Amherst Reads The Paradise Notebooks: 90 Miles Across the Sierra Nevada

Over the course of twenty-one pairs of short essays, Nevle and Nightingale contemplate the natural phenomena found in the Sierra Nevada. From granite to aspen, to fire, to a rare, endemic species of butterfly, these essay pairs explore the natural history and mystical wonder of each element with a balanced and captivating touch. As they weave in vignettes from their ninety-mile backpacking trip across the range, Nevle and Nightingale powerfully reconceive the Sierra Nevada as both earthly matter and transcendental offering, letting us into a reality in which nature holds just as much spiritual importance as it does physical.

In a time of rapid environmental degradation, The Paradise Notebooks offers a way forward—a whole-minded, learned, loving attention to place that rekindles our joyful relationship with the living world.