I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This is the story of a woman who follows the butterfly migration from Mexico to Canada by bicycle. Great information about how much we need butterflies and insects and a lovely story too.

I did not finish this book and do not feel right submitting feedback on it. I hope to pick it up again in the future and see if I can complete it.

A wonderful memoir for bicyclists or nature lovers. It’s so unique in that she focused on her experiences on this cycling trip, education regarding our actions can easily harm (know what you mow) pollinators as wells as suggestions for taking small steps to help them- plant milk weed in your yard!! Or even change the ratio of gardens to grass in your yard.

There is knowledge, humor and an amazing trip to learn about.

Memoir enthusiasts should definitely grab this one!

Thank you to #TimberPress and #Netgalley for this review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

In the same vein of Jedidiah Jenkins’ To Wake the Sleeping Self, Dykman brings a story that is equal parts educational and inspiring. She vividly recalls her 10,201 mile bike ride through Canada, USA, and Mexico while following the great Monarch migration. The story educates the reader about all thing monarch butterflies, including what they eat (never thought I needed a reason to know so much about milkweed), how they die (up to 20% will die due to traffic), and that it takes 3-5 generations of Monarchs to complete the round trip migration. Wow.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and Timber Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book would be a good read for anyone who enjoys travel/adventure and/or nature. It was interesting to learn about Monarch butterflies as well as the things she encountered along her journey. The author comes across as very passionate about climate issues, the environment, and the plight of the butterflies.

trigger warning
<spoiler> grief, mention of miscarriage </spoiler>

Sara Dykman has been travelling by bicycle for a while when she decides that her next big tour will cover the route the monarch butterfly takes yearly from Mexico to Canada, a journey that would take over 10.000 miles.

Not only did she plan to document the animals she meets over the course of this, she reached out to friends and activists for a friendly spot to stay the night, and to find schools and other institutions willing to offer her space for a presentation about her project, and the monarch's in general.

Sara Dykman is a white woman, and she acknowledges that her travels were only possible because of the privilege she has, that other people were not able to do this, which I liked. She gives you a bunch of facts, not all of which will stick, but some will. Then we have the travel aspect, which was fun - especially in our pandemic times when the only save travel will have to be taken via imagination.

I liked that she talks openly about vulnerable moments, especially her feelings of hopelessness in view of mass extinction and climate crisis - it is hard to deal with problems, and not feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of issues we're facing.
She does not come across as preachy, but as deeply passionate.

I learned a lot. Did you know, for example, that butterflies don't do cocoons? Moths do cocoons, the developemental stage we're talking about is called pupa if it's about butterflies.
I found myself wanting to plant milkweed, the plant the monarchs live on, but since I don't live in North America, and since I don't have an own garden and haven't done research into lokal plantlife, I doubt that it would be a great idea, without having better ones.

I will totally read more by her, and if there are no books I'll look up her blog.
Full recommendations, it doesn't matter if you're into travel lit, stories about animals or conservative biologie, you'll like it.
The arc was provided by the publisher.

Not really my style-- I liked the butterfly facts but was not as interested in the personal memoir aspects of this tale. It just felt a little light to me.

Sara's book was fascinating - she really has a lot of knowledge about the natural world and her bicycle adventures were fascinating. We used this book for a Community Read and it inspired us in many ways.

Reading this was definitely an eye opener for me personally. Even though I knew something about how farming and paving aren't making things friendly for pollinators, I really liked this deep dive into the world of monarchs. The author's story is straightforward: she is passionate about the environment and wanted to publicize the plight of the monarchs by following their migration route.

As a cyclist, I admired her fortitude. She slept outside most nights but also graciously accepted invitations from complete strangers from time to time. She only had one brush with a creepy person and only 4 flat tires along the route. Sara Dykman is amazing and I will remember this book for a long time.

It made me very happy to put my library's copy of this book into the hands of a reader here at the library the other day.

An interesting read. The author is a scientist, and decides to travel the route of the Monarch butterflies from Mexico to Canada by bicycle. Makes sense, since she would travel about the same or similar speed as them. Interesting account of her travels and gives an deeper appreciation of what these pollinators go through. Highly recommend.

Bicycling with Butterflies is a book for travel and nature lovers. This book details the author's journey of following the monarch butterfly migration route on her bicycle. While I liked the traveling part, the book went into too much detail about the monarch butterflies. I tried to read this book twice but I could not continue due to scientific depth and less focus on traveling adventures.

My thanks to NetGalley and Timber Press for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

22% and DNF. I couldn't take the tone of the writer anymore. She got on my last nerve and 22% into the book and I didn't learn much more about Monarchs and their journey than I already knew. It was mostly about the author and her traveling in Mexico.

I was soldiering on, but when I got to the point where she stated that she had no respect for no trespassing laws, I had to stop. I couldn't care less about the rest of her trip and if I want to learn more about Monarch butterflies, I'm sure I can research it online and in other books that are more educational and less memoir.

Not saying this is a bad book, just the tone didn't work for me at all. I would recommend it if the above example doesn't bother you and you think the trek sounds interesting and want to learn more. 1, not for me but it might be for you, stars.

A different, more modern trek shows that the public still rallies behind a person with a mission. Through most of 2017, wildlife biologist Sara Dykman followed migrating monarch butterflies on her bicycle, lodging with and befriending people along the way. She pedaled from Mexico north to the United States and up into Canada, and then back south again. Dykman tells the story of her journey in her new memoir, “Bicycling With Butterflies: My 10,201-Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration.”

Monarch butterflies wait out dangerously cold and wet winter conditions in Mexico until the spring, when they begin to move north in search of their sole food source, milkweed. The famously orange-and-black insects also lay their eggs on milkweed plants so that their offspring have a ready food source. The annual migration ensures that monarch numbers are replenished after the winter, predators, and other dangers have taken their toll.

Climate change and habitat loss have left their mark. While monarchs have found homes across the globe and are at a low risk of extinction, their numbers are falling.

During her trek, the author highlighted the monarchs’ plight, giving presentations at schools and explaining her mission to curious bystanders. Her book is a passionate celebration of the glory of the monarchs, with tips on what people can do to ensure their survival. She also writes about the challenges she faced – problems all too common for an experienced long-distance cyclist: bad weather, flat tires, questioning by authorities, and, in the case of this trip, one uncomfortable human encounter.

In “Bicycling With Butterflies,” Dykman honestly and with great self-awareness tells her story. Hers was a deeply emotional journey, providing her with new families in the human and natural worlds. Such an outcome might seem improbable for a mere bike trip, but, as Dykman wisely observes, just like with the monarchs, “we often overlook the grandness of small things.”

The book was interesting but the second half of the book bogged down as it was very repetitive. I also wish there were some pictures of her trip.

I was given an advance readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The concept of this book was fascinating and I did enjoy the writing style, I just ran out of interest about half way through. I’m not sure how broad of an appeal this book will have, but for a niche audience, those with special interest in the topic, it should be a hit!

Wow. As I sit here listening to the singing of the 17-year cicadas and contemplate this book, I can't help but wish I could meet the author and just spend a little time with her. This was one of the best nonfiction, travel, environmental, adventure, nature books I've read in recent memory. I made my way slowly through this book because I wanted to savor my time with it. Sara has a passion for all of God's creatures, not just the monarch butterflies, but here she shares many of the lessons she learned from them on her journey following their migration path. She is a trained biologist whose specialty is amphibians, and as she says, she didn't even really know much about the monarchs when she made the decision to follow their migratory pathway. She had done a few hardcore bike trips before, including one where she visited 49 of the states by bike (actually it may have been 48, but I think 49 sounded better). But she is an adventurer and a nomad by nature, I think, and she felt called by the butterflies. She began her 10,201 mile trip in Mexico at one of the overwintering sanctuaries for Monarchs and followed the general migration path of the monarchs into the US, up through the center of the country into Canada and back around, but in a more eastern pathway. One thing I did not realize was that the migration was a multi-generation migration where the ones who left the overwintering grounds were not the ones that returned, but rather their progeny. Although she scheduled talks throughout her ride (mostly with schools), her schedule was pretty open so that she could take detours if she wanted or arrange other stops at people's homes, people she met earlier in her trip. She shares many of her frustrations, her challenges, her sadness, her triumphs, and all along the way, she shares the lessons she's learned and her desperation to get the word out so that we as a collective can change things for the better in our environment before it is too late, not just for the monarchs, but for all of us. My garden is currently a huge mess of wildflowers, but most of them were just pretty much planted and left and I know that grapevines are choking a lot of the flowers. We get visitors, but I don't think we have any milkweed. I have been inspired that this fall would perhaps be a good time to clear out some of those grapevines and figure out a way to plant milkweed (native, and untreated with poisons). I highly recommend this book, especially if you're looking for a good non-fiction read if you care about the environment, if you like travel books, or you're just curious about a woman who spent the better part of a year biking the migratory route of the Monarch butterflies in an effort to learn and to get the word out about protecting these beautiful creatures as well as our environment. I loved this book so much that I ordered a signed copy from a nature center that hosted one of her talks.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The true story of a girl who followed the migration of Monarch butterflies from Mexico to Canada on a bicycle., Bicycling with Butterflies is captivating and inspiring. Readers will be fascinated by monarch details and will become very concerned about their imminent demise. Highly recommended.

A very interesting memoir or travelogue sort of that is woven with themes of science and passion. I enjoyed reading Sara's journey through three countries and back, with a lot of facts about the monarch butterflies and their natural traits. It definitely displays a lot of rigour and perseverance for what you feel is most important and worth fighting for....while also showing the generosity and kindness in humans she meets along the way. Recommended reading for memoir and nature/travel lovers!

I had a difficult time connecting with this novel. It felt like certain portions of the story were sort of stilted in the writing style. I also felt like some portions of the story came across as preachy in a way instead of conveying information and letting the reader come to their own conclusion. The parts of the story that detailed the monarchs plight and the importance of the monarch butterflies were enjoyable and informative, but I just wanted more of that in the book itself.

Such an incredible journey author Sara Dykman takes following the path of monarch butterflies! Beautifully written it is a study of monarchs and their journey from Mexico, through the United States and into Canada. And then back to Mexico for the winter. Sara rode this route all by herself on a bicycle - over 10,000 miles! So much to learn about such a beautiful creature! A great read!!!