Wild Light: A printmaker’s day and night

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I loved everything about this book. I went to bed with puffy eyes from crying but it was just so good. (And if you love this, definitely read The Serpent King, if not all of Zentner's other books.) You can’t fix a car with poetry. “Poetry won’t help you build that new app and make billions. It won’t win you an election. There are so many ways that poetry isn’t useful in the way we think of things as being useful. And yet…We bring poems to read at weddings and funerals. We write them to lovers. When our lives have been burned down around us, we look for that single glowing ember remaining, and that’s a poem. Poetry is one of the highest artistic achievements of humankind.” You are not a creature of grief. You are not a congregation of wounds. You are not the sum of your losses. Your skin is not your scars. Your life is yours, and it can be new and wondrous. Remember that." A beautiful book and my favorite of Jeff's novels since his debut, which will forever hold a spot on my shelf of all-time favorite reads. How do you make the choice between those you love? How do you know if going after something you never thought you’d have is worth the risk of losing what you know? How do you find the courage to let people in?

I hope you enjoy this journey through 24 hours of my collected memories of the nature that surrounds me.” I enjoyed this tale of a family spending six months on an island as caretakers of a lighthouse and weather station. Sixteen year old Stephanie is less than happy to be there, especially during her last year at school with final exams looming and no phone reception to talk to her friends. Her mother thinks it will help them all get over the death of Stephanie's twin brother and is keen to spend time on the island where her own parents were once lighthouse keepers. It’s when Cash decides to take a chance on himself, that the story shifts from one about two special kids trying to escape the poison in their small town, to one about those same kids realizing that it’s what’s inside them - their gifts and their love - that will not only be the things that end up saving them, but that might actually save their small town, too. In Jeff's hands, these elements come together this time around to tell the story of Cash*** and Delaney, high school friends whose bond is formed by tragedy and then transformed when, together, they leave behind their hometown for the educational opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to attend an elite East Coast boarding school on full scholarship. When you grow up with ugliness and corruption, you surrender to beauty whenever and wherever you find it. You let it save you, if only for the time it take for a snowflake to melt on your tongue or for the sun to sink below the horizon to a wildfire of clouds. No matter what else might be troubling your mind."Y]ou are not a creature of grief. You are not a congregation of wounds. You are not the sum of your losses. Your skin is not your scars. Your life is yours and it can be new and wondrous.” Wild Light’s breathtaking photography is accompanied by Erik's often thought-provoking and lyrical observations. In the great tradition of naturalist John Muir, Erik highlights the paradox of wilderness and its ability to invite us deeper into what makes us human. A perfect stand of fall aspen or the unblinking eyes of a mule deer call forth both awe and reflection. The Wild Light book is the most comprehensive photography of RMNP that has ever been done. The imagery and detail captured in each picture is outstanding. - Joan Robertson

This book is a love letter to the panoramic format – and a very specific panoramic format. The images in Wild Light were shot on Velvia 50 with the Hasselblad XPan, a near-legendary camera that takes 35mm film but shoots panoramic 24x65mm negatives. The images have an inviting warmth to them (even the cold and snowy ones!) and the artist’s style feels mature to me. Combined with seven years of hard work, the result is a cohesive set of truly spellbinding images from Scotland’s mountains.When you grow up with ugliness and corruption, you surrender to beauty whenever and wherever you find it. You let it save you, if only for the time it takes for a snowflake to melt on your tongue or for the sun to sink below the horizon in a wildfire of clouds." In the dim of the porch light I see his eyes, ardent with furious love. It burns through the darkness in me. It pulls me from the maelstrom and drops me, dripping and shivering on the shore. I initially intended to read this book over several days, and I even put it down a couple of times intending to call it a night. But the book kept calling me and so here I sit after midnight just soaking in this book. Sometimes a book just speaks to you and for me, this was one of those. I find what I love most about my favorite authors is that they tell previously overlooked, untold stories. Which is why I love all of Jeff's books. There's nothing spectacular or special about any of his main characters. They're the kids in your high school that you probably didn't know much about, the cashier at the Dairy Queen, the quirky kids with the odd hobbies, the misfits in your hometown. But he gives them dignity. He makes you look at those "average" and "unspectacular" people and see that they actually are spectacular and special, in their own ways. The book is beautifully written, but not in an exhausting manner. I loved meeting all of the characters and the realistic banter between each of them. They felt real. It reminded me a lot of my high school friend group.