Oregon Books

I highly recommend this book. It's a great first stop for identifying tide pool creatures of the Pacific Northwest (specifically Washington, Oregon, Vancouver Island, and the San Juans). If you are hoping for a simple, straightforward guide that covers a broad range of critters, this is the book for you. You can count on this guide for good pictures, both common and scientific names, and a few interesting facts about each animal (and algae).

As a marine naturalist, I use this guide more than any other when I'm talking to people at the beach and have found that both adults and children find it helpful and interesting.

If you're hoping for a more in-depth guide with more detailed scientific information, I recommend Seashore Life of the Northern Pacific Coast by Kozloff (in addition to this book).

This guide lived up to its name and was fairly useful. However, it could have used some more detail, and pictures of just the shells would have been helpful. In general, it is a good beginners book.

As always Marianne Binetti has captured the best plants for us to use in our gardens here in Washington and Oregon. She is a local woman and has been involved in gardening, gardening on the radio and public appearances. This book captures the essence of her ideas for a successful garden based on what works for our area !!!

I use this book frequently for plant selection. The quick-guide is useful and it is cheap. The information for each plant tends to be very brief. If you are looking for a more thourough guide, I recommend the Sunset Western Garden Book.

Story's first guidebook in the 'Bicycling America's National Parks' series (California) is an excellent all-around cycling guide (and general guidebook) for the Golden State. It's concise, thorough, and balanced, presented in personable, witty language. He includes a variety of road and mountain bike routes for virtually every riding level. His lodging, shopping, and especially dining suggestions are first rate. It includes almost all the information a would-be tourist (as I was) needs for a bicycling trip to CA. Story also throws in some nice tidbits about natural and cultural history of each park, as well as description of fauna and flora (plants and animals), and worthwhile less-known attractions.

This guide from Story features most of the same attributes as his previous guide. He includes a variety of rides that highlight the nearly infinite geographical and ecological diversity of Oregon and Washington. Once again, he includes abundant, but concise information and recommendations related to lodging and related travel info, presented in personable language (though he's not as consisently funny). As before, he provides a nice natural and historical background, serving to not just describe, but introduce the reader to each park (or recreational area).

There is one minor shortcoming, relative to Story's National Parks/California book. That guide contained abundant supplemental information related to dining and other special attractions within or near each park. While this guidebook has some info. of that nature, it seems much more sparse. This might be because many trails in Oregon and Washington are in fairly rural areas far from any major (or even minor) population center. This considered, this guidebook still doesn't seem as complete as his California edition, which provided that reader with virtually everything we'd need to plan our trip. This isn't to say this guide is poor, it just doesn't quite match up to the standards of Story's previous guide. Once again, it would be helpful if Story included a general map of each park (this was the only minor problem I had with his CA edition).

Even if it doesn't quite measure up to Story's California guide, Oregon/Washington is still far superior to most other cycling guidebooks available (even allowing for it's uniqueness). It's an indespensible tool for anyone planning a cycling trip to or near the national parks/recreational areas of Oregon and Washington. It's a perfect starting point, though you might want to research the areas more before heading out.

I purchased this book after reading a glowing review of it from the San Francisco Chronicle. I'm very glad I purchased it. This latest addition to the Bicycling America's National Parks series is informative, helpful, and truly captures the ambience of the different national parks it covers. It's not just national parks, but national recreation areas, and national monuments too, and you really get a sense of where the great bicycling opportunities are in places that also have national-caliber scenery and attractions. After reading the book, I'm definitely planning on using it for a Hells Canyon National Recreation Area trip later this summer. The chapters on Crater Lake, Olympic National Park, and Mount Saint Helens totally appealed to me, cause I've been to those places and wondered about biking there. The author does a great job of showing that the myth that you can't ride offroad in national parks is just that-- a myth. (All the rides are legal, though some do take place just outside park boundaries.) The book presents everything you need to know in a clear, often funny way. The pictures are great too. That's about all I ask from a guidebook.

Remarkable for almost entirely ignoring the ongoing war, focusing instead almost exclusively on local doings (from Westport to Grayland). Her gently self-deprecating accounts of her various Victory Garden fiascos are alone worth the price of the book. I spent my childhood in Aberdeen in the '50s (from 5 to 13) and may even have met Kathy Hogan (her face, in the one picture in the book that shows it, is hauntingly familiar).

If you are a Grays Harborite of past or present and have an interest in World War II, this is definitely a book for you. The book also has some fascinating revelations about the curious interactions that occur when military culture collides with civilian culture. Though happily there was no foreign occupation as such, our Pacific beaches were taken over by the gentle and the wild - a crazy assortment of young men from all across the U.S.A. As the author poignantly observes, many were indulging in what simple pleasures remained before going off to war and possible oblivion.

Kathy Hogan was an extraordinarily talented woman and her gift for writing as revealed in "The Kitchen Critic" suggests she could have done great things. She balances a city-bred sophistication with a storytelling talent honed by a keen ear for dialog and an eagle eye for local color which, for those who know the Harbor, is basic gray. (But what a splendid gray it is!) Cohassett Beach Chronicles is truly an endearing collection of homefront yarns, whether about rationing, billeting troops or topics as perennial as weather and wildlife.

But despite her intellect and breeding, Hogan was not a woman ahead of her time. She is at her best when writing about the funny folks in the neighborhood and their uniformed guests. She can be forgiven for her mumblings about Eleanor Roosevelt's activism (which echo many of the criticisms towards Hillary Clinton), but it is embarrassing to read her racist ramblings about Japanese and Japanese-Americans. She shows us the pervasiveness of hatred and ignorance of Japan at that time, even among those citizens you'd think would have known better. Granted, few readers of the Grays Harbor Post who had boys fighting in the South Pacific could be bothered with the notion that Japan has a highly developed civilization, but it is a fact and a plain fact at that. Only writers with true pluck would have acknowledged it in those days.

The editors provide the reader with a marginal chronology for each month of the war. Occasionally Hogan's racism is parroted even here, though I want to think this is more a sin of carelessness than design. For example, the entry for November 1942 reads: "U.S. air force bombs Japs daily on Aleutian Kiska." Many will agree that "Jap" these days is a racial epithet regardless of how conveniently short it might be. "Japanese" is the term to use now. I am an ex-Harborite and have been living in Japan for almost 20 years now. There is a great deal of affection for things American here and I have spent the happiest years of life in this country. The war is long over. In this borderless age the thoughtless use of "Jap" is more inappropriate than ever.

My other beef with this book is that photos don't have captions (and photo acknowledgements at the back of the book aren't all that helpful). Yes, some of the pictures are pretty obvious and require no explanation. And yes, a picture may be worth a thousand words. But Hogan wrote for a newspaper, after all. When have newspaper photos not had captions?

But these are minor complaints. Despite the one problem with the chronologies, the editors did well by providing them. A useful glossary is also included which tells the book's reader what few of Hogan's original newspaper readers needed to have explained - such as who Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink was (an opera singer who was "a mountain of a woman," says the glossary). The fine illustrations by Lucy Hart render the essence of Grays Harbor flora and fauna and put a lump in this expatriate's throat.

All in all, this is a fun read - and an essential addition to the library of anyone interested in the history of the Pacific Northwest, particularly where that history coincides with one long and bloody nightmare that consumed the world six short decades ago.

This is a lovely story about good people in a horrible situation. Jean is very real, she grows slowly into a kind, mature woman. Tom is incredible. The book has a very deep message about prejudice and responsibility for your own actions.

I enjoyed this book very much. I found it by accident at an outlet mall on a discount counter. The book was so good I came on line as soon as I finished it to find the next one in the series. I can't wait to find out why life has in store for Tom and Jean! I hope the next book will be available soon.

DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT is a rare ethnic romance between an Asianhero and Caucasian heroine. For this I applaud Mrs. Larsen and ThomasNelson Publishers. The story is a unique romance showing how love can prevail over prejudice and bigotry. It is nice to see someone writing the stories I would like to read as well as giving me the hope of a market for my personal Japanese romances. Thank you, Mrs. Larson, I enjoyed reading your novel.

"Don't Call Me Rosie" is very inspiring! These women and men are terrific role models and proud Americans. I gained a greater appreciation of my father's war experience after reading this book. Everyday people who made a difference!

This was truly a different view on life in a world at war. Women and men building ships to defend our country and the type of people that applied to do the job. Truly an interesting and enlightened viewpoint to a time period I did not know. My father served on one of those ships that were built and I would like to thank the women who carefully built the ships and the way they suffered through cold and nasty weather and long days to make sure they were top notch. Thank you.

An Oregonian for over 50 years, I've of course been marginally aware of Chinese cultural influence in the state--who hasn't been to Chinatown in Portland? However, until I read this book, I had no idea what a tremendous contribution has been made by the Chinese to the basic fabric of our agricultural economic success. Dreams of the West provides a fascinating close look at those contributions which started in the mid-1800's.

Did you know that CHINESE immigrants were responsible for clearing 2/3 of Oregon farmland that has been the basis of our strong agricultural presence? Did you know there were huge Chinese labor forces in the salmon canning industry and that there were Chinese gold miners?

These and many other contributions of the Chinese to the cultural and economic fabric of Oregon are detailed in this wonderful account of words and pictures.

Katherine Lawrence

An excellent introduction to the Chinese immigrants that became part of Oregon and how they persevered.

I've read this book at least 3 times over the last 30 years. I highly recommend it to all who love historical novels. The writer did extensive research on Oregon History and integrates it very well in this fiction. In this story, Kitty, who thinks she is sophisticated and mature at barely 20, but in truth, spoiled by a soft life on a southern plantation, sets out to join her fiance in Oregon Territory. She is a fish out of water, stubbornly trying to remain unchanged in a country that is constantly changing. Ultimately, we see her grow and mature in to a strong pioneer who falls in love with the country she so hated when she first arrived. I couldn't put this book down! Kudos to the author.

A must read every coffee table kind of book, once I picked it up it was hard to set it down.

All the information you'd ever want to fish on the Deschutes River. If you plan on spending any amount of time on this great Oregon River, you NEED to buy this book.

By reading this book you will learn more about angling than by actually fishing. I was a self styled "expert" and taught many people how to flyfish on the Deschutes. This book is unique in that the true expert (the author) is not condescending,omits the egotistical ranting found in other "how to" books and does a great job of explaining things without mystifying the process. Before I take anyone fishing (spin, bait or fly) they now read portions of this book prior to the trip. Now my trips to the Deschutes with novices are much more fun, more relaxed and modest in the style of Mr. Richmond. When does the year 2000 edition arrive?

I recently bought this book for a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest: Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and Whistler. I found this guide to be extremely helpful both before and during my travels. I was impressed that I was able to find information other than the typical, popular tourist attractions in the main parts of each city. I also liked that they highlighted the "bests" of each city, as well as reccommended activities based on your length of stay. I was slightly dissappointed with the lack of information in the "Whistler, BC" and the quality of the maps (only in Black and White, and only a few neighborhoods for each city.) I think these shortcomings are minor, and would highly reccommend it.

i bought this book along with fodor's guide to b and b's in the pacific northwest. this guide is a good one, both for residents who haven't had time to really see the area and for tourists. its the only one of the guidebooks that i browsed that has accurate information on doing a circle tour of the olympic peninsula. and it has a section that recommends itineraries for one, three, and seven days.