Box Turtles, Hooligans, and Love, Sweet Love

Box Turtles, Hooligans, and Love, Sweet Love 

By Mary Dansak 

Little Green Notebook, 2025 

Paper:  $19.99

Reviewed by Cindy Ragland 

It seems as if we live in a time where everyone is nature journaling. Often, these are observations – looking at something from a stationary, protected point of view. Like looking out the kitchen window. Most people claim to love nature; they just do not want to get any of it on them. Not the case with Mary Dansak. She immerses herself in the natural environment. From letting a baby opossum sleep in her hair as a child to dealing with a snake in the toilet as an adult homeowner. She tells these stories in a way that invites the reader in with her and in a way that seems so familiar.  

Dansak assembled this collection of essays to take readers not only into her day-to-day world, but on a journey of discovery of nature and how our human lives intertwine. While I have lived a life embedded in the natural landscape, Dansak’s writings seem inviting even for those less familiar with the outdoors. You feel safe on this journey with her. She marries her explorations with the everyday perspective of a mother, wife, sister, and daughter. She nudges us so gently to consider humans within the context of the natural world. Softly telling us that some of the things we fear are quite ordinary in nature, and it is going to be okay.  

Originally written for The Auburn Villager, these essays have statewide appeal, and that appeal likely goes beyond our Alabama borders. For full disclosure, I am an Auburn graduate and knew her dad, who made significant contributions to conservation in Alabama. I especially enjoyed Dansak’s tribute to Funchess Hall and her perspective as a child roaming those halls. I roamed Funchess Hall as well, as a tired student struggling to keep up with my classes. It was good to hear her speak of her father as a “dad,” when I had only known him as a professor. As I am much older now, it was good to look back on the place that I remotely shared with Dansak. This time with her as a guide, it felt a bit melancholy but in a good way.  

Dansak claims to have organized the book in order that The Auburn Villager published the columns, which is amazing as they unfold into a beautiful story. If these essays follow that year in her life, she must have been on an important personal journey. I am so thankful that she shared it with us in this book. 

Cindy Ragland is the director of the Alabama Trails Foundation and a retired forester with the USDA Forest Service.