The Butterfly Season

As a friend to wild hairs and a fan of wildly ambitious goals, I fully appreciated this memoir of a young mother who decides she wants to see every species of butterfly in her native Denmark. That number is 64, if you are wondering. The incredible helpers and experts she meets along the way, her family, and a particularly touching scene with her mother as she wraps up her journey have stayed with me long after the last page. What interested me, in a world where all this bullshit is constantly vying for our attention, is how dramatically what she was attuned to changed. As she tramps through marshes, fields, beaches, and meadows in every season, the miracle of the natural world meets her at every turn. I loved this book so much, and I think it is the perfect book to jerk you out of your screen-addled existence and back to reality, with such joy and surprise! I was aching for the natural world and running to the nursery to plant a pollinator garden after I finished this.

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