| Title | : | Seasons: Desert Sketches |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1948814013 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781948814010 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 84 |
| Publication | : | Published April 16, 2019 |
Seasons: Desert Sketches Reviews
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What a wonderful, essential little book. I wish Ellen Meloy were still with us to share her wry commentary on the political shenanigans playing out in today’s version of the West. Still, we have these short essays, which probably provide whatever answers we’d be looking for from her anyway. Reading this collection is a gift, and I’m filled with a budding urge to move to, and lose myself in, Ellen’s desert.
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This is one of those books you want to buy a bunch of copies to give to everyone and tell everyone about. Meloy is an underappreciated author known in smaller circles than Abbey but with just as much wit and appreciation for the Utah desert and the natural environment.
This collection of essays might be my favorite collection of hers (so far, I haven't read all her works yet). It was essays she wrote and read on NPR in SLC. Most are two pages. It's the type of book you think you'll read quickly through as it's not much over 100 pages but instead you savor it, reading a few essays a day. It's set up in the seasons she wrote them. I underlined so many passages. I feel she lets her humorous side show more in these essays than in some of her other works. She has a way of transporting you to a time and place even in such a short essay. This is a treasured collection -
“To earn this unfamiliar world, it’s darkness and its light, I had to follow the contours: slow down, pay attention, stay local, go deep. East, west, or in-between, relation to the land is the core of home.”
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Very good nonfiction work.
She lived in wilderness with her husband and her writing has deep fragnance of wilderness and nature she herself inhaled.
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Rare talent of putting on paper the crystal care processing of truth and natural beauty.
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Author talks about connection between nature and man and how everything is misinterpreted by modernity.
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These essays by renowned late environmental author; Ellen Meloy.
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She has great gift of feeling nature, grabbing its pulse and then transmitting her noble message in a humorous and informative way.
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Book is small, crisp, interesting and awesome.
Writing is enjoyable and engaging and it brings its descriptives to life.
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She talks about frogs, mooses, snakes, FBI, elections, TV, ice fishing, bears, guns and lots of interesting stuff.
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.Finally she emphasises that man is also an animal and should work to keep natural balance intact.
Thanks publisher and edelweiss plus for review copy. -
This book is not my cup of tea. It’s a book of essays that were originally written for the radio. The author was making everyday observations about the world around her. Some were funny like the bread dough, and others thoughtful. Each is just a few pages long. The book wasn’t bad, but I think I would have enjoyed them more if I heard them from her lips rather than read them from her fingers.
#Popsugar #western
#BeattheBacklist #companionnovel -
A lawn is an endless cycle of doomed ecology.
Through the window of river lies a path to the true stories of place. -
A nice collection of essays. My favorite thing is that she reads these herself. She has a wonderful gift for language and description of the southwest and hearing her words from her mouth is a nice, natural experience. The Anthropologie of Turquoise is one of my favorites but I've not ventured into her other books. This was a nice reminder that I need to spend the time to read the other things she's written.
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Beautifully written essays
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In these short sketches written to be read on public radio, Ellen Meloy takes you with her to the desert, to the rodeo, and even to the post office, where she makes observations with respect and with humor. It's worth every bit of the short time it takes to read it.
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A delightful recovery of short essays, each of which is a gem, by a writer whose early death was a great loss to the West.
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This is a collection of short essays written for radio. It was published after Meloy's early death as a way to preserve every scrap of her writing. She has a way of describing human connection to nature- she's wry and insightful, humorous and sometimes cranky. Each essay is only one to two pages but Meloy quickly pulls you into her desert scenes. She's become a favorite writer of mine.
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Trenchant, witty. I want everyone to read this.
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Pay attention to the weather, to what breaks your heart, to what lifts your heart. Write it down.
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I've read all of Ellen Meloy's books. This is a short book of her essays on the natural world, mostly, though not exclusively, written from the area of southern Utah she lived in before her untimely death in 2004. Meloy writes beautifully about the natural world that surrounds her but she's also very funny, as well as biting. I loved the essay on lawns. 'In Utah, God wants you to have a lawn. An unkempt, weedy yard around a house can mean only one thing: the person inside is dead.' As I'm writing this during a drought (and lockdown) in South-East England, this essay had me in stitches, especially as my partner and I are constantly complaining how much people cut their lawns and hedges here (all bad for wildlife). Meloy can be funny but she is also making a serious point. In other essays she shows her talent for observation. The lamb of a bighorn sheep, for example, reminds her of a 'bursting cattail.'
I will re-read this book as I yearn for long desert vistas. -
Oh, my heart. Ellen Meloy has a simple but deep way with words, and if you've ever loved a desert they will cut you to your core. In some ways, the works in Seasons remind me of a slightly feral Mary Oliver,
a comparison that feels both apt and not at all apt because I love both authors but each are decidedly their own thing. Anyway, if you've ever loved a desert or a river or a toad, or you think you might like to, or if you've lived the southwest, or loved someplace wild, this book is probably for you. -
If I could paint a thousand suns and sip the sand from the rim of the canyon it would not be enough to convey my deep appreciation for this amazing writer. I am bereft - never knowing her, never having the opportunity to say - "Your words from the desert touched the chords of my water-animal soul."
These essays are merely light fare touching on Ellen Meloy's nuanced observations. But absolutely necessary reading. -
3.5
Thus author is poetic in her descriptions of nature, much like I’d imagine Wendell Berry is based on what I’ve heard.
It just wasn’t for me. I failed to get the point of her essays. The ones I liked best compared the West she loved so much to other locales, specifically West Virginia and Brooklyn, NY.
Obviously she is a well-loved writer, she just wasn’t for my taste. -
I recently discovered Ellen Meloy's books and I've become a big fan. In my opinion, this books is a classic. A seemingly simple book of essays for NPR barely over 8o pages, but each two or three page essay is a great pleasure to read. This book will be riding shotgun with me in my car so I can reflect on the essays during any periods of waiting. For me, this is more inspiring than Walden.
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Beautiful, warm, witty, and smart collection of 2- to 3-page essays transcribed from the author's radio spots. Meloy has a keen eye not only for the detail of nature but the rhythms of its motion, and her phrasing and self-deprecating sense of humor make it compulsively readable, with page after page of quotable passages.
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Such a pleasant read! Love this collections of short stories and thoughts. It’s about life at a slower pace and really appreciating the wonders surrounding us all the time. Life before smart phones and social media. Really made me miss those times. I found myself laughing out loud while reading her beautiful writing. Highly recommend for a bedside table to read a little here and there.
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Consistently in awe of Meloy's ability to make me feel things like presence, longing, and belonging in the span of two pages... if that's not a testament to her humanity, and ability to relate to the world around her in such deep way, I don't know what is. But I'm glad she did.
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Regardless if you have ever lived in the western United States, you will fall in love with its natural beauty and power through Ellen's simple words and rich observations. Her stories are punctuated with humor, reverence, and sadness.
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Not what I was expecting but I enjoyed it. Short little stories or comments that were more thought provoking than many of the books I read. Definitely recommend if you like nature writings, Utah deserts, and thinking about random things!
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After Ellen Melody’s sudden death in 2004, her remaining previously unpublished short essays and sketches were gathered into this short book. It’s lovely, but feels incomplete. How could it not? Now I have read everything she ever wrote and I am sad.
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Her writing takes me to the place, especially when it is about the desert southwest.
