BEST AUTHOR BEST : ROBIN WALL KIMMERER [1]

 

The author of '' Braiding Sweetgrass ,'' whose new book is '' The Serviceberry,'' cherishes a 1904 children's book about '' courageous women scientists tramping around in the woods.''

.-  What's your favorite book that no one has heard of ?

I am devoted to the storytelling of the late Brian Doyle, which is so lyrical and always full of the unexpected. I especially love '' Martin Marten, '' which is the intertwined stories of a human boy and a marten boy.

.-  What kind of a reader were you as a child?

My family went to the library in our rural town faithfully every two weeks. I would come home with the maximum allowable number, checked out with my tattered library card.

I read everything from Nancy Drew to Cherry Ames and the old-time naturalist John Burroughs. I think I read every '' Childhood of Famous Americans '' volume, especially the ones profiling Indigenous leaders - because otherwise we were invisible in the library.

.-  When did you know that '' Braiding Sweetgrass '' had struck such a chord?

I experienced a flood of stories from folks who took the time to send a handwritten note, a handmade card, send me songs, seeds, salves and poetry.

What I hear again and again is a deep longing to be in right relation with the natural world - and the willingness to act on it.

.-  What's the last great book you read?

It's hard to choose one, but Barbara Kingsolver's '' Demon Copperhead '' rises to the top.

.-  You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

Brian Doyle, Walt Whitman and Rachel Carson.

.-  Do you have any books that are guilty pleasures?

Sometimes I just want to retreat to the villages of Three Pines in Louise Penny's brilliant series of inspector Gamache mysteries.

I get the thrill of whodunit, visit the curious lives of beloved characters and the warm lights of the village. For such a place, there are an awful lot of murders.

The Publishing continues to part 2. The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.