Bringing the Cape Home
After another family trip to Chatham I desperately wanted to bring Cape Cod home and preserve the atmosphere that takes residence in your soul when you give yourself fully to its powerful coastal calling. As daily obligations put a layer of fog over my memories it was very cathartic to end the day reading Henry Beston's observations in an Eastham cottage in the 1920's.

Beston is an able writer with a poetic style who is able to capture the allure of Cape Cod. He effectively brings the reader onto the beaches with all the animal and plant life that breathes life into this region. However, he has a tendency to write lengthy musings about specific birds or plant life that can get very tedious. Portions of his observations seem to be nothing more than the ramblings of someone who is bored and in need of companionship other than a group of flittering birds searching for food in the dunes.

In the end, Beston was able to evoke a powerful longing that provided the soothing and comforting effect I was looking for. Recommended for anyone who wants to bring a "peace" of the Cape home, and for anyone interested in solitary observations of nature along the beaches of one of the best places on earth.

The divine Outermost House!
I have bought two copies of The Outermost House and am looking for a third. I keep giving my copy away to people who I feel will enjoy it as much as I did, and then I miss having my copy. It is a soothing and very visual tale of life on the beach at Cape Cod. Sometimes I long for that total serenity the author shares. A very enjoyable audiobook!

environmental treasure
This was one of my winter reading books. I enjoyed it very much because the writing was very clear and vivid. Henry spent a year on Cape Cod writing about the nature and how the season changes the land and his surroundings. He writes about a lot of the birds that migrate in and out of the region and raises some important environmental concerns about the delicate nature of our actions on the wildlife. I appreciated the light hearted feel of the writing and it stuck to the middle of the road as far as imposing any of his personal opinions about all and any subjects, which I thought was safe and perhaps is the one of the negatives I feel for the writing. It was written with a modest sense of pleasure and feeling. It was in any sense, a very nice read and very indicative of the northeastern way of life.

A Fabulous Book - But Skip the Introduction
The Outermost House is a marvelous book; one of my all-time absolute favorites in the whole world. It's not, by the way, about outhouses, as one of my children wondered aloud upon hearing the title. Monsieur Beston has a terrific eye and an interesting style; his affection and respect for the interrelatedness of the natural world and concern that we humans forget our connection to it is akin to Thoreau's.

This edition has a lengthy introduction by Robert Finch. Highly recommend skipping the intro until AFTER you read the book. Mr. Finch probably meant well, but he quotes extensively from the book - thereby spoiling some of the best parts - instead of giving us just enough to further pique our curiosity about the book or limiting himself to biographical information about Monsieur Beston.

Great Listening!!!
It's almost as if Henry Beston himself is reading his own words. The reader has a candor and tone that is absolutely perfect for this work and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this wonderfully executed piece from Silver Hollow Audio. I highly recommend this book to anoyne that enjoys either audio books, nature, or Cape Cod. I found myself quickly searching for the next disc as each one came to an end. The end of the last disc left me wanting for more - and with this set is a nicely done interview with Beston's biographer. The interview answered some lingering questions about both the house and the author himself. I rate this one a must have.