Connecting people who love the natural world.
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by Linda Martinson
“Everything is connected, absolutely everything.”
Sm’hayetsk Teresa Ryan, forest ecologist, The Mother Tree Project
I read dozens of books last year running the gamut from Ben Okri’s poetry (oh my!) to Code Girls, a surprising book about the brilliant, dogged women who accomplished most of the critical code breaking efforts that helped the U.S. win World War II, to several excellent environmental/naturalist books, many recently published.
So here are some recommendations for Pandemic winter reading. Start with Code Girls. It’s a quick and compelling read and a good lesson that freedom isn’t a given and that the significant efforts that helped us win World War II were not straightforward or obvious! When you finish the book, ponder whether World War II could have been won without the Code Girls?
Next, I recommend diving in and out of Wild, a book of poetry by Ben Okri which is also about freedom. One review of the book noted that, “Freedom is the most precious commodity in the world…” and that in his book, Okri “explores the freedom of our spirit, the child within.”
“So long as you start with your chaos. Order from the chaos you find. The chaos of now, today; of which the order and standards and classics of the past are a part. The way a ruin is part of a forest.”
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The BRNN would like to announce the recent publication of Images of America: Pisgah Inn by our 2018 Blue Ridge Naturalist of the Year, Marci Spencer. As many of you know, she takes great pleasure in researching our mountains and forests, collecting stories about where the people have evolved from this land that we love. Her commitment to chronicling these histories captures accounts of the lives and events resulting in many of the places we enjoy today.
This collection focuses on the Pisgah Inn, using a more visual technique of chronological photos and captions to tell its tale. All one hundred plus pages include pictures with details of Pisgah National Forest, Buck Spring Lodge, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the human interactions with them. There were plans for a release party for the book at the Inn, but in this time of distancing, this is the best we can do right now. We wanted you to be aware of Marci’s most recent book by Arcadia Publishing, and that it is available from Malaprops in Asheville. (828-254-6734)
By Donna Duffy
