Bill Levin suggested this book of poetry by Seamus Heaney. It’s rare that we read poetry as a book club and Bill had the insight and knowledge of the author to pull it off. Each of us nine members selected one poem from this collection to read aloud and discuss. We gathered around the outdoor…
Cold Mountain is a novel about a soldier’s perilous journey back to his beloved near the Civil War’s end. At once a love story & a harrowing account of one man’s long walk home, Cold Mountain introduces a new talent in American literature. Based on local history & family stories passed down by Frazier’s great-great-grandfather,…
First published in 1949, A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America’s relationship to the land. Written with an unparalleled understanding of the ways of nature, the book includes a section on the monthly changes of the Wisconsin countryside; another part…
Ceremonial time is the moment when past, present, and future can be perceived simultaneously. Usually experienced only during ancient dances or rituals, this escape from time is the theme of this book, which traces the life on a single spot in New England from the last ice age through years of Indians, shamans, and bears,…
Outside Lies Magic is a book about the acute observation of ordinary things, about becoming aware in everyday places, about seeing in utterly new ways, about enriching your life unexpectedly.For more than 20 years, John R. Stilgoe has developed and practiced the art of exploring the everyday world around us, where so much lies hidden…
A chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach, The Outermost House has long been recognized as a classic of American nature writing. Henry Beston had originally planned to spend just two weeks in a seaside cottage, but was so possessed by the mysterious beauty of his surroundings that he found he…
In 1933, at the age of 18, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on an extraordinary journey by foot – from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. A Time of Gifts is the first volume in a trilogy recounting the trip Author Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (1915-2011), OBE, DSO was a British author and soldier,…
The final book in his trilogy about landscape and the human heart. Robert Macfarlane reveals to us a forgotten world: routes, roads, trade routes and routes that pilgrims once followed. Author Robert Macfarlane is a British nature writer and literary critic. Educated at Nottingham High School, Pembroke College, Cambridge and Magdalen College, Oxford, he is…
Desert Solitaire (1968) is one of Edward Abbey’s most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah, Desert Solitaire is a rare view of one man’s quest to experience nature in its purest…
Genius of Place tells the story of one of the most important figures in the history of America, Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted was a fervent abolitionist, noted journalist, Civil War hero, early environmentalist, and the landscape architect behind New York’s Central Park, Boston’s Emerald Necklace, Stanford University, the Biltmore Estate and dozens of other green…
