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Rave Reviews for True North

True North has receive uniformly favorable reviews so far. The following are reproduced in full, with permission from their publishers.

FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:

True North: Journeys into the Great Northern Ocean Myron Arms. Upper Access (upperaccess.com), $16.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-942679-33-5

Veteran sailor Arms (Servants of the Fish) writes a notable collection of essays of the sea and sailing in the far reaches of the Great Northern Ocean, braving the frigid waters and dodging the dangerous ice fields. His trusty boat, Brendan's Isle, and his sturdy crew, which includes his youngest son, Steve, move through these cold crossings with few perilous incidents , maintaining watch and the standard sea responsibilities. Arms's narrative is rich, descriptive, almost poetic, and full of voyaging on the water as he journeys along the fiords of northern Labrador to western Greenland and among the fishing villages of the Faroe Isles. Much more than a slight travelogue, the book hits its stride when Arms cautions against "expanding human waste, changing atmosphere chemistry, disappearing species, rising sea surface temperatures, thinning sea ice, and melting glaciers." (Jan.)

FROM SAIL MAGAZINE:
(Reviewer: Meredith Laitos)

After lifelong sailor Myron Arms finished building his 50-ft cutter, he set off to the northern seas in search of adventure. Over the next two and a half decades he found isolated cultures, new companions, harsh weather and an enchanting pilgrimage that took him on the route of an ancient Irish warrior, Saint Brendan. Written as a series of 16 personal esseays, True North will leave you entranced with its tales of ice, mystery and hardship on some of the world's most challenging waters.

FROM MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW:
(Reviewer: Micah Andrews)

The northern seas were never meant to be lived upon by humanity, but that never stops some people. "True North: Journeys Into the Great Northern Ocean" tells the story of life in the northern seas from Myron Arms as he reflects on his times in the northern Atlantic through essays on his adventures. A new perspective on ocean life and the arctic circle, "True North" is an entertaining and intriguing read that should not be ignored.

FROM MAINE HARBORS:
(Reviewer: Carol Standish)

True North is the latest in the slight but remarkable oeuvre of Myron Arms. Teacher, sailor, explorer, writer, his previous work includes Riddle of the Ice (1998), Cathedral of the World (2000), and Servants of the Fish (2004). I am embarrassed to admit that I have read none of these books. Considering the length and breadth of my reading on marine subjects, how they escaped me is a mystery. However, if you are in my regrettable state, True North is a perfect introduction to Arms’ work.

The sixteen personal essays in this book describe just a few of Arms’ sailing experiences in the northern ocean on his 50’ ocean cutter, Brendan’s Isle. In the first essay he recalls his first cruise in the almost completed boat. It is 1983. With his wife, Kay, he sails to New England and back to their home port on the Chesapeake..a modest journey. He then explains, “Brendan’s sailing plans for the next two years began with a high-latitude crossing of the North Atlantic,…past the banks of Newfoundland, across ‘ice berg alley’…past the southern capes of Greenland and Iceland and on toward the coasts of northwestern Europe…Her first landfall, some twenty-three days and three thousand nautical miles after leaving the Chesapeake Bay was in the Faroe Isles, a mountainous archipelago several hundred miles east of Iceland and almost the same distance north of Scotland.”

The ambitious itinerary gives you an indication of the breadth of Arms’ preferred cruising grounds as well as his curiosity. But he wasn’t just cruising and he wasn’t just curious. A high school teacher in the 1970s, he traded in the classroom for his first blue water boat and founded (and led) a program of “sea learning” experiences. As a licensed Coast Guard ocean master, he sailed with hundreds of teenagers for the next five years. While aboard, they conducted a variety of scientific experiments. “The teacher was the sea…It was the beginning, really, of my own emerging awareness of the stresses being suffered by virtually all of the world's marine environments,” explains the author on his website.

As the essays follow the journeys of Brendan’s Isle over the years, scientific information and analysis becomes more of a narrative focus than the more simple pleasures of the beauty of the physical world and the exhilaration of sailing. With this focus, the text becomes more engrossing, the journey more unique and urgent and ages of the crews grow up--from high-school-ers to young adult “sail-trainees.” What they discover over the course of more than twenty years is that in an environment that at first seems huge, fierce and implacable is as vulnerable as an alpine flower.

“Milk Sea” is a good example. About midway through the book, Brendan’s Isle encounters a strange phenomenon about four hundred miles south of Reykjavik, Iceland. Arms quotes from the ship’s log, “…the familiar gray-green color of the ocean surface has been transformed. Now everywhere we look the water has taken on a bright turquoise color, as if we were sailing over a shallow bank of sand,” adding detail in the book. “The brilliant turquoise color seemed to glow with an interior light. The breaking white crests spilled down the faces of following seas like whipped cream.”

The phenomenon remained a mystery until ten years later when Arms was reading about data being gathered by early Earth-observing satellites. He tracks down one of the researchers and describes the “bloom.” The rest of the essay explains the mystery and examines potential consequences. But you’ll have to read the essay to find the answer and, and in the bargain, treat yourself to the pleasure of the author’s elegance of thought and phrase. The good news is that are three more Arms books to be enlightened by and enjoyed in the process.

FROM AARP MAGAZINE
("Books for Grownups" column, prepared jointly with the editors of Publishers Weekly)

Veteran sailor Arms (Servants of the Fish) delivers a richly descriptive, almost poetic collection of essays about sailing up and down fiords from northern Labrador to western Greenland and among the fishing villages of the Faroe Isles. The sturdy crew of his trusty boat, Brendan's Isle, included his youngest son, Steve.

Japanese Publisher Translates Why the Wind Blows

A major Japanese publisher, Kajima Shuppankai, has issued its edition of Why the Wind Blows: A History of Weather and Global Warming. The book is published in the US by Upper Access, Inc., Book Publishers.

The book, written by Matthys Levy, re-tells stories of historical events influenced by the weather—and, in the process, educates the reader on the science of weather. The narrative leads up to our current crisis, global warming, cutting through some of the public confusion about that subject by helping the reader to understand the causes, effects, and challenges posed by global warming.

The Kajima edition is a direct translation of the Upper Access title, including all of the graphics and cover design by Vermont artists Kitty Werner and Sue Storey.

This is the latest of Levy's series of books that provide a painless education on complex scientific subjects through story-telling. He is best known for the books Why Buildings Fall Down, Structural Design in Architecture, Why the Earth Quakes, Earthquake Games, and Engineering the City.

Kajima also published the Japanese edition of Levy's best-seller Why Buildings Fall Down. Its success with that title made it a logical choice for the Japanese edition of Levy's newer book, according to Upper Access Publisher Steve Carlson.

Carlson Elected President of IPNE

Upper Access Publisher Steve Carlson was recently elected president of Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE), the professional trade association representing publishers throughout the six New England states. The decision was made by IPNE's seven-member board of directors, following the organization's annual meeting and election of the board.

IPNE is going through a growth spurt. "The nature of publishing is changing dramatically, particularly as a result of e-books and other electronic media," Carlson noted. "This has made it more important than ever before for independents to band together for networking and continuing education. During tough economic times, trade groups typically dwindle, but I'm proud to say that IPNE is gaining in membership and influence."

Carlson has been a member of IPNE for several years, and recently completed a term as a member of the board of directors of the national book-trade group, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA, formerly PMA). He co-founded Upper Access in 1986 along with his wife, Lisa, and has been active in the small-press movement ever since.