I think this will be the book of the year for me. North Woods, by Daniel Mason, is the story of a House built in Massachusetts and its occupants over more than 300 years. It is brilliantly and creatively written, and it knocked my socks off when I started reading it two days ago.

I guess you’d call it historical fiction. It begins with a pair of young lovers in colonial New England who escape the wrathful Pilgrim’s judgment by fleeing into the then-wild woods of western Massachusetts.

They get away from the grim pursuers who are trying to force them back so they can be thrown in jail. They are chased by “solemn men” with harquebuses cocked in their elbows. They get away and the novel continues the story in surprising and inventive ways by chronicling the lives of the people who followed them in the Yellow House for three centuries.

I love every page of it, it is often surprising, telling the story of all kinds of people, from the Apple Man to a Revolutionary Loyalist and author to an amateur historian who believes that bodies are buried on the property.

I highly recommend this book, it stands out in a good year for books and is breathtakingly creative. I stopped reading every other book to read this one. It’s a beautiful book, gripping and beautifully and inventively told.

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But I have a problem I want to share.

Yesterday, I got a fabulous book gift from a nun named Sister Lucy, who has been reading my blog and picked up a book she was sure I would love. She is right.

The book is called ” Becoming Who You Are”  and was written by James Martin and inspired by the lives of Thomas Merton and Henry Nouwen, two of my favorite spiritual authors and guides. I write about them all the time.

Lucy nailed my interests and spiritual curiosity, and I love the book and will soon be writing about it. I read it in a half-hour. It was only 90 pages and very inexpensive; it is my perfect gift now.

I also got a letter the same day from a good man far away (I won’t use his name). This was different.

He said he was sending me a box so large it was packed to the bursting point and marked “do not open with the knife” for fear of damaging the clothes stuffed into it. “And also,” he wrote, “a book from the 1950s that I’ve loved reading” and thought I might enjoy. It’s about homeless people in NYC in the 1950s and focuses on their eccentric and exciting approaches to life.”

He said he loved reading about NY in the 1950’s and assumed I would be interested.

Before writing this, I braced myself.

One or two members of the social media yenta police will be messaging me early in the morning and calling me an ingrate or cruel bastard for asking this not to happen and not thanking the man. I thanked him and asked him not to do that anymore.

This is a problem for me, not only because I am an ingrate but because I dislike throwing out things other people treasure or want to get rid of. And we have run out of room for big and unwanted boxes. It takes days and weeks to eliminate them or search for takers, and we are backed up. That is not my job; that is not the way my work works.

I sometimes feel like a Good Will Reception Center.

Our small farmhouse is crammed with boxes and books, most things nobody wants or has asked about.

Sister Lucy sent me a small, thin book I knew nothing about and am happy to get. She had no time at her conference to mail me.

The man who sent them knew my e-mail, he wrote to warn me to tell me the box was “packed to the bursting point,” which made me cringe, and not in joy.

I wish he had just taken the trouble to ask me if I needed another huge stuffed box of things I did not need or wanted to read.

Then, I could explain whether or not I could use these things or anyone else could. And have them shipped where they ought to go.

I will be honest: I am not interested in homelessness in New York in the 50’s. There is no way I will get to this book in the next year, and I am not interested in the subject. That means I will never read it.

The social media yentas do not understand that courtesy is not defined by doing things one doesn’t want to do or can’t do. It comes from finding out what people need and helping them get it, if possible.

My rule is that I never buy anything for anyone I was not asked to get or that I am not 100 percent certain it is needed.

The Mansion aides know to tell me when a resident wants something. So do the residents.

Sue Silverstein only asks me for what she needs and rarely does that. If I see a Mansion resident walking in slippers outside, I know to get them shoes.

That is the way it ought to work. I don’t show up at either place with stuffed boxes for them to sort through. They don’t have staff or time for that. I don’t want to be a Good Will Reception Center.

I hope that helps clarify things. This being America, someone will be offended. My e-mail is [email protected]. Recommendations are welcome.

Questions are answered. I am very available. And we love the packages, hats, and supplies so many of you send this way. Truthfully, I appreciate them and please don’t stop. But the ones we love the most are the ones who ask. We respond quickly and gratefully.

Please take advantage of that so I can’t waste or toss out your valuable things or fall over them. I’m picky about the books I read and can afford to buy them, which I prefer. Sister Lucy is an excellent example of an exception..

If you are eager to buy me a book or gift or send me huge packages, please take the trouble to e-mail me first, and I will take the trouble to answer you. That does not feel ungrateful to me.

It seems the embodiment of courtesy and thoughtfulness.

It’s simple. Just ask: [email protected]. We are out of room.