Letters from Eden
By Julie Zickefoose (Houghton Mifflin / $26.00)
A delight in equal parts for its writing and its fluid illustrations, Letters From Eden: A Year at Home, in the Woods is a seasonal round of tales from artist and naturalist Julie Zickefoose, who lives with her family on 80 acres of rolling Appalachian woodland in southern Ohio. This isn’t the treacly stuff that often passes for nature writing but the hard-edged, hard-won honesty of a woman who cherishes not just the spring song of a bluebird but also the memory of copperhead venom searing her hand—an unapologetic animal rescuer who faces the consequences of her mercy when the bullfrog she raises starts gobbling hummingbirds. And her drawings and paintings bring it all to glorious life—field sketches of turkeys and turtles, loosely rendered watercolors that resolve themselves into quiet landscapes and leaping foxes. Letters From Eden is a simple joy.
—Scott Weidensaul
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