Chasing lakes Love, science, and the secrets of the Arctic

National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Anthony, an Alaskan ecologist and biogeochemist, has been traveling for years to Russia to study the bubbles of methane released by thawing permafrost. As a scientist on the forefront of global warming research, the author has a keen awareness of the importance of her work, and her enthusiasm for it is obvious. She chooses to move beyond this review of her years in the field, however, in chapters written in the vein of memoir, reflecting on her parents' broken marriage, her turbulent relationship with her mother, and her long-distance relationship with a boy she met as a teenage foreign exchange student. The narrative takes yet another turn when Anthony recounts her religious awakening and details her ardent embrace of Christianity. The science Anthony describes is complex and important, and the shift in subject matter from lake research to family conflict to biblical verses is jarring. Still, some readers may appreciate her combining religion and environmental matters in this mix of professional and personal accounting.