The JLT Natural History Society book club will meet at 3:30 pm on Monday, July 28, to discuss Northwest Passages: A Literary Anthology of the Pacific Northwest from Coyote Tales to Roadside Attractions, by Bruce Barcott.

In this vibrant anthology about the region and its people, editor Bruce Barcott endeavors to define the literary soul of the Northwest. Spanning two hundred years, Northwest Passages brings together writing from such natives, notables, and newcomers as Chief Seattle, Rudyard Kipling, Jack Kerouac and Sherman Alexie.

Please email Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org for more information and for directions to the meeting place. We look forward to seeing you there!

The JLT Natural History Society book club will meet at 3:30 pm on Monday, June 23 to discuss The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest, by Jack Nisbet.

From 1823 to 1834, Scottish plant collector and naturalist David Douglas explored what is now Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, and the impact he had continues to be enormous today.

The Collector tracks Douglas’s fascinating history, from his humble birth in Scotland in 1799 to his botanical training under the famed William Jackson Hooker, and details his adventures in North America discovering exotic new plants for the English and European market.

The book takes readers along on Douglas’s journeys into a literal brave new world of then-obscure realms from Puget Sound to the Sandwich Islands. In telling Douglas’s story, Spokane-based naturalist Jack Nisbet evokes a lost world of early exploration, pristine nature, ambition, and cultural and class conflict with surprisingly modern resonances.

To RSVP, and for locations and directions, please contact Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org

The NHS Book Club will meet at 4:30 pm on Monday, May 26 to read, Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, by William Bryant Logan.

Logan, a columnist for The New York Times, combines science and philosophy with a quirky curiosity about why the universe works the way it does to create this beautifully written celebration of the birth, death, and regeneration of the soil and the human connection to it.

In these brief, elegant essays, the author raises the concept of dirt to new levels. Logan looks at soil formation and development. His topics range from quarries and the foundations of cathedrals to graveyards and earthworms, from husbandry in ancient Rome to composting in Florida. Logan pays tribute to the dung beetle as a symbol of renewal; he notes that dirt is the source of many drugs that work against infectious diseases (penicillin, streptomycin). He discusses the many forms of clay and the agricultural practices of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and the Iroquois. Dirt is a natural history of the soil and our connection with it. –Publishers Weekly

Whether Logan is traversing the far reaches of the cosmos or plowing through our planet’s crust, his delightful, elegant, and surprisingly soulful meditations greatly enrich our concept of “dirt,” that substance from which we all arise and to which we all must return.

To RSVP and to get location and directions, please contact Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org

This month’s selection

The JLT Natural History Society Book Club will meet at 3:30 pm on Monday, April 28 to discuss A Year in Paradise, by Floyd Schmoe.

In midwinter 1920, Floyd Schmoe and his bride struggled up Mount Rainier on snowshoes on a long-delayed honeymoon. As the new caretakers at Paradise Inn, they would be alone in a towering world of snow and ice and incomparable beauty, until the plows arrived to free them on the fourth of July. So began a long love affair with Mount Rainier. And here is Floyd Schmoe’s account of it; a delightful and informative portrait of a mountain through the seasons of the year.

Through his personal narrative, Schmoe writes of many things that combined to cast a spell on him: the shy mountain goat, the reproductive processes of trees and plants, techniques of climbing, the habits of glaciers and volcanoes, the curious fact of a mouse being found at very high altitude, the peculiarities of tourists — and much more. This is a book for anyone drawn to the mysteries of the high country.

The author was the first naturalist for Mount Rainier National Park and a two-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Please contact Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org for location and details.

This event was attended by nine people.

The JLT Natural History Society Book Club will meet at 3:30 pm on Monday, March 17, to discuss Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, written by Stephen Ambrose.

This 1996 biography of Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is based on journals and letters written by Lewis, Clark, Thomas Jefferson and many others. The book outlines the expedition in detail, including the route, interactions with Native Americans, scientific discoveries, wildlife and landscape. The expedition, and Lewis’s life as a whole, is placed within the broader context of Jefferson’s presidency, the opening of the American west, and early Indian Policy. The text is supplemented by maps and illustrations, including some drawn by Lewis himself.

Please contact Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org for location and details.

This meeting was held at Sirens in Port Townsend. Seven people participated.