This book changed how I think about California, fire, what “wild” means, and death. It was recommended to me by Jay. Since reading it I’ve started enjoying gardening at the co-op my partner and I live at.

The Last Fire Season is a mix of personal narrative and the history of fire, settler colonial land practices in California, and an ode to gardening. It helped me think more clearly about my relationship to California: knowing that the state is founded upon and still perpetrates incredible evils, but also loving it, the land and people it represents.

This book played a large part in the inspiration for the planting/tending metaphor on this site, and my ideas of digital gardening.