From Our President: Curl Up with a Good Book

I often ask friends what books they have enjoyed recently and would recommend to others. I’d like to share a few titles that I’ve heard about so you can put them on your winter reading list too!

Tom Titus from Eugene Natural History Society says he will always love Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Kimmerer. It is described as “remarkable environmental literature that captures the spirit of the human relationship with the natural world.” Another of Tom’s favorites is Evelyn Hess’s book, Building a Better Nest: Living Lightly at Home and in the World. This inspiring memoir by a local author reveals Hess’s honesty and clarity about the term sustainability and the meaning of relationships. The stories and experiences are fun, philosophical, and a pleasure to read. Tom also recommends the essays from the Long-Term Ecological Reflections Project on the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest website. Information about this Oregon-based project can be found at http://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/lter/research/related/writers.cfm?topnav=167. I should also mention that Tom Titus himself is a wonderful word artist, and his book Blackberries in July: A Forager’s Field Guide to Inner Peace brings the reader into Tom’s world with rich, colorful descriptions and heartfelt analyses of nature’s dramas. 

LCAS Board member Jim Maloney suggests Made for Each Other: A Symbiosis of Birds and Pines by Ronald Lanner. Reviewers say “this beautifully illustrated and gracefully written work illuminates the phenomenon of co-evolution, describing how some trees and birds are made for each other.”

Anne Bonine, Lane Audubon volunteer, recommends H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald and Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family by Melissa Hart, a Eugene woman who volunteers at Cascades Raptor Center.

To check out reviews for other bird books, see the National Audubon recommendations for “The 12 Best Bird Books of 2015” at www.audubon.org/news/the-12-best-bird-books-2015.

Happy winter reading—I hope you find time to enjoy some good books!