This month's book discussion will be about My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir. This book is in the public domain and you can read a PDF of it online here.  Join us on Zoom to discuss! Email hcethatsme AT gmail.com for more information. 

Influential naturalist, author, and co-founder of the Sierra Club, John Muir loved the outdoors. His writings and advocacy for protection of the pristine wilderness of the American west were vital in helping to preserve noted sites of natural beauty including the Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park. Muir saw the natural world as a place of spiritual wonder, writing that the National Parks were “places for rest, inspiration, and prayers.” One of Muir’s most endeared works is the 1911 publication, “My First Summer in Sierra”. Following the American Civil War in the summer of 1869, John Muir signed on with a crew of shepherds to drive a flock of 2,500 sheep to Yosemite National Park at the headwaters of the Merced river. This journey would take Muir through the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Eastern California. “My First Summer in Sierra” is an account of that experience, one which would inspire many to visit the Yosemite region and has become a classic of environmentalist literature. 

The Nature and Environment Book Club is devoted to the best of nature writing and environmental reporting with discussions on the second Wednesday of each month. Readers and writers interested in books ranging from such classics as Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek to topical reportage like Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction will want to join the conversation.

Copies of the discussion book are available in the library to check out at the library.