Many print-media outlets publish summer book recommendations, and for good reason. Part of the joy of reading is sharing what you’ve read. There’s also a practical component: since blindly picking a beach read can be a daunting experience, tips from like-minded folks can help immensely.
In this spirit, we’ve asked staff members to write a short blurb about a book they’ve read and enjoyed this summer. We’d also like you to contribute. Let us and other e-newsletter readers know what you’ve been reading in the comment box below.
Amy Peberdy:
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
HarperCollins
Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder laid me up for a full day in a hammock. Its setting evokes Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and the film Apocalypse Now, as characters journey deep into a tropical wilderness, feeling the push and pull of unfamiliar flora and fauna, discovering dangerous inward truths. A medical doctor turned pharmacologist heads to Brazil to find out what happened to a disappeared colleague, while also keeping tabs on the progress of her company’s research scientist, her former medical school mentor, who is developing a fertility drug that would make it possible for busy women to bear children well into their sixties. It seems that the bark of the Martin tree, besides having fertility-boosting compounds, also prevents malaria in indigenous women. And so a reader is asked: which use holds the greater potential? New life for a wealthy few? Or the prevention of death for impoverished thousands?
For me, the really interesting part of the book was the question of how we allocate limited natural resources – who gets the clean water, what funding gets directed to what tincture to combat what disease in what population. The story itself was a very enjoyable ride, but the read was bigger than just the story.
Steve Long:
THE TIGER: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant
Knopf
Vaillant chronicles the events surrounding a Siberian tiger that began stalking humans in the Russian Far East. It covers the tiger’s natural history—it’s now endangered, largely because of the illegal trade in tiger body parts—but it paints a fascinating portrait of the long-held truce between tigers and people in this remote region. That truce is broken, and there’s a bit of a morality tale in it as the tiger turns on and kills a hunter who has crossed the line to poaching. The tiger kills again, this time seemingly more random and thus more terrifying. The conclusion is the story of the pursuit of this now-dangerous man-eater, and it’s thrilling.
Emily Rowe:
Sisters in the Faith: Shaker Women and Equality of the Sexes by Glendyne R. Wergland
University of Massachusetts Press
In the Northeast, most of us are familiar with the Shakers through their furniture. Some may even recognize the tune “Simple Gifts.” But few of us have examined the day to day reality of the celibate Shaker lifestyle as independent scholar Glendyne R. Wergland has in her latest book Sisters in the Faith: Shaker Women and Equality of the Sexes. Wergland outlines which traditional gender limitations were discarded and which continued within Shaker communities and what problems arose as they struggled to institutionalize gender equality amidst the patriarchal atmosphere of nineteenth century America. The most memorable part of Wergland’s study is how visions – a crucial element of the Shaker faith – were at times used to gain power and expel others from the community. The scenes that unfold remind us of where day-time talk shows came from, and give a very human face to a community of men and women remembered mostly for their chairs and cabinets.
Walter M. Medwid:
Look at a Flower by Anne Ophelia T. Dowden
Thomas Y. Crowell Company
The explosion of blossoms in the meadow below my house brought me to the bookshelf to get a refresher on the remarkable mechanics of flower design. What purpose do the converging lines of bright color on a violet serve? Which flowers have evolved to throw their pollen on a visiting insect in order to reach the goalposts in this reproductive game? Which ones have co-evolved to attract honeybees over bumblebees, moths over butterflies, or flies over beetles? Anne Ophelia T. Dowden’s Look at a Flower explores the methodology behind flower design and makes clear nothing is accidental. You’ll never look at an apple, Joe-Pye-weed, or an orchid the same way again.
Jack Saul (intern-extraordinaire for those of you who don’t know him):
Reading the Forested Landscape by Tom Wessels
Countryman Press
After spending another summer in the North Woods, I find myself re-reading Tom Wessels’ classic Reading the Forested Landscape. This guide to interpreting New England’s varied forest patterns does not simply spoon-feed you an explanation of the region’s natural history; it equips you with the interpretative tools to feel at home in any patch of northern forest you may find yourself in and draw conclusions about its past on your own.
Wessels encourages full-on engagement with the landscape through exploration and critical questioning, the forging of an active role he hopes will carry further into the arena of environmental stewardship. Absorb the author’s insight into disturbance-succession history and Brian Cohen’s masterful illustrations, and the forest’s topography, substrate, and artifacts should continue to evoke the dynamism of what a casual observer may mistake for a static landscape.
Dave Mance III:
Adirondack Sportsman’s Reader by Donald Wharton
Pine Mountain Press
Don Wharton, the author of a story on trail cameras that we published in our Winter 2005 issue, recently sent us a copy of his new book: Adirondack Sportsman’s Reader. If you like hunting and fishing stories from back in the good old days – which I do – you’ll appreciate this labor of love.
Wharton writes in his introduction: “I like remembering the old Adirondack days when hunters and fisherman carried packbaskets and Winchesters, when trout fisherman fished off log rafts at back-in ponds, and when “sports” camped in bark leantos and rustic log cabins along secluded ponds and streams.” He goes on to detail said days of yore, leaning heavily on the experiences he had as a boy with his father and the other old timers they used to run with. Imagine visiting someone’s deer camp for the first time and reading their camp log – the book’s kind of like that.
Discussion *