The Accidental Explorer

Book excerpt: In these acclaimed essays, Sherry Simpson recounts her experiences as an ordinary woman confronting the vast expanses of water and wilderness of her home state. Her adventures include a harrowing bear encounter and a near-death experience falling into a glacial river, but she also finds an Alaska of surpassing, almost supernatural beauty and power. These lyrical essays thoughtfully explore one woman's effort to map both a sense of place and a sense of self in a world at once comforting and unforgiving.