“After a childhood spent shuttling between her ‘Great Alaskan Dad’ in isolated Anchorage and her ‘Great American Instant Coffee Single Mom’ in genteel Baltimore, Leigh Newman finds that her compass Still Points North. She shares her journey in a memoir filled with tales of surviving bears and flooded tents, as well as a mother whose insecurities force Leigh to develop a sense of self-sufficiency in the Lower 48 as well.
Despite the physical and emotional strife of her childhood, Newman obviously loves her parents. Her early years included learning survival skills from the caribou-hunting, salmon-fishing father she adored, and readers will hold their breath as Leigh and her dad submerge in icy waters, both literal and metaphorical, during an ill-fated fishing trip or establishing relationships with her new stepfamily. He taught her to pretend she was on a deserted island and had to figure out how to take care of herself, a principle she applied throughout her life.” —Cheryl Krocker McKeon, Book Passage, San Francisco, for Shelf Awareness.
Buy Still Points North: One Alaskan Childhood, One Grown-up World, One Long Journey Home from Book Passage.