The pieces in this collection capture the feeling of being buffeted by great gusts of middle-aged longing. What began as one woman's quarrel with Buddhism, especially its doctrine of non-attachment, morphs into a larger question: What's the right way to love a person or a thing? With voluptuous detail and rigorous self-interrogation, Jennifer Brice looks for answers in family lore, personal experience, conversations with friends, and beloved books. The result is a tender, moving, far-reaching-sometimes delightfully funny, sometimes achingly poignant-exploration of the powerful ties that bind us to one another and to the world around us.

Jennifer Brice is the author of The Last Settlers, a work of documentary journalism, and Unlearning to Fly, a memoir. Another North is her first collection of essays. Born in Fairbanks, Alaska, she teaches contemporary literature and creative writing at Colgate University in upstate New York.