Thank you, Lance Mannion!

Blogger Lance Mannion first contacted me on Twitter @modmyth months ago, and I can’t tell you how gratifying it is to know there are reader/writers out there who are reading and considering my work so thoughtfully.  Lance’s review is now out on his blog, check it out! And I can’t resist quoting this piece:

Paradise Lust is a kind of group biography that could be titled Eminent Cranks and Crackpots, but Wilensky-Lanford has a lot more on her plate.  In the course of these essays, she writes with verve, humor, and persuasive confidence about many subjects, moving from theology to geology to cartography, archeology and anthropology, literary theory, cultural history, botany, hydro-engineering, and boat building.  There were times when I felt I was reading Stephen Jay Gould, other times when I felt more like it was John McPhee.  Still, the personalities dominate, and I was mostly reminded, again and again, of Virginia Woolf’s biographical essays, which, by the way, I think rank among Woolf’s best stuff. Wilensky-Lanford brings all these people to colorful life, writing always with sympathy, affection, objectivity, respect, and an understanding of how they fit in their time and place.