PositivePopMattersAtleework remembers her family\'s roots and explores the history of California\'s arid Eastern Sierras in her debut. Drawing parallels between her upbringing and the region\'s history, the memoir celebrates her home and the region while lovingly portraying her family\'s eccentricities. Her ability to relay naturalistic majesty in exquisite detail is dynamic yet tender, resulting in captivating storytelling ... The memories of her family seem disconnected and the writing is flat compared with Atleework\'s ability to pen a natural history. Her parents\' narrative is well-developed, but her brother is merely a footnote while her sister\'s influence is a blip. Whereas her environmental writing has vivacity, the depictions of Atleework\'s family render them as mundane ... Whereas Austin\'s voice is the most developed, the sheer quantity of other perspectives muddies her account ... Although inconsistent as a memoir, Miracle Country is a breathtaking environmental history. Atleework is a shrewd observer and her writing is a gratifying contribution to the desert-literature genre.
Andrea Barnet
MixedPop MattersVisionary Women expertly makes the connections between these women's monumental cultural impact ... Barnet is careful to include how each woman's work 'emphasized the interconnectedness that undergirded the living world' ... Interconnection is essential to how readers understand the past but also how Carson, Jacobs, Goodall, and Waters influenced our present ... However, including women of color who also produced radical results would have made the text stronger. The subject matter is very narrow and reiterates some of the mistakes initially made by second wave feminism ... Barnet is an engaging writer and Visionary Women is entertaining, informative and inspiring
