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Raising Wild: Dispatches from a Home in the Wilderness
2017 Finalist - Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award
2017 Finalist - Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Creative Book Award
2017 Finalist - Evans Biography and Handcart Award
Combining natural history, humor, and personal narrative, Raising Wild is an intimate exploration of Nevada’s Great Basin Desert, the wild and extreme land of high desert caliche and juniper, of pronghorn antelope and mountain lions, where wildfires and snowstorms threaten in equal measure.
Michael Branch “earned his whiskers” in the Great Basin Desert of northwestern Nevada, in the wild and extreme landscape where he lives off the grid with his wife and two curious little girls. Shifting between pastoral passages on the beauty found in the desert and humorous tales of the humility of being a father, Raising Wild offers an intimate portrait of a landscape where mountain lions and ground squirrels can threaten in equal measure. With Branch’s distinct lyricism and wit, this exceedingly barren landscape becomes a place resonant with the rattle of snakes, the plod of pronghorn antelope, and the rustle of juniper trees, a place that is teeming with energy, surprise, and an endless web of connections. Part memoir, part homage to an environment all-to-often brushed aside as inhospitable, Raising Wild offers an intergenerational approach to nature, family, and the forgotten language of wildness .
2017 Finalist - Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Creative Book Award
2017 Finalist - Evans Biography and Handcart Award
Combining natural history, humor, and personal narrative, Raising Wild is an intimate exploration of Nevada’s Great Basin Desert, the wild and extreme land of high desert caliche and juniper, of pronghorn antelope and mountain lions, where wildfires and snowstorms threaten in equal measure.
Michael Branch “earned his whiskers” in the Great Basin Desert of northwestern Nevada, in the wild and extreme landscape where he lives off the grid with his wife and two curious little girls. Shifting between pastoral passages on the beauty found in the desert and humorous tales of the humility of being a father, Raising Wild offers an intimate portrait of a landscape where mountain lions and ground squirrels can threaten in equal measure. With Branch’s distinct lyricism and wit, this exceedingly barren landscape becomes a place resonant with the rattle of snakes, the plod of pronghorn antelope, and the rustle of juniper trees, a place that is teeming with energy, surprise, and an endless web of connections. Part memoir, part homage to an environment all-to-often brushed aside as inhospitable, Raising Wild offers an intergenerational approach to nature, family, and the forgotten language of wildness .
286 pages, Hardcover
First published August 23, 2016
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782 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 25, 2022
a weird combination of science textbook and the “guess what my kid said!” narratives that proliferate parents’ social media profiles.
i tried so hard to see past the obnoxious style of writing and see the author as anything but a self-obsessed jerk. i couldn’t.
i’m sorry but this is one of the most insufferable books i’ve ever read.
i tried so hard to see past the obnoxious style of writing and see the author as anything but a self-obsessed jerk. i couldn’t.
i’m sorry but this is one of the most insufferable books i’ve ever read.
December 9, 2024
Short stories with a running narrative that gives voice to the places I've visited but from the perspective of being local instead of just passing through. Naming their first daughter may have been my favorite in this book.
October 17, 2016
As if I needed any convincing, Michael Branch completely had me at "Bug." I too have a vivacious, curious, energetic daughter I raised in the Great Basin and that I nicknamed "Bug." Although mine was raised in Salt Lake City suburbs on the east edge of the Basin with only frequent trips to the Wasatch Mountains and to a remote second home high in the center of the Colorado Plateau. That and she is 32 years old already.
Michael's Bug is going to have a lifetime of enjoyment of the book her father has penned with her at the center.
Like his daughter, Bug's dad is a keen and energetic observer. In The Way of Natural History Upcoming Torrey House Press author Tom Fleischner describes natural history as a practice of intentional, focused attentiveness and receptivity to the world, one that is a prerequisite to intimacy. Intimacy is what Branch creates and invites and such is the reason I read books.
Branch briefly draws a parallel between Thoreau building a writing shack on Walden's Pond to write and philosophize from. It is Thoreau who should be flattered. For, as Branch points out, Branch is taking his family with him on a whole family hermitage. And to the howling, bone dry, high desert and not to a bucolic, wooded pond. Branch can't say it, but a reader is soon drawn to wonder if we aren't holding in our hands the work of this generation's next Henry David Thoreau.
Much of this hilarious, poignant romp in the wild is about the wild trying to reclaim for its own what Branch and his family have built. Fire and wildfire not being the least of the elements. My Bug has survived a house fire as a toddler as well. These girls really need to meet. The telling of the Branch family fire slows down time, walks backward and sideways through it, exploring what it is to see, observe and even to know something as intimate of a dangerous fire breaking out under the roof where your wife and daughters are. I stopped and read the chapter twice just to better experience what Michael was doing to my mind with his pen.
As much a natural history book and memoir this is a manual about how to live. I want my kids to read it, my wife, my sister. My brother would have loved and benefited from it. In the opening chapter, after Branch takes a marvelous "pre-amble" with us, Branch is decided to become a father. He is sitting quietly with the idea that has already taken him over with obvious joy and as he gazes at his wife he ". . . sees in her face a child, and I could as see a mother and an old woman. I heard the swaying ocean and felt the evening breeze and witnessed the bone moon lifting slowly out of the dunes." As he contemplated his future with this women he said, "It was like sitting backward on a bale of hay in the bed of a speeding pickup: the first moment you see what's around you it's already racing away toward the receding horizon. Only is such a moment can we wrinkle up or lives to make the best parts touch--fold the cascading narrative of days to see ourselves being told by a larger story that, however haltingly, is still being written."
At 60 years old, I relate to those years that have already raced away. But reading Michael's honest and vulnerable prose, I am invited to wake up and more mindfully embrace the world, human and non-human, around me. Such is the reason for literature and I highly commend Michael Branch for his craft and efforts of awareness to bring a work of art like this alive and into my hands. I hope he keeps that pen, craft and wild mind of his fired up.
Michael's Bug is going to have a lifetime of enjoyment of the book her father has penned with her at the center.
Like his daughter, Bug's dad is a keen and energetic observer. In The Way of Natural History Upcoming Torrey House Press author Tom Fleischner describes natural history as a practice of intentional, focused attentiveness and receptivity to the world, one that is a prerequisite to intimacy. Intimacy is what Branch creates and invites and such is the reason I read books.
Branch briefly draws a parallel between Thoreau building a writing shack on Walden's Pond to write and philosophize from. It is Thoreau who should be flattered. For, as Branch points out, Branch is taking his family with him on a whole family hermitage. And to the howling, bone dry, high desert and not to a bucolic, wooded pond. Branch can't say it, but a reader is soon drawn to wonder if we aren't holding in our hands the work of this generation's next Henry David Thoreau.
Much of this hilarious, poignant romp in the wild is about the wild trying to reclaim for its own what Branch and his family have built. Fire and wildfire not being the least of the elements. My Bug has survived a house fire as a toddler as well. These girls really need to meet. The telling of the Branch family fire slows down time, walks backward and sideways through it, exploring what it is to see, observe and even to know something as intimate of a dangerous fire breaking out under the roof where your wife and daughters are. I stopped and read the chapter twice just to better experience what Michael was doing to my mind with his pen.
As much a natural history book and memoir this is a manual about how to live. I want my kids to read it, my wife, my sister. My brother would have loved and benefited from it. In the opening chapter, after Branch takes a marvelous "pre-amble" with us, Branch is decided to become a father. He is sitting quietly with the idea that has already taken him over with obvious joy and as he gazes at his wife he ". . . sees in her face a child, and I could as see a mother and an old woman. I heard the swaying ocean and felt the evening breeze and witnessed the bone moon lifting slowly out of the dunes." As he contemplated his future with this women he said, "It was like sitting backward on a bale of hay in the bed of a speeding pickup: the first moment you see what's around you it's already racing away toward the receding horizon. Only is such a moment can we wrinkle up or lives to make the best parts touch--fold the cascading narrative of days to see ourselves being told by a larger story that, however haltingly, is still being written."
At 60 years old, I relate to those years that have already raced away. But reading Michael's honest and vulnerable prose, I am invited to wake up and more mindfully embrace the world, human and non-human, around me. Such is the reason for literature and I highly commend Michael Branch for his craft and efforts of awareness to bring a work of art like this alive and into my hands. I hope he keeps that pen, craft and wild mind of his fired up.
March 26, 2021
Beautiful. Restive. Expansive.
February 3, 2017
I love Michael Branch's writing. This is such a lovely book. I was obsessed with it while working on it briefly!
June 1, 2017
Mike Branch’s "Raising Wild"—a collection of essays of life in the Great Basin Desert of northwestern Nevada-was a delightful, sometimes humorous, sometimes beautiful and deeply poetic book. His deep appreciation of the desert and its wildlife and his love for his family shone thru on every page. This is one of those books that you read and you want to chuck your business suit, 9-5, and city living for the simple beautiful life in the wilderness (until you start really thinking about the snakes, spiders, cutting and moving 9 truckloads of stove wood, etc lol) The cover photo of the “vicious gang” of “pack rats” has to go with my favorite chapter “The Wild Within Our Walls.” The chapter was so informative and so well written I could see and smell the story, and I laughed so hard while I read. Wonderful wonderful book.
May 28, 2023
Branch is an incredible nature writer— some of his sentences were simply masterful, the kind you read over and over. Quick snippets that are so spot on it’s remarkable. But overall, this felt more like a memoir or perhaps a collection of essays that have his love of the Great Basin at the center and his family in some, following thoughts or ideas or topics into history, from constellations to species to types of mapping to campfire conversations about becoming a parent. It felt disjointed to me, but perhaps if framed as short stories and a collection rather than connection, it would have made sense. I keep getting caught by book descriptions that fail me (this one on parenting in a wild landscape, off the grid) and maybe the framing is the problem versus the story itself.
June 10, 2017
This book was a pleasure to read.
It is filled with a large dose of the author's family life as he, his wife, and daughters, explore their high desert home near Reno, Nevada.
The writing brings to mind, for me, the writings of Edward Abbey (who came from a tiny town a few miles from where I live), Hal Borland, Aldo Leopold and Farley Mowat. Michael Branch seems to take some of all of them, and a big dose of himself, and comes up with a deeply felt, and satisfying, tale of his Nevada home and family.
The love he feels for the desert, and the word pictures he shares, bring back to me my time living in Grand Canyon National Park.
Well done. Excellent story, excellent book.
It is filled with a large dose of the author's family life as he, his wife, and daughters, explore their high desert home near Reno, Nevada.
The writing brings to mind, for me, the writings of Edward Abbey (who came from a tiny town a few miles from where I live), Hal Borland, Aldo Leopold and Farley Mowat. Michael Branch seems to take some of all of them, and a big dose of himself, and comes up with a deeply felt, and satisfying, tale of his Nevada home and family.
The love he feels for the desert, and the word pictures he shares, bring back to me my time living in Grand Canyon National Park.
Well done. Excellent story, excellent book.
June 29, 2017
I got this book from goodreads first reads. I thought it was eloquently written and full of interesting thoughts on life. It had everything your standard reflections-on-nature book has but with the added benefit of family in the mix. The author is totally right- I'd never realized how much this type of book is usually "solo individual in the wilderness" material. The whole last chapter weirded me out. While I can see the value in the VECTORLOSS program, it felt pushy to throw it in with the book.
August 2, 2017
I would have finished this book weeks ago, but I started it right before scout camp, and then I was in the wilderness for a week. I zealously sought out reading time, but couldn't read this nature book for all of my time out in nature.
This is a great collection of essays. It does not have as many humorous essays as his other collection, but it will make you laugh, cry, and think. These essays are insightful--rethinking our relationship to place, family, and identity. I loved his essay on the Pleiades the most.
This is a great collection of essays. It does not have as many humorous essays as his other collection, but it will make you laugh, cry, and think. These essays are insightful--rethinking our relationship to place, family, and identity. I loved his essay on the Pleiades the most.
December 26, 2018
Funny, whitty stories about life of author and his desert environment.
I liked a question 14 in the reading group guide. How do you categorise the book? I thought about that most of the time. Is it environmental? Parenting? I think the parts I like the most and what I was expecting more of was his thoughts on parenting and teaching his daughters about the environment. His family and living a life in the wild are what most attracted me to the story. I would recommend and will look for other books by the author.
I liked a question 14 in the reading group guide. How do you categorise the book? I thought about that most of the time. Is it environmental? Parenting? I think the parts I like the most and what I was expecting more of was his thoughts on parenting and teaching his daughters about the environment. His family and living a life in the wild are what most attracted me to the story. I would recommend and will look for other books by the author.
June 7, 2017
Michael P. Branch writes eloquently about his home in the high desert in Nevada, where he lives with his wife and 2 daughters. I didn't give it 5 stars because I didn't like the parts where he got educational...telling the history of the native animals and such. That just made me think I was back in school. But the parts where he tells about his life and the beauty of the landscape are terrific.
July 13, 2017
I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway. I like how the desert landscape where author Michael Branch lives becomes a place teeming with energy, surprise, and an endless web of connections that ultimately includes his family and home. The desert environment allows him to reflect about natural history. In the end, Branch reveals a desert wilderness in which our ideas about nature and ourselves are challenged and transformed.
September 23, 2017
I received a free review copy of Raising Wild through Goodreads Giveaways. I loved most of the chapters in the book -- combining natural history with the experience of the author's daughters growing up in the high desert. Towards the end, I encountered a couple of chapters that seemed somehow out of place. Either removed from the natural history theme or lacking the lighthearted joy of discovery and adventure. Hence the 4 star review instead of a 5.
September 28, 2017
I really enjoyed reading the adventures the author had raising his two young girls in the desert wilderness. It was interesting learning about some of the animals, their habits and history and the surrounding country. I would have given it 5 stars but felt some of the historical parts went into a little too much detail.
June 21, 2018
Must read for lovers of the Great Basin such as myself. We are fortunate to have such an entertaining writer teaching @ UNR and demonstrating his passion for our high desert environment and vast knowledge of Nevada’s flora and fauna in Raising Wild. This book will enthrall citizen environmentalists.
January 1, 2018
This book had me laughing out loud, crying, reflecting on my childhood, and thinking seriously about the things I want to give my kids when that day comes. A beautiful read, I can't recommend it enough.
March 6, 2020
Loosely based on being a father in a remote area, Branch's collection of essays is an interesting read. As a former Great Basin resident myself, I enjoyed his hiking and nature essays the best. The parenting ones got me too. Overall a really good read.
May 20, 2017
Thank you for the giveaway. Looking forward to give my review.
July 6, 2017
I enjoyed this, the vivid descriptions and bits of humor, made me want a bit of my own wilderness in Nevada :)
August 3, 2017
Very witty, educational and entertaining. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
October 12, 2018
Michael Branch is a local author and instructor at the University at Reno. These are interesting stories of his family adventures living in the wilderness of Northern Nevada.
February 3, 2020
Loved this book, the strong sense of family, the delightful tales, and the way nature is depicted. Reminded me so much of why I love the west and made e more grateful for my wacky family.
October 20, 2020
Very good read. I enjoyed it very much!
July 21, 2023
Wonderful sense of humor. Very wry about lessons learned.
January 20, 2024
I always enjoy memoirs that combine family and nature. The writing is fun, doesn’t take itself too seriously but also true and clear
December 29, 2023
Excellent nature writing.
March 2, 2017
This is a collection of essays describing the author's life and reflections on living in the Great Basin desire while raising two daughters. Living in a remote, isolated part of the country forces one to be observant of the environment and self-sufficient, and it's certainly not for everyone. I'm not sure the author would appreciate this next comment, but I found his descriptions of the plant life particularly lyrical. I also learned more than I had expected about specific animals which inhabit this landscape: pronghorn antelope, bushy-tailed rats, and antelope squirrels in particular. His reflection on the pronghorn was fascinating, and I kept saying "Wow!" as I read. I also appreciated his humor, and his use of "higher-level" vocabulary - words I hadn't encountered in a while (arcana, obdurate, fructify, acquiesced,) and even one I had to look up! (imbricated). (I've been reading a lot of "fluff" lately!) While I know, deep in my heart, that I am happy living in my small New England village, this book calls to a part of me that wants the wildness and challenge of living more closely with the environment.
February 17, 2020
I read this book in a single sitting. I love all three books by Michael Branch. They live a very interesting life that is billions of light years better than the average americans.
June 2, 2019
From the Goodreads blurb:
Combining natural history, humor, and personal narrative, Raising Wild is an intimate exploration of Nevada's Great Basin Desert, the wild and extreme land of high desert caliche and juniper, of pronghorn antelope and mountain lions, where wildfires and snowstorms threaten in equal measure.
Michael Branch -earned his whiskers- in the Great Basin Desert of northwestern Nevada, in the wild and extreme landscape where he lives off the grid [not exactly... they have electricity and access to emergency services... my note] with his wife and two curious little girls. Shifting between pastoral passages on the beauty found in the desert and humorous tales of the humility of being a father, Raising Wild offers an intimate portrait of a landscape where mountain lions and ground squirrels can threaten in equal measure. With Branch's distinct lyricism and wit, this exceedingly barren landscape becomes a place resonant with the rattle of snakes, the plod of pronghorn antelope, and the rustle of juniper trees, a place that is teeming with energy, surprise, and an endless web of connections. Part memoir, part homage to an environment all-to-often brushed aside as inhospitable, Raising Wild offers an intergenerational approach to nature, family, and the forgotten language of wildness.
A very satisfying read-aloud. I was a bit confused as to how seriously I was supposed to take the "coda".
This was book #20 on our 2012 Read-alouds List. We have already started read RANTS FROM THE HILL.
Combining natural history, humor, and personal narrative, Raising Wild is an intimate exploration of Nevada's Great Basin Desert, the wild and extreme land of high desert caliche and juniper, of pronghorn antelope and mountain lions, where wildfires and snowstorms threaten in equal measure.
Michael Branch -earned his whiskers- in the Great Basin Desert of northwestern Nevada, in the wild and extreme landscape where he lives off the grid [not exactly... they have electricity and access to emergency services... my note] with his wife and two curious little girls. Shifting between pastoral passages on the beauty found in the desert and humorous tales of the humility of being a father, Raising Wild offers an intimate portrait of a landscape where mountain lions and ground squirrels can threaten in equal measure. With Branch's distinct lyricism and wit, this exceedingly barren landscape becomes a place resonant with the rattle of snakes, the plod of pronghorn antelope, and the rustle of juniper trees, a place that is teeming with energy, surprise, and an endless web of connections. Part memoir, part homage to an environment all-to-often brushed aside as inhospitable, Raising Wild offers an intergenerational approach to nature, family, and the forgotten language of wildness.
A very satisfying read-aloud. I was a bit confused as to how seriously I was supposed to take the "coda".
This was book #20 on our 2012 Read-alouds List. We have already started read RANTS FROM THE HILL.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews