Like so much of the Upper Valley, I loved Ethan Tapper’s How to Love a Forest. So I'm delighted to report that his new book, The Forest Year, is just as exceptional. Tapper set out to write an almanac, but as he weaves his personal connection to the land with science and philosophy it becomes much more.
I grew up in the woods of Hartland and when I think of childhood one of the first images is of those trees. I’ve loved that forest forever, but reading The Forest Year showed me new ways of loving it. Tapper didn’t push his ideas on me, but gently reframed my thinking, giving me a way to see and think about the world that is much more refined.
This book is beautifully slow and intentional. I’m one to race through a book, but this one I had no choice but to breathe with. It is full of stories and images of the changing world around us, and incredible hope for the care we have the potential to give. Reading this book felt like taking a walk with Tapper through the forest I love. Pick it up and you’ll feel the same.
H Rooker is the Assistant Store Manager at Still North Books and Bar, and a lifelong New Englander.
