A collection of nature essays by a linguist, it's lyrical but disjointed and scattered, like reading scattered pages of her personal journal. ( )

This short book is just packed with word pictures of the natural world; with simple facts about bees and coyotes and apples (or figs); with bits of history, word origins and geology. And much to my delight, it is centered around all of those things as they exist (or once did) in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, a place I love and recognize. It wanders a bit, or sometimes feels as though it's wandering, but ultimately everything fits together in a personal way. I think it is absolutely brilliant, and belongs on the shelf with Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and High Tide in Tucson and everything John McPhee and Stephen Jay Gould wrote. ( )

This may be a premature evaluation but I found this book to be a bit unorganized. Maybe if I read it again I'll feel differently. There are definitely treasures to be pulled out of the book and as an evening read, especially if you are not at home and not looking for anything in particular to get out of a book, this one will surprise you with a lot of interesting human stories on ecology, botany and horticulture. ( )