Oregon Books

Set on the windswept Oregon coast and capably written by Oregon resident Ron Lovell, Murder At Yaquina Head is the riveting story of a journalism professor Thomas Martindale, a man who becomes drawn into a tangle of deceit and death when his friend's life is endangered and he discovers a murdered body. Wry, thoughtful, moody, and structured around a secret that reaches back to the era of World War II, Murder At Yaquina Head is a 183 page, gripping mystery which is highly recommended reading for mystery buffs and would make a welcome and appreciated addition to any community library Mystery/Suspense collection.

We are used to hearing about religious cults led by one charismatic individual. Our times have no monopoly on such cults, of course; our nation's tradition of freedom of worship encourages them, and we look toward economic or societal means to subdue the most flagrant ones, since the law cannot touch them if they are merely worshipping in some sort of erroneous way. _Murdering Holiness: The Trials of Franz Creffield and George Mitchell_ (University of British Columbia Press) by Jim Phillips and Rosemary Gartner resurrects a forgotten case which is part of our nation's history of cults, religious freedom, vigilantism, and the insanity defense. Phillips and Gartner, professors in law and criminology at the University of Toronto, have produced a detailed and closely researched history of the incident, and an entertaining one as well.

Franz Creffield was an itinerant preacher who arrived in Corvallis, Oregon, in 1902, and drew almost all its Salvation Army members into his "Army of Holiness," though they were also known as "Holy Rollers," the first time that pejorative was every applied. He taught that the world was about to end, that wealth was bad, and that he could perform sexual purification of female converts. This got him tarred and feathered and run out of town. He was imprisoned for two years for adultery, and after his release, he was in Seattle in May 1906 when George Mitchell, a young laborer from Corvallis, walked up behind him and shot him in the neck on a busy Seattle street. Mitchell was acting to avenge the seduction and deflowering of his sister Esther, although she would have denied such a thing had happened. A temporary insanity defense was mounted, but the newspapers and most legal authorities agreed that Mitchell had done the manly thing.

Mitchell was acquitted, and his sister Esther and Creffield's widow started talking about getting revenge. Days after the acquittal, at an ostensible meeting to make peace, Esther shot and killed her brother George at the train depot; she was eventually to say that God had commanded the act. The second murder caused an even bigger sensation, but the press seemed to think that honor killings were what men should do for women, not vice versa. An insanity commission arranged for her to go to the asylum rather than the penitentiary, and she was released after some years to return to her family. She seemed happy, she married in April 1914, and she killed herself by poison in August. It is a strange end to a strange story. Creffield had pursued his religious vision with passion and sincerity; George Mitchell killed him, risking his own life on the scaffold because of what society thought was a virtuous defense of his sister; Esther Mitchell's faith was strong enough that she could kill even her brother. The authors have included many insights into religious, legal, social, and psychological history of the times in a fascinating and dispassionate case study.

comprehensive, well organized and a must for any visit to the northwest. highly recommended as a basic source reference or as a travel supplement

This book is written as an explanation of the structural elements of the Latin Rite mass. As such, it takes apart the service piece by piece and explains the development and significance of those individual pieces. It does so, of course, from a Roman Catholic perspective and it does so quite well. It is useful for others as well, though.

Many churches, especially since the Vatican II reforms of the 1960s, have adopted more structured liturgies based upon the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. This book is useful for those traditions as well. Whether each part is used or adopted, or not, the historical background is useful.

This is easy to read and does not presuppose a master of divinity degree.

Former Portland homicide detective Paige Blackwell has become more than just a private investigator as she has bought a thirty percent share of Parker Security Investigations. Now she has to find a way to pay for it and it looks like Lady Luck has dealt her a winning hand when TV producer Wader Culver offers Paige a chance to become a member of the team for the ultimate reality show Xtreme Survival

Paige agrees and flies to a Caribbean Island with five other group participants. The plan is to survive as a group in the wilderness for two weeks and each member receives $50,000 dollars. The pilot who flies them to their locale accidentally overhears a conversation in which Wade and three other men plan to hunt and kill the group. He warns them in time for Paige, as the team leader to hold the group together while evading the hunters and seeking a way off the island. When the group compares notes they find that each one has been involved in some way with Eastland Industries. If they get off the island Paige is determined to find out who wants six innocent people dead.

NATURAL SELECTION is the ultimate cat and mouse thriller as the cats have all kind of weaponry and the mice have to scurry about if they want to stay alive. The action scenes are breathtaking and very visual so that readers actually feel what the group is feeling. The characters, including the secondary cast, are well developed and enhance each other's skills forging a good team. Readers will definitely enjoy this adrenaline pumping heart stopping thriller.

Harriet Klausner

One of the nicest things about this book is it includes a small map of the Portland Area with all of the locations marked. Many books do not include this simple feature which makes it very nice to find walks near you or in a particular area. All of the directions for getting everywhere are very clear. Each walk includes a small map, distance, time required, best time to go, highlights, terrain, and commentary. It is also really good about stating whether or not a hike is good for wheelchairs and strollers.

Few national leaders have shaped present-day America more positively than Justice William O. Douglas. The force of Douglas's ideas has had a profound influence on our world--from the individual liberties that we enjoy to his attitudes about protecting the natural world from human encroachment. At the core of it all is Douglas's idea of the human person. The advantages Americans enjoy over citizens of other nations, particularly totalitarian regimes " . . . are not in material things such as technology and standards of living. They relate to matters of the mind and the spirit . . . Man's moral and spiritual appetite, as well as his political ideals, demanded that he have freedom. Liberty was to be the way of life--inalienable and safe from the intrusions of government."

James O'Fallon's edited selections provide us with an excellent overview of Douglas's vast experience and the life that underlay his philosophy--from his boyhood days growing up in near poverty in the Yakima foothills, through his great Supreme Court decisions (establishing the right of privacy) and dissents. Here we also get a feel of the great men Douglas knew: Brandeis, President Franklin Roosevelt (with whom he played poker and drank martinis regularly), Hugo Black and many others.

In the tradition of John Muir and Aldo Leopold, Douglas is one of our great nature writers with his descriptions of the experiences and characters of the great wild places of our Pacific Northwest. He has a botanist's feel for the detail of a landscape and paints a vivid picture with all the sights, sounds and smells of the wilderness.

Douglas was the partner of presidents, but he also had a great understanding and sympathy for the poor, for persons such as prostitutes who lived in conditions where criminal conduct was prevalent, and hobos with whom he rode in boxcars in his early days. These are outstanding recollections and ideas--Douglas is one of the greatest thinkers of the last Century.

Citing from over 700 journals, diaries and letters, Merrill Mattes' "The Great Platte River Road" is a must read for history enthusiasts of the Oregon Trail. From the five main jumping off points along the Missouri River: Independence, Ft. Leavenworth, St. Joe, Nebraska City and Council Bluffs, we see how all emigrant roads lead to Ft. Kearny. From here the lengthy and laborious journey to the west followed the Platte River. Mattes incorporates the overlander's journals with his own effective style of writing to give vivid, down-to-earth, hard-nosed descriptions of past events in such places as Ft. Kearny, Ash Hollow, Court House Rock, Chimney Rock, Scottsbluff and culminating with Ft. Laramie. He not only communicates the difficulties endured by the emigrants themselves such as river crossings, cholera and survival, but also chronicles accounts of the Pony Express, military, Indians, stage lines, etc. and how they all played a part in Manifest Destiny. Not only was this book a pleasure to read, it was extremely insightful and deep-rooted of our Westward expansion.

The fellow on the cover, Clyde Branton, was my wife's X husbands grandfathers brother, so we had to read this book. It is well done, and a very interesting read. There is a lot of well researched history of early Oregon in this book.

NEVER SALUTE WITH A BROKEN GARTER" is a collection of Peggy Lutz's
memories between the years of 1944 and 1946, primarily recounting life
of a young woman doing her part for the War effort as a US Navy WAVE.
Women Accepted for Volunteer Service, or WAVES, was a fully pledged and
uniformed auxiliary attached to the US Navy only during WWII. They
performed most of the same stateside assignments as their male
counterparts.

Because very little has been written about these women in uniform Lutz
explains that her hope is that "NEVER SALUTE WITH A BROKEN GARTER" will
shed some light on "all the little threads that made up the fabric of military life for a woman between 1944 and 1946.