Woodsqueer - by Gretchen Legler (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Review Quotes

"This poignant examination of the natural world and the author's unique place in it will delight readers itching to get outdoors." - Publishers Weekly

"At times humbling and grueling, but it is also amusing...Woodsqueer shows the value of a solitary sojourn and both the pathway to and possibilities for making a sustainable, meaningful life on the land." -- Book Riot

"A warm and clear-eyed book... detailing an intimate connection to place and people as Legler and her partner opt for a slower pace, closer to nature. Even in its challenges, she makes a strong case for the deep value in knowing the plants and animals where you live, the joy and compassion that knowledge and connection provokes, not just for the sparrows, the milkweed, the doe, but also for one another and for our own selves. The book is as much a case for the soul-level nourishment and healing that is possible when we're open to learning from land, as it is a description of the texture of life lived that bows away from the pace and ease of modern life, and how it offers, over time, a bridge to 'the pulsing, thrumming energy' that joins us all, human, plant, creature." -- Boston Globe

"Twenty years ago, Legler moved with her partner, Ruth, into a post-and-beam Cape on 80 wooded acres in western Maine and started penning essays about the couple's experiences carving a life out of what came to be their small farm: essays on building fences, tending goats, hunting deer, cutting wood, and much more. Over time, the essays coalesced into a book that reflects on not only the joys and challenges of homesteading in rural Maine, but also on human relationships -- between romantic partners, among neighbors, and more -- unfolding against an agrarian backdrop." -- Down East Magazine

"Woodsqueer is about
more than just the ins and outs of sustainable farming and rural living, as the
subtitle might suggest. It is underscored by the concept of connections -- with
nature, animals, other humans -- and what it takes to build, sustain and repair
these relationships." -- Sun Journal

"Woodsqueer is used to describe the strange mindset of a person who has lived in the wild for an extended period, but it may also describe Legler and her partner. What follows is in part a predictable rural tale of chopping wood, raising chickens, and foraging for mushrooms, but it is skillfully interwoven with the dramatic personal saga of Legler's past relationships, ill-begotten love affairs, and ultimately, happy marriage to Ruth." -- Minnesota Alumni Magazine

"Legler is a seeker. This book is more than 'a back to the land' memoir; it is a spiritual autobiography of a woman in relationship with the earth in all its power." -- Terry Tempest Williams, author of The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks

"Gretchen Legler's evocative and eloquent stories glow like a hearth. Her life in the Maine woods with the woman she loves is by turns joyous and conflicted, generous and greedy, compassionate and cruel. But the author is always honest and her prose exquisite, and the home these two women built together is one you'll want to visit again and again." -- Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness

"In this luminous inquiry into the meaning o

About the Author