‘From Suburban Housewife to Outdoor Guide’

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Milwaukeean Cari Taylor-Carlson has always been wildly passionate about the outdoors and is no stranger to kayaks, camping tents or canoes. But after a painful divorce in the 1980s, she took her passion to another level when she abruptly left her suburban existence to found Venture West, an outdoor adventure travel company. In her new memoir, Life on the Loose: My Journey from Suburban Housewife to Outdoor Guide, this conversant Wisconsin writer provides a courageous and honest account of her 30-year business venture with Venture West, leading weeks-long group tours across the country to destinations ranging from Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore to Zion National Park.

Throughout this engaging travelogue, Taylor-Carlson details both her own very personal journey toward recovery as well as the countless practical and difficult lessons she learned on the job. Life on the Loose proves to be an adventurous journey that is both profound and uplifting. Taylor-Carlson is an accomplished local journalist who has written for M Magazine and Urban Milwaukee, among other local publications, and her essays are often featured on radio 89.7, WUWM. In addition to serving as a long-time environmental educator at both the Schlitz Audubon Center and Boerner Botanical Gardens, she is the author of Milwaukee Walks, The Food Lover’s Guide to Milwaukee and Best Cheap Eats in Milwaukee. She will chronicle her explorations at Boswell Book Co. at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 22.

Book Happening:

Ryan Berg

11 a.m., Thursday, May 19

100 Manpower Place

In Ryan Berg’s intense new chronicle, he details the gritty, dangerous lives of eight homeless LGBTQ youth struggling to survive in New York. This often forgotten young population is captured with grace and urgency in Berg’s new book, No House to Call My Home: Love, Family and Other Transgressions. Author Ryan Berg—whose writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Local Knowledge and The Sun—will speak at a special event in Downtown Milwaukee. This free event is co-sponsored by Boswell Book Co., Milwaukee Pride and Pathfinders.