May's Book of the Month is The Path
May's Book of the Month Club selection is The Path by Chet Raymo. In 208 pages, the former Boston Globe columnist shares his insights from 37 years of daily walks along a one-mile wooded path between his home and his office in North Easton, Mass. Along this path that he knows so well, he writes, "every pebble and wildflower has a story to tell"-geological stories, environmental stories, human stories. Raymo uses each ecologically distinct portion of his path as a starting point for one of those tales. He is at his best when he relates the tale of the path itself, how it was constructed by the great landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted as part of an estate for the great-grandson of shovel magnate Oliver Ames. The beginning of the path at the end of a suburban street provides the opportunity to discuss the origin of the village of North Easton at the close of the 18th century: the small Queset Brook supplying the power needed to run the factory that would dominate the village for a century and a half. As the path meanders from woods to open fields, from gardens to water meadow, Raymo discusses ecological relationships, the nature of DNA, basic geology and contemporary environmental concerns.
Copies of The Path are available at the Circulation Desk. For online discussion, be sure to visit Book Chatter!
Labels: book discussion for adults, book of the month club, events/activities for adults, ReaDiNG RooM News
Remember to READ 4 THe FuN oF iT @ Aaron Cutler Memorial Library!
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