« March 2007 | Main | May 2007 »

April 20, 2007
Library Journal Review of A Leaky Tent

Library Journal, May 1, 2007
Nonfiction/Natural History
A Leaky Tent Is a Piece of Paradise: 20 Young Writers on Finding a Place in
the Natural World. Sierra Club Bks., dist. by Univ. of California. Apr.
2007. 312p. ed. by Bonnie Tsui. ISBN 978-1-57805-127-4. pap. $19.95.

In this eclectic collection of essays, 20 writers under the age of 30 share
their thoughts on awakening to the natural world. Compiled by Tsui—author of
She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers in the Civil War and contributor to
the New York Times, National Geographic Adventure, and Outside magazine—the volume aims to capture the range of natural experiences crucial to the individual. Reminiscent of the contemporary blogs that advertise the blogger's impressions in order to establish an identity and relationship with the world, most of the essays recount the authors' reactions to nature and their feelings during this interchange, which frequently occured while the writers were camping, trekking, canoeing, hunting, fishing, hiking, climbing, and facing fears such as keraunophobia (fear of lightning). Indeed, these pieces are not nature essays per se, as they focus more on the development of the individuals as they face new challenges than the natural world around them. Still, this volume will appeal to teens and young adults in the throes of coming of age. Recommended for public libraries. —Rita Hoots

Posted by bonnie

April 02, 2007
Booklist Review of A Leaky Tent

Booklist, April 1, 2007
Adult Books/Nonfiction/Science
A Leaky Tent Is a Piece of Paradise.
Tsui, Bonnie (editor).
Mar. 2007. 312p. Univ. of California, hardcover, $19.95 (9781578051274). 508.
REVIEW. First published April 1, 2007 (Booklist).

Seeking insight into how writers under 30 gain connection to the natural world, editor Tsui has formed a collection that is at once boisterous and heartfelt. The selections range from Tim Neville’s piece on camping in his backyard after a devastating high-school breakup to Jim Prosek’s pursuit of "eelian thinking" among New Zealand’s Maori. Tim Heffernan writes of lessons learned in self-reliance at remote Deep Springs College, while Hugh Ryan offers a delightful recollection of time spent at the Radical Faeries commune in "Sissies in the Woods." Christine DeLucia ruminates on cemeteries, Traci Joan Macnamara follows Shackleton’s legend to Antarctica, and Nicole Davis goes on a somewhat doomed road trip into the past. Tsui has included essays about finding yourself, your parents, or your people, about struggling to change or refusing to compromise. An anthology that fairly bowls the reader over with its exuberance, this unusual collection shows just how welcoming the genre of nature writing is for talented new writers. Highly recommended.
— Colleen Mondor

Posted by bonnie