Katey Walter Anthony’s ‘Chasing Lakes’ Is About Much More Than Scientific Discovery [REVIEW]

Katey Walter Anthony has loved nature and science and marveled at the world around her since childhood. But as she grew toward adulthood, her life unraveled until darkness threatened to consume her. Desperate for answers to some of life’s toughest questions, her journey takes her from the Sierra Nevada to some of the farthest reaches of the planet. What she discovers along the way will ultimately change her life, her heart, and her faith. Discover her truth in the captivating memoir, Chasing Lakes: Love, Science, and the Secrets of the Arctic.

Walter Anthony’s love of water has shaped her life. It’s taken her to Alaska and Siberia, where she has done research on methane emissions and climate change that has helped deepen the world’s understanding of these phenomenon. But like everyone else, there is more to her than her work.

Her origin story is one filled with turmoil, which began early on until she left home at 16 to live in Russia for a year. As she pursues her passion for science, she also finds herself in a vulnerable position. Her life is shrouded in secrets, she wonders if she will survive, and even abandons her faith. She allows “an ignorant, self-centered instinct for survival” to be her guide, and her future is anything but certain. But then she meets Peter, a humble Minnesota farmer who helps bring meaning to her life.

When I first received Chasing Lakes, I thought I was in for a book about scientific exploration. While that topic on its own would have been interesting to me, this book is so much more than that. This is a layered, personal memoir about a young woman finding her way in life.

After leaving behind a complicated home life, Walter Anthony is fascinated by nature and leaves God behind to pursue her education. But as she studies and explores different classes and picks her professor’s minds, she suddenly finds herself wondering if there is room for faith, if the living world around us allows for God as a creator. Her search for answers and acceptance, in addition to her scientific studies, are what propel this engaging and thoughtful coming-of-age story.

Honest, insightful, smart, and heartfelt, Chasing Lakes is the kind of book you will want to curl up with and read meditatively, because it dares ask questions many of us seldom articulate. And that is where the beauty of this book lies, cradled within its pages like a fine pearl ready to be discovered. Walter Anthony allows her own experiences, difficult and trying as they may have been, to shape and guide her toward her own personal truth. I am only grateful that she felt compelled to share that truth with the rest of us. Chasing Lakes will leave you feeling inspired and hopeful, whether science is your passion or not.

Katey Walter Anthony, PhD, is a professor of aquatic ecology and permafrost science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her research focuses on methane emissions from Arctic lakes, the degradation of permafrost, and its feedbacks to global climate processes through the carbon cycle.

She and her work have been featured in National Geographic, The Washington Post, Vice, The Guardian, the New York Times, Newsweek, The New Yorker, and Nature magazine and on 60 Minutes, PBS, Disney, Discovery Channel, BBC, and the film Ice on Fire.

To learn more, visit Katey at HarperCollins, National Geographic, and the University of Alaska.

CHASING LAKES
By Katey Walter Anthony
320 pp. HarperOne. $27.99

Purchase Chasing Lakes direct from Jathan & Heather Books or from one of these other fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Half Price Books, Hudson Booksellers, IndieBound, Powell’s, Target, or Walmart.

Chasing Lakes is brought to you in association with TLC Book Tours.