Last Winter, We Parted

A man is in prison for murder. A writer talks to him to try to uncover the story. In the process, he learns that there is much more to the story. The man is a photographer who set fire to his model and took pictures of her in flames. This may be to get a great picture, but the pictures were not that impressive. There is also plenty of conversation about photography and interesting relationships with people. The conclusion is even more unexpected.

The Overstory: A Novel

The Overstory is a story about trees and the humans associated with them. It starts with the story of migrants from the east coast to the Midwest. They happen to have chestnut seeds with them and end up with a lone tree. Things happened to the family on their farm, but the tree remained, eventually becoming an area landmark. Meanwhile, the chestnut blight wiped out almost all trees in the native habitat, leaving the isolated trees as loners.

Other characters have very different histories, yet eventually come together through the trees. There is a lawyer, a game programmer, a vet, a neo-hippie, a daughter of a Chinese immigrant, a psychologist and a botanist. They all come to respect trees. The trees have lived longer than people. They have their own communities and even have means of communicating with each other. Different species have different means of reproduction - some requiring fires and other extreme events. Clear cutting and replanting can create a monoculture, but don't create diverse forests. Similarly, the suburban vegetation is an attempt by humans to control the environment - but often far from a healthy ecosystem.

The message is that trees are important. We should respect what they have given to us. If we treat them as partners we can benefit from them without sacrificing their (and our) futures. The book paints "tree huggers" in a very positive light. Timber companies and loggers can be good also. However, once the finance make money as the ultimate goal, they become evil destroyers of forests. Even local cities can become too focused on "beauty" at the expense of the trees. The book can be a little extreme in the demonizing, but it flows well with the story.