Kim Stanley Robinson's book about the Sierra Nevada. While it covers the Sierras' history, geology, & geography, I think this book is first and foremost a memoir of one who loves the Sierra Nevada mountains. Perhaps the “a love story” subtitle should have tipped me off. The book is divided into chapters, which are categorized (e.g. “My Sierra Life”, “Sierra People”, “Routes”, etc). Makes the case that the Sierra Nevada are the best mountains in the world for hiking & backpacking, with the “Swiss Alps” chapters providing a sort of comparison mountain range. The “Names” chapters are mostly essays arguing for changing various Sierra Nevada place names. Various chapters are in kind of a stream of consciousness style. The “Snow Camping” & “Routes” are packed with advice to be taken with a hefty grain of salt. As a whole, I'd say my favorite chapters are the “Sierra People” ones, kind of like how I thought the best parts of Antarctica were the parts about the early Antarctic explorers. 

The Kim Stanley Robinson who wrote this book is not the author I'd expect to have written the Kim Stanley Robinson books that I've read. While I see the echos of Stan of the High Sierra in his best of short story collection & in Antarctica (& even a little bit in Aurora), the writer I would expect to emerge from this biography would be a lot more like Ursula K. LeGuin. This makes me want to read Robinson's Shaman, & also some Gary Snyder poetry, as well as the books listed in the Annotated Sierra Bibliography. 

 I've always known Kim Stanley Robinson lives in Davis CA, but before reading this memoir, I never realized how much of a Davis Guy he is. 

I picked this book up to see if my Dad & Mom would like it, since like Robinson, they love the Sierras & are avid hikers. A lot of Robinson's personal stories remind me of other hikers his age I know (including my P&M). After reading, I'm still not sure if they would love it, hate it, or love to hate it. I do want to see if Robinson's backpacking/snow camping tips would amuse or horrify my parents. I like how his description of snowshoeing in the backcountry makes a tremendous case for backcountry skiing, but he still never bothers to learn how to ski down a hill.