Walking Home: A Traveler in the Alaskan Wilderness, A Journey Into the Human Heart by Lynn Schooler (2010, Bloomsbury; 270 pages) Walking Home by Lynn Schooler blends Alaskan wilderness adventure, history, and personal narrative to result in a compelling read. Schooler’s writing is poetic both in its descriptions of the natural world—Juneau and the nearby coast from Lituya Bay to Yakutat Bay—as well as in its exploration of his own emotional terrain as he experiences personal loss. While I’m drawn to Schooler’s poetic style, perhaps what I most enjoy is his ability to wrap his present day, at times gripping, Alaska adventure story in historical stories about the places he travels through. As Schooler boats the coast from Juneau to Lituya Bay, the tales of early European explorers mapping the coast and some of their first interactions with the Native Alaskans living in that “wilderness” weave in and out of his own story, like clouds clinging to the shoulders of mountains, revealing some peaks and shrouding others. Riveting details about the earthquake and resulting avalanches and tsunami that devastated Lituya Bay in 1958 wind through Schooler’s own trip into Lituya Bay where he then begins a journey by foot. Walking Home is a beautiful book that any reader who enjoys a good adventure story but craves a bit more will be delighted by. Find this title in our catalog: Walking Home By: Brooke
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