My Heart Belongs to Nature: A Memoir in Photographs and Prose
We rated this book:
$29.95
It is a surprise that the author of The Milagro Beanfield War, John Nichols, has written such a mediocre memoir in My Heart Belongs to Nature. This large-format, coffee-table-ready volume consists of two parts, the first thirty pages is text, the memoir part. This is all about the author’s life from early childhood on. Nichols’ writing is unexceptional, describing hardly captivating story after story all related to Nature and his many undertakings of hikes, birdwatching, and observing the wilderness. All of this is in the Taos, New Mexico area, where Nichols grew up and lives. If you are a nature lover and enjoy memoirs, you may like this text. The next section consists of over a hundred color photographs, all about four-by-six inches in size and equally mediocre. The photos are ordinary snapshots anyone with a cellphone camera can achieve, and very few are of artistic value. Each one has a caption, some in a long paragraph, that tells us very little. For example, under a photo of an anthill, Nichols muses about the total mass of the body weight of all ants and the miracle of anthill construction. Leave this for the family.
| Author | John Nichols |
|---|---|
| Star Count | /5 |
| Format | Hard |
| Page Count | 148 pages |
| Publisher | University of New Mexico Press |
| Publish Date | 2017-Mar-15 |
| ISBN | 9780826357717 |
| Bookshop.org | Buy this Book |
| Issue | May 2017 |
| Category | Architecture & Photography |
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Richard Smith –
I found this memoir totally engaging. It shows the authors evolving connection to the natural world. Nichols tells his story with equal parts knowledge and wonder at what he discovers through the years and over the miles. The photos help complete the narrative circle both of the people and places that are special to the author. Admittedly, my living in Taos, New Mexico makes this book special to me. Still, it holds many surprises and insights that make living here feel even more special.