Well here's an embarrassing confession: I have never read anything by Rachel Carson. When I was thinking a few weeks ago about all the books I should have read and didn't, Carson was at the top of my list. I read about her in American Scholar this summer, in a fabulous biographical essay by William Howarth, and then about a month ago I picked up The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch and fell in true mad Carson love (along with everyone else who reads this novel). Jim gave a reading in my hometown recently and I asked him afterwards how long he had known about Carson's marine biology writings and how hard it was to incorporate her into the book. (In the novel, the 13 year protagonist is equally obsessed with his former babysitter and Carson - and spends most of his time soaking in the nature of nearby Puget Sound.) Here was the surpise - before writing The Highest Tide Lynch had not read Carson either! We've exchanged some emails since the reading as I've been asking him some questions for an article to run in Bookslut in December. I am intrigued by how a novel that initially seemed to be primarily about a boy who loved Puget Sound, became also about the influence of Carson on a budding naturalist's life. Jim Lynch said he couldn't resist making the book more about Carson when he became familiar with her books. "...in a strange and powerful way she lit the way for me and Miles [his protagonist]" wrote Lynch, "by showing us how fascinating the marine world is."

So, I put the Carson book that Lynch writes so much about in his book, The Sea Around Us, on my birthday list and now the "Special Edition" with new introduction and all those sorts of extras is sitting beside me. I am excited at the thought of finding passages within it that Lynch has already prepared me for, such as:

"There is no drop of water in the ocean, not even in the deepest parts of the abyss, that does not know and respond to the mysterious forces that create the tide."

Miles O'Malley can't get enough of Rachel Carson, he can't get enough of the water really, and after reading Lynch's book I find myself intrigued by the Pacific Ocean in ways I never considered in the past. I am not a West Coast kid, but rather a kid who grew up body surfing on Florida beaches and has ended up in Washington State due to a long line of coincidences that mostly mean my husband is from Alaska and can't take the heat.

Major Bummer.

But I was a lazy coastal kid anyway, I never researched marine biology, or studied the ocean, or wondered about anything much at all beyond the next wave. I spent so much of my childhood in the Atlantic but know practically nothing about it. Carson didn't even have an interest in marine biology until college - she grew up in Pennsylvania for heaven's sake! But she learned the water, she studied it ardently and then she made it her mission to tell the world about it. How she came to be so entranced by a foreign environment, I do not know, but it is something to consider when learning about the world around us. More importantly, it is something to emulate.

I have already written a bit about The Highest Tide, and I'm looking forward to writing about it indepth for Bookslut. If you are looking for a smart and beautiful book about a kid who tries to find his place in the world and spends his time looking for it in the ocean that it is outside his front door, then you will love this book. It was written for adults, and adults clearly love it, but according to Jim it is already finding a broad appeal among teen readers as well. As for me, well, I put my money where my mouth is. I have already bought three copies for gifts and plan to buy three more. This is my Christmas book of choice this year and I'm so jazzed to hear what my family and friends think about it. Hopefully some of them will go looking for Rachel Carson after they read it, and then there will be more readers to spread the word about this amazing and gifted scientist.

I've been listening to Otis Redding and Johnny Cash today - what a mix! Tomorrow I break out the new Nebraska cd. I can't believe I have been so long coming to this part of Bruce.