Hello! Windfall is a finalist for the Sarah Winnemucca Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction. The ceremony is tomorrow evening (4/8) in Portland. I have two extra tickets to give away. If you’re a local reader and want one or both, just reply to this email. I’ll pick a winner with a random number generator.
Hello friends,
I’m catching up after a few days near Moab, Utah. The above photo was among my favorites from the trip. It’s of my nieces on our pre-dawn hike to Delicate Arch. Perhaps I’ll write more about our adventures someday soon…
In the meantime, here’s a batch of good reads I’ve been collecting over the past few weeks.
Yours,
Erika
THE NEWS
All the links…
I love that this story opens with a hike to Delicate Arch, especially since I was just there. But it’s also about the childlike delight of finding the perfect artifact—a stone, a stick, a shell, a feather—on your path.
Is it OK to name a Moab subdivision after Ed Abbey? Abbey’s legacy is everywhere in the desert southwest, which he popularized with his writing and novels like The Monkeywrench Gang. But should it be?
If you’re lucky enough to be in the path of totality tomorrow, do yourself a favor and read (or re-read) this perfect Annie Dillard essay on the alternative reality of eclipses.
And then delight in this story of a life spent chasing eclipses. Perhaps this is the secret to living for a century or more?
Meet the remarkable Oregon horsewomen of the “Hen Party.”
Novelist Gary Shteyngart on his terrible time on the inaugural voyage of the world’s largest cruise ship. Worth the very long read just to arrive at the conclusion—and for many other laugh-out-loud lines. (Also: What does it say that no one on the cruise had seen Succession?)
Bryan Stevenson reclaims the monument in the heart of the Deep South.
An oral history of the night Beyoncé and the Chicks played the CMAs, and how it may have led to the extraordinary Cowboy Carter album released March 29.
HarperCollins made a tiny tweak to its book design—and has saved thousands of trees as a result.
Dallas is looking for urban design that tackles loneliness.
Meanwhile in Denver, e-bike vouchers run out as fast as Taylor Swift tickets.
Is walking good exercise? Short answer: Yes, but it’s not quite enough.
I look forward to digging into these articles, especially the ones about Ed Abbey and the eclipse! I just published an essay about my own eclipse experience, if you’re interested:
www.lizexplores.com/p/eclipsed