Reviews of Riddle of the Ice.

 

 

 

From Amazon.com
The work of Myron Arms represents the best qualities of literary science writing; his intelligent, curious mind spins lyrical accounts of natural phenomena and the world around us. During a 1991 sailing expedition off the coast of Labrador, the author is blocked by a surprising and frustrating mass of ice--an unusual event occurring out of season and during a particularly warm summer. Riddle of the Ice is the result of that trip, and although the riddle is never really answered, we are treated to a fun--and informative--shaggy-dog inquiry that probes nautical science, weather patterns, and deep shifts in our environment. All of this is told in an engaging voice capable of turning an implacable mass of ice into a richly textured character at the center of a strange mystery.

From Kirkus Reviews:

In the course of his lively narrative…[Arms] offers a wonderfully rich account of the mechanics of ocean currents and world weather systems, of the migrations of pilot whales and the minds of sailors far from shore. [He] introduces his readers to such notions as the Great Conveyor Belt theory of oceanic water flow, explains why the Atlantic is saltier and warmer than the Pacific, ponders such climatological anomalies as the "halocline catastrophe," and, closest to his quest, considers the latest scientific reasoning on global warming, the evidence for which phenomenon now appears to be incontrovertible. …This is a fine study of how complex systems work and how much closure-seeking science is unable to account for. Fans of popular science writing and Arctic buffs alike will learn much from Arms' adventures.

 

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Reviews of Cathedral of the World.

 

 

 

 

From Publishers Weekly
There's nothing like open sea to send the mind off on meditative musings. Arms has done a lot of sailing--and a lot of musing. Here, the author of Riddle of the Ice offers 20 philosophical essays that reflect both the interior and exterior voyages he has taken over the years. Arms treats the sea as a cathedral, a place that inspires reverence for the natural world, a place in which it is appropriate to let the mind and soul chase after the big questions. And chase he does, speculating on people, life lessons, the planet and the future. In "Charts and Other Fiction," he writes of learning, as a boy, that it is as important to be aware of what nautical charts do not show as what they do--the uncharted rocks and shoals knowable only by self-discovery. Variations of this lesson appear throughout these thoughtful essays as Arms emphasizes that wisdom is obtainable only through experience and that, no matter how expert we are and no matter how thoroughly we plan (or chart a course), we must always leave room for intuition and an openness to the moment (or the prevailing wind). "What is a cathedral after all," he asks, "but a place to go as we seek to understand how the cosmos works, and what our proper place is in it?" Brief as these essays are, they are pungent and, at their best, as refreshing as a blast of sea spray.

From Amazon.com:

A thought-provoking new book , by the author of Riddle of the Ice, exploring the spiritual dimensions of the sailing life and the complexity and raw beauty of the ocean experience.

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