Synopses & Reviews
“[McKibben is] a marvelous writer who has thought deeply about the environment, loves this part of the country, and knows how to be a first-class traveling companion.”—Entertainment WeeklyIn Wandering Home, one of his most personal books, Bill McKibben invites readers to join him on a hike from his current home in Vermont to his former home in the Adirondacks. Here he reveals that the motivation for his impassioned environmental activism is not high-minded or abstract, but as tangible as the lakes and forests he explored in his twenties, the same woods where he lives with his family today.
Over the course of his journey McKibben meets with old friends and kindred spirits, including activists, writers, organic farmers, a vintner, a beekeeper, and environmental studies students, all in touch with nature and committed to its preservation. For McKibben, there is no better place than these woods to work out a balance between the wild and the cultivated, the individual and the global community, and to discover the answers to the challenges facing our planet today.
Review
"Blue Collar Nomad is a serene collection of meditations on self, time, and place in the 21st century American landscape. Evoking the spiritual quests of Jon Krakauer, Jack Kerouac, and Henry David Thoreau, this collection of poems, narratives, and essays affirms one’s faith in the power of language to root and restore a world of one. For anyone searching for the Church of the Blue Sky, reading Jake Kaida is a must.” —Nancy M. Grace, author, Breaking the Rule of Cool
Review
"Jake Kaida found spiritual discipline in the nomadic lifestyle and sustained it with the gift of intuitive grace. Above all, Kaida learned about showing up and being present. His personal journey is beautifully told in Blue Collar Nomad in both prose and poem." —Christine Cote, editor, Stone Voices
Synopsis
A compendium of North American travel and place-based pieces composed between the ages of 23 and 35, this book explores gritty urban areas, eclectic towns, and isolated geographical landscapes, introducing a cast of interesting local characters along the way. The atmospheric narratives blend genuine working class ethics with jazzy intuitive prose in order to transport the reader deep into various localities and communities in the United States and Canada. The author sponsored his 12-year trek across the land by working as a farmhand, natural chef, organic gardener, bartender, landscape artist, writing instructor, and mentor to at-risk youth. As a whole, this collection of travel essays encourages the reader to be with the land and its people in order to deeply feel the world.
About the Author
Bill McKibben is the author of more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature, Oil and Honey, Eaarth, and Deep Economy. He is the founder of the environmental organization 350.org and was among the first to warn of the dangers of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Prize.