Home > 2009 Summit > 2009 Family Nature Summit Book Club Picks

The following books will be discussed at the 2009 Family Nature Summits - so get them on your night stand now! This book list was provided by Linda Nurick.

Fiction: The Reserve, by Russell Banks

"It's the 1930s and it's war up there - dogfights in the air above Spain, the Hindenburg cruising with its swastikas toward a fiery fate; and down below, in the sublime Adirondack forests surrounding a secluded rustic playground of the very rich, it's a class war of love and madness.  Russell Banks puts it all together in The Reserve, a cool noir thriller in which nothing happens as you imagine it will. This is new and wonderful turf for this masterful storyteller." -William Kennedy


Non-Fiction: Wandering Home by Bill McKibben

An account of McKibben's three-week walk from his current home in Vermont to his former home in the Adirondacks and reflects on the deep hope he finds in the two
landscapes.  As he walks, he contemplates the questions he first began to raise
in his groundbreaking meditation on climate change, The End of Nature: What constitutes
the natural?  How much human intervention can a place stand before it loses its
essence?  What does it mean for a place to be truly wild?

And if you feel like a challenge: World's End by T.C. Boyle

This book received the Pen/Faulkner Award for American Fiction. It's about the Hudson
River Valley (not exactly the Adirondacks, but close!).  Ghosts, ancestors back
to the 17th century, and the Native American Mohonks, all play a part in this award
winning novel. We probably won't discuss this one officially, but it might be an
informative read.