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Lassoing the sun : a year in America's national parks / Mark Woods.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, [2016]Edition: First editionDescription: 312 pages, [32] unnumbers pages : color illustrations ; 25 cmISBN:
  • 9781250105899 (hardcover) :
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 363.6/80973 23
Scope and content: "'In this remarkable journey, Mark Woods captures the essence of our National Parks: their serenity and majesty, complexity and vitality--and their power to heal'--Ken Burns; Many childhood summers, Mark Woods piled into a station wagon with his parents and two sisters and headed to America's national parks. Mark's most vivid childhood memories are set against a backdrop of mountains, woods, and fireflies in places like Redwood, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon national parks. On the eve of turning fifty and a little burned-out, Mark decided to reconnect with the great outdoors. He'd spend a year visiting the national parks. He planned to take his mother to a park she'd not yet visited and to re-create his childhood trips with his wife and their iPad-generation daughter. But then the unthinkable happened: his mother was diagnosed with cancer, given just months to live. Mark had initially intended to write a book about the future of the national parks, but Lassoing the Sun grew into something more: a book about family, the parks, the legacies we inherit and the ones we leave behind"--Provided by publisher.
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Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Phillipsburg Free Public Library Adult Non-Fiction Adult Non-Fiction 363.680973 WOO Available 36748002314567
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"In this remarkable journey, Mark Woods captures the essence of our National Parks: their serenity and majesty, complexity and vitality--and their power to heal." --Ken Burns

For many childhood summers, Mark Woods piled into a station wagon with his parents and two sisters and headed to America's national parks. Mark's most vivid childhood memories are set against a backdrop of mountains, woods, and fireflies in places like Redwood, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon national parks.

On the eve of turning fifty and a little burned-out, Mark decided to reconnect with the great outdoors. He'd spend a year visiting the national parks. He planned to take his mother to a park she'd not yet visited and to re-create his childhood trips with his wife and their iPad-generation daughter.

But then the unthinkable happened: his mother was diagnosed with cancer and given just months to live. Mark had initially intended to write a book about the future of the national parks, but Lassoing the Sun grew into something more: a book about family, the parks, and the legacies we inherit and the ones we leave behind.

"'In this remarkable journey, Mark Woods captures the essence of our National Parks: their serenity and majesty, complexity and vitality--and their power to heal'--Ken Burns; Many childhood summers, Mark Woods piled into a station wagon with his parents and two sisters and headed to America's national parks. Mark's most vivid childhood memories are set against a backdrop of mountains, woods, and fireflies in places like Redwood, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon national parks. On the eve of turning fifty and a little burned-out, Mark decided to reconnect with the great outdoors. He'd spend a year visiting the national parks. He planned to take his mother to a park she'd not yet visited and to re-create his childhood trips with his wife and their iPad-generation daughter. But then the unthinkable happened: his mother was diagnosed with cancer, given just months to live. Mark had initially intended to write a book about the future of the national parks, but Lassoing the Sun grew into something more: a book about family, the parks, the legacies we inherit and the ones we leave behind"--Provided by publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Woods (columnist, Florida Times-Union) received a grant to write about the future of national parks. His goal was to visit one destination a month for a year and then write a book about his travels. He hoped to revisit some of the parks that his family had traveled to when he was a child, and to bring his mother, wife, and daughter with him on parts of his journey. But shortly after he starts, his mother is diagnosed with cancer and given months to live. Woods intertwines the story of coming to terms with his mother's death and the legacies families inherit and the ones left behind. The author's original plan to travel with her cancelled, he attempts to pass on his love of the outdoors to his eye-rolling preteen daughter. VERDICT This travel memoir will appeal to readers who love the outdoors. Those who would rather stay inside with a good book will be touched by the story of a mother and son saying their goodbyes.-Susan Belsky, Oshkosh P.L., WI © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Newspaper columnist Woods set out to spend a year visiting U.S. national parks in an effort to reinvigorate his childhood love of the outdoors and get out of a bit of a rut. He decided to go to 12 parks one a month, each symbolizing a different issue facing the national parks in the next 100 years. With trips planned from Acadia in Maine to Saguaro in Arizona, Yellowstone, Cumberland Island National Seashore, and Haleakala in Hawaii, he envisioned a chronicle blending history, geography, and nature. But then Woods' mother received a devastating diagnosis, and his hoped-for delightful, insightful exploration of America transformed into a narrative about family and memory that puts trite notions of quality time to shame. As he doggedly continues his project while seeing his mother at every turn (and struggling with guilt when he is not with her), Woods makes a clear case for the significant power of the parks on our collective and personal psyches. A deeply heartfelt story about why the national parks remain so integral to the American story.--Mondor, Colleen Copyright 2016 Booklist
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