A dreamy mixture of memoir, natural history, and environmental worries.
Appealing scenes from a neurotic life.
Hocking, author of The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld, teaches creative writing at Portland State University. He begins with his childhood in 1970s rural western Colorado, dazzlingly beautiful, sullied by mining, and experiencing the final stages of Project Plowshare, where nuclear bombs were detonated underground to explore their peaceful use for construction projects. A latchkey kid with parents already divorced, he collected local minerals, explored caves, skied the hills, and was scarred by a neighbor, an adolescent male babysitter who often sexually abused him. A follow-up to his highly praised previous book, a memoir of his early adult years, he rewinds the clock, but readers expecting his coming-of-age will discover that he never achieves it. Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to be his intention. There is only a sketchy mention of his childhood abuse, which doesn’t seem to have permanently damaged him, although he deals with an ongoing collection of neuroses. The book’s three parts are divided into an account of his early life, the only section where the “subterranean” is literal as he explores caves and abandoned mines and recounts Colorado mining disasters as well as his personal travails. In the second, as a young man, he is so fascinated by the Outward Bound experience that he trains as a leadership instructor. His first expedition is a personal disaster, when one student wanders off into the wilderness, requiring a massive five-day search-and-rescue operation that leaves him with a post-traumatic stress disorder. Rural Costa Rica dominates the final section. Now a dedicated bird watcher, he tours a national park under an expert local guide and witnesses wildlife but also learns of the often dispiriting life in a relatively prosperous and stable nation.
A dreamy mixture of memoir, natural history, and environmental worries.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781640097018
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.
The third volume in the Elephant Whisperer series.
In this follow-up to An Elephant in My Kitchen, Malby-Anthony continues her loving portrait of the Thula Thula wildlife reserve, which she co-founded in 1998 with her late husband, South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony, who published the first book in the series, The Elephant Whisperer, in 2009. Following his death in 2012, Malby-Anthony sought to honor his legacy by continuing his vision “to create a massive conservancy in Zululand, incorporating our land and other small farms and community land into one great big game park.” At the same time, the elephants gave her “a sense of purpose and direction.” In the Zulu language, thula means quiet, and though the author consistently seeks to provide that calm to her charges, peace and tranquility are not always easy to come by at Thula Thula. In this installment, Malby-Anthony discusses many of the challenges faced by her and her staff, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. These included an aggressive, 2-ton rhino named Thabo; the profound loss felt by all upon the death of their elephant matriarch, Frankie; difficulty obtaining permits and the related risk of having to relocate or cull some of their animals; the fear of looting and fire due to civil unrest in the region; and the ongoing and potentially deadly struggles with poachers. Throughout, the author also shares many warm, lighthearted moments, demonstrating the deep bond felt among the humans and animals at the reserve and the powerful effects of the kindness of strangers. “We are all working in unity for the greater good, for the betterment of Thula Thula and all our wildlife….We are humbled by the generosity and love, both from our guests and friends, and from strangers all around the world,” writes the author. “People’s open-hearted support kept us alive in the darkest times.”
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781250284259
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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