Thu Feb 09 2012
Looking for a book for Dad? Let's check out some true-life adventure.
"Death on the Barrens: A True Story of Courage and Tragedy in the Canadian Arctic" by George James Grinnell recounts a six-man canoe trip into the remote wilderness of north central Canada in 1955, during which Arthur Moffatt, the leader of the voyage, was tragically killed. Moffatt, 36, was quite a hero to the five younger men who agreed to accompany him. The Barren Grounds of sub-Arctic Canada had been crossed previously by only two other expeditions. It was dangerous: "On the Barrens, the ground lies frozen year round. There were no trees. If we should break or lose a paddle, there would be no way to replace it."
Grinnell's account affects the reader on several levels. He details the practical side of the trip, including their food and how it was distributed. He describes the physical exertion of canoeing and portaging; the exhilaration of shooting rapids; the camaraderie of the men; the psychological signs of suspicion, paranoia, and even questions of sanity: "I became absolutely certain that I was going to die; the expedition seemed to me to be total madness." There's also a spiritual element in the way the author looks up to Moffatt: "Like many mystics before him, Art believed that a voyage into the wilderness was a pilgrimage, a journey, not of conquest, but of reconciliation." Grinnell quotes literature, poetry, scripture, Zen koans and Indian legend. The writing is very nice, and at times even lyrical: The farther northward we paddled, the more extensive the view became, the more the tundra opened out before us like an endless Alpine meadow surrounded by lakes and snow-topped rocky peaks, and the more I realized that what was unfolding was something beyond physical beauty."
Keep your snowshoes on, because "True North: A Journey into the Unexplored Wilderness" by Elliott Merrick takes us on a hunting trip in Labrador in the winter of 1930. Merrick's writing is full of detail on how to survive in the grueling cold of a Canadian winter. The book is more "Walden" than wild, as the author is often contemplative, reveling in the joy of being out of the city and plunged into nature: "A pipe lit with a brand tastes much better than a pipe lit with a match." He writes, "What fun it would be to build a cabin on the lake and live here for years. ... In the spring the ducks would come, and in summer the grass and wild bluebells, and our canoe would creep in and out of every bay and cove. ... We would not know of wars or increased taxes or inauguration addresses or who was the world's heavyweight champion, ... and it would be good not to know."
According to "Bones of the Tiger: Protecting the Man-Eaters of Nepal," more than a million people have been killed by tigers in southern Asia in the past 400 years. Author Hemanta Mishra tells his own story of tracking man-eating tigers, mostly in Nepal's Chitwan National Park between India and China. As a "professional tiger conservationist," he tracks tigers to put radio collars on young ones or to help capture killer tigers for removal to zoos. Parts of the book recount the history and culture of tigers and tiger-hunting (including color photographs). He talks about why tigers attack people ("Inability to hunt their natural prey") and why they are now endangered. His stories of tiger attacks and how the tigers were caught are chilling. In one situation, he was up in a tree with a tranquilizer-dart gun, waiting for a tiger. And there it was, below him: "The tiger suddenly stopped. ... Each piece of hair on my body stood upright. Acutely aware of my fear, I froze sixteen feet up in my tree. Composing myself, I took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger of my dart gun. Phut, the dart sounded as it hit the right shoulder of the man-eater. ... The tiger thundered the grassland with a nerve-wrecking growl. I watched it jump about six feet high over the opening in the grassland and sprint into cover behind my tree."
Now that Elizabeth Gilbert's name is practically a household word because of her best-selling "Eat, Pray, Love," her previous work is getting more attention. "The Last American Man," which was a National Book Award finalist, is the character portrait of Eustace Conway, a modern-day mythic figure who's sort of an odd cross between Davy Crockett, Geronimo, and Malcolm Forbes. Born in 1961 in South Carolina, he was taught at an early age how to identify trees, set up camp, bait a hook and build a fire. "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." At 19, he hiked the entire Appalachian Trail. And through cunning business moves, he bought enough acreage to build a self-sustaining farm where he could live off the land. In many ways, he's a troubled guy; he just can't sustain a romantic relationship, because he's too demanding. But schoolchildren love to hear him talk about nature, as in his favorite metaphor: "I live in nature, where everything is connected, circular. The seasons are circular. The planet is circular, ... the life cycles of plants and animals are circular. ... The ancient people understood that our world is a circle, but ... [people today] live in boxes. They wake up every morning in the box of their bedrooms because a box next to them started making beeping noises. ... They eat their breakfast out of a box and then they throw that box away into another box. Then they leave the box where they live and get into a box with wheels and drive to work, which is just another big box." He's a fascinating guy.
If you want to give Dad a gift that will just knock his socks off, look for "TIME Great Discoveries: Explorations That Changed History" from the publishers of Time magazine. This oversize coffee-table book is filled with 138 pages of spell-binding full-color photographs from around the world: familiar sites like Machu Picchu in Peru, China's terra-cotta army and Africa's Victoria Falls, and less familiar images such as the "hobbits" of Indonesia and sand ripples on Mars. There's just enough text to keep it interesting. No matter how many times I pick up this book, I always get lost in it.
Copyright © 2010 by Mary Louise Ruehr.
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BOOK NOTES, One for the Books Extra Online
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Check out my blog on books, inspiration, fun and thought-provoking goodies! It’s called “Shine A Light!”
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For best-seller lists and more book news, go to:
http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4828396
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Here are links to other recent One for the Books columns. More links are available on my blog at http://blogs.dixcdn.com/shine_a_light/one-for-the-books/
Rainy Day Books for Children -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4835050
Questions of Identity -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4826618
Lives of Real Women -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4817982
A Bit of Southern Hospitality -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4813799
Marriage -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4805797
Politicians Behaving Badly -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4796121
Revisiting Jane Austen -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4743712
Palin-Tology -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4718844
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Thanks for reading One for the Books. Please let us know what kind of book news you’d like to see on this page. Send e-mail to Books@recordpub.com. Send other mail to Mary Louise Ruehr, Books Editor, Record-Courier, 126 N. Chestnut St. (P.O. Box 1201), Ravenna, OH 44266.
“One for the Books” appears the second and fourth Fridays of the month in the Record-Courier. Extra columns may appear on occasion, especially preceding Christmas and Hanukkah.
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