Brooke Herter James' Spring Took the Long Way Around is a beautiful collection, each poem resonant with the strum of country life. These are poems of gentle reverence, skirting on the "dark edges of... wildness," the awareness of shadow giving each moment depth. They speak of family, of nature, of adolescent angst -- she deftly captures this in the tone-perfect "Southbound, Maine Turnpike, Labor Day" -- of illness and death. These quiet, skillful poems help us to slow down, to savor and notice. Sit down with this book, enjoy the peaceful acceptance of what is now, and of what we all will one day lose. Bask, for now, in James' gentle spring.