David Goodrich

"Pedalling one's wares" sprang to mind after finishing this book; this retired climate scientist tells of his Trans American cycling adventure in 2012 and using remarkably well written prose about his adventures on a bike he intersperses it with captivating stories about how climate change has affected, and is continuing to affect, each mile of his route in one form or another. Admirable read because I'd like to be fit enough to do the same thing myself even though I might point out show more different environmental features; and also very pertinent given that America under Trump has just withdrawn from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. I sense a follow up volume in say 5 years time to illustrate the disasters of that policy.

Sadly I suspect that Climate Change Deniers will not bother to read this book - their minds require a different approach. show less

Enjoyable. I appreciate the attempt to make the big picture clear through particular story-telling, and those are the parts that will stay with me. While it does jump around a bit and is not a perfect travelogue nor science primer, I think this was the point - to ground a huge topic in personal and understandable moments.

As a bike touring book, not so hot. As a description of the lives of slaves who had to make use of the Underground Railroad, very good. Goodrich makes several multi-state bike rides and stops at key locations on different routes of the Underground Railroad on each ride. So his biking narrative is very limited and typical...hills killed us, got sick and had to recover several days, etc. But his descriptions of people from the 19th century and the key locations he visits are really well done. show more There are lots of names and places, and sometimes he refers to some from previous chapters - which leads to confusion. There are also times it's a bit disjointed...describing the challenges of the bike ride as well as the challenges slaves fleeing the south faced. show less

Interesting sections but a bit disjointed.