North Country: A Pedagogical Almanac  is a memoir-in-essays about teaching and family life in Michigan’ s Upper Peninsula. The book follows the cycle of seasons in this remote and beautiful place by the waters of Lake Superior during the years in which the author finds a place there. It’ s also a look at higher education on the razor’ s edge at a tiny and struggling liberal arts college. Above all, the memoir is about a life lived alongside books and what they might teach us about how to love, parent, mentor, and care for others.