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CATCHING SIGHT

One of our recommended books is Catching Sight by Deni Elliott

One woman’s journey through progressive blindness and the extraordinary guide dog who kept her safe along the way

When ethics scholar Deni Elliott, born with limited vision, realized she could no longer navigate the world safely alone, she turned to a guide dog—a decision that reshaped her understanding of disability and independence. Co-authored with master trainer Graham Buck, Catching Sight offers a behind-the-scenes look at the world of guide dog breeding and training, revealing the intelligence and decision-making skills these dogs develop from birth.

Catching Sight is for readers interested in the transformative power of human relationships with animals.

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THE CUT LINE

One of our recommended books is The Cut Line by Carolina Pihelgas

In the dog days of an Estonian summer, Liine flees to the countryside to put a conclusive end to her toxic 14-year relationship.

She undergoes every stage of separation in a lone farmstead amid forests. Physical labor and gardening help her withstand her ex-partner’s threats, the incredulity of friends and family, and her own anguish. Dread is pervasive in this novel. Set in the near future, it is filled with vivid depictions of the threat of climate change. All around Liine, nature is facing acute drought and heat. No less menacing is the presence of an expanding NATO base close to the cottage at the Russian border.

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THE MEMORY GARDENER

One of our recommended books is The Memory Gardener by Meg Donohue

An enchanting tale of the power of memory and the nourishing magic of gardens from the USA TODAY bestselling author of the “sparkling, witty” (Katie Crouch, New York Times bestselling author) How to Eat a Cupcake.

Lucy Barnes is a gardener with an uncanny ability to know exactly which scent among her flowers will illuminate to a person a key from their past that might change their future. Sadly, after a tragedy ten years ago, she no longer uses her gift and has fled her hometown.

But six months after her mother’s death,

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POTOMAC FEVER

One of our recommended books is Potomac Fever by Charlotte Taylor Fryar

An impassioned meditation on American identity and its ebb and flow through the Capital’s great waterway

As she walks the length of the Potomac River, clambering up its banks and sounding its depths, Charlotte Taylor Fryar examines the geography and ecology of Washington, D.C. with all manner of flora and fauna as her witness. The ecological traces of human inhabitancy provide her with imaginative access into America’s past, for her true subject is the origin of our splintered nation and racially divided capital.

From the gentrified neighborhood of Shaw to George Washington’s slave labor camp at Mount Vernon,

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GOOD NATURE

One of our recommended books is Good Nature by Kathy Willis

A ground-breaking investigation into newly discovered evidence showing that remarkable things happen to our bodies and our minds when our senses connect with the natural world.

We all take for granted the idea that being in nature makes us feel better. But if you were a skeptical scientist–or indeed any kind of skeptic–who wanted hard scientific evidence for this idea, where would you look? And how would that evidence be gathered?

It wasn’t until Dr. Kathy Willis was asked to contribute to an international project looking for the societal benefits we gain from plants that she stumbled across a study that radically changed the way she saw the natural world.

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THE SEED KEEPER

One of our recommended books is The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

Minnesota Book Award Winner, Book Riot and Ms. Magazine Best Book of the Year

A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakota family’s struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.

Rosalie Iron Wing grew up in the woods with her father until one morning he didn’t return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to foster care—where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they’ve inherited.

Many years later,

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