Northwest Books

I suppose it is pretty silly to review a book of this age, but I loved it so much it's going on my list of books worth reviewing.

The language is wonderful and it's hard to believe that someone with such a range of interests and writing ability would be found in the ranks of the pioneers.

After reading this book, i feel much better in understanding on how to paint or decorate a plain shirt to give it a new and different look. The book have clear instructions to follow. Furthermore, there are also some beautiful designs given by the book. This book is like "Whoa"!!!!

This is an excellent guide to paddling in the northwest. It is up to date and concise, and includes all the things you want to know when going on a paddling vacation with the family.

A collaborative effort of the Rainland Fly Casters from Astoria, Northwest Fly Patterns & Tying Guides covers patterns for dry flies, wet flies, nymphs, terrestrials, streamers, and saltwater flies, all with an eye toward catching the fish that thrive in the Pacific Northwest from Alaska to Idaho. Full color photographs and professional quality tips, tricks, and techniques form the heart of this excellent and thoroughly "user friendly" fly fishing guide.

As relevant today as when published ten years ago. I reach for this book often, and reference it almost daily.

These little Dover paperdoll books are beautifully produced. The artwork is excellent and the detail of each costume is quite useful for researchers. Don't be fooled by there size.

Jeremey Snapps new book "Northwest Legacy" is a historical documentary for the avid maritimer. Its indepth photos suspend our imaginations in a time that should be held for future generations to reflect upon the time when steam and sail was very real to life. I have found myself intrigued over and over with individual shots of daily working life on the water and dockside, bringing fantacies of what life and work in these situations were really like in the Northwest. Three cheers! I look forward to the next books in the series.

Apache Blood (Wilderness #12):

Another interesting and well written book in this mountain man series from David Thompson (David L. Robbins). Interesting fact: though this is the author's chosen pen name for this series, an actual David Thompson, Canadian mountain man and explorer who mapped most of the Canadian West, did exist.

In this book we travel with Nate King, his son Zach, Nate's Shoshone wife, Winona, Shakespeare McNair, his Flathead wife, Blue Water Woman, and Samson the black mascot dog to Bent's Fort on the Arkansas, and then on to Santa Fe with the trader wagons of William Becknell. Once settled there an Apache attack takes place with the two wives of Nate and Shakespeare being taking captive, along with Nate's young son, Zach. The ins and outs of the final third of the story focus on the attempt to recapture all Mexican and Indian people forced into captivity by these Apache.

We get some history and close up glimpses of these Apache raiders, however, Mr. Robbins does not exactly identify from which band these marauders come. None the less, the chase and eventual outcome is a very exciting read. As with all the Wilderness books in this series any reader holding interest in the trapper or mountain man era in the Rockies should find these books very pleasing. Read on!

Here's to many more from the pen of Mr. Robbins, with number 54 due off the presses in November, 2007.

Semper Fi.

A fine, eccentric, thought-provoking novel, exceedingly well-written, that illustrates how as we move through history we are gradually losing our bond with the natural world. We assume progress where we might, viewed through another lens, just be falling behind, trading the richness of life for comfort, ease and longevity (well, maybe not longevity, since the future narrator has a little surprise there). A little sad but also uplifting. A unique read.

Northwest Passages: A Cascadian Anthology is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories that share a common thread of location in the Pacific Northwest. Many of these stories stand, independent of any genre, simply as good short fiction. The best of them are haunting stories that provoke a question in the reader's mind about what makes us human.

Most of the stories are quite wonderful, but a few annoy me a little bit. Louise Herring-Jones should consult an appropriate reference work about the difference between slugs and snails. And some of the authors clearly have limited personal knowledge of the parts of Oregon, Washington and Canada they are writing about. Doris Day's first film appearance was in 1948 - not 1940 as Jacques L. Condor would have it. But these are nits. Most of the stories are well-worth reading.

My personal favorites (in the order they appear in the book) are: Donna McMahon's "Feeding the Eagles," Mary E. Lowd's "Forget Me Not," Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon's "The Pulse of the Sea," Ruth Nestvold's "A Debt to Collect," Mercurio D. Rivera's "Rewind, Reply," Jacques L. Condor's "Them," John Kratman's "Nanuq," Krista Dietrich's "Sister's Story," and Eric Choi's "Plot Device."