Likely Stories - North Woods

Have you heard of postcrossing? It's a global postcard exchange community where postcrossers send and receive postcards with people all over the world. Most people include a prompt on their profile, and many ask, what is your favorite book you've read this year. I have told postcrossers all over the world, my favorite book I've read this year, by far, is "North Woods," by Daniel Mason.

Critics have called this book, "brilliant, elegant, and immersive." It was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice and a best book of the year on numerous lists including Time, The Boston Globe, NPR, the Chicago Public Library, and many more. The author, Daniel Mason, went to medical school and is a psychiatrist, he teaches literature at Stanford University, and has received numerous awards for his writing, including being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

The simple summary of North Woods would be that it is a collection of interconnected short stories about one location in New England from the American colonial period to the present day and beyond. The main character in North Woods is not a person, it is this specific section of forest and the house which eventually stands there.

The satisfying experience of reading this inventive and memorable book is more difficult to describe. I asked two friends in Waco who have also loved North Woods to help me. One said, "its about macrocosms and microcosms, its magical realism, or more specifically realism with just a touch of magic, an extremely detailed puzzle of a novel with an unconventional plot, ." The second friend said, "You can feel you are reading high quality literature, and its so enjoyable, its a great book, just tell everyone they have to read it!"

North Woods is a pleasure to read, it is sophisticated, surprising, entertaining and poetic. The interconnected short stories written in many voices, address grief, regret, love, mystery and delight. They examine the momentary and the eternal. North Woods is a book of BOTH AND

Anytime I see or eat an apple, I think of North Woods. When I see landscape paintings or cougars, I think of North Woods. References to ghosts, or climate change, or beetles, or American history, or lobotomies, or birds singing bring to mind North Woods. This is one of those books which entwines itself into your consciousness. I wish I could return to the feeling of reading it for the first time. I hope you, and the many postcrossers and Wacoans I have recommended this book, will enjoy North Woods as much as I did. As my friend said, "you just have to read it."

PREVIOUS EPISODES OF NORTH WOODS

Likely Stories - Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, A Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

I’m Joe Riley with KWBU, and this is Likely Stories.Every couple of weeks, I visit the Waco McLennan County Library and browse the New Book shelves. That’s where I saw Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, A Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice. Actually, it was the author’s name that first caught my eye – Barbara Bradley Hagerty is currently a contributing writer at The Atlantic. Before that, she spent 19 years reporting on justice issues and religion for NPR. I checked the book out because I’ve always been impressed by her work.

Likely Stories - The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter

It’s not Christmastime anymore, but that's never stopped me from enjoying any story set during the most wonderful time of the year. This one is heavy on mystery, lightly romantic, deeply nostalgic, fully entrenched in the setting.

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Nearly every time my husband sees me reading he asks, “Reading one of your “happy” books again?” To be fair, he may have a point. For example, listening to the audiobook of a novel that unpacks the emotional trauma of four generations of Filipino men, is possibly not the most uplifting way to spend a drive through the plains of the Texas Panhandle. But Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay was so worth it. I’m Gia Chevis with this week’s installment of Likely Stories.

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For this week's episode of Likely stories, Kevin Tankersley, from the Department of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media at Baylor, is investigating what goes into the making of True Crime Television.

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Likely Stories - All Fours

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Likely Stories - Butter

If it has taken you an annoyingly long time to learn that perfection isn’t a healthy goal and getting help isn’t a sign of a character flaw, then you might empathize with Rika’s journey in Butter, A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki. I’m Gia Chevis with this week’s installment of Likely Stories.

Likely Stories - Laura Ingalls is Ruining My Life

What would it be like to move to the legendary prairie land of Laura Ingalls Wilder, only to have your world fall apart? Hello, and welcome to “Likely Stories.” I’m Diane Kemper.

Likely Stories - A Visit From the Goon Squad

KWBU's Malcolm Foster reviews the Pulitzer Prize winning book A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan.