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Gleman’s memoir shares the joys of a child coming of age in Miami in the 1950s and 60s who had a deep love of the natural world. A biologist and ecologist, the author ran and operated a small mail-order bookshop on the natural sciences, named The Naturalist Bookshop, before a twenty-six-year career as a Boeing engineer with the Kennedy Space Center. Turning to architectural management, he also began with his sons a custom woodworking shop which, interestingly, created items for Disney World and Universal Studios.
Writing that his “love of nature and interaction with the environment” has been central to his life, Gleman shares tales from his mother’s vegetable garden, the “profound and lasting effect” Rachel Carson’s books imprinted on his life’s worldview, and fascinating anecdotes from his careers, complete with photographs. Bits of poetry and quotations ranging from Carl Sagan to Winnie-the-Pooh enrich and populate his memoir. And along the journey, a positive and humble optimism prevails.
Gleman’s book is a dedicated, wholesome, and deep proclamation of love and respect for Mother Nature. Often pausing to reflect upon the beauty of the ocean—particularly his family’s beloved Folly Beach (in South Carolina) and her majestic aquatic life—Gleman provides rich, almost holy, consideration to the daily miracle of nature: the rising of the sun. “The sunrise provides a brand new canvas for us every day,” writes Gleman, “and an opportunity to fill our minds and hearts with the beauty and wonder that surrounds us.” Though not a book of poetry, much of his work reads like nature poetry, and this is an endearing hallmark of a gentleman for whom, growing up, “nature was always our playground.”
RECOMMENDED by the US Review