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Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild
Long believed to be disappearing and possibly even extinct, the Southwestern bighorn sheep of Utah’s canyonlands have made a surprising comeback. Naturalist Ellen Meloy tracks a band of these majestic creatures through backcountry hikes, downriver floats, and travels across the Southwest. Alone in the wilderness, Meloy chronicles her communion with the bighorns and laments the growing severance of man from nature, a severance that she feels has left us spiritually hungry. Wry, quirky and perceptive, Eating Stone is a brillant and wholly original tribute to the natural world.
352 pages, Paperback
First published September 13, 2005
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About the author
Ellen Meloy
9 books105 followersEllen Meloy was an American nature writer. Among the awards she garnered are the Whiting Writer's Award (1997) and the John Burroughs Medal (2007); in 2003 she was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, for The Anthropology of Turquoise Meditations on Landscape, Art & Spirit.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 128 reviews
July 30, 2012
One of those books that all riders on the planet would do well to consider reading. Meloy writes of a year spent with bighorn sheep in the mountains of southern Utah where she lived, with side trips to several other desert and mountain "islands", and how their teetering populations epitomize the risks of humankind losing a core feature its identity by a loss of the "wild."
This is "nature writing" which one could characterize as blending the poetry and emotional relationship of an Annie Dillard with the reflective ecology and anthropology of a Barry Lopez. The rapid loss of habitat and disturbed ecological balance for wild animals such as desert bighorn sheep have been struggled against for a long time through endangered species laws, development restrictions, and the work of scientists and wildlife managers. But below a safe population level for a given subspecies of wild sheep, factors such as diseases spread from domestic sheep, adverse weather, and mountain lion predation can easily wipe out a geographic population. This urgency contributed to Meloy's quest to personally experience the sheep in their remote environment and reflect on how such a relationship is a key to being human.
It is especially poignant that Meloy died suddenly three months after completing this book. She was beginning to suspect the beginnings of presenile dementia and found the desert mountains and work "tempered the panic." Just reading about her experiences, especially her final work transplanting sheep from one site to another promising, more isolated, range, also tempered the panic for me. She demonstrates that an individual can still experience real wildness in nature, and positive efforts can be taken.
This is "nature writing" which one could characterize as blending the poetry and emotional relationship of an Annie Dillard with the reflective ecology and anthropology of a Barry Lopez. The rapid loss of habitat and disturbed ecological balance for wild animals such as desert bighorn sheep have been struggled against for a long time through endangered species laws, development restrictions, and the work of scientists and wildlife managers. But below a safe population level for a given subspecies of wild sheep, factors such as diseases spread from domestic sheep, adverse weather, and mountain lion predation can easily wipe out a geographic population. This urgency contributed to Meloy's quest to personally experience the sheep in their remote environment and reflect on how such a relationship is a key to being human.
It is especially poignant that Meloy died suddenly three months after completing this book. She was beginning to suspect the beginnings of presenile dementia and found the desert mountains and work "tempered the panic." Just reading about her experiences, especially her final work transplanting sheep from one site to another promising, more isolated, range, also tempered the panic for me. She demonstrates that an individual can still experience real wildness in nature, and positive efforts can be taken.
July 26, 2011
"Where is the water? I describe a confluence of rivers hidden in folds of stone, a spring on the side of the mountain in land so holy, you must sing every footstep you place on it."
The concept for this book was a month-by-month collection of musings and discoveries over a year of observing the desert bighorn sheep of the U.S. and Baja, Mexico. Meloy begins the year in November with sheep sex. While I do find it remarkable that the rams' testicles expand to the size of cantaloupes during the mating season, I wasn't sure if I wanted to tackle an entire book devoted to that intimate gonadal level of sharing. Fortunately for me, Ellen Meloy was a generalist when it came to her love of the Southwest. The bighorns were her purpose for wandering, but along the way she shares healthy helpings of anthropology, archaeology, Native American lore, botany, history, environmental concerns, and a wit as dry as the desert she called home.
Meloy has a lot in common with Ed Abbey in her love for the desert and her distress over man's encroachment, but she takes a softer approach. She presents her concerns with a little more hope and a lot less misanthropy than that venerable curmudgeon.
Our deserts lost a redrock angel when Ellen Meloy died suddenly in November of 2004.
The concept for this book was a month-by-month collection of musings and discoveries over a year of observing the desert bighorn sheep of the U.S. and Baja, Mexico. Meloy begins the year in November with sheep sex. While I do find it remarkable that the rams' testicles expand to the size of cantaloupes during the mating season, I wasn't sure if I wanted to tackle an entire book devoted to that intimate gonadal level of sharing. Fortunately for me, Ellen Meloy was a generalist when it came to her love of the Southwest. The bighorns were her purpose for wandering, but along the way she shares healthy helpings of anthropology, archaeology, Native American lore, botany, history, environmental concerns, and a wit as dry as the desert she called home.
Meloy has a lot in common with Ed Abbey in her love for the desert and her distress over man's encroachment, but she takes a softer approach. She presents her concerns with a little more hope and a lot less misanthropy than that venerable curmudgeon.
Our deserts lost a redrock angel when Ellen Meloy died suddenly in November of 2004.
May 8, 2016
The writing in this book is beautiful... I seriously wanted my kindle in one hand and a paintbrush in the other because I'm sure my paintings would be as beautiful as the desert scenes Ellen Meloy paints with her words! Unfortunately, the beautiful writing did not save this book. The title is what attracted me to this book, I wanted to read about "Imagination" and being out in the Wild, but EM barely mentions it.
And I didn't learn much about Bighorn Sheep, either, other than they are pretty hard to find in the wild. Literally, she's half way through the book before she mentions that it's easy to recognize individual sheep in a band. I suppose she thinks in terms of the entire band and how sheep can't survive as individuals. Oh, except for Sheep 69, who she talks about often, who survived for years after her entire band was wiped out by disease (introduced by domesticated sheep and humans).
And finally the clincher for the One Star rating. EM eats sheep. Not only does she eat them, she ate one that had a name, who she had watched for years. Sheep 1,000 was a ram who had a radio collar, he was instantly recognizable and he was one of her friend's favorite rams, in fact. But when he was murdered by a legal hunter, who only wanted a trophy and gave away the corpse, EM had few compunctions about eating One Thousand.
That scene just broke my heart. It made me lose hope in humanity.
And I didn't learn much about Bighorn Sheep, either, other than they are pretty hard to find in the wild. Literally, she's half way through the book before she mentions that it's easy to recognize individual sheep in a band. I suppose she thinks in terms of the entire band and how sheep can't survive as individuals. Oh, except for Sheep 69, who she talks about often, who survived for years after her entire band was wiped out by disease (introduced by domesticated sheep and humans).
And finally the clincher for the One Star rating. EM eats sheep. Not only does she eat them, she ate one that had a name, who she had watched for years. Sheep 1,000 was a ram who had a radio collar, he was instantly recognizable and he was one of her friend's favorite rams, in fact. But when he was murdered by a legal hunter, who only wanted a trophy and gave away the corpse, EM had few compunctions about eating One Thousand.
That scene just broke my heart. It made me lose hope in humanity.
July 30, 2008
I find sheep to be dull creatures. I say this as a dedicated conservationist, and one who firmly believes that all organisms have an innate right to exist, or at least to exist for as long as they can in the bloodthirsty battlefield of natural selection.
But Meloy writes about her bighorns with such unstinting love, and such poetry, that it becomes impossible not to fall in love with them yourself. Her avowed adoration of wild things is apparent in the way she describes a group of bighorns dozing lazily in the sunshine, and in tautly written action scenes where she deliberately upsets an Edenic scene of resting Canada geese to keep them away from (or at least give them a fighting chance against) early morning hunters.
I am sad that we lost Meloy so early, and with so many of her books unwritten. If this an The Anthropology of Turquoise are anything to judge by, she was a gift to the world of nature writing. As it is, I will think of her, and the sheep now every time I look at the hoofstock at the National Zoo. And I will feel more warmly towards them, because she loved them and shared that love with me.
But Meloy writes about her bighorns with such unstinting love, and such poetry, that it becomes impossible not to fall in love with them yourself. Her avowed adoration of wild things is apparent in the way she describes a group of bighorns dozing lazily in the sunshine, and in tautly written action scenes where she deliberately upsets an Edenic scene of resting Canada geese to keep them away from (or at least give them a fighting chance against) early morning hunters.
I am sad that we lost Meloy so early, and with so many of her books unwritten. If this an The Anthropology of Turquoise are anything to judge by, she was a gift to the world of nature writing. As it is, I will think of her, and the sheep now every time I look at the hoofstock at the National Zoo. And I will feel more warmly towards them, because she loved them and shared that love with me.
August 29, 2017
Ellen Meloy was one of those writers who found the connection between making visual art and painting with words. I could never do a fraction of the things she did. I don't have the stomach, the temperament, the stamina, the fearlessness of multi-legged wiggly critters, or the tolerance for excessive heat and UV exposure. But when deep into her writing, I sort of wish that I did.
Each chapter covers a month in a year that Meloy spent intensely observing a band of big horn sheep near her home in Bluff, Utah, as well as some other big horn environs in New Mexico and Southern California. On the surface, the book is about the sheep, their habitats and habits, their struggle to adapt and survive. Deeper down, the book is also about so many other things: immersion, solitude, imagination, endurance, and awe. The writing is beautiful and often has threads of fantastical musings, but Meloy is also a realist who understood that nature is under no obligation to make itself acceptable to human sentiments.
Eating Stone is Meloy's final book, and thanks should go to her husband for shepherding this beautiful writing through the final stages of publishing after Meloy's sudden death in 2004. The world is richer for her writing being in it.
Each chapter covers a month in a year that Meloy spent intensely observing a band of big horn sheep near her home in Bluff, Utah, as well as some other big horn environs in New Mexico and Southern California. On the surface, the book is about the sheep, their habitats and habits, their struggle to adapt and survive. Deeper down, the book is also about so many other things: immersion, solitude, imagination, endurance, and awe. The writing is beautiful and often has threads of fantastical musings, but Meloy is also a realist who understood that nature is under no obligation to make itself acceptable to human sentiments.
Eating Stone is Meloy's final book, and thanks should go to her husband for shepherding this beautiful writing through the final stages of publishing after Meloy's sudden death in 2004. The world is richer for her writing being in it.
April 19, 2019
This was an unexpected and disappointing miss for me. Perhaps it's the books description, or perhaps I should have anticipated prose mirroring "The Anthropology of Turquoise" that I fell in love with last year, but "Eating Stone" ultimately seemed a disconnected series of personal essays with an abstract central subject. True enough, the book is about bighorn sheep, or rather, centers around bighorn sheep, but this novel lacked enough substance on ungulates and enough diversity in thought to equal "The Anthropology of Turquoise."
Much of "Eating Stone's" first half is less about the Blue Door Band of sheep of Meloy's backyard, and more about sporadic adventures related to bighorns. I feel like I read more on Native American art, Spanish colonization of western California, gardening, and tortoises care in gardens than I did anything else. And to be fair, that is certainly Meloy's style, but here, while trying to glimpse the elusive and endangered sheep she constantly teases, I felt constantly jerked towards an obscure side story I had little interest in. Despite the undoubtedly beautiful writing style, this book was difficult for me to finish.
"Eating Stone's" saving grace are the last few months of Meloy's biographical work when a fellow band of naturalist and she transplant a portion the herd deeper into the wilderness to encourage habitat reclamation. Here I felt connected to the excitement and adventure that prompted the novel, and felt sure everything prior was filler. Then again, maybe like the Blue Door Band of bighorn sheep, instinct inhibits me from broadening my horizons and enjoying the story for what it is as opposed to what I wanted it to be.
I leave "Eating Stone" somewhere in the middle. I feel obliged to revisit as the summer months wane and I find myself not taking nature and the wildlife in close proximity to me for granted. For now, I'll continue to enjoy my own imaginative thoughts prompted by the bighorns of my backyard.
Much of "Eating Stone's" first half is less about the Blue Door Band of sheep of Meloy's backyard, and more about sporadic adventures related to bighorns. I feel like I read more on Native American art, Spanish colonization of western California, gardening, and tortoises care in gardens than I did anything else. And to be fair, that is certainly Meloy's style, but here, while trying to glimpse the elusive and endangered sheep she constantly teases, I felt constantly jerked towards an obscure side story I had little interest in. Despite the undoubtedly beautiful writing style, this book was difficult for me to finish.
"Eating Stone's" saving grace are the last few months of Meloy's biographical work when a fellow band of naturalist and she transplant a portion the herd deeper into the wilderness to encourage habitat reclamation. Here I felt connected to the excitement and adventure that prompted the novel, and felt sure everything prior was filler. Then again, maybe like the Blue Door Band of bighorn sheep, instinct inhibits me from broadening my horizons and enjoying the story for what it is as opposed to what I wanted it to be.
I leave "Eating Stone" somewhere in the middle. I feel obliged to revisit as the summer months wane and I find myself not taking nature and the wildlife in close proximity to me for granted. For now, I'll continue to enjoy my own imaginative thoughts prompted by the bighorns of my backyard.
September 9, 2019
3.5 stars
I'm not sure about this book if I'm entirely honest.
I absolutely loved The Anthropology of Turquoise and would put it down as one of my all time favourites. So I was deeply looking forward to this offering from Ellen Meloy.
It felt disjointed, fractured, distracted writing. Ellen Meloy even states a few times how she fears her mind is becoming increasingly muddled and chaotic, which comes through in the writing itself. I found myself putting the book down and my mind wandered to other things throughout (whereas with Anthropology my eyes were glued to the pages).
The elusive bighorn are treated as rather sacred and special creatures with a worthy history and culture. Despite this, as Rift Vegan mentions in their review, the party that Ellen is with decide to eat one of the bighorns once it is dead!!!
I don't know, I just felt the author had lost her spark on this piece. It didn't feel like the same woman writing. Still enjoyable but nowhere near the scintillating quality of Turquoise.
I'm not sure about this book if I'm entirely honest.
I absolutely loved The Anthropology of Turquoise and would put it down as one of my all time favourites. So I was deeply looking forward to this offering from Ellen Meloy.
It felt disjointed, fractured, distracted writing. Ellen Meloy even states a few times how she fears her mind is becoming increasingly muddled and chaotic, which comes through in the writing itself. I found myself putting the book down and my mind wandered to other things throughout (whereas with Anthropology my eyes were glued to the pages).
The elusive bighorn are treated as rather sacred and special creatures with a worthy history and culture. Despite this, as Rift Vegan mentions in their review, the party that Ellen is with decide to eat one of the bighorns once it is dead!!!
I don't know, I just felt the author had lost her spark on this piece. It didn't feel like the same woman writing. Still enjoyable but nowhere near the scintillating quality of Turquoise.
September 28, 2018
A year spent with wild longhorn sheep and a moving treatise on wildness and its disappearance from the world.
June 10, 2008
I loved this book. It was a joy to read and has great phrases. She was unfortunately very prophetic regarding herself, "I am here to learn something-time is running out." (Did she know?)
This is a cautionary tale.
She tells it like it is.
I learned a new word: Philopatry: loyalty to the group and to their home range. And another new word: rupicaprid: mountain goat-antelope.
Many wonderful substories: Regarding Steinbeck: Pg 96 & 97: "On a hardwood plaque the crew mounted their trophy, a sheep turd."
If I wasn't already a big Steinbeck fan I would have become one.
"Sid is her rental turtle" (she lends him out to children.)
Learned a funny word: Bubbaglyphs: bullet holes.
Did I mention great phrases: "I wonder why six blondes would sit around in a bar in their underwear in the middle of the day. Maybe they can do something with my hair."
I could go on and on about this book. I think I'll read it again.
This is a cautionary tale.
She tells it like it is.
I learned a new word: Philopatry: loyalty to the group and to their home range. And another new word: rupicaprid: mountain goat-antelope.
Many wonderful substories: Regarding Steinbeck: Pg 96 & 97: "On a hardwood plaque the crew mounted their trophy, a sheep turd."
If I wasn't already a big Steinbeck fan I would have become one.
"Sid is her rental turtle" (she lends him out to children.)
Learned a funny word: Bubbaglyphs: bullet holes.
Did I mention great phrases: "I wonder why six blondes would sit around in a bar in their underwear in the middle of the day. Maybe they can do something with my hair."
I could go on and on about this book. I think I'll read it again.
May 19, 2008
Finally finished this one. It's as dense as a thicket of nature and just as enjoyable. Everytime I glazed over something, eavesdropping in the subway say, she brought me right back in with a lovely line. Meloy's voice is so charming and she writes so many truisms about the human benefits gained from having a relationship with the natural world She makes me seriously consider dropping my entire life to go watch sheep in the desert.
February 14, 2012
The author's prose is lyrical. Her observations were heart-felt and moving. You feel in love with her journey and the big horn sheep. She became a friend in your joint journey to find the big horn sheep that would mysteriously vanish and then reappear. Ellen Meloy's death was a real blow-she was an outstanding writer. And I would have loved to read more of her books and more of her journey with the big horn sheep.
September 4, 2013
Such a good read! Ellen Meloy was often personal, frequently poignant, and always fascinating. Her observations about small town Utah life (she lived in Bluff) were as engaging as was her writings about desert bighorns, the primary topic of the book.
April 3, 2021
This 2006 Banff Adventure Travel Writing award winner is quirky, funny, and so odd! Meloy graces the reader with deep insights about what it means to be “wild” today. Well worth the read! Do not hesitate one bit to pick up this book.
May 14, 2022
Eating Stone by Ellen Meloy
The sentences vary from short staccato to lengthy scientific descriptions. And information content is very high in this lengthy and notable book on North America's wild sheep. There are nuggets peppered throughout and some purple prose and some tedious descriptions of town life and old descriptions of manuscripts. There is often a lack of mooring. The author, who is quite knowledgeable about many things Southwest, tends to move from one topic to another that are not always related to sheep. In a nutshell I found it hard to read in long book form. From a policy point of view the conclusions are simple but there is little vision on how to improve. The sheep are living in island environments. No mention of creating lengthy corridors to connect all the wild spaces for example.
There was a chapter on the lonely ewe who lived on a 100 square mile wildlife preserve with no other sheep. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It was evocative. This was an excellent chapter and an example of how good the book could have been. Another excellent chapter was on the Cosos region of the Mohave desert and all of the petroglyph rock art featuring sheep. I will admit the author's style grew on me though.
There are several interesting life experiences contained within. Meloy's knowledge of sheep and her personal observations make the read informative. But the writing style - well I didn't love it as it lacked pace and consistency. It is unique and imperfect.
3.5 stars.
The sentences vary from short staccato to lengthy scientific descriptions. And information content is very high in this lengthy and notable book on North America's wild sheep. There are nuggets peppered throughout and some purple prose and some tedious descriptions of town life and old descriptions of manuscripts. There is often a lack of mooring. The author, who is quite knowledgeable about many things Southwest, tends to move from one topic to another that are not always related to sheep. In a nutshell I found it hard to read in long book form. From a policy point of view the conclusions are simple but there is little vision on how to improve. The sheep are living in island environments. No mention of creating lengthy corridors to connect all the wild spaces for example.
There was a chapter on the lonely ewe who lived on a 100 square mile wildlife preserve with no other sheep. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It was evocative. This was an excellent chapter and an example of how good the book could have been. Another excellent chapter was on the Cosos region of the Mohave desert and all of the petroglyph rock art featuring sheep. I will admit the author's style grew on me though.
There are several interesting life experiences contained within. Meloy's knowledge of sheep and her personal observations make the read informative. But the writing style - well I didn't love it as it lacked pace and consistency. It is unique and imperfect.
3.5 stars.
September 28, 2019
I wanted to like this. The subject, bighorn sheep in the Southwest, is interesting to me, and I want to learn more about them. I love good nature writing.
But while a lot of the writing is good, a fair amount isn't. Some of the imagery is jarring (e.g., mesas scudding under the clouds instead of vice versa), it can be repetitive (all the sheep look the same), it is often vague (she loves visiting a small museum in a small town---why not give us the names?). The worst part is that the book severely needs editing. Especially in the first half, so much of the story has nothing to do with bighorn sheep... or anything. This gets much better in the second half, when she joins a few scientists who study the sheep and relocate a band to try to expand their habitat.
I learned some about bighorn sheep, but much less than I wanted.
But while a lot of the writing is good, a fair amount isn't. Some of the imagery is jarring (e.g., mesas scudding under the clouds instead of vice versa), it can be repetitive (all the sheep look the same), it is often vague (she loves visiting a small museum in a small town---why not give us the names?). The worst part is that the book severely needs editing. Especially in the first half, so much of the story has nothing to do with bighorn sheep... or anything. This gets much better in the second half, when she joins a few scientists who study the sheep and relocate a band to try to expand their habitat.
I learned some about bighorn sheep, but much less than I wanted.
December 21, 2025
I can’t believe I took a year to read this. I read the first 40% in one swoop, paused, and then struggled a little bit to get back into it. Finally made it a mission to refocus on it on vacation and shredded through the last 60%.
Truly you don’t get writing like you would in a nature conservation’s book. Amazing descriptions and Ellen sure is an interesting one. I loved her humor and writing, I can get in her lane for sure.
Beautiful book on mountain sheep and the wilderness in general. Got emotional over ewe 067’s journey. Will be having a drink in that sheep’s honor for sure.
Just like the Blue Door Band’s disappearance, Ellen passed away randomly and without known cause. Fortunately the sheep came back suddenly, whereas Ellen only returned within her books she wrote. I’ll look at mountain sheep differently now. And as always, my love for the desert deepens.
Truly you don’t get writing like you would in a nature conservation’s book. Amazing descriptions and Ellen sure is an interesting one. I loved her humor and writing, I can get in her lane for sure.
Beautiful book on mountain sheep and the wilderness in general. Got emotional over ewe 067’s journey. Will be having a drink in that sheep’s honor for sure.
Just like the Blue Door Band’s disappearance, Ellen passed away randomly and without known cause. Fortunately the sheep came back suddenly, whereas Ellen only returned within her books she wrote. I’ll look at mountain sheep differently now. And as always, my love for the desert deepens.
June 22, 2025
OPPOSITE OF PAGE TURNER. I could read one chapter a day like max. But it was good I think 3.5/5. Prose was like tryna be Annie Dillard and sometimes it worked sometime it was like stfu about Rams having sex. It made me homesick for the Southwest desert biome
“Sunrise in the redrock desert has the calm of water. Strange that it be thus in a parched expanse of rock and sand. Yet this is how it comes: a spill of liquid silence, sunlight the color of embers, every surface bathed in it. The heart aches to live to see the start of a day, every day, luminous in the unmoored distance.
How can there be such quiet among a most garrulous species grouped together in space and task—no voices yet? I believe that the quiet prevails because all of us are desert people. We are known gazers into the horizon at early hours. That pause between social discourse and the solitude of the senses feels acute today, a day that will deliver into our hands, briefly, the wildest flesh of
the canyon.”
“Sunrise in the redrock desert has the calm of water. Strange that it be thus in a parched expanse of rock and sand. Yet this is how it comes: a spill of liquid silence, sunlight the color of embers, every surface bathed in it. The heart aches to live to see the start of a day, every day, luminous in the unmoored distance.
How can there be such quiet among a most garrulous species grouped together in space and task—no voices yet? I believe that the quiet prevails because all of us are desert people. We are known gazers into the horizon at early hours. That pause between social discourse and the solitude of the senses feels acute today, a day that will deliver into our hands, briefly, the wildest flesh of
the canyon.”
July 9, 2022
A really well-written, lyrical book about one woman's love affair with a band of big horn sheep she names the Blue Door band living on the Colorado Plateau. She lives amongst them and travels their routes. To learn more about the role that big horns play in our landscape, she travels to New Mexico, California, Baja and Nevada to study other bands and examine petroglyphs. She even participates in a translocation effort to relocate a herd in Canyonlands. Melody is a great writer with an incredible attention to detail and an ability to describe things in a rich and poetic style. I want to read more of her books.
July 27, 2017
I must paraphrase a review found on the cover of this book... as it applies perfectly. "Eating Stone is ..a work of power, beauty, wisdom, tenderness, and great humor. This book reminds me of what it is we love about reading great books: time stops, and a deeper understanding, a deeper way of being inhabits the reader." Ms. Meloy's writing pours our imagination into the southwest desert with her descriptive writing and gives us pause to wonder what our world would be like without it's wild parts. Her humorous touch is perfect! I highly recommend this book to anyone who is in tune with our wild America and its potential loss caused by a lack of caring.
October 23, 2012
Ellen Meloy monitored a band of desert bighorn sheep that she called the 'Blue Door Band' for a year. Her acclaimed book, the last she wrote before her unexpected death of a heart attack http://www.ellenmeloy.com/tributes_hi... is more than a tale of the endangered species. Rather it is a revealing story of the connections between animals, humans, and their sometimes fragile environments. Learn more at the Ellen Meloy Fund website http://www.ellenmeloy.com/ (lj)
August 11, 2008
I'm rating a book I didn't finish, which makes me completely unqualified to issue any kind of rating. Here it is nonetheless.
I couldn't get into this. I don't doubt that it's an interesting read, but I had to force myself to finish just the first chapter. I didn't dislike it; I just didn't care to go on.
I couldn't get into this. I don't doubt that it's an interesting read, but I had to force myself to finish just the first chapter. I didn't dislike it; I just didn't care to go on.
August 8, 2012
Just when you've learned more about bighorn sheep than you might think you want to, Ellen Meloy grabs you by the hand and runs barefoot through a moonlit night to foil the rustlers. If you choose only one Meloy, pick The Anthropology of Turquoise. If you choose another, Eating Stone, published after her death, will help sate the addiction that could take hold of you.
life-is-too-short
November 18, 2019The writing is beautiful, but so much of it is about the author's passion for and identification with desert landscapes in the south US that it left me (ironically) a bit cold. It's a very different landscape than the one I love, in about every respect, and while I admire the author's passion for that environment, I couldn't identify with it and it didn't resonate for me.
September 13, 2017
What a rich, dense tapestry of a read. A book to be savored slowly and the imagery enjoyed.
January 8, 2018
Good god, this was beautiful. Reading it while in the desert, not so far from the Blue Door Band and their peers? Even better.
[5 stars for some of the best naturalist prose I've read.]
[5 stars for some of the best naturalist prose I've read.]
November 14, 2019
Wow. Amazing imagery for our natural world. A delightful read.
May 15, 2024
With often lyrical sentences and great descriptions, it took me two days to read this book which is mostly about the Blue Door Band. You may ask if that is some music group but no, its the name of a particular group of bighorn sheep that live in Utah. The book carries you not only through the wild spaces where the author has traveled to see these sheep but also through an entire year. And its not only sheep information in here but little fun tidbits on a wide variety of things; from tumbleweeds to the fact that cattails predate the dinosaurs! Who would have known??
So I do enjoy reading books that allow me to spend time out in the wilds without actually going there. This book does that. In here I got to visit canyons in Utah and New Mexico, visit California briefly and even stopped by a Hopi village (not to mention a very restricted military base that has those carved wall art).
I felt I learned a lot about these bighorn sheep from this book too as before I knew practically nothing. They seem to be very fussy where they live and that our modern livestock can be a great threat to them due to the diseases they carry. They also have a memory of the areas they know and are wary of new areas. Big cats and roads can be a threat.
The book is somewhat dense. Its not exactly a page turner. I did feel sometimes the description of things made it a longer read. But at the same time the author puts you right there with her as she watches the various sheep as they do sheep things: rut, eat, play, jump, climb, run, hide, fight, rub against rocks, etc. There are ewes and lambs and rams.
For some unknown reason I liked that chocolate / charcoal ram.
I found some of the desert things in here just fascinating. Things I have never seen or in some cases never even heard of before. Like tumbleweeds. She mentions those in one chapter and I had to go google what they truly are - Russian thistle - although I have seen them in movies. And then there is the boojums that she loves. I never heard of a boojum! But there is a drawing of them on page 100. What a unique plant! I had to google that too to see photos of real ones. But there are rivers and cliffs and sitting in the sun with a book, binoculars by your side in hopes of seeing a "living rock with legs"... Because these sheep have a gift for disappearing into the background so you cannot see them...
There are also a detailed history in here, including other naturalists who had studied various animals especially sheep..
But as humans spread out to claim more land there is less land for wild animals. The book is in part about that, on trying to save these small groups and to keep them safe. And as the title suggests its also about imagination. What did the ancient people see when they made those carvings on the rock? Why did they draw so many bighorn sheep? The answer is kind of surprising.
The book doesn't really focus on any one particular sheep individual but a few are mentioned more than once.
There is a scene in here I didn't like. You may not like it either. Its near the end of the book and I feel it made the author uneasy as well.
But if you want a clear picture of how these bighorn sheep live than this is the perfect book!
So I do enjoy reading books that allow me to spend time out in the wilds without actually going there. This book does that. In here I got to visit canyons in Utah and New Mexico, visit California briefly and even stopped by a Hopi village (not to mention a very restricted military base that has those carved wall art).
I felt I learned a lot about these bighorn sheep from this book too as before I knew practically nothing. They seem to be very fussy where they live and that our modern livestock can be a great threat to them due to the diseases they carry. They also have a memory of the areas they know and are wary of new areas. Big cats and roads can be a threat.
The book is somewhat dense. Its not exactly a page turner. I did feel sometimes the description of things made it a longer read. But at the same time the author puts you right there with her as she watches the various sheep as they do sheep things: rut, eat, play, jump, climb, run, hide, fight, rub against rocks, etc. There are ewes and lambs and rams.
For some unknown reason I liked that chocolate / charcoal ram.
I found some of the desert things in here just fascinating. Things I have never seen or in some cases never even heard of before. Like tumbleweeds. She mentions those in one chapter and I had to go google what they truly are - Russian thistle - although I have seen them in movies. And then there is the boojums that she loves. I never heard of a boojum! But there is a drawing of them on page 100. What a unique plant! I had to google that too to see photos of real ones. But there are rivers and cliffs and sitting in the sun with a book, binoculars by your side in hopes of seeing a "living rock with legs"... Because these sheep have a gift for disappearing into the background so you cannot see them...
There are also a detailed history in here, including other naturalists who had studied various animals especially sheep..
But as humans spread out to claim more land there is less land for wild animals. The book is in part about that, on trying to save these small groups and to keep them safe. And as the title suggests its also about imagination. What did the ancient people see when they made those carvings on the rock? Why did they draw so many bighorn sheep? The answer is kind of surprising.
The book doesn't really focus on any one particular sheep individual but a few are mentioned more than once.
There is a scene in here I didn't like. You may not like it either. Its near the end of the book and I feel it made the author uneasy as well.
But if you want a clear picture of how these bighorn sheep live than this is the perfect book!
November 14, 2022
Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild by Ellen Meloy, ostensibly a book about a specific group of Bighorn Sheep is a beautiful rumination on the landscape of America's desert Southwest.
I discovered this book at Moab's excellent independent bookstore---- Back of Beyond Books--- on a recent trip to Utah's canyon country.
On the shelf between Edward Abbey and Craig Childs, both icons of Desert Southwest literature, Meloy proves herself a worthy witness to this incredible landscape. Less caustic and cranky than Abbey, Meloy presents the subject with a deft blend of pragmatic realism and eloquence. While she might agree with much of Abbey's conclusions, she is not yet as jaded. Unlike Childs, who focuses on the human inhabitants of this region historically, Meloy places the desert fauna squarely in the focus. Humans, including herself and a few felliw researchers, and one very interesting ex rocket scientist turned petroglyph guide, are largely observers on the periphery at best, direct threats without specific names at worst.
At one point she summarizes the odd paradox of modern American conservation perfectly--- the biggest supporters of wildlife conservation are the sportsmen (hunters), who pay and policy make to sustain the wildlife for the purpose of ultimately killing them in the hunt.
The book chapters are primarily the months of a year, with occasional diversions, as Meloy chronicles not only the annual life cycle of the Sheep but also describes her own travels across the range of wild Sheep from Utah to California.
Throughout her prose sings an eloquent description of the wild landscape without ever turning a blind eye in the unnatural intrusions of the anthropocene. The loss of imagination suggested in the subtitle is largely left to the reader to contemplate as Meloy makes a compelling argument that wild animals are intrinsically linked to our ability to imagine.
Science as described by Meloy provides a cursory portait of the non-human life with which we share our planet. Much of their existence and our understanding intersect in a realm of imagination and wonder we would be impoverished to lose. In fact, the essence of our understanding of ourselves relies upon the perpetuation of wild animals and wilderness. This is what I took from Meloy's thoroughly enjoyable trip through the desert Southwest, a landscape i have visited many times and sincerely love, and one i now feel intrinsically closer to.
One example of Meloy's writing:
"The animal-longing sector of my brain remains indefatigable. I set the shreds of my imagination to go the distance with all of nature's creations. I hunger for the quiet rapture of observation, the measure of time by the clock of blood, the exaltation that comes with the intimacy of beings so unlike ourselves in homelands so unlike our own".
I discovered this book at Moab's excellent independent bookstore---- Back of Beyond Books--- on a recent trip to Utah's canyon country.
On the shelf between Edward Abbey and Craig Childs, both icons of Desert Southwest literature, Meloy proves herself a worthy witness to this incredible landscape. Less caustic and cranky than Abbey, Meloy presents the subject with a deft blend of pragmatic realism and eloquence. While she might agree with much of Abbey's conclusions, she is not yet as jaded. Unlike Childs, who focuses on the human inhabitants of this region historically, Meloy places the desert fauna squarely in the focus. Humans, including herself and a few felliw researchers, and one very interesting ex rocket scientist turned petroglyph guide, are largely observers on the periphery at best, direct threats without specific names at worst.
At one point she summarizes the odd paradox of modern American conservation perfectly--- the biggest supporters of wildlife conservation are the sportsmen (hunters), who pay and policy make to sustain the wildlife for the purpose of ultimately killing them in the hunt.
The book chapters are primarily the months of a year, with occasional diversions, as Meloy chronicles not only the annual life cycle of the Sheep but also describes her own travels across the range of wild Sheep from Utah to California.
Throughout her prose sings an eloquent description of the wild landscape without ever turning a blind eye in the unnatural intrusions of the anthropocene. The loss of imagination suggested in the subtitle is largely left to the reader to contemplate as Meloy makes a compelling argument that wild animals are intrinsically linked to our ability to imagine.
Science as described by Meloy provides a cursory portait of the non-human life with which we share our planet. Much of their existence and our understanding intersect in a realm of imagination and wonder we would be impoverished to lose. In fact, the essence of our understanding of ourselves relies upon the perpetuation of wild animals and wilderness. This is what I took from Meloy's thoroughly enjoyable trip through the desert Southwest, a landscape i have visited many times and sincerely love, and one i now feel intrinsically closer to.
One example of Meloy's writing:
"The animal-longing sector of my brain remains indefatigable. I set the shreds of my imagination to go the distance with all of nature's creations. I hunger for the quiet rapture of observation, the measure of time by the clock of blood, the exaltation that comes with the intimacy of beings so unlike ourselves in homelands so unlike our own".
July 2, 2025
I read this book in bits and pieces because I found some of it redundant with her previous books, but I always came back just to marvel at the mind and talent and lifestyle of this skilled naturalist who was most at home in the rugged outdoors--heat, storm and discomfort bedamned. In this part science part travelogue book she is studying a herd of mountain sheep in Utah, a band that once disappeared and was thought extinct, but marvelously returned and thrived. Meloy shares observations, history, and science, but she does it floating on her talent for poetic prose. And her humor. She died unexpectantly three months after this book was published, and the world lost a rare talent and individual.
"If field biologists in the desert tell you that they have on a single hike discovered half a dozen seeps in several side canyons, five new species of Eriogonum, and a rare hermaphroditic vegan pupfish, don't believe them. In truth, they have been sitting under the same juniper tree for three days, staring at a rock. I am out here sacrificing my golden years for science. Camp lies on the beach below, a sweep of pale rose sand shelving into milky jade water--cool water. My tongue hangs out. I have dragged my polenta brain to the shade of an alcove, shade that is 103 instead of 105 degrees, but without the sun's ferocious burn on the skin. Despite the lure of the river and a cooldown, I do not want to leave this perch, for fear my movement will alarm the sheep that feed across the wash."
"The color of the bedrock is engraved in my heart, pale beige in certain light, blue-gray when the light changes. Warm sun on dust and pine needles is the aroma of my bloodlines in these mountains. These slender foxtail pines stand as spare and formal as trees in a Japanese painting, their branches short reaches of green-black needles, their bark a rich cinnamon...These mountains are the land's attempt at flight."
"If field biologists in the desert tell you that they have on a single hike discovered half a dozen seeps in several side canyons, five new species of Eriogonum, and a rare hermaphroditic vegan pupfish, don't believe them. In truth, they have been sitting under the same juniper tree for three days, staring at a rock. I am out here sacrificing my golden years for science. Camp lies on the beach below, a sweep of pale rose sand shelving into milky jade water--cool water. My tongue hangs out. I have dragged my polenta brain to the shade of an alcove, shade that is 103 instead of 105 degrees, but without the sun's ferocious burn on the skin. Despite the lure of the river and a cooldown, I do not want to leave this perch, for fear my movement will alarm the sheep that feed across the wash."
"The color of the bedrock is engraved in my heart, pale beige in certain light, blue-gray when the light changes. Warm sun on dust and pine needles is the aroma of my bloodlines in these mountains. These slender foxtail pines stand as spare and formal as trees in a Japanese painting, their branches short reaches of green-black needles, their bark a rich cinnamon...These mountains are the land's attempt at flight."
July 30, 2022
This is an absolutely magical book. Meloy's stories made me fall in love with the desert and with bighorn sheep, even though I've only ever seen them fleetingly beside the highway, feeling sorry for them being so close to danger. Her book was published in the early 2000's and since that time, life for bighorn sheep has only become more difficult with increasing development, more threats of disease from livestock grazing on public lands, and dwindling resources to help wildlife. As Meloy describes in her book, bighorn sheep aren't wild, they are "wild" - they are managed, counted, and watched over on small islands of land that are under constant pressure from pollution, development, extraction, and the recreation industry.
I read one passage describing the interior of a cafe at least 10 times because it so perfectly captures a scene with words, and is so brilliantly written. There are several passages in the book worth reading multiple times (especially if one is a connoisseur of good writing), and the entire book is captivating. It tells the story of a year in the life of one band of bighorn sheep close to the author's home, and includes stories of other adventures she took to learn more and try to see bighorn sheep in other regions.
That the author died shortly after finishing this book is a great loss. I can only imagine the work she would have gone on to create if she hadn't died too soon.
I read one passage describing the interior of a cafe at least 10 times because it so perfectly captures a scene with words, and is so brilliantly written. There are several passages in the book worth reading multiple times (especially if one is a connoisseur of good writing), and the entire book is captivating. It tells the story of a year in the life of one band of bighorn sheep close to the author's home, and includes stories of other adventures she took to learn more and try to see bighorn sheep in other regions.
That the author died shortly after finishing this book is a great loss. I can only imagine the work she would have gone on to create if she hadn't died too soon.
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