A Novel About Waking up to Trees: The Overstory by Richard Powers

Oddly, this most wonderful book about trees, The Overstory, is not in the nature section or non-fiction section of your local bookstore; it is in the fiction section. If one book could be in all sections, I guess I'd put it there; since the characters are fictional, and the events, as they relate to the…

A Voice For the Wilderness: Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac

A Sand County Almanac was published in 1948. It took Aldo Leopold ten years to write, which says something about his particular care for such things. In part it is written out of his experience living along the Wisconsin River in what was referred to as The Shack, by the Leopold family. Leopold purchased land…

A Meditation on Dying — Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer

"They say, ninety-one years old, it can't be helped. Almost they don't care, he's so old." These words appear on the first page of Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells. They are the words of Hiroko, Pico Iyer's wife, who calls him from Japan to tell him her father is dying. When we think…

The Love of Our Neighbor

I often find myself struggling to understand what love is, and how I can love so that I might live fully what Christ told us was the greatest commandment, to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor like ourselves. How do we show love to one another? St. Paul’s First Letter…

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

I was so excited about Housekeeping that I suggested, or rather insisted, my 11 year old read it. She read about four pages and said it was too confusing. I could not let it end there as I felt this was a book she would like. "Why is it too confusing?" I asked.  She said…