It’s a book! A book with a beautiful, eye-catching cover. How can you possibly go wrong with a Randy Langstraatesque photo of Colorado National Monument on the front cover? Oh, and a compass? Don’t forget the compass. Compass Point is a brand new book written by an author I have known since junior high.  Actually, I have known many authors since grade school and read them well; Laura Ingalls Wilder, Louisa Mae Alcott, George Eliot, Harriet Beecher Stowe-the list goes on. But as far as I knew, the Barb of junior high was not a bard. And then, our paths crossed again about a decade ago and I found we shared common interests in both writing and hiking. As we hiked together, I learned Barb – the same old Barb from P.E. class and marching band- had several children’s books in print and one adult novel. Best of all, she was working on a novel set in National Parks. That National Parks novel has now come to fruition in the form of Compass Point. 

Who should read this book? People who love the cover. During the four years I worked at Colorado National Monument, hundreds of photographers (including the above mentioned Randy Langstraat) submitted breathtaking photos of Colorado National Monument to an annual calendar contest. There is a photographer character in Compass Point. She works at Colorado National Monument and she wears a flat hat and carries a big lens.

Who else should read this book? Folks who have worked at Colorado National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park. Rangers and bookstore managers who like Craig Childs and Nevada Barr but are not looking for a copycat of either.

What did I like best about this book? Hiking in Waterpocket Fold and enjoying the geological features and astounding red rock scenery of a couple National Parks; enduring and surviving weather and calamity and finding my moral compass and once again affirming whom I was meant to be. Oh wait! I wasn’t really there. I was only turning pages of a book.