So-Slow Book Club Week 1: Winter's Consolations

A look at what's revealed when the lushness of summer falls away

If you look west from my driveway in the summer, you won’t see much besides a busy road — once the main north-south route through my corner of Michigan before the bypass was built—and the trees that line it.

That’s all different in the winter, though. With the trees stripped bare of leaves, you can easily see beyond the old highway to a massive and anc…