Finding Home: Writing on Nature and Culture from Orion Magazine

Generally thoughtful and evocative, these 19 essays originally appeared in a quarterly magazine that emphasizes the reciprocal relationship between people and nature. The first section, ``Finding Home,'' transcends conventional musings on nature, as David Ehrenfeld ( The Arrogance of Humanism ) writes movingly about his discovery of ``a place worth saving'' and Wallace Kaufman ( The Beaches Are Moving ) offers a wry, spirited account of his life as a developer. Some essays in ``The Geographics of Home'' are overly abstract, but Barry Lopez ( Arctic Dreams ) makes telling observations about the generalized, romantic American geography projected by politics and advertising. In ``Other Walls, Other Wildness,'' essayists range from the Amazon to Bali. ``A Child's Sense of Wildness'' includes a piece by Scott Russell Sanders ( Secrets of the Universe ) on his son ``eagerly building a model of nature.'' In the final section, ``Metaphors of Desire,'' Ann Zwinger ( Aspen: Blazon of the West ) reflects on how drawing teaches her about nature, and Barbara Dean ( Wellspring: A Story from the Deep Country ) chronicles a search for a Christmas tree that prompted meditations on killing and natural regeneration. Sauer is on the editorial board of Orion magazine. (Aug.)