Customer Reviews

Notes for the Aurora Society

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I finshed reading O'Donnell's book two days before the latest NatGeo arrived with an uplifting view of Finland's national park system, a sharp contrast with O'Donnell's walked-the-walk observations. I got much more out of "Notes for the Aurora Society" than from the magazine.

Jim O'Donnell invites you into his hiking boots. You feel what he feels and see what he sees. His description of his journey will either make you want to follow in his footsteps (or perhaps blaze a similar trail elsewhere), or it will kill any interest you may have in spending any time in Finland. What this book will not do is leave you indifferent.

My only negative criticism is of the nitpicking variety. The manuscript would have been well served by the services of a professional copyeditor/proofreader to weed out the typos and misspellings that even the most careful writer overlooks.

I always judge books by two criteria. Did I enjoy reading it? and Was I enriched with the information I learned? For Jim O'Donnell's "Notes for the Aurora Society", both answers are most certainly YES!!!! The author gives us a rather frank, but enjoyable and readable, account of an incredible trip of human experience....An American on foot across Finland ...it covers a diverse range of topics including geography, ethnology, ethnography, environmentalism, agriculture, architecture, conservationism, ornithology, biology, sociology, history, politics, and more through observations, interviews, and interactions...In the style of Bill Bryson but with added elements.. The key to good writing is bringing the reader along for the journey... O'Donnell does this very well...Congrats
This book is a wonderful pleasure read, academic course supplement, book club choice, or gift. Highly recommended !!!!

It is no small feat of physical fortitude for Jim O'Donnell to have crossed Finland on foot, but to have kept his sense of humor so sharp, and his observations on nature and the Finnish culture so keen and well-researched, is amazing. This story draws you into an epic jaunt through not only the fens, fells, lakes, rivers and forests of Finland, but the state of mind of the Finnish people as the author encounters travelers from all walks of life along roads and trails of this journey. O'Donnell manages to weave history, language, and environmental science into a personal exploration of the human experience in the extreme and almost mythic northern landscape of Finland. Take a long walk and a sauna with Jim O'Donnell for a unique look at modern Finland.

Jim O' Donnell is a natural storyteller and his "Notes for the Aurora Society", is both enchanting and relevant.
In the book, O'Donnell invites the reader to join him as he tells of a 1,500 mile walking journey through Finland that he took in 2003. As he describes his adventures, details of the land's history and ecology are interwoven with encounters of the fascinating people he meets along the way. I often felt like I was tagging along and meeting each person myself. While he exposes serious issues, such as the long-term effects of systemic alcoholism and environmental destruction, he does so with diplomacy and description, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions. In balance, we meet intriguing people who live in harmony with the equally exquisite land. His style of writing, and personal vulnerability as a visiting anthropologist, innocent observer, and occasionally hapless traveler provide a certain comic relief. This all makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read. At times I was reminded of Barry Lopez, John Nichols, and even Mark Twain. If you also enjoy their work, you will find good company with "Notes for the Aurora Society."

One of my favorite things about this compelling narrative (describing one man's lone journey across modern Finland), is that the author, Jim O'Donnell, has made such an investment in his adopted (for the moment) country. He seems to care very deeply for the idea of "wilderness" and is aware of the realities of protecting nature when it co-exists so closely with humans. Through his intensive five-month, 1500 mile walk across Finland, O'Donnell attempts to understand the Finn's relationship to nature, their dedication(and sometimes naivete') in preserving it, and why it is such an important piece of their culture, past and present. His perseverance in the journey, and his anecdotal style of presenting the information he collects along the way, make for an interesting read. This book not only made me laugh alot, but absolutely opened my eyes to how we treat our environment, both here in the US and abroad. I completely recommend this book for anyone who has ever made a personal quest, whether literally or spiritually, to further explore a subject that you were passionate about............

Notes For the Aurora Society is a detailed journey of one man's 1500-mile walk across Finland, which already sounds interesting enough. But, the author goes beyond a simple travelogue into the natural world. His journey is a unique and universal dive into the people of Finland: their hopes, their waning connection with nature and family, and the bridge between rural and urban. The structure is short, journal-like; each segment is small essay of a day or moment and the lessons learned during that part of a long, engaging adventure.

Traversing a small nation isn't easy: both physically and socially. And that's what always makes good non-profit literature. This is a great read form a fine writer, can't wait to dig into his work.

Whenever I pick up a book of nonfiction, I need to know whether or not I trust the writer--if I trust him to tell me of the world as it is, rather than as how he wishes it to be. I loved this book precisely because I could follow O'Donnell on his journey to a place I've never visited and trust him completely to show me Finland as he truly experienced it. The bonus is that I learned as much about how we North Americans perceive the natural world as I did about Finland.

It isn't every day somebody walks the length of Finland, south to north, 1,500 miles in all. In fact, it isn't even every day that somebody remembers that Finland's there. So when somebody actually takes that hike, talking to people all the way, the event deserves a good book. Jim O'Donnell has taken the hike and written the book, and as a rarity in this world, the book is something to treasure. At some distant time in the future when somebody wants to know what Finland was like at the turn of the 21t century, Jim O'Donnell's Notes for the Aurora Society is where they will look.

O'Donnell carried a heavy pack and a good ploy. Every time he met somebody, he stopped to talk, and his standard question was about how Finns relate to nature. Other topics grew out of the conversation, of course, but that's how he got started. He talked with so many people at such length that it's amazing that he managed to make it all the way to Nuorgum, the northernmost point of the European Union, a nice spot for a dip in the Arctic Sea.

To summarize innumerable answers to his single question, some Finns are ardently protective of their environment, and some see it as something to exploit for financial purpose or at least for purposes of in natura sex and the consumption of enough beer to drive away the nightmare of interminable winter dark. Women, it seemed, were more likely to see nature as needing mothering, while men were more more likely to seek happiness in booze.

Working your way through Notes can be as exhausting as the hike it portrays, but that's a good thing. The book is a wealth of detail, and even though no two days are alike, sometimes several days seem similar. But then O'Donnell plunges into a forest or out of a forest or wanders down the wrong trail, and suddeny he finds somebody studying an ecosystem or revving up a quad or ignoring a garden or tucking into a bender or saying something like "The Finnish spring is like a man's sexuality." He gets into discussions on the nature and definition of true capital-W Wilderness, the nature and definition of Finnishity (my word, not his), the questionable value of snowmobiles, the history of the Russian-Finnish relationship, and so much more.

Much to his credit, O'Donnell doesn't waste many words telling the reader how sore his feet were or how hungry he got. Yes, there's some of that, but it's mostly a book of anecdotes and conversations. It isn't about a hike. It's about people and a culture.

I must admit that back when I never gave Finland a second thought, I pictured the place as populated by Laps, reindeer, and beautiful blondes, where everyone lives in steamy cabins heated by burning pine, living off polar bear gizzards and flogging themselves in the sauna. It never occurred to me that the unique culture of the place would necessitate a vocabulary would need such words as snagari, kiuas, raha, motti, loyly, vasta, and eramaa. Sure, everybody speaks a little English, but English doesn't have words that translate those (except for snagari, which as I would pronounce it, not knowing what to do with the double-o punctuation over the a's, sounds like a perfect word for a hotdog stand).

So if you want to take a trip to somewhere you've never been and probably never even bothered to imagine, Notes for the Aurora Society is your ticket. Settle in for a fascinating trudge from sauna to sagari, from Helsinki to a chilly sea. I'm betting you'll be glad you didn't take the trip yourself but will not regret reading about somebody else doing it. You'll end up seeing not only Finland for the first time but your world for the second.

Glenn Alan Cheney

A beautifully written travelougue. This carefully crafted work, full of detail and precision, brings modern Finland fully to life. It was a joy to read. A bit heady...but I like that! Full of environmental and historical information. I learned alot about a place few know. But it was the way the book was written that got me. Well crafted sentances, precicely chosen words and evocative images. I highly recommend this book.