Potato City: Nature, History, and Community in the Age of Sprawl

In this collection of essays, scientific writer Leaf focuses on the history, present and future of her hometown, North Branch, Minnesota. The result is an engrossing look at the web of life encircling a Midwestern farming community. Leaf considers the town from multiple perspectives, among them those of her own house, the local library archives, an elderly resident and the town cemetery, where hunting for the headstones of past residents provokes her to wonder ""what remained after one raised children, worked hard, was a good neighbor and poured one's lifeblood into a community."" For Leaf, the answer clearly lies in nature, ""in the soil, ... earth and oak trees."" Some readers will favor those essays devoted to the human history of North Branch. Others will prefer Leaf's essays on bird-watching and the rehabilitation of an oak savanna. And though the book contains a few annoying repetitions of town facts, Leaf has a deft hand for nature prose: toads are ""odd amphibian incarnations of Winston Churchill"" and caring for ailing giant oak trees is ""a little like nursing elephants."" It's unfortunate, however, that Leaf concludes with a series of well-meant but pessimistic essays on environmental ills and that she doesn't offer any suggestions on how to deal with these threats. Instead, Leaf merely embraces the natural history of her hometown; readers may be inspired to do the same after perusing these well-written essays.