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alciewms's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
amrabad's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
4.5
Loved learning about the lakes I live near and love. Hated how the narrator pronounced Petosky.
shirleytupperfreeman's review against another edition
It's good to be surprised by a book sometimes. This wouldn't normally grab my interest but I'm glad the community read program nudged me to read it. Jerry Dennis seems to have spent his life interacting with the great lakes. He writes engagingly about their history and biology,including environmental concerns, business/shipping concerns and human interest stories. Dennis spent a month crewing a tall ship from Chicago all the way through all the lakes and then down the Erie Canal to the Atlantic Ocean and up to Bar Harbor, ME. It was fun to read about so many places we've lived or visited. In the future I will pay much more attention to this precious resource.
richardwells's review against another edition
4.0
H-O-M-E-S - I grew up on Lake Erie, and that's the acronym we learned for remembering the names of the Great Lakes. Huron - Ontario - Michigan - Erie - Superior. Individual bodies of fresh water - 1/5 of the fresh water in the world - that are joined by canals and rivers, and make our inland sea.
Jerry Dennis recounts two voyages on the Great Lakes, and in doing so gives us: History - natural, cultural, political; marine science and lore, adventure, an environmental warning, a cast of characters that you'd like to have a beer with, and writing that is crisp, and often poetic.
This is a damn good read.
Jerry Dennis recounts two voyages on the Great Lakes, and in doing so gives us: History - natural, cultural, political; marine science and lore, adventure, an environmental warning, a cast of characters that you'd like to have a beer with, and writing that is crisp, and often poetic.
This is a damn good read.
jdintr's review against another edition
5.0
I read this in advance of a road trip through Ontario and Michigan, and it was an excellent resource: lots of adventure, plenty of history (both natural and human), and as much care for the future of the six great lakes as its past.
The basis of the boat is a voyage on a two-masted schooner, The Malabar, from Traverse City, Michigan to Bar Harbor, Maine, via lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, through the Erie Canal & the Hudson River to Long Island Sound. Despite the limited trip, Dennis's scope covers all the great lakes, from storms and voyageur-style canoe trips on Lake Superior to a thrilling account of a sailboat race the length of Lake Michigan from Chicago to Mackinac.
A fifth of all the fresh water in the world can be found in the Great Lakes. This is a book that captures the full breadth, the nature, and the fascination of these essential North American features.
The basis of the boat is a voyage on a two-masted schooner, The Malabar, from Traverse City, Michigan to Bar Harbor, Maine, via lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, through the Erie Canal & the Hudson River to Long Island Sound. Despite the limited trip, Dennis's scope covers all the great lakes, from storms and voyageur-style canoe trips on Lake Superior to a thrilling account of a sailboat race the length of Lake Michigan from Chicago to Mackinac.
A fifth of all the fresh water in the world can be found in the Great Lakes. This is a book that captures the full breadth, the nature, and the fascination of these essential North American features.
spuriousdiphthongs's review against another edition
2.0
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As a Clevelander, born and raised, who spent much of my childhood on the shores of Erie, I had hopes for this book. Some interesting facts about the Great Lakes in here, but the book lacked depth. Despite the name of the book, there were chapters on the travels down the Erie Canal and Atlantic Coast - not the Great Lakes, yo. He really focused on Lake Michigan, which fine, he grew up there, but I felt like Erie and Ontario in particular lacked a fair amount of attention and were sacrificed in favor of parts that weren't about Great Lakes. Much of the history sections of the book started when colonization occurred and it would've been interesting to hear about some of the indigenous stories and history around the lake. The book has an interesting premise, but this author would not have been my top pick for someone to do a bio/memoir/travelogue around the Great Lakes. He was pretty dull. Also, I'm petty, but geography was such a big part of this book and there were NO MAPS. NONE.. C'mon. I kept Googling to understand fully the places he was discussing.
This book is the equivalent of plain white bread. It is bland and disappointing.
As a Clevelander, born and raised, who spent much of my childhood on the shores of Erie, I had hopes for this book. Some interesting facts about the Great Lakes in here, but the book lacked depth. Despite the name of the book, there were chapters on the travels down the Erie Canal and Atlantic Coast - not the Great Lakes, yo. He really focused on Lake Michigan, which fine, he grew up there, but I felt like Erie and Ontario in particular lacked a fair amount of attention and were sacrificed in favor of parts that weren't about Great Lakes. Much of the history sections of the book started when colonization occurred and it would've been interesting to hear about some of the indigenous stories and history around the lake. The book has an interesting premise, but this author would not have been my top pick for someone to do a bio/memoir/travelogue around the Great Lakes. He was pretty dull. Also, I'm petty, but geography was such a big part of this book and there were NO MAPS. NONE.. C'mon. I kept Googling to understand fully the places he was discussing.
This book is the equivalent of plain white bread. It is bland and disappointing.
greenm29's review against another edition
5.0
I could not imagine how my love for the Great Lakes grew after reading this book.
kharmacat's review against another edition
3.0
It took me all summer, but I finally finished this book. I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction, which is why it took so long to read.