- “Paddlenorth: Adventure, Resilience, and Renewal in the Arctic Wild”
- by Jennifer Kingsley
- GREYSTONE BOOKS LTD | August 22, 2014 | Hardcover
Loved it.
Jenny’s words drew me deeper into the adventure with each turn of a page. I truly felt like part of the expedition. I was bitten by the cold, swarmed by bugs, was part of the interpersonal tensions, identified with her inner conflicts… and of course the pain and exhaustion.
I was on the adventure without the cost and risk.
For a lightning-fast 240 pages, I was in a canoe with the team. I felt so connected I didn’t want the story to end. However, like all good things, it must end and it did.
I won’t spoil the ending, however, I will say she lived to tell the story and there were no dinosaur encounters, vampire romances or zombies. Just a wonderful story weaved masterfully, by this first-time Canadian writer, between adventure, interpersonal challenges and history.
I can’t remember that last I time enjoyed a book more.
However, I am biased. I love the north. I too was on the Tundra of the NWT that very same summer of 2005. Although there were similarities between our adventures, I am in awe at how well she was able to draw the reader in with her brilliant writing.
This book is a must-read for all inspiring paddlers and outfitters, however, anyone who has ever heard of a canoe will also enjoy this book. 🙂
Publisher said…
Paddlenorth tells the riveting story of Jennifer Kingsley’s 54-day paddling adventure on the Back River, in the northern wilderness of the subarctic, as she and her five companions battle raging winds, impenetrable sea ice, and treacherous rapids. The perils include rising tensions among the group, but these are tempered by grizzly sightings, icy swims, and the caribou’s summer migration. Woven through this spellbinding narrative are the harrowing accounts of earlier explorers, some of whom perished, but whose traces along the river warn us against romantic notions of the wild. Paddlenorth paints an indelible portrait of the spectacular northern landscape and eloquently explores what wilderness means to us
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