11 books about trees Archives

Go as a River

by Shelley Read

Victoria runs the household for her father and brother until a young romantic figure drifts through town and changes her life forever. Though her relationships with her family and neighbors change, her relationship with the family’s peach orchard is a constant in her life, as is her life-saving interest in nature, botany, and the surrounding wilderness. After I finished this riveting fiction, I was surprised to learn it was inspired by a true story of the destruction of Iola, Colorado in the 1960s.

Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness

by Qing Li

Ginger says: This book has been recommended to me again and again when I’ve admitted I love trees. Trees have already provided me with hours of health and happiness but for times when I can’t make my way into the actual forest, this full-color book of photography immerses me in the Japanese art of forests as medicine. That something so beautiful can lower stress and blood pressure, strengthen my heart and immune system, and boost my mood and creativity doesn’t surprise me but it does delight me.

The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us

by Meg Lowman

Ginger says: I happened upon this nerdy book written by the “real-life Lorax” Meg Lowman in a used bookstore in Northampton, Massachusetts, and couldn’t resist buying and adding it to my TBR list. Lowman is an explorer of the “eighth continent”: a region ranging from the trees in Australia to the American northern Pacific region to the Scottish highlands to India to Malaysia. The publisher bills this as part-memoir and part-field manual and I’m all in.

The Overstory

by Richard Powers

This is the kind of book they write about in Outside Magazine (and I've gotten some great book recs from Outside). In the early chapters, Powers explores the lives of nine different people in a series of stories, which share one common thread: they all involve dramatic experiences with trees. It's a slow build, but eventually the stories come together. (With 512 pages, Powers has lots of room to play.) This intricately crafted novel, which ultimately explores the connection between humans and nature, and the responsibility of one to the author, requires a patient reader.

Harry’s Trees

by Jon Cohen

A grown-up sort of fairy tale about grief, redemption, forgiveness, and joy, set amidst the beautiful Pennsylvania forest. Have you ever read a book that makes the world around you feeI just a little bit magical, even after you’ve turned the last page? Author Jon Cohen insists there’s no real magic in this story, because there’s nothing in these pages that couldn’t actually happen. And yet a whimsical air of magic permeates this vivid portrayal of characters brought together by grief but ultimately united by joy. Likely-to-delight features include an unlikely friendship, a book within the book, a battle to save the local library, and a mysterious good Samaritan known as the Susquehanna Santa. A strong sense of humor prevents this tale from verging too far into sentimental territory. Content warnings apply. For fans of Monica Wood’s The One-in-a-Million Boy and Steven Rowley’s Lily and the Octopus.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate

by Peter Wohlleben

German forester Peter Wohlleben writes with such adoration for his topic. Plants are living things—I know this because many of them live in my house and thrive in the same conditions I enjoy with plenty of food, water, and sunlight—but Wohlleben reveals how trees are like real, living families. They grow in families, communicate their needs to one another, and lead long, healthy lives because of their support systems. I’m a reader who loves metaphors, and I can sense this book is full of lessons to be applied to my own family life. If you’re a lover of long walks through the forest, fresh air, and ecological literature, this informative book is for you.

Tom Lake

by Ann Patchett

This is the novel I didn't know I was longing to read, with its tender familial relationships, Michigan cherry orchard setting, and insider look at summer stock theater. When Lara is nearing sixty and the pandemic is just beginning, her three adult daughters return home for the summer. The girls have long romanticized their mother’s once-upon-a-time romance with a megastar actor, and now, all together again, the girls direct Lara to tell them the whole story from the beginning. She unspools her story slowly, over three long weeks harvesting cherries on the family property. I’m still not sure how I feel about the ending, but this story? Absolutely gorgeous. I can’t wait to read it again. For fans of Rebecca Serle’s One Italian Summer and Anne Enright’s Actress.

The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession

by Amy Stewart

Ginger says: I recently talked Baylee’s ear off about my tree obsession on a Patreon bonus episode featuring the MMD Team’s Best Summer Books. I’ve long been interested in trees; ironically enough my origin story involves a theologian and a songwriter, but that’s a story for another day. This lushly illustrated book shows just how many different forms a hobby can take. Because of this book, I have tracked down obscure documentaries, headed out to my own local natural history museum to see wood collections, watched artists and environmentalists on YouTube, and joined Facebook groups so I can follow the circular tree forests of Ethiopia in which I am now deeply invested.

The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan’s Cherry Blossoms

by Naoko Abe

Ginger says: An MMD Book Club member told me about this book when I traveled to Tokyo for the cherry blossom season a couple years ago and it was so right up my alley: what we’ve affectionately dubbed “microhistory books” in my house. I could hardly believe this narrative nonfiction story about an English gentleman who fell in love with a particular variety of cherry blossom, and planted them all over the world. The trees I saw in Tokyo are there because of his fascination; he recognized one in a painting years after he had brought the same variety back as a cutting after falling in love with the blossoms on his honeymoon there, and was able to then return the beloved blossoms to Japan after they were thought extinct.

The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom

by Andrew Peterson

Ginger says: This spiritual memoir is a life told through trees, from the giant maples in the front yard of the parson’s house, Peterson’s childhood home, to the trees that make up the Chapter House, where the singer-songwriter houses his studio. His simple sketches throughout add to the beauty, and made me think about the trees of my life: the pear tree in my Mamaw’s yard, the weeping willow in a certain young man’s neighborhood where we stole kisses as a teenager, that giant live oak covered in Spanish moss that I paced and paced and paced around as a young adult, listening and learning to a wise older mentor, the puny, but priceless Japanese maple in my current yard that I’ve fallen in love with and hope to care for as long as I’m able.

Count the Ways

by Joyce Maynard

Ginger says: Eleanor falls in love with a farm as a young single woman, in part because of Old Ashworthy, the big old gorgeous tree on the property. As she marries and her family grows, that tree plays a part, watching over them all until a series of culminating events made me call my best friend and beg her to tell me how it ended, lest I not be able to bear how it finished. She wouldn’t tell me the specifics, but she assured me that it has a satisfying ending, and she was right—tree included. This was my first Joyce Maynard, but it certainly won’t be my last. How the Light Gets In, out just last summer, continues the story of Eleanor’s family.

11 books about trees

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summer reading starts May 16th