5 Books About Forests, Trees and the People Who See Both of Them

September 20, 2024 | Source: BookTrib | by Diane Parrish

If you live in the Northeast, as I do, you are well aware of the signs: maple trees beginning to flame with color; ornamental grasses waving their feathery tassels in the wind; tomato plants spent and wilted from the effort of packaging all those seeds into edible containers. Autumn is upon us. Never mind that some days it’s still 85 degrees under a blazing sun. Somehow every growing thing knows it’s time to switch gears, shed the summer wardrobe, and make preparations for a long winter’s nap.

I have questions. How do they know? Why does their winter prep affect us so profoundly, rendering some of us melancholy, energizing others to pick up the pace? The short answer might be that we are related to our botanical cousins on a molecular level and couldn’t separate our lives from theirs if we tried. The longer answer, as explored in the books below, is more complex, startling, and inspiring. This month’s books include science writing, a book of essays about nature, and novels that tell the story of the relationship between humans and their botanical kin.

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