By Sabrina Imbler
Little, Brown and Company, 2022. 263 pages. Nonfiction.
Imbler profiles ten of the ocean's strangest creatures, drawing astonishing connections between their lives and ours and illuminating wondrous models of survival, adaptation, identity, sex, and care on our faltering planet.
Sabrina Imbler has masterfully crafted a memoir, critically essential discussions about gender identity, and fun facts about sea creatures into one collection of ten essays. Vulnerable, honest, and hopeful, Imbler describes the methods sea creatures use to survive in particularly hostile environments while comparing these resilient creatures to their own experience as a queer, mixed-race scientist.
When I picked this up, I decided to read one essay a day, but the writing was so lyrical and captivating that it was hard to put down. Each essay in and of itself deserves a dedicated review. It is a collection that I hope to turn back to because I am sure I could learn something new every time.
If you like How Far the Light Reaches, you might also like:
By Lamya H
The Dial Press, 2023. 284 pages. Biography.
Spanning childhood to an elite college in the US and early adult life in New York City, each essay places Lamya's struggles and triumphs in the context of some of the most famous stories in the Quran. She juxtaposes her coming out with Musa liberating his people from the Pharoah; asks if Allah, who is neither male nor female, might instead be nonbinary; and, drawing strength from the faith and hope of Nuh building his ark, begins to build a life of her own--all the while discovering that her identity as a queer, immigrant devout Muslim is, in fact, the answer to her quest for safety and belonging.
By Roxane Gay
Harper Perennial, 2014. 320 pages. Nonfiction.
A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay.
By Sy Montgomery
Atria Books, 2015. 261 pages. Nonfiction
In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism.
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