Nine Ways to Cross a River (2007)

What started out for Akiko Busch as a carefree Hudson River swim in August 2001 turned into a passion. Over the next four years, Busch swam in nine rivers (including the Delaware, Mississippi, and Current), exploring the textures, tastes, and speeds of each while also meeting some of the mostly anonymous advocates involved with their recovery from decades of environmental abuse. Busch's tone can be a tad medicinal in Nine Ways to Cross a River, but the spiritual benefits of floating downstream come across with soothing simplicity: ''All of these rivers have conferred a kind of fluid axis that sets me right every time.'' B