Northwest Books

If you are interested in the History of Lakewood, WA and the Lakewood Historical Society, you will love this book.

It's filled with photos and comments showing historically significant points of interest in the Lakewood area and is very well done.

My wife dig out this old book, The Land of Big Rivers, by A.M. Chisolm, and tossed it atop a heap of my other junk for me to sort and decide which stayed and which would be thrown out. As there are no pictures in this book, and as it was very old with thick brown pages, it seemed bound for the second-hand store in town, but instead I decided to read a page, or two, to see if there was value in continuing on. And thankfully I did, for by the time I set the book down again, three chapters had slipped effortlessly by.

The story, written in flashback style, is set in the Canadian Pacific Northwest in the late 1890's, or so, and the revolves around a young boy, who, when both parents had died, was sent, with his older sister, to live with their Uncle, the land-poor brother of their father, in the still-remote wilderness. There the boy learns the ways of the woods and meets some older, mentoring mountain men who tutor him in their wisdom of living and surviving in the primal forest.

Adventure arises when the boy, Bob, finds an old skeleton with a letter secreted inside a tin box. As Bob finds out more about the identity of the deceased, he discovers that a heist of prize furs had occurred twenty years before, and the skeleton, when in living form, had been a major player in the crime. According to the letter, the furs were secretly cached, and as a result of the discovery, an expedition was formed and the boy was allowed to participate in searching for the missing furs. Former gang members of the original heist were secretly within the expedition, and they eventually split off and tried to get the furs back that they believed belonged rightfully to them.

Excitement, adventure, and intrigue await the reader in a carefully and masterfully-told tale by a writer of uncommon talent. The Land of Big Rivers is rare and expensive, but reading A.M. Chisolm's writing is worth finding this book, or others he wrote, to experience his artful prose.

Very well written book regarding the life and times of a trapper living in the northern boreal forest and tundra. A very good read.

This is a great book that can be picked up and read from any chapter; it has been written as a series of chapters that are from the authors memory--like "stolen moments" frozen in time. It gives wonderful insight to a Michigan that has been erased with time.

Over the past two decades, Richard White has been one of the truly outstanding historians of the American West, Native America, and the environment. This, his first book, is not nearly as sweeping in scope as his later works, but is a masterful look at the environmental history of a small county in Western Washington that will interest any student of American history. White examines the interaction of humans and the environment in Island County, Washington, to demonstrate how humans have continuously shaped the land over thousands of years, and how these changes have been both conscious and accidental. The opening chapters concern Indian land use in the county, and conclude that native people largely determined the region's landscape by encouraging certain crops through burning of prairies and forests. While this insight is fairly obvious to most environmental historians now, it is a direct contradiction of the European opinion that Indians did not alter the land. White settlers also altered the landscape of Island County by introducing market agriculture and logging. These activities had drastic consequences, some intentional, such as the introduction of European crops, and some unintentional, like massive soil erosion and the accidental spread of the Canadian thistle, a weed that temporarily threatened farmers in the nineteenth century. The final chapters of the book concern twentieth century attempts to encourage settlement of Appalachian farmers on logged-off land (a fascinating New Deal effort that was a complete failure), and the attempt to change the island landscape for the benefit of tourists. This is a fascinating transformation that continues to this day. Overall, this is a very well-written classic of environmental history. The in-depth descriptions of ecological principles may scare off a novice reader, but the history embedded in the ecology is fascinating, and well worth the effort.

From a review by Kathryn Eastburn that appeared in the Colorado Springs Independent: "Throughout The Last Wild Edge, Zwinger carefully balances personal, political and cosmic concerns, utilizing language that straddles the confines of science and poetry. This is a dense but elegant book, rich with physical detail and swarming with universal themes that can't be contained on the page. The nature of exploration itself emerges as a theme, along with a firm, earthbound appreciation of the wild coast of North America. Zwinger skillfully mixes her extensive knowledge of the natural world with a palpable hunger for new experience. The result is a literary journey that pulsates with life-affirming energy, carrying the reader both to the edge of the continent and to the inner depths of the author's curious, passionate soul."

Nobody else knows what really happened in 1989 with the opening of the Berlin Wall except those who read this book

I have been looking for this book for a while. I had read a library copy of it but want my own copy for some reaearch I am doing on the impact of the Hawaiians in the PNW. The book was easily ordered, and on my doorstep within a few days!

Thanks so much!

John Salisbury

Being Lelooska's grand-neice, my rating may be somewhat biased, but I would like to thank Chris for writing an excellent book on Uncle Don. It means so much to our family! :)

this book is *well* worth the money, i received it as a christmas gift this year and i've been reading it over and over. if you are interested in learning about PNB or just looking at some fabulous shots of their company i highly recommend purchasing this book. it is a gorgeous hardcover with an in-depth history of the company past to present.