by Patricia Hanlon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 8, 2021
Hanlon’s observations are as gently propulsive as the rhythmic stroke of a swim fin.
A fluently rendered ode to tidal creeks and salt marshes and to a life in their embrace.
In this celebration of the Great Marsh, New England’s largest remaining continuous stretch of salt marsh, painter and writer Hanlon melds the sensibilities of a Southern California childhood with those of a 40-year resident of coastal Massachusetts. She also compares this complex ecosystem to those of the vastly larger Mississippi Delta and a Bahamian reef. Science is a key element in the book, but the narrative is viewed best as an account of the experience of four seasons of immersion in the flora, fauna, and tides of extensively protected marsh. Her realm may at times be turbid, but her prose is clear—graceful in its descriptive power though allowing for the occasional tributary into lyricism. The first half of the book is about exploring the same landscape repeatedly year-round, accreting knowledge of an estuary: its cycles, processes, and patterns. Hanlon provides a biologic (and microbiologic) cross section of the salt marsh habitat, the grasses that fortify it, and the fauna that subsist on its largesse. In the second half, the author reflects a need to understand “something of our current cultural and evolutionary moment, with both its tragedies and its possibilities.” Hanlon understands how our moral imagination exerts a profound influence on our thoughts, attitudes, and actions, and her various warnings on the rising threats facing vital marshlands nationwide are no less important for being familiar. Also coursing through this tale are the currents of her marriage and shared passions with her husband, also an artist, with asides on their custom wood furniture business, children, and grandchildren. Readers not especially enamored of the idea of swimming in tidal creeks and rivers day after day may find portions of the book a bit monotonous—but not if they appreciate the theme of deep human integration in the natural world.
Hanlon’s observations are as gently propulsive as the rhythmic stroke of a swim fin.Pub Date: June 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-942658-87-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
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by Amy Tan ; illustrated by Amy Tan ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 23, 2024
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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SEEN & HEARD
by Scottie Pippen with Michael Arkush ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 9, 2021
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.
The Chicago Bulls stalwart tells all—and then some.
Hall of Famer Pippen opens with a long complaint: Yes, he’s a legend, but he got short shrift in the ESPN documentary about Michael Jordan and the Bulls, The Last Dance. Given that Jordan emerges as someone not quite friend enough to qualify as a frenemy, even though teammates for many years, the maltreatment is understandable. This book, Pippen allows, is his retort to a man who “was determined to prove to the current generation of fans that he was larger-than-life during his day—and still larger than LeBron James, the player many consider his equal, if not superior.” Coming from a hardscrabble little town in Arkansas and playing for a small college, Pippen enjoyed an unlikely rise to NBA stardom. He played alongside and against some of the greats, of whom he writes appreciatively (even Jordan). Readers will gain insight into the lives of characters such as Dennis Rodman, who “possessed an unbelievable basketball IQ,” and into the behind-the-scenes work that led to the Bulls dynasty, which ended only because, Pippen charges, the team’s management was so inept. Looking back on his early years, Pippen advocates paying college athletes. “Don’t give me any of that holier-than-thou student-athlete nonsense,” he writes. “These young men—and women—are athletes first, not students, and make up the labor that generates fortunes for their schools. They are, for lack of a better term, slaves.” The author also writes evenhandedly of the world outside basketball: “No matter how many championships I have won, and millions I have earned, I never forget the color of my skin and that some people in this world hate me just because of that.” Overall, the memoir is closely observed and uncommonly modest, given Pippen’s many successes, and it moves as swiftly as a playoff game.
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982165-19-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
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SEEN & HEARD
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