Megan's Staff Picks
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As someone who really loves nature, trees especially, this book hit almost too close to home for me; and yet I would recommend it to pretty much any fiction reader who is willing to work through a complex story for the beauty and feeling it conveys. Richard Powers so truthfully weaves a beautiful, powerful, and painful story. It is an incredible and well-written story that is also a love letter to trees and the people who defend them, and a call for the world to recognize their magnificence and strength. And if you start the book and get lost in the many storylines and characters, hold on: it all comes together soon enough, and it's so worth it when it does.
This book is incredible- it's definitely one of the best YA books I've read in awhile. The story is honest and unpredictable and easily kept my attention as a reader. The characters and the world in which they live are complex, well-thought out, bold, and resonate with truth and emotion. Tomi Adeyemi has built a stunning world and crafted a unique and fast-paced story that still incorporates overall meaning and plenty of character development. I highly recommend this book for any YA readers or fans of fantasy!
I want to share this book with every gardener I know, no matter your expertise, because I absolutely love it. Acadia Tucker articulately teaches a method of growing food that provides for better soil health, helps mitigate climate change, and makes maintenance of your garden ten times easier. As a regenerative farmer, Tucker has years of experience that make this book a treasure trove of knowledge and presents it in a way beginners and more experienced gardeners can both appreciate. After brief chapters on how to prepare your garden for the season, there are concise, organized sections on a large variety of herbs, fruits, and vegetables, with tons of great information. It's well-written, to the point, and easy to incorporate into your garden this season, and a great read if you're just waiting for the frost to end and planting to begin (like me).
I was first introduced to this book while working at a nature center, where we would use this book at summer camp to bring up discussions of the many types of life found in nature, often that are different or smaller than us. It is a great book for encouraging compassion and respect for other living things and the world around us, and the open ended conclusion is great for sparking discussion. A perfect book for Earth Day!
