Wood Books

This is a beautiful and informative book. The photos are gorgeous, and the phenology info is good, but my favorite part is the section at the book with sunrise, sunset and full moon dates.

This calendar/journal is simply beautiful.
It is geared to the seasons and to the subtle observations
possible during the bleak winter and the lush summer.
It is a joy to use.

I have read and looked at many books about Northwest native art and culture but this book quickly overshadowed all the others I had read. It is a book filled with incredible photographs and a thorough explanation of this ancient culture. This book is history, beauty, a visit to the past, a visit to the future... a visit to now....it is a visit to extraordinary talent, it is a visit to a people whose imagination and reverence for nature and life could be an example to all of us in today's fragile world.

This not just another coffee table book..this is a must have for every person who loves art, who loves nature and who loves beauty. It is a walk with Northwest Native artists who talk to us through the words and photographs of Ralph and Karen Norris.

Beautiful documentation of the pacific northwest style. The book gives a thorough history of the people, their lifestyle, inspirations for the work, and breakdown of the style and symbolism found in the carvings. The photos are clear and detail is sharp. There is a wide variety of subject and style shown throught the illustrations. Highly recommended

I would have loved to have done the research for this book myself.these farm buildings are beautifully made by people who understood wood and their suroundings perfectly.

This book took my breath away. Ms. Holan's background as an architect and builder enabled her to record and reproduce essentail information about the structures themselves as well as the decoration of traditional/ historic norwegian buildings. Some of the best if not the best logwork on the planet. It needs to be reprinted so as to become more available.

I am biased by the fact that I am so very fond of the work done by Wenche Selmer. That being said the author has done a spectacular job of showcasing Selmer's accomplishments. Beautiful photographs abound and the text is quite substantive. My only complaint is that the floor plans that are included generally have no captions or notes and often no dimensions. Those floorplans that do have notes are in norwegian and as a result I spent a fair amount of time trying to puzzle out where the photographs were taken relative to the layout of the various buildings.

The Norwegian contribution to mid century modern architecture is not well known - let along the contribution by a mid century woman architect. With beautiful color photographs, plans and construction details, this presentation of the work of Wenche Selmer is a visual treat and a learning experience. The collection of cabins and second homes provides an in depth look at the results of carefull attention to the details of a home environment. As we seek alternatives to big and over the top houses, the book is a must for anyone who wishes for the beauty of simplicity and anyone interested in wood architecture.

Of the timber framing books I have ( about 8 now)
This is the most sumptious book in my Library on this topic.
The book is divided into 8 chapters: history, starting off, designing, structure, making frames, raising frames, enclosing the frame & finishing details.
As the title implies, there is a chapter which details the qualities of English OAK 'Quercus robur'; how it grows , is felled, milled, shaped, framed and then shrinks
Beautiful full colour page width and smaller photos are through out, showing this systems modern potential, with 3D SketchUp like models explaining the framing parts, construction procedures and framing types.
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Each chapter has an introduction, photos, drawings and notes describing the the content, then a summary page outlining the important points.
The books' page layout reflects a great deal of care by a graphic designer, as its mixed between 2 & 3 columns punctated with highlighted text, photos, colour drawings and colour 3D model views.
A glossary at the end in combined with a 3D model ( of a 2 level tudor manor) view explain the various timber framing nomenclature.
A must have book for your library , coffee table or to give as gift.

What a brilliant explanation of this wonderful craft. Well done Rupert! All that's left is to build an English Oak House village in Jamestown to celebrate 400 years!

Although this is biased commentary, as the author so graciously included my grandmother, Margery Thomas Rouse, in the "In Memorium" section of his forward, Of Woods & Waters is a truly exceptional collection celebrating the nature and people of Kentucky. It is a personal treasure, especially upon leaving the Commonwealth and moving to Virginia. A must-read for any true Kentuckian.

Thank you, Ron, for putting together such a wonderful book. If you love literature, and Kentucky, this is a must have for your private collection. What a find!

Of Woods and Wild Things by Don Knaus: Don's a local guy writing about hunting and fishing and growing up in Tioga County. Though a work of fiction, there's more than a hint of the autobiographical. The stories follow a young man through his life from novice fisherman and hunter to seasoned woodsman. There's fishing and forests, hunting and hiking, camping and canoeing, but the stories are about more than woodcraft and the outdoors. It's about family and friendship, memories and mentoring, youth and yearning and a rite of passage that is becoming all too uncommon in our modern society.

Kevin Coolidge, columnist Wellsboro Gazette

This morning I wrestled a bear in my pajamas. Now, how he got in my pajamas, I'll never know. That's right give a man a fish and he'll eat for the day, but teach a man to fish and he'll be drinking beer and spinning tales before you know it. I grew up loving the woods and the wild things in them. Heck, I thought every ten year old knew how to identify a large-mouthed bass, or a pileated woodpecker, and knew that rattlers weren't really poisonous, but venomous, and believe me, there's a big difference if you are hungry I still find it hard to swallow that city folk think food comes from a grocery store, and that they can't get milk from a bull. Milk comes from a cow. You try milking a bull and let me know how it goes.

See, the land doesn't belong man, and by man, I mean humanity as a whole, It is the other way around. Man belongs to the land, the earth. I believe that the spirit of a place can call to a man. Some folks just belong in certain places. Blood calls to blood and spirit calls to spirit. It sings to you, draws you in and once it has you in your grasp. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself again.

I love stories. Stories are webs, connecting threads to threads to threads, each following to the center, because the center is the end, each person a thread of the story. Of Woods and Wild Things, a collection of related vignettes by Don Knaus, has some good yarns that weave into the tale of a man, and his relationship with nature.

The first rule of writing is to write what you know. It gives the writing a sense of verisimilitude that certain something that gives ones writing the sense of trueness, of realness. Although, Of Woods and Wild Things is a work of fiction, there's more than a hint of the autobiographical. The stories follow a young man through his life from novice fisherman and hunter to seasoned woodsman.

There's fishing and forests, hunting and hiking, camping and canoeing, but the stories are about more than woodcraft and the outdoors. It's about family and friendship, memories and mentoring, youth and yearning and a rite of passage that is becoming all too uncommon in our modern society.

Each story stands on it's own, some are humorous, some carry a sense of nostalgia and some just tell a tale. Being a ridgerunner myself I loved seeing the names of people and places I grew up with and around. The face of Wellsboro may have changed over the years, but the process of growing up remains unchanged. Each generation thinks it is the first to discover a new love or a new place, but the heart is the heart, regardless of the Age.

If you love this book check out "Of A Predatory Heart" by Joe Parry and "Poacher Wars" by William Wasserman

Magraret Laurence, The Olden Days Coat (Tundra, 1979)

Why do I continue to read kids' books at the age of thirty-six? In my more cynical moments, I think it's to increase the count on the number of books I read per year, But every once in a while, I stumble across something like Randall Jarrell's The Bat-Poet or Margaret Laurence's The Olden Days Coat, and these books remind me that things that are written for, published for, and marketed to the under-twelve set are sometimes able to combine the literary weight of the work of a great writer with that certain magic that is the exclusive province of the children's book.

The late Margaret Laurence is, of course, one of Canada's foremost authors, and left us on Earth with a body of her work that is, quite simply, stunning. From the perspective of overall quality and beauty, the complete corpus of Laurence's work is matched by that of few authors who write/wrote in the English language, living or dead. The Olden Days Coat, weighing in at a slim twenty-six pages (with roughly half of those full-page illustrations), is not just a short story; it is a distillation of Margaret Laurence's craft.

The story is a simple one, and oft-heard. Sal goes off to spend Christmas at her grandmother's house. While digging around in a chest of old things, she finds an old coat. When she puts it on, she's transported back in time, and meets a girl her own age. I'm pretty sure you can see where this is going already; why finish? As with any plot that's well-used, there are all sorts of possibilities for the writing to slip into cliché. It never happens. Laurence is razor-sharp here, her prose sparkling as fiercely as it does from every page of The Diviners, her finest moment.

A fantastic piece of work, once that I'll be buying for my own children. Its only true failing is that I didn't want it to end. **** ½

Written by one of Canada's best, the Olden Days Coat is the tale of a girls discovery of her Grandmothers trunk and her subsequent journey back in time to an"olden days" Christmas. Sal's adventure enables her to understand her grandmother better and cherish Christmas and her family

I was lucky enough to stumble across this book before the holidays, and promptly ordered it along with several other books that were influences to Tolkien. This book is the one I started with. It contains two stories, both of which are wonderfully written. They are written using an older form of English, but once you get used to the dialect you will become fully immersed in the story.

I gave this review 5-stars only because of how great the stories are. The formatting of this book is horrible. It is the size of a textbook with 2 columns per page. I think it would have been better using a standard paperback format, but this seems to be the only available edition out, so look past this and enjoy the amazing stories!

This book is a fantastic buy! The Well Beyond The World's End is usually published in 2 volumes, so this edition includes the text of 3 books that would normally cost you about $42 if purchased separately.

The text is printed in two columns, as in a magazine. It's very readable and aesthetically pleasing (don't judge by the unfortunate cover). The only downside is that Morris originally published his books in an elaborate illuminated manuscript style (like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kelmscott_Press_-_The_Nature_of_Gothic_by_John_Ruskin_%28first_page%29.jpg). Unfortunately no modern printing of Morris seems to include his gorgeous original format. On the plus side, this edition is definitely more readable.

As for the stories themselves, I think it's fair to say Tolkien (and to a degree C.S. Lewis) retained every innovation Morris made, more or less replacing him. It's likely that only hardcore Tolkien/Lewis fans will find these books worth reading. This and the companion volume are the closest thing to the LOTR prequel.

The text is widely available free online (though it's not fun to read on a screen), so you might test a few pages before committing to a purchase:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/m#a107

I gave this a present for my 3 yr old nephews and it immediately became one of their favorites. (In fact, I liked the book so much I got another copy for myself.) It is illustrated with a mix of photo-collage and drawings, and almost every page is a story within itself. This is much richer than the simple linear style of many children's books.
Separately, I'm an animal lover, and I love that it shows the shelter as a place of warmth, caring and dedication. A percentage of the book's profits is being donated to the Wood Green Shelter, so when you buy it everybody wins.

Come spend a day with Patricia Casey at Wood Green Animal Shelter. "It's a place in the city where sick, stray, or abandoned animals are taken care of." First let's meet the staff and their own pets who like to come to work with them. Then, let's get the shelter and clinic ready for business...preparing the waiting and examining rooms, feeding and attending to the animals who are staying there because they're sick, injured, or homeless, and need help. Finally at noon the clinic opens and the vet is ready to see patients. When the day is over, the staff feeds and prepares the animals for the night, and then go home, themselves, to eat and rest, because tomorrow is another busy day..... Patricia Casey has written a charming and informative picture book, full of fascinating and engaging stories about both the people who work at the shelter, and the many different animals who've come to stay or live there. Her simple and straightforward text is interesting and entertaining to read, but it's the busy collage artwork that really makes this book stand out. Ms Casey combines photographs, watercolors and colored pencil drawings to create a detailed smorgasbord of visual fun, and youngsters will enjoy poring over the illustrations and finding something new and exciting each time they open the book. Perfect for kids 5-9, One Day At Wood Green Animal Shelter is a clever and innovative story that your little animal lover will want to read again and again.