Old Growth: The best writing about trees from Orion magazine by Christopher Cox

Old Growth: The best writing about trees from Orion magazine Reviews

• 
  Pat

  Wonderful essays and poems on ecology, trees and forests and our relationships with them. Best was learning of nature writers new to me.
• 
  Kerri Anne

  An entire collection of short essays and poems centered on trees? Yes, please.
  
  This book has deep roots and pieces of it were a much-needed balm to my reading heart this year.
  
  Highly recommend for anyone who digs the sort of authors and writing Orion showcases, and/or for anyone looking for heartfelt stories about the inherent power and magic of trees.
  
  [5 stars for poems existing alongside essays as if they've always belonged there, because in my book(s), they absolutely do.]
  
  
• 
  Anu

  Soulful anthology of writing about trees. As I close my eyes and think of all the vignettes the book evokes for me a month after I finished the book, things that stand out - the vivid imagery of “Sugaring” that’s written in celebration of the sugar maple, the adventure of finding the last ancient sequoias, the larch lifecycles - 300 years of youth, 300 years of prime and 300 years of graceful old age, trees that grow in fractal patterns, sprouting little tree patterns within trees (like the beloved succulent at my desk), the dichotomy of attempting to rescue white pines with relocation, the quiet fortitude of hemlocks, the incidental map making wild cherries, the magnificence of quaking aspens that constitute the world’s biggest living organism, the buckeye that bonds father and son…thank you Orion, for the lovely green moments from the book.
  Alas, this green reverie had the most jarring beginning with the first essay where the author tries to find redemption for the meth head that burned down a 1500 year old elder tree. Overlooking this editing blunder of using this essay as the first in the anthology, I’d still want to give this as a holiday gift to the tree lovers in my life. Perhaps I’d tear out the first few pages to spare them the outrage!
  The poems were fleeting for me, but the essays left a lasting impression (with Ursula Le Guin’s opener being the exception) The illustrations are simple and soothing.
• 
  scherzo♫

  "How could our hearts be large enough for heaven if they are not large enough for Earth?"

  -Buckeye by Scott Russell Sanders
• 
  Joel

  I recently stumbled on Orion magazine so I was really excited to dive into this collection. A handful of them, like Scott Russell Sanders' essay on buckeyes, were just phenomenal, but this wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be. I bought a collection from them, so hopefully, the next work will be a little better.
• 
  Dan Carey

  I'm usually pessimistic about the number of items in a collection that I will enjoy. Given the focus of this collection, I expected a higher-than-normal percentage of pieces to enjoy. Nonetheless, I was surprised at how much there was for me here in terms of both quality and quantity.
• 
  Keygan

  A really lovely collection. The styles and topics of each piece are wildly different (some of which I absolutely loved, some of which I merely enjoyed), but the overarching theme made the whole anthology feel cohesive and enhanced my reading experience.
• 
  Francisco Valdes

  As the foreword says, this an arboretum of essays. Informative, passionate and lirical.
  I'd reccomend it with my eyes closed.
• 
  Katie Peterson

  A must, for tree lovers.
• 
  Nancy

  A gorgeous “arboretum” of essays and poetry themed around trees that begs to be savored. I hated it to end.
  
  
• 
  Patrick

  gorgeous words, I didn’t want it to end
• 
  Kendall

  4.5⭐
• 
  Jaime

  Gorgeous collection of essays and poems—worthy meditations on our shared ecology.
  
  If you don’t subscribe to Orion magazine, I recommend strongly that you do so.
• 
  Shirley Brown

  I wasn't sure about reading a book about trees. I was totally engaged in this small book of selected short stories about trees. There were three that I especially enjoyed and really touched my heart: Buckeye by Scott Russell Sanders; 2) The Orchard by Geronimo G. Tagatac; and 3) A Day of Discovery by Richard Preston. One of the best collections of short stories I think I have ever read.