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Fresh Pond Reading Group
Friends of Fresh Pond Reservation
2016
 
Our five book selections this year covered a wide range of topics: the seasons, natural history museums, a history of birding, the geology of granite domes, and biographies of people who dedicated their lives to learning about the origins of life.
 
Autumn: A Season of Change by Peter J. Marchand looked in detail at the numerous strategies used by plants and animals to prepare for winter. We learned that the seemingly simple process of dropping leaves in the fall involves numerous steps and chemical processes, and that many animals experience major physiological changes in the fall – changes on which their survival depends.
 
Next, in Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey, we explored the labyrinthine corridors of the British Museum, meeting a most eclectic and eccentric assemblage of scientists and traditions.
 
Scott Weidensaul, in Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding, traced the evolution of birding in America from the earliest birders such as John James Audubon, who shot birds in order to examine them, to well-known authors of today’s excellent bird guides, including Roger Tory Peterson.
 
The descriptions in Tom Wessels The Granite Landscape: A Natural History of America’s Mountain Domes, from Acadia to Yosemite were so poetic and vivid that we found it easy to imagine we were walking through these unique landscapes with Wessels himself.
 
Our final book selection, Sean B. Carroll’s Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species, illuminated the humanness, dedication, and suffering of naturalists who searched the world for evidence of life’s origins. Carroll took us from Darwin as he developed his theory of natural selection to current research in the mechanisms of evolution, and he made these extraordinarily dedicated people come alive for us.
 
Anyone who is interested in Fresh Pond and is willing to commit to an annual reading list of 4 or 5 books about natural history are welcome to become Reading Group members. The group gathers for a potluck supper before each discussion. At the end of the meeting we all look over a list of recommended books and their descriptions; then we vote to choose the next reading selection and the next date. If you are interested in joining, please contact Lance Drane at fp.reading@yahoo.com
 
Lance Drane, Moderator

Fresh Pond Reading Group Record: 2007 - 2016

Book Title
Authors
Date
# Attended
Reading the Landscape of America
May Thielgaard Watts
04-04-07
8
The Future of Life
Edward O. Wilson
05-05-07
7
The Wilderness World of John Muir
Edwin Way Teale, ed.
10-02-07
12
Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival
Bernd Heinrich
01-09-08
15
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England
William Cronon
03-19-08
14
Written in Stone
Chet and Maureen Raymo
06-11-08
15
Waiting for Aphrodite
Sue Hubbell
10-15-08
18
Coyote: Seeking the Hunter in Our Midst
Catherine Reid
01-14-09
17
The Frozen Water Trade
Gavin Weightman
03-11-09
21
The Voyage of the Beagle
Charles Darwin
05-27-09
14
The Trees in My Forest
Bernd Heinrich
09-16-09
17
Reflections in Bullough's Pond
Diana Muir
11-11-09
14
Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History of New England's Stone Walls
Robert Thornson
02-10-10
20
Armchair Birding
John Yow
04-28-10
17
The Wild Out Your Window
Sy Montgomery
6-16-10
10
Anthill
Edward O. Wilson
9-22-10
13
Bright Wings
Dennis Collins, ed
11-10-10
15
Outside Lies Magic
John R. Stilgoe
03-02-11
13
The Practice of the Wild
Gary Snyder
5-18-11
14
Summer World
Bernd Heinrich
09-21-11
11
The Global Forest
Diana Beresford-Kroeger
11-16-11
10
Water
Alice Outwater
02-08-11
9
Eden on the Charles Michael Rowson 04-25-12 9
The Ice Finders: How a Poet, a Professor and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age Edmund Blair Bolles 06-13-12 7
The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of life on Earth Richard Conniff 09-19-12 10
Beyond Walden; The Hidden History of America's Kettle Lakes and Ponds Robert Thornson 11-28-12 11
Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms: The Story of the Animals and Plants That Time Has Left Behind Richard Fortey 01-16-13 10
Moonbird, A Year On the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 Phillip Hoose 04-17-13 7
Song for the Blue Ocean Carl Safina 6-19-13 7
Teaching the Trees: Lessons from the Forest Joan Maloof 9-25-13 12
The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years Robert M. Hazen 11-13-13 12
A Year in the Maine Woods Bernd Heinrich 2-5-14 8
Ever Since Darwin Steven Jay Gould 4-23-14 7
The Emotional Lives of Animals: A leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy - and Why They Matter Marc Bekoff 6-18-14 11
The Edge of the Sea Rachel Carson 10-22-14 9
Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years Richard Fortey 2-24-15 7
Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death Bernd Heinrich 4-29-15 9
Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds Jim Sterba 6-24-15 8
Galileo's Commandment:
2,500 Years of Great Science Writing
 Edmund Blair Bolles 9-16-15 6
Ceremonial Time:
Fifteen Thousand Years on One Square Mile
 John Hanson Mitchell 11-11-15 8
Autumn: A Season of Change Peter J. Marchand 1-20-16 8
Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum Richard Fortey 3-23-16 6
Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding Scott Weidensaul 5-25-16 4
The Granite Landscape: A Natural History of America’s Mountain Domes, from Acadia to Yosemite Tom Wessels 9-21-16 6
Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species Sean B. Carroll 12-7-16 9