This One Wild and Precious Life: A Hopeful Path Forward in a Fractured World

by Sarah Wilson

Will you sleep through the revolution? Or do you want to wake up and reclaim your one wild and precious life?

We live in truly overwhelming times. The climate crisis, political polarisation, racial injustice and coronavirus have left many of us in a state of spiritual PTSD. We have retreated, morally and psychologically; we are experiencing a crisis of disconnection - from one another, from our true values, from joy, and from life as we feel we are meant to be living it.

Sarah Wilson argues that this sense of despair and disconnection is ironically what unites us - that deep down, we are all feeling that same itch for a new way of living. this one wild and precious life opens our eyes to how we got here and offers a radically hopeful path forward. Drawing on science, literature, philosophy, the wisdom of some of the world's leading experts, and her personal journey, Wilson weaves a one-of-a-kind narrative that lights the way back to the life we love. En route, she leads us through a series of 'wildly awake' and joyful practices for reconnecting again that include:

- Go to your edge. Do what scares you and embrace discomfort daily. Use it to grow into your Big Life.
- #buylesslivemore. Break the cycle of mindless consumption and get light with your life.
- Become a soul nerd. Embrace poetry, deep reading, art, and classical music to light up your intellect.
- Get 'full-fat spiritual'. How to have an active practice - beyond the 'lite' 'rainbows and unicorns' - and use it to change the world.
- Hike. Just hike. Walking in nature reconnects us with ourselves, and with our true purpose.
- Practise wild activism. If you can get 3.5 per cent of a population to participate in sustained, non-violent protest, change happens. We create our better world.

The time has come to boldly, wildly, imagine better. We are being called upon, individually and as a society, to forge a new path and to find a new way of living. Will you join the journey?

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Memoir, Audiobook, Psychology, Philosophy, Nature

368 pages, Hardcover

First published August 25, 2020

Reviews

[Jesse Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this. She equated obesity and autism to cancer and death, tried very hard to use contemporary slang and was just overall an absolute mess. I just love my existence being made into a joke! I'm fat, autistic and had cancer as a kid. You know which one was the worst? Take a fucking guess. Being fat and autistic has its pros and cons, but the major con to both of them is how people dehumanise you for simply existing.

I loved her book on anxiety but this was fucking terrible and I dreaded reading it, despite preordering it with great joy. It's gone straight into the recycling. How fitting.

[Anya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn. I like the idea that initially prompted her to write this book. Feeling that we're disconnected and that we're moving into the wrong direction with humanity. I get that, but what I don't like is how she comes across all high and mighty and I feel like she's not really accepting other approaches to the problem. I'm very familiar with The Minimalists and Marie Kondo and I'm not saying that their solution is holistic and perfect, but dismissing other approaches with a waive of the hand? Some people might have to start with baby steps.
This book obviously took a long time to write and research and I applaud Sarah Wilson for tackling this huge and important issue, even if I'm not agreeing with everything she writes.
Read this if you're into improving your own life, health, relationships and environment. There are lots of things to discuss plus this would be a good book for a book club pick.

Thanks Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Kalyn Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were times I really enjoyed this book and then there were times I found it a bit difficult to push through. This is why I sit centre in my rating. While I stand by Wilson's message and cause and found some inspiration in the stories shared throughout the book, there were also times I found her perspective a bit critical of others while missing the contradiction in her own choices in the same breath. I feel it's not my place to judge anyone who dedicates their life to making the world a better place, and so I don't mean to nit-pick but for further context - judging anyone for their purchases feeding into the consumerism loop that is polluting the planet and then going to a restaurant for some mac and cheese - I don't think everyone should be vegan per say but it's hard to read someone judge one lifestyle choice so heavily and not the other, totally hop-skipping over the detrimental damages and pollution that comes from the meat and dairy industry. This isn't something I would normally criticize in anyone as I believe we can't all fall on every hill, it was just a bit off-putting to read such straight-forward judgments on one hand and yet completely bypass or dismiss the implications of other lifestyles that are also dedicated to similar causes.

[Bianca thinksGRsucksnow · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be honest, before I reserved the audiobook I asked myself if I needed to read yet another book about climate change, consumerism, nature hikes etc, as I consider myself clued in. But then I'm also keen to learn more and, unfortunately, I need to be inspired and prompted now and then, when the wind in my sails seems to wane, which is why I ended up spending almost fourteen hours listening to Sarah narrating her own book.

Sarah Wilson is an Amazonian goddess, an objectively beautiful human specimen. She's much more than that, though. She's a thinker, a constant learner, an experimenter, a chance taker. A few years back, you may have come across her under the I Quit Sugar umbrella. She made a hobby project/blog into a very successful business. Instead of following the capitalist model of "constant growth" and getting richer and richer, she gave it all up, as selling it to multinationals would have required her to continue to be the face of the movement/business, something that she wasn't willing to do.

This book is a call to action, a call to reconnecting to nature, to stopping mindless consumerism, to stepping outside the zeitgeist. She does it through personal anecdotes and stories from many of her hikes through forests, deserts. It references authors, philosophers, environmentalists, artists and everyday people she met along the way. There is enough data to scare the pants off of you, but there's no info-dumping, not that it's anything wrong with that. Sarah Wilson opens us herself to judging by opening up about some very personal, intimate aspects and events of her life. Luckily, as she said "she doesn't have any more fucks to give about what others think" and she shouldn't. Isn't that one of the perks of getting a bit older and being comfortable with not being liked by everyone or wanting to be liked by everyone?

While listening to the audiobook I thought to myself what I shame I didn't have the print copy as I would have liked a list of the people and materials mentioned so that I could do more reading. I shouldn't have worried, there is an incredible list of resources on https://sarahwilson.com , it should keep me busy for some time.

[Andrea McDowell]

I could not read this. I tried, but the author having the gall to fly around the world to interview environmentalists and activists in person when it could have been done by phone, and then lecturing strangers in the airports about their bottled drinking water, was just jaw-dropping. She made any number of scientific errors even early on, like the claim that 1.5C is the difference between civilization and extinction. (It's not. It's the difference between any number of people dying and low-lying island nations going underwater, which is an extremely good reason to meet the 1.5C target, but hitting 1.6C or 1.7C is not human extinction.)

This, in addition to the chapter on how important walking in nature is to developing an environmental consciousness, and I put the book down, cancelled my other hold on one of her books, and returned it to the library post haste. As I've said in other reviews: there are disabled environmentalists. You do not need to walk to love this world. Nature exists in cities! This is just ableist garbage.

This book is not worth your time.

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

- I was provided with a review copy for my audio review. Broadcast date: 1 Sept 2020. 7:45am www.rrr.org.au

I value the purpose of this book. In order to highlight that in order to overcome the problems of the world we need to work together as a community to build bridges. Her general philosophy (step away from tech a bit, go bush, buy less) are all things I believe in... But this book has some significant structural and tonal issues.

To cover structure first, Wilson states in the introduction that she is unsure about what to focus on and wants to discuss the general feeling of "itchyness" that we have in modern society. I know this itchy feeling and was pumped in the intro that she might process it and guide the reader through that. However, she fails to highlight a central thesis and this book is quite piecemeal as a result. Capitalism, COVID, inequality, climate change, disconnection, isolation, meditation, hiking are all topics covered in this book.

The chapters work as general essays, but she has numbered paragraphs throughout the book. These little vignettes work as a space for her to enter into side thoughts or segways into adjacent content, but as the book is so sweeping often everything turns into a side note. In First, we make... these worked well as her content was closely linked and she never strayed far, but this book is so broad often the jumps feel tenuous or unrelated. An example: approx 130 pages in we find ourselves in Crete and Wilson is about to be artificially inseminated. This has nothing to do with climate change or capitalism, societal disconnect or anything covered in the intro. After a couple of pages of discussion on this, Wilson moves to the democratic history of Greece. Her journey around motherhood is deeply moving, but I felt like it should've been in a separate book and not just dropped in here and there. I felt like it didn't have the space it really needed for the reader to be invested and connected with that journey.

Some of these vignettes are also sort of tonally deaf. They're good writing - reminiscent of her magazine or blog work, but seem strange in this book. At various times she tells the reader how to read books (which made me feel like I'd been reading this book wrong) and how to keep up with the news. These would've been fine as magazine copy or a blog post, but felt vaguely patronising in this structure.

However, mostly Wilson is a great writer which is what makes this review so difficult. Her prose is (mostly) flowing and well researched and she's at her best when she is discussing her personal journey. My main issue is that she would pull me from the narrative after a page or so, making left turns and me having to reset my brain again to follow along due to this structure of numbered vignettes/paragraphs.

I really feel that it should've been 3 books:

1. A book on capitalism, climate change, buying less and community action
2. An illustrated book on hiking with maps and journals from her hikes and her awe of the experience
3. A book on women's health, pregnancy and choice

All three of these books are things I would purchase. If she releases those in the future I would read/buy them.

Instead, I suggest that you get this book from the library if you're keen on reading it still (buying less is important and you're also supporting a community organisation!) and perhaps read other titles adjacent. Naomi Klein, Zadie Smith, Helen MacDonald, Julia Baird, Jenny Oddell, or Cal Newport cover these topics in more depth with more flow. I would recommend those authors over Wilson in this instance. If you've read books/essays by those authors around the themes mentioned, there may not be much new here for you in this book.

[Bianca · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

2 stars for the writing but 3 stars for the impact it had on me.

I was warned that I wouldn’t be the target market for this book and that was confirmed within the first couple of pages. I persevered out of equal parts interest and stubbornness though.

Before I get too far, I have to acknowledge one of the top reviews for this book states instances of fatphobia and ableism. I will admit that I didn’t come across these, either out of my own ignorance/privilege or because when I felt bits got too ‘ranty’ I opted to skim; but I do not doubt their existence.

The overall tone just doesn’t sit well with me. The moments where Wilson writes from her personal experience are significantly stronger than when she tries to be a voice of authority or expertise. The whole time I kept thinking “who ARE you?” She writes about having interviewed over 100 various experts but where are those voices? I really struggled with her utter lack of referencing or citing of sources. She points readers to her website to find a list of the sources she drew on (there’s not even a reference list in the book itself!!!) but I’m incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of spewing out statistics without citing their source, and find that lack of transparency really weakens a lot her arguments. And the constant use of “tbh”, “btw”, and “irl” was just cringe. You can create an accessible text without stooping to that. That being said I agree with so much that she’s saying, which comes back to the idea that this book isn’t for me.

Wilson mentions she rewrote her manuscript when coronavirus numbers started to surge. While it’s nice to read something that feels so current, I feel like she almost blindly threw in comments about it with the hope that just mentioning a global pandemic would so obviously support her argument (and again, a global pandemic DOES expose the weaknesses of capitalism and can be linked to climate change, but it felt like she just rushed to mention it rather than integrate it). I think this is most jarring in her constant references to travelling. So much of her overarching narrative hinges on the hiking vignettes interspersed throughout the book, but there doesn’t seem to be any reflection on the way coronavirus has impacted travel (even just as a personal impact). I also found it interesting that it wasn’t until toward the end of the book that she acknowledged the disconnect about writing a book about climate change while simultaneously writing a travel narrative.

Wilson admits several times throughout the book that she worried her topic was too much, too overwhelming to address. I definitely feel that in some of her chapters, where arguments don’t quite conclude and ideas jump from one place to the next. It was an ambitious book for sure, and it’s obvious that a lot of work was put into it.

BUT ultimately this book succeeded In its mission because I‘ve been thinking so critically about my own consumption and the role I play (or don’t play) in climate change action. I look around my bathroom at all my products in plastic bottles, the food in my cupboard in single use plastic packaging and think, surely I can do better?

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I unfortunately finished this book and I STILL don’t know what it’s about. Is it a diary? Is it a how-to? Is it about climate change? Intentional living? A travel book?

It did not flow well and I could not follow her train of thought. What was the point of talking about her pregnancy?

Her ego also got in the way and I rolled my eyes so much. Did you know she is better than Maria Kondo and The Minimalists because she doesn’t buy anything? She is better than you and me because she also doesn’t eat sugar and hasn’t for 10 years. She doesn’t want to make a lot of money, but what was the point of this book then?

Not sure how this book passed editing to be published. You can skip it.

[Ash · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t even know how to review this one.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

Problematic fatphobic and ableist language used throughout. Precarious disclosure about managing bipolar disorder (skip meds and hike instead)

No truly helpful ideas about how to live more sustainably, and some were truly absurd (e.g. using your dining partners napkin, since you shouldn’t accept one yourself, to collect leftover butter when eating out so don’t have to buy butter)

[Sonia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets too preachy for me, the only times I was really invested was when she was talking about her personal life. But then she kept jumping in between stories of blissful travel and hikes, heavy world crisis and then back to personal affairs. I feel like it was a stretch to get to the end. This book really needed a clearer direction and better editor.

[Alison Seccull · Rating 1 out of 5]

Living proof that books need editors, what happened to this one’s? Could not finish.

[Lise · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel like maybe I didn’t give this book a fair chance but honestly I couldn’t bear it any longer.

FIRST of all, I picked up this book at the library purely because the cover is gorgeous and sometimes that strategy works; not this time.

1- if I was going to use a line from a Mary Oliver poem for the title of my book, I would credit Mary Oliver on the first page. This does not seem to happen anywhere that I could find.

2- it’s pretty rich of this white woman whose claim to fame is writing a book about “quitting sugar” that promotes disordered eating (which I found out after borrowing the book) has the gall to suggest we all just go for a walk to save the world.

3- she does make some good points and it’s clear she has some good ideas and insights, but these are lost in the chaotic style and writing pattern. She misuses Nietzsche and cites several “studies” that are really just articles.

I would recommend this book only for decorative purposes. I fear that other women like me who read it will think it is profound, rather than an exercise in naval-gazing.

If you are looking for a book in this subject area that is pretty, profound, AND beautifully written, skip this one and go straight to “how to do nothing” by Jenny Odell. Also, read the Mary Oliver poem “the summer day” from which the author of this book took the title (“this one wild and precious life”). You will get more out of that short poem than you ever could out of these 344 pages.

[Cass Moriarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This One Wild and Precious Life (Pan MacMillan 2020) is the latest non-fiction book by New York Times bestselling author, activist and obsessive hiker Sarah Wilson. Most famous for her wellness website and series of books I Quit Sugar, her last book was about anxiety, called First, We Make the Beast Beautiful. With this new hardback volume – which would make a perfect gift – Wilson asks what will YOU do with This One Wild and Precious Life? … exploring some of the ills of the current times and how we might best address them to reclaim our Big Life.
While asking the question ‘Will you sleep through the revolution?’, Wilson speaks candidly about the overwhelming nature of our world at this time – a climate crisis, political polarisation and unrest, racial injustice and, of course, the arrival of a Covid-19 pandemic. She argues that these combined events have left many of us in ‘a state of spiritual PTSD … we have retreated, morally and psychologically; we are experiencing a crisis of disconnection – from one another, from our true values, from joy, and from life as we feel we are meant to be living it.’
After examining the cause of our angst, Wilson then draws on science, literature, poetry, art and philosophy, and combines this knowledge with wisdom from leading world experts, her own experience and of course, the lessons that nature teaches us. The result is a book that is an easy-to-read conversation about what ails us and why, about what we might do about it, about where we want to go from here, and some practical suggestions and practices for reconnecting to ourselves, to others and to nature.
Much of the book is punctuated by her own personal travel experiences, especially those when she has stumbled upon something meaningful, sought out a wise or informed expert, chosen the path less travelled, or given in to her frustration and despair only to discover that waiting on the other side was a fresh level of enthusiasm and joy. The start of the book, when she speaks of wanting us all to ‘wake the fuck up’, is hampered by her nebulous feeling of not really knowing what she is trying to write about, which she variously describes as ‘a foggy feeling’, ‘a deep itch’, ‘a state of shock’, ‘a societal shitstorm’. After much searching she realises that it is this very disconnection that unites – or connects – us.
This book includes politics, conspiracy theories, racial injustice, Brexit, Trump, China, recycling, catastrophic bushfires, pandemics and anxiety. It’s a cornucopia of all that is wrong with the world and our feeble attempts to fix it, and our even more pathetic attempts to cope with our inability to fix it. But instead of succumbing to being overwhelmed, Wilson collects her ‘shame, my hypocrisies, my loneliness, my guilt’ and embarks on a journey to discover what might be done better or differently. The result is a book that champions joy, a ‘soul’s journey’ that asks big, beautiful questions about this big, beautiful life and seeks to discover what we can do NOW to achieve happiness.
Each of the chapters is interspersed with various walks or hikes that she has done – in fact, she says she literally ‘walked this book’. These hikes are noted and described and are a highlight for anyone interested in some of the world’s great walking experiences. Included are A Pub to Pub Walk: Dorset – Somerset – Wiltshire in England; the Heididorf Hike in Switzerland; the Royal National Park Hike, Sydney; the Samaria Gorge Trail in Crete; the Lake District Hike in Cumbria; the Julian Alps Hike, Slovenia; the White Mountain Trail in Crete; the Joshua Tree National Park Hike, Palm Springs; the Grose Valley Hike in The Blue Mountains; St Ives to Penzance Hike, England; the Cradle Mountain Hike in Tasmania; the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Walk in Japan; the Forest Bathing Hike in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles; Wadi Rum Hike in Jordan; the John Muir Trail in Sierra Nevada; and being a Flaneur in Paris.
The sections include Our Crisis of Connection, which covers All the Lonely People, the Incessant Scrolling (Technology), Capitalism, and the Destruction of Planet Earth (climate change). The second section entitled A Path For Our Souls includes Cultivating Big Kindness, How to Become a Soul Nerd, the idea of Going to Your Edge (of danger and discomfort), her absolute belief in the power of hiking and reconnecting with nature, and how to get Full Fat Spiritual. Now We Change the World discusses the importance of Showing Up, and of Starting Where You Are, the challenge to #buylesslivemore, the call to Pay Attention and Think! and to Get Anti-Fragile, to Be Comfortable Not Knowing, to Get Wild, to Become Adult and concludes with a chapter entitled Home.
This is a well-researched book additionally informed by the author’s own lived experience. It perfectly sums up the collective feelings of the world at this time – that 2020 needs a reset button – and she frankly depicts the pervasive sense of ennui, frustration and hopelessness that we are all apt to experience at times. But instead of dwelling on the unfairness and overwhelming feeling of it all, she focuses on small, individual practices that each of us can embrace with the theory that small changes together add up to big revolutions. This is an inspiring and optimistic book. It is dedicated to young people but would make a perfect gift for anyone of any age. It is a thought-provoking call to arms and action, a celebration of the beauty of the natural world, and an injection of encouragement to all of us who would like to do better but would welcome a how-to manual of practical suggestions.

[Emily Cugley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have stopped at page 43. Apparently Sarah can be compassionate towards everyone unless they are fat. By the fourth fatphobic comment I have had enough.
How to make the beast beautiful taught me so much, all this book is teaching me is that fat people can’t be anything even close to deserving that one wild and precious life.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book with thanks to Pan Macmillan Australia via NetGalley.

This isn't necessarily an easy book to review. Disclaimer, I love Sarah Wilson and have since her Cosmo days. Everything that she has dabbled in or lent her name to, I have paid attention. I did her IQS program 4 times and learnt a remarkable amount about food and the way the body consumes it. I have read FWMTBB and both thoroughly enjoyed it and related to it. I love watching her be interviewed and the way that she interacts when she is being interviewed. So I come to this book whilst not quite a flailing fan girl, definitely an ardent supporter.

The first half of this book had me figuratively screaming YES from the rooftops and highlighting an obscene number of relevant and captivating lines throughout, eg. "We are communal beings. We need to belong to a tribe to survive and thrive. Yet we are also inherently selfish. And we tend to veer towards rampant self-interest if given a fifth of a rampant chance. Albeit it to survive and thrive." (p.59) Wilson deep dives into COVID-19, the impact it's had on us both individually and as a society. Going further, she expands into why so many of us are in despair, seeking connection yet being incredibly disconnected at the same time, and what has broken our tether to society and community. So much of what Wilson discusses rings entirely true. She is able to articulate everything I've been feeling internally and struggling to express to both myself and the people around me. I could re-read the beginning third of this book everyday and feel a sense of camaraderie in truly knowing I'm not alone.

Wilson shares her vulnerability and writes about her attempts to become a mother which she has also discussed previously. These moments were incredibly raw and personal. I loved these personal interludes in the books as well as the sub-chapters about her various hiking journeys and anecdotes. How her hiking helped her deconstruct her grief after the loss of her pregnancy was an incredibly powerful moment in this book.

The second half of the book lost a little of its relevance and shine. It seemed to be slightly too long, became a little repetitive and as someone that has been on the SW bandwagon for many years, it was a lot of information that she'd discussed in other works. I think there may be a few people that would find the second half of the book to be 'preachy' although I don't necessarily agree that it is. Wilson notes numerous times to remind us that she's not perfect, that she's a white woman living a life with immense privilege and that she's acutely aware that what works for some doesn't work for others. She's put an extreme amount of effort into her writing to not come across as judgmental of others and their choices, however you can't control the way that people react to your writing or your privilege. I think she makes it clear that this is what works for her, maybe it'll work for you too, but maybe it won't and that's okay, here are some suggestions on how to forge your own path. There's definitely lots of different facets to this book and you may relate to some more than others.

If you're interested in seeking connection to humanity, the environment or both, I would strongly recommend reading this. If you're interested in the breakdown, anger and hopelessness amidst our societies, give this book a go. There may be parts of the book you relate to more strongly than others, but I still believe it's a relevant and rewarding read.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rambling nonfiction work that at its core is about the climate crisis. It covers loneliness, connection, mental and physical health, coronavirus, capitalism, nature, hiking, and more, but the larger aim is to connect all of it back to the health of our planet.

First, a couple of qualms (and the reason this wasn't a 5-star read for me):

• Sarah Wilson says some fat-phobic things that immediately made me bristle. I don't think her intention was to shame anyone, but rather to point out how capitalism and big corporations have damaged our health as individuals—and yet, her language around this leaves a lot to be desired. Weight does not equal fitness does not equal health. It's not a huge part of the book, but it did leave a sour taste in my mouth. If you're especially sensitive to this, step lightly.

• I also didn't love Wilson's sanctimonious tone regarding triggers and content warnings. She seems to see these as over-protective and coddling, and I strongly disagree. Attitudes like hers are harmful to folks who have experienced trauma and simply want a heads-up about certain subject matter so they can prepare themselves to interact with it. Even if she didn't intend to be condescending, this is how her words came across to me.

Despite these issues, there was a lot in this book that I loved. Wilson has herself lived for a long time with anxiety and other mental illnesses, and many of her descriptions of how that feels really resonated with me. Her despair about the climate crisis and the cycle of worry-fear-powerlessness-paralysis was very familiar and relatable as well. As a wealthy, able-bodied white woman, she has a lot of privilege, which she acknowledges, and it's clear that much of what she says might not apply to everyone. But if you are in a place where you're able to devote time, money, and attention toward decreasing your own ecological footprint, you might find something helpful here.

The structure and tone are meandering and conversational, which can be off-putting at first, but this style was familiar to me from her previous book, First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety. And while Wilson occasionally uses slang in weird ways ("how do you do, fellow kids?"), her writing can also be quite poignant and beautiful. I found myself pausing every few minutes to write down quotes. For example:

"That intertwined, despairing clusterfuck going on out there in the world is not the point. They're symptoms. Technology is an enabler. The erosion of democracy reflects our own separation. The climate crisis is an extension of our disconnect from life. And coronavirus exposed it all.

So here's the upshot. Life has been fundamentally interrupted and all of us here have been given the most glorious opportunity to take an inventory of it. We now have a choice — collectively and individually. We can go back to our old ways. Or we can move forward into something wild, mature and humanized."

I'd recommend this to readers who are worried about the state of things, struggling with a lack of connection, or doubting their direction—especially those who read and enjoyed First, We Make the Beast Beautiful. Just keep those caveats I listed at the beginning of this review in mind.

Content warnings:
Infertility, abortion, miscarriage, ableism, fatphobia, anxiety

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I loved Sarah Wilson's previous book, as it spoke to me about anxiety in a way that was extremely relatable and true, This One Wild and Precious Life had me feeling the same most of the read but by the end of it I felt somewhat overwhelmed by it all. I respect what the author, Sarah Wilson has to say, and give props to her for living her best life and being true to her beliefs. And, yes, what the author is writing about and asking of us to finally embrace the rage and reconnect with ourselves, our communities and the planet, is extremely valid, but it's a little daunting. I do feel at times compelled to chuck it all in and live with only the bare essentials (though we do live within our means), but also a little difficult to do when you are a carer for a child with a disability, and have others depending on you to feed, clothe and shelter. Being called to make a difference has to be done in my own time and on my own terms. Being of service and making that change is very personal, and is something that I strive to do daily with my interactions with others and also by being mindful of not harming the environment. Baby steps is all I can do at the moment, and I guess that's what the author is asking of us anyways.
Inspired, yes...overwhelmed, a little...up for the challenge, I think so...ready to make a change, you bet ya...a little at a time is all I can manage at the moment until these kids of mine don't need me as much...hehe...

[Phillippa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear.. I was really looking forward to reading this, as someone is does struggle to make sense of the direction the world is going. Alas, once I started reading I remembered how much I struggled with Sarah’s last book and this one was much the same. Her writing style, the editing of the book, the name dropping, endless seemingly random serendipitous moments across the world and as much as it pains me to say it, constant sing-song style references to how unwell she is both physically and mentally.

I was hoping for hope and a strong thread of direction in this book and what I got was a mash of humblebrags, random stories not clearly relevant to the title subject matter, some incredibly personal moments that again didn’t quite gel with what I thought the book was aiming to achieve (“a hopeful path forward in a fractured world”) and not particularly inviting tips such as asking diners at the table next to you for the bones of their meals to take home.

A very confused book indeed.

[Emma Sea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Although there's a lot of privilege (and I mean a LOT) I do appreciate Wilson's message and she's pointed me toward to lot of other excellent books.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

“This One Wild and Precious Life”, is a wild, deviant and beautiful rant of a book. It contains 134 numbered points/thoughts/ideas/questions about a myriad of topics, including: the problem with capitalism, climate change, disconnection from others, disconnection from nature, technology, hiking and activism, to name a few.

Despite the books rambling nature, Sarah Wilson manages to bring all the ideas together. This book definitely got me thinking about a range of issues that I had either glossed over or not thought about as deeply as I could have

It is Definitely worth a read.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a thought-provoking book. This book is an eye opener to what we blindly accept in our daily lives. It forces us to face the hard truths about the climate crisis. It really made me think about how I live. It was honest, sad but also hopeful. Sarah Wilson encourages us to ‘Ask the beautiful questions’ and really consider the way we live and think. She broke up the heaviness with stories of hikes around the world. I loved them. She wrote about how important it is for us to connect with nature: “Sit with the mountains, be with the mountains like an old friend.” Fuel your soul, calm your soul and look outwards.
This book is a call to action for what we can all be doing to help, no matter how small. Just start. It’s time to step up and be good humans.

[Crystal Skye · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a terrible to read. She cites “research” but draw her OWN causation opinions about the results of such research. She makes leaps in assuming psychological diagnoses and data off her own “experience”. She preaches her narrow minded approach to things and dismisses any other way forward. Despite the lack of facts, it was very disjointed and not enjoyable to read. There are so many other books and resources that outline climate change, sustainability, mental health and consumerism in a clear, factual way.

[Linh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay. First, I am not the target audience for this book. Or perhaps, any book on climate change.

(Ah, a short addendum on 6 Jan 2021 because the Internet... I work in climate and have for over a decade now and this is the basis for me not reading a lot of climate books).

Earlier this year, someone asked (read: accosted) me on why I don't read climate things, so I begrudgingly started. My thought process has almost been identical, regardless of the specifics. Maybe two or three chapters in, all I'm thinking is: "this isn't for me, but here I am and I guess at least I can think of the type of person this would be for, and maybe because I've read this now, and at least half a dozen people will ask me what I think, I now know who I can recommend it to".

It's a lot of effort.

Okay. So this book, I think it would be fair to ask is it actually about climate change.

There's a lot going on content and structure/style wise, and that makes it hard to answer my question. It's all over the shop; even though it's meant to be conversational and stream of consciousness like, according to the author. (This isn't to say that I could ever write anything decent; but this did make me think about how any book I produce would probably read a little bit like this... Which is to say, politely, randomly).

Climate is sort of the thread that runs throughout it. But it oscillates so wildly into all of these other spheres, some interesting even if irrelevant, some irrelevant and uninteresting, and some relevant but uninteresting. It just felt like it never landed what the message was. And with such a didactic title, you'd think I should be able to tell you. I can't but I do recall random anecdotes (like how Wilson hasn't purchased butter in forever).

The other thread throughout are all of the hikes that Wilson has done. I took note here because maybe in a very abstract and distant future, I'll travel to hike again. Her travel/hike/nomadic vibes did also remind me of how I've led my life over the last near decade. I just didn't really see how this connected to the climate piece though. Or how her own personal IVF journey was relevant. And yes, I get some of this was re-written during COVID, so there's an element of the book potentially also being about "what does the 'new normal' look like?". Even in a generous interpretation though, I don't get how this book was about climate or our response to COVID.

And finally, the bits that I found relevant but uninteresting is still why I think the target audience for this book should pick it up, and why they will probably get more out of it than I did. I'm specifically referencing the casual, so-so explained bits on capitalism and consumerism culture, disaster capitalism and the role of activism over personal change. I'm all about these things and perhaps because I have "more of an understanding" (but am by no means an expert), I just don't know how Wilson did anything more than plant a seed here. But maybe that's what needed, people who pick this up to read about lifestyle changes might instead think about activism.

(Separately, because this wasn't what the book was about, I was fascinated by her views on success, especially how she's structured her wealth and career, following the success of her I Quit Sugar work. Some of her proclaimed detachment to success/wealth/status was a bit harder to believe though because there's a fair amount of name dropping and subscriber mention follows.).

[Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF: 50% completion

The book begins with Sarah Wilson claiming she's come upon ideas so revolutionary that there isn't even a name for them yet, that there's going to be some sort of social revolution out of these ideas. Turns out they're just go on walks/hikes, climate change is bad, recycling is good, and we need to spend more time away from technology and more time with each other.

There was also no fact-checking done by her editor or publisher because some of her sources wouldn't be allowed in a freshman college paper. She claims to have spoken to over 100 experts in their fields but mostly quotes books she's read. I found myself having to constantly stop reading so I could go on her website, check her list of sources, realize the source is an opinion article from someone who is not an expert in the field, and then do my own research to find the most basic facts on the topic.

The writing is oddly antagonizing, like how she repeatedly brings up the man she met in a coffee shop who dared to use a single use coffee cup while also saying that she needs to stop getting onto people about little things like that, yet here she is acting like he was some hypocrite. Another thing she brings up repeatedly is some neoliberal conspiracy against sugar (She claims calories-in-calories-out is a neoliberal conspiracy yet doesn't mention any fraudulent studies, any companies who funded these studies. Once again, no sources for her claims. Also she has multiple cookbooks about not eating sugar so she has a bit of a bias), how there's a neoliberal conspiracy against climate change activism, and just an overall tone of antagonistic guilt that made me not want to listen to any of her points even when I agreed with them. If you are trying to change someone's mind and you say, "Put that in your pipe and smoke it," they won't listen to you even when they're on your side.

The hiking portions read more like excuses to talk about places she had been and had barely anything to do with what she had just brought up. There's no flow to the book, it's just a lot of scattershot ideas like it's three books in one and none of them are particularly good or insightful.

Where I stopped reading was when she offered dangerous mental health advice. She claimed to have a manic episode coming on and simply went for a hike and it went away. She made a point to say she's not on medication either. She doesn't say that she's an outlier and this wouldn't work for everyone, she doesn't say that you should speak to a mental health professional before trying anything like that. At that point I had enough and couldn't continue the book. Overall it suffers from a severe lack of editor input and reads like a first draft rather than a coherent set of ideas.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good parts of this book were INCREDIBLE. I work in a bookstore and we received an ARC of this. I started reading it one night and instantly fell in love. We didn't have any copies of the book available for sale in the store yet, but I still found myself talking about the book to several customers. As soon as copies came in I bought a copy for a friend- like...I was SOLD on this book.

...but then I kept reading. And stuff just sat a little funny with me. I've been interested in hiking for a while, but the hiking parts kinda dragged and just felt like a weird/misplaced list of adventures. Sure, there were some tidbits in there that made it tie in...but overall, it felt totally unnecessary.

I'm SO grateful I stumbled upon this book- there are aspects of it that were really valuable and helpful for me- enlightening, encouraging, some of it really resonated. And I'll probably still recommend it to people. But that recommendation will have a bit of a caveat. It's gonna take me a few days to really figure out what exactly I found so...off-putting about the book.

I didn't notice any fat-phobic or neuro-atypical-shaming as other reviews have mentioned, but I would echo all of the comments about the book needing a stronger editor. There's some REALLY good stuff in here..but it all just feels a bit messy. But not intentionally messy. When I first started reading the book I thought it felt coolly laid-back and kinda stream-of-consciousness-like. ...but as I got deeper in to the book it just started to feel less chill and more messy and scattered.

Now my review has become totally messy and scattered, so who am I to talk about that?! Point being, this is TOTALLY worth reading...but I think it's a book you can give yourself permission to skim...and skim pretty liberally.

[Sherry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really, really disliked this. Ended up taking it back to the store and getting my money back. Pretty ranty with nothing to contribute other than a condescending ‘I get you’. Went through several chapters which were more of the same. There was such a tone of judgement and you know, I’m sorely tired of all the judgement. In fact, I think it’s more at the heart of what ails us and I just don’t want to contribute by buying books that actually perpetuate it. Weirdly, the parts where she discusses her walks were the best and yet seemed so out of place with the content of the rest of the book. Not a fan.

[Jess van Roekel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually books about climate change render me hopeless and despairing. Not this one. For the first time in my life — no exaggeration — I feel clear about what must be done. And that realisation has left me feeling light and hopeful, instead of tired and apathetic. Sarah Wilson “gets it” — she gets US, all of us, in our messy, lost, yearning humanity. And she calls us out on all our excuses and trappings, one by one. But I didn’t for one moment feel bristly or righteous or defensive. I didn’t feel judged. I simply felt seen and held. Wilson’s words are like someone gently outstretching their palm and saying “here, there’s a better way, come with me and we’ll walk it together”. Me walking this new path starts now. I’m committed to doing the deep, difficult, necessary work. And it feels GOOD.

[Weronika · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating lands somewhere between 2,5 and 3 stars. I definitely think "This one wild and precious life" would benefit from narrowing down its scope, as it feels like a book on everything and nothing while concentrating on one or two chosen aspects would let the author truly flesh them out. The first and last 50-odd pages constitute the weakest part overall (perhaps save for some points made in the "be an adult" chapter), where the author gets overly preachy. I have some doubts about Wilson's methodology, too (or lack thereof) - I appreciate that she posted the sources on her website, but I'm a bit sceptical about her approach - the name dropping and throwing around references to various researches at times feels more like a classic example of ad verecundiam rather than a proper evaluation of sources (let's face it, it's not hard to find some authorities and sources to back up our claims, but where is the nuance gone?). Especially with Wilson's historical references, it seemed like she didn't exactly succeed in portraying the full picture (it certainly took more than just 'two months of protesting and activism' to destroy the Berlin Wall and communism).

That said, I don't regret having read this book. It IS thought-provoking, it does bring attention to many significant issues with the modern world and (mostly western-centric) civilisation. It did make me realize certain things and start thinking about what I can do to work on myself, my relationship with others and the environment. Wilson makes a lot of spot-on claims and observations that are worth noting and becoming aware of (how we constantly come up with excuses, how we're hiding behind technology, have a hard time connecting to ourselves and others, and more). Besides, her journey is deeply personal, making this book a fast and overall quite friendly read. So, despite the flaws mentioned above, I think it's worth picking up and trying to take out some bits to think about.

[Jovana · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are really really great sections of this book and there are equally eye-roll-inspiring sections of this book. Passages I agreed with to the very core of my soul, and others where I swore were nothing but agenda-pushing. Regardless, the author is an impassioned writer and is able to talk about nature and one’s love of environmentalism with dope imagery and almost philosophical voice. I was obsessed with all the hiking passages because I love to hike and be outside. I think the best chapter was the #buylesslivemore chapter. She throws down some really personal stories about her life, which I thought was brave and emotionally stirring. She throws herself under the bus a lot in these “we are doing a lot of things wrong” streams of consciousness too, which was hopefully sobering, seeing as she wrote a book about it. It was interesting to see how she grew up and how her Australian upbringing plays out in her own annoyances at Australian (and global) politics. Her rage at how much food is wasted globally and the accompanying statistics was rage-inducing to myself as I personally hate that too. Bottom line, read this book without the expectation that your own opinions have to be changed to side with hers. I plan to do my own research on several discussion topics and decide my own stance. Yes, some portions can definitely read as preachy and filled with fatalistic thinking, but I’m all for her upside argument that comes out of making lifestyle changes, small ones at that. I feel like I could go on forever, but I’ll say this: she’s done a hell of a lot of research using sources that just about anyone can fact check. Yes some of the sources are the professional opinions of scientists or academics. If you’re not one that buys those outright, she’s even provided the studies you can look into and see the data. She doesn’t claim to be a scientist and you shouldn’t read this book and then become pissed that she’s hurling statistics at you like a scientist would. Journalists are professional statistics hurlers if we are being honest. Take it for what it is: a human‘s opinion on something important to her, made more digestible to the average reader. I know I’m glad that I read this before deciding to dive into more dense reads and research about a few topics. A good dipping of the feet, if you will. Aaaaaaand posting.