Books & Literature
Classes & Workshops

Books in the Garden: Nature- Friend or Adversary?

(125-04-11-18)
Second Wednesdays April - September, noon - 1:30 p.m.: April 11, May 9, June 13, July 11, August 8, September 12
Toni McNaron, Ph.D., award-winning professor emerita of English, University of Minnesota

Join other literature aficionados for thoughtful discourse over a cup of tea or coffee. Is nature a friend or adversary of humans? At times it can be hard to tell... As you encounter nature as it represented in this season's literature, you will discuss what motivates us to cooperate with or resist the forces of nature outside of our purview. You can find these works at your local library, or through online providers.

April: "Surfacing" by Margaret Atwood

May: "Garden Poems" edited by John Hollander

June: "The Summer Book" by Tove Jansson

July: "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

August: "A Gentle Plea for Chaos" by Mirabel Osler

September: "Dry September" by William Faulkner and "The Flowers" by Alice Walker

Limit 24, Oswald Visitor Center - Teaching Classroom

$100 member/$130 non-member, includes Arboretum admission

Books in the Garden: Nature & Native Americans

125-10-10-18
Second Wednesdays, October 10 - December 12, 2018
noon - 1:30 p.m.
Toni McNaron, Ph.D., award-winning professor emerita of English, University of Minnesota

Join other literature aficionados for thoughtful discourse over a cup of tea or coffee led by Toni McNaron. Native American writers have much to teach the rest of us about connecting with and respecting the natural world. The three books read and discussed in this class focus on the sacred quality to be found within Nature, even as they confront the ways in which individual white people and government agencies abuse and ignore that very world without which there would be no human existence.
The books for this session are:

Wednesday, October 10, 2018 "Ceremony" by Leslie Marmon Silko

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 "Night Flying Woman" by Ignatia Broker

Wednesday, December 12, 2018 "On the Way to Rainy Mountain" by N. Scott Momaday.

Limit 24, Oswald Visitor Center - Teaching Classroom

$49 member/$65 non-member, includes Arboretum admission