The Progressive names Shelter and Storm a favorite book of 2025

In the December/January 2025-2026 issue of The Progressive, Bill Lueders names Shelter and Storm one of his favorite books of the year. An excerpt from his piece:

Always thoughtful, caring, and inquisitive, Dean recounts her years living in the state’s hilly Driftless Area, in a house she and David built by hand using 7,220 earthen blocks. She digs into the area’s history, unearthing the story of a local woman who died from an abortion in 1876, as well as the tale of another who mightily resisted rural electrification coming to her home in the 1930s. Other essays deal with fires, floods, groundnuts, hydration, Lyme disease, and neighbors—human and otherwise.

It’s a delightful book that bears comparison to Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac and Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. For the planet to survive, we need people willing to take risks and try new things, guided not just by curiosity but also compassion.

Thanks to Bill and The Progressive! What an honor to see my book compared to Leopold's and Dillard's classics.