Publishers Weekly
06/10/2024
In this stimulating blend of memoir and science, Bjornerud (Geopedia), a geology professor at Lawrence University, meditates on the rock formations she’s encountered throughout her life and what they reveal about natural and human history. She recounts traveling to the Canadian Arctic to study turbidites (“distinctive, repetitively layered, sedimentary rocks” that form around the edges of continental shelves) and describes how in the 1960s, research on such rocks led to the discovery that mountains are created by continental collisions. Other chapters focus on humanity’s relationship with the land, as when Bjornerud laments how oil companies have destroyed farmland around her northwestern Wisconsin hometown by mining it for sandstone, which they use to prop open underground fissures in fracking operations. Bjornerud’s distinctive perspective encourages readers to view rocks as active protagonists in Earth’s history. She notes, for instance, that surging basalt lava flows 250 million years ago expelled huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and triggered the largest mass extinction the planet has ever experienced. Throughout, the lithe prose impresses (she writes of the sandstone-lined creeks she frequented as a child, “Great cascading icicles would form on the banks, some like stately architectural colonnades, others suggesting the fangs of monstrous creatures”). It’s a remarkably human take on the geological world. Agent: Eric Henney, Brockman, Inc. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
"Marcia Bjornerud masterfully weaves together the story of her own life and that of the Earth's long, often tumultuous history. Turning to Stone is a beautiful book—at once intimate and sweeping, informative and moving." —Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky
"A paean to the beauty and complexity of the rocks beneath our feet...In the manner of works of scientific memoir by E.O. Wilson and Oliver Sacks, Turning to Stone is an affecting account of early youth as a crucible of discovery." —Wall Street Journal
"Turning to Stone will find audiences well beyond geology." —Science
"Marcia Bjornerud’s wise and sweeping book shows us how learning to situate our human selves within the expanded time scales of deep geology is paramount to forging a more ethical, sustainable way of living in partnership with the earth." —Orion
"Bjornerud makes the case for challenging the barrier between the organic and inorganic, for seeing the slow but ever-shifting rocks of Earth’s crust as part of the planet’s ecology, just as much as plants and beasts." —The Spectator
"Bjornerud’s interwoven and wholehearted passions for rocks, her work, her science, her family, and her home are all as enduring as stone." —American Scientist
"Having extracted profound insight from the substance she has dedicated her life to, Bjornerud demonstrates how the scientific can ascend to the philosophical. Hers is a remarkably human take on the geological world." —New Statesman
"Bjornerud celebrates stone as a way of anchoring ourselves in our planetary inheritance, inseparable from our cosmic origins yet intimate and alive." —The Marginalian
"Bjornerud’s eloquent storytelling, complete with tantalizing geologic controversies, entices readers to turn the page — and learn complex science concepts along the way." —Science News
"Readers might find that they came to this book for the geology but stay for the autobiography." —Winnipeg Free Press
“This lyrical, wise book will change your relationship to the living Earth. Marcia Bjornerud offers a nuanced celebration of the languages of stone, from the subtle whispers of sand grains to the delightfully complex inner lives of mountains disclosed by eroding outcrops. Her careful attention not only reveals unexpected stories of stone, but teaches us what it means to be boundlessly curious and caring about our world and one another.” —David George Haskell, author of Sounds Wild and Broken
"Marcia Bjornerud has done it again! With flowing grace, technical mastery, and poetic insight, she takes us on a geological odyssey across the vastness of deep time and to the literal ends of the Earth. Turning to Stone interweaves the profound testimony of ancient rocks—granite, basalt, sandstone, and flint—with her inspiring personal journey from curious youth to avid student, from struggling junior faculty member to master field geologist and revered educator. In the process, we share in the eventful, poignant life journey of a gifted scientist who has gained the expertise and nurtured the passion to share astonishing stories of Earth in a unique and timeless book." —Robert Hazen, author of The Story of Earth
Kirkus Reviews
2024-07-04
A story of a lifelong love for our “wise old planet.”
“Earth is vibrantly alive,” writes geologist Bjornerud, “and speaking to us all the time.” This she has believed since she first began working, though she has not always felt comfortable admitting it. Scientific orthodoxy demands a dispassionate and analytical approach; animism is taboo in the academy. Now, after several other geology books for general audiences (Reading the Rocks,Timefulness,Geopedia), Bjornerud has written the story of her deepening relationship to the idea of an “animate, sentient, and creative” Earth. Thirty years into her career, she is no longer wary of owning this belief. In fact, she argues, we may need it now more than ever. Our species is dangerously out of alignment with “the system that sustains it,” fantasizing about Mars or the "metaverse" as potential new human homes. If we were to understand that Earth is "distinguishe[d] from its lifeless siblings" by its sacraments and rituals—if we "came to think of ourselves as Earthlings with deep bonds of kinship with each other, and all components of nature”—we might get ourselves into sync with that system. Bjornerud would like readers to feel love for the Earth, but it can be difficult to get passionate about abstractions; her passion for the planet comes across most vividly in the book’s specifics. When Bjornerud explains in interesting, accessible language how plate tectonics makes Earth’s volcanoes different from those on Mars, how the appearance of vegetation altered the life cycle of sandstone, or what it is like to live in tents and study rocks in polar bear country under a midnight sun, readers can experience for themselves an earth scientist’s enthusiasm and joy in knowledge.
Urgent lessons about the Earth, told through one geologist’s career.
