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| Letters From Eden: A Year at Home, in the Woods | 
| Author: Julie Zickefoose
Creator: Sy Montgomery
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $12.10
You Save: $13.90 (53%)
New (19) from $12.10
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 46628
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 8.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0618573089
Dewey Decimal Number: 508.771
EAN: 9780618573080
ASIN: 0618573089
Publication Date: October 4, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: SHIPS TODAY!!!!!! BRAND NEW BOOK
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| Customer Reviews:
It's a truly lovely book February 3, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Author Julie Zikefoose is a frequent commentator on NPR's 'All Things Considered', and has painted nature all her life - so her book reflects not only an avid nature writer's appreciation for the wild, but a set of seasonal essays accompanied by black and white and color drawings that provide lovely first-person reflections. It's a truly lovely book highly recommended for either coffee table display at home or a public library acquisition.
A Natural Gift January 29, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Emile Zola wrote, "The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work." In Julie Zickefoose?s book "Letters From Eden," you will find both. The gift shines from every page, in her glowing watercolors, in her lyrical prose, and in her obvious passion for the natural world around her. The work is evident in her field notes and pencil sketches, and in the tales she tells. The effort she exerts when protecting nesting piping plovers on a busy beach along the Connecticut coastline, climbing ladders to replace baby birds in their nests, or rehabilitating box turtles is demanding. If you would ask Julie however, she would not call this work, but a way of life, her life in the little piece of Ohio she calls Eden.
Come along with her as she shares her discoveries during a walk in the woods, or celebrates spring with tree swallows playing with feathers, or grieves for an opossum found dying in a trap. From the hilarious to the tragic, with the drama of a poisonous snake thrown in, "Letters From Eden" strikes just the right chord. Anyone with an interest in nature will feel right at home with this book. I know I did.
Letters from Eden January 13, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
To give this book five stars is a bit risky. It has a minor flaw or two. It raises the question of what a person can do when Julie Zickefoose writes an even better book. However, this book goes straight to a bird lover's heart. Readers of Bird Watcher's Digest have long enjoyed Zickefoose's essays and paintings. This collection of essays reminds us that she is one of the best nature writers publishing today.
Almost every emotion finds its way into "Letters from Eden." There is the expectation, discovery, and excitement of going with Julie on her walks through the southern Ohio forest. The walks can also provide a quiet time. There is the humor of the essay on bullfrogs or Julie poking fun at herself because she wants some chickens. There is loss as human thoughtlessness harms an animal or bird. There is tenderness as Julie, ever the rehabilitator, nurses birds and animals to the point of releasing them into the wild. There is wonder as various wild things demonstrate intelligence beyond what humans normally expect of them. Raising young children in an area where there are copperhead snakes can lend a touch of terror. That is counterbalanced by Julie's faith in all things natural. Not least among the emotions is the reader's enjoyment in these delightful narratives.
Then again, there is always balance in Julie's stories. She recognizes that predators must eat, even when it means the death of a loved bird. Weedy brush from foreign soil tries to overrun everything but provides needed shelter for wildlife. House sparrows introduced from England are a threat to native species but Julie notes that it is through no fault of their own. She is a vegetable gardener who rues the damage birds and animals do to her crops, but weighs that against the benefit they gain from her garden and the joy she gets from seeing them there.
Zickefoose is a mother and her young children are ever present in these essays. Again, there is a nice balance between the love of family and the fact that they cut into the time available for studying the outdoors and writing.
Julie's art is a perfect complement to the essays. There are simple pencil drawings and quick watercolors. There are also some beautifully finished paintings and ink drawings. The text is very easily read, although the field notes accompanying some of the sketches are sometimes hard to make out.
The thirty-some essays were originally meant to stand alone. Julie has organized them here by seasons of the year. Therein is a minor flaw. The essays do not lead into one another easily and they jump back and forth in time. Zickefoose recognizes the problem and mentions it in her Foreword. Still, it is a flaw and leaves room for an even better book - a book that gets six stars out of five.
Letters From Eden January 10, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this book because of a review I read in "The Union Leader" by nature lover and writer, Stacey Cole. The illustrations are beautiful and accurate. Ms. Zickefoose was a field biologist for The Nature Conservancy at the beginning of her career. Any one who loves nature will adore this book.
Letters From Eden is a Gift January 10, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Julie Zickefoose is a multi-talented mother of two children (and a wonderful Boston Terrier we know as "Chet Baker"), wife, artist, writer, singer, and friend. Letters From Eden will move you. I savored every word and keep it displayed in my home. Often, I'll re-read a chapter for sheer pleasure. Her writing style is soft, humorous, and will make you laugh and cry in the reading of one page. Her love of nature is evident in her writings, spoken with her heart. Beautiful, in every way. A true gift.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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