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Tax-exempt? Reader's Guide | Tracking Desire A Journey after Swallow-tailed Kites It took just one sighting of a swallow-tailed kite to dispatch Susan Cerulean on a pilgrimage through its fragmented and ever-shrinking habitats. In Tracking Desire, Cerulean immerses us in the natural history and biology of Elanoides forficatus. At the same time, she sifts through her past-as a child, student, biologist, parent, and activist-to muse on a lifelong absorption with nature. Susan Cerulean is the director of the Red Hills Writers Project in Tallahassee, Florida, and coeditor of Between Two Rivers: Stories from the Red Hills to the Gulf. She is also the author of Florida Wildlife Viewing Guide, editor of The Book of the Everglades, and coeditor of Guide to the Great Florida Birding Trail: East Section and The Wild Heart of Florida. March 2006 ISBN 0820328197 paper • $16.95 192 pp. • 5 1/4 x 8 1/2 in."Here is a book as lovely as the bird it follows: a pleasure from beginning to end. Even more so, Tracking Desire is a vivid, embodied, unflinching look at the consequences of our lives and a prayer for the emancipation of the human spirit. The pages contain so much-a kind of translation of the holy, as if embroidered with gold thread-that I expect them to go flying off into their own heavens. Here is modern mythology, beautifully written. With this work, Susan Cerulean takes her well-earned place among the country's beloved nature writers." —Reed F. Noss, Professor of Conservation Biology, University of Central Florida, and author of Saving Nature's Legacy"On delicate wings, Susan Cerulean lifts us toward the mystery of who we are, we human beings, and where we belong in this world of winged and rooted things. As she seeks an intimate connection with her beloved, imperiled swallow-tailed kites, she reminds us of the essential connections between science and spirit, landscape and stories, short-term decisions and the long-term survival of the natural systems that sustain us. This is rare and wonderful nature writing." —Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Riverwalking and The Pine Island Paradox"Cerulean's account moves as fluidly as a kite in flight-the birds are in constant motion-and weaves science, family history and interior musings that blend the fabric of her life with the fabric of the kite's life history."-Tom Palmer, The Ledger "Cerulean's message, however, is more complex, deeper than a mere recitation of the harm inflicted on our environment and the other species that inhabit it. There is a spiritual dimension to this lyrical book, an invitation to readers to examine our own passions and our own connections and discover what time spent with wildlife might restore to us."-Pat MacEnulty, Tallahassee Democrat "An honest book, finely written ... Her narrative-from the obsessive pursuit of kites to a cry against human destruction of other forms of life-is a deeply personal journey. It is also the author's attempt to 'dive for spirit, the invisible river of being that connects us all at one time, all the time.'"-Frank Graham Jr., Audubon "In a lovely series of essays, Cerulean explores the hunger for intimacy, the unnameable longing, that can cause the connection with nature that she found with the kite but can also cause the destruction of the very thing one desires ... This lyrical book belongs in all libraries where readers demand environmental writing."-Nancy Bent, Booklist "Her exposition of the kites' life story, their biology, and the landscapes they require make up a well-written account of humanity's greater impact on nature. Thoughtful and entertaining."-Henry T. Armistead, Library Journal "The willingness to let her heart get broken, however, gives this book a powerful, even surprising arc. Where Tracking Desire sets out to find familiar stuff (an elegy for wildness), it returns with something far more compelling-a story of human and natural vulnerability ... To ignore kites, after reading this book, becomes a violation of spirit."-Thomas Hallock, St. Petersburg Times"An evocative journey where the author feels her own mystery and longing ... Beautifully written, informative, and inspirational, with a stunning cover, Tracking Desire is worth reading and this truth is a story worth telling."-Julie Knowles, Earth Light "Cerulean writes with appropriate grace and wonder about this fascinating bird as she describes the places the bird inhabits, the people who study it and her own growing sense of connection to the natural world."-Joe Guidry and Bob D'Angelo, Tampa Tribune "Obsession has rarely had a lovelier or more compelling subject than this one. ... Tracking Desire is at once a paean, a pilgrimage, and a penance."-Scott Weidensaul, Orion "Cerulean describes the elusive species in great detail while, in autobiographical, soul-searching style, trying to reconcile the fact that she is part of the human race, whose actions have altered the landscape and inevitably threaten the survival of the species."-E The Environmental Magazine |
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