Living High

Biographies of women do not get much attention in Pacific Northwest history. This is a great book about an amazing person. I first read this book for the Museum of History and Industry's bookclub and have read it again since then.

I LOVE THIS BOOK! I read this book about 8 years ago and it blew me away. It's a true account about living your best life. The author, June Burn tells of the homesteading, travels with her husband and later with their two boys and other experiences they let themselves have by going with the flow of opportunities that presented themselves to them. They didn't have much but lived a beautiful life full of experience, memories and love. Shortly after I read this book, I lost one of my best friends in a tragic accident. This book isn't about death but it does cause you to examine just how complete of a life we are living. Times are different and we can't just pick up and go as easily as June and her husband did. This book will inspire you. I'm just thrilled I can get my hands on a copy of it.

In regard to a world where the concept of old world adventure and romance is getting harder and harder to grasp, comes the most extradinary story of one young woman's life building a not-so-ordinary family while adventuring with her husband amidst the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Homesteading Sentinel Island in the Puget Sound, teaching school in isolated Alaska, and traveling around the entirety of United States in a donkey cart, June Burn paints a vibrant, and somewhat encouraging portrait of a landscape, a partnership, and a life that anyone is capable of having but not quite brave enough to grasp. June Burn's voice is practical in her wisdom, and gracefully concise in description, wistfully demonstrating that nobody has to live a conventional life, regardless of societal or cultural guidelines. This book is one of the greatest autobiographies that I have ever had the pleasure of reading, and though it is diffucult to get a copy, it is well worth the effort. It is an inspirational literary treasure that is highly valued by all who read it. I would highly recommend June Burn's story to anyone who doubts the dull and mudane grind they're living is all there really is.

This wonderful book was a discovery I made after marrying one of the distant relatives of the author. It transported me back in time to a very different America where women could travel alone and homestead islands of their very own.It is full of wisdom and joy in the act of living a full life. 'Living High' is a phrase like gay that no longer holds its original meaning.I love to take this book along camping and read chapters around the fire aloud to companions. It is full of rich description of the flora, fauna, and hardy lifestyle of early settlers in the San Juan Islands of Washington state. The story traverses the country following the journey of the remarkably brave author. I wish I had known her, but the book opens a beautiful window on a special life lived well. I hope the book is reissued. It would be a perfect 'books on tape' candidate.