The Pine Island Paradox: Making Connections in a Disconnected World (The World As Home)

I expect books by philosophers to be made up of closely reasoned logical arguments, not poetic descriptions of deeply felt personal encounters with nature. I find I much prefer the latter! Not that there isn't some philosophizing going on, but the power of the arguments derive from the poetry and the emotions. This is incandescent writing, and I wanted to share practically every paragraph with my friends - and in fact there will be several Christmas stockings stuffed with this little book this year. My only disappointment is that, although she makes a case for an emotional connection to place being as important as our attachment to family, she doesn't seem to come up with a prescription for making that connection more universal in our sadly disconnected world. Unless it's simply sharing our love of nature directly with as many people as possible. I suppose that's a start.

Kathleen Dean Moore may be a philosopher, but as an ecologist and a closet theologian, she explores some of the biggest questions that we, as humans, face. She is also a poet, and writes in a way that touched my heart and yes, my soul, in a way that had me ordering all of her books before I was halfway through with this one. Wild Comfort, Riverwalking and Holdfast all captured my mind and heart, and I found myself falling in love with the places that she explored, the people who accompanied her on her inquiry, and the inquiry itself. This is not my normal genre of reading material, but since reading Pine Island Paradox (actually I've read it about five times now) I am in seach of anything that comes even close to her writing. Buy this book. You're in for a real treat.

A good read for a quiet morning on the patio. Kathleen Moore captures both the wonder of the natural world and the poignant loss of human connection with that world.

This book is a lyrical apology for an environmental ethic. Some of the essays are breathtakingly beautiful, with beauty being rather unexpected in the context of ethics. I recommend it highly.

This is exquisitely written and nuanced.

I read this for my Field and Natural History class (in high school) and it was awesome!! I recommend this to every science class. Our class had some wonderful discussions.

Wonderful writing with new thoughts to reflect on. Worth a read! Reveals our fundamental connection with nature and the universe.

Some very nice essays and some amazing essay. Dean Moore is an important voice for our times