After plum assignments in Washington, London, Paris, and Buenos Aires, TIME magazine correspondent Charles Eisendrath gave up the glamor. It wasn't that he'd gotten it wrong-

the career, the stories-it was the realization that getting it right in terrorism zones could lead to something worse than just wrong for his family.

Eisendrath took a leave of absence (just a delaying tactic), packed up the household and set off to find out what else he might do. His new base would be a 146-acre farm in Northern Michigan. Journalists, he says, spend their time looking out windows, but the farm encouraged introspection. No, more than introspection-the farm led him deep into agriculture, engineering, fishing, hunting, and supporting journalism by raising $60 million to endow fellowships at the University of Michigan.

In this memoir of a big life in a small place, Eisendrath's bright eye and curious mind flashes on maple syruping, replanting a forest after tornadoes, an octopus in the basement, the personalities of brook trout, inventing the perfect grill, a plane crash in the jungle, and his many friends, family, and neighbors. Ken Auletta of The New Yorker calls it, "An amazing, beautifully written memoir." Actor Jeff Daniels says, "Prepare to be inspired."