Reviewed by Paul Johnson for Readers' Favorite

Sam and Bonnie Ward set out to do something right out of many peoples’ dreams. They leave behind friends, family, and their suburban life and embark on a journey into the Alaskan wilderness. A journey that will change them forever. This is the story of a young couple’s adventure, a move from the suburbs of Ohio to a remote island on the always dangerous Skilak Lake. Sam and Bonnie must learn to adapt to a life without running water, electricity, telephones and most of their usual ‘creature comforts’ and tackle head-on the unforgiving and sometimes deadly environment. Here they will face sub-freezing temperatures, unfriendly animals, and even an onset of cabin fever. But, the Wards find strength in new friends and each other, and the awe-inspiring beauty of nature at its very core. All is not easy for them as a freak accident proves to be the test of their tenacity. Will they be able to survive in this isolated wilderness filled with unseen dangers or will they return to a simple and safe life in suburbia?

Author Bonnie Ward records an exciting and thought-provoking tale of their faith in each other through all the things Alaska has to throw at them. Winds of Skilak is a true account of enthralling force, sure to bring out a reader’s own sense of adventure as they eagerly move from chapter to chapter. The book also contains personal photos throughout the chapters, giving the reader glimpses so they can appreciate and get a better understanding and feel of just how the Wards truly lived… A thoroughly enjoyable read. Once I got started, I didn't want to stop. Well done.

Reviewed by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite

Sea Trials: Around the World With Duct Tape and Bailing Wire by Wendy Hinman is the true story of the Wilcox family. In 1973 they took to their 40-ft sailboat and started on a journey around the world. Just over a year on and they find themselves aground on a coral reef, a rather large hole letting the seawater into their boat. For many, that would be it, game over, but not so for the Wilcox family. They have spent years saving the money for this trip, getting their boat ready and learning every way they can to navigate, and one coral reef isn’t getting in their way. Their 14-year old son is raring to go, to get on with the trip; their 11-year old daughter, not so much. This is going to be a tough trip, not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well. Follow the Wilcox family as they put their boat back together and struggle on around the world, battling obstacles and events that push them to their absolute limits.

Wow! What a story this is. Sea Trials: Around the World With Duct Tape and Bailing Wire by Wendy Hinman is an incredible tale of bravery, determination, and a strong will to win against all the odds and it is one of the best true-life stories I have read in a long while. The writing is amazing, it grips you from the start and is so descriptive that you truly feel as though you are battling each wave, fighting each fight and traveling every hard mile with the family. You can feel every emotion and I guarantee your teeth will be gritted and your fists clenched at several points during the story as you follow it. The story is fast and brilliantly written and I guarantee any reader will be hooked to the very end.

Reviewed by Gisela Dixon for Readers' Favorite

Man & Horse: The Long Ride Across America by John Egenes is a non-fiction travel memoir set in the 1970s. Man & Horse is a story about a solo journey that John undertakes with his horse, Gizmo, across the continental United States. The book is written in the first person and recounts John’s experiences on the trail as he travels from the West coast to the East coast across the entire range of states in between. Interspersed with his travel details are also anecdotes and experiences from his childhood and early years, his family, and the impact it had on his desire to travel. There is a map and several photographs throughout the book that complement the narrative.

I enjoyed reading Man & Horse: The Long Ride Across America by John Egenes and, as a travel book, it fulfills all of the criteria for a novel and engaging read. The American Southwest region in particular appears to be a lot different than what it is now, and it is especially interesting to read his accounts of travel through California, Arizona, and New Mexico. His affection for his horse, who is his steady companion throughout the journey, is apparent and touching. John’s writing style is casual and relatable and makes for an easy read. I also enjoyed getting a glimpse into his early life and family experiences as this provides a marker for what prompted him to travel and explore in the first place. Overall, this is a good non-fiction travel book that anyone would enjoy!

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Breaking the Fourth Wall: An Uncertain Journey on Turkey's Lycian Way is a non-fiction travel adventure memoir written by Michelle Sevigny. Sevigny was reeling after a series of awful life-changing events. Her best friend, business partner and companion, her ten-year-old Rottweiler, had died of bone cancer; she was still mourning the cycling accident that took the life of her mom seven years earlier, and her dad’s wife had been recently diagnosed with brain cancer. She wanted to run and keep on running. Sevigny sold her apartment and began selling off or donating the rest of her possessions. Friends suggested hiking, which didn’t really appeal at first, but then Sevigny realized that it was not the activity itself that didn’t appeal but rather the settings for those hikes. She had always chosen coastal countries to visit and loved running on the beach, so the concept of long-distance coastal hiking became an viable option as a way to recharge and heal. She considered the Pacific Coastal Trail and other more popular coastal treks, but then remembered a picture her dad had of her mom in front of a Turkish mosque, and an old map of Turkey with camping signs dotting it. She wasn’t sure if those things nudged her mind, but, in the end, she decided to do the Lycian Way in Turkey before her new dog came into her life and while she still had the money from the sale of her apartment. Seven months later, she arrived at Istanbul's airport.

Michelle Sevigny’s non-fiction travel adventure memoir, Breaking the Fourth Wall: An Uncertain Journey on Turkey's Lycian Way, is a fresh and inspiring account of a most memorable journey. I marvelled at how the author gradually picked up and communicated with words and phrases in Turkish as she hiked, and how she had the courage to set out on a hike of this magnitude in a foreign land with a GPS unit that functioned fitfully at best. However, as I read on, I harbored no doubts at all that Sevigny would finish her journey and have a marvelous time doing it. The author is brutally frank and honest throughout this exceptionally good memoir as she shares both the very good and pretty awful moods she experiences, and I felt as though I were sharing the healing process that her journey facilitated. Her interactions with the dogs she meets along the way, and her yearning to finally meet the new dog she was destined to have as her companion are poignant moments in the story and will, no doubt, affect anyone who’s ever lost a beloved companion dog as strongly as Sevigny’s story affected me. I loved reading about her interactions with Turkish villagers, the descriptions of the families who shared their meals with her and were so kind; and her account of the Kangol sheepdogs who guarded her overnight as she slept in an area where she was exposed to predators. I love hiking and hope to some day follow in Sevigny’s footsteps and hit the coastal trails, but, for now, I had a grand time vicariously walking the Lycian Way with her. Breaking the Fourth Wall: An Uncertain Journey on Turkey's Lycian Way is most highly recommended.

Reviewed by Deborah Lloyd for Readers' Favorite

Anyone who lived through the 1960s remembers it as a time like no other. The counterculture of young people smoking marijuana and using LSD, the draft, protests against the Vietnam War, changing sexual behaviors, and other events defined the hippie, or flower child, movement. Author Rich Israel shares his personal journey in Groovin’: Horses, Hopes, and Slippery Slopes. As a college student at the University of California Davis, Rich participated in the movement by fully engaging in this new lifestyle. He worked for a year after graduation before leaving the 9-to-5 work life and embarking on many new adventures. His hitchhiking trips across the country, living in a van with his dog, Charlie, escapades with various friends, both long-term and short-lived, exemplify what it meant to live during that era. He shares good times, difficult times, and certainly many humorous moments. Throughout it all, the basic need to create a more loving and compassionate world was at the core of his and other young lives.

The author is a highly skilled storyteller - he describes each scene and person so well that the reader feels he was actually present. The book itself is inviting with meaningful quotes at the beginning of each part, some artwork, and a few photographs. The dialogue is crisp and well-placed. In Groovin’: Horses, Hopes, and Slippery Slopes, Rich Israel relates his adventures in a captivating style. The reader is engaged from the first page to the last. Mr. Israel notes that this book is the first of a series he is calling The Hippie Adventurer Series. Looking forward to the next one!

Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite

Dirty Inspirations: Lessons from the Trenches of Extreme Endurance Sports by Terri Schneider is a radical work that takes the reader to the very heart and principle of extreme endurance sports, and how we can use it to uncover our hidden potential and enhance our emotional, physical, and psychological growth. The idea that we only grow by stepping beyond our comfort zone couldn’t find a better illustration than in Terri’s own life and work. Get ready to step into the dynamics of the mind of an ultra-endurance athlete, follow her in her awesome adventures and her triumphs through rough and dangerous landscapes, and then savor the amazing lessons she generously offers from her experience. In the heart of this book, readers will discover the incontestable truth that we discover our worth, our potential, our very essence when we push ourselves beyond the limits.

Terri Schneider’s nonfiction book is what I have been looking for over the years. As I read through her wonderful experiences and her inspiring words and wisdom, I came to the conclusion that real success only happens when we feel the pain, when we endure it patiently, feeling our muscles tense as we strive to overcome it. This is a truth that happens both in personal life and in business. I needed this truth to ring through every fiber of my being, and Dirty Inspirations: Lessons from the Trenches of Extreme Endurance Sports has been a wonderful encouragement in this light. I enjoyed Terri’s beautiful prose and her confidence in communicating her experience. Here is a book with a lesson for everyone, a philosophy that could change the way we see ourselves, our life, and our work.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Inside: One Woman's Journey Through the Inside Passage is a non-fiction adventure memoir written by Susan Marie Conrad. Conrad grew up loving the water despite her parents' fear of it, and, when she moved to Montana, she experienced being in a kayak for the first time. The closeness of the water and the sensation of being an integral part of her water craft immediately had her hooked on kayaking. In 2009, almost twenty years after that first transcendent foray into Flathead Lake in Montana, Conrad decided that she would solo kayak the Inside Passage, which spans from Anacortes, Washington along the coast of British Columbia up into Alaska, terminating in Skagway. She had long been inspired by her long-time friend, Jim Chester's own experiences on the challenging route. Then, after watching her father's precipitous decline and death from Alzheimer's and reading a memoir of a woman who had also kayaked the Inner Passage, Conrad decided that she would also make that trip to Alaska -- and she would do it on her own. It was a wildly exciting and even dangerous idea, but with the proper training, charts, and the help of her mentor and friend, it was something she knew she could do.

Susan Marie Conrad's non-fiction adventure memoir, Inside: One Woman's Journey Through the Inside Passage, had me thinking about getting into a kayak from the moment I first saw her outstanding cover photo showing her trusty kayak, Chamellia, with icebergs and snow-capped mountains in the background. Conrad shares so much of her experience with the reader, from practicing rolls and other maneuvers in her health club's heated pool in preparation for the trip to figuring out how to compress and pack her gear into every free space in her craft. Her story is an illuminating and inspiring one. She shares both the highlights of her trip and those low moments when the rain seems to last forever and her gear stays soggy and damp. Conrad’s writing style is smooth and conversational, and, throughout my reading experience, I felt as though she were personally telling me her story. I enjoyed every minute of this action-packed and exciting memoir. She also includes a gallery of outstanding photographs, recommended readings, and her inventory of gear in the appendices. Inside: One Woman's Journey Through the Inside Passage is most highly recommended.