Washington Books

I ordered this book for my daughter who lives in Oregon and is living in an older house with an existing lawn with trees and shrubs. She tells me now that she knows exactly what do to as the months goes by to care for her plants and the lawn. She is especially happy about the information on lawn care. I am very happy that I ordered this book for her and she is too!

I would strongly suggest Mary Robson's two books on gardening for Oregon and Washington, both Month-By-Month Gardening in Washington & Oregon: What To Do Each Month To Have A Beautiful Garden All Year (Month-By-Month Gardening in Washington & Oregon)Washington & Oregon Gardener's Guide
In her books she considers the inputs that will be required by the gardener, easy of growing, water use, design considerations, they are both good guides for beginning and advanced gardeners.

Blending human & natural history, this book has opened me to an entirely new way of experiencing Mt. Rainier. I love the trail descriptions, & the auto tours are filled with information. A MUST HAVE for anyone visiting the Mountain!!!

If your interested in Mt.Rainier,this is the book for you.Written by Jerry and his wife Gisela with illistrations by Larry Eifert, this book is great for if your interested in any aspect of the mountain.The interesting true storys make this an enjoyable book for even casual reading.Jerry Rohde is what is called a Home&Hospital teacher.He teaches children that can not go to school their school assiments.I had to go into this program due to surgery and luckfuly ended up with Jerry.He's a great guy and a great historian and I am glad to be one of his students.

I wish all guide books were as well researched as this one. Each hand drawn map has GPS waypoints on it plus all the major features and a reference to the USGS/Green Trails Map. Locations of nearby campgrounds and supplies. Plus a very nice rating system so you don't get in over your head. There are 2 maybe 3 overlapping trails with the "Kissing the Trail" book but that's ok. Wish I had thought of having a career of riding my bike and writing a book about it. Way to go John.

These two books are the bomb(S). The directions and the descriptions of the rides are spot on and most importantly the selection of the rides (if you like truly remote, tough, and stunningly beautiful adventures) is tremendous. My copies of these books are dog eared with love and mud. Trust me you cannot go wrong with these books - and I've biked all over the country - or biking in the Pacific Northwest July - Sept - Amazing! Too good! Be prepared for some long drives from Seattle (2hrs each way) but the memories will last much longer. Enjoy! I hope Zilly goes on to write books for the rest of the country...

Mountain in the Clouds: a search for the Wild Salmon
By Bruce Brown

This book touched me. I don't read much non-fiction, and what I do read is usually skills-based How-To stuff about carpentry or plumbing or growing mushrooms. This book though, being non-fiction affected me to a surprising degree, and I know exactly why: location, location, location.

A book like this can touch me precisely because it and I share a common experience. I've seen salmon jumping in the Dungeness; I've been to the campground on the Fork of that river. I've tasted wild Chinook and Chum and I can tell the difference. I've seen the stripes on a mating chum in its Redd, and smelled their dead bodies lining a stream channel in autumn. So, this is a book about my experience of Salmon as much as it was the author's - and because of that it was entirely poignant, touching upon the experiences of my life and things that were significant to me. That's what got me.

But if it weren't for that - I suspect that the compelling yet fact-filled tone of the author would have done it just as well. A pioneering novel in the genre of "ecological history," he strikes the delicate balance, so precarious that most of the time you're poised on the front of your seat expecting to find out that all the salmon are dead and you just haven't heard about it yet. Yet, woven in with these truthful accounts of the state of affairs of the plight of modern fish are settings if great beauty, people who are good folks, and experiences of such great meaning that reading through them you could swear afterward that that had happened to you too; rather than just having read it in a book. The author's gift here is very apparent, and his creation is artful, inspiring, education yet provocative and beautiful: if only because he is able to give an accurate portrait of something that I find to be one of the most gorgeous (and delicious) parts of nature in my neck of the woods.

If you haven't seen a salmon in Washington: this book will bring you here. If you have seen them, or have seen them your whole life: this book will bring you much, much more. There isn't anyone I know of who couldn't or shouldn't read this book - if only because it brings them a little closer to the Olympic peninsula and in doing so that much closer to me, and my heart, which was always here and probably always will be.

The book did make me want to go out and slap everyone involved in Washington Fisheries before 1985, slap the fisherman and the gill-netters, slap the moneyed lobbies and the trollers and the loggers and the dam-builders and the pulp mills. I'd slap the people too - just for not doing anything about it if they did know about it; and slap them twice if they didn't. I wouldn't slap the Indians - they got screwed over just as much as the salmon; and I wouldn't slap the salmon themselves - if the river dries up or they're eaten, how could you blame them for that?

The salmon don't depend on us; this book opened up the raw world of hatchery fish in a way I hadn't even been aware a controversy existed before. Being a scientist, I tested some of my own theories and found that they held up under scrutiny, so I can say: Yes, salmon hatcheries are bad for salmon. If you want to restore salmon, tear down every hatchery in existence right now. And its not even like they had nobody out there doing different things: the Canadians scrapped their hatcheries decades ago and have stronger runs because of it. Why do we have to keep doing the same wrong thing over and over again?

Part of me wants to think that its because our culture can't stand a freeloader: and if you're fishing the stream, and doing so keeps you from having to join the money-economy, that isn't tolerable. And anything that generates money is more important than everything that doesn't. Even though you can measure an industry based on the number of salmon it kills: to most people, that doesn't matter as much as the number of jobs it creates.

We're selling our souls to buy lipstick and blush - starving our hearts for the sake of fingernail polish. And in a week, all that pretty will be gone and we'll have to deal with the stark reality that our culture has just whored itself out for nothing, and nothing is exactly what we'll have left. Maybe this is how we're going to go, maybe this is our society's way of committing suicide. But why do we have to take the whole world with us?

"We're going to ride this bike until the wheels fall off."

... and they will; and the salmon will be a legend like the wolf or the grizzly bear or the mammoth, and eventually we'll forget them entirely, and never know that once there was a different way of being which wasn't toxic to the world or to ourselves.

... And yes, that emptiness in your heart day in and day out IS because something really is missing; and you won't find it in stuff, or other distractions, or even religion (which is to real meaning as fool's gold is to true wealth). But then again, who care's right? `till the wheels fall off indeed.

Dominic Ebacher
ebacherdom.blogspot.com
071101.1234

Experience wild salmon leaping up the wild rivers of the Northwest. In western Washington, salmon still return from the ocean to spawn deep within the Olympic Mountains. This book is a classic on conservation and wildlife. Pre-dating the current concern for salmonids as an endangered species, Brown engages the reader in the unique environment of the temperate rainforest of the Olympic Pennisula. He describes the people and the fish that are the central players in this life and death drama.

My husband bought this book and I just picked it up on a whim. The book spins a lovely web of the aesthetics of nature, the factual information about Mount St Helens and a personal reflection on one individual's place in the enormous cycle of nature. I enjoyed Colasurdo simple but elegant prose, her meticulous research, which I was glad to see gave credit to scientists and historians with every fact, and her personal insights and revelations.

I read this books during an absolutely insane Christmas season (I own a retail store so Christmas is always particularly draining) and it really helped me put everything in perspective.

This book was written by someone who grew up with her summers in the shadow of Mt. St. Helens who revisits the area years later, after the eruption. It was a very reflective, somewhat moody book, that I enjoyed reading. Good descriptions of the area as it struggled to recover from the incredible devastation.

I just finished the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked all the twists
and turns and the historical background information. I can see where it
could be a good seller and make a very interesting movie. Once I start this
type of book I can't put it down till it's done. Now I can get back to my
real life. Thanks for giving me a number of enjoyable hours in fiction land.

I am usually not a mystery reader, more of a historical fiction kind of guy, but the book moves in and out between Civil War era and 1950s Washington D.C. This certainly satiated my historical cravings. The characters are so well developed and by the last hundred pages I was frantic to know how the mystery ended. Great book and I'll look forward to more books from this series!

What could be more precious (or more real) than words taken straight from the soul? Here you'll find a collection of poetry that reflects the author's hurts, loves, and day-to-day musings. Every entry is as real and honest as it comes. My favorite poem is "A Poem 4 Uriah," which speaks of how God's children are always a gift, even if they come with special challenges -- in this case, autism. After reading "A Poem 4 Uriah," my heart wanted to hug the page.

What could be more precious (or more real) than words taken straight from the soul? Here you'll find a collection of poetry that reflects the author's hurts, loves, and day-to-day musings. Every entry is as real and honest as it comes. My favorite peom is "A Poem 4 Uriah," which speaks of how God's children are always a gift, even if they come with special challenges -- in this case, autism. After reading "A Poem 4 Uriah," my heart wanted to hug the page.

I was honored to pick up this second volume of a sort of "trilogy." The thing that caught me about it right away was the way the turbulence of the 1960s comes across in this book. Immediately, you feel as if you're living in that time period and mingling with these characters. I think the prose in this book is flawless and it's the main reason we get to see so much into the time, places, and the character's lives. I have to admit, I was a little puzzled throughout the book with the warts and sofourth. I thought it was an intriguing part of the character and the story. I found that it's one of those books you read and then after you're finished, you know you like it but you can't put your finger on what it is you like about it. But a few weeks after you read it, the story and the characters are still in your head. That's what I found amazing about it.

where do i start? what a book! i had read vision quest in middle school and was blown away by the authors characters and the way he drew you deep into their lives and minds. well, that was nothing. mysterious ways is the best book i've ever read, hands down. the characters are wonderfully compelling, and davis' ability to put you in the middle of someplace you've never been is...almost scary. my visits to spokane, wa and other parts of the pacific northwest in davis' writing are almost more real to me than my own true memories. i've read this book 7 or more times, and i know i will read many more times before i'm done. if there was any justice, this book would have never gone out of print. if you ever happen to read this...thank you mr. davis. you've given me a wonderful gift.

a very clear map of a very large area. printed on both sides, and made of tear-proof, waterproof tyvek. All trails that I was looking for were clearly marked. This 1:100,000 map is large enough to contain all necessary information to navigate the landscape, yet it's very light and packs well.

This map was perfect for my hike in the cascades. Waterproof and tear resistant. Trails were very clearly marked.

One of the most distinctive features of the United States Capitol is its collection of statues assembled from each state. "National Statuary Hall: Guidebook for a Walking Tour" helps to bring this collection alive -- to better share a sense of the history found in every corner of the building.

"National Statuary Hall: Guidebook for a Walking Tour" is both thoroughly researched and easy to use. Both the content and the layout of the book excellent in every regard. In the terms of layout, the design of the Capitol itself presents an author with difficulty. The arrangement of works of art can often be confusing. However in this guidebook, the collection is presented in a logical fashion - which lends itself easily to a `walking tour'. Each statue has a detailed description and biographical sketch of the individual, which helps a visitor understand the importance of the individuals represented in the collection.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone planning a visit to the Capitol, or to anyone simply interested in the `slice' of American history represented by the 96 statues found in the Statuary Hall Collection of the Capitol.

This is a wonderfully concise and entertaining guide to the statuary in the U.S. Capitol donated by the 50 states. Clear directions to all the statues and great backgrounds on why the states chose their subjects, on the subjects themselves and on the artists. Convenient to use and easy to carry. You will be most happy you have this book during your visit!