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Riverwalking: Reflections on Moving Water
In these twenty elegant essays, a philosopher and amateur naturalist meanders along the rivers and streams of the american West-and muses on love, loss, aging, motherhood, happiness, the art of poking around, and other important matters. “A smart, compassionate, and wise meditation on living in place” (Terry Tempest Williams).
193 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
16 people are currently reading
803 people want to read
About the author
Kathleen Dean Moore
41 books160 followersEnvironmental philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore writes about moral, spiritual, and cultural relationships to the natural world. In 2000 she founded the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State, which brings together the practical wisdom of the environmental sciences, the clarity of philosophy, and the emotive power of the written word to re-imagine humankind’s relation to the natural world. In addition to her philosophical writing for professional journals, Moore is the author of several books of nature essays, including Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature; Riverwalking; and The Pine Island Paradox, winner of the Oregon Book Award.
A graduate of Wooster College (1969), Moore earned her M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1977) from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the philosophy of law, with a focus on the nature of forgiveness and reconciliation. At Oregon State, she teaches environmental ethics, the philosophy of nature, and a variety of courses for OSU’s new master’s program in environmental leadership. She is also co-author of a new Environmental Humanities Initiative, which integrates science and humanities to provide leadership for complex times.
A graduate of Wooster College (1969), Moore earned her M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1977) from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the philosophy of law, with a focus on the nature of forgiveness and reconciliation. At Oregon State, she teaches environmental ethics, the philosophy of nature, and a variety of courses for OSU’s new master’s program in environmental leadership. She is also co-author of a new Environmental Humanities Initiative, which integrates science and humanities to provide leadership for complex times.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
March 21, 2014
Why is this book not famous? I stumbled across it in a used bookstore, and anyway I am educated now.
"All along the McKenzie River Trail, there must be things we do not see, because they have no names. If we knew a word for the dark spaces between pebbles on the river bottom, if we had a name for the nests of dried grass deposited by floods high in riverside trees, if there were a word apiece for the smell of pines in the sunshine and in the shadows, we would walk a different trail."
- Kathleen Dean Moore, Riverwalking
September 5, 2021
Beautiful descriptive and contemplative essays on the author's being in nature and in relationship.
September 23, 2015
The premise of this small book is wonderful... naturalist and philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore used rivers as a theme tying together essays on river-boating and camping and fly-fishing, often with her grown children and husband. Sometimes the pieces describe the experience of the river itself, following birds and water and thoughts, and sometimes the river is simply where she was when she recognizes certain truths (such as the sweet sorrow of a grown daughter falling in love and walking away into a separate life). I first discovered Moore from her longer book of essays called, Wild Comfort. That book is a five-star-plus... the year I read it, I gave it to everyone for Christmas. I loved her expression of love for the natural world, and of human connection, all tied together. I understand she has now given her professional life over to work for environmental healing, her articulate passion will be a mighty force for action.
September 6, 2021
Nature writing in a similar style to the likes of Ellen Meloy, Robin Wall Kimmerer and Nan Thomas, however Kathleen's focus is the subject of riverwalking.
The descriptions of the river landscapes are rich and opulent and the musings on her family and her children growing up are reflective and tender.
The 3.5 star rating however, comes from the feeling that some chapters felt short, like things were only just getting going before an abrupt stop and move on to the next river.
** Note:- I've just reviewed my rating to 4 stars. I think I was a little harsh calling this average nature writing. I just re-read the final few chapters for a reference and realised the writing is beautiful in its own way **
The descriptions of the river landscapes are rich and opulent and the musings on her family and her children growing up are reflective and tender.
The 3.5 star rating however, comes from the feeling that some chapters felt short, like things were only just getting going before an abrupt stop and move on to the next river.
** Note:- I've just reviewed my rating to 4 stars. I think I was a little harsh calling this average nature writing. I just re-read the final few chapters for a reference and realised the writing is beautiful in its own way **
February 12, 2008
Kathleen is a philosophy professor here at Oregon State and I sat in on one of her classes. I've also met her husband, so it was great to picture them doing all of these things. I'm also familiar with many of those rivers. Even without all that, I think this book was great. Very moving. Short essays that piece together life lessons from nature. I like the way she thinks.
June 11, 2021
There were some gorgeous, thought-provoking, eye-opening essays in here. And some that surprised me. Toward the end she wrote of Lillian, the elderly neighbor who "forced me to spend part of each day doing nothing." When Lillian went off to assisted living, she took another chunk in the wall that separated the author from being a "former thing", an old person, a useless relic of a bygone time. Scary.
She wrote many essays based on trips she'd taken--floating the Smohalla, the John Day, walking along the Aguajita Wash--and she names each essay after the river which inspired it. More descriptive names for the essays would have given away the delights of the book:
The art of poking around.
Crossing against the current.
The logic of the dunes.
Staring into Orion.
But she held back, naming her essays only by the river or wash or sometimes even just a dry creek, and making the reader work hard to uncover her wondering magic.
A few of the essays were difficult for me--the study of philosophy always hits a roadblock in my head, but mostly she wrote of the elusive rhythm of rivers. And it's a wonder, as the old folks say. A wonder.
She wrote many essays based on trips she'd taken--floating the Smohalla, the John Day, walking along the Aguajita Wash--and she names each essay after the river which inspired it. More descriptive names for the essays would have given away the delights of the book:
The art of poking around.
Crossing against the current.
The logic of the dunes.
Staring into Orion.
But she held back, naming her essays only by the river or wash or sometimes even just a dry creek, and making the reader work hard to uncover her wondering magic.
A few of the essays were difficult for me--the study of philosophy always hits a roadblock in my head, but mostly she wrote of the elusive rhythm of rivers. And it's a wonder, as the old folks say. A wonder.
December 30, 2009
I love this book, of short, perfectly crafted essays that meandered between questions of classical philosophy (Moore is the philosophy chair at Oregon State), naturalist observation and parenting. They're all lovely, but one of my favorites is "the John day River," where Moore watches her son and husband go over a class five falls and get stuck in a whirlpool, all the while wondering if Emerson was right when he said that "Every sweet has its sour" and after years of marital bliss she is about to find hers.
I also like the passage in "The Rogue River" where she forces her husband to sleep out in the snow on a sub-freezing night because the cabin they've rented "smells mousy." And finally, there's "Puget Sound," where she shares a hotel room with her daughter and daughter's boyfriend, as a "college boy in boxer shorts who whistles through his nose." Her second book, Holdfast, is just as good.
I also like the passage in "The Rogue River" where she forces her husband to sleep out in the snow on a sub-freezing night because the cabin they've rented "smells mousy." And finally, there's "Puget Sound," where she shares a hotel room with her daughter and daughter's boyfriend, as a "college boy in boxer shorts who whistles through his nose." Her second book, Holdfast, is just as good.
October 22, 2007
I love books that combine observation (usually of nature), rumination and exploration. I ran across this book in the shared book shelf of the Hike Inn, and scooped it up immediately. I found some of these essays to be rambling and unfocused, but the best of them did a great job of combining the author's loving observations of nature with her careful ruminations on her own life, past and present. I'm not going to go and get a copy of this one for myself, but it's well worth a read if you happen across it.
September 6, 2019
A collection of essays that take as their starting point rivers and streams. They might be about rivers or they may be about other things -- matters of life. They might even be about doing the Texas Two-Step to a song that mentions the Brazos River.
Several of the rivers that figure in the book are familiar to me, such as the Willamette, the Rogue, and the Deschutes. She lives in Oregon after all.
Having picked it up for my sabbatical reads, I found the essays moving and meaningful. She shares the realities of life, of family, nature and more. A nice book to sit with.
Several of the rivers that figure in the book are familiar to me, such as the Willamette, the Rogue, and the Deschutes. She lives in Oregon after all.
Having picked it up for my sabbatical reads, I found the essays moving and meaningful. She shares the realities of life, of family, nature and more. A nice book to sit with.
December 12, 2021
A beautiful meditation on the flow of life and the river. Gorgeous poetic prose.
June 2, 2019
I first read this book almost 20 years ago and remember a series of sweet essays about nature and our place within it.
Recently, I was talking to my sister, who is the person who gifted the book to me all those years ago. I mentioned that I’d passed a copy along to a friend. “I loved that book,” she said, “But I don’t think I could read it again so soon after mom died.”
Confused, I asked her what she meant. “Well, you know - it is all about her processing her father’s death,” she answered. “I just don’t think I’m ready.”
I started. I hadn’t remembered a dying father, of grief, or processing death from earlier reads at all. How could I have forgotten what my sister remembered as the central tenet of the book?
So I picked it up and read it again. And cried in my own grief as the author processed hers. And was relieved to see that the rivers, and nature and our place within it were all there, too.
Recently, I was talking to my sister, who is the person who gifted the book to me all those years ago. I mentioned that I’d passed a copy along to a friend. “I loved that book,” she said, “But I don’t think I could read it again so soon after mom died.”
Confused, I asked her what she meant. “Well, you know - it is all about her processing her father’s death,” she answered. “I just don’t think I’m ready.”
I started. I hadn’t remembered a dying father, of grief, or processing death from earlier reads at all. How could I have forgotten what my sister remembered as the central tenet of the book?
So I picked it up and read it again. And cried in my own grief as the author processed hers. And was relieved to see that the rivers, and nature and our place within it were all there, too.
March 13, 2023
I have loved this author's essays on nature and family, but somehow had missed this early collection, until now. Here each essay takes inspiration from Moore's explorations along a body of water. Some of my favorites: "Winter Creek" (pp. 30-37), which begins, "I wish to speak a word for the art of poking around"; and says, near the end, "that poking around is good in itself, like music, or moonrise." And "The Smohalla River (in the Sun)" (pp. 51-58), which ends with Moore's reason for going to wild places: To explore the "important" question, "How far can I go . . . ? . . . and still be safe and warm?" And finally, "Aguajita Wash" (pp. 87-99), which shows us how her family builds a species list when exploring a new place, this one beginning with "Barrel cactus, Fishhook cactus . . ." continuing in sections interspersed throughout the essay ("Mexican jay, Vermillion flycatcher, Side-blotched lizard"), and ending with "Ring-billed gulls," seen from their departing plane.
March 23, 2021
I love this book, which came out in 1995. Today I picked up her newest, Earth's Wild Music. Author was Chair of Philosophy at OR State U when River Walking came out & her husband a biology professor. Her father was a biologist and park naturalist in Ohio, where she grew up. Essays cover her family's (adult children included) love of the outdoors, awe of creation, concern for the environment, aging, loss & grief, and feminism as it relates to academia in the previous century. I also loved her 2016 novel, Piano Tide. She has other nonfiction works in between that I haven't yet read.
May 20, 2025
Beautiful short essays on meandering around, beside, and even through, various rivers in the countryside of the United States' Northwest. The author is walking with her husband and kids most of the time, and wherever that is you feel like you are right there with her. Experiencing the water, the rocks, the boating, the camping, the nights and the days. If you wish you were still young enough to spend your time wandering far from cities in the more-than-human world, as I do, you will like this book!
August 18, 2020
Some of these essays had no overt relation to water; many were family-focused, which for some people is a breath-of-fresh-air. An excellent resource for people aiming to write literary essays, as this book illustrates reminders that essays with outside references (philosophy, religion, nature, Greek mythology, etc.) help to elevate the writing byway of lessons learned about a world worth investigating.
August 6, 2021
A beautiful meditation on rivers, philosophy, life, family, nature and happiness. Moore’s prose are clear & precise, drawing on her background in philosophy, yet open & leisurely, making connections to family members, neighbors & friends. To me this book felt like a lovely blend of deep, insightful nature observation in the spirit of Annie Dillard and sweet, intimate, neat & clever micro-memoirs reminiscent of Beth Ann Fennelly.
April 11, 2020
A pleasant intertwining of philosophy, motherhood reflections, and nature appreciation and observation. As an Oregonian and a mother it tugged at my home strings at times, then distanced itself from me again as Moore rolled back into her more scientific views.
December 2, 2020
I read this book after my father died and it helped me considerably in processing the grief and moving forward. It will forever remain one of my favorite books as it came as it came just at the time I needed it.
December 31, 2020
This is a good book. Twenty elegant essays each about some element of the natural world. Many essays have a twist to them, a slight, unexpected insight, or detail. This might be a book to reread in the summer.
April 16, 2025
Since I am not a hands-on, curious naturalist, these well-written, lovely essays missed their mark with me. While enjoying some of her reflective themes, the details of animal mating rituals, poisonous snakes and misc reptiles were a distraction.
July 31, 2025
I’m so glad I finally got around to reading this! The essays in this collection are so moving and poetic. As a water lover I feel so connected to many of the experiences written about and inspired to get outside and poke around.
January 13, 2021
An excellent essayist. She weaves many layers in nicely.
January 31, 2021
I liked this book very much, but the title is very miss leading. The book has little to do with rivers or moving water. It is a book about like and being part of natural suroundings.
August 31, 2021
Loved spending a few mornings with this book. Gorgeous. Thanks for the gift, Annie!
February 18, 2023
Excellent collection of essays centered on moving water but expanding to thoughts on philosophy, family, biology, nature, motherhood, and much more. Beautiful writing.
September 12, 2023
Honestly, she lost me at the whole, “all women want to have children” part.
2.5 stars
2.5 stars
June 30, 2021
The day before my local library closed for the COVID pandemic we drove in to get as many books and videos as we could. The library was busy with other like-minded folks and a friend came up to me and handed me this book, saying I think you will like it.
Though I took the book, I was not particularly excited. As much as I love nature and the outdoors, I often get impatient or bored with nature writing. But this book is different.
I finally started it a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it! It helps that I live in the PNW and travel to AZ each year so I was familiar with many of the rivers & canyons she described. Her descriptions, her self-disclosure, her humor and her occasional philosophical navel-gazing were woven into each essay.
As a hiker in the west, I have encountered rattlesnakes only a few times but those moments were memorable so I thoroughly enjoyed her thoughts on meeting a rattlesnake:
"Finding rattlesnakes is one of those things you want to do until you succeed and then it doesn't necessarily seem like such a brilliantly conceived project. Still, it has its advantages as a hobby. Unlike birds that are up at the crack of dawn, snakes are comfortable in temperatures that feel comfortable to humans, and so they tend to lie low until the sun has warmed the rocks, and they shelter in bushes during the worst heat of the day. When you find a snake, it doesn't fly off and leave you wondering what it was; usually, it sits still while you dig in your pack for a field guide, and it watches you warily while you pull your binoculars and try to count the scales between its eyes."
This book would be perfect for a walk and sit along a river.
Though I took the book, I was not particularly excited. As much as I love nature and the outdoors, I often get impatient or bored with nature writing. But this book is different.
I finally started it a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it! It helps that I live in the PNW and travel to AZ each year so I was familiar with many of the rivers & canyons she described. Her descriptions, her self-disclosure, her humor and her occasional philosophical navel-gazing were woven into each essay.
As a hiker in the west, I have encountered rattlesnakes only a few times but those moments were memorable so I thoroughly enjoyed her thoughts on meeting a rattlesnake:
"Finding rattlesnakes is one of those things you want to do until you succeed and then it doesn't necessarily seem like such a brilliantly conceived project. Still, it has its advantages as a hobby. Unlike birds that are up at the crack of dawn, snakes are comfortable in temperatures that feel comfortable to humans, and so they tend to lie low until the sun has warmed the rocks, and they shelter in bushes during the worst heat of the day. When you find a snake, it doesn't fly off and leave you wondering what it was; usually, it sits still while you dig in your pack for a field guide, and it watches you warily while you pull your binoculars and try to count the scales between its eyes."
This book would be perfect for a walk and sit along a river.
October 5, 2014
Found this review I wrote back in late June/early July.
Poignant, spiritual and often lyrical observations of the natural world. This short book is a fast read as it is split up into 20 named sections with even shorter sections making those up. Ruminations on the natural world, home, family, security, and even some of the eternal questions.
Reading this book made me wish I could have been a parent like her and her husband and have given my children such an exposure to the natural world, or that I could have had a childhood like she did or her children did with such exposure to nature and the naming and appreciation thereof and level of comfort in the great outdoors expressed in Moore's writing.
Moore is a professor of environmental & law philosophy and the daughter of a botanist, and is married to a (now retired) professor of zoology. Both are/were at Oregon State.
http://oregonstate.edu/cla/shpr/kathl...
Poignant, spiritual and often lyrical observations of the natural world. This short book is a fast read as it is split up into 20 named sections with even shorter sections making those up. Ruminations on the natural world, home, family, security, and even some of the eternal questions.
Reading this book made me wish I could have been a parent like her and her husband and have given my children such an exposure to the natural world, or that I could have had a childhood like she did or her children did with such exposure to nature and the naming and appreciation thereof and level of comfort in the great outdoors expressed in Moore's writing.
Moore is a professor of environmental & law philosophy and the daughter of a botanist, and is married to a (now retired) professor of zoology. Both are/were at Oregon State.
http://oregonstate.edu/cla/shpr/kathl...
June 29, 2015
My attention was drawn to this book for many reasons, first of all was the cover, the title, the fact that the author is a philosophy professor at OSU in Corvallis, OR (my son is a philosophy professor at Western and my older daughter graduated from OSU in Corvallis). The essays contained are beautifully written in that you could actually picture exactly what she was describing on/in/near the river she was writing about...causing you to relax and take in exactly what she had to say about each one and wish most of all that you were there to explore with her. Tying all this in with observations about love, life, loss, motherhood, happiness and just general poking around and exploring, it makes you feel like you are on this journey with her.
I will be looking for other books by this author...I really enjoyed her style of writing.
I will be looking for other books by this author...I really enjoyed her style of writing.
January 3, 2008
Book of essays reflecting on nature....or life while in nature. Small book that I carried around when going on hikes. Like short stories, the essays are easy to pull out and read one at a time when you have just the right amount of time. This book of essays reinforced my enjoyment of nature writing. Enjoyable essays without trying to make a point or get across any particular message. Thinking about the book now because I just revisited one of the essays that stuck with me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews