Magdalena Mountain

Praise for Magdalena Mountain An elegant, eccentric novel of love, loneliness, and lepidoptera . . . Worthy company for work by other naturalist/novelists: Nabokov, Matthiessen, Kingsolver. --Kirkus Reviews The first novel from prolific nature writer Pyle is bathed in exquisite and venerating descriptions of nature, wildlife, and pristine environments . . . His contemplative novel will be a treat for readers who delight in the tranquility of nature. --Publishers Weekly [A] lyrically wrought tale of discovery, exploration, and renewal . . . In this debut novel, acclaimed nature writer Pyle (Mariposa Road, 2010) brings a lush sense of the majesty, mystique, and magic to be found in all of nature's forms. --Booklist Fans of Robert Michael Pyle's nonfiction will not be surprised to find his first novel abounding in details of the natural world--lovingly described plant and animal and insect life across the changing of the seasons on a remote Colorado mountain. What they may not expect is the bold imagination he brings to these pages--an amnesiac who might be the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene, a pantheist colony of monks in cahoots with feminist antinuclear activists, a Yale graduate student on the trail of a mysterious hitchhiking lepidopterist! Magdalena Mountain is thoroughly original, and thoroughly Robert Michael Pyle. Enjoy! --Molly Gloss, author of The Hearts of Horses Only Robert Michael Pyle could've written this daring novel. He's walked in the boots of his colorful characters, whether strolling across the Yale campus or chasing rare butterflies in the wilds. He masterfully describes the seasonal nuances of a singular mountain. His love and exquisitely detailed understanding of the natural world fills these pages. --Jim Lynch, author of Before the Wind Praise for Where Bigfoot Walks Fast claiming his place as one of the country's finest natural history writers, Pyle takes to the hills in search of Bigfoot in this absorbing, classily written field report. Pyle makes all the right connections. Best of all, he loves a good mystery and is smart enough, open and radical enough, to never say never. --Kirkus Reviews [A] leisurely, gracefully written meditation. --Publishers Weekly Celebrated author Pyle, whose Wintergreen won a John Burroughs medal, is fascinated not so much by Bigfoot as he is by the people who believe that Bigfoot exists-and are trying to prove it. --Library Journal I like the book very much. Only, I don't know why you were so circumspect. To me, the evidence seems overwhelming. --Dr. Jane Goodall, in conversation with the author A search for the Pacific Northwest's fabled Bigfoot provides a jumping-off point for nature writer Robert Michael Pyle's lyrical ruminations on wilderness, isolation, and the occasional triumphs of mystery over so-called progress. Pyle's well-researched stomping ground is Washington State's Dark Divide in the Cascade Mountains... Pyle's route alternates between desolate clear-cuts and majestic ancient forests, between the inroads of civilization and the dark recesses of the wild. But never does the author get too caught up in proving anything to himself or the reader; this search for Bigfoot has as much to do with locating the wild nature within each of us as it does with finding a legend. --Amazon.com Editorial Pick Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide is a unique book in the bigfoot literature, one that is not so much concerned with whether the creatures exist or not, but rather one that focuses on the value of the mystery itself. Dr. Pyle's writing stands alongside those of the great naturalist writers and is full of wit and wisdom. Through his journey, we find that he intuitively understands what most lifetime bigfooters eventually come to know: that bigfooting is about the journey more than the destination. --Cliff Barackman, field researcher and star of Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot Cross into the Dark Divide with Robert Pyle and you will find yourself in another world, a world where we are one among the animals, a deeper, more ambiguous world, where science answers some of the questions, and our hearts and imaginations answer (or seek to answer) the rest. 'In a class of its own' is an overused phrase, but Where Bigfoot Walks is so haunting and beautiful and bold that I can think of nothing else like it. Follow Bob into the woods, into the labyrinth that is the mystery of Bigfoot--you will find no better guide. --Molly Gloss, author of Falling From Horses, The Jump-Off Creek, Hearts of Horses, and Wild Life Splendidly lyrical and just as splendidly crusty, Where Bigfoot Walks is the sort of book Thoreau might have written if he had discovered giant footprints of an unknown origin in the vicinity of Walden Pond. --Lawrence Millman, author of Our Like Will Not Be There Again: Notes from the West of Ireland and Last Places Praise for The Thunder Tree Pyle has written an engrossing story of at least two levels: a charming memoir of his youth on the canal and a sobering account of uncontrolled development and loss of habitat. --Publishers Weekly 'The Thunder Tree' was a huge, hollow old cottonwood in which the author and his brother once found shelter as children from a life-threatening hailstorm. The tree grew along the High Line Canal, built in the late 19th century as part of a grand plan to bring river water to the Western plains for irrigation. Only a portion of the canal was ever built, but that portion happened to run through the city of Aurora, Colorado, where the author lived as a child and young adult ... this book is about the relationship between people and natural areas and how each affects the other. --Library Journal Never preachy, never cloying: a powerful and memorable example of place writing. --Kirkus Reviews Praise for Wintergreen Pyle looks past the stumps and clear cuts to rediscover the essence of the Willapa Hills. Even though scarred from decades of logging this terrain is still a wilderness. The author puts the pieces together to create an example of nature trying to survive. --Krist Novoselic, former bassist of Nirvana Pyle shows himself here to be a cunning essayist who is able to bring to life a region little known . . . a love song to an overlooked--and overworked--land. --Kirkus Reviews Pyle has created a collection of vividly responsive observations and speculations about the diversity and requirements of life, from butterflies to bears --Library Journal Not just a classic of Northwest nature writing and literature, Wintergreen is a book that transcends the wounded Willapa Hills where it is set and becomes a meditation on the relationship of all people to all places. --William Dietrich, author of Barbary Pirates Praise for Chasing Monarchs In his new book, Chasing Monarchs, the naturalist Robert Michael Pyle chronicles his efforts to follow the monarchs on their winter migration by tracking them on the ground in a battered old Honda Civic. . . . The author's evident passion for and understanding of butterflies invest his narrative with energy and interest. The New York Times Natural history never went down easier. --Kirkus Reviews Victorian-era butterfly hunters are often portrayed as genteel aristocrats, but today's breed, like the author of this book, are gritty, adventurous, and far-wandering. Over two months and across 9000 miles, Pyle tracked and tagged monarch butterflies along their migratory route from northern British Columbia to Mexico. Because he is an ecologist, Pyle gives a solid general account of the state of scientific knowledge of the monarchs and their remarkable travels. Because he is also an award-winning natural history writer, he vividly conveys the lure of the butterflies, the quirky passions of those who study them, and the beauty and diversity of Western landscapes. --Library Journal Scientists know that monarch butterflies migrate thousands of miles each year between northern parts of the U.S. and Mexico or California, but no one has actually seen how they do it. So ecologist Pyle (Where Bigfoot Walks) decided to try. His method: to find individual butterflies at their northernmost habitat, follow them as far as possible, then repeat the process with other individual butterflies along the southward route. Amazingly, this haphazard approach worked. Pyle began near the Canadian border, at the Columbia River, and followed monarchs to the Mexican border, covering 9462 miles in 57 days and proving that western monarchs do not all migrate to California, as commonly believed . . . His memoir serves both as tribute to this majestic insect and as a thoughtful tour of the contemporary American West. --Publishers Weekly Chasing Monarchs tells the engrossing story of his adventurous journey with these graceful wanderers--down the Columbia, Snake, Bear, and Colorado rivers, across the Bonneville Salt Flats, and through the Chiricahua Mountains to Mexico, returning north along the California coast. Part travelogue, part scientific study, Chasing Monarchs is one of the most fascinating books ever written about butterflies. --Monarch News Pyle provides a deeply informed commentary that is an introduction to the natural history and lore of the monarch butterfly the archetypal migratory species that has captured our imaginations and extends to a larger story of why what happens to the monarch butterfly matters to us humans. Francie Chew, Tufts University Praise for Sky Time in Gray's River An instant classic . . . one of the very best accounts of a closely observed life. --Seattle Post-Intelligencer A testament to one person's determined attempt to live a rural life in complete concord with nature. --The Oregonian A beautiful, big-hearted book from a leading figure in the resurgence of American nature writing, --Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Great Tide Rising and Piano Tide