Reader recommendation: The Trees

Monitor readers share their favorite book picks.

November 19, 2012

I am enjoying my way through Conrad Richter's trilogy about the early settling of Ohio during pioneer times in the US. The three acclaimed novels – The Trees, The Fields, and The Town – comprise an epic dealing with the difficulties faced by the first settlers in taming the forest, establishing farms, and building towns. Richter was a fine historical novelist and at the time of publication the novels all won honors including a Pulitzer Prize. They comprise a social history of those early times that most of us have never considered.