Something in the Woods Loves You

"Trees are medicine, Jarod Anderson tells us in this vivid memoir, and so are great blue herons, lightning bugs, racoons, mice, bats, and all of the twenty or so wild creatures he celebrates in these pages. They cannot cure his depression, but they can ease it, for they do not judge him or shame him. As they go about their lives, free of the anxiety, ambition, and guilt that often afflict our own species, they inspire the author to imagine how he might live with less pain and more meaning. Readers may find the book a balm for their own aches."—Scott Russell Sanders, author of The Way of Imagination

"Something in the Woods Loves You is a marvel of a book, blending unexpected wisdom with occasional whimsy, offering vivid observations of herons, hawks, trillium, and our human search for meaning. Jarod Anderson doesn’t shy away from the pain of mental illness and depression, but his utter honesty and love of the natural world offers all of us a rich, earthy experience of hope."

"Just as the trees make the forest, vulnerability, honesty, and hard-earned wisdom make shimmer Jarod K. Anderson’s Something in the Woods Loves You. At once both delicate and direct, irrepressible and resilient, Anderson’s memoir is a stunning debut in the genre."—Amy Butcher, author of Mothertrucker

“Jarod K. Anderson expresses his struggle with mental health in the beautifully written Something in the Woods Loves You, an intimate memoir based on his relationship with the woods near his Delaware County home.”—Akron Beacon Journal