One of my goals in 2021 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.
My mom gave me this beautiful old copy of Woodswomen by Anne LaBastille. Weirdly, my BFF had read it only a few month before so I was to discuss in straightaway.
When her marriage, her career, and living situation disintegrate in one fell swoop, Anne LaBastille rails against the ordinary life that might be waiting for her, opting instead to move to the Adirondack mountains, build her own house and live completely alone. This is how she becomes a Woodswomen.
Thinking back to this book several months after reading it, I loved it but it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. This books was spoken to me in the same category as The Good Life by Scott and Helen Nearing and other books about sustainability and self sufficiency. Although there are definitely elements of these topics, mostly of self sufficiency, Woodswomen is more a true memoir. Although Anne LaBastille does live on her own and her own terms and although she does right about conservation, she does not live a very sustainable and environmentally conscious lifestyle in any ways. The story of how LaBastille bucks conventional living and makes her own home, with all the trials, fails and accomplishments that entails, is fascinating. And often frustrating. In sharp contrast to how the Nearings go about creating their life, with detailed plans everything thought out, LaBastille plunges ahead with barely a plan let alone detailed “blueprints”. She almost dies, or gets someone else killed, many times,. Her rash actions often cause close to chaos and has to redo many of her initial work. She must make the same mistakes over and over before she gets it right. She is brash and impetuous and head strong. But this impetuousness allows her to live the life she always wanted without getting bogged down by being scared or conjoled into how she should live. Anne’s writing is evocative and compelling and interesting. When she writes about the freezing lake, you shiver. I would highly recommend this book to all those who have dreamed of walking in to the woods and never leaving, adventurers living on their own, people interested in the history of the Adirondacks, those who want to build their own homes and lives.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
This book is featured in my Jan Wrap Up.