Arctic Autumn: A Journey to Season's Edge

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618822216/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_titleI I could barely put this book down. It's GREAT for anyone who as ever gone to Alaska or northern Canada - OR dreams of it. It has fabulous descriptions and imagery. He made me think in ways I never have about hunting, eating, the environment, travel, wildlife..... And I've thought about all these subjects a tremendous amount! The author even inspired me to sign up for the NJ Audubon 2012 Festival in Cape May at the end of this month. I hope to meet him there. (He is director of the Cape May Bird Observatory and vice president of the NJ Audubon Society and appearing to sign books.) My ONLY complaint was that there weren't enough photographs - especially as his wife as a photographer as noted frequently in the book!  Arctic Autumn: A Journey to Season's Edge [ ARCTIC AUTUMN: A JOURNEY TO SEASON'S EDGE BY Dunne, Pete ( Author ) Sep-20-2011

I bought all three of these books hoping to love them. I grew up in Delaware and was really looking forward to Bayshore Summer. I started each one but after a few chapters I lost interest. Not sure why because I love birding, but the books just didn't hold my interest.

a good read

This book is a collection of travelogues from trips to the Arctic from June to November. Pete Dunne is the director of the Cape May Bird Sanctuary in New Jersey, and author of several books on natural observations. In this book, he describes a series of trips that he took, mainly with his wife, to the far northern reaches of North America. He begins the book on the summer solstice in June, noting that that's when the days begin to get shorter, so it is the logical start of autumn. The book is arranged by month, with separate chapters for trips taken throughout this period, 8 in all. The book includes a selection of photographs taken during these trips.This book is more a travelogue than a description of the natural environment of the North. Although Dunne does manage to include informative descriptions of creatures like the caribou and reindeer, he also describes many of the challenges of traveling and touring in the North. He provides a soulful essay on passing through the stages of life, and pauses to pontificate on global warming and how it is changing the environment, especially in the North. Since all of these trips are rather short in duration, a week or two here and there, or getting from here to there, Dunne never has the time to put down roots, to really breathe the Northern air and let it speak its mysteries to him. Thus, so many of his descriptions, informative though they may be, are quite superficial and could be drawn from secondary sources rather than direct observation. And it's hard to take a sermon on global warming seriously from someone who travels such long distances, consuming such great amounts of fuel, so frequently, just for the sake of travel or adventure.

I never thought I'd write a mixed review about a Pete Dunne book. His well-written birding articles are always top-notch reading. Surprisingly, the reason those articles are so enjoyable can also be attributed to the reason Arctic Autumn was sometimes tedious. Mr. Dunne is a gifted nature writer who infuses his topics with personal observations, reflections, anecdotes, etc. This book, the third in a series of four, is no exception. He captures the best of his Arctic travels, throws in some history/cultural background, and ties it all together under the guise of an Arctic autumn. The short eight chapter book is quick, entertaining and informative reading. What's the problem then? Not enough Arctic and too many side-tracked stories. One chapter takes readers to Gambell, which is situated on the northwestern tip of St. Lawrence Island. It's an Alaskan birding hotspot, where one can watch migrating Asian birds fly over US territory. Instead of reading about birds or Gambell's unique habitat, this chapter is mostly about male bonding, name-dropping and the funny thing about games and hobbies. A caribou hunting trip chapter focuses more on why Pete eats venison and hunts in general, whether or not trapping is cruel or justified, and the make-up of vegetarians. To Mr. Dunne's credit, interesting Heimo and Edna Korth were included in this chapter--final frontiersmen living 130 miles above the Arctic Circle. That's the kind of stuff I want to read about in a book titled Arctic Autumn--not what Beatles tunes Pete listened to in the car, his idea of a perfect moment, or what kind of jacket was worn (North Face). Some readers might enjoy reflective off-shoot stories and cutesy banter. I do too, just not on every other page.