From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

North Woods

Daniel Mason

Start date: July 15, 2024

Finish date: August 15, 2024

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Ann D

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Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
By Lynn · 1 post · 41 views

last updated Jun 20, 2025 08:37AM

Circe - discussion with spoilers
By Jane · 17 posts · 23 views

last updated Sep 06, 2025 04:48PM

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What Members Thought

Oct 20, 2023 Ken added it

Shelves: nature, finished-in-2023, contemporary

Although this is a novel, it functions much like a collection of connected short stories. Chapters take on different forms -- letters, ballads, journal entries, narratives. Characters come and go and return in surprising ways. The only constant is the setting -- a settlement in the mountains of western Massachusetts that becomes a house. Farmland. Woodland. Different owners. Time.

A dark horse for favorite book of the year, but it's up there. The last two chapters I just put down would make Thore ...more

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Dec 21, 2023 Paige rated it liked it

This is a hard book to rate. It's definitely an above-average read for me in terms of its themes and writing and how it approaches its subject. But at the same time, it left me a little cold. It definitely feels more like a bunch of short stories than a novel. I like short stories but when something is marketed as a "novel," I expect it to be a little more... cohesive? Not that it didn't have a throughline but the connections were tenuous. I think the book tried to find its way around this by ha ...more

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Jul 05, 2024 Joyce rated it really liked it

Shelves: 100-nyt-books, novel

Listed as one of the Top 10 books of the year by the New York Times, I found this delightfully different. It is the story of a piece of land in western Massachusetts over a few hundred years. And there are a few ghosts. Most unusual.

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