The best books for people who really hug trees

I love this book because it tells the stories of six distant, independent people, and weaves them together like the roots of trees. These people begin as normal people, living their lives and having no predisposition to be wilderness protectors. But through life events they each find a passionate need to protect nature. 

This book made me stop and think about my relationship to every living thing on the planet in a deeper way than I ever had before. Powers expertly knits together, action, adventure, and prose. A unique combination of writing that kept me sitting in my chair reading for longer than I usually do. I was traveling in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California when I read this, which is where the story takes place. The way he writes about these areas, I felt like I was with the characters on their journey.

One warning, the first 1/3 of this book is backstory. It took me several false starts to get through that part. But once you do, you‘ll be hooked and thinking about this book for weeks after you’ve read it.

One of the things I love about his book is that Ms. Williams is a woman with a huge heart, who isn’t scared to write it down on paper. As a writer, I know how challenging it can be to bare yourself so deeply.

This story chronicles events over a two-year period when the Great Salt Lake rose and flooded wildlife habitats. She writes about the north end of the Great Salt Lake with such a feeling that she made me love that part of the earth, a place I’d never been.

She describes it with emotion that made me feel as if I’d lived there my whole life and wanted to protect it as much as she did. She combines the story of the loss of bird habitat, with the story of losing her mom to breast cancer which was caused by being downwind of nuclear testing in the 1950s. This death left a hole in her family, as the loss of wilderness left a hole in the environment.

If you want to explore a place through the eyes of someone who has lived there their whole life, I highly recommend picking up this book and exploring a little-known habitat.

This was one of those books that I couldn’t wait until I had time to read it. I was a beta reader of this novel and even though it was unedited at the time, it drew me into a world from long ago.

It takes place in old New Mexico, by a person who grew up in that area. It’s loosely based on his great-aunt, who did many of the things the Protagonist, Pete, experiences in the story.

Pete, is like no other main character I’ve read. She is more wild than civilized and because of that, has a pure heart. She is something of a MacGyver or Jack Reacher character in that she can handle any situation, but she uses her skills to protect her nature community and the things she loves. Pete lives off the land in a way most of us wish we could.

I loved this book because it is the journey and transformation of a professional woman who grows into her own power.

The book begins with the protagonist waiting for a man who promised to show up for an adventure in the jungle, but doesn’t. Life forces her to go on the journey by herself.

The main character ends up in a matriarchal society, where the women live in tree houses, independently of men. She initially goes there to exploit what the community knows about the medicinal qualities of the plants. The more she learns, the more she comes to support the ways of the community.

The lead character transforms from insecure to confident, and from living in her head, to living from her heart.

This is the type of story I like to write. Stories where women feel empowered and become certain of their abilities through a connection with nature. After reading this story, I stood taller and respected myself more. And you will too.

I heard about this book, after my book, was mostly written. But it did have an impact during editing and revisions of the first draft.

Ms. Simard weaves a tale that’s part autobiography and part scientific investigation—and she literally weaves her thoughts of trees, roots, and fungus and the interconnectedness of all the plants in the forest, into all her explorations of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.

I never would’ve imagined so much of this is true. It is such a change in perspective from the survival of the fittest ideas that we’ve grown up with. What a revelation to learn the trees in the forest aren’t competing for resources, they’re sharing carbon through their roots system. And beyond that, they communicate warnings and dangers to others in the area. 

Suzanne characterizes the trees in the community as an extended family that protects and looks out for each other. No matter what species they are. The Douglas Fir is as eager to help the Spruce trees as it is willing to help other Fir trees. Ms. Simard isn’t just hypothesizing this; she has a degree in forest ecology and proves this through her scientific investigations. She was the pioneer of this research which much other research in this area is based on. She started this work in the ’70s, long before anyone was thinking of trees as anything other than a product. 

I admire her tenacity and integrity, in the midst of losing her job, to her research and bringing the truth of trees to light.

Her discovery of how much the forest supports each other, became especially relevant later in the story as she must draw on the strength of her family when she battles breast cancer.

Even though I have felt a deep connection to trees and the forest my whole life, Suzanne Simard’s research led me to a deeper appreciation for the forest and what it has to teach us.