Nina Shengold

Rating: 3 generous stars of five

The Publisher Says: On the eve of her sixtieth birthday, Nina Shengold embarks on a challenge: to walk the path surrounding the Catskills' glorious Ashokan Reservoir every day for a year, at all times of day and in all kinds of weather, trying to find something new every time.

Armed with lively curiosity, infectious enthusiasm, and renewed stubbornness, she hits the path every day with all five senses wide open, searching for details that glint. As Shengold explores the secrets of this spectacular place, she rediscovers the glories of solitude and an expanded community, both human and animal. Step by step, her reservoir walks rekindle connections with family, strangers, and friends, with a landscape she grows to revere, and with a new sense of self. Like the writings of John Burroughs, Annie Dillard, and Barry Lopez, Shengold's reflections on her personal journey will resonate with outdoor enthusiasts and armchair hikers alike.

Quietly transformative, Reservoir Year encourages readers to find their own ways to unplug and slow down, reconnecting with nature, reviving old passions and sparking some new ones along the path.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I am the author’s age, I am always interested in nature-centered books, and I LOVE the Catskills.

I should’ve loved this book. I did not. It took me a year to get to the 34% mark in my DRC, and then I forgot I even had the book. The writing is perfectly fine, nothing awful, nothing glorious. I love the idea of this kind of book. The quiet, gentle quality of this iteration ended up feeling soporific to me.

If Annie Dillard is too tendentious, and Barry Lopez is too strident, for your present mood, this book is a godsend for you. Treading the same paths they do in Hush Puppies instead of sneakers or boots, the stories will offer you solid value.

The ebook is steep at $24.95, but the library ought to have it.… (altro)

These plays all include roles for at least 2 women. Many of them are interesting and well written. Still, the book brought a couple of questions to the forefront for me: Why is it that when men write women, they always seem to talk about men? And do we really live in a world where there are no women age 40 to 60? Most of the women in these plays were young - mid-20s to mid-30s. Those that weren't young were old - over 65. The occasional mother of one of the younger women would appear, but always as a woman who would have had to have given birth in her 40s, or as a ghost that is also mid-20s to mid-30s, because mother is dead, leaving grandmother to rule the older female role. It is interesting that even women seem unable to write middle aged women into their plays. Overall, that lost the book an entire star.… (altro)