I am huge fan of memoirs. I love reading about other people’s lives. This one did not disappoint at all. A sweeping story of a broken family surrounded by the harsh landscape that they lived in.

Kendra Atleework grew up in an idyllic family. Her parents were very loving to her and her younger brother and sister. Her parents taught them love nature even with wildfires and blizzards that occur where they reside. Kendra’s Mother dies when she is only 16 and her father tries so hard to keep their family together, but inevitably the family becomes estranged. Kendra moves to LA, her brother who has temperament issues eventually winds up in jail. While Kendra is trying to move on from her life she decides to go back to face her demons.

I found this memoir to be very moving. Kendra writes beautiful memories of her mother, her childhood and the environment she grew up in. She is so strong, even at some of her most darkest moments. If you love the combination of nature writing and memoir, this will be the perfect book for you.

I have a copy of this book to giveaway to one lucky winner. If you want an opportunity to win, please comment in this post and I will select a random winner.

Thank you NetGalley and Algonquin for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In her debut memoir, Kendra Atleework discusses what life was like for her growing up in a desert-like terrain in a very small town. Miracle Country, which comes out July 14th, is eye-opening and allows you to view the world from someone else's mind.
This memoir dives deep into the history of California, Nevada, and the development of water aqueducts and how a desert region developed into a city. Atleework shows she did her research and references many historians and writers whose stories intertwine with her own. While Atleework does add a personal touch to this book by recounting stories of her childhood to the historic and present state of this desert region, I think this novel places a lot of focus on history which I found to be a bit boring at times; however, if you’re a history buff who love to view the world from a first person point of view, then Miracle Country blends past and present in a way that makes this story feel more personal.
If you enjoy learning about the environment and how certain landscapes have changed over the course of history because of humans, then this book will definitely peak your interest. However, if you’re looking for a deep dive into someone’s life, you might not find what you’re looking for.

*I received an ARC from Algonquin Books in exchange for my honest opinion.

Fascinating. This is more than a memoir- it's also a short history of the water wars and how Los Angeles siphoned off that valuable resource from the Eastern Sierras. The more emotional chapters, of course, deal with Atleework's family and life. Her family was happy in the desert and the, sadly, when she was 16, her mother died, leaving her bereft. Thrown out into the world, she moves to Los Angeles and Minneapolis but nothing feels quite right until she moves home. It's always hard to review memoirs because it feels as though you are passing judgment on the author's life and life choices but that's not the case here. Atleework has made her family stand out on the page and equally importantly, conjured a sense of the nature and conditions in the desert. It's thoughtful and educational all at once- I learned a lot. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A great read.

[Rating 3.5 stars]
Miracle Country is a memoir about growing up in the California desert, and about what home means in the context of family and a harsh landscape.

Having lived in the Southwest for a lot of my life, I already have an affinity for the desert. While I connect with the beauty and the rawness of such places, I feel that the particular area Atleework grew up in has a different context because of its proximity to the excess of life in Los Angeles. It has almost been defined by this history of water conflict. She delves deeply into the history of the region and the issue of water rights, dams and pipelines. To be honest, those parts dragged a bit for me, but I like that she included some voices of Native communities from the area.

I thought the exploration of the idea of home was interesting; how she kind of has a love/hate relationship with the valley, but also did not feel at home anywhere else. I liked the parts about her family members, and how the harsh desert and the death of her mother shaped them all in different ways. I think the interweaving of personal history with actual history got a little confusing, but was an interesting approach. Atleework’s writing was at times powerful and poetic, and conveys her conflicted emotions about the place she calls home. A good choice for readers who enjoy poetic memoirs, and have an appreciation for nature.

Thank you to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for providing this review copy.

It is difficult for me to review a memoir since this is a personal book about the authors life but I will do my best.
A memoir that is powerful in describing the rough landscape. The drought, heat, wild fires, etc... can’t imagine living in that kind of extreme environment.
Thank you Algonquin the invitation To this Blog Tour, Kendra Atleework and NetGalley for this arc in exchange of an honest review

I think for starters I should mention that I’m not a nature person. In my own life (and in my writing), it’s pretty rare for me to wax poetic about the great outdoors. But this doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate other writers who do. “Miracle Country” is a memoir that examines Kendra Atleework’s connection to both the California desert and the impact her mother’s death had on her as a young girl.

I’m usually a fan of more linear memoirs that describe someone’s story chronologically, but Atleework did a wonderful job linking all of the major events of her life back to her ties to where she grew up in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada. You can feel her deep kinship with every part of nature, so that the setting almost becomes another relative in her life (just as dear to her as her parents and siblings).

I found that a few different writers came to mind when reading “Miracle Country.” While this doesn’t make the book altogether unique, it did make me feel like Atleework’s writing could be held up next to these other works in worthy comparison. Her journey of healing surrounding the death of her mother and her drive to relate to the wonders of nature reminded me quite a bit of Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild.” Atleework also quotes many writers in her book to support her examination of the environment of California. Before I saw Joan Didion’s name in the text, I had already thought of her. Few other writers are able to capture the true mercurial vibe of California like her, and I was glad to see that Atleework referenced her as well in her own writing.
This book also benefitted greatly from the historical aspect that Atleework was able to weave throughout the story. As a California native, I was intrigued by her descriptions of William Mulholland, who did so much to shape how Californians access and view our water supply. Descriptions of Native Americans who battled to keep their land and how early pioneers fought to survive among the wildest of elements (fire, earthquakes, blizzards, you name it) gave this book extra depth that was much appreciated.

Despite my lack of affinity for the outdoors, I was able to crawl inside Atleework’s world – filled with tackling mountain climbs and crawling through the memories of a mother who was gone way too soon. The easy flow to her writing and her insightful connections to the elements that have formed her life definitely made this a worthwhile read.

Book review! I was given a copy of this book by Algonquin Books in exchange for an honest review. ⁣
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3 out of 5 stars⁣
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I really went back and forth on this review, much like the book itself did. When Kendra speaks of her family, the loss of her mother, and how she uses nature to convene with her feelings of togetherness, I’m all in. The author writes in a gorgeous prose that you can fall into and feel every feeling she wants you to feel. ⁣
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Then she diverges and talks about something like water rights for a very very long time. I understand the need of having history for context, but this road was a little bit too windy for me. I found myself bored for chapters at a time before I was excited about the story again. It was almost as if sometimes it was a memoir and sometimes it was a nature book and sometimes it was pure historical fact. ⁣
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I wouldn’t turn this author away by any means for future work, and maybe this book just wasn’t right for me! I’m still giving it three stars because the way she writes about her mother moved me to my core. I would love some sort of follow up or more stories with her family in the future.

I really enjoyed this memoir. About returning home, overcoming painful memories and finding out where you truly belong.

She was raised in survive and thrive in the harsh landscape of Eastern Sierra Nevada. She experienced things like drought, wildfire and crazy winds.

When she was 16 years old, her mother passed away and the family fell apart. Kendra then decides to breakaway to LA then to Minneapolis, two landscapes very different than what she grew up with.

She eventuality feels the need to return home to overcome her past and find a true meaning of home.

This book is about losing, then finding yourself and the complexities of family.

Thank you to Netgalley, Algonquin Books and the author Kendra Atleewood for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework is a beautiful reflection by the author of her life living in the Eastern Sierra Nevada desert, in the presence of snow capped mountains and a glaring absence of available water. Atleework brilliantly situates this land of "lack" against her own experience of loss after her mother dies, bringing this idea of something that is missing from the microcosm of family to the larger picture of an entire region.

It is clear that Atleework loves the wild land where she grew up; within her memoir is a wealth of historical information from the nearly complete siphoning of her town's major water source via canal system to Los Angeles, to how this "modernization" in conjunction with white settlement has impacted the indigenous Paiute tribe, to the peculiar weather patterns that arise on the Eastern side of the Sierra and the impact that climate change has had on the area.

Miracle Country is beautifully written and rife with longing for her mother, for the family she had before her mother's death, and for her hometown once she moves away for college. I recommend for anyone that enjoys a stunning memoir that looks outside, as well as in.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Miracle Country

Author: Kendra Atleework

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Recommended For...: autobiography, non-fiction, California history, memoir, environment

Publication Date: June 16. 2020

Genre: Autobiography Memoir

Recommended Age: (death, TW self-harm, TW sexual assault, TW suicide idealations)

Publisher:

Pages:

Synopsis: Kendra Atleework grew up in Swall Meadows, in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where annual rainfall averages five inches and in drought years measures closer to zero.

Kendra’s family raised their children to thrive in this harsh landscape, forever at the mercy of wildfires, blizzards, and gale-force winds. Most of all, the Atleework children were raised on unconditional love and delight in the natural world. But it came at a price. When Kendra was six, her mother was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, and she died when Kendra was sixteen. Her family fell apart, even as her father tried to keep them together. Kendra took flight from her bereft family, escaping to the enemy city of Los Angeles, and then Minneapolis, land of all trees, no deserts, no droughts, full lakes, water everywhere you look.

But after years of avoiding the pain of her hometown, she realized that she had to go back, that the desert was the only place she could live. Like Wild, Miracle Country is a story of flight and return, bounty and emptiness, and the true meaning of home. But it also speaks to the ravages of climate change and its permanent destruction of the way of life in one particular town.

Review: For the most part I really enjoyed this book! The book did really good dancing back and forth between the past and the present and I really liked how the duel POVs did. The characters were really compelling and the world building was also really well done.

The only thing that really didn’t do well for me was the pacing. It was really slow in the beginning and the book didn’t have a fast pace throughout the book, which might not do well for some readers.

Verdict: A very well done novel!

Miracle Country A Memoir by Kendra Atleework
Miracle Country is not only a Memoir of a Family, but also a Memoir of a geographic place, its nature, natural history and inherent disasters. In fact, the author has packed it so full, I was overwhelmed in the beginning. Just as I was in the throes of sadness as this very tight-knit family is learning the dire prognosis of their Mother’s medical condition, the author abruptly shifts to stories of California history and I had to turn back a couple of pages to see what I missed. These historical facts were interesting, but they distracted me from the emotions at hand. (yet often sent me googling to find out more!!) Until I got into the rhythm of the author’s story-telling, I felt like I was reading two different books. Nevertheless, this moving account of a family and a place, where even the mountains have a personality (I loved Tom) has made a place in my heart and in my brain. Taking a walk in my neighborhood, I find myself muttering “Pukeorpassout” as the Midwest heat and humidity get to me! I leave you with a favorite quote of Pop’s that ends the story and is now a favorite of mine: “Landing is the hardest part of flying.” Thanks to #NetGalley and #Algonquin for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this beautiful memoir. #MiracleCountry

The Eastern Sierra is a land of wild winds and wildfires. In 1892, Mary Austin arrived at the Eastern Sierra and wrote, "You will find it forsaken of most things but beauty and madness and death and God."

Once Paiute harvested fields of wild rye and love grass, before ranchers arrived to summer their stock. The cattle devoured the crops and the First People starved. Bill Mulholland stole lake water to grow Los Angeles. Drought depletes the wells while the streams are diverted to LA.

A woman from the Great Lakes and a man from the California coast were drawn to the sublimity of the high desert. They met in a band and went on a hike. They birthed two girls and adopted a brown-skinned son.

It's hard to know how to fix a smashed world at sixteen, at fourteen, at eleven.~ from Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework

Their idyllic life was smashed with their matriarch's early death, spiraling the children into their private hells from which their father could not save them.

Atleework left for LA and then the MidWest. The hills burned. The dust blew arsenic. Her father's well dried up. But the beauty of Atleework's homeland brought her back from her wanderings.

Whiskey's for drinking. Water's for fighting over.~from Miracle Country by Kendra Attleework

The environmental cost for the growth of cities is central to the story and raises ethical questions about water rights. "We live in a landscape damaged beyond repair," Atleework writes, "and we see our loss magnified the world over."

The story of water in Owens Valley...was a sad story of wrong done, a near tall tale with a suit-coated villian and cowboy herons. ~from Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework

The valley's discovery by American soldiers and the settlers eager to displace (or annihilate) the native people is the story of European attitudes that 'built' the country while also destroying it.

Atleework's Miracle Country was a pleasure to read, gorgeous in prose, intimate as a memoir, and wide-ranging in its portrait of a land and its people. Highly recommended.

I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

I lived for 40 years in the rain shadow of the Sierras and fully understand Kendra’s love for the raw beauty that comes with this country. What they called the Sierra Wave we called the Washoe Zephyr, because you need a name to make friends with such a violent beast. It drives the weather and it drives wildfire. But most of all it’s big and it’s beautiful. When you fall in love with the high desert, you fall deep. The place of Kendra’s story is as important as is her family’s story, and her deep love of both is beautifully rendered.

Yearly we drove to SoCal to spend New Years with family, and depending on the snow conditions, might spend the night at a Best Western in Lone Pine, but regardless, it was always a relief to arrive in Bishop. It was a shock to see the carcass of Owens Lake, and it was a point of celebration when Mono Lake was allotted enough water to cover the land bridge, denying predators access to nesting sites on the islands.

The theft of the Valley’s water and lifeblood is unquestionably unfair, but when my young self would petulantly tell my mother that something was unfair, she’d reply - whoever told you life was fair?!! The greatest good for the greatest number is a recurring theme in the book, and anyone not in the greatest numbers knows it’s not fair, but nevertheless there it is, and it’s a recurring theme in water rights in the Arid West. “The greatest good for the greatest number” rationalized the attempted eradication of American Indians to make room for frontier settlers. The Homestead Act of 1862 offered free land to hopeful homesteaders if they met the qualifications after five years, but it was “free” because the surviving Indians were relocated to settlement camps called reservations. That said, there would be no Los Angeles or homesteading without employing the greatest-good-for-the-greatest-number ethic. Not fair!

Kendra quoted a number of prominent environmentalist authors, and if she keeps writing like this, we might one day be quoting her.

This is a deeply reflective personal narrative combining the threads of family relationship with the history and environmental character of place. Kendra Atleework keeps the reader engaged from the opening description of a wildfire threatening to consume childhood memories to the closing sequence of her family reunited atop Mount Tom in the High Sierra mountains. This is a thoughtful, reflective meditation on life anchored to the harsh yet sublime landscape of her youth, a land once home to the removed Paiute indians, and a land whose life-giving water source was channeled away to feed the dream of Los Angeles. The author deftly weaves the history of the High Sierra Nevada mountain valley into her own personal family life story, creating a rich, deeply layered experience for the reader. Losing her mother to cancer at age 16, Ms. Atleework expresses the search for life's meaning through her leaving and return to the geography of her youth.