NCW Libraries

A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Award

A landmark work of science, history and reporting on the past, present and imperiled future of the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes—Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior—hold 20 percent of the world’s supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work and recreation for tens of millions of Americans.

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"Five summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right. A magazine writer has to make a choice when she returns to the lake she grew up on, and to the man she thought she'd never have to live without, in this achingly nostalgic debut. They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser that has felt too true for the last decade, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life. Instead of glittering summers...

Miles of hiking trails surround more than 600 glacier-carved lakes tucked among the craggy peaks of the central Cascade Range that are the centerpiece of this magnificent wilderness. This guide not only covers backpacking options inside the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, but includes many of the popular routes across the highway for a selection of the best overnight hikes in the region.

"The book begins with how lakes are born; subsequent chapters look at crater lakes, dams; the Carolina bays; oriented lakes; subglacial lakes; and salt lakes. The middle chapters look at the physical properties of lakes. The final chapters examine the ways in which lakes die, either through human or natural processes. In sum, the book constitutes a thorough "biography" of lakes. This is a solid, entertaining work of popular scientific writing on a...

Portia and her cousin Julian discover adventure in a hidden colony of forgotten summer houses on the shores of a swampy lake.

To live in a pristine land unchanged by man; to roam the wilderness through which few other humans have passed; to choose an idyllic site, cut trees, and build a log cabin; to be a self-sufficient craftsman, making what is needed from materials available; to be not at odds with the world, but content with one's own thoughts and company: thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them. This book is a simple account of the day-by-day...

"In the center of the Grand Coulee in Washington State is the largest extinct waterfall in the world, Dry Falls. A gathering place for travelers over the decades, Dry Falls continues its legacy of creating memories among everyone who comes to visit. What started as "a damn hole in the ground" has become a marvel of the scientific community, dreamers, poets, and adventurers alike. How did it become the behemoth of the tourism industry that it is today?...

"In this gripping stand-alone literary thriller set in the world of the award-winning post-apocalyptic novel Moon of the Crusted Snow, a scouting party led by Evan Whitesky ventures into unknown and dangerous territory to find a new home for their close-knit Northern Ontario Indigenous community more than a decade after a world-ending blackout. For the past twelve years, a community of Anishinaabe people have made the Northern Ontario bush their home...