Every once in a while, a book comes along that defies …

Every once in a while, a book comes along that defies categorization. Such is the wonderful, slithering conundrum that author Jon Furman poses . . . with his Timber Rattlesnakes in Vermont and New York. What Furman has crafted . . . is nothing less than a remarkable snake stew, a blend of history book, field trip, old-fashioned yarn, ecological and biological study, mythology, and sociological treatise . . .