Damnation Spring

By Ash Davidson,

Book cover of Damnation Spring

Book description

*'Probably the best novel I'll read this year. It's about work and love and characters who ring true. By the time I was 50 pages in I couldn't put it down. Can't stop thinking about it' Stephen King*

For generations, Rich Gundersen's family has made a living felling giant redwoods…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Damnation Spring as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Through the lens of Davidson’s writing, I was transported to the California coast under towering redwoods. But midst that transcendent beauty, I was quickly immersed in the chronic environmental issues of timber country.

In her capacity as a midwife, Colleen Gunderson becomes conflicted over her husband’s job as a tree topper when she encounters a growing number of mysterious miscarriages. She suspects a link between the logging company’s lavish spraying to clear the forest floor and the water they drink.

Unbeknownst to Colleen, her husband, Rich, used their savings to buy a stand of redwoods which can sustain them for…

I love, love, love this book! As a staunch environmentalist, I have always been on the side of preserving old growth and maintaining our forests. This story showed an alternate side of things—how families live off the profits from lumber and rely on it to eke out a livelihood.

Set in Humboldt County amongst the Redwoods and wild surf, this book mastered character development and had me seriously invested in the lives of the main characters. I appreciated the author’s research into the subject and enjoyed having my views tested. This book is highly recommended!

Let Evening Come

By Yvonne Osborne,

Book cover of Let Evening Come

Yvonne Osborne Author Of Let Evening Come

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on a family farm surrounded by larger vegetable and dairy operations that used migrant labor. From an early age, my siblings and I were acquainted with the children of these workers, children whom we shared a school desk with one day and were gone the next. On summer vacations, our parents hauled us around in a station wagon with a popup camper, which they parked in out-of-the-way hayfields and on mountainous plateaus, shunning, much to our chagrin, normal campgrounds, and swimming pools. Thus, I grew up exposed to different cultures and environments. My writing reflects my parents’ curiosity, love of books and travel, and devotion to the natural world. 

Yvonne's book list on immersive coming-of-age fiction with characters struggling to find themselves amidst the isolation and bigotry in Indigenous, rural, and minority communities

What is my book about?

After her mother is killed in a rare Northern Michigan tornado, Sadie Wixom is left with only her father and grandfather to guide her through young adulthood. Miles away in western Saskatchewan, Stefan Montegrand and his Indigenous family are displaced from their land by multinational energy companies. They are taken in temporarily by Sadie’s aunt, a human rights activist who heads a cultural exchange program.

Stefan promptly runs afoul of local authority, but Sadie, intrigued by him and captivated by his story, has grown sympathetic to his cause and complicit in his pushback against prejudiced accusations. Their mutual attraction is stymied when Stefan’s older brother, Joachim, who stayed behind, becomes embroiled in the resistance, and Stefan is compelled to return to Canada. Sadie, concerned for his safety, impulsively follows on a trajectory doomed by cultural misunderstanding and oncoming winter.

Let Evening Come

By Yvonne Osborne,

What is this book about?

After her mother is killed in a rare Northern Michigan tornado, Sadie Wixom is left with only her father and grandfather to guide her through the pitfalls of young adulthood.
Hundreds of miles away in western Saskatchewan, Stefan Montegrand and his Indigenous family are forced off their land by multinational energy companies and flawed treaties. They are taken in temporarily by Sadie's aunt, a human rights activist who heads a cultural exchange program.
Stefan, whose own father died in prison while on a hunger strike, promptly runs afoul of local authority, but Sadie, intrigued by him and captivated by his…


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