There are books that I would term ‘me-books’ and this type of book is one of them. A memoir that is rooted in a place and explores the nature and the history of that place. To me it does not matter that I don’t know the place – I simply really enjoy somebody’s passion and love for a place that matters to them.

And it is so clear from the start that Lake Superior matters to the author. The connection that she feels to the South Shore through her own history of spending time there, raising kids there, seeing her life grow there together with her husband, is palpable.

And therefore when she explores its history it is through the eyes of someone who cares for it deeply. It is a way of laying bare a place with love.

There were parts that were a bit less interesting to me, but overall I thought this was a thoroughly enjoyable read that really gave me a sense of place. I found a few things I would like to explore further myself. The native history for example is very interesting to me. I have another book on my shelf about the Ojibwe people and I will make sure I will read it soon.

I am glad I have read this book and if you like books about people and places and nature and history all rolled into one, I am sure you will enjoy this as well.

I enjoyed this book of essays a great deal. I’m certainly part of the main target audience, since I live at one end of the area the book covers, and have spent time along Lake Superior’s southern shore all the way to the other end. I’m also around the same age as the author, and so have experienced the same personal and ecological changes, and share many values. There are many histories of ways of living in area, and memories of specific places we each have visited. My favorite chapters were the author’s personal stories and those on shipping and shipwrecks.

Anyone familiar with the area will certainly enjoy the book, and it would make a good general introduction to the history of the area. Impermanence applies everywhere for all readers.

Thanks to University of Minnesota Press and NetGalley for the advance copy to review.

This past summer we stayed in Paradise, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula [UP]. The Airbnb had a window view of Lake Superior. We revisited Whitefish Point and Tahquamenon Falls.

It had been 26 years since I was last there. My husband and son used to go camping in the UP every summer, but their last visit was nineteen years ago.

Much was the same, but a lot had changed.

We drove through areas that had been decimated in a wildfire. The beach at Whitefish Point was much smaller and littered with logs. When I was last there, we walked a deep beach and avoided nesting areas of the endangered Pipping Plovers. Tahquamenon Falls had pathways and overlooks that even I, with bad knees, could navigate.

During our first days, we had to stay indoors with the windows closed. Looking out the window to Lake Superior, we couldn’t tell where the sky started and the water ended. Ontario, Canada, wildfire smoke covered most of Michigan.

Lake Superior has been an integral part of author Sue Leaf’s life. As a girl, her family had a cabin on the lakeshore. She and her future husband biked across the lake’s south shore, and later purchased a cabin. They visited the UP to ski in winter. And they noted the changes, how impermanent was the lake they loved.

Leaf’s memoir shares her love story with the lake, interspersed with insight into its geological history and how humankind has interacted with the area. Lumbering that decimated virgin forests. Copper mining that tore up the land and polluted the ecosystem. Shipping and storms and the inevitable shipwrecks. The shifting of populations from Native Americans to voyagers and fur trappers to industry and immigrants. Human greed that used up the resources and destroyed the ecosystem.

I learned about the wild rice that sustained Native Americans, the bobbers who ice fish on the frozen lake, how the south shore of the lake is washing away from the high lake level.

Along the Pictured Rocks shore in Michigan is a famous rock formation, Miner’s Castle. One year, my husband and son returned to find one of the towers of the castle had collapsed. “All that we love about Lake Superior is momentary pleasure,” Leaf writes.

Anyone who has visited and loved Lake Superior will especially enjoy this memoir, but it’s message us universal.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.