Hey another milestone snuck up on me! It’s been 400 days since I started this blog, and I don’t see a reason to stop any time soon. To celebrate, I think I’ll go buy a bunch of books. In fact I already have one in mind called ‘North Woods’ which I’m reading for my next book club meeting.

I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I first picked this book up. It flits from one perspective to the next between chapters to paint a picture of a homestead in New England across many generations, from colonial days all the way to (I believe) modern times. It’s a hard book to quantify so far. It’s more like a series of interlinked short stories than an overarching plot. I’m not sure what to even compare it to really. It reminds me of natural history documentaries that cover a single slice of land, like those time lapses that show seasons passing, forests growing and falling, glaciers waxing and waning. Author Daniel Mason has an unusual style. It’s beautifully written, amazingly so, but I’m waiting to see where it’s going before I make any judgements.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley