Carolina Paddler Holiday Book Club
Winter is almost here. There’s nothing on Netflix, Hulu, Peacock, etc. Not much on You Tube. Good time to cozy up with a book by the fire. Here are some recommendations. The first mentioned are books we hope to report on more fully in months to come. Then a list of books already covered in Carolina Paddler. Join the CCC informal book club and pick up a book. Some of these are available on-line and in bookstores now, others can be found from used book resellers. They make good gifts, don’t you know?
Upcoming books in the Club Book Club:
“Goodbye to a River” For people who loved the “Lost Rapids of the Haw” feature article in Carolina Paddler, here’s an evocative story of an older canoeist making the last trip on his childhood river, the Brazos, a Texas waterway soon to be enveloped by dams. He and a young pup find Lone Star history and changing landscapes in a sweet elegy to the past. “John Grave’s writing is invaluable… The reader who misses him will have missed much.” Larry McMurtry
“Paddling My Own Canoe” and “Paddling Northward” -In these handsome new reissues by Patagonia Press we are treated to two of the classics of American paddling literature, the books that help establish Audrey Sutherland as one of the world’s top solo adventurers. Her mantra: “Go Simple, Go Solo, Go Now.”
In “Paddling My Own Canoe,” Sutherland explores the north coast of the remote Hawaiian island, Molokai, in the early 1960s, by solo swimming and later with an tiny, inflatable kayak. The title of the book was inspired by Louisa May Alcott‘s personal journal, in which she wrote: “I’d rather be a free spinster and paddle my own canoe.”
In “Paddling Northward,” Sutherland tells herself in the mirror, “‘Getting older, aren’t you lady? Better do the physical things now. You can work at a desk later.’” Having raised four kids as a single parent, Sutherland quits her job and makes her first ninety-day, 850 mile expedition to Alaska. In a small, inexpensive inflatable kayak. Sixty-two years old. Solo. Sutherland continues to make these long solo trips to Alaska for the next twenty years. A must read by one of the most practical, self assured and inspiring persons who has ever picked up a paddle.
Here’s a good essay on the legacy of Audrey Sutherland. There are many other accounts of her contributions.
“Mississippi Solo” -If Audrey Sutherland is the model for planning and preparation for a long solo trip, author Eddy L. Harris is not. They both share an oddball standing in the demographics of long distance solo paddlers. Sutherland is an older woman, Harris an African-American man. In between jobs and obligations, Eddy Harris decides, almost on a whim, to paddle the length of the Mississippi River. Doesn’t matter that he has no canoe or camping supplies or money or experience. He has the urge and ultimately, the drive to make the trip. Harris’ writing style is involving and insightful. He sees things differently, as in “Each day on the river I shed more and more of my external self until I find eventually that I’m left totally alone with the core, facing myself as angry and aggressive, often afraid, no physical superman. Just a man and nothing special.” Harris observes and learns as he travels, about canoeing, and the geography of the river and human nature.
“White Water” This young adult book is a real find, a gem of a novel. Written in 1953 by Vivian Breck, this book is a real find, a gem of a novel. Consider the map below on the title page.
The hero, a teen age girl, is forced to abandon skiing after a severe accident and finds a paddling club, the River Runners, providing her with new friends and new challenges. The story unfolds as her group paddles foldboats through the Lodore Canyon on the Green River. The writer did her homework, taking a rafting trip down the Green River (Utah, Colorado), speaking with numerous paddlers and having the book fact-checked by kayaking experts. This novel was published as part of a popular Best Loved Girls’ Books series .
“The Lower Canyons” by Durham writer, John Manual. A river guide is fired from his job on the Chattooga River and heads west to start a paddle guide business in Texas. He, his clients and crew do some soul searching as they make their way on an arduous trip down the Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande. Set among some of the wildest, most remote territory in the nation.
PREVIOUSLY COVERED IN CAROLINA PADDLER:
“Down to the River” a children’s river safety book by Caitlynne Garland
“Exploring Virginia’s Waterways” A Paddler’s Guide to Waters of the Old Dominion State” By Edward Gertler
“A History of White Water Paddling in Western North Carolina” by Will Leverette
“Riverman,” An American Odyssey” By Ben McGrath
“The Canoeist” by John Manuel
“Red Kayak” a youth novel by Priscilla Cummings.
Please let us know if you have books you would like to recommend or write a report. editor@carolinacanoeclub.org