This amazingly unique memoir is written by a queer, mixed-race science writer, whose interest in the life of the sea has helped her explain and understand herself and her world.

I read this because of its acclaimed science writing, which indeed is excellent and fascinating, but I loved it for revealing a more empathetic understanding of those who are different. It unfolds and builds in a transformational way, and meanwhile you learn lots about sea creatures too.

There is a mother octopus who starves herself while watching over her eggs, Chinese sturgeon whose migration route has been decimated by pollution and dams, and deep-sea crabs that have no need for the sun, but are nourished by the chemicals and heat from the Earth’s core. Also, did you ever contemplate the fate of goldfish?

Radical models of family are found all over nature, so the implicit aim of this book is for you start to see queerness in humans as quite natural too. One is made to wonder why differences must be labeled as odd; there are so many differences after all; the range of constituent ingredients in life is immense.

The lovely upshot is that in the process of examining all this wide ranging and unusual authenticity, we find permission to be unapologetically our own remarkably distinct selves.

How Far the Light Reaches explores themes of adaptation, survival, and sexuality, while seamlessly weaving together the wonders of marine biology with stories of their own life. Read it if you are willing to think outside your own world view.

Because at times for me (and maybe my generation) this was more explicit than seemed necessary, I only give it 4 stars. The writing, however, here is definitely top notch. I listened to the audio book, which was read well by the author, and may have enhanced my experience of the material.