Reader Bee: Book Reviews

By Karina Wetherbee As humans, we like to think we have the world figured out, with our keen senses, sophisticated minds, and a seemingly boundless array of technology at our fingertips. Another common assumption is that all other species with whom we share this planet must have less complex ways of sensing and perceiving the landscape.  Ed Yong’s 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, An Immense World, turns this notion on its head and reveals a plethora of truly surprising and diverse examples of animals whose Umwelt, or “perceptual world”, is worthy of study, appreciation, and most importantly, preservation. Yong’s remarkable book delves, sense...

By Karina Wetherbee It is commonly assumed that discussing politics or religion is a guaranteed way to make enemies, and to write a book about such polarizing topics can be seen as sheer folly. But when author and frequent Crestone visitor, Larry Jordan, decided to tackle his own relationship with spirituality, he was determined to approach the effort with an open mind and a relinquishment of ego.  His recent book, The Way: Meaningful Spirituality For A Modern World, attempts to do just that, and he admits early on that when he began to study his connection with his faith, he was...

By Karina Wetherbee. The Vaster Wilds, by Lauren Groff The solo survival story is a common narrative, usually with an endearing young hero or heroine at the center and most often set in a modern wilderness or a post-apocalyptic urban wasteland. But in the recent bestseller, The Vaster Wilds, author Lauren Groff takes the popular trope and goes back in time, all the way back to early 17th century colonial America. From the book’s opening pages, a frenetic pace envelopes the protagonist, a young servant girl fleeing the beleaguered Jamestown settlement. The overarching motifs of famine, disease, deeply divided class hierarchies,...

By Karina Wetherbee. Island on Fire, by Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe In today’s modern, hyper-connected world, very little happens without some cable news journalist reporting upon it, or some individual posting an update with a selfie. Cameras are situated on mountain peaks, above eagles’ nests, where fat bears catch fish, and even on the flanks of highly active volcanic craters.  Iceland is famous for its fiery nature, and the world can watch, via livestream, as one volcano after another takes a turn spitting and spewing into the sky. But in the fascinating book, Island on Fire, science authors Alexandra Witze and...

Review by Karina Wetherbee. No one gets through life without some setbacks or misfortunes; it is the nature of human existence to navigate and weather turbulent times. Those stumbling blocks can seem overwhelming and paralyzing, but they can also be periods of profound growth and change, and can foster a heightened appreciation for the arrival of moments of happiness and success. According to best-selling author Katherine May, those dark times should be embraced and harnessed for restorative growth.  Her 2020 book, Wintering; The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, discusses just that. It is a captivating exploration of the...

Review by Karina Wetherbee The immigrant experience is the backbone of the American story, as for centuries people have been moving across the landscape of the continent, carrying their culture, their hopes and dreams, and their suffering, inevitably upending the indigenous communities in the process.  El Salvadoran poet Javier Zamora’s new memoir, Solito, is a deeply personal and revealing look at the levels of hardship and misfortune the average migrant undergoes in pursuit of prosperity and peace. Even a brief look at Zamora’s professional successes reveals the human and creative potential that an eager and hardworking immigrant can bring to their...

Editor’s note: Karina Wetherbee will be writing monthly book reviews for The Crestone Eagle.  Cave of Bones: A True Story of Discovery, Adventure, and Human Origins, by Lee Berger and John Hawks By Karina Wetherbee. Imagine making an earth-shattering discovery, one that upends the very understanding of the human ancestral story. Now, imagine that your discovery is located deep beneath the earth’s surface, where only the smallest, most agile, and bravest spelunkers can access. This is exactly the situation that famed paleoanthropologist Lee Berger found himself in in 2013, when his team of cavers returned with astounding images from their exploration of...

Reviewed by Karina Wetherbee. Editor’s note: Karina Wetherbee will be writing monthly book reviews for the Crestone Eagle.  The modern world is a place of constant motion, plagued by an unrealistic work/life balance, mounting unread emails, and a 24/7 news cycle — with some headlines that impact humanity’s very existence and many more that are as substantive as mist, barely relevant for minutes at most. A yearning to escape, to flee life’s responsibilities and the daily hustle and bustle can be tempting. It’s this unnamed craving that Sara Baume explores in her recent book, Seven Steeples. As with her widely acclaimed first...