The Paradise Notebooks

Order:

Sundance Bookstore
Black Rock Press

In The Paradise Notebooks, Richard J. Nevle and Steven Nightingale take us across the spectacular Sierra Nevada mountain range on a journey illuminated by incandescent poetry and fascinating fact.

Over the course of twenty-one pairs of short essays, Nevle and Nightingale contemplate
the natural phenomena found in the Sierra Nevada. From granite to aspen, to fire, to a rare,
endemic species of butterfly, these essay pairs explore the natural history and mystical
wonder of each element with a balanced and captivating touch. As they weave in vignettes
from their ninety-mile backpacking trip across the range, Nevle and Nightingale powerfully
reconceive the Sierra Nevada as both earthly matter and transcendental offering, letting us
into a reality in which nature holds just as much spiritual importance as it does physical.

In a time of rapid environmental degradation, The Paradise Notebooks offers a way
forward—a whole-minded, learned, loving attention to place that rekindles our joyful
relationship with the living world.