Reading Nature: Is a River Alive?

Join us for Reading Nature, our new book group on the natural world! This book group, which will meet on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 5:30 pm in the Aldrich Room, is co-sponsored by the Howe Library and the Hanover Conservancy. Discussions will be lead by some combination of Barry Matthews of the Hanover Conservancy, Jared Jenisch of the Howe Library, and Susie Howard of the Thetford Conservation Commission. Attend in person or online via Zoom. Email Jared at jared.jenisch@thehowe.org to get on our email list or for more information. Book group attendees do not need a Howe Library card to check out book group books -- they are available to all residents of the Upper Valley. Copies are available at the reference desk. Our book for April will be a work Is a River Alive, by Robert Macfarlane. Named a Best Book of 2025 by The New Yorker, Economist, Guardian, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly One of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2025 One of NPR's "Books We Love" for 2025 One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best Science Books of 2025 A Chicago Public Library Top 10 Favorite Book of 2025 A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction for 2025 "From the best-selling author of Underland and 'the great nature writer…of this generation' (Wall Street Journal), a revelatory book that transforms how we imagine rivers―and life itself. Hailed in the New York Times as 'a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler,' Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law."