I got this slightly-battered paperback from the ongoing book-sale in the Chelmsford MA library. I'd read it a while back and enjoyed it, and with the recent discovery of the Franklin expedition ship HMS Erebus, I was glad of another Arctic-themed book to release.

This is a very enjoyable read! It's a rather poetic look at the icy north, addressing its natural history and native cultures as well as the various explorations (successful or otherwise). The details of survival in the frozen north are often harsh and harrowing, as are some of the incidents caused by the incursion of "civilized" man, and Lopez doesn't shrink from them - but he doesn't dwell on them either, often switching to lovely descriptions of his own attempts to understand the Arctic landscape and the people who live there.

I plan to leave this book in or near the Yoshimama Japanese Fusion and Sushi Bar at 427 Amherst at around 5:30 or so; hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released for the 2014 TICK TOCK release challenge, for the embedded "AM" in the title. ***