NYC Alumni Devour Wolves & Honey - Memoir of the Finger Lakes

Join the NOLS NYC Alumni Book Group on Tuesday, July 12 to howl about Wolves and Honey: A Hidden History of the Natural World.

DETAILS:

BOOK: Wolves and Honey: A Hidden History of the Natural World by Susan Brind Morrow (this isn't the easiest book in the world to get hold of so order or take out of library now).

WHEN: Tuesday, July 12th at 7:30 pm

WHERE: The Half King (hopefully we can get a table in the back garden) 505 West 23rd at 10th Ave.

RSVP: Kristen Daly - hobsondaly@aol.com or 917 309 0042

BACKGROUND: From Publishers Weekly

In this lyrical memoir, Morrow (The Names of Things) muses on New York State's Finger Lake region, where she grew up. Her ruminations are loosely based on her memories of two men-one a trapper, the other a beekeeper-whose ability to connect with nature had a profound influence on the way she views the world. In a poetic narrative, she contemplates the natural history of the area and tells of the people who have inhabited it-the Seneca, spiritualists, fur traders, artists, scholars, scientists and nurserymen. Morrow goes beyond the obvious, allowing each observation to remind her of something else and searching for the inner meaning of words. The sight of a flock of crows, for example, reminds her of a poem by the Greek poet Pindar, and this leads to a meditation on what it means to be a poet. The apple tree, which grows so plentifully in the region, is a "talisman that one could follow through the layers of Finger Lake soil, through layers of memory and history," and this prompts thoughts on the Swedenborgian missionary John Chapman (known as Johnny Appleseed), spiritualism, the molecular structure of sweetness, Lucretius and the origin of apples in the mountains of Kazakhstan. Morrow's language is rich and sensuous, for she thinks like a poet.