Kenna's Reviews > Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert

Terry Tempest Williams' writing I feel deep in my bones. Having lived in the red rocks of Utah, I feel so drawn to and feel connected with her writing. These essays focus on the landscape and politics of the red rock wilderness in Utah.  It was really meaningful and important to read about Utah and national wilderness politics including the proposed Redrock Wilderness Act and the Antiquities Act of 1906.  I loved her essay on Aldo Leopold (love that she is an Aldo Leopold fan! Is it possible to fangirl about her being a fangirl for another author I love?) and the essay An Ode to Slowness. Her essay "A Letter to Deb Clow" is one of the most beautiful pieces, maybe the most, I've ever read on writing. The section of essays from "Coyote's Canyon" and the "Water, Land, Air, Etc" sections didn't draw me in as much, I think I just didn't have enough context for these essays to have gathered as much meaning out of them as I did the others. I would love to get more contexts for these essays because from my understanding, there was some influence and collaboration on some of these with or from local indigenous folks (although I may be wrong here).  I always have more room to grow, learn, and take away. If I were to recommend one book from the two I've read from her, it would be "Erosion: Essays of Undoing" but this read solidified that Terry Tempest Williams is one of my favorite nature writers.