Meloy, Ellen

In this invigorating mix of natural history and adventure, artist-naturalist Ellen Meloy uses turquoise?the color and the gem?to probe deeper into our profound human attachment to landscape. From the Sierra Nevada, the Mojave Desert, the Yucatan Peninsula, and the Bahamas to her home ground on the high plateaus and deep canyons of the Southwest, we journey with Meloy through vistas of both great beauty and great desecration. Her keen vision makes us look anew at ancestral mountains, turquoise seas, and even motel swimming pools. Throughout, Meloy invites us to appreciate along with her the endless surprises in all of life and celebrates the seduction to be found in our visual surroundings.

The author chronicles the life, habitat, and habits of Utah's desert bighorn sheep, and describes how they nearly disappeared into extinction and their mysterious reappearance.

"A thoughtful recounting of one woman?s travels in the post-Cold War American West . . . Meloy?s wanderings take her to the back roads of the desert Southwest, to hidden canyons where Navajo witchcraft and toxic waste reign side by side, and to little towns where uranium miners wait for cancer to claim them. . . . Meloy has not only rediscovered her connection to the badlands?she?s also made a fine book in the bargain." -- Kirkus Reviews.