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Roaming & Reading in East Africa, Nov. 2023
Spectacular bird watching. Spying on mountain gorillas. Book discussions around jungle campfires. A visit to a village where SirenSojourners are helping to build a much-needed well. And a terrific reading list. I am leaving a small footprint and keeping this excursion small.
"Wind is the Dance Partner of the Prairie": Flint Hills of Kansas with Robin Wall Kimmerer
Adventurous Readers: Why don't you break in your hiking boots with a Roaming & Reading expedition to the Flint Hills of Kansas this Fall. Autumn sets the sea of prairie grasses afire and inspires sublime prose from the likes of scientist and nature writer Robin Wall Kimmerer:
“Wind is the dance partner of the prairie. And every grass species has a different move; the whole stem of Little Bluestem shimmies in the wind, Indian Grass arches and falls while Big bluestem waggles at the top and vibrates at the bottom. Switchgrass pirouettes in the air. Prairie dropseed leaps like a fountain. A ballet of wind and grass….” Robin Wall Kimmerer, from The Clearing, an online journal published by Little Toller Books.
While You're There Read: "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer
"Tending the Valley" by Alice D’Alessio
Fall Colors Book Retreat in the Apostle Islands
I'm headed north and east, fellow adventurers, for an Apostle Islands Reading Retreat September 29 to Oct. 2nd. Can you believe I've never been there?? Shame on me! Hiking, book club discussions under-the-stars and a delectable wine-soaked dinner at a farm-to-table cafe. Click the title link to sign up.
Read to Roam Book for September
I'm about to interview Maggie O'Farrell for my MPR book show (airs every Friday at noon) and you can bet there will be some discreet slobbering and swooning. I was a relentless (and annoying, I'm sure) evangelist for her novel "Hamnet" --It's so good!--and her new novel, "The Marriage Portrait" is immersive and delicious.
In the best kind of Roaming & Reading fashion, it transports us to 16th century Italy where 15 year old (!) Lucrezia is about to be married off to the Duke of Ferrara.
Once ensconced in his domain, she realizes that a conspiracy against her is afoot. The mystery at the center of the novel is intriguing but the lush descriptions of the trees and plants, fruits and flowers that grow in this fertile land are enchanting.
Who Doesn't Love Reading Outside?
Favorite place to read outside? Check out this story from the NYT!