Captured by Canada: Alive in Algonquin
By Skeeter Lee (2022)
As a boy, fifteen-year-old Tom Woodruff dreamed of following his father and grandfather to Camp Catamount, but after his father’s untimely death, Tom’s cosmopolitan mother forbade outdoor adventures for as long as she could.
Adventure came at the confluence of unfortunate events. School wasn’t going well and Tom’s mother had moved overseas. Worst of all, a terrible car accident meant that staying with his grandparents in New York was no longer an option.
It was time for a change and Tom agreed to attend Camp Catamount until further arrangements could be made. Besides, if he hated it, he could always escape.
Tom passes though countless emotions while adjusting to camp and the wilderness. Shaine and his cronies become increasingly hostile and Tom’s other cabin mates will not risk Shaine’s wrath to defend him. Tom takes to canoeing but constantly questions his new skills. His new friend, Cecille, draws him into a complex plot about the camp’s future. And all the while he must prepare for the Dumoine River, an adventure near the end of summer that will put all of their wilderness skills to the test.
Will Tom succeed in the wilderness, or will he return to the comfort of New York and his grandparents?
The Lies They Told
By Mary Perrine (2022)
No one noticed me until the day I went missing. From that point on, they couldn’t stop seeing me. My face was plastered everywhere – in the news, on social media, and on fliers tacked up around the small Minnesota town of Cedar Point.
For my entire adult life, I had been invisible. I wasn’t an oops, a child my parents would eventually grow to love. I was a dammit, a baby no one would ever love. Lily and Laurel, my identical twin sisters, were my parents’ dream. I was their mistake. Plain Jane is what they called me.
I had always lived in the shadow of others – until a terrifying call sent me on the run. Someone wanted me dead? Was it my prominent husband, who was privately abusive? My estranged parents? The town drifter, with whom I was closer to than my own family? Or the Chief of Police, someone I had loved since I was twelve? Were some working together? I could trust no one.
All these years, I thought no one saw me. But as the lies blossomed, I realized everyone had from the very beginning. Like a marionette, I had been forced to dance. I was a puppet with many masters, each waiting for the perfect moment to use me and then cast me aside.
While some lies are small, the lies they told had the potential to destroy me.
Fighting Chance
By Joe Paatalo (2021)
Tim Raffleman is hearing voices in his dreams, voices beckoning him back in time. In an attempt to make peace with his dreams, he is advised to write about his past, beginning with an old photo he’s had on his desk for more than twenty years. What follows is both a revelation and a reckoning, taking him back to the halls of Bishop High, back to his days when life was spent with friends and grunge music, to a time when life was all about chance. A story about how the past lives in the present, Paatalo’s new novel reminds the reader about the fluidity of time and the circular nature of our lives.
“Fighting Chance is a Midwest treasure. Think Jon Hassler, think J.F. Powers. There is much to ponder in his quiet, understated work.”
Dave Wood – Star Tribune Books Editor (fmr) V.P. National Books Critics Circle (fmr)
Hidden
By Mary Perrine (2021)
Mary Claire O’Brien has hidden for as long as she can remember. During the week, with her father away in the city, Mary Claire feels like every other child – but on Fridays, everything changes. On Friday mornings, she rises onto her tiptoes and wraps her nightgown tightly around her legs to silence the swooshing sound she loves. She slowly becomes invisible. Hiding is how she remains safe; it’s how she protects her mother.
At ten years old, Mary Claire begs God to take her father away, but someone else has plans for him, and those plans will change everything.
Years later, Claire Stanton struggles with the secrets of her past, secrets she didn’t know existed, secrets her mother holds tightly, right to the very end. After Claire’s daughter becomes sullen and angry, she fears history may be repeating itself. With this new information taunting her, she takes matters into her own hands and vows to make the abuser pay, no matter who she destroys in the process.
Life is complicated. Secrets are destructive. But the truth is explosive.
Her Island: The Story of Quetico’s Longest Serving Interior Ranger
By Joe Friedrichs (2020)
Janice Matichuk first set foot on her island in Quetico Provincial Park in 1985. Located not far from the end of Minnesota’s iconic Gunflint Trail, this remote park sits is the heart of North America’s ‘canoe country.’ Decades later, Matichuk is now the longest serving interior ranger in the park’s history.
Nestled upon a spruce-covered island in Cache Bay, on the northern end of Saganaga Lake, a 400-square-foot cabin serves as Matuchuk’s home and office from May to September each year. Over the course of three decades, Janice has raised two children on the island, saved the lives of canoeists who have tumbled into often frigid waters, survived charges by moose, canoed nearly every inch of the 1.2 million acre park, and watched earnest young paddlers grow into wilderness-seasoned adults.
This is the story about life inside one of North America’s most remote places, Quetico Park. It is a reflection on a woman who broke through barriers and refused to conform to societal norms. Ultimately, however, it’s an examination of the challenges that life presents, and that even on a secluded island in the wilderness, human nature still lurks in the shadows.
The Eddy
By Joe Paatalo (2020)
After 18-year-old Toby Casper survives a suicidal motorcycle ride, he attempts to reclaim his life and bury his difficult past. But some things don’t rest that easily. When he meets Mitchell James, the wildly erratic English teacher who harbors his own dark past, the two strike up an unusual partnership. From the tough halls of an inner city high school, to the trout filled waters of the American West, The Eddy takes us on a memorable journey sure to resonate with anyone who has ever longed to break away.
Justin Cody’s Race to Survival: High Adventure in the Canadian Wilderness
By Cliff Jacobson (2019)
Thirteen-year-old Justin Cody is failing two classes and is addicted to texting and video games. Forced to take a wilderness canoe trip in Canada with his Grandpa Henry, Justin is thrust into a race for survival when the two discover a stolen top-secret drone developed by the U.S. Military. Grandpa Henry is kidnapped and Justin—who knows nothing about canoeing and camping—must journey alone to a distant lake that promises rescue.
Race to Survival is a riveting high-adventure tale and wilderness skills book in one!
Learn important outdoor skills including how to make a fire in the rain, storm-proof your camp, tie useful knots, find wild edible foods, survive wildlife encounters, and many more!
Cliff Jacobson is one of North America’s most respected outdoor writers and wilderness guides. He is a wilderness canoeing and camping consultant, and is the author of more than a dozen top-selling books on these subjects. Visit Cliff’s blog at www.cliffcanoe.com.
Waters Beneath My Feet: New Orleans to Nome… My 3 Year Canoe Odyssey
By Jerry Pushcar (2019)
After a 1,200 mile solo canoe trip from Grand Portage, Minnesota to Hudson Bay, Manitoba, Jerry Pushcar wanted to see more of North America’s untamed wilderness. Waters Beneath My Feet is the personal memoir of his response: a three-year solo odyssey from New Orleans, Louisiana to Nome, Alaska.
His compelling journey began by paddling up the mighty Mississippi, battling barge traffic and wing dams all the while. The danger didn’t stop there. Between the Mississippi and his destination, Pushcar would spend more than two years in the bush, navigating tricky encounters, mammoth lakes, untamed rivers, and inhospitable winters. All were precursors to the final test: the Bering Sea. He almost didn’t make it.
Contact with Pushcar was lost for weeks near the end. Just as the newspaper in Nome was preparing to declare him lost at sea, a bush pilot spotted him walking along a stark, snow-covered cliff above the ocean. Offered a ride for his final 30 miles to Nome, Pushcar declined. “I’ve come this far, I might as well finish it.” The record-breaking journey ended in Nome at 5:36 P.M. on November 12, 1977.
Jerry Pushcar was born and raised in the northern Minnesota city of Biwabik. He spent his teenage years canoeing the many local lakes and rivers. In his 20’s, Jerry started taking solo canoe trips, culminating in the three year voyage from New Orleans, Louisiana to Nome, Alaska. Jerry has lived in Nome since completing his record-breaking voyage. He is now retired and spends his summers mining for gold in the mountains surrounding Nome. For more information, visit www.watersbeneathmyfeet.com.
Adventure North: 2,200 Miles by Canoe, 49 Days in the Wild
By Sean Bloomfield (2016)
After accelerating their studies and graduating high school early, two teenagers set off from their hometown in Minnesota to embark on a 2,200 mile canoe journey up the heart of North America. Their destination: the permafrost shores of Hudson Bay. Inspired by a passion for the simple life, where gadgets and schedules are replaced by nature and its harsh beauty, the duo found something that many believe is lost—a true adventure.
Follow the pair up the flooding Minnesota River and through the prairie plains of North Dakota, across man-sized waves on Lake Winnipeg, and down the foaming rapids of the Canadian north. The triumphs and trials of the unforgiving wild challenged their friendship, dreams, and lives in a way that even they could have never predicted. For those who have dreamed of wilderness escape, or those who prefer to simply read about it, Adventure North will spur the imaginative spirit and remind you that adventure is always just around the next bend.
Sean Bloomfield teaches middle school social studies and coaches high school hockey in Chaska, MN. After canoeing to Hudson Bay, he attended Minnesota State University, Mankato, where he received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Education. In the summer of 2011, he and three college friends lived off the land in the Absaroka-Beartooth Region of Montana for one month. Currently, Sean lives in Chaska with his wife and two children. For more information, visit HudsonBayBook.com.
<-Mission
Contact->