A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg by Tim Cahill

Cahill is great! He is the P.J. O'Rourke of the outdoors! Fearless and hell-bent on overcoming all obstacles in his path, Cahill takes us to the oddest and scariest adventures nature has to offer.

Cahill ( Jaguars Ripped My Flesh ) courts intercontinental adventure in these collected travel pieces. He fishes for pike in Wisconsin's icy Lake Nagawicka (and competes in a minnow-drinking contest at Chuck and Sue's bar). Over the protests of the late Dian Fossey, he eyeballs Rwanda's now-famous mountain gorillas. And he joins the journalists flocking to the scene of mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. His pen is filled with adrenaline; he batters down obstacles and dares to do the difficult, whether this means braving the scent of decay (Jonestown's "last bodies to be removed had been in such a state of decomposition that bits and pieces kept falling off") or surviving a serious wind-chill factor. Though Cahill's humor and machismo can be heavy-handed, and his occasional sexism is annoying ("menopausal waitresses" cramp his style in Oregon), the writer's appetite for fun and trouble off the beaten path is exhilarating.

These are pieces written over the past 20 years by a "journalist . . . with a desire to go where no sane man would wish to go," who discovers there is wonder left in the world. Believing that risk is a form of therapy, Cahill has sought adventure by participating in and reporting on risk sports from deep sea scuba diving to avalanche skiing, caving to white water rafting. He also spent time with Dian Fossey and her gorillas, visited Jim Jones's death camp in Guyana, and investigated Bigfoot accounts in the Pacific Northwest. Author, editor of Outside , contributor to Rolling Stone , Cahill writes with irreverent humor, philosophy, and considerable knowledge about people testing themselves. He is a fine storyteller. Recommended for most libraries.