I must say, I hate books that make me cry, but my book club wanted to read this one so I resolutely slogged into it expecting a deluge. There were some tears but mostly amazement at the book's descriptions (and the character's experience) of a tidal environment with all its diversity. The main character was much like me--I enjoyed her survival story, her struggle to overcome loneliness and rejection, and eventual maturation into an accomplished writer and artist. There's much to be said for a solitary life immersed in nature, but we usually associate this with men such as Emerson, Muir, Thoreau, etc., and not with women. This book shatters the myth and reveals the mysteries that women alone in wilderness can experience. However, I'm always disconcerted that stories about women leading unusual lives always need an explanation of how their childhoods led them "astray." I wish Crawdads had just started with the main character stepping into her boat and motoring off into an incredible adventure and a rich life.

An amazing book of natural rediscovery. I'm out in my yard awaiting spring so that I can follow the trails through my little aspen grove, smell the pines, and explore the soil at 9,000' in the Colorado Rockies. I'm on my third read and still discovering things that David Attenborough tried to show me in The Private Lives of Plants almost 25 years ago. The Overstory reawakened my perception of the "real" world outside my own door.