Category: Non-Fiction

Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is truly remarkable–epic in scope, minute in detail, and so densely interwoven between adventure writing, cultural commentary, scientific discovery, mythology, and immediate sensation of place that it really transcends categorization. At heart, Macfarlane is an adventurer, but one who subverts the “physical challenge as personal journey” trope, pursing instead enlightenment on a cosmic level, uniting all of human history and all of earth’s time as perceived through his shamanlike experiences of the world’s beneath-places. The deeper you dig, the closer science and art become related, and Macfarlane takes us all the way down in UNDERLAND.



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Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Neil Shubin’s YOUR INNER FISH is a gift to fish nerds, fossil hounds, and curious souls everywhere. In writing that hums with genuine energy and contagious passion, Shubin unlocks the building blocks of natural history present in our own bodies, from genome to bones, with surprises around every gill. Read it and see how you = fish in deeper ways than you might’ve surmised.



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Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What I love most about Matt Bell’s REFUSE TO BE DONE is its uncommon trust in the novel writer it is speaking to. I’ve never read a craft or process guide that so clearly believes in the capability of the storyteller, or so practically hands over immediately useful things. It is challenging but affirming, and synthesizes sound bytes of stellar writing advice from across the literary world with Bell’s own lived-in, battle-tested, demanding-yet-achievable process and workflow fundamentals. This book will remain a key item in my adventure pack while I journey through the first draft of my second book, and likely many more drafts to come.



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Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World by Kathryn Aalto

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What a treasure of a book by Kathryn Aalto, profiling the greatest female nature writers most of us have never heard of. Immensely enjoyed the academic exploration of these important legacies, how they changed through time, and how they set work in motion that is still in progress today. I felt like I was walking with them thanks to Aalto’s companionable, evocative prose. Rigorous in its exhaustive collection of related works as well–a great reference for future reading.



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Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves by James Nestor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Beyond fascinating–part memoir, part pop science thematic compilation, James Nestor’s Deep makes you feel suspended in the dark pressure of the sea. Even as an ocean science nerd, I learned so much. Spoiler: the ocean and the human body are both even more insane than you thought. I hope this book continues to inspire conservation efforts and a gentler relationship between humans and the sea.

One correction I have to mention because I can’t stop myself: in the photo inset, it says “Whale sharks are neither whales nor sharks, but the world’s largest fish.” Actually, whale sharks are definitely sharks. All sharks are also fish. So yes, they are the world’s largest fish and also shark. Thank you for listening.



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Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic by Lisa Congdon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A solid read with great advice for any creative who is trying to establish their own style and way of bringing their work to the world. Nothing earth-changing here, just a beautiful little book with lots of sense-making guidance to return you to the basics of finding yourself while/despite/in the midst of consistent creative practice.



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Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Incredibly meticulous, Alfred Lansing’s Endurance is almost intimidating in its level of detail at first. But the deeper I sank into this story, the more appreciative I became of that detail. The way that Lansing painstakingly analyzed every crew member’s diary, interviewed surviving members, and researched everything he could possibly get his hands on regarding Shackleton’s voyage makes this book the immersive masterpiece that it is. You feel every moment. Reading it left me in awe at the capacity of human beings. It moved me to tears. What a book. What a story. What an absolute miracle.



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Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I’ve been a huge admirer of the late Ursula K. Le Guin ever since I read The Left Hand of Darkness and my mind was never the same. How lucky we are that some of her best writing advice is preserved in this volume! It’s a largely no-nonsense guide that distills writing into its most basic elements–she presents a deep dive on things like description, verb tenses, and point of view with plenty of examples and exercises to go with each section. But my favorite part was where she waxed a bit philosophical about how and why these nuts and bolts fit into the larger magic of story. There’s also a heaping helping of patented Le Guin sassiness and I loved that.



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Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is so beautifully written, researched, and organized. Like the whale, it is heavy. Like the whale, it has many different functions and territories within a single body. Part memoir, part natural history, part catalog, part philosophy, Rebecca Giggs takes on the massive task of exploring how whales and human beings will never be free of each other’s influence. She presents a connection between humans and whales across species that has enlightened, destroyed, moved, fed, thrilled, and poisoned bodies, cultures, and our own vision of ourselves. An urgent and unflinching piece of environmental writing, and a true, poetic love at its core.



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