Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love, Loss, and the Power of Nature

Amazon Customer: When I read a sample of this book, I thought ‘yeah I will like this.’ What I didn’t realize was how much it would touch my soul, bringing my own memories to life through stories that so closely tied to experiences / thoughts of my own. Margaret Renkl is a beautiful writer, scripting stories in a way that evoke such strong emotions. I laughed, I cried, I remembered my own family and their lives. Thank you.

United States on Nov 27, 2023

April: One of the most mesmerizing and articulate books I've read in my life.

United States on Aug 22, 2023

william r schlichter: I'm sure this novel begs the question why did I pick it up? It was this semester's author in residence selection. My entire MFA group read it and let me tell you it's not my kind of novel. I would not have picked it up on my own, but I'm glad I read it. It is memoir/creative nonfiction and it really explores life. It’s and it's one of those novels that as you go through life you see yourself reflected in many of the stories with similar but different experiences. I know the one that stuck out the most was the spreading of the parent’s ashes. That's that spoke to me. I'm going to give it four stars and recommend that you give it a try. It's hard to say it's a great read because of this or a great read because of that selection. Like poetry each little flash memoir will speak differently to different people.

United States on Jun 02, 2022

Teach1: In 8th grade the author, Ms. Renkl, shared with her parents that she really didn't want to be a veterinarian; they bought her an old Underwood typewriter. She subsequently wrote all her high school and college papers on this old-fashioned, reliable word-generator. Additionally, she also wrote a thousand poems. p 114 and p.230

The title "Late Migrations' refers, hopefully, to the pattern of wildlife that faithfully returns each season to enrich our lives, and do all the hard work that needs doing to keep our complex ecosystem functioning, and robust, for generations.

The author wrote the book in her late fifties, and her work is blooming, becoming a classic much as Georgia O'Keefe's paintings of nature created her most moving work, late in her life. p.229

In her brief, poetic essays Ms. Renkl weaves nature and family together in a pattern that defies science, but is perfectly comprehensible when readers look at life as a beautiful, interconnected tapestry. In an interview she specifically states that " The nature essays are family essays." p. 237

A lot of people in the North, East and West of these United States shrug their shoulders at the idea that...

United States on Jun 03, 2021

demerson19: It is a gift when a writer brings a new perspective to a challenge we have faced since the dawn of human life — the challenge of loss in the face of love and the grief that follows. Margaret Renkl offers us a new perspective in “Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss” a collection of short essays and nearly poetic writing that move around the issue looking for a new way in.

Renkl explores both the world outside her home, filled with rat snakes, bees, and her beloved birds, and ties it into the loss of her own parents. She ties all this together, stating the obvious in new ways that connect life and death in a natural context, but not diminishing the impact. “The shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is love’s own twin” (7).

Her description of the natural world is centered around her own backyard in Tennessee, something that most of us can relate to easier than the wilderness explorer. In the chapter, “Late Migration,” Renkl tells us about her desire to attract monarch butterflies. She notes there were once over a billion monarch butterflies in North America, and now there are less than 100 million. “Once upon a time, even a loss...

United States on Oct 06, 2019