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Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day
A celebrated storyteller-poet-naturalist explores a year of dawns in her most personal book to date.
In an eye-opening sequence of personal meditations through the cycle of seasons, Diane Ackerman awakens us to the world at dawn—drawing on sources as diverse as meteorology, world religion, etymology, art history, poetry, organic farming, and beekeeping. As a patient and learned observer of animal and human physiology and behavior, she introduces us to varieties of bird music and other signs of avian intelligence, while she herself “migrates” from winter in Florida to spring, summer, and fall in upstate New York.
Humans might luxuriate in the idea of being “in” nature, Ackerman points out, but we often forget that we are nature—for “no facet of nature is as unlikely as we, the tiny bipeds with the giant dreams.” Joining science’s devotion to detail with religion’s appreciation of the sublime, Dawn Light is an impassioned celebration of the miracles of evolution—especially human consciousness of our numbered days on a turning earth.
In an eye-opening sequence of personal meditations through the cycle of seasons, Diane Ackerman awakens us to the world at dawn—drawing on sources as diverse as meteorology, world religion, etymology, art history, poetry, organic farming, and beekeeping. As a patient and learned observer of animal and human physiology and behavior, she introduces us to varieties of bird music and other signs of avian intelligence, while she herself “migrates” from winter in Florida to spring, summer, and fall in upstate New York.
Humans might luxuriate in the idea of being “in” nature, Ackerman points out, but we often forget that we are nature—for “no facet of nature is as unlikely as we, the tiny bipeds with the giant dreams.” Joining science’s devotion to detail with religion’s appreciation of the sublime, Dawn Light is an impassioned celebration of the miracles of evolution—especially human consciousness of our numbered days on a turning earth.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2009
75 people are currently reading
852 people want to read
About the author
Diane Ackerman
71 books1,106 followersDiane Ackerman has been the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction in addition to many other awards and recognitions for her work, which include the bestsellers The Zookeeper’s Wife and A Natural History of the Senses.
The Zookeeper’s Wife, a little known true story of WWII, became a New York Times bestseller, and received the Orion Book Award, which honored it as, "a groundbreaking work of nonfiction." A movie of The Zookeeper’s Wife, starring Jessica Chastain and Daniel Brühl, releases in theaters March 31st, 2017 from Focus Features.
She lives with her husband Paul West in Ithaca, New York.
The Zookeeper’s Wife, a little known true story of WWII, became a New York Times bestseller, and received the Orion Book Award, which honored it as, "a groundbreaking work of nonfiction." A movie of The Zookeeper’s Wife, starring Jessica Chastain and Daniel Brühl, releases in theaters March 31st, 2017 from Focus Features.
She lives with her husband Paul West in Ithaca, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
March 25, 2016
Wow wow wow! Everybody should read this! I feel like yelling to the whole world about this book. How do I even explain it? It's almost as if Ackerman takes science and decorates it with metaphors. Oh her language is beautiful. "Troubadours" is one of the finest pieces I have ever read. I also adored "Forget Bats, “Clever as Clever," and "Field Guides." I am definitely going to go back and read it again, because there is no way I absorbed everything.
November 29, 2016
May our cities be redesigned to include more trees and windows providing a greater sense of sunrise, sunset, and seasons.
May playing in nature not be regarded as idle.
May our health plans cover green holidays to parks and wildernesses as some Scandinavian plans already do.
May our schools teach us to marvel at our humble origins and the minute stuff of the cosmos, and the fascinating life forms we have nonetheless become.
May many people have the opportunity to behold the planet from space, and return with a fuller sense of what 'home' means.
At least once, may madcap roosters serenade us at dawn.
...
As a teenager, I discovered Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses at a used bookstore - since that time years ago, I have returned to Ackerman's lyrical prose again and again (luckily, she keeps writing!) Dawn Light came at an interesting time - one where I was truly experiencing these precious pre-dawn and dawn hours in the beautiful city of Vancouver, BC. Daily walks back and forth between locations gave me "time on the ground" in the urban wilderness.
April 11, 2012
Just couldn't get into this. I'll try again later. Maybe it's me. Can't believe I wrote that in June 2010. Read it and re-read it in Feb/March 2012. Couldn't part with it to take back to the library and finally bought a copy (used)on Amazon.
So many lovely essays. Some are heavily art oriented. She has a knack for describing things so that you see them for the first time. I've started reading it again and I'll add some quotes, either here or in the quotes section if I can find it.
So many lovely essays. Some are heavily art oriented. She has a knack for describing things so that you see them for the first time. I've started reading it again and I'll add some quotes, either here or in the quotes section if I can find it.
May 21, 2017
Dawn Light resonates strongly with me, covering a multi-faceted swath of interests, and amplifying the ideas underlying my Moments in the Park project. In a series of essays, mostly revolving around the early morning hours, Ackerman ranges widely over philosophy, art, science, and culture, all in lovely, lyrical prose. Ackerman is clearly fascinated by language, choosing her words with utmost care and exploring the metaphors that often go unnoticed in everyday expressions, as, “When something ‘dawns’ on us, a stellar insight floats in the mind.” She frequently delves into linguistics and etymology, drawing connections and weaving a rich tapestry of words. She also reaches more broadly across mythology and spiritual traditions from a variety of cultures noting, for example, the many spiritual practices that involve a confluence of water and sunrise. Amongst the broad and deep treatment of the subjects on the humanities side of the academic menu, Ackerman sprinkles fascinating bits of science, from the biology of birdsong to the neurological activity of sight.
The first two sections are rooted in observations from Ackerman’s two homes, spring in Palm Springs, Florida and summer in Ithaca, New York. These essays reflect close observations of the two very different environments, especially their avian inhabitants. The pages are strewn with keen descriptions, what I refer to as “moments.” “Flashing white wings and bellies, trailing long elegant legs, cranes soar above the noise and sorrow of the world, the only pure things among impure beings, rising with slow stately wingbeats,” and, “the first sight that greets me is a small lotus pond. There, like an array of radio telescopes searching for extraterrestrial life, fifty giant round leaves lift their faces to the sky.”
In fact, Ackerman also uses the term “moments” frequently in the same way I do, to refer to specific observations of nature captured and illuminated through language and art. This concept comes through explicitly in a chapter on Monet, as she describes his work as focusing the viewer’s perceptions on an instant in time. “Moments tremble like the meniscus atop too-full glasses of water, bright domes of reflection swollen with life and ready to spill away. Likewise, we tremble, we brim, we fall. By freezing those continuums solid in color, Monet could revisit the instantaneous, idylls so sense-stealing that thought creaks to a halt, the senses stammer something like light, light, light, and, for a while anyway, all the hounds of time heel.” References to Monet and to the power of art to call attention to the extraordinary in the every day recur throughout the book.
As with any collection of short works, some of the essays were absorbing and fascinating, inviting contemplation long after the initial reading, while others fell a bit flat. Overall, the fascinating outweighed the flat by a wide margin, as the prose and the concepts make Dawn Light a book worth savoring on many levels.
The first two sections are rooted in observations from Ackerman’s two homes, spring in Palm Springs, Florida and summer in Ithaca, New York. These essays reflect close observations of the two very different environments, especially their avian inhabitants. The pages are strewn with keen descriptions, what I refer to as “moments.” “Flashing white wings and bellies, trailing long elegant legs, cranes soar above the noise and sorrow of the world, the only pure things among impure beings, rising with slow stately wingbeats,” and, “the first sight that greets me is a small lotus pond. There, like an array of radio telescopes searching for extraterrestrial life, fifty giant round leaves lift their faces to the sky.”
In fact, Ackerman also uses the term “moments” frequently in the same way I do, to refer to specific observations of nature captured and illuminated through language and art. This concept comes through explicitly in a chapter on Monet, as she describes his work as focusing the viewer’s perceptions on an instant in time. “Moments tremble like the meniscus atop too-full glasses of water, bright domes of reflection swollen with life and ready to spill away. Likewise, we tremble, we brim, we fall. By freezing those continuums solid in color, Monet could revisit the instantaneous, idylls so sense-stealing that thought creaks to a halt, the senses stammer something like light, light, light, and, for a while anyway, all the hounds of time heel.” References to Monet and to the power of art to call attention to the extraordinary in the every day recur throughout the book.
As with any collection of short works, some of the essays were absorbing and fascinating, inviting contemplation long after the initial reading, while others fell a bit flat. Overall, the fascinating outweighed the flat by a wide margin, as the prose and the concepts make Dawn Light a book worth savoring on many levels.
July 9, 2022
I have become a morning person. I mean a really early, before dawn morning person. I didn't know you could change from being a night person, but I am learning a lot of new things in my older age 🤭
Diane Ackerman's experiences with dawn have stirred my imagination.
At the moment, due to a bad left foot and a scoliosis flare my dawns are hobbling affairs, but this passage resonated so big:
[Due to pinched nerves in her neck] "I've felt volumes of suffering during these days, but not unhappiness. I love being part of the saga of life on earth, and both suffering and change feature large in that adventure, are that adventure. For the moment, we can only know Earth-life, the shape and complexion life has found in us and our neighbors, on the home planet where we were born. It's ironic that we designate this or that landform as a natural wonder, when no facet of nature is as unlikely as we, the tiny bipeds with the giant dreams. I mean our being here at all, given all the twists, turns, sidesteps, leaps, and genetic bottlenecks of evolution. We are natural wonders, creatures easy to know, but hard to know well."
Yesssss! ❤️🔥
Diane Ackerman's experiences with dawn have stirred my imagination.
At the moment, due to a bad left foot and a scoliosis flare my dawns are hobbling affairs, but this passage resonated so big:
[Due to pinched nerves in her neck] "I've felt volumes of suffering during these days, but not unhappiness. I love being part of the saga of life on earth, and both suffering and change feature large in that adventure, are that adventure. For the moment, we can only know Earth-life, the shape and complexion life has found in us and our neighbors, on the home planet where we were born. It's ironic that we designate this or that landform as a natural wonder, when no facet of nature is as unlikely as we, the tiny bipeds with the giant dreams. I mean our being here at all, given all the twists, turns, sidesteps, leaps, and genetic bottlenecks of evolution. We are natural wonders, creatures easy to know, but hard to know well."
Yesssss! ❤️🔥
February 1, 2023
This is the most recent book I have read by Diane Ackerman and again she does not disappoint. She is a noted poet, naturalist and essayist and has written books on a wide variety of subjects. This book focuses on how the world awakens at dawn, exploring such topics as whooping crane babies being raised by surrogate humans who teach them how to fly in the early morning hour and ultimately how to migrate following an ultralight plane. Another essay, “One Bad Rooster Spoils the Barnyard” observes that a rooster that had been raised around ultraviolet light could disrupt the internal clock of a whole flock of roosters. These essays are structured around the changing of the seasons and Ackerman’s finely honed skills of observation, metaphor and description are a delight to follow. She urges one to pay attention and see the beauty in the common and everyday, to “snatch the wool of familiarity away from one’s eyes.”
November 20, 2018
I have to confess that I almost bailed on this book a few times, but I stuck it out simply because I was too lazy/tired to try to find another book to fit this particular reading challenge prompt. I wanted to bail not through any fault of the book itself--the writing is lyrical and heartfelt--but because I think I tried to read it the wrong way. This is a quiet, introspective reflection on the natural world around us--in the veins of Sand County Almanac, maybe?--but it would be much better read as a type of daily nature devotional, reading one chapter at the start of each day, rather than trying to read it straight through. I might try that approach next year when spring returns and my brain comes out of hibernation.
PopSugar Reading Challenge 2018: A book with a time of day in the title
PopSugar Reading Challenge 2018: A book with a time of day in the title
April 23, 2022
கனவுக்கும் விழிப்பிற்கும் இடைப்பட்ட பொழுதான விடியற்காலையைக் குறித்த தியானம் என்று இந்தப் புத்தகத்தைச் சொல்லலாம். அழகான, உள்ளிழுத்துக்கொள்ளும் உரைநடை. அறிவியல், தத்துவம், தொன்மம், ஓவியம், கவிதை எனப் பலத்தரப்பட்ட பின்புலங்களினூடே விடியற்காலையை விவரிக்கிறார். சாயங்கால மனிதனனான எனக்கு அத்தியாவசியமான வாசிப்பாக இருந்தது என்றுதான் சொல்லவேண்டும். ஊரில் கோடைமழை பொழிந்துகொண்டிருக்கிறது. விடியற்காலைகளிடமிருந்தும் இனி நான் கற்றுக்கொள்வேன்.
May 14, 2021
I suspect this would have been a 4 or 5 star book had I read it vs listened. No fault of the reader, but with a writer as nuanced and poetic as Ackerman, I need to go at the pace of my eyes rather than my ears.
November 2, 2017
This was a wonderful read that I wish had many more essays for me to devour. I took my time with each contemplation of Dawn that Diane Ackerman describes and elaborates on. The colors the sounds the sites the smells the animals the birds the clouds....Oh, My! I now feel that I must go to bed earlier so that I can get up sooner and catch some dawnings too.
I don't think I could experience all that Ackerman does or if could I could never tell the story so well. She is a master of putting thoughts into words. Each essay has it's own exceptional phrasing when she says something that you would say if you thought about it. Oh, I want to remember every smart, sensitive, focused thought she has. But I guess I will just keep this book nearby to brighten another day when I need it for the comfort it gives.
"On the short-lived hoary visitors we call shooting stars, I wish for many planet-clad dawns as luminous as this one. And in the spirit of Celtic blessings, I add: May our cities be redesigned to include more trees and windows, providing a greater sense of sunrise, sunset, and seasons. May playing in nature not be regarded as idle; may our health plans cover greenholiays to parks and wildernesses as some Scandinavian plans already do. May our shcools teach us to marvel at our humble origins in the minute stuff of the cosmos, and the fascinating life-forms we have nonetheless become. May many people have the opportunity to behold the planet from space and returnwith a fuller sense of what home means. At least once, may madcap roosters serenades at dawn."
My thanks to Julia for giving me this book because she knew I would appreciate it and that I needed it.
I don't think I could experience all that Ackerman does or if could I could never tell the story so well. She is a master of putting thoughts into words. Each essay has it's own exceptional phrasing when she says something that you would say if you thought about it. Oh, I want to remember every smart, sensitive, focused thought she has. But I guess I will just keep this book nearby to brighten another day when I need it for the comfort it gives.
"On the short-lived hoary visitors we call shooting stars, I wish for many planet-clad dawns as luminous as this one. And in the spirit of Celtic blessings, I add: May our cities be redesigned to include more trees and windows, providing a greater sense of sunrise, sunset, and seasons. May playing in nature not be regarded as idle; may our health plans cover greenholiays to parks and wildernesses as some Scandinavian plans already do. May our shcools teach us to marvel at our humble origins in the minute stuff of the cosmos, and the fascinating life-forms we have nonetheless become. May many people have the opportunity to behold the planet from space and returnwith a fuller sense of what home means. At least once, may madcap roosters serenades at dawn."
My thanks to Julia for giving me this book because she knew I would appreciate it and that I needed it.
November 23, 2011
Diane Ackerman has an interesting view of the world. This is a collection of short essays that have been triggered in her mind by the light at dawn in Florida, where she often winters, and the light at dawn in the northern climes - Vermont - both in the summer and in winter. The light itself is just a trigger into a new thought process based on the flowers, plants, animals, birds and insects that are about at dawn; hence, the subtitle Dancing with Cranes. I like her perspective even if I'm not a morning person.
December 28, 2009
I picked this up at the Layton Library. It was interesting talking about the Dawn of each new day. I will surely look at each new day different. There was a lot about plant life, animal life, methology. she skipped all over the place. But I learned many things.
Since I have read this book. I have been a lot more attentive to the sunrises and sunset. Thank to this book. I appreciate the colors so much more. I will never look at a sunrise or sunset the same again.
Since I have read this book. I have been a lot more attentive to the sunrises and sunset. Thank to this book. I appreciate the colors so much more. I will never look at a sunrise or sunset the same again.
August 21, 2011
Pithy, graceful, and surprising. This book of essays is on my poetry shelf because each essay is a little gem. Each is filled with observations of our world that are beautiful without being saccharine and inspire one to pay attention to the amazing soup we live in. This writing is peppered with interesting facts that indicate a startling breadth of reading. The style is warm and conversational, as if the reader has been invited into the yard to share a hot drink.
September 11, 2012
I really wanted to read this book - it was given to me by someone I admire and like very much. But I just couldn't read it. There were a few chapters that had some interest, but in general the author just wanders around loving nature. Others with a more contemplative or meditative mind would probably enjoy it. Remember, I didn't even like Thoreau.
September 26, 2019
Review of Dawn Light by Diane Ackerman
Prior to starting Dawn Light (Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day), by Diane Ackerman. I was truly looking forward to reading the book. I have a fondness for big, majestic birds like cranes and wanted to know more about dancing with cranes. After reading Dawn Light, I am not sure if I missed the point of the book or it was misrepresented.
I did learn new information from the book and appreciated some of Ackerman’s more powerful lines, like “Myth is a metaphor the brain tells in story form”. I loved the different interpretations of the Sun like the Greeks believing it was the eye of Zeus. She had some thought-provoking elements like what if there was an Audubon guide for humans? What would be included in that book? And one bit about spiders on drugs inspired a programming idea I would like to try out, not with drugs obviously.
However, sometimes the book felt like a stream of consciousness. At times, I swear I was reading a book by William Faulkner (As I Lay Dying, for example). I then read her mini-biography on the dust jacket and realized why her language was so flowery and romantic: the words “storyteller-poet-naturalist” were used to describe Ackerman. I understand that this sort of writing appeals to many, but it is not for me. I will try to not count that against Ackerman in my review, but a word of caution to those who also do not prefer this type of writing.
This review is short because there were times I was lost in the language and struggled to find the point in some of the chapters. There were facts and stories that I appreciated (the part about the cleverness of herons made me love herons even more). The array of quotes she sprinkles generously throughout the book are things I love. “The antidote to exhaustion is not rest: it’s whole-heartedness” was one quote I particularly enjoyed. There were different languages peppered in as well (anam cara means soul friend). But the point of the book is a mystery to me. I hearken back to some of my other reviews of Wohlleben, Williams, Flores, and others who share their passions so fluidly but in a way that is clear and easy to understand. Maybe it is my distaste for prose-like language, but this book just did not do anything for me. I wanted to like it so very much, but I did not. This is the lowest score I have given on a book and I am not happy about it, but I also want to be honest.
My score:
Content: 3/5; did not always connect
Structure: 3/5; confusing stream-of-consciousness
Meets Objectives: 3/5; unclear objectives
Creativity: 4/5; her skill with language and story-telling is obvious but not interesting to me
65/100
I only recommend this book if you like flowery language.
Prior to starting Dawn Light (Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day), by Diane Ackerman. I was truly looking forward to reading the book. I have a fondness for big, majestic birds like cranes and wanted to know more about dancing with cranes. After reading Dawn Light, I am not sure if I missed the point of the book or it was misrepresented.
I did learn new information from the book and appreciated some of Ackerman’s more powerful lines, like “Myth is a metaphor the brain tells in story form”. I loved the different interpretations of the Sun like the Greeks believing it was the eye of Zeus. She had some thought-provoking elements like what if there was an Audubon guide for humans? What would be included in that book? And one bit about spiders on drugs inspired a programming idea I would like to try out, not with drugs obviously.
However, sometimes the book felt like a stream of consciousness. At times, I swear I was reading a book by William Faulkner (As I Lay Dying, for example). I then read her mini-biography on the dust jacket and realized why her language was so flowery and romantic: the words “storyteller-poet-naturalist” were used to describe Ackerman. I understand that this sort of writing appeals to many, but it is not for me. I will try to not count that against Ackerman in my review, but a word of caution to those who also do not prefer this type of writing.
This review is short because there were times I was lost in the language and struggled to find the point in some of the chapters. There were facts and stories that I appreciated (the part about the cleverness of herons made me love herons even more). The array of quotes she sprinkles generously throughout the book are things I love. “The antidote to exhaustion is not rest: it’s whole-heartedness” was one quote I particularly enjoyed. There were different languages peppered in as well (anam cara means soul friend). But the point of the book is a mystery to me. I hearken back to some of my other reviews of Wohlleben, Williams, Flores, and others who share their passions so fluidly but in a way that is clear and easy to understand. Maybe it is my distaste for prose-like language, but this book just did not do anything for me. I wanted to like it so very much, but I did not. This is the lowest score I have given on a book and I am not happy about it, but I also want to be honest.
My score:
Content: 3/5; did not always connect
Structure: 3/5; confusing stream-of-consciousness
Meets Objectives: 3/5; unclear objectives
Creativity: 4/5; her skill with language and story-telling is obvious but not interesting to me
65/100
I only recommend this book if you like flowery language.
June 11, 2020
I read this book a chapter at a time - one per weekday - while holed up at home during the pandemic, as I wanted to start my day off focused on our larger, natural world and not on its problems and tragedies. :( It fit the bill for sure. While I find Ackerman's writing style challenging at times (occasionally too ethereal for my linear brain) she can certainly place you in the moment and I always appreciate that.
Some highlights of her writing that I particular enjoyed:
* "All of our being, juices, flesh, and spirit occurs as nature; nature surrounds, permeates, effervesces in, and includes us."
* "...I prize dawn's half-open doorway between dream and wakefulness, when any thought is possible."
* "Nothing surpasses the single suchness of this moment. Presence is always a present, a gift, intransitively given, in some stage of unwrap, waiting to be explored."
One of my fav chapters was "Just a Little Rain" where Ackerman states that "rain is as much feel as sight, and also has a scent." So true!
I also very much enjoyed the chapter on the author's friend who had passed away, called "Missive". She states: "Presence mattered, perhaps more than anything because he understood the tragedy of being absent from one's own life." A great philosophy for life, during any time, pandemic or not.
Some highlights of her writing that I particular enjoyed:
* "All of our being, juices, flesh, and spirit occurs as nature; nature surrounds, permeates, effervesces in, and includes us."
* "...I prize dawn's half-open doorway between dream and wakefulness, when any thought is possible."
* "Nothing surpasses the single suchness of this moment. Presence is always a present, a gift, intransitively given, in some stage of unwrap, waiting to be explored."
One of my fav chapters was "Just a Little Rain" where Ackerman states that "rain is as much feel as sight, and also has a scent." So true!
I also very much enjoyed the chapter on the author's friend who had passed away, called "Missive". She states: "Presence mattered, perhaps more than anything because he understood the tragedy of being absent from one's own life." A great philosophy for life, during any time, pandemic or not.
Read
June 3, 2019For a little over a month, I read one or two essays from this book each morning as dawn was breaking. Ackerman made me look at dawn from many new perspectives. What's most amazing about her writing is that she can take a singular subject like dawn and write an entire book about it, weaving science poetically into sentences, paragraphs, and entire essays.
In an essay entitled "Crystals" she writes that viruses have crystal hearts, "and, coincidentally, thrive in us, especially during the crystal fantasia of snow season. We used to assume the flue virus rampaged in winter because people stayed indoors, breathing the same air. But winter is flu paradise because the virus grows stable in cold dry air, staying aloft longer and drifting farther, suspended in droplets of hot-air balloons. Cool air travels well into our lungs with flu viruses aboard, ready to lodge. In the summer, weighed down by hot humid weather, the flu virus grows soggy and falls to the ground." Short dollops of such information are splashed into every essay. Unusual words flash on the page, "crozzled old sycamore," "a few last marcescent leaves," or "eye-snag." In one essay she asks, "How do you explore the texture of being alive?" You read Diane Ackerman.
In an essay entitled "Crystals" she writes that viruses have crystal hearts, "and, coincidentally, thrive in us, especially during the crystal fantasia of snow season. We used to assume the flue virus rampaged in winter because people stayed indoors, breathing the same air. But winter is flu paradise because the virus grows stable in cold dry air, staying aloft longer and drifting farther, suspended in droplets of hot-air balloons. Cool air travels well into our lungs with flu viruses aboard, ready to lodge. In the summer, weighed down by hot humid weather, the flu virus grows soggy and falls to the ground." Short dollops of such information are splashed into every essay. Unusual words flash on the page, "crozzled old sycamore," "a few last marcescent leaves," or "eye-snag." In one essay she asks, "How do you explore the texture of being alive?" You read Diane Ackerman.
July 16, 2020
A lot of words in this book. She describes what she sees and then wanders off into associations—here too many sentences start with “I”. Ackerman uses as her model a genre similar to a pillow book (Japanese) where mental wandering leads to wondering. Sometimes she reaches too far for associations, and I often found this pretentious or forced as if Google helped her out. For example, when she talks of the death of a poet from a stroke, she explains about strokes and, jarringly, informs us he probably could have died at dawn, then goes into some statistics. Some chapters I did like were the ones about whooping cranes and one about snowflakes. Very interesting information about rust and crystals also. But despite all her descriptions, she falls far short of what a writer like Selma Lagerlof can do when describing dawn: “You need only see the lake on a summer morning, when it lies half awake under a veil of mist, to perceive how gay it is. First it plays for a while, creeping softly, very softly, out of its light covering, so enchantingly beautiful that one can hardly recognize it; but suddenly it casts off the whole apparel and lies there bare and uncovered and rosy, glittering in the morning light.”
October 22, 2022
Only read the "Autumn" chapter but plan to go back and read the others during the correlating future seasons ahead...
Loved this quote in the intro "Dawn Light" opener --
"I do find it comforting to be in nature. But how can you be in what *are*? All our being, juices, flesh, and spirit occurs as nature; nature surrounds, permeates, effervesces in, and includes us. At the end of our days it deranges and disassembles us like old toys banished to the basement. There, once living beings, we return to our non-living elements, but still and forever remain a part of nature."
Oh, and now I want to go read "The Diamond Sutra" -- liked this final verse she includes:
So you should view this fleeting world
As a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.
Loved this quote in the intro "Dawn Light" opener --
"I do find it comforting to be in nature. But how can you be in what *are*? All our being, juices, flesh, and spirit occurs as nature; nature surrounds, permeates, effervesces in, and includes us. At the end of our days it deranges and disassembles us like old toys banished to the basement. There, once living beings, we return to our non-living elements, but still and forever remain a part of nature."
Oh, and now I want to go read "The Diamond Sutra" -- liked this final verse she includes:
So you should view this fleeting world
As a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.
May 9, 2019
It was a nice, calming read, a random wandering through the thoughts of the author. Sometimes that wandering found a solid path and stuck to it, other times it bounced around erratically, creating a somewhat stilted flow. The book was at its best when Ackerman melted into the background and just let her observations wash over the reader. When she began to insert details about her own life, it interrupted the reverie that she had so smoothly built up and unceremoniously tore me out of the calming wash of her dawn observations. I really enjoyed the pieces where she let herself get out of the way of her thoughts and let them flow like a true stream of consciousness.
February 14, 2019
I didn't actually finish this. I read the 150 pages & the last chapter. I didn't like it. I felt as though I was being bludgeoned with metaphors, similes, and adjectives. Some of the sentences ran on so long you could be strangled with one. I thought this would be a book of essays but, it was ... Well, I don't know what is was. Yes I do, it was terminlly boring.
I was reading this for my book club. I hope next month's choice is better. I honestly do not want to read anything else by this author.
I went to my book club meeting & I want to update this review. Although this book was hard to read it did provide some lively discussion. I even realized that there were parts I liked. I may finish this at some time. I still would not readily recommend it though.
I was reading this for my book club. I hope next month's choice is better. I honestly do not want to read anything else by this author.
I went to my book club meeting & I want to update this review. Although this book was hard to read it did provide some lively discussion. I even realized that there were parts I liked. I may finish this at some time. I still would not readily recommend it though.
July 20, 2017
If you have read Ackerman's Natural History of the Senses or Natural History of Love there may be a sense that this book is set of B-sides in a greatest hits box set. Still Ackerman is at the height of her powers, STILL. She demonstrates the same eclectic, deep and encyclopedic command of her subject or motif and she spins a compelling meditation on the beginning of each day and how it creates us.
April 10, 2022
I am always amazed at the authors ability to paint a picture with her words. I was first introduced to Diane Ackerman because I was intrigued by her title “The Moon by Whale Light” and the fact that it contained a chapter on whales.
Her prose is mesmerizing and her missives are educational as well as beautiful.
Her prose is mesmerizing and her missives are educational as well as beautiful.
January 8, 2025
Diane Ackerman's other books live rent free in my mind. I read them at the perfect moment in life and I treasure that reading memories. This one, however, felt like a collection of disjointed essays with not much to do with the dawn. I really was looking forward to something more celebratory of sunrises and dawn moments, etc., especially to start the year.
November 29, 2017
I enjoyed reading this book even though it took me over a year. You don't have to read all at one time. You can read it at your leisure, chapter by chapter. The author shares her observations of nature
during the four Seasons of the year.
during the four Seasons of the year.
January 11, 2020
a far-reaching memoir/ode to nature that is an enjoyable read but sometimes stumbles from its own breadth. Part mythology, part ornithology, part meteorology, part spiritual, part poetry, part farewell to lost loved ones - there's a lot to like, but at times it lacks focus
September 26, 2020
Two words: “Thank you.” I loved the poetic feel of this book. It left me with a sigh of satisfaction, a sense of excitement at seeing the world afresh again at each new dawn in my life. Thank you Ms. Diane!
May 20, 2017
As others have commented, Ackerman's prose is voluptuous. Sometimes this soars; sometimes it misses, however no one can doubt that she loves nature and her garden!
October 20, 2017
Almost every page is a page is as fresh as a new sunrise.
January 26, 2020
the reader of audio book needed to check a few pronunciations especially was irritating to hear mispronunciations of well researched info from cultures around the world.
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