Download PDF The Sun Is a Compass A 4 000Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds Caroline Van Hemert

Product details File Size 42075 KB Print Length 321 pages Page Numbers Source ISBN 0316414425 Publisher Little, Brown Spark (March 19, 2019) Publication Date March 19, 2019 Language English ASIN B07F66MDFR

The Sun Is a Compass A 4 000Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds Caroline Van Hemert Reviews

• ​If you pick up one book this year, make it this one. A love letter to life, nature, and the kindness of strangers. Written by a woman with heart, a knowledge of the world around her so vast, an adventurer like you’ve never known. This is Caroline Van Hemert’s memoir THE SUN IS A COMPASS. Let her take you to Alaska and beyond.
  
  Hers is a powerful, gripping like you are on the trip with her, 4,000 mile journey you cannot believe, but you will be rooting for her and her husband all the way, starting in the Pacific Northwest to Alaska, through rivers and the open sea, rough terrain, snow, and glaciers, as they explore the great wide open by foot, skis, rowboat, and canoe.
  
  A spellbinding magnificently told story of discovery, the capacity of strength, about two people who define what it means to follow your dream. Nature comes alive through the waters, mountains, birds, animals, and all that they encounter. You will never take the fresh air around you for granted after reading THE SUN IS A COMPASS.
• Warning Do not read in public if you don't want strangers to see you crying. I was crying three minutes in to the book, and cried several more times while reading this book on two long flights.
  I picked up this book because I was familiar with Caroline's chickadee research. The book was about so much more. I feel like books come in to your life when you really need them and that was the case with this one for me. I couldn't put it down.
• The Sun is a Compass has captured brilliantly the tension in every one of us who care about the wild should we be hunkered down at a desk trying to save it, or out in the woods living it? This isn’t just the outrageous story of a grueling, six-month, 4000-mile grind on foot and float around Alaska (as if that weren’t enough) it’s a book about decisions that dog us all as we try to live well and do good. When ornithologist Caroline Van Hemert shucks her chickadee research at the start of the book, I found myself yelling, “No! The birds need you! I need you to be a scientist!” But her brutal trek through the bush is a quest for clarity and discovery, and the birds and wildlife that are at the forefront of her narrative make it clear that she’s a born scientist and chronicler of the nonhuman as well as the human. Immersed in the untamed Arctic, about as far from a conventional life as she can possibly be, she acknowledges that her life will be comprised of all things – adventuring, marriage, bird research, children, life in the city, life off the grid. It’s a rare book about adventuring that doesn’t push all this to the side in favor of single-minded conquest, but she holds it all in suspension before her as she’s swimming for her life across melt-swollen rivers, backing down an aggressive bear, and starving to blackout because of a missed resupply. In the midst of an adventure so raw it could have happened at any time in human history, she pushes ahead of her fresh and honest insights on modern life. A necessary book.
• This book is so amazing! I usually read pretty fast, but I took time to google map all their stops, the birds they saw, the caribou. It made me so excited to see more of Alaska. Caroline doesn't wait for adventure, she chased it down. And captured it all in her writing. Realizing that there is no "perfect time" to plan your dreams...but just to seize the day! Love this book, even bought a copy for a friend. 5 stars!
• A beautifully written tale of a couple putting in to action and successfully pulling off their incredibly ambitious dream of a human powered adventure from Washington state into the Arctic. The story weaves into their journey a love of the land and its inhabitants, as well as the feat of migration of the earths winged wonders from the view of an ornithologist. Highly recommend this book.
• Caroline detailed her and Pat's adventure VERLY WELL. I can fully relate to her need to be outdoors, and fortunately
  she had a very capable partner to do it with. The insight into the weather, birds and animals, as will as the planning
  was terrific. I felt I was part of the trip. Thanks
• A well written account of a young couple's "life journey", exploring their own strengths and weaknesses as they challenged nature. It will have you shaking your head, cheering, learning, crossing your fingers, and asking "Then what happened?" It also reminded me of many journeys, albeit much shorter, in our childhood when we lived on that same piece of land in Lynn Canal. Thank you Caroline Van Hemert for a tale well told.
• I loved this book for it's clear sighted focus, it's passionate love of the wilderness , dedication to observation,
  And most importantly the strength of Caroline and Pat's will to persevere . I recommend this book highly to anyone who loves
  Adventure, Birds, And Alaska. I cried many times just for the immediacy of an image portrayed.