13 Sep / A Walking Life: Reclaiming Our Health and Our Freedom One Step at a Time by Antonia Malchik [in Booklist]
C’mon: grab that headset, hit play, get out, and let Antonia Malchik and Eliza Foss convince you why you should be walking. Foss is an ideally persuasive companion to journalist Malchik, whose debut title proves how “walking is essential to our physical health and creativity, to children’s brain development, to mental well-being throughout our lives, and to your understanding of our place in the world.”
Decades of urban living has limited Malchik’s movement: “driven by a combination of car-centric culture and an insatiable thirst for productivity and efficiency, we have been designing walking out of our lives for nearly a century.” She’s not alone: not walking has created devastating consequences to both humanity and the environment. Malchik, however, is no Pollyanna, confronting obstacles including physical disabilities, “Walking While Black,” and ever-increasing anti-pedestrian urban planning (Foss clearly enjoys voicing Malchik’s disdain for the recent invention of “nonsensical” jaywalking).
Despite challenges, with anthropological, social, political, cultural history on her side, Malchik remains committed to getting us moving. “We have always walked the planet”: as wanderers and seekers, as refugees and protesters, and most ubiquitously, as humans.
Review: “Media,” Booklist, September 1, 2019
Readers: Adult
Published: 2019