Book Study Stroll - Kate Marianchild's book on Oak Woodlands

Secrets of the Oak Woodland

The link is the home page of the book. It's a book that lists 22 bird, animal, tree and such with descriptions. The author was a graduate in comparative literature from UC Berkeley, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1976. 25 years later, when she moved to inland Mendocino county, she started asking questions about what she was seeing in Oak Woodlands. She got a lot of answers from scientists all over northern California and created this encyclopedic resource that I hope is in everyone's home in our area of Mendocino County. The writing is a mix of story telling, factual information, and reflections on the Oak Woodlands.

The book was published in 2014 and these 7 walks will be my commitment to read every word! So far, it's been a book I casually open and find something interesting, skipping around. But I'd like to read it from beginning to end with the help of the meetup!

The Galley Book Store in Mendocino. Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah and The Book Juggler in Willits are good stores, as is the Mendocino County Library. And friends' libraries... and all the used books in the area.

The photo above is from a May meetup at Mendocino College, the local public community college. This meetup is intended to have a little academic edge.

We plan to read & review 3 items per week. Mendocino Book Company (707 468-5940) usually has it in the store in the local authors section. Many of us already have it. It'll take about 7 weeks of our Thursday morning walks.

About our walking - On Sept 11, we walked 2 miles, climbed 300 feet, but we stopped and looked when inspired. We have our apps to identify things, and had fun looking at the oaks. It's nice when we have a book to share about as we walk. Another time we walked 2 miles, and then some took off, and we walked another 2 miles. Mostly we stroll.