Tip of the Iceberg

Adams, Mark. Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Around Wild Alaska, the Last Great American Frontier. New York: Dutton, 2018. Print.

First Sentences:

On March 25, 1899, a gentleman from New York City arrived unannounced at the Washington D.C. office of C. Hart Merriam. At the age of forty-three, Merriam had already been practicing science seriously for three decades, dating back to some unauthorized taxidermy performed on his sister's dead cat.

 

Description: 

In 1899, railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman commissioned an exploration trip to Alaska's inner seaway passage. He included experts in a variety of fields, from geology to glaciology to botany to cartography to literature. Harriman's purpose was to have these men explore, document, and discovery interesting phenomena from this 3,000-mile voyage up the inner coast of Alaska.

The scientists included John Muir, glaciologist and wilderness expert; George Bird Grinnell, the founder of the Audubon Society; Georg Steller, naturalist; William Dall, the "dean of Alaska explorers"; Edward Curtis, photographer; and John Burroughs, writer and chronicler of the expedition. 

Harriman's mission had two personal goals:

• Enable scientists in various fields to survey the wonders of Alaska, enlarge their collections of specimens, and share their findings...
• Return...with a trophy bear

Now, over 100 years later, travel writer Mark Adams decided to re-trace the route of those scientists to understand what they first saw and how the Alaska of today had changed (or remained the same).

His trip is beautifully, often humorously chronicled in Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Around Wild Alaska, the Last Great American Frontier. Jumping between primary resources from Harriman's exploration, Alaskan history, and his own journey, Adams deftly manages to immerse readers into the past and present worlds of Alaska and its people.

For his trip, Adams chose to utilize the Alaska Marine Highway System of transport boats "designed to move people and vehicles long distances to remote places for a reasonable price."

Alaska's ferries have as much in common with Greyhound buses as with anything offered by Norwegian Cruise Line, but..with a little patience, Dramamine, and maybe a few time-saving shortcuts, it appeared possible to ride the three thousand miles from Washington State to Dutch Harbor, in the Aleutians, in about two months, the same time the Harriman Expedition took.

Breathtaking descriptions and adventures follow, and we lucky readers are fortunate to be able to sit close to Adams as he observes, researches, and interacts with this fascinating, challenging environment. Glaciers, indigenous people, totems, kayaks, mountains, and plenty of quiet contemplation are all on Adams' daily agenda.

Along the way, Adams learns valuable wisdom, such as how to deal with bears which are everywhere: play dead with brown bears, but fight back against black bears. Unfortunately, the only way to tell these bears apart is by a hump on the brown bear's back, (just reach around to feel for it while the bear is mauling you to determine your best course of action). The best advice he heard: "Bring a gun and someone slower than you."

Also, he learned through talking with local people and by personal observation that glaciers, which had once advanced 1,000 feet a day, were now located 63 miles back from where they were 250 years ago.

He visits Cordova, the scene of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, and Whittier (population 200, many from American Samoa); "The Weirdest Town in Alaska" and inspiration for the television series, "Northern Exposure"; and an active volcano in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.

Too much else to share with you. If you are interested in Alaska, exploration, history, and people, this is the travel book for you.

[While kayaking in Glacier Bay] We were surrounded on all sides by the park's namesake rivers of ice flowing down from the mountains. Their frozen innards glowed a phosphorescent blue that eclipsed the cloudless sky above. A few times every hour, the giants discharged ice from their wrinkled faces -- crack, rumble, splash -- one of nature's most spellbinding performances.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

More book recommendations

About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Ehrlich, Gretel. This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland.   

One of my favorite authors, Gretel Ehrlich, describes in her beautiful prose her life visiting and living in Greenland. She is the best at putting a reader into the environment, giving both history and current conditions, descriptions of the personalities she encounters, all the while examining her own feelings for the region and her place in it. Excellent.

 

Underland

MacFarlane, Robert. Underland: A Deep Time Journey. New York: Norton 2019. Print

First Sentences:

We know so little of the worlds beneath our feet.

Look up on a cloudless night and you might see the light from a star thousands of trillions of miles away, or pick out the craters left by asteroid strikes on the moon's face. Look down and your sight stops at topsoil. tarmac, toe .... 

The underland keeps its secrets well.

Description:

"The underland" is defined as the "world beneath our feet" in Robert MacFarlane's highly engrossing new book, Underland: A Deep Time Journey. MacFarlane sets out to explore and experience various underland manifestations from caves to underground cities and melting glaciers, sharing his feelings about each physical environment, as well as the literature, history, and people who explore these hidden worlds.

MacFarlane explains that underland areas, throughout history, have have been used for three purposes for humans:

• To shelter what is precious (memories, messages, fragile lives
• To yield what is valuable (minerals, visions, information, wealth)
• To dispose of what is harmful (waste, poison, secrets)

MacFarlane notes the "long cultural history of abhorrence around underground spaces, associated with 'the awful darkness inside the world,'" (Cormac McCarthy). Mankind has described the underworld through stories full of fear, disgust, dirt, mortality, and the "disturbing power of claustrophobia." Not wonder we know so little of this portion of our own earth.

MacFarlane sets out to experience each sub-surface land first hand, including:

• The Mendips limestone burial sites in England
• The intricate Invisible Cities and Les Catecombes under Paris
• The Starless Rivers that run underground in Italy
• The caves with Red Dancer paintings in the isolated caves of Norway
• The Hiding Places in Finland
• The Moulin (melting holes) in the glaciers of Greenland 
• The Onkalo in Finland built to store radioactive waste safely underground for eons

What makes this extensive book so compelling is the combination of science, folklore, and curiosity MacFarlane brings to each experience. He thoroughly researches the limestone caverns carved over countless ages (incomprehensible numbers of years are called "dark time") by dripping water. We can hardly imagine such a span of time. MacFarlane imparts this information as he inches belly down through tiny cave passageways. 

He also shows us the 8,600 year old honey fungus with a root system that spreads for miles underground. This underground network helps trees share nutrients (via the "wood wide web" - yes, that is the official term) and breaks down rocky mountains into sand over deep time. 

We read the historical literary references which portray trips to the underland to rescue people or to convey the dead with coins on their eyes to pay for the river crossing to the underworld. Poe wrote of the Maelstrom in Norway and Jules Verne of the Icelandic volcano, both of which lead to worlds hidden below the Earth's surface.. 

We hear the roaring water from the sunless rivers MacFarlane explores and view the animals that live in these waters without light. He even finds an inflatable dingy used by extreme cavers to float themselves upward towards a tiny opening in the ceiling as the only way of escape when the rivers cause the cavern to flood. Imagine! 

He also describes the dangers of the thawing arctic underworld as ancient burials are now exposed: animals that died of anthrax, skeletons of people with smallpox viruses, radioactive waste deposits abandoned after the Cold War. All were thought to be permanently buried for thousands of lifetimes. Now, these dangers have recently been revealed and released by melting permafrost and glaciers..  

We share his joy in examining the 65,000 year old wall painting in sacred places deep in French caves. We also talk with scientists searching  deep in the quiet salt caves of Yorkshire, England for infinitesimal signs of dark matter that makes up the universe. And it is equally powerful in the opposite way to learn of the deep foiba sinkholes and limestone caverns in Yugoslavia used by Communists and Fascists to dispose of "enemy" civilians and military victims, alive, wounded, or dead. 

I especially was struck by the timelessness of the deep time references. When considering the vast number of years, centuries, and millennium, why should mankind care what happens today since everything, including the human species, will be gone? MacFarlane offers a positive answer:

To think in deep time can be a means not of escaping our troubled present, but rather of re-imagining it; countermanding its quick greeds and furies with older, slower stories of making and unmaking. 

A deep time awareness might help us see ourselves as part of a web of gift, inheritance and legacy stretching over millions of years past and millions to come, bringing us to consider what we are leaving behind for the epoch and beings that will follow us.

Underland offers so many fascinating experiences with both the worlds under our feet and the people, past and present, who discover, study, and incorporate these environments into their lives. I cannot even begin to cover a fraction of the interesting facts and stories MacFarlane shares. I simply can say you really need to read this fascinating narrative and immerse yourself into the worlds below the surface of our Earth.

Darkness might be a medium of vision, and descent may be a movement towards revelation rather than deprivation. Our common verb "to understand" itself bears an old sense of passing beneath something in order fully to comprehend it. "To discover" is "to reveal by excavation, "to descend and bring to the light", "to fetch up from the depth." These are ancient associations.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

MacFarland, Robert. Mountains of the Mind: Adventures in Reaching the Summit.   

MacFarland examines the world's highest places from his own personal experiences and literary accounts from figures like Mallory, Lord Byron and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 

The Last American Man

Gilbert, Elizabeth. The Last American Man. London: Penguin. 2002. Print.

First Sentences:

By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree.

By the time he was ten, he could hit a running squirrel at fifty feet with a bow and arrow. When he turned twelve, he went out into the woods, alone and empty-handed, built himself a shelter, and survived off the land for a week.

Description:

Some people harbor dreams of forsaking civilization, disappearing into some isolated forest and living off the land peacefully in harmony with nature. Of course, none of us could survive more that a few miserable days, but what if ....

Elizabeth Gilbert depicts such a man in her strongly-written biography of Eustace Conway, The Last American Man. 

For years, Eustace had escaped his father's badgering and humiliations by spending time in a local American Indian museum, learning the Indian philosophy and their skills of living in nature. He gradually acquired the abilities to live independent of civilization and, when he reached 17, tooks off from his home with his homemade teepee and motorcycle to find his perfect land in the woods of North Carolina to make a home in nature.

Eventually he purchased acres of isolated lands and built Turtle Island, his refuge which could preserve of enough natural forest for him to live freely with animals, water, and trees in his own way without roads, electricity, or contact with the outside world. Supporting himself by giving demonstrations and talks to schools and organizations, everything seemed perfect in his chosen life.

But not all was easy. He was determined to spread his philosophy that anyone can live in nature, and should. To that end, Eustace opened Turtle Island to campers seeking his knowledge of survival skills. What they found were hours of digging post holes, eating meager meals from whatever Eustace can scrounge (including roadkill and dumpster diving), and whatever other work Eustace felt was needed to keep Turtle Island running. Few campers were happy with these arrangements and many left early.

And then there was his strong desire to start a family and his plan to find the perfect woman. Not all went well in this area as might be expected, as potential girlfriends were left to mind the teepee and campers to Eustace's exacting standards while he traveled the country giving demonstrations and preaching his back-to-nature philosophy.

But what an interesting man he is, and what a life he carved out for himself. The book is filled with story after incredible story of incidents in his life of interacting with nature, including raising a hundred turtles in his childhood backyard, riding horses across the United States, and through-hiking the Appalachian Trail without packing any food and surviving on what he could hunt or scrounge. Throughout the book he is always carefully plotting the perfect existence and spreading his enthusiasm to kids and adults alike.

Wonderful reading about a complex man who defines and then carves out his ideal life.

Happy reading. 

Fred

(See more recommended books)
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet

Young city-born teen survives a plane crash in the wilds of Canada and must learn how to survive. Wonderful book for teens and adults alike, as the best news is there are several other books in this survival series. (previously reviewed here)

The Remedy for Love

Roorbach, Bill. The Remedy for Love. Chapel Hill: Algonquin. 2014. Print.

First Sentences:

The young woman ahead of him in line at the Hannaford Superstore was unusually fragrant, smelled like wood smoke and dirty clothes and cough drops of maybe Ben-Gay, eucalyptus anyway.

She was all but mummified in an enormous coat leaking feathers, some kind of army-issue garment from another era, huge hood pulled over her head. 

Description:

Whoo-ee! Another new author "discovered" (by me) this week. Bill Roorbach is his name and his The Remedy for Love is a novel that I can give the highest recommendation to. What makes Roobach's The Remedy for Love so great? To me, when an author can take an ordinary, simple premise and turn it into a complex, unpredictable page-turner with interesting characters you want to hear more about, well, that's a rare skill.

In Remedy Eric, a local lawyer in a small Maine town, notices a young woman in the checkout line of a market. She is obviously down on her luck, poorly dressed, dirty, and possibly homeless. She tries to purchase some odd supplies but finds herself short of money. Eric steps up and pays the difference, much to her irritation. Then, due to the cold conditions and impending snowstorm, he offers her a ride and escort to her isolated ancient cabin. Again, both actions are unappreciated and unwanted by the woman, Danielle.

Through a series of circumstances, Eric and Danielle are unwillingly forced to wait out the snowstorm of the century in this run-down cottage, unable to leave and possibly even survive as the snow mounts up over the door and threatens to collapse the building.

Two people being thrown together by an author is a common theme. But in Roorbach's hands, these are not ordinary people. Full of anger, independence, and personal quirks, they are both unwilling to create any relationship with the other beyond survival. Both are married, but their private histories with these spouses is only slowly uncovered. There is constant tension between Danielle and Eric as their stories, both truthful and fabricated, are brought out over the next tension-filled, freezing cold hours.

Striking, stark, intelligent, and often disjointed, their conversations range over topics of poetry, lawyers (Eric's wife is a lawyer as well), relationships, jigsaw puzzles, college, intimacy, military (Danielle's husband is an Army Ranger in Afghanistan), and philosophy. They (and their conversations) are rambling, irritated, challenging, and intelligent:

"And Henry David [Thoreau], he's all heartbroken, and not even poetry is working, so he wrote down something like that the only remedy for love was to love more. Like love was a disease that cured itself."

"He was quoting Ovid!" Eric said, proud of himself. "The Cure for Love"....

"Ovid, pfft," Danielle said.

"The Larry Flynt of his times! He said the cure for love was to go find more lovers. Among other things. Like focusing on your lover's flaws. Or farming."

I won't spoil any more of what happens between or to these people. Suffice to say, these are two very different individuals, difficult to get a complete picture of, but both endlessly fascinating as revealed in their conversations, philosophy, and dreams. Talk (and anger) is all they have to pass the time and the awkwardness of their situation which neither of them desires or wants to prolong beyond the end of the dangerous storm raging outside. 

Fantastic read on so many levels. Completely unexpected in its twists and turns, whether mental, verbal, or physical. My favorite kind of read. Best of all, Roorbach has written several other books, including novels (Life Among Giants), non-fiction (Temple Stream) and award-winning short story collections (Big Bend). My bedside table is now filled with future reading provided by this Bill Roorbach. Can't wait.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Roorbach. Summers with Juliet

Memoirs of Roorbach and the eight summers he spent with Juliet, his future wife, getting to know her, traveling the US, camping, reawakening his New Yorker's long dormant love for nature, and much more.

Rich, Louise Dickinson. We Took to the Woods

Memoirs of Rich who lived in an isolated lodge with her children during the 1930. Full of humor, answers to how she survived (and thrived), and high quality writing to match her storytelling skills. (previously reviewed here)

Mother of God

Rosolie, Paul. Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon. New York: HarperCollins. 2014. Print

First Sentences:

Before he died, Santiago Durand told me a secret.

It was late at night in a palm-thatched hut on the bank of the Tambopata River, deep in the southwestern corner of the Amazon Basin. Beside a mud oven, two wild boar heads sizzled in a cradle of embers, their protruding tusks curling in static agony as they cooked. The smell of burning cecropia wood and singed flesh filled the air.

Description:

You just cannot get a better opening than reading a dying man's secret as told in a mud hut on the bank of an Amazon river with wild boar heads sizzling on coals nearby. Paul Rosolie's Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon immediately checks all my boxes for a good read: interesting setting, Check; unusual characters, Check; potential for great plot, Check; intriguing use of words, Check. After just these first sentences, I'm all in. 

Mother of God are the true experiences of the author, Paul Rosolie, and his life in the wildest areas of the Peruvian Amazon jungle. When his dyslexia and disinterest in school cause him to struggle with academics, he obtains his GED, drops out of high school, and works as a life guard to save money to travel to the Amazon, a word that has caught his attention. He has always had an interest in nature, hiking, and rescuing injured animals, and later develops a fascination with isolated environments and real possibility they might disappear before he had a chance to experience them. 

Through writing letters to anyone working in a jungle environment, he eventually obtains a volunteer research position on a 27,000 acre preserve in the Peruvian portion of the Amazon jungle, an area known as the Madre de Dios ("Mother of God"). Emma, a British biologist, and JJ, an indigenous guide and her partner, have scraped together enough funds to purchase this land and ecotourism lodge to create the Las Piedras Biodiversity Station. 

Surrounded by hundreds of miles of untouched jungle, the LPBS is heaven for the inquisitive Rosolie, and his real education begins to take place every day under the tutelage of JJ . They daily walk the trails throughout the preserve and observe the diversity of the jungle, identifying and observing tracks, medicinal plants, and the animals themselves. 

[from a plane] it was like looking into the vault of the universe to where all the greatest secrets were kept, the library of life....the foliage of the Andes/Amazon interface ... constitutes more than 15 percent of the global variety of plants....rough tallies for the entire Andes/Amazon region: 1,666 birds, 414 mammals, 479 reptiles, 834 amphibians, and a large portion of the Amazon's 9,000 fish species.

One of these creatures is Lulu, an orphan baby giant anteater that Rosolie rescues and raises at the lodge. What is a baby giant anteater like? Imagine "if you bred a hyper baby black bear with Edward Scissorhands"...with "three-inch-long black sickles that could tear through denim and skin with ease." And there's that two-foot-long sticky tongue. Undaunted by Lulu's huge claws and her need ride on his back and sleep on his chest in his hammock, Rosolie patiently learns to hand feed her until he can teach her (somehow) to identify ant hills and how to use her claws and long tongue to feed herself.

And, oh, the adventures he has each day, including:

• a cayman (crocodile) that swallowed a 4' bag of Brazil nuts, cooking pot, and fish in one gulp;
• footprints from tapirs and jaguars found many mornings only inches from tents. (JJ feels it is "probably the smell of fresh white gringo that was attracting them.")
• spider monkeys that taunt and throw figs at the fiercest animal, the peccaries (wild pigs);
• awakening one night in his hammock to the hot breath of a jaguar only inches from his face;
• gliding ants that can sail back to tree trunk when wind blows them off.
• a 15' anaconda (snake) (Rosolie'e encounter is scoffed at by Santiago who tells of an area that has anacondas are over 40' long 24" wide - and Rosolie later actually finds one!)

Not all his experiences are with the animals, nor are they all pleasant. He notices the impact of each action on the jungle has repercussions, some temporary and some permanent. The jungle is a living organism that suffers from any modification in its system of life. 

He encounters poachers who kill a wide variety of wildlife with disastrous impact on the jungle. Rare trees with unique holes are chopped down to secure a nest of endangered baby birds, thus destroying not only the birds but a very rare nesting spot for similar birds. Rubber plantation owners exploit and destroy both the trees and the natives. Loggers clear-cut mahogany trees that take years, if ever, to regrow. Government road-builders blast huge swatches of the jungle to cut a highway across from Brazil to Peru to provide access to the resources and animals, as well as the opening of areas for human settlement. Small tribes of "uncontacted" natives move deeper and deeper into the jungles and became fiercely suspicious of outsiders and deadly protective against intruders. 

But Mother of God is a work of hope and survival. There is so much fascinating information presented as the author explores trails, animals, and survival knowledge from the indigenous people he encounters. Page after page of beauty, wonder, and adventure fill this book and pull readers onward, deeper into the world of the Amazon.

And, of course, Rosolie must seek the lost world described by Santiago, the old native who tells stories of the giant anacondas and many other wonders, and who is never proved wrong in his knowledge.  Access is treacherous, but Rosolie sets off alone to find it using Santiago's ancient directions.

He said it was a place where humans had never been. Between rivers and isolated by a quirk of geography, it had remained forgotten through the centuries. The only tribes who knew of the land had regarded it as sacred and never entered, and so it had remained untouched for millennia...He told me that it was the wildest place left on earth.

Mother of God is a book of exploration, whether learning about tracks or seeking means to keep the Amazonian jungle and its inhabitants protected. So much beauty is described and experienced by the author, an adventurer and seeker of knowledge and understanding about this wild land. As he writes on the departure of his solo journey to find the lost world:

In the most savage and dizzyingly vast wilderness on earth, the rule is simple: never go out alone. Yet there are those among us who have difficulty accepting what we have not found out for ourselves, who pass a WET PAINT sign and cannot help touching the wall. We simply have to know. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Grann, David. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.  

Detailed adventures of British explorer Percy Fawcett in the early 1900's and his many forays into the Amazon jungle in search of the City of Gold. (Previously reviewed here). 

Adams, Mark. Turn Right at Machu Piccu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time  

The desk-bound author sets out with a modern-day Fawcett as his guide to walk the routes of Hiram Bingham in order to re-trace that explorer's search for the fabled city of gold in Peru, with very humorous and serious adventures along the way. (Previously reviewed here). 

Davis, Wade. One River.  

Memoirs of the author who traveled the length of South America via the jungle, meeting and interacting with isolated tribes, describing their friendships, rituals, food, hunting practices, languages, and social structure.

Vaarty, Boyd. Cathedral of the Wild: An African Journey Home.  

Fascinating memoir of the author and his family who lived on their game reserve and ran a safari company for four generations in the wilds of South Africa. The book opens with the author awakening, at age 11, to a deadly 9' mamba sliding over him - one bite is fatal. And it goes on for there with encounters with all forms of wildlife on the reserve.

Never Cry Wolf

Mowat, Farley. Never Cry Wolf: Amazing True Story About Life Among Arctic Wolves. New York: Atlantic-Little Brown 1963. Print 

First Sentences:

It is a long way in time and space from the bathroom of my Grandmother Mowat's house in Oakville, Ontario, to the bottom of a wolf den in the Barren Lands in central Keewatin, and I have no intention of retracing the entire road which lies between. Nevertheless, there must be a beginning to any tale, and the story of my sojourn amongst the wolves begins properly in Granny's bathroom.

Description: 

Can a book deal with a serious topic (depletion of caribou herds by arctic wolves in Canada) in a completely off-beat manner? In the hands of a quirky biologist like Farley Mowat, of course. 

In Never Cry Wolf, he engagingly recollects his adventures as a newly-hired naturalist for the Canadian Wildlife Service and assigned his first task: find out why the arctic timber wolves are decimating the caribou population in the Baffins of Canada, gather information, and then "curb the carnage."

So off he flies to the frozen wilds armed with his plane load of government issue wolf traps, tear gas grenades, smoke generators, seven axes, 4 gross of mousetraps, and a communication radio with 6 hours' worth of batteries. Also smuggled aboard were 10 gallons of 100% grain alcohol (for preservation of specimens) and 15 cases of Moose Brand Beer, contraband which could be mixed together into a "positively ambrosial" concoction. 

Once left in the frozen nothingness, even armed with this elixir, the first howls of a wolf pack send him scurrying for protection under the canoe, "wishing I were a pregnant Eskimo." Don't ask.

Having no experience with wolves, Mowat relies on his wits to locate and study these creatures up close and personal. He gamely tries personal experiments to test the validity of each hypotheses based on what he sees, including living solely on a diet of field mice (to see whether wolves could possible exist on rodents alone) and moving his body in circles in bed to prove this wolf technique helps one drop off to sleep better (an activity he laments later proved to be unpopular with lady friends).

Throughout the book he leads readers on adventure after misadventure, experiencing with him first-hand this environment, its people, and its wildlife. Interactions with native Inuit, visiting hunters, and, of course, the Canadian home office provide numerous instances of bewilderment, humor, scientific observation, bureaucracy, and well-intentioned pursuits.  

His observations change all preconceived notions of wolf behavior, diet, family structure, hunting range, and their relationship with caribou.   

Never Cry Wolf is a book I have recommended for years to adults, children, teens, seniors - anyone looking for a well-written, humorous read on a serious topic set in an exotic local. Mowat is a prodigious writer on a huge variety of topics that can be scientific, humorous, historic, heart-breaking or sometimes all of the above  But by far the best place to start is with Never Cry Wolf.

Happy reading. 


Fred 
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, there are many others available by Farley Mowat, both humorous and serious. Be sure to check out:

Mowat, Farley. The Snow Walker.  

Tales of the Inuit people Mowat lived with in the Canadian wilderness over many years, as told in their voices to relate stories of the individuals and actions, as well as legends that make up their culture. Highly recommended for great writing, powerful stories, and memorable people.

Mowat, Farley. The Dog Who Wouldn't Be. 

Recollections and humorous tales of the author's early boyhood with a dog who rode in cars with goggles and could climb ladders. Great for reading to children as well.

We Took to the Woods

Rich, Louise Dickinson. We Took to the Woods. New York: Atlantic-Little Brown 1942. Print 

First Sentences:

During most of my adolescence -- specifically, between the time when I gave up wanting to be a brakeman on a freight train and the time when I definitely decided to become an English teacher -- I said, when asked what I was going to do with my life, that I was going to live alone in a cabin in the Maine woods and write. It seemed to me that this was a romantic notion, and I was insufferably smug over my own originality. Of course, I found out later that everybody is at one time or another going to do something of the sort. It's part of being young. The only difference in my case is that, grown to womanhood, I seem to be living in a cabin in the Maine woods, and I seem to be writing.

Description:

The urge to live isolated in the woods where quiet and nature surround you is an enticing dream. Louise Dickinson Rich does more than just dream about such a life. Rich, the author of We Took to the Woods, details her fascinating experiences living in the backwoods of Maine in the 1930s so vividly and personally that she makes any reader long for his own cabin in the forest. 

We Took to the Woods is Rich's account of her chosen life living in a ancient fishing lodge located in the Rangeley Lakes area of northwestern Maine. The lodge and cabins are surrounded by hundreds of square miles of forest preserve with only five miles of usable road and the nearest town two miles away.

Her memoir is composed of equal parts wild environment, unique people who enter these woods, daily adventures, and seasonal challenges and delights. It details life narrowed down to the essentials of food, shelter, warmth, family, and enjoyment of the surrounding environment.

Rich lives with her husband, Ralph; their four-year-old son Rufus "who, not to mince words, is often a pest" and daughter Sally. 

And, of course, she has unique pets running around. Tim is their cat whose "idea of an average day is to get up at noon, trounce the dog for looking at him, go out and chase a deer away from the clearing and set out the two miles for Middle Dam, there to visit with his girl, the Millers' cat, after half murdering her other three suitors." Kyak, their "art dog" husky, is "completely non-functional." Rollo is their un-descented pet skunk.

We Took to the Woods divides Rich's life into chapters which focus on a frequently-asked question from people curious about her life. Chapters include "How do you make a living?" "But you don't live here all the year round?" "Aren't the children a problem?" "Don't you ever get bored" "Don't you get awfully out of touch?" etc. She recounts episode after episode in her daily life that clearly and humorously depict how she addresses each of these concerns.

Her daily work involves keeping the lodge operating and occasionally acting as a fishing guide for tourists. She tells wonderful stories of berry picking, fishing, rowing boats, house repairs, making ice cream, and preparing meals, including those makeshift ones when standard ingredients have run out (or were forgotten to have been purchased before winter shut down the only road). The allure of isolated living takes on a new image when there is no running to the local Kwik-E-Mart for milk, salt, butter, or flour.

This book is a gem. Each page shows the passion and love the author has for her wilderness life and all elements in it. When she describes the beauty found in their vegetable garden, the break-up of the ice, the loggers riding huge numbers of trees down the river, rowing around B Pond to watch loons, and her interactions with grizzled locals, fresh-faced tourists and various animals wild and tame, there is a contentment emanating from her words and depictions as if she is talking about a good meal in front of the fire. The book provides readers a similar satisfied feeling, knowing that here is a person and setting that are admirable, enticing, and just plain interesting to hear about.

It is a classic book in Maine, found in every bookstore there, and highly recommend for any age person interested in immersing himself into a real-life story of survival, family, laughter, and perseverance. 

Happy reading.

Fred
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, there are many other books available by Louise Dickinson Rich about her life and family in Maine as well as some children's books she authored. 

Rich, Louise Dickinson. Happy the Land

      Follow-up memoir to We Took to the Woods.

Hoover, Helen. Gift of the Deer.

A couple move to a primitive house in the backwoods of Minnesota to live a simpler life. Highly recommended

Beston, Henry. The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod.

Recollections and musings from the author who lived alone on a New England quiet beach for a year, studying nature and himself during this period. A classic.