ampampquotOffering a deeply necessary cleareyed look at who we are as fleshandbone bodies during the climate crisis this is a book that searches and finds meaning in both the hard truths and the value of wonder.ampampquotAda Limampampamp243oacutenIn this luminous collection of essays Ellen WaylandSmith probes the raw edges of human existence those periods of life in which our bodies remind us of our transience and the boundaries of the self dissolve.From the Old Testament to Maggie Nelson these explorations are grounded in a rich network of associations. In an essay on the postpartum body WaylandSmith interweaves her experience as a mother with accounts of phantom limbs and Greek mythology to meditate on moments when pieces of our being exist outside our bodies. In order to comprehend diagnoses of depression and breast cancer she delves into LA hippie cultures love affair with crystals and Emily Dickinsonampampamp8217s geological poetry.