Summers of Fire - by Linda Strader (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Linda Strader is one of the first women hired on a fire crew with the U.S. Forest Service. A naïve twenty-year-old in the mid 1970s, she discovers fighting wildfires is challenging--but in a man's world, they became only one of the challenges she would face. Battling fire is exhilarating, yet exhausting; the discrimination real and sometimes in her face. Summers of Fire is an adventure story that honestly recounts the seven years she ventures into the heart of fires that scorch the land, vibrant friendships that fire the soul, and deep love that ends in devastating heartbreak.

Review Quotes

"Strader's story is an unsung part of the #MeToo movement... I found myself nodding and sympathizing as I read, and I thoroughly enjoyed her descriptions of working fires, building trail, and finding her way as a woman in what is tragically still a man's world." --Susan J. Tweit, ​www.storycirclebookreviews.com


"Although it might be easy to characterize the book as being for women because of its inspirational message about trying to make it in 'a man's world, ' men would greatly benefit from reading it, too, if only to learn that it takes more courage to fight for respect and dignity than it does to fight a wall of flames." --James G. Lewis, Forest History Today

"An excerpt from Summers of Fire and a photo gallery." --https: //parade.com/697266/beckyhughes/veteran-female-firefighter-blazes-a-trail-in-summers-of-fire/#addthis

"Strader's writing is insightfully descriptive, from nature's wonders and brutality, to times when she survived only on sheer willpower, truly pushing herself physically to the brink, and the rewards she found working in the great Western outdoors. This well-written memoir will have readers caught up in the adventurous twists and turns to very end." --Karen Walenga, Green Valley News

About the Author

Linda Strader has published many articles online about landscaping with desert plants. When The Green Valley News, a local newspaper, printed an article about her firefighting adventures, it lead to the magazine, Wildfire Today, publishing an excerpt. She works as a landscape architect in southern Arizona.