Washington Books

This book is the most incredible collection of random scribbling I will ever find. This, Roethke's 'Collected Poems' and Camus' 'Lyrical & Critical Essays' comprise my collection of most sacred books. The outstanding feature of Straw for the Fire is that the scribblings are so overwhelming emotionally. Roethke is one of the most underrated poets to ever exist, and his talent is so obvious by this book of spur the moment thoughts and unfinished poems. If you love Roethke's work -- any or all of it -- this is a must-have. It says so much about him as a poet, a human being, someone whose confusion and awe of life are so charismatic. His weakness and strength shows plainly and beautifully in this incredible collection.

i first saw this book in the hands of a boy who admired the brevity and stark reality of these words. these lingering tangents are for readers who sometimes admire just the leaves rather than the whole tree.

I have listened to Shari Rush talk as well as I have read her book and meet her. She is unbelivebly inspirational, just hearing everything she has been through showed me how bad people have it and how much we need to be there for them.

I had the unique opportunity to hear Shari Rusch speak at a high school graduation ceremony, and then I read her book. Everyone who has ever known anyone with learning disabilities should read this book. It was heart-warming and very inspiring. My problems seem very small in comparison to hers, and anytime I am discouraged, I will try and remember what she accomplished even with all those strikes against her.

They Dream, They Cry, They Sing is an outstanding anthology of Spanish/English bilingual poems that will please students and adults wanting to hone their linguistic skills and enjoy the wonderful word-play in both languages that this superb collection offers. Moonrise: When the moon comes up/bells fade away/and hidden pathways/return./When the moon comes up/the sea covers the earth/and your heart seems/an island in space./No one eats oranges/beneath the full moon./You have to eat green and icy fruit./When the moon comes up/with a hundred identical faces/silver coins/in your pockets sob. (Federico Garcia Lorca)

They Dream, They Cry, They Sing is an outstanding anthology of Spanish/English bilingual poems that will please students and adults wanting to hone their linguistic skills and enjoy the wonderful word-play in both languages that this superb collection offers. Moonrise: When the moon comes up/bells fade away/and hidden pathways/return./When the moon comes up/the sea covers the earth/and your heart seems/an island in space./No one eats oranges/beneath the full moon./You have to eat green and icy fruit./When the moon comes up/with a hundred identical faces/silver coins/in your pockets sob. (Federico Garcia Lorca)

This book shows the history of Mount Rainier National Park, from Sunset to Paradise. The photos are great and the paragraphs are informative and don't run on. The book also goes into the history of the 14,411 foot Stratovolcano, and how 5,600 years ago, the peak was at 16,500 feet, but a major eruption caused a massive collapse and created the peak we know, love and cherish today.

The Sleeping Giant... The Mountain...Mount Rainier...

Years ago I hiked at Mt. Rainier, took pictures in its flower meadows, and slid in its summer snow. I thought someday I'd climb its glaciers to the summit, 14, 410 feet. That never happened. But this book brings back all the old impressions and delights-and adds to them. Lots of photos (280!). Lot of information, most of it new to me. Richard P. Kratz, M.D. Clinical Professor, Ophthalmology Univ. California, Irvine

As one who grew up just a block from No 26th & Proctor St's I highly recommend this wonderful historical review of this neighborhood shopping district during the 20th century. The pictures tell it like it was and they cover almost everything of any importance that went on there.

A great read for anyone who is interested in Tacoma. Lots of key photograps on the fire station, Washington school, bowling alley and many other landmarks including the building where the NW shop is now.

Seeing the historical buildings through the years in this small neighborhood is pretty amazing.

Thanks for writing this book Bill.

Beth and Allen Cheng live a quiet life with their three small children in the small town of Bellevue, Washington, close to the mountains of the west coast. Beth works as a wildlife biologist and her current project is tracking the goat population through the high elevations.

Though Beth enjoys her job, Allen hates that she must work to supplement their household income. They had agreed that she would work so he could take the pastor's position at a small local church.

The story describes their quiet, yet comfortably hectic family life as Beth leaves for the airport to board a small plane that will take her high above the mountainous terrain to count the goats. While she and her family go about their routine, Dennis Doyle experiences a far different existence.

Instead of family, he has chosen a life of solitude deep in the hills, as far from humanity as he can get. His Vietnam past haunts him even after thirty years if living alone.

Beth and Dennis eventually cross paths high in the mountains. Her Asian appearance brings back the nightmares of the jungles of Vietnam and he has moments where he can no longer distinguish between the past and the present. Beth, being strong in her faith, fears for her life, but she knows God has a purpose for putting her with this troubled man.

Bette Nordberg brings to life the horrors of war and how the experience can manifest itself in one's mind. She does a wonderful job of helping the reader get to know Dennis Doyle and Beth Cheng. And, though Dennis appears on the surface to be a selfish, crazy hermit, we come to find that he still has a warm heart no matter how hard he tries to stay detached.

And Beth, though she is thrown into a situation where she must face much suffering, she questions her faith, but she never falters. She continues to seek God's will and asks for guidance and strength through Him.

Bette Nordberg has produced another work of dazzling fiction. The suspense in Thin Air kept me glued to the pages even when other responsibilities called. I lived in the skin of Beth, feeling her pain when the plane crashed, her longing for kids and husband, her fear she would never see them again. I came to understand Viet Nam vets in a way I never could in the past--even though I am married to one. Bravo to Nordberg once again. I eagerly await her next novel.

I have absolutely zero natural sense of direction so this guide is perfect in its level of detail. It seems to cover every inch of Portland, including a full street index in the back that makes it easy to locate an address.

I have purchased the Thomas Guides for Portland for the last several years and have found them to be an absolutely indespensible navigational aid. Every street in the metro area and surrounding suburbs is detailed within this guide. Its comprehensive detail and ease of use make it a real help. If you have to drive in Portland even occassionally I cannot recommend strongly enough that you buy this guide.

I decided not to go fancy, and buy a GPS navigation system. However I wanted a reasonably compact map book that I could carry in my truck. I drive mostly in Pierce County. I gave this map book a five because it illustrates all the local roads, and points of interest, at a fine level of detail. I use this all the time to look for shortcuts or to route around traffic jams and construction. Even if I had GPS navigation, I would still keep this book as a backup.

If you're still using paper maps instead of GPS, this one is the one to have. Without a doubt, get the 3 county instead of the single King county map. It's big, but it's effective. Load the free cd in your computer too.

Julian Chapuis' superb Tilman Riemenschneider covers the master sculptor who worked during the late Middle Ages, creating fine pieces. He was one of the first to abandon polychromy: this documents about fifty of his works in an intriguing new title.

i highly, and happily, recommend this book!! there are beautiful images and it is an excellent study of his work. absolutely wonderful, all exhibition catalogues should be treated this well!

Reviewed by Beverly Pechin of Reader Views (2/06)

Tin Mines and Concubines is a book of short stories, linked together. At first glance you think, "Oh my, I am never going to keep these characters straight" but as you forget to try keeping them in your mind and who belongs to what family, etc., it suddenly falls into place. You easily bring all of the characters together and settle into a wonderful array of stories about Malaysian and Indian culture.

This book, while I'm certain not intended to be, became a wonderful source of cultural lessons. While you read about the lives and ways of various people, from Henry Tang to Cheng (the son of a rich family who is kidnapped for ransom) you begin to get a feel for the Malaysian culture and all of its mystery and heritage. Ms. Tham entwines lessons of Chinese, Indian and Malaysian words into the story along with many cultural beliefs and traditions. You read of love gone awry with "Picture Bride" as you feel the pain of today's youth having to deal with old time traditions of arranged marriages. You learn of the mysterious traditions and beliefs, and how today's generation must sometimes appease yesterdays wisdom in "Bending Traditions".

I enjoyed that the book had 18 smaller stories that somehow interacted together and blended into one. It was a book you could easily put down to go about some daily chores and pick up again quickly from where you left off. The hardest part was realizing you didn't have to 'keep track' of the characters yourself, as they would soon blend together and you would realize their place easily.

Written in a format that can be enjoyed by both adult and older children, I would highly recommend the book for a touch of history and culture with your kids. It would be a wonderful beginning to learning the Malaysian and Asian ideals, including age old traditions. Being a homeschooling mother, I found that it opened many doors to my own children's thoughts and ideas on marriage and why it could be good or bad to have an arranged marriage. You might be surprised at how you feel about them after completing the book. I felt as though the book brought a true sense of the age old traditions and beliefs into today's society. It was amazing how easily the 'old' and the 'new' can somehow co-exist.

I highly recommend this book to anyone willing to learn more and become intrigued with another culture. It not only contains a series of wonderful, enlightening stories but it touches your heart and mind with a superb explanation of culture that you may never find unless you leave your own country! My applause to Hilary Tham for a job well done. Excellent.

Hilary Tham (1946-2005) was a moving force in the literary society of Washington, D.C. A tireless and peerless poet and editor, she offered invaluable advice, encouragement and earth-motherly kindness to countless aspiring poets and fiction writers in the Washington area. In her many books of poetry she revealed herself a master of the short narrative poem, her sharp insight into human nature accompanied by an unerring ability to find just the right detail, just the right turn of phrase. It was not surprising that eventually she would turn her hand to fiction; unfortunately, she lost a year-long battle to cancer just as "Tin Mines and Concubines," her first collection of short stories, went to press. To read "Tin Mines and Concubines" is to realize that Tham would have made many remarkable contributions to the art of fiction had she lived. The collection of interrelated short stories in "Tin Mines" covers a large and varied group of people--Chinese, Malay and Indian--living in Malaysia in the 1960s. The main characters are probably the various members, friends and servants of the large, wealthy and contentious Tang family--old Mr. Tang, his bitter wife, playboy son Henry, Henry's best friend Mani, the five gossipy grandaunts, the naive young concubine Leng and wily old gardener Gopal. Through these and other characters, Tham gives us a panoramic, minutely observed and fascinating portrait of a society in flux. Tham can break our hearts with stories such as "The Day of the Long Knives," the tragedy of a middle-class Chinese family caught in the anti-Chinese riots of 1969, or the poignant "Unborn Tomorrow," in which Henry Tang discovers the diary of his long-dead sister. But she also makes us roll in the aisles with the robust humor of "Encounter on Batu Road," detailing Henry and Mani's hilarious misadventures in their town's red-light district, and "The Best Butter," a funny-sad cautionary tale about a naive young fireman. Emotionally and stylistically she can turn on a dime: "Cheng's Wife," a story straight out of Chekhov, takes a sharp, nasty turn into Roald Dahl territory with its sequel, "Cheng's Story." The variety, humanity and insight of "Tin Mines and Concubines" makes it a remarkable fiction debut, and makes it all the more tragic that it will have no successors.