All quiet in my inbox when it comes to what you are reading lately, but I am still hanging onto this column the same way I hang onto physical books. Nothing against e‑readers. I am actually a little jealous of anyone who can carry a whole stack around without adding weight to their bag. There is a certain practicality to that. Still, I like the feel of a book in my hands and the time away from a screen when that’s how I spend my day job.
What’s interesting about reading is it’s private, but the moment you tell someone about a book you loved, it becomes communal. That handoff from one reader to another is how stories move through our communities. It is how a title you have never heard of ends up on your nightstand or in your library hold queue. It is how reading becomes less of a solitary act and more of a shared one.
About a year ago, I tracked down a book my husband mentioned he loved when he was growing up. It is a bit of an obscure title. I found an old library copy for sale on eBay and promptly purchased Cache Lake Country: Life in the North Woods by John J. Rowlands.
The book made it safely to our home and straight onto the shelf next to the other wilderness titles we have collected over the years. Recently, I dusted it off and decided to give it a go. I was curious about how my husband, who does not read much, found himself connected to this story all these years later.
There is something grounding about reading a book that shaped someone you know well, from before you knew them.
Cache Lake Country is Rowlands’ account of a year spent living in the northern woods. He writes with a steady, practical eye and pays attention to weather, wildlife, and the small systems that make remote living possible.
The book moves month by month through camp routines, trail travel, cooking, canoeing, and the kind of problem solving that comes with isolation. It is part field guide, part diary, and part instruction manual. The 1947 publication still holds up today, aside from some cooking with asbestos equipment we would probably rethink.
I learned a lot, and it was fun to pause, put the book down, and tell my husband where I was in the tale and what Rowlands and sometimes his friends were up to. His memory is sharp, and he could always recall the passage, sometimes even quoting from it. It felt like reading alongside him, even though he had finished the book decades ago.
I am not sure I would have ever come across Rowlands’ work, with Henry B. Kane’s wonderful illustrations, had my husband not mentioned it as worth the read.
And that is the thing about books. They do not always reach us directly. Sometimes they come through the people who know us best, passed along because someone thinks this one might be up your alley. Sometimes they arrive years after the first reader finished them, and they still land exactly when they should.
Just today, I finished The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. It came from the box of books my aunt sent to my mom, and now my mom has passed it down to me. I can already see my best friend’s initials scribbled along with my aunt’s, my mom’s, and mine on the title page soon. I like when a book carries a small record of who has held it.
It was the kind of novel that made me annoyed I was too busy to read it in one sitting. The Berry Pickers follows an Indigenous family from Maine whose youngest daughter goes missing while they are working the seasonal blueberry fields. The story moves between two narrators, the brother who never stops carrying the loss and a girl growing up in a nearby town who senses something about her own childhood does not add up. It is a novel about how a single event can shape a family for decades.
It is also one of those books that stay with you after you close it, which is usually my sign that it is worth passing along.
As I look to see what I am reading next, a friend mentioned she is working through a Sally Hepworth novel. I have not read Hepworth before, but I happen to have The Mother’s Promise on my shelf from a hand‑me‑down or book sale years ago. Since it is Mother’s Day and I am looking for my next adventure, I think I will join my friend in sharing an author, even if we are not reading the same title.
North Shore Readers! Share what’s on your mind. Old favorites, books your kids tore through, authors you trust, or titles you abandoned halfway. I am always interested in what is finding its way into your hands. Write to sarahwritesnsj@yahoo.com. You can remain anonymous if you would like.
