Woodsqueer: Crafting a Sustainable Rural Life

Legler (On the Ice), a creative writing professor at the University of Maine at Farmington, recalls in this meditative mix of memoir and nature writing building a life on “eighty acres of wooded land with a house and barnlike shed” in the mountains of western Maine. Legler and her partner, Ruth, are “those geeks you see snooping through the woods in nylon quick-dry cargo shorts, the pockets full of binoculars, bird books, wildflower guides, and a pocketknife.” Legler recounts moving to Maine from Alaska and getting acquainted with the land—she was “astonished by the thick dark”—and chronicles the fruit trees and perennial gardens they planted, and describes in intricate detail the goats and chickens they kept and the care those creatures required. Consideration is given more broadly to humans’ relationship with animals: “What makes a human a human and an animal an animal?” she wonders. Legler’s at her strongest when dealing with personal demons, such as memories of a mother who met her husband’s “mostly verbal blows and abuse by sinking into a soft cloud of daily drunkenness,” and confessions about the author’s own extramarital affair. This poignant examination of the natural world and the author’s unique place in it will delight readers itching to get outdoors. (Feb.)