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Unnatural Selection: A Memoir of Adoption and Wilderness Paperback – May 2, 2021
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length296 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherCavanKerry Press
- Publication dateMay 2, 2021
- Dimensions6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
- ISBN-10193388083X
- ISBN-13978-1933880839
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Editorial Reviews
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"With clarity, grace, and humor, Andrea Ross guides us through the terrain of her life. She is not new to guiding newcomers through the wilderness, and she does so expertly with engaging anecdotes of her life in the canyons and mountains of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and along the icy road to Alaska. She weaves these with the poignant and powerful story of finding her birth parents, one that left me in tears. Read this for the stories of wild places and wild people and, in the end, the moving story of family." ― David Gessner
“Ross has written a fascinating book, the subtitle of which is A Memoir of Adoption and Wilderness.. It is a wonderfully told adventure of guiding others into the natural wonders of climbing mountains, descending into canyons, crossing deserts, and fording rivers. At the same time it is the weaving together the wilderness of adoption with its traumatic loss of the first mother, living with genetic strangers, the roadblocks in the way of being able to connect with biological relatives, and finally finding her birth parents and her roots. It is a journey of discovering the meaning of family, our relationship with all humanity, and with Mother Earth. Beautifully written. A must-read!” ― Nancy Verrier, author of 'The Primal Wound' and 'Coming Home to Self'
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : CavanKerry Press (May 2, 2021)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 296 pages
- ISBN-10 : 193388083X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1933880839
- Item Weight : 12.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,712,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,406 in Adoption (Books)
- #1,690 in Nature Writing & Essays
- #18,153 in Women's Biographies
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I found Unnatural Selection to be an accessible yet lyrical read. She deftly interweaves motifs of landscape, journey, and the perennial quest adoptees find and often lose themselves on, at least for a time. Indeed, adoption searches are not unlike wilderness trips - there are often many forks, surprises & talismans along the trail; and there is both the peril + the promise that the journey will be transformative.
By the end of her memoir, you will feel as though you, too, have crossed countless terrains alongside her.
Adoptees will find resonance on these pages, as I did, and curious readers will better understand what compels adoptees to travel to the ends of the earth and back again to piece together their origin story and birth family trees.
Her writing investigates that in this memoir of an adult who learns about her self as a child from a closed adoption and the geography where her life unfolds.
Choosing paths in her life (literal and metaphorical) reveal the feeling of connectedness that happens when the real and symbolic paths intersect and create her sense of self over time. Most important is the palpable disorientation of trying to figure out where you are going if you don't know where you are from, and in some case the place you were told aren't accurate. An underlying awareness that she shares is the relationship of health and the limitations it places on access to wild places. My headline is solvitur ambulando, it is solved by walking, was true for her. She had long hours to meditate and contemplate her footsteps and their deliberateness. Unsaid but clear in contrast is that this ability to walk and access the wild places that were the forge or crucible for her sense of self were always at risk. Could her health and the timing of events in her life made her unable to enter that 'workshop of identity' been different? I think there is an uderlying sense of gratitude for the way things evolved (pun unintended) in her unnatural selection and her strength at seizing the opportunities she did. Very good read, pacing of annectdotes and sincerity of writing was a pleasure.
After the first couple chapters, I just couldn't put it down and I immediately wanted to talk with a friend about it. This would be my top pick, hands down, for a book club. It calls for a leisurely discussion with friends.
Even if you are not familiar with stories of adoption or enjoy backpacking, the universal themes resonate through fascinating mini-stories of how the writer finds her career, her partner, her home, her family, and herself. There is so much here to savor and enjoy.
Andrea's style is gentle yet pulls you in, and she's never heavy-handed with lessons or judgments for her experiences and people in her life. Rather, she brings that "expansive Grand Canyon feeling" into her world regardless of where she happens to be.
Quite honestly the best book I read this year.