Deep Woods, Wild Waters A Memoir
by Douglas Wood
University of Minnesota Press • ISBN: 978-0-8166-3173-5 • $22.95 Hardcover
Many people are touched deeply while discovering the forest, streams, lakes, wildlife and plants that inhabit our North Woods. Very few, though, can take you there through their words. Douglas Wood, musician and author, is one of the few.
“Dragonflies rest on lily pads and turtles on logs and frogs leap out of the grass and into the water. The Little Lake itself lies flawlessly before me, enfolded by green, wooded shores. All is well, and I can take a deep breath and relax,” Douglas writes; his words ease us into the wild. He shares the “intensity of being alive” with his adventures and observations. The writer of the beloved “Old Turtle” children’s book is a good guide, apparently off the page and certainly on it.
Shelter: Off the Grid in the Mostly Magnetic North
by Sarah Stonich
University of Minnesota Press • ISBN: 978-1-5179-0264-3 • $16.95 Softcover
The bold cover belies Sarah’s witty weaving of want as we join her quest to acquire and inhabit the boundary waters cabin of her desires. “I was the only one left knotty pining,” she laments as other family members find their cabins. The single mom instills in us the love of the land and the people who are part of it as she does for her son. This is a perfect summer read for any with cabins or those of us with only longing.