The Second John McPhee Reader

John McPhee, The Second John McPhee Reader (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996).


The Second John McPhee Reader
Like the first John McPhee reader, this volume impresses with the eclecticism of the author’s interests. John McPhee is an excellent writer and the collection of excerpts from his books has already gotten me to order some of the complete volumes. Any writer who can get me to read essays on geology and want more has a special touch. The four books on geology gathered under the title “Annals of the Former World: Basin and Range, In Suspect Terrain, Rising from the Plains, and Assembling California.” Assembling California, for example, is not just a book about geology, but also the history and people whose lives were shaped by that geology. “Coming into the Country” is his book about Alaska that drew me to discover McPhee in the first place.

The volume, like the first one, is an excellent introduction into John McPhee. It will likely invite the reader to pick up and read the complete books whose excerpts make up this volume.