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Life Stories Book Club

"Fox and I" by Catherine Raven

Discuss memoirs and biographies with other book lovers at the Burke Branch Library!

Life Stories Book Club enjoys memoirs of everyone from the anonymous to the famous with discussions every third Thursday of the month. Bring along your thoughts or even just your listening ears to indulge in some bookish conversation around our latest selection. Reading crafters are welcome to bring their works in progress.

This month, join us to discuss "Fox And I: An Uncommon Friendship" by Catherine Raven. Print and digital copies available to place on hold here.

Want a reminder? Please register to receive an email ahead of the event. Note: Registration is not required.

Contact Abby at ahargreaves@alexlibraryva.org for more information.

About the Book:

When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She was as emotionally isolated as she was physically, but she viewed the house as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society. In the meantime, she taught remotely and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone National Park.

Then one day she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m. She had never had a regular visitor before. How do you even talk to a fox? She brought out her camping chair, sat as close to him as she dared, and began reading to him from The Little Prince. Her scientific training had taught her not to anthropomorphize animals, yet as she grew to know him, his personality revealed itself and they became friends.

From the fox, Catherine learned the single most important thing about loneliness: we are never alone when we are connected to the natural world. Friends, however, cannot save each other from the uncontained forces of nature.

Fox and I is a poignant and remarkable tale of friendship, growth, and coping with inevitable loss—and of how that loss can be transformed into meaning. It is both a timely tale of solitude and belonging as well as a timeless story of one woman whose immersion in the natural world will change the way we view our surroundings—each tree, weed, flower, stone, or fox.

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