The Book Nook is pleased to host VPR commentator Martha Leb Molnar at the store on Saturday August 9th at 7pm to read from and talk about her first book, Taproot: Coming Home to Prairie Hill.

A recent transplant from the New York Metropolitan area, Molnar describes how she and her husband,
both children of Holocaust survivors, strive to overcome their nomadic past through devotion to a place. They buy land on a rugged Vermont hill, build a house, and begin a new life, learning to observe
the huge bowl of sky, the windstorms, the seasons, and the puzzling animal and
human neighbors.

Taproot is about fulfilling fantasies as the nest empties. It’s about the search for roots
against a family’s journey from the brink of annihilation. It’s about making a home
in a new and baffling natural and human environment. But it’s the beauty of the writing that strikes first, touching on universal fears and longings. Part memoir, part nature journal, part observations of Vermonters—along with the often amusing saga of building a house—the book speaks to the reader on many levels.

Lyrical descriptions of living close to the land are interspersed with entertaining
anecdotes about learning to understand Vermonters, and the foibles involved in
building a house.

Taproot is a story both singular and universal. We follow the author as she faces
down her fears and finds strength in the natural world. We share the rewards of not
just hanging on to a dream but making it happen. The book inspires, entertains
and informs. Bill McKibben suggest it is a book “for everyone who feels a strong attachment to particular places and wonders why.”

This free event will take place on Saturday August 9 at 7pm at The Book Nook, located at 136 Main Street in Ludlow. There is parking on the street and at the back of the building. Copies of Taproot will be available for purchase and to be signed by the author. We hope that you will come to hear Molnar talk about her love of nature and the outdoors and her transition to Vermont.