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Critically Recognized
  • Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters by Annie Dillard book cover
  • Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters by Annie Dillard book cover
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Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters

by Annie Dillard

Nature, observation, and human meaning

$17.92 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Praise from Kirkus Reviews

    Kirkus Reviews praises the collection’s meditations and its evocation of the natural world.

AlbakiReads Editorial

Nature, observation, and human meaning

Annie Dillard’s essays bring natural phenomena into conversation with questions of spirituality and human meaning. The collection ranges across encounters with plants and animals, the stars, and other features of the natural world, with settings stretching from Ecuador to Miami. Its short-form essay structure offers a varied set of observations rather than a single sustained study, connecting specific encounters with broader reflections.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in literary essays about nature and spirituality.
  • Readers who enjoy collections that move among different places and natural subjects.

Themes

Nature and observationSpiritualityHuman meaningFlora and faunaPlace

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"A collection of meditations like polished stones -- painstakingly worded, tough-minded, yet partial to mystery, and peerless when it comes to injecting larger resonances into the natural world." -- Kirkus Reviews

Here, in this compelling assembly of writings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard explores the world of natural facts and human meanings.

Veering away from the long, meditative studies of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek or Holy the Firm, Annie Dillard explores and celebrates moments of spirituality, dipping into descriptions of encounters with flora and fauna, stars, and more, from Ecuador to Miami. There is no writer quite like Dillard when it comes to the mysteries and wonder of the natural world.

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