Every hiker knows "turn around time" — the moment you have to head back whether or not you've reached the summit. Novelist David Guterson turns that trail concept into a lyrical meditation on midlife in Turn Around Time, a narrative poem that walks a trail much like the ones he grew up hiking in Washington's mountains.

Even readers who never pick up poetry will feel the physicality here — the switchbacks, the ache in your feet — carried by fast, propulsive language and brought further to life by award-winning artist Justin Gibbens' delicate, mythical illustrations. A different kind of trail book.