Following Atticus: Forty-Eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship-Tom Ryan

Following Atticus: Forty-Eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship
Tom Ryan
Morrow, Sep 20 2011, $25.99
ISBN: 9780061997105

Newburyport, Massachusetts Undertoad newspaper editor Tom Ryan hiked several New Hampshire Mountains with his brothers. When his friend Vicki Pearson died from cancer, Tom felt a need to honor her. He closed his paper and decided to climb all forty-eight peaks in the White Mountains to raise money for charity in Vicki’s name. When his schnauzer Max died, Tom obtained an unwanted schnauzer pup Atticus Maxwell Finch who joined him on the trek of climbing the 48 in 90 days.

This is a fascinating poignant memoir that passionately focuses on much more than just a man and a dog in booties bonding while climbing mountains. Instead Tom Ryan discusses his estrangement with his late opinionated dad that has left him feeling regret, but between the mountains and his heroic canine, he felt a spiritual enlightenment that has given his pre climbing tortured soul tranquility. This is a super biography of a troubled man finding solace by Following Atticus’ lead to nirvana.

Harriet Klausner