This book was absolutely fantastic, and it's the first one I've read by this author. I usually lean towards women writing about nature, and I had a feeling Robert Macfarlane might be a bit too focused on England. However, Are Rivers Alive?: A Journey of Discovery is like three mini-books in one, each detailing a journey to different places where he explores and observes how the Rights of Nature are being handled. Think of it as environmental book meets travelogue.Each trip is a collaborative eff...

Robert Macfarlane went to the same school as I did, though he was a couple of years ahead of me. It's entirely possible he even went on the same geography field trip my class did, where we visited a river (whose name I've long forgotten) at its source in the Dark Peak, then a slightly less forbidding middle stage, and finally its balmy, idyllic lower reaches. While I've forgotten almost all of the details, he's instead produced the widescreen remake, taking in three continents, apocalyptic high ...

I have a few minor criticisms about "Are Rivers Alive?: A Journey of Discovery" by Robert Macfarlane, but overall, I'm incredibly grateful for the time I spent reading it. It's genuinely inspiring to witness someone engaging with the world, literature, and philosophical thought in such a profound way through these stories. And within the ever-unfolding narrative of climate change, I believe that Robert Macfarlane's perspective—one that emphasizes considering the Earth itself—is just as vital as ...

Disappointing and quite self-indulgent. By the end, it feels a bit vacuous and even a little nauseating.Note: *Landmarks* and *Underland* were truly excellent books. And I was really looking forward to *Are Rivers Alive?: A Journey of Discovery*.Robert Macfarlane believes far too much in his own writing talent – so many overworked metaphors and similes that both jarred the narrative and were often counterproductive. He's no Nabokov.His worldview is also highly simplistic. Ancient ways good, mode...

Robert Macfarlane's latest work, Are Rivers Alive?: A Journey of Discovery, reads like the breathless account of someone who has just discovered that water is wet. His excitement about the "revolutionary" idea that rivers and landscapes are alive is genuine and infectious, but it lacks the humility one might expect from someone stumbling upon wisdom that indigenous peoples have carried for millennia. The central thesis—that we should recognize rivers as living entities deserving legal rights—is...

Based on the book description, I anticipated that the primary focus of "Are Rivers Alive?: A Journey of Discovery" by Robert Macfarlane would be rivers themselves – the science behind them and the argument for considering them living entities. I expected a significant emphasis on nature in general, but not to the degree that the title's premise felt almost like an afterthought. From discussions about fungi, sea turtles, whales, moths, and more, to the rights of nature, a more fitting title might...

A love letter to the natural world, told through travels along three rivers in Ecuador, India, and Canada. It's clear the human vs. nature battle is wearing thin, but beyond a sense of awe and legal rights as a potential solution, I found fewer concrete fixes than I'd hoped for.Resources aren't, they become.Are Rivers Alive?: A Journey of Discovery feels like a non-fiction companion piece to Elif Shafak's There Are Rivers in the Sky. Both books spark a sense of wonder regarding the water cycle a...

So, you're after a review of the book, eh? Just give me a moment... This is the ninth book by Robert Macfarlane that I've devoured, and it's been utterly captivating to witness his evolution. I haven’t necessarily read them in chronological order, but as you delve into his five 'major' works (with no disrespect intended to the others) – Mountains of the Mind, The Wild Places, The Old Ways, Underland, and Are Rivers Alive?: A Journey of Discovery – you can practically feel him maturing into his w...

The rain never arrives, but hummingbirds do. They flit around and between us, their buzzing wings vibrating in our ears, shifting so quickly they seem to beat time itself. They are so gifted and interdimensional that I long to become one. These, I think, are the true treasures of the forest, its rare earths: the coppers, silvers, and golds, all shimmering metal and whirring clockwork. Robert Macfarlane's exceptional prose is equally enthralling and exquisite. In his latest book, *Are Rivers Al...

This book is a collection of descriptions that completely stunned me with their sheer beauty:“Rain-fed, the spring’s stream surges seaward: gravity at work, or something like longing”"Far to the north, where glaciers once dragged their bellies”“Nightshade, magpie cackle, flies scribbling the same message over and over again in floating patches of sun” “an egret, white as a slice of snow standing stone-still in the exhausted outflow channel” “The fireflies start it, their orange diodes winking on...