Tsuwm recommended John McPhee in a post some time ago, and the only book of his my local branch of the library had was something called "The Pine Barrens". Now, if this were the title of a novel, I might have at least picked it up to read the summary, but never in all my born days would I have just wandered by and picked out a book about a tract of land. But it's good! Mr. McPhee has clearly done
firsthand investigation into his subject area, and has a writing style that will keep your interest. Ex.: "In the vernacular of the pines, huckleberries are blueberries, wild or cultivated. Huckleberries are also huckleberries, and this confuses outsiders but not pineys. Fred explained to me, when I pressed him, that "hog huckleberries" are huckleberries and "sugar huckleberries" are blueberries."
There are some words in here that I'd never heard of, too,
such as 'fykes' that are used to trap snapping turtles. I learned that relatives of one of our members live there, a rare tree frog, Hyla andersoni.
I wrote to tsuwm that I'd finished this book, and he informed that his favorite is "Coming out of the Country", a story of Alaska and Alaskans. Sounds intriguing.
