A poet/photographer deftly makes Idaho look—and sound—like heaven.
A collection offers photographs and devotional verse.
The images are the real stars of this elegant volume. Moseley’s photos of North Idaho will make readers who have never been to the region feel like they have been missing out. On one level, her book is a visual love letter to her home state. In it are dozens of pictures of the Western landscape rendered in gorgeous detail. If these images are any indication, Idaho’s natural beauties are just stunning. The state’s skies are breathtaking, its waterways lucent, its foliage lush, and its snowscapes pristine. Those who have tried their hands at nature photography know it’s not for amateurs, and Moseley is a real pro. Her photos are crisp, colorful, and expertly framed. But the pictures are not the only gift she has for her readers. Mixed among them are swatches of lucid, moving poetry. Sometimes these poems are barely a few lines. A jaw-dropping shot of a double rainbow is accompanied by a humble quatrain: “Late afternoon Spring storms / adorn radiant skies with / wreaths of glistening rainbows / shimmering in the distant horizon.” Other poems, like “The Road Beyond,” stretch on to multiple pages. That piece ends: “Not once has He left me to travel alone / Through the bends, shadows, or strife / I wait for His hand to show me the way / No never alone on this road, my life.” The “He” here is God, and the natural world is enduring proof of the Lord’s benevolence and love. In this, the poet follows the great Gerard Manley Hopkins, who wrote that “the world is charged with the grandeur of God.” For Moseley, as for Hopkins, people can look to nature for evidence of God’s enduring presence, and her book is a touching testament to that belief.
A poet/photographer deftly makes Idaho look—and sound—like heaven.Pub Date: April 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-973688-26-6
Page Count: 104
Publisher: WestBowPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Breathtakingly magical.
A powerful homage to the natural world, from England by way of Canada.
Combining poetic words (somewhat reminiscent of Mary Oliver’s poetry in their passion for the natural world) with truly stunning illustrations, this unusually beautiful book brings to readers the magic and wonder of nature. This is not a book about ecology or habitat; this is a book that encourages readers to revel in, and connect with, the natural world. Focusing on a particular subject, whether it be animal, insect, or plant, each poem (rendered in a variety of forms) delivers a “spell” that can be playful, poignant, or entreating. They are most effective when read aloud (as readers are encouraged to do in the introduction). Gorgeous illustrations accompany the words, both as stand-alone double-page spreads and as spot and full-page illustrations. Each remarkable image exhibits a perfect mastery of design, lively line, and watercolor technique while the sophisticated palette of warms and cools both soothes and surprises. This intense interweaving of words and pictures creates a sense of immersion and interaction—and a sense that the natural world is part of us. A glossary encourages readers to find each named species in the illustrations throughout the book––and to go one step further and bring the book outside, to find the actual subjects in nature. Very much in the spirit of the duo’s magisterial The Lost Words (2018), this companion is significantly smaller than its sprawling companion; at just 6.5 by 4.5 inches when closed, it will easily fit into a backpack or generously sized pocket. “Wonder is needed now more than ever,” Macfarlane writes in the introduction, and this book delivers it.
Breathtakingly magical. (Poetry. 6-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4870-0779-9
Page Count: 120
Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2020
A sometimes vivid yet uneven portrait of an artist’s many years traveling to and observing Iceland.
An American visual artist collects her writing from four decades of sojourns to Iceland.
Horn first traveled to Iceland in 1975 at age 19, and she has been drawn to the island ever since, as reflected in this combination of poetry, short essays, oral histories, architectural reviews, and environmental jeremiads. In the book’s first section, featuring pieces published in the 1990s, the author writes about what has kept her coming back: wild weather, uninterrupted horizons, and solitude—a holiday from “the friction of seeing and knowing.” Traveling by motorcycle, she camped in outbuildings and lighthouses, and she notes how Iceland’s lack of violence, reptiles, and large mammals was liberating for a traveling single woman. “Relief from fear is freedom,” she writes. Horn trains her artist’s eye on the country’s fantastic volcanic landscapes, black beaches and white surf, and hot springs found in every corner of the island. Sensually arresting, these passages are solitary meditations in an empty landscape; at times, readers long for someone else to show up. In the second section, the author offers a series of oral histories about the weather. These short installments, three pages at the most, are eloquent descriptions from ordinary people, testaments to the intricate dance between the islanders and their wild weather conditions: obliterating blizzards, relentless wind, and even incidents of freezing and drowning. A government commissioner calmly reports seeing spirits on his long walks through the lava fields, and older citizens express a generalized unease about climate change. The final sections feel padded: reprints of Horn’s environmental opinion pieces and meditations on specific island locations accompanied by images of previously published photographs that fail to illuminate the place. The first sections of the book will stoke the desire for a more in-depth study of Iceland; the others will interest veteran Iceland-watchers.
A sometimes vivid yet uneven portrait of an artist’s many years traveling to and observing Iceland.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-691-20814-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
