"The sheer grit and tenacity displayed in Jess Phoenix's stories ensure their grip on the reader's attention. Geology and adventure enthusiasts will have a blast." --Publishers Weekly "Jess Phoenix's journey has been tempered by volcanic fire, colored by international adventure, molded by a cast of champions and antagonists, and catalyzed by the revelatory nature of science itself. Her fantastical origin story--from a student of history to a polymathic, science-proselytizing rebel--is the very definition of atypical; a polemic against a life of comforting, forgettable ordinariness and a paean to the extraordinary combination of persistence and curiosity." --Dr. Robin George Andrews, Volcanologist and Science Journalist "Geography itself is the unlikely hero of this exuberant memoir. Whether she is peeking into the top of an active volcano or trying to outwit the heat of the desert, Jess Phoenix brings her best game: the cunning of a detective, the soul of a poet and the open mind of a true explorer. It is pure joy to see the world through her endlessly curious eyes and to read about it in her crystal-clear prose.

" --Madeleine H. Blais, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing and author of In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle , a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.