Everest and the Rest of Us

"I loved delving into the deeper meanings of our search for new, challenging experiences. It's a unique and fascinating adventure tale. 5 stars!" -Joan Griffin, author of Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail
An epic bike ride across the United States turns nearly to tragedy. A rowing journey along the East coast through storms and tidal surges tests physical and mental limits and forces a reckoning with life's priorities. A five-hundred-mile pilgrimage across northern Spain triggers personal and spiritual renewal.
What happens when a part-time adventurer takes the progressive ideas that defined his career as a teacher-real world problem solving, expeditionary learning, following your passion-and turns them on himself?
Everest and the Rest of Us: Four Journeys in Search of Adventure delivers an exciting, three-part tale of cross-country cycling, coastal rowing, and trekking on the Camino de Santiago, by turns suspenseful and comic, painful and triumphant. The fourth journey? Examining why we pursue adventure-pushing our limits, the thrill of taking risks and facing danger, renewal that comes from stepping outside our daily routines, personal empowerment from a challenge met-and exploring the gendered and racialized history of adventure.
Most of us will never climb Mt. Everest, surf a fifty-foot monster wave off Hawaii, or row single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean. But everyone loves a good adventure. Everest and the Rest of Us celebrates the adventurous spirit in us all!

James Nehring loves a good adventure and doesn't let his fear of heights, risk, and speed get in the way. Lacking trust fund and corporate sponsors, he pursues adventures available to people who love thrills, uncertainty, physical and mental challenge, but on their own terms. Author of seven previous books, he's appeared on NPR and CNN. His essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, Washington Post and Chicago Tribune. A life-long educator and retired professor from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, he lives in central Massachusetts with his wife, Laurie, and two cats who substitute for three kids who've flown the coop. When he's not teaching (part-time), you can find him outdoors on his bike or trekking through the woods just a few steps from his kitchen door.