This book left me spellbound. Drotar has a true talent for telling tales that move on several levels. A river journey in Southeast Asia becomes a backward journey in time... Riding a horse through the Adirondacks leads to deeper insights about the precarious nature of our daily lives... A ski expedition reveals truths about the frightening transitions we all face. The eighteen essays, categorized by season, span the globe, yet they all affirm our connection with nature and with each other. And, somehow, Drotar manages to accomplish this with without ponderous prose or heavy-handing philosophizing. Tuck this book in your backpack for thoughtful reading during your own travels, or keep it on your bedside table to inspire your dreams.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Drotar whisks us around the world in these captivating essays, riding an icebreaker in Finland at one moment, a mountain bike in Wales the next. Every person, every place, every event reveals so much more to Drotar than it does to most of us. Ski runs become metaphors for life's challenges. A night sky helps Drotar discover the planet beneath his feet. The author dances thru time and space in a way that bewitches the reader and enriches his travel experience. Struggles for democracy in Myanmar--and America--are reflected in a prism where time, Zen and Buddhist like, flows backwards. Landowners in the pacific northwest embrace redwoods and a new ethic. His characters come to life on the page: Cowboys at a roundup in Wyoming, rangers with eagle eyes in the Catskills, children in Quito carrying bundles of dignity amidst urban squalor.

Few writers can weave their thoughts and meaning into a travel experience without destroying the tempo or becoming preachy, but Drotar accomplishes both.

Steep Passages took me on a wild ride through nature, exotic places, and fascinating people. There were times when I felt as though I was right along side Drotar, feeling the cool winter wind on my face or tasting the salty sea air. The descriptions in the book are so intensely rich and full of life that at times you can't believe that one person has experienced what so many only dream of. From chapter to chapter, Steep Passages keeps you craving for more and more and in the mean while Drotar's inner messages on life, often make you reflect on whom you are and what you're doing with yours. It's a book that I could read over and over again and each time immerse myself into a scene that many of us only dream about feeling, tasting and believing.

Imagine finding the legs of a woman, still in nylons and shoes, but with the torso totally gone -- burned to a small pile of ashes. What could possibly have caused this? It is totally illogical and defies rational explanation, yet it happened. This phenomenon, known as the fire curse or spontaneous human combustion, is just one of a number of absolutely fascinating but true medical mysteries explored by David Drotar in The "Fire Curse and Other True Medical Mysteries." According to the author, there are over 200 documented cases of this strange medical phenomenon (a number of black and white photos are included). So how does part of a human body turn into ash and leave another part not even singed? Drotar doesn't come up with any conclusive evidence, but he does present well-researched theories in this and the other cases he describes. Among the other unsolved mysteries he carefully explores are how people can walk on fire, why 140 Asian men have mysteriously died in their sleep since 1977, and why some dogs can predict epileptic seizures before they occur. This is one of those special books that are great for sharing between parents and middle school or high school aged kids -- attention getting and almost quaranteed to get some good, thought-provoking dialogue going. Definitely recommended.