For the Wolf

Finished March 22

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

This novel is the first in a new series called The Wilderwood. Neverah (Neve) and Redarys (Red) are two sisters, daughter of the Queen of Valleyda. They are fraternal twin sisters, with Neve the older of the two. It's been many years since there has been a Second Daughter in the royal family of their kingdom, and Red has known of her fate as long as she can remember. 

There is some world-building here, but mostly around the one kingdom. There is mention of the other kingdoms and one gets a sense of some elements of how they interact with each other, but nothing deep. I'm curious as to whether the series will bring them in more in future installments. 

Long in the past, the Kingdoms' leaders had asked the Wilderwood to save them from monsters, and in exchange they agreed to give every Second Daughter of the ruling family of Valleyda to the Wolf that guards the wood. So, on their twentieth birthday, these young woman are put through a ceremony dedicating them to the Wolf and then paraded to the edge of the forest at the northern edge of the kingdom and sent in, never to come out. 

Neve and Red are close, and have talked in the past about trying to rebel against this tradition. When they were sixteen they left a celebration and went to the forest to rebellion and something happened. Red was changed by this experience and has been fighting a pull from the trees ever since. She believes that following through with her traditional destiny is the best thing to do, and has stopped fighting to change it. 

Neve doesn't understand why Red has given in, and wants to still fight to keep Red beside her. As Red continues to follow her destiny and enters the forest in her ceremonial clothing, she finds something that she didn't expect, and, as she learns more of the fate of her predecessors, and of the true nature of the Wolf, she finds that her thoughts about the Wilderwood and its nature adjust and become more complex. 

I'm really looking forward to the next book, which there was a taste of at the end of this one. 

Rules for Visiting

Finished February 16 

Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane

This novel intrigued me from the descriptions and I borrowed it from my local library. The narrator of the story is May Attaway, a forty-something landscaper who lives with her father in the house she grew up in and works as a university gardener at the local university there in Anneville, PA. Some time ago, she ordered a cutting from the Fortingall Yew, a famous tree in Scotland that is believed to be at least three thousand years old. The UK Forestry Commission had announced the plan to offer cuttings, and she jumped at it. More recently someone has written a poem about the yew that grew from the cutting she took, and the poem won an award. The university has decided to give her some extra time off in honour of this and she has decided to use some of that time to visit friends. Two of the friends she decides to visit are from high school and two are from college.

The first friend lives in Connecticut and she flies to see her. Lindy is married and has three daughters, and May spends a few days with her and her family. The second friend is Vanessa, who is also married with one child. Vanessa has been married only a couple of years, but has two young stepsons. 

The third friend is Neera who lives in New York City and and has one child. May discovers when she gets there that Neera is in the early stages of ending her marriage. The situation is more awkward because May introduced her to her husband Adam.

The last friend is Rose, and Rose is also a landscape architect. May had not entered this program directly from college, so she is a few years older than Rose. Rose lives in London England and has a job creating attractive vegetable gardens for her clients. Personally, I found this visit the most interesting, and the friendship the most sharing, perhaps because Rose isn't married either.

From each visit, May takes something from her friends' homes, that represents something for her. I found this intriguing. Also, for the last three years, her father, who is in his eighties, has been leaving her copies of information on trees, for consideration as a memorial after he has died. The ones that he leaves for her during the novel's timeline are included her at the beginning of chapters, along with her thoughts on each.

We also gradually see how May's life has got to where it is. We find out what happened to her mother, and see her relationship with her father in its complexity. May's journeys also bring her out of her routine, and get her trying different things. She engages more with her neighbours and coworkers, takes the first step towards a possible romantic relationship, and more fully engages in life. 

One of the things May travels with is an older edition of Emily Post, and she tries to follow the Rules for Visiting enclosed therein. These rules are included near the end of the novel. 

I really enjoyed this book, for its thoughts on friendship, for its quirkiness and for its character May.

Four Fields

Finished December 31
Four Fields by Tim Dee

This book has the author look at four vastly different fields, noting their features, the creatures that inhabit them, and their history.
The first field, and one he returns to in different seasons later in the book is his home field, the fens near Cambridge. Dee lives very close, and often ventures into the fields, birdwatching, walking or bicycling, and noting the changes that have taken place since his last visit.
His second field is a field in Zambia, near the country his wife comes from, and where he went with a local man to follow honeyguides to wild bees.
His third field is one in Montana, where George Custer lost his life, a field rich in history, and in life. The last field is the Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl where he goes with researchers who annually take samples of local wildlife for testing. His job is to collect grasshoppers at each stop. This means that he pays attention to the noise of the life around him, to the activity on the ground, to the birds overhead.
This is a book of nature, of birds, of life going on, and life dying, and of history and the changes wrought over time, by both nature and man. A fascinating read.

A New Leaf

Finished May 10
A New Leaf: growing with my garden by Merilyn Simonds

Simonds follows the seasons in her garden, talking about the large variety of plants, her relationships with them, the history of her garden, and her family and friends.
The writing is a mix personal experience and gardening advice. I found it very interesting, with good advice regarding gardening, but I was a bit put off by her invented titles for all the people in her life. From her spouse, Beloved, to good neighbors Garden Guru, Rosarian, Humanist, and Farmer, nobody is identified by their real name, and I found that came across as affected to me. Perhaps she was trying to protect them by not naming them, but that did not work for me.
But her descriptions of her gardens, her love of plants, flowers, vegetables, and trees comes through clear and strong and captures the reader, making one want to go out and dig in, if not go out to garden centres and shop.
Inspiring.

Two Billion Trees and Counting

Finished January 7
Two Billion Trees and Counting: the legacy of Edmund Zavitz by John Bacher
I learned a lot from this book about the state of trees, forests, and the environment in Ontario. I had no idea of the wastelands in the province at the beginning of the 20th century and the fight to convince those in power (government and corporations) that it benefited everyone in the long run to have well-managed forests. So many of the arguments made by Zavitz and his fellow forestry advocates echo those around global warming and other environmental concerns (tar sands anyone?) today.
I guess there will allow be those who see the short term profit and not the long term sustainability which leads to greater profits in the end, not to mention better living conditions for all.
A book every politician and voter should read to avoid making the mistakes of the past over again.
This book follows the life and career for Edmund Zavitz (1875-1968) and his influence on the environment, specifically reforestation, in Ontario. We see the progress and mistakes, the political manoeuvrings and the passion, the shortsightedness of some and the long term effects. This is an important book for Canadian environmental history.

The Global Forest

Finished August 11
The Global Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
Beresbord-Kroeger is a botanist and medical biochemist and an expert on medicinal, environmental, and nutritional properties of trees.
This book links that knowledge with a poetic style to celebrate trees, mourn losses, and educate the reader. Told in short chapters that echo traditional storytelling, Beresford-Kroeger shows how trees are a part of the larger environment, giving examples of how they interact with other plants, insects, animals and man. She shows how trees help each other out, and explains the role of mother trees in a forest. She tells us how they breathe, providing us with the oxygen we need and converting or storing our waste carbon. She shows how the trees green chlorophyll echoes our own red hemoglobin in function and movement through the living. She shows how they provide food, shelter, medicine, and comfort to other living entities, including us. The connections she explains are eye-opening. She makes several arguments for change in how we treat these important elements of the earth, and hopefully we are listening.
A wonderful lyrical read, although it did have me reaching for my dictionary from time to time for scientific terms and other wonderfully new words. The short chapters offer just enough to ponder upon before going on the the next one.