56. Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen

listened on Libby
432pgs.

2018
Adult CRF with a touch of magical realism
Finished 6/18/24
Goodreads rating: 4.19
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary northeastern PA, in the "Endless Woods"

My comments: Beautiful writing, clever story, wonderful characters, and a rich setting in the woods. This is definitely a favorite!

Goodreads synopsis:  The first thing you learn when you climb a tree is to hold on. Now it’s time for Harry to learn to let go…

Thirty-four-year-old Harry Crane, lifelong lover of trees, works as an analyst in a treeless US Forest Service office. When his wife dies in a freak accident, devastated, he makes his way to the remote woods of northeastern Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains, intent on losing himself. But fate intervenes in the form of a fiercely determined young girl named Oriana. She, too, has lost someone—her father. And in the magical, willful world of her reckoning, Oriana believes that Harry is the key to finding her way back to him.

As Harry agrees to help the young girl, the unlikeliest of elements—a tree house, a Wolf, a small-town librarian and a book called The Grum’s Ledger—come together to create the biggest sensation ever to descend upon the Endless Mountains…a golden adventure that will fulfill Oriana’s wildest dreams and open the door to a new life for Harry.

I couldn't remember the title of one of my favorite books and realized I'd probably not entered it onto the blog.  So I queried GEMINI and this is what I got....YAY! It's the right book!

The book you are thinking of is "Harry's Trees" by Jon Cohen, published in 2018.

It fits your description perfectly and is a wonderful "slump-buster" because it blends the grit of a life-changing tragedy with a sense of wonder.

Why this is your book:

• The Lead: Harry Crane is a 34-year-old analyst for the US Forest Service (the "forestry job") who suffers a devastating personal loss.

• The Setting: He flees to the Endless Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania to live in the woods.

• The Treehouse: He ends up living in a luxurious, multi-story treehouse on the property of a woman named Amanda.

• The Daughter & Fairy Tales: Amanda’s young daughter, Oriana, is obsessed with a book of fairy tales called The Grum’s Ledger. She believes Harry is a magical being sent to help them.

• The Money: After receiving a large legal settlement, Harry begins anonymously giving away money to locals in the nearby town who are in need, often in creative or "magical" ways.

---

Why you’ll love it (based on your tastes):

Even though it has a "magical" undertone, it is firmly a contemporary novel with many of the procedural elements you enjoy. It deals with:

• Grit and Redemption: Similar to Robert Dugoni’s emotional depth.

• Small-Town Secrets: It has that "everyone knows your business" Pennsylvania atmosphere.

• The Forest: Much like Paul Doiron’s work, the Pennsylvania wilderness is a living, breathing character in the story.

It’s a deeply uplifting read, which might be exactly what you need to get your reading momentum back!

67. These Silent Woods - Kimi Cunningham Grant

listened on Audible

2021
275 pgs.
Adult CRF
Finished 9/21/2023 
Goodreads rating: 4.10
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary - in the middle of the woods off a long, private dirt road, on the edge of a National Forest....I'm thinking somewhere in remote PA

My comments: This is one of the best books I've read in a long while.  I loved every beautiful word, the plt, the complex characters, and the very special setting...all the details.  It was almost like I'be been waiting for the story with these kinds of details - living alone in the wodds on your own (Cooper is with his 8-year old daughter) surviving, enjoying nature and the birds, and loving your kid.  It was the details that really made it for me, as well as the brief flashbacks that explained what had happened to Cooper to bring him to this place.  So well done.  And the HEA that I would have never imagined.   Loved it.

Goodreads synopsis:   No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world. For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that's exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he's got a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But she’s starting to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her—and he’s still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there.

The only people who know they exist are a mysterious local hermit named Scotland, and Cooper's old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn't show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred—and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. After a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding—or finally face the sins of his past.

Vividly atmospheric and masterfully tense, These Silent Woods is a poignant story of survival, sacrifice, and how far a father will go when faced with losing it all.

82. The Boy From the Woods by Harlan Coben

listened on my Audible, purchased
narrated by Steven Weber!!
Unabridged audio (
2020 Grand Central Publishing
384 pgs.
Adult Mystery/Suspense
Finished 5/21/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.07 - 16,725 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary upstate NY

First line/s:  "How does she survive?  How does she manage to get through this torment every day?"

My comments :  Another excellent mystery from Harlan Coben.  The protagonist is a man who, as a boy, was found living by himself at seven or eight years old, in the middle of the woods in New York state, with no memory of his past, his name, or even how he knew how to read.  As an adult he is somewhat of a super-guy: smart, fearless, military background and loyal to a local family that became HIS family of a sort.  The 70ish year old matriarch of that family, a female lawyer, is investigating a perplexing mystery with all sorts of twists and turns involving a wealthy family, a spoiled teenage son, a bullied girl, and a shady guy in politics.  Read brilliantly by Steven Weber, this was super enjoyable.

Goodreads synopsis:  In the shocking new thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Run Away, a man whose past is shrouded in mystery must find a missing teenage girl before her disappearance brings about disastrous consequences for her community . . . and the world.
          The man known as Wilde is a mystery to everyone, including himself. Decades ago, he was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past. After the police concluded an exhaustive hunt for the child's family, which was never found, he was turned over to the foster system.
          Now, thirty years later, Wilde still doesn't know where he comes from, and he's back living in the woods on the outskirts of town, content to be an outcast, comfortable only outdoors, preferably alone, and with few deep connections to other people.
          When a local girl goes missing, famous TV lawyer Hester Crimstein--with whom Wilde shares a tragic connection--asks him to use his unique skills to help find her. Meanwhile, a group of ex-military security experts arrive in town, and when another teen disappears, the case's impact expands far beyond the borders of the peaceful suburb. Wilde must return to the community where he has never fit in, and where the powerful are protected even when they harbor secrets that could destroy the lives of millions . . . secrets that Wilde must uncover before it's too late.

1. The Bear Trap - Paul Doiron

#4.5 Mike Bowditch
read on my iPhone
2014, criminalelement.com
20 pgs.
Adult Mystery (and in this case, short story)
Finished 1-1-2019
Goodreads rating:  3.92 - 411 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Middle-of-nowhere, Maine, contemporary, though the actual story told within the story takes place in the early 1970s.

First line/s:  "The wind moved across the surface of the lake like breath upon a mirror."

My comments:  Short and sweet, a story told by old-time game warden Charley Stevens to his good friend, new game warden Mike Bowditch, when they were out fishing.  The story that Charley tells takes place when he was a new game warden over 35 years previously and had captured a notorious hermit nicknamed "Sweet Tooth" who had been 19 years living and stealing in the Maine woods.

Goodreads synopsis:  Legendary Maine woodsman and bush pilot Charley Stevens tries to convince young Mike Bowditch of the dangers awaiting rookie game wardens.

POETRY PICTURE BOOK: Forest Has a Song - Amy Ludwig Vanderwater

Illustrated by Robbin Gourley

2013 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

HC $16.99

32 pages

Goodreads rating: 4.32

My rating:  Lovely book; simple, beautiful poetry; lovely art: 4.5

Endpapers: White with a cascade of small, falling leaves

Title Page:  Center water color of a New England-y house with the forest rising in the background

Watercolor illustrations

I love the woods.  I miss the woods.  And this book, of very simple poems, is lovely.  The poems are simple, the words used are not-so-simple.  Elegant words.  Clever words.  This is a great book.

Goodreads summary:  A spider is a “never-tangling dangling spinner / knitting angles, trapping dinner.” A tree frog proposes, “Marry me. Please marry me… / Pick me now. / Make me your choice. / I’m one great frog / with one strong voice.” VanDerwater lets the denizens of the forest speak for themselves in twenty-six lighthearted, easy-to-read poems. As she observes, “Silence in Forest / never lasts long. / Melody / is everywhere / mixing in / with piney air. / Forest has a song.” The graceful, appealing watercolor illustrations perfectly suit these charming poems that invite young readers into the woodland world at every season.

here's one for spring...and it's a cool tongue-twister, too...

April Waking

Ferny frondy fiddleheads
unfurl curls from dirty beds.
Stretching stems they sweeetly sing
greenest greetings sent to Spring.

and here's one that uses beautiful words and evokes lovely images....

Lichens

Late at night I look for lichens
tracing flakes in shades of dark.

Messages in cursive code
cover stones and bumpy bark.

Lichens are graffiti artists.
Lichens make their mark.

here's one for my geology unit...

Fossil

I dug in the creek bed.
I dug and I found
a grandfather fossil
asleep underground.
He whispered a story
of creatures in sand.
I listened as trilobites
filled up my hand.
For one flicker-minute
they tickled my palm.
Alive for an eye blink.
Forever dead calm.

I do love the woods.  And this poem, along with fantastic imagery, even pulls in the fragrance...

Song

Under the giant pines
I hear
a forest chorus
crisp and clear.

Winds whip.
Geese call.
Squirrels chase.
Leaves fall.

ATrees creak.
Birds flap.
Deer run.
Twigs snap.

Silence in Forest
never lasts long.
Melody
is everywhere
mixing in
with piney air.

Forest has a song.

okay, one more, very cool, poem to share....

Woodpecker

In a red cap
he types poems
with his beak
upon a tree.

hole hole hole hole
hole hole hole

          hole
          hole hole
          hole

                    hole          hole
                    hole          hole

Secretly
I'm hoping he
will translate one
for me.

This Moose Belongs to Me - Oliver Jeffers

Illustrated by the author

2012, Philomel/Penguin

HC $16.99

32 pages

for: kids...even older ones....or ESPECIALLY older ones!

Goodreads rating: 4.03

My rating: 4.5

Endpapers: a long, blue colored pencil line drawn across the page, turning at the end of each row, so that it looks like the string Wilfred unwinds so he won't get lost in the woods.

Illustrations: "The art for this book was made from a mishmash of oil painting onto old linotype and painted landscapes, and a bit of technical wizardry thrown in the mix here and there."

1^st line: "Wilfred owned a moose."

My comments:  I so enjoy this wonderfully creative writer and illustrator.  Each book I read tickles me even more than the previous one!  This one, about sharing friends, is doubly fun because of the moose angle - my favorite animal if I had to have one!

Goodreads summary:  Wilfred owned a moose. He hadn't always owned a moose. The moose came to him a while ago and he knew, just KNEW, that it was meant to be his. He thought he would call him Marcel. 

Most of the time Marcel is very obedient, abiding by the many rules of How to Be a Good Pet. But imagine Wilfred's surprise when one dark day, while deep in the woods, someone else claims the moose as their own..