Oregon Books

Being interested in taking up hunting, I found Hunting Oregon quite informative as well as enjoyable reading. The full color photos were great!

I found "Hunting Oregon" to be a very good read. It was hard to put it down. Because I am an avid hunter I found myself gobbling up as many chapters as I could before I had to give my eyes a break. For those not familiar with hunting in Oregon or those wishing to bone up on the different species - THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ!

Hunting Oregon is a complete hunting guide, covering waterfowl on up to big game. It is full of information and very well put together. It is written for, but not limited to, Oregon Hunters. All those who appreciate hunting will be delighted to see this book, packed with fantastic photos of game in their habitats and hunters in action. There is information ranging from shot selection for birds, Oregon unit maps and capturing your trophies on film. It gives complete instruction on caring for big game meat, and field care of trophies to aid your taxidermist. You'll find information for rifle, archery and muzzle-loaders. This comprehensive guide even includes recipes! A GREAT BOOK FOR HUNTERS, FROM ANY STATE!

In a nice pleasant format this guide delivers what it promises, describes what's to be seen, where to go, what to expect, and helps you get around in Portland. Should be a memorable trip. Can't wait.

I recently visited Portland for the Fourth of July weekend and this book along with {Best Places Portland} were my constant companion. Extensive information regarding EVERYTHING from Shopping, Restaurants, Lodging to detailed information on each neighborhood.

If you are looking to visit Portland and need a Visitor Guide, Grab your highlighter! and get a map. I carried this one with me constantly. The only flaw I could find in this one is that it didn't seperate the restaurants by Meal Type ie; Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

Respectfully Reviewed

Whether you live in Portland or are visiting for an extended time or have just moved, this is an excellent guide to the Rose City. Everything from shopping, restaurants, recreation, sites of interest, etc. You name it, this book covers it. Want to find a new place to go out to dinner? Look here. Want to figure out where to take a visiting friend from out of town? Look here. This is an excellent guide to all aspects of living, working, and playing in Portland. The one shortcoming this book has is that it has very limited coverage of the surrounding metro area. If it's not in Portland, it's probably not in this book.

Critical, combat proven life saving information needed for anyone's child in military service

This book is absolutely necessary for anyone with children in the military, especially Special Forces. Cresson includes detailed simple instructions on making/getting items that the military forgot to give or thrifted out of the budget. Proven methods for keeping the soldiers M-16 from jamming due to sand and snow. Proven methods for the prevention of drowning for combat laden soldiers (did you see the men drowing in Private Ryan?). Proven methods to mosquito proof clothing for months/years to prevent transmission of bug born diseases. If you have children in the military, get this book. Even though I am not in the military I learned and used many things from this book. Cressons life saving items have been used in all wars from WWII through Destert Storm and still today. The endorsements on the back cover do a better job than I ever could. I quote:

"....this book provides an amazing revelation of first hand stories and anecdotes that enable the reader to gain ideas and examples of how imaginative thinking by combat leaders can avoid disasters, save lives, and win battles. The book is a fun read and covers many areas unrelated to jungles. I strongly recommend that all leaders, especially those in infantry and Special Operations units, read this fascinating collection of combat wisdom." John K. Singlaub - Major General U.S. Army (Ret.)

"This book includes descriptions of much of the combat-proven equipment, ranging from lightweight breath-inflated boats and individual flotation devices to cool mosquito-protective uniforms, that again should be produced and issued to American soldiers. Teams from my Jungle Platoon needed such equipment when reconnoitering some 40 Japanese-held islands and destroying installations. Nor would all 11 Rangers of the team I commanded have been drowned off Omaha Beech had they had the breath-inflated bladders issued late in WWII to many thousands of our soldiers fighting Japanese invaders." Geroge C. Ferguson - Command Sergeant Major of CONARC (12 purple hearts awarded).

this book is: "Dedicated to American infantrymen, who in our future wars will continue to pay the greatest costs."

Jungle SNAFUs is the highly readable account of the hard-won development of numerous items of jungle warfare equipment. The author tells both his personal experiences of the testing and procurement difficulties as well as makes specific recommendations for the most useful and lifesaving items every soldier should have. Anyone interested in the military - both at its best and at its worst - and anyone interested in saving the lives of men and women who bear arms for our country should read this book. Fascinating, with many rare photographs. I highly recommend it!

I have been using, studying, and analyzing U.S. individual equipment since 1950. I have been publishing articles since the 1960s on the development and evolution of individual equipment, especially the load bearing equipment (LBE) (i.e. , packs, bags, and cases ) used to carry items used for living (surviving) in the field and remaining fit to fight until the objective is taken.
It is easy to determine what was done by studying the item, when by historical research and looking at the object's markings, who by the same, where by looking at images and reading memoirs, but it is very often difficult to determine why a certain thing was done just by looking at it. This book is extremely valuable for the researcher and developer; it explains just why certain things were done, what was tried, and what was best to do the job.
But of course, troops do not live only in jungles, they need training and special items for field living in every clime. This book covers only that for tropical living and fighting. Nonetheless, many of its principles are of world wide application. And in space as well.
There were two parallel threads of development of equipment for field living during WWII. The first is described by the author, the development of special equipment not only for "jungle living", but also for jungle fighting. This is a more difficult task, as the items developed are not for one time or occasional use in an emergency, but must also be of enduring and robust construction for long use in extremely difficult conditions.
The other thread had two strands, the first, was the world wide need for downed aviators to survive in extreme weather conditions world wide. The development of this kind of materiel ended up in the hands of the U.S. Army Air Forces and the Naval Aviation branch. Not only was training needed, the equipment, being intended only for living in the jungle or desert or arctic until rescue, did not need to be robust but it did need to be useful, and small enough in bulk to be worn as part of the individual's flying gear, or able to be quickly attached thereto. So robustness was sacrificed for compactness.
The other major development in the Pacific and Asian operational areas, was training intended for members of ground units, not necessarily cut off from their own side, who, might or might not be, equipped with special jungle fighting materiel, who, first, needed to be convinced that not every creature in the jungle wanted them for lunch, and, second, how to make themselves as comfortable as possible under given conditions for as long a time as possible, with or without enemy activity in the vicinity.
This latter required training in the safe use of commonly available cutting tools such as sheath knives and machetes, and the recognition of edible plants and wild life. This training in "jungle living" was given in many theaters. One of the leading lights was Dr. Kenneth Emory of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii. He had spent many years living and studying among the natives of the SW Pacific islands. His story is covered in the book entitled "Keneti".
Related to jungle living were courses in "Getting Along With the Locals". On many islands, the Japanese occupiers had brutalized the inhabitants to the point where they were happy to rescue downed aviators and to help the ground troops when possible.
The great value of this book is that it puts in a readily available place, the distilled knowledge of the useful equipment needed to live, work, and fight in the jungles of the world. Ever since 1949, the U.S. Army was set up, trained, and equipped for the "Big One"-- the invasion of Western Europe by the Red Hordes of the East. Jungle warfare was a sideshow, abandoned as a matter of consideration just after the defeat of Japan. In fact, even in Vietnam, we persisted in using heavily armed mechanized units against lightly equipped guerillas.
The most widely used individual piece of LBE in Vietnam, the Lightweight Rucksack, had not been designed for the jungle at all, but for use in the Arctic winter, and constantly clashed with the items carried on the individual's belt.
These are the lessons detailed in this book. When the time comes when we are again seriously interested in jungle equipment again, the powers that be can turn to this work. (They will certainly not seek out obscure articles written by myself and my fellow historians and well-buried reports writen by designers and analysts.) Those who served as platoon and company commanders in Vietnam were the generals who ran the Gulf War. They won the "Big One". Same kind of war, just a thousand miles to the south.
Colin Powell and his cohorts are now retired. The institutional memory of Vietnam and its jungle setting is now gone from our forces.

One would not have believed it possible for any author to crystallize the essence of the ever-elusive and mystically-brilliant Katherine Mansfield into a wholly accurate account of her final days within the genre of literary fiction. Yet, Linda Lappin has done it with grace, style, elegance, rivetting prose (at times so gorgeously poetic it rivals the great writing of Mansfield herself). Indeed, the entire aesthetic of the book is a work of art - from the cover art, layout to the last page - all is so beautifully rendered. This book deserves recognition from the highest order from those with the clout to rank it among the best books written in 2008...or any time, readers are lucky enough to purchase a classic for all seasons. "Katherine's Wish" for that stature of her life and work is most certainly granted here.

Based on the true story of Katherine Mansfield, "Katherine's Wish" is based on the final five years of her life. A dramatic retelling of a story about an artist oppressed by the odds, it gives narrative the chaotic last years of her life. Lappin draws from letters and other historical documents to bring the last few years of Mansfield's life into being, making "Katherine's Wish" an intriguing and highly recommended piece of writing.

Linda Lappin has brought off, first, a moving fiction about desire. Her Katherine Mansfield -- yes, the great storyteller, one of the only writers Virginia Woolf claimed to envy, who lived most of her short life in England and died of tuberculosis (and a turbulent heart) in 1923 -- this reimagined Mansfield is on a quest with which anyone can identify. She's an ardent lover seeking same, and seeking more as well, and she achieves an ambivalent triumph, now here, now gone, and never quite what she thought she was after. The novel vividly renders the bewildering rush of its heroine's declining years, a time of paradoxical flailing and accomplishment. It begins in the devastated final months of World War I, in a southern France on strict rations and stripped of healthy men, then moves through the writer's marriage, her late successes, and her commitment to the cult of the Russian mystic Gurdjieff, and in the process Lappin also brings to life a number of the literary sensibilities of the Bloomsbury circle, including Woolf and D.H. Lawrence. Through it all, Mansfield emerges ever more powerfully: a sensation, a tragedy, and a tempest of yearning.

From one special corner of the biosphere, David Wallace explores the evolution of life on earth. Before you say, "not another treatise on evolution," The Klamath Knot is a different animal.

Even though Wallace's knowledge of the Klamath ecosystems and the dynamics of evolution are fundamentally sound, he's grasping for much more in this book. As the smaller print under the title states, it's an "exploration of myth and evolution." The Klamath Knot represents the rare blend of hard science of the world we can observe and measure with that of the world we can only imagine or dream. That's quite a subject-matter-bridge to cross, but Wallace puts it off. Once I got a couple of chapters into the book, the distinction between science and myth began to blur (i.e., Do giants really exist? Not sure).

Wallace doles out each chapter as the creator planned it. He introduces us to rock, primal ooze, water, and ultimately life. And the backdrop for each major step of life evolving on this planet is the Klamath Mountains. A truly magical and diverse region along the California and Oregon border that stretches from the Rogue River south to the Eel River. A place that is home to old growth forests, runs of salmon and steelhead, and high deserts. Wallace takes us into some of the more remote places of the Klamath and masterfully focuses on the biological importance of each ecosystem.

The book goes well beyond the physical world and ponders some interesting questions. Like where is life on our planet headed? Is it possible to know where it's headed? What can we learn from evolution? Does life evolve from cooperation or competition or both? What is the role of myth? Does Big-Foot really exist? Could he exist? Is this creature another branch along life's tree?

I admire the author for both his skill and courage in addressing such diverse subject matter. Reading the Klamath Know will leave you with a renewed sense of wonder about the natural world.

This is an essay -- for lack of a better term -- that combines natural science, mythology, philosophy, even some anthropology, in a moving discourse centered around the Pacific Northwest's Klamath Mountains.

It's deeply (though not overtly) spiritual, discussing life with a sense of wonder we often leave behind. It's also as intelligent, and as important, as any good academic work on ecology, but unlike most of those, it'll draw you in, pulling so subtly you won't even feel its power until suddenly you've finished a chapter and realized your perceptions have changed.

Until you've picked it up, you won't know what I mean, but it won't take long to see that THE KLAMATH KNOT can make the Mystery that is life more accessible to all of us. For this reason, it isn't just a philosophical toy you'll be able to discard; instead, you'll find it informs the way you live in the world.

Nature writing always carries something of the romantic with it, and this is its greatest strength and greatest curse. As a strength, it provides a window into the sublime limit which nature opens for her human observers. Such romanticism is a weakness, however, if it devolves into a reified hymn to an imagined nature which is as unreal as the imagined un-nature from which one hopes to fly. Nature is not a paradigm, is not a given. One has to meet it, encounter it, realize one's place in it, hear what it has to say, say something back to it, wonder about it, and allow it to remain mystery. The best nature writing has does this -- think of Walden, and how Thoreau allows the pond to retain its power and dignity while plumbing its depths, measuring its boundaries, cataloging its flora and fauna, and descibing his own very human comings and goings around its then mostly deforested banks. In the end, we know a lot about the pond, and even more about Thoreau, but Walden remains Walden, the myth, the legend. Having been lucky enough to have lived close to Walden for several years, I can tell you that no amount of reading about Walden, even at Walden, can capture the life of the pond. Thoreau's book takes the measure of the pond, and makes it real in a way that the real Walden always has been, yet never quite is.

Wallace's book accomplishes this for the Klamath mountains of northern California, home of great trees, deep lakes, and sasquatch. His book never holds the Klamath at arm's length, as the romantic impulse al too often wants to do, but rather gives an account of the terrain, measures it out, proposes a history and a taxonomy of the land and the fields and the rivers which captures so much about the place, but never pretends to total knowledge. He writes (as did Aristotle about his fish, and Thoreau about his flowers) as a scientist with the soul of a poet, or perhaps a poet with a scientist's eye. Of course, Wallace is neither a scientist nor a poet (neither were Aristotle or Thoreau), and so what we see is Wallace's experience of the Kalamath, not Klamath poetry and Klamath science. And of course, that is all we can see, just as all we can see in Walden the book is Thoreau's experience of Walden the pond. Such places cannot be captured by a single perspective, but will not be seen at all unless a single perspective widens the vision for the rest of us. There are many small ponds around Concord, Mass, but Thoreau went to live at Walden. And there are many wild knots of mountains and rivers still scattered around this nation, and the world. Each one needs a Thoreau, or a Wallace, or an Ed Abbey, or Aldo Leopold, or Muir, or Whitman, to bring it to our vision in a way we may have never seen it before. I daresay the lumbermen who cut the trees on Walden's shores saw the same water and sky as Thoreau -- but it was Thoreau's way of seeing it that lasted. Wallace's view is the one that needs to last, to stick in the mind, concerning the Klamath region.

Wallace's theme in the book is an "evolutionary myth," one that tells a story about the land which provides a key to meaning. He writes, "Moses forced his society to accept a unifying law; Jesus forced his to accept the unity of all of humanity; Darwin forced his to accept the unity of all of life" (8). He acknowledges that placing Darwin in league with Moses and Jesus will strike some as odd, but Wallace is a man with a vision. He points out that "both religion and science are mythologies, in the sense that each provides the individual with an account of the origins and meanings of life. It seems to me irrelevant, in this mythological sense, whether such accounts are facts or fictions. They need only to provide their believers with a workable key to life, an invisible world of origins and meanings to help them make sense of an often confusing, sometimes frightening, physical world" (8). Following this idea, he presents his explorations of the Klamath as a playing-out of an evolutionary mythology, a story about how the land came to be, what it might mean, and how the story fits in with the rest of life. It is a powerful and original story he tells, and bound to last. More than a memoir of a love-affair with a place, and more than a naturalist's account of a fragile and vanishing ecosystem, Wallace's book is a testament to the power of a place to transform one's very understanding of the world, and what it means to be human in that world after the knot has been unraveled, and then re-tied. It is a powerful and meaningful vision of lost wild places which avoids romanticism and doomsaying, and which holds as much hope as horror about the loss and preservation of the American wilderness.

If ever there were a story of ultimate courage in modern-day life, this is it. Steven Sharp lost both his arms in a farming accident when he was just a teenager, and years later he sued the Case farm equipment company and won. It was an accident that should not have happened. Steven was very careful about safety while doing farm work. The machine with which he was bailing hay suddenly started up and both of his hands were pulled in. He managed to sever both of his arms in one of the most courageous acts that one can imagine, then he walked back to a farm house for help. The agony is difficult to imagine. This is a story not just about Steven, but also about a company which deserved to be sued. Steven moved on with his life without feeling sorry for himself. This is a true story of bravery written by William Mishler, who died in December, 2003 following a brief illness. It's sad that Mishler could not have lived to write more stories of real life events. I can't say enough about the pleasure I got from reading this book. The pleasure came from knowing that there are still good people in this world such as Steven Sharp.

If ever there were a story of ultimate courage in modern-day life, this is it. Steven Sharp lost both his arms in a farming accident when he was just a teenager, and years later he sued the Case farm equipment company and won. It was an accident that should not have happened. Steven was very careful about safety while doing farm work. The machine with which he was bailing hay suddenly started up and both of his hands were pulled in. He managed to sever both of his arms in one of the most courageous acts that one can imagine, then he walked back to a farm house for help. The agony is difficult to imagine. This is a story not just about Steven, but also about a company which deserved to be sued. Steven moved on with his life without feeling sorry for himself. This is a true story of bravery written by William Mishler, who died in December, 2002 following a brief illness. It's sad that Mishler could not have lived to write more stories of real life events. I can't say enough about the pleasure I got from reading this book. The pleasure came from knowing that there are still good people in this world such as Steven Sharp.

This is an extraordinary narrative in its subject matter and in its writing. As the author, William Mishler, says, it is "a contemporary American story well worth telling, " and he relates this true drama with a sympathy and an energy that do full justice to the enduring courage and resilience of its hero. We are carried along vividly from a quiet, small town in Oregon to a contentious courtroom in Wisconsin, where a dramatic trial takes place. Steven Sharp lives in aptly named Eagle Valley in Eastern Oregon, where the rhythms of country life and hunting and fishing form his character and his destiny. He suffers a horrendous accident with a defective tractor and baler, in which he loses both arms in an attempt to clear some hay from the baler. His agony is described in stark detail as he desperately yet deliberately uses razor-sharp metal in the machine to sever both arms that are being mercilessly pulled into the baler; he then finds the courage to cauterize the stumps on one of the red-hot rollers. Steven tells his story to the author and in the courtroom with a calm and modest conviction that he did what had to be done to save his life and his sanity. He earns our immense admiration and empathy for this act of bravery and for his persistence in helping his team of lawyers bring a successful lawsuit against the Case Corporation of Wisconsin. Case brought all their wealth and power in an attempt to deny Steven his due, but owing to a committed team of Minneapolis lawyers and Steven's and his family's perseverance, Case lost in court and in subsequent appeals. A note at the end of the book indicates that three years after the final verdict, Case has done absolutely nothing to warn their customers of the life-threatening dangers of their machine. William Mishler, a fine poet and writer, becomes deeply involved in the human and legal aspects of the drama, which he describes with a superb attention to detail in an intensely absorbing narrative of great imaginative power

This is a book that I will re-read as there was much information that I could use over and over. Definitions, relationships between grape and final product, explainations of wine content and chemical content. Not to mention a GREAT read!

If you live in the Northwest and have any interest in wine, this is a book for you! It is what I call a "great read"(a "must" read if you will). It captures the flavor of real winemaking with a background of facts (vines, soils, geology, geography, climate and latitude), a sustained taste of optimism with a strong aroma of humor throughout. Real people, real places, real wine--this book is the real deal! Try it, you'll like.

Linda Kaplan's book, "My First Crush," is a fun and informative romp through Oregon's wine country. From the colorful town and townspeople of McMinnville to the creepy crawlers on the grape sorting line (and I don't just mean insects), Linda is able to bring winemaking to life.

Inserted throughout the memoir style writing are helpful sidebars which describe winemaking and wine drinking in more detail. From the way that soil and microclimate affect the grapes to holding your own tasting.

I couldn't put this book down and I don't even know that much about wine. I have to say, I know more now.

This is book 2 in the Wagon's West series.

The wagon train is now heading into new territory for them. They are on the way to Oregon and are leaving Independence, MO behind. They are also now being led by Whip Holt. They are traveling through Nebraska and continuing westward.

This is the story of their struggles against the British & Russian forces trying to keep them for making the trip as well and the environment and Native Americans.

This book is one of the 6th printing from back in the late 70's. If you are interested in the settlement of the American West this is one series that you need to revisit.

This is a book I keep reading again and again. It just is a terrific read. If you're interested in the history of early America, then this is THE series for you!

"Nebraska" is Book 2 in Dana Fuller Ross' magnificent "Wagons West" series. In 1837 the United States was experiencing its first financial depression. Banks were failing, factories closing, and farms were being foreclosed. US citizens were increasingly hungry and dispossessed. Out of a population of 16 million, a quarter of a million were unemployed. People by the thousands were moving West to settle the wilderness and make a new start in life. Former US President Andrew Jackson, new President Martin Van Buren, and financier John Jacob Astor decided to assign mountainman and weathered veteran Sam Brentwood and his partner Michael "Whip" Holt to form the first wagon train of pioneers with the purpose of crossing the North American continent and settling the Oregon Territory. Imperial Russia and Great Britain were also determined to claim the Oregon Territory for themselves and planned to do everything in their countries' power to sabotage the United States' effort.

The caravan now included 500 people and their horses, oxen and prairie schooners. Having reached the frontier town of Independence, Missouri, Sam Brentwood and his new wife leave the group to open a trading depot to supply future pioneers and wagon trains. Wagon scout Whip Holt now takes over as wagonmaster and the legendary group begins to move across the Great Plains to the Rockie Mountains on the second stage of their journey. They are set upon by hostile Indians, British and Russian spies, accidents and illness, and the petty bickering that comes from interacting with the same people day after day, along with the monotony of the trail. Relationships and rivalries are formed which prove to be every bit as exciting as the journey itself.

The characters are outstanding and extremely realistic. The author vividly brings history to life in "Nebraska," as in the other books in the series. And the politics behind the settling of the West are fascinating. As one would expect, the novel is chock-full of adventure, hardship, courage, love, loss, tragedy and triumph. Many details have been taken from actual diaries and journals of early pioneers. Once you start this book you won't be able to stop until you have read all 24 novels. The next one is "Wyoming," and deals with the third leg of the trip -wintering in the Rocky Mountains and the move to Oregon. Very highly recommended!
JANA

I was so pleased with the transaction and the book. It was a great transaction with fast shipping and super packaging. Thank you so much.

As an information junkie, I'm always turning to the Internet for fast and up-to-date information for my garden design business. This book has replaced my computer for first-glance information. Debra provides significant editorial value in this reference, which I find dog-eared and well-used in a few short weeks. A must-have for any gardener in the Northwest, and a brilliant gift for a gardener new to the area.

It's a Northwest garden enthusiast's dream come true! Stephanie Feeney has outdone herself and compiled information in this edition I will refer to again and again. The list of nurserys to visit is complete with directions, business hours, the types of plants they sell and what they specialize in, e-mail addresses, and any other helpful information that may be of interest. I especially appreciate the geographic locator in the very back that breaks down locations by region that makes planning a garden outing a breeze. I even found a few nurseries in my small town that I didn't know existed. Other chapters include organizations that help gardeners, clubs, foundations, societies and volunteer opportunities, education, gardening with children and young people, internet gardening, publications, professional services, gardens to visit, shows and exhibits, and the list goes on. And it's all written in a friendly personal manner.

I'll agree with the two previous writers and add that the book has a lot of wisdom on horses. Mr. Long made his living on horse back, and grew up with horses at a time before the automoble made it to Eastern Oregon. There is a lot about working with and raising horses, and the capture of wild mustangs.

For a book published over 40 years ago, this read is still relevant and engaging. With snippets of history, humor, science and just plain common sense, it is a good introduction to life in the high desert from a native's perspective. This book was the one that got me hooked on Central Oregon over 25 years ago, enough to live here. People tend to think of the desert as dry and drab, but it is brightly colored by its people and history. A must read for anyone traveling through or moving to the Oregon Outback.

This is an amazing book for anyone who knows, or wants to know anything about Oregon's high desert and the high desert way of life back in the mid 1900's. Many pictures add to the mental pictures your mind conjures up as you read the most amusing stories of old. After reading this book, I even bought the DVD entitled "Indian Fighter" (Kurt Douglas and his then wife both star!), because the author provided the stock for the movie and talks about it a bit in the book. The DVD is a great way to see the high country the book talks about!