful reader.

See what I mean? After I posted above review, GR sends this:

Because you gave 5 stars to Refuge, Goodreads recommends
The End of Nature
The End of Nature
by Bill McKibben
3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 1,684 ratings published 1986
Reissued on the tenth anniversary of its publication, this classic work on our environmental crisis features a new introduction by the author, reviewing both the progress and ground lost in the fight ...more

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 1,684 ratings — published 1986… (meer)

When Williams' mother died, she gave Williams all of her journals and told her to read them. Williams was honored to be trusted with her mother's record of her life. She went to the shelf full of journals, and found that every single one of them was empty. Her mother had a journal for every year of her life, but had not written a word in them.

This is the beginning of Williams' poetic reflection on women's voices, on what it means for women to have something to say and to say it. Along the way, she also reflects a lot on nature and relationships - romantic relationships and relationships between daughters and mothers and generations of women. She reflects on all of the pressures that silence women, particularly their imperative to sacrifice themselves to care for their children and spouses.

This is one of those books I could read over and over, and find something new in it every time. I first read it at a time in my life when I am newly free of obligations to care for other people and I have the freedom to exist solely for myself, and I am trying to find my voice. The next time I read it, I am sure different parts of it will speak to me in entirely different ways.… (meer)