North of Hope isn't a long book, but I read it quickly on top of that. In fact, I found myself so deeply involved that I started reading but soon looked up and realized that not only was I not in the Arctic, I had finished reading and now had nothing to do. It was a shocking, sad feeling that came over me in that moment, which only added to the reading experience. The writing style of this author just takes you there somehow without being overly descriptive or bombarding you with textual images of wildlife or scenery. I found the words flowed from the page to my mind and created beautiful landscapes and amazing creatures while touching my heart as well. Even if the reader has not experienced a loss as deep as what is described within these pages, the journey of overcoming grief is one we all know too well and one that is easily shared. Polson's words share these things with a beauty that perfectly matches the images we all see in images of the untouched wilderness that is the Arctic. I feel as if I have visited though I have never been, I feel as if I have experienced something that I have not gone through, and I feel as if I have found closure to something I did not experience. Discovering this book was unintentional, but I am so very glad that it came into my hands. ( )

In prose as crystalline as the Arctic wilderness itself, Shannon Huffman Polson's North of Hope took me on a journey to a physical place I do not know and an emotional landscape I know only too well. With grace and raw honesty, she shares her story of loss and longing, of eventual and inevitable acceptance, and of the healing spirituality of nature. I felt the warmth of my dying mother's hand as I read Polson's words: It struck me that there is no greater intimacy than sitting with someone traversing that tenuous boundary between worlds, sitting vigil with a spirit trembling on the border, reaching toward the new and releasing the old. It seemed to me that our fragile humanity experiences this intersection only rarely because we are not strong enough to bear it more often, because what we live in those moments will take us a lifetime to begin to understand. A lifetime indeed. North of Hope is a memoir worthy of a long, slow read, a read that allows time for reflection. ( )

I received this book from the author and publisher, Zondervan, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

North of Hope by Shannon Huffman Polson is a memoir of a time in Shannon’s life when her world came crashing down, and she tried to get it back to normal.

Shannon’s father and stepmother, Kathy, were traveling on an Arctic hiking/river trip. A bear came onto their campsite and killed both of them.

This tragedy was too much for Shannon to deal with, and after a year of trying to do just that, she set out on her own Arctic adventure on her parents’ path.

Shannon, her adopted and troubled brother Ned, and his coworker, embark on this journey that follows the same path that her father and Kathy took. Along the way, Shannon is able to not only mourn properly and come to terms with the tragedy, but she is also able to take control of other parts of her life that were afflicted.

In addition to the main story of Shannon’s journey into the wilderness,

For the full review, visit Love at First Book ( )

This is a beautiful compelling book that I could not put down until I finished. The book begins with the author's loss and her attempt to finish the Arctic trip her parent's did not. The literary prose used to tell this story and the style she uses to take you through different times while moving the story forward is breathtaking. This journey through grief will grab you and pull you into memories of personal loss. However, most importantly it will remind you of the light that does one day return.

Shannon Polson's connection with the outdoors and her description of it is a piece of art she has released into the world. In this book about grief she leads us on the long sojourn of healing and how we all one day recover. She succeeds in doing this through an appreciation of the physical beauty in the world around us that exists in nature and within music that we can all create. Although, this path clearly was the correct one for the author you are left with the feeling that we are all free to find our own way through grief but are reminded that hope exists.

I highly recommend this book and have to share one passage that transported me. In this passage Shannon Polson is describing the never ending sunset of the Arctic summer.

"Have you ever watched something so beautiful for so long that for just a minute you became a a part of it? I watched until I was a part of that light, part of the land. A part of creation and creator. What shocked me was not my dissolution but the relief it brought. It was like a quiet rising of water. It was not erasure; it was inclusion, a connection so complete it mingled molecules. I was here, and I was part of the Arctic, and it was part of me." ( )

I really enjoyed North of Hope! The book chronicles Shannon's journey through grief, and part of her healing journey is a trip down the Arctic Hulahula River.

Having spent many months myself on rivers in the Arctic, I really appreciated the descriptions of landscape, the villages, the weather, the wildlife, and even the quality of the light. The writing brought back many memories of my time spent on northern rivers. Shannon's clear style will bring images to life for people who haven't been to the Arctic.

While Shannon tells her story through the lens of her religious faith, the book is not evangelical or preachy. As a respectful agnostic myself, I found the book appealingly spiritual, but not so religious that it would not appeal to a wide range of readers, religious or not.

The story travels back and forth in time, always coming back to the river trip as Shannon paddles the river. I love how the story flows forward along the trip down the river, but flashes back to her memories and experiences in the past: of Shannon's own life experiences, about her memories and thoughts about her dad and stepmother, and about the natural history of the area.

Shannon is clearly an accomplished athlete, scholar, and adventurer. She mentions completing Ironman Triathlons, climbing Mt. McKinley, being a helicopter pilot in the army, skydiving, finishing an MBA, and being a serious musician (piano and voice). Rather than derailing the story by spending too much time on each of these things, she picks the appropriate details of these facets and times of her life that pull the story forward. She focuses on parts of her life that taught her important lessons; for example, learning to surrender control while learning to connect in formations while skydiving. Looking back on her experiences through the lens of learning to live with pain of her father's death, Shannon fits the pieces of her life back together in a way that makes sense to her, and that as a reader, I applauded as I read.

I love how Shannon's initial flailing around to try and get through her grief makes sense to her in retrospect. Her imagery of the braided Hulahula River as her tangled path through grief is a beautiful one. Each of us grieves in a different way when we lose important people in our lives, but her story is an inspiring and brave one. ( )