Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven

 

Summary: (Amazon) When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She was as emotionally isolated as she was physically, but she viewed the house as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society. In the meantime, she taught remotely and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone National Park.

Then one day she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m. She had never had a regular visitor before. How do you even talk to a fox? She brought out her camping chair, sat as close to him as she dared, and began reading to him from The Little Prince. Her scientific training had taught her not to anthropomorphize animals, yet as she grew to know him, his personality revealed itself and they became friends.

From the fox, Catherine learned the single most important thing about loneliness: we are never alone when we are connected to the natural world. Friends, however, cannot save each other from the uncontained forces of nature. 

Fox and I is a poignant and remarkable tale of friendship, growth, and coping with inevitable loss—and of how that loss can be transformed into meaning. It is both a timely tale of solitude and belonging as well as a timeless story of one woman whose immersion in the natural world will change the way we view our surroundings—each tree, weed, flower, stone, or fox.

(Washingtonpost.com)

Author's Website: https://www.catherineraven.com/;

Reviews:

NPR: https://www.npr.org/2021/07/08/1013302180/friendship-between-a-woman-and-a-fox-leads-to-transformation-in-fox-i

NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/books/review/fox-and-i-catherine-raven.html

Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/fox-and-i-catherine-raven-book/2021/07/06/457c3320-de6a-11eb-9f54-7eee10b5fcd2_story.html

(csmonitor.com)

Videos:

Book Trailer: https://www.pw.org/content/fox_and_i

https://leslielindsay.com/2021/07/07/fox-and-i/

Interviews:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_EmhP_YwlY

American Book Association: https://www.bookweb.org/news/indies-introduce-qa-catherine-raven-1626081

Article by Author in National Geographic:

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel/2021/12/notes-from-an-author-catherine-raven-on-finding-solace-in-the-wilderness-of-the-american-west

Discussion Questions: (Heidi will lead the discussion)

(wsj.org)

The Seaweed Chronicles by Susan Shetterly

 

Summary (Amazon): “Seaweed is ancient and basic, a testament to the tenacious beginnings of life on earth,” writes Susan Hand Shetterly in this elegant, fascinating book. “Why wouldn’t seaweeds be a protean life source for the lives that have evolved since?” On a planet facing environmental change and diminishing natural resources, seaweed is increasingly important as a source of food and as a fundamental part of our global ecosystem.

In Seaweed Chronicles, Shetterly takes readers deep into the world of this essential organism by providing an immersive, often poetic look at life on the rugged shores of her beloved Gulf of Maine, where the growth and harvesting of seaweed is becoming a major industry. While examining the life cycle of seaweed and its place in the environment, she tells the stories of the men and women who farm and harvest it—and who are fighting to protect this critical species against forces both natural and man-made. Ideal for readers of such books as The Hidden Life of Trees and How to Read Water, Seaweed Chronicles is a deeply informative look at a little understood and too often unappreciated part of our habitat.

Reviews: 

1. Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/an-homage-to-seaweed-and-a-plea-for-wise-management-of-this-valuable-resource/2018/08/23/7a51a198-8909-11e8-a345-a1bf7847b375_story.html

2. Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/seaweed-chronicles-review-a-fragile-world-at-the-waters-edge-1533928547

(Bangor Daily News)  Sheep and Flat Island

Videos and Interviews:

1. Interview: Surry Historical Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu5Puj77aqI

2. Interview: https://vimeo.com/341578655

(medium.com)

Author's Website: http://www.susanhandshetterly.com/

Discussion Questions (Anne will be leading the discussion and also wrote the questions)

(WSJ.org)

Rooted by Lyanda Lynn Haupt

Summary: (Amazon) In Rooted, cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over millennia: life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how can we best live upon our imperiled, beloved earth?

Award-winning writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s highly personal new book is a brilliant invitation to live with the earth in both simple and profound ways—from walking barefoot in the woods and reimagining our relationship with animals and trees, to examining the very language we use to describe and think about nature. She invokes rootedness as a way of being in concert with the wilderness—and wildness—that sustains humans and all of life.

In the tradition of Rachel Carson, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Mary Oliver, Haupt writes with urgency and grace, reminding us that at the crossroads of science, nature, and spirit we find true hope. Each chapter provides tools for bringing our unique gifts to the fore and transforming our sense of belonging within the magic and wonder of the natural world. 

Reviews:

1. Blog: https://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2021/06/rooted.html

Author's Website: https://www.lyandalynnhaupt.com/books

(Spirtuality Health)

Interviews:

1. Magers and Quinn Bookshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR2vncPlv_w

Discussion Questions from online:

1. Little Brown and Co. : https://www.littlebrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Rooted-Reading-Group-Guide.pdf

Discussion Questions: (Please check back)

(https://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2021/06/rooted.html)

The Sakura Obsession by Naoko Abe

Summary: (Amazon) Collingwood Ingram—known as “Cherry” for his defining passion—was born in 1880 and lived until he was a hundred, witnessing a fraught century of conflict and change. Visiting Japan in 1902 and again in 1907, he fell in love with the country’s distinctive cherry blossoms, or sakura, and brought back hundreds of cuttings with him to England, where he created a garden of cherry varieties.

On a 1926 trip to Japan to search for new specimens, Ingram was shocked to find a dramatic decline in local cherry diversity. A cloned variety was taking over the landscape and becoming the symbol of Japan’s expansionist ambitions, while the rare and spectacular Taihaku, or “Great White Cherry,” had disappeared entirely.

But thousands of miles away, at Ingram’s country estate, the Taihaku still prospered. After returning to Britain, the amateur botanist buried a living cutting from his own collection into a potato and repatriated it to Japan via the Trans-Siberian Express. Over the decades that followed, Ingram became one of the world’s leading cherry experts and shared the joy of sakura both nationally and internationally, sending more than a hundred varieties of cherry tree to new homes around the globe, from Auckland, New Zealand to Washington, D.C.

As much a history of the cherry blossom in Japan as it is the story of one remarkable man, The Sakura Obsession follows the flower from its significance as a symbol of the imperial court, through the dark days of the Second World War, and up to the present-day worldwide fascination with this iconic blossom.

(WSJ)

Reviews:

Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/naoko-abe/the-sakura-obsession/

Wall Street Journal (WSJ): https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sakura-obsession-review-new-life-for-a-tree-11555081248

Author information: https://www.naokoabe.com/index.php/en/about

Interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWzxGuiOoLU

Discussion Questions:

(The Guardian)

 

The Bird Way by Jennifer Ackerman

 

Summary: “There is the mammal way and there is the bird way.” But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have, for years, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries –– What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, survive. They are also revealing the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, abilities we once considered uniquely our own: deception, manipulation, cheating, kidnapping, infanticide, but also ingenious communication between species, cooperation, collaboration, altruism, culture, and play.

Some of these extraordinary behaviors are biological conundrums that seem to push the edges of, well, birdness: a mother bird that kills her own infant sons, and another that selflessly tends to the young of other birds as if they were her own; a bird that collaborates in an extraordinary way with one species—ours—but parasitizes another in gruesome fashion; birds that give gifts and birds that steal; birds that dance or drum, that paint their creations or paint themselves; birds that build walls of sound to keep out intruders and birds that summon playmates with a special call—and may hold the secret to our own penchant for playfulness and the evolution of laughter.

Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan, to the rolling hills of lower Austria and the islands of Alaska’s Kachemak Bay, Jennifer Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect, in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behavior, birds vary. It is what we love about them. As E.O Wilson once said, when you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all.

Author's Website: https://www.jenniferackermanauthor.com/the-bird-way

(birdlife.org)

Reviews:

1. Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/16/the-bird-way-by-jennifer-ackerman-review-an-enthralling-study

2. Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jennifer-ackerman/the-bird-way/

Videos and Interviews:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M_TnqtE1fQ

2. Wild Birds Unlimited (AZ): https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=340269774536249

3. American Birding Podcast: https://www.aba.org/the-bird-way-with-jennifer-ackerman/

4. Bird Life International: https://www.birdlife.org/news/2021/12/10/the-bird-way-a-new-look-at-the-true-nature-of-avian-intelligence/

Videos:

Kea parrots laughing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N37rN29nUIc

Discussion Questions:

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Summary (Amazon): The Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America–majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaining guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way–and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).

Reviews
NY Times: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/daily/trail-book-review.html

Kirkus: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/bill-bryson/a-walk-in-the-woods/

Movie: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/news/a3694/bill-bryson-interview/

Other Discussion Questions:

1. https://robookreview.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/a-walk-in-the-woods-book-club-discussion-questions/

2. http://deathbytsundoku.com/discussion-questions/a-walk-in-the-woods-discussion-questions/

Discussion Questions: (John will be leading)

Letters to the Earth: Writing to a Planet in Crisis, Introduction by Emma Thompson

Summary (Amazon): "How can we begin to talk about what is happening to the world? How can we explain to our children, and to ourselves, what the future of our planet might look and feel like?

Letters to the Earth is the beginning of a new conversation. One that attempts to answer some of these questions by listening to the voices of parents and children; politicians and poets; songwriters and scientists. Gathering together over 100 letters written in response to the climate emergency, each entry begins to give language to the unspeakable, and shows how our collective power is present when we are ready to slow down and listen to each other.

It’s natural to feel worried or concerned about what the future of the earth holds. These letters are an opportunity to reflect on our connection to the planet and each other in times of crisis. They are also an opportunity to act and respond to this crisis. To put pen to paper and make your voice heard.

Includes contributions from activist Yoko Ono, actor Mark Rylance, poet Kate Tempest, author Laline Paull, illustrator of The Lost Words Jackie Morris, novelist Anna Hope, environmental writer Jay Griffiths Green Party MP Caroline Lucas. , Booker prize Winning author Ben Okri and actor Freya Mavor. "

Website for the Project: https://www.letterstotheearth.com/

Community and Education Toolkits for Writing a Letter: https://www.letterstotheearth.com/community-education

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/letterstotheearth/

Organizations involved:

1. Climate Generation: https://www.climategen.org/blog/write-a-letter-to-the-earth-a-short-term-climate-writing-project/

Videos about the Project: 

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8a1LEJPSbw

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7As6yfmZf4

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcPI7W3_cog

4. https://www.letterstotheearth.com/

5. Shakespeare's Globe Letter to the Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRXqNNBP8jo

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-2xm905zd8

Review: https://joyzine.org/2021/02/18/book-review-letters-to-the-earth-writing-to-a-planet-in-crisis-various-authors/

(https://www.rosekennedygreenway.org/love-letters-to-the-earth/)

This is a different book for our group. 

Since it's February, let's write a "Love Letter" to the Earth.

Please consider submitting here: https://www.letterstotheearth.com/submit-your-letter

(Bostonschildrenmuseum.org)

Discussion Questions: