Our Staff Pick this month comes from the wonderful Miss Heather, who says: I was initially drawn to Michael Finkel's The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit because I think that there are many of us who have, while maybe only in the hidden recesses of our minds after a really bad day, considered the possibility of leaving it all behind and walking away from our established lives to start fresh somewhere else. This is exactly what Massachusetts native Christopher Knight did, with a bit of a twist— he wound up in the woods of Maine where he led a true life of solitude for the next 27 years. Finkel's telling of Mr. Knight's tale was not only interesting and compelling, but left me with a lot of thoughts and questions about our society and those individuals who just don't want to be a part of it. What would compel someone to crave that much isolation? Should someone who has made such an attempt to remove himself from the interactions of society be forced to reintegrate back into it? Even if you aren't a fan of nonfiction I would highly recommend picking up this book. |