Late Migrations (Renkl) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Ms. Renkl crafts graceful sentences that E.B. White would surely have enjoyed.…. We’re left to wonder what drives Ms. Renkl’s fears… [and we] wish… that Ms. Renkl would more fully explore the implications of such disclosures, but Late Migrations treats them only glancingly. Her narrative… patchwork sensibility seems meant to convey the crazy-quilt texture of personal memory, recollection rarely moving in clear sequence…. A liberating lyricism informs [the illustrations]…. [Renkl's] prose often sings…. [It's the] border between lightness and dark is where Ms. Renkl seems most inspired.
Wall Street Journal


This warm, rich memoir might be the sleeper of the summer. [Renkl] grew up in the South, nursed her aging parents, and never once lost her love for life, light, and the natural world. Beautiful is the word, beautiful all the way through.
Philadelphia Inquirer


[A] perfect book to read in the summer.… This is the kind of writing that makes me just want to stay put, reread and savor everything about that moment… a vivid and original essay collection.
Maureen Corrigan - Fresh Air


Magnificent…. Conjure your favorite place in the natural world: beach, mountain, lake, forest, porch, windowsill rooftop? Precisely there is the best place in which to savor this book.
NPR.org


Late Migrations has echoes of Annie Dillard's The Writing Life—with grandparents, sons, dogs and birds sharing the spotlight, it's a witty, warm and unaccountably soothing all-American story.
People


[Renkl] guides us through a South lush with bluebirds, pecan orchards, and glasses of whiskey shared at dusk in this collection of prose in poetry-size bits; as it celebrates bounty, it also mourns the profound losses we face every day.
Oprah Magazine


A lovely collection of essays about life, nature, and family. It will make you laugh, cry—and breathe more deeply.
Parade Magazine


(Starred review) [A] magnificent debut… poetic…. Renkl instructs that even amid life’s most devastating moments, there are reasons for hope and celebration…. Readers will savor each page and the many gems of wisdom they contain.
Publishers Weekly


A captivating, beautifully written story of growing up, love, loss, living, and a close extended family by a talented nature writer and memoirist that will appeal to those who enjoy introspective memoirs and the natural world close to home. —Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove, IL
Library Journal


[Late Migrations] is shot through with deep wonder and a profound sense of loss. It is a fine feat, this book. Renkl intimately knows that "this life thrives on death" and chooses to sing the glory of being alive all the same.
Booklist


Lyrical…. [T]he strength of [Renkl's] narrative is in the descriptions of nature in all its glory and cruelty; she vividly captures "the splendor of decay." Interspersed with the chapters are appealing nature illustrations…. A series of redolent snapshots and memories that seem to halt time.
Kirkus Reviews