Distinctive among apocalypse stories for its vivid portrayals of the natural world. Also it takes place in a part of Colorado where I've lived, and I enjoyed having a sense of the geography.
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Reading for sanity, solace, meaning, meandering.
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outofrange reviewed The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
outofrange reviewed Arcadia by Lauren Groff
Is any way of living sane when you look closely?
4 stars
I love that this story which begins on a hippy commune really wrestles with the fact that people do attempt to create lifestyles that reject some of the insanities of our mainstream culture, and probably always have, but it rarely becomes the dreamed-of utopia. And for a publish date of 2012 there is an eerily familiar pandemic event that gives even more gravitas to a very convincing story.
A successful challenge to the nature writing genre
5 stars
An impassioned argument for the honest inclusion of the day-to-day realities of the naturalist in nature writing, and for some long-absent diversity in this. And plenty of nature, too.
outofrange reviewed We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen
A charmingly strange tour of seafaring history
4 stars
For me this was an introduction to Danish history via the island town of Marstal. Though I have some seafaring ancestry in the Dutch branch of my family, that was just enough keep my curiosity perked in these stories where the sea is always present. The human characters were foreign enough to keep me guessing, and they grew to inhabit a realistic historical world. Not sure how I came across this book, but glad I did.
outofrange reviewed The solace of open spaces by Gretel Ehrlich
outofrange reviewed Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
outofrange reviewed The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson
A view into the work and lives of gene editing researchers
4 stars
This is an area of research with huge potential impacts that I had little understanding of. The basic explanations are pretty good, though I still have plenty of questions. Why are CRISPR RNA sequences palindromic? Etc. Mostly this is the stories of the people, though. Somehow I hadn't heard that there are genetically modified humans walking the earth, and how that happened is pretty interesting. Also these researchers managed to agree on some guard rails to safeguard our species, which has parallels with what is happening with artificial intelligence now.
outofrange reviewed A Half-Built Garden
Good ideas inhabiting a challenging story
3 stars
I wanted to like the story but had trouble with the implausibilities. Interesting themes like algorithmic governance, ecological integration with technology, and collaborative family redefinition kept me going and were ultimately more rewarding.
outofrange finished reading A Half-Built Garden
outofrange finished reading The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel A. Van Der Kolk

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel A. Van Der Kolk
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five …
outofrange reviewed The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel A. Van Der Kolk
Added a new dimension to my view of humans
5 stars
I was not very curious about trauma and its impacts, but I was interested in learning about the ways our experiences affect our body and vice versa. It quickly became clear that trauma is just the more extreme reaches of this relationship, and the study of it sheds light on nearly everything about being human and relating to humans. I felt a foundational shift of my perspective on my life and relationships as I read, and already my life is changing as a result. If I made a manual for being human, I would put this book near the front.
outofrange started reading The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel A. Van Der Kolk
outofrange reviewed The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
When reality bends to belief
4 stars
This was my father's book. He said his mother read King Arthur stories to him as a child, I wish I knew which ones. For me the most interesting connection to my world is the idea that our collective and even individual beliefs shape our shared reality. The religious and political dimension of the story is a battle for mindshare where power flows toward the most influential zealots and extremists, remaking the world. There were a lot of other dimensions too, making it a more thought provoking read than I expected.
outofrange finished reading Breath by James Nestor

Breath by James Nestor
Who would have thought something as simple as changing the way we breathe could be so revolutionary for our health, …