Friends –
As it is the season of giving and the (environmental) clock is ticking, here are four recent books to consider as gifts. Three of the books are by two of our Annapolis Friends who now live elsewhere, Fran Palmeri, and Dotty Holcomb. Both have been generous to AFM with the gifts of their Spirit, time, writing, teaching, photography, and more.
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Book # 1 Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Doug Tallamy, 2020
This book’s author is a great Friend of nature.
On a recent rain-drenched December evening over 450 people packed into an Interfaith Partners of the Chesapeake event in Columbia, MD to hear this author speak, to buy his books and have them signed. In this book, his latest, he promotes his plan for National Homegrown Parks. He teaches how to rethink our environment in our backyards by planting natives to preserve and protect all our species to provide conservation corridors to preserve and restore wildlife and the intertwined networks we depend upon and share. This book provides a map to a better future for all God’s creatures. It also provides HOPE, something we all need to sustain us, our planet, and our children. A dollop of hope for the holidays should make a nice gift.
Book #2 “A Bouquet of Days Rambles through the Natural Beauties of Florida” by (Annapolis Friend) Fran Palmeri, June 2023
At our recent Quaker Holiday Market, I was thrilled to find among the treasures and many tempting titles, several copies of a new book for sale “A Bouquet of Days” by Fran Palmeri. I read a few lines from it and snatched one up having immensely enjoyed “Florida Lost and Found”. I look forward to plunging into this new year’s “Bouquet”. I highly recommend both of Fran’s books for your Christmas list – gifts for others or yourself.
“In Fran Palmeri’s “Bouquet of Days” you explore not just Florida’s magnificent beaches but the fabled swamp of Okefenokee, and parks lush with rare wildflowers. Pelican “comics”, roseate spoonbills and friendly Florida scrub jays are just a few of the birds you’ll meet in her essays and colorful photographs of everyone’s “fountain of youth.”
Book #3 “Florida Lost and Found: Discovering natural places in the changing landscape” by Fran Palmeri, Jan 2020
“Florida Lost and Found celebrates all of natural Florida, not just her beautiful beaches but her magical springs where manatees congregate, mysterious cypress swamps, and prairies lush with wildflowers. With writer/photographer Fran Palmeri you’ll travel with alligators, the Florida scrub jay, roseate spoonbills and other wildlife, which you can still find despite significant losses of natural areas.”
Read the excellent review of “Florida Lost and Found” by someone you may know.
Book #4 “Buoyant – What Held Us Up When Our Bodies Let Us Down” by Dotty Holcomb Doherty, Sept 2021
“A quietly heroic tale of two women’s voyages through disease and dying, interwoven with voyages upon Chesapeake creeks that offer comfort and grace. Janet, a young mother, had months to live, doctors said in 1989. She and her husband would overcome staggering odds for 20 more years. Author Dotty Holcomb Doherty, afflicted by MS in 2002, became kayak buddy, confidante and biographer to Janet, her account both unsparing and loving. With a naturalist’s eye, she frames their struggles with portraits of Chesapeake seasons, rhythms of migration and tide, the charms of water’s edge. As their bodies betrayed them, the Bay buoyed them as they buoyed one another.”
I’m always grateful for good book recommendations. So thank you Barbro and Al for those you shared at “your” book stall at Holiday Market. Your thumbs up resulted in many happy customers!
How lucky we are at Annapolis Friends to have such writers to inspire us! And wonderful book sales to keep us nourished.
May your Holidays be bright and may your new year begin with the gift of a good book!
Cheers,
An AFM Reader and Green Group, Convener