University of Nevada Books

My love for the Sierra Nevada mountains goes back to the days of my youth when we made family trips to Yosemite and Sequoia. Later as a teenager filled with wanderlust, I returned to explore them on my own terms. Despite having made many trips to the Sierras, I never really read much about them until recently when I read several books covering the subject by early explorers of the area like William Brewer and Clarence King. Readers of those books are referred to Farquhar's History of the Sierra Nevada by amazon and others, so I bought this and found it a thoroughly enjoyable read.
If you want a broad overview of the history of the Sierras, particularly the High Sierras, then this is the book I would recommend. Farquhar's history is a very useful primer that touches on all important aspects of exploration of the High Sierra and the progress made from mere exploitation to preservation and recreation. Note that the focus is on the high country as the history of the foothills has been much more extensively surveyed.
The book covers the period from the first tentative Spanish penetrations, to the arrival of trappers and hunters from the east, then on to the settlers and further to the establishment of the National Forests and Parks in the region. Farquhar covers Jedediah Smith, John Fremont, Brewer, King, John Muir, and others who contributed so much to the exploration of the Sierras, the discovery of the important passes, the climbing of the peaks, and the naming of the natural features. He also writes of the subsequent struggle between those who wanted to exploit the mountains for all they were worth and those who felt that posterity had a stake in their partial preservation. Additionally, he discusses the politics of the exploitation/preservation debate and the many political battles in both Sacramento and Washington DC that have made the High Sierra the place we know today. The once dominant mining and logging industries are of small importance compared to the great importance placed on the waters and watershed of the Sierras by most Californians today.
Most thrilling to me are the descriptions of the backcountry and the tales of finding paths through previously uncharted territory. Francis Farquhar's history is well written, extensively footnoted, and relatively fast-paced. His enthusiasm for his subject is evident throughout. Since this is an overview, he doesn't bog you down in the minutiae of the events about which he writes. If you are a lover of the Sierras, but have a hazy knowledge of their history, then I highly recommend reading History of the Sierra Nevada.

As the author says in the preface, this book "deals with human experiences in the Sierra Nevada from the time the Spaniards first saw it in the latter part of the eighteenth century to the present, when its economic and recreational uses serve several million people." Chapters are numerous, concise, and specific to event or persons, and include sections on the early Indians, Jedediah Smith, Joseph Walker, Fremont, Yosemite, the giant Sequoias, the coming of the railroad, important surveys, John Muir, and Mount Whitney, to name just a handful of the subjects dealt with. Arranged chronologically, the book is an excellent history of the region. Farquhar has consulted and presented information from original sources, and although chapters are relatively short, they are packed with interesting and important details. The book is also well illustrated and contains some excellent maps. It's a handsome overview of the history of the Sierra Nevadas and is a good starting place for anyone interested in the subject.

This book was written by a mountaineer and editor who knew the Sierras well first hand and even knew some of the people involved in the discovery and preservation of the High Sierra of California. He takes us from the initial European discovery and naming by the Spanish, to the gold miners, early visitors to Yosemite, and Sierra Club and mountaineering explorations around the turn of the 19th century. Highly recommended for those interested in California history and the outdoors.

This book was purchased for a college course. I am thoroughly enjoying this collection of literature by Californians! I love the different perspective of each piece. I recommend this to anyone who lives in the state or anyone who wishes they did.

Haslam does a wonderful job capturing the many illusions of California. It's a good book to jump around reading because you'll always find something you like. All California-philes should own a copy!

Many Californias, edited by Gerald Haslam contains a teriffic, eclectic collection of writing about the Golden State. The name "California" is like Kevin Bacon to the wide universe of writers and poets who ever lived, wrote or were associated with it in some way. Haslam ponders, " Where is California? What is it?," then offers, "California remains at least as much state of mind as state of the union."

This collection is a great place to start to answer Haslam's questions and contains not only bright essays about this fabled island but also reveals some darker points in its history. From early accounts of California before the gold rush days, to Beat poets and Fresno poets, readers will enjoy what so many have had to say about the state, whether real or imagined. Subjects as diverse as Mark Twain's story of blue jay speech habits, Joan Didion's evocation of the southland's Santa Ana winds to Bukowski's ride in a red Porsche all add layers to such a rich subject. An added bonus is the selected California bibliography at the end.

Dave Strohmaier masterfully paints us a portrait of wildfire in the West, drawing from a palette of sensitivity to the earth, gritty practical experience, humor, and skilled writing craft. He calls attention to the beauty of many elements of nature we take for granted, its paradoxes, and draws complex associations between these and wildfire. This book is not a primer on how wildfires are fought. It is a loving and thorough philosophical exploration of the meaning of fire, nature, and humanity.

Seasons of Fire by David J. Strohmaier is a superbly written, artistic, and thought-provoking novel on humankind's relationship to fire. Like the author, I too have "engaged" the fires of summer,which stirred deep, ontological questions about human evolution's debt to fire. The author expresses such ideas in a free-flowing narrative that bursts with imagery. Deep yet accesible (I will admit to using the dictionary at least once every 50 pages, but I admire an author who can skillfully use words that I should know, but don't).

To ape the vernacular of Hollywood producers, "it's like Edward Abbey meets Garrison Keillor!" David J. Strohmaier provides beatific explorations of philosophical questions with a smooth, down-home panache. I have never had the pleasure of attacking a fire with gunny sacks, but the author makes me wish I had:

"There is pleasure in completing little tasks--sweating your way up a hill to the flank of a fire under the sun and open sky of mid-July, then, in the company of several others, swatting out flames until either you smother all movement, or cool, moist night air tucks the fire in for the evening. This genuine satisfaction does not abdicate you from the responsibility of asking why you are doing what you are doing, and why it is meaningful. And of all the seasons of the year, summer, the summer of fire, is when these questions are cured."

Descriptions of a bygone Halloween when the author dressed as Satan himself, dancing around a fire, made me laugh out loud. A truly provocative and enjoyable book. I look forward to his next work.

Strohmaier captures the essense of what calls people from all walks of life to a world of flames and wild places.
As a veteran wildland firefighter for over 24 years,
it was a joy to read about the spirit that exist within every wildland firefighter. If you want to understand the
essentials of what motivates wildland firefighters, read this book.

For those of us who love the desert Southwest, it captures the sense of place. The odd mix of characters inherent in Nevada, each multi-dimensional. Compelling story and central characters - I was glued to it. Interesting thoughts on a monk's spiritual pursuits and, of course, temptations. I hoped at times for it to soar even higher into the abstract, but then remembered how grounded in material reality is this setting, and how palpable is the balance between inner peace (the open land) and corruption (the people) there. Felt the ending a little awkward, but still I praise. Read it!

Blunt, no-nonsense prose conveys a dark vision of the modern struggle to maintain religious commitment in this novel set outside Las Vegas. After finalizing plans to use nearby Shoshone land as a nuclear waste disposal site, the Department of Energy has begun efforts to drive out local residents, including the two eponymous monks who live at a Cistercian hermitage in the area. St. Ed, troubled by the monastery's failure to attract postulants and by his bishop's orders to give into the DOE without a fight, wants to make his order more responsive to contemporary society. Brother S, attracted to Bureau of Land Management employee Amy Chavez, finds his vows tested when St. Ed abandons the Cistercian rules and allows Amy to enter the hermitage as a postulant. As the deadline to vacate approaches, the ensuing chaos leads to a tragic act of violence, simultaneously pointless and inspirational, that infuses a note of hope into the novel's bleak tone. Bergon (Shoshone Mike) mixes non-preachy spiritual meditations with an all-too-believable plot; while he's fair to all characters, he leaves no doubt whose side he is on. A solid read that treats faith seriously and doesn't offer easy answers about its place in today's world.

St. Ed is the crusty, foulmouthed founder of a Trappist hermitage in the Nevada desert; Brother S (for Simon) is the one monk in fifteen years who has stuck it out. He has found the monastic peace he sought, keeping bees, irrigating the vegetable garden, and studying church texts. Brother S is disturbed when Ed more or less advertises the hermitage by appearing on a Vegas talk show; he is disturbed in a different way when he rescues a stranded female ranger from the Bureau of Land Management. But everyone - the ranger, Ed, Brother S, local desert rats, and the nearby Shoshone Indians - is more than disturbed when the United States Department of Energy swoops down upon the desert, intending to run its inhabitants off and install a nuclear-waste repository. The author beautifully captures the self-congratulatory hypocrisy of government officials who call themselves "environmentalists" while plotting the destruction of the environment, and worse. And he dwells upon the attractions of the contemplative life so seductively that, for once, you hope the guy will not get the girl.

This is the first book I ever bought about Native Americans. It was really great. Funny, sad, shows great love. More, more!

Louis is angry and irreverent, but yet not offensive. It'a a very quick, enjoyable read. The short stories in this work touch on every issue you can imagine, mixing humans and anthropomorphic creatures against a graphic backdrop of contemporary reservation life. If you like Sherman ALexie, you'll love Louis!

This collection of 23 short stories is set almost entirely on the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwest South Dakota and the border towns in the Nebraska panhandle. It is the harsh land of the high plains where the seasons are extreme and the lives of Indians balance conditions of poverty and racism against the love of family and home - plus a heavy dose of dark humor.

Humor in some of these stories borrows from Native American oral tradition, with shape-shifting characters who are both animal and human - Coyote, Raven, and Bear. Other stories lean more toward social realism, following lives plagued at every turn by misfortune, alcoholism, ill health, domestic violence and ignorance. Though truly horrible things sometimes happen, each story stops somewhere short of bleakness and despair. Demon alcohol, for all the damage it does, and libido-driven adventures still bring periods of relief. And there is affection and caring that present themselves like Old Bear in the last story to speak sweet reason to despair.

I recommend this book to readers interested in the modern-day lives of Indians on America's reservations. Adrian Louis, in both his poetry and fiction, offers a bracing corrective to all the sentimental and racist stereotypes held by others. His is a grimly unblinking vision of hard lives that still preserves their humanity.

Professor of Historic Preservation and Anthropology Donald Hardesty presents The Archaeology Of The Donner Party, an extensively researched history of an ill-fated expedition to California in the winter of 1846-1847. Trapped by snow in the uppermost reaches of the Sierra Nevada, half of the Donner Party perished from starvation; the remaining half had to cannibalize their dead to survive. The tragedy became fuel for legends, folklore, and stories about westward expansion; but what truly happened? The Archaeology Of The Donner Party turns to the science of archaeology to unravel long-standing mysteries. Contributions by Michael Brodhead, Donald Grayson, Susan Lindstrom, and George Miller aid the author in gathering as much raw data as possible, some of which is offered in the form of charts for the reader's perusal; the result is an astute cross-examination of the telltale footprints of history. A handful of black-and-white The Archaeology Of The Donner Party is welcome not only for its meticulous reconstruction of a devastating tragedy, but also as an example of how archaeology can aid in the study of relatively recent history as surely as the history of civilizations from thousands of years ago.

Read this book after reading "Frozen in Time" (about the Franklin expedition lost in the arctic) and "Alive" (about a 1972 plane crash in the Andes), both terrible and true tales of people forced to fight death and starvation.

This book is as stunning as the other two!

The book is well researched. Dramatic. Brings to light details and hypothesis of how these people coped in the face of death.

It is interesting seeing this team piece together the Donner party's activities.

Fantastic read if your into human adventure & spirit!

And, as one of the photographers who did "Watchable Birds of the Great Basin" (also available through Amazon), I should know. Much of my knowledge about the distribution and physiology of Great Basin birds, and of the history of ornithological discovery in the region, comes from this book.

I was a fan years before I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Dewey, high atop the Goshute range on the Utah/Nevada border while volunteering for a raptor banding/migratory count project. In fact, she was largely responsible for encouraging me to pursue publishing my own writing and photography.

So - full circle. This book has given me much over the years, my ace-in-the-hole when answering questions from Elderhostel participants in birding classes taught in the SE Oregon portion of the Basin, and at other times in the field.

So it gives me pleasure to give something back, by recommending this book to those who are interested in the bird life of this region.

And the rest of this series is good, too...

Part of an outstanding natural history of the Great Basin series published by UNR. All are very good guides for the interested observer, but Ryser's book is the best in the series. It is written with an emphasis on behavior and adaptations to the stresses of living in the arid Basin. Too heavy for the field, and the detailed text does not lend itself to quick searches.

Mr Piatt spent a lot of time researching for this book and it definately shows and is very informative of the history of mining in Bodie with great photos. A must have definately.

This is an excellent book, obviously a work of intense research and profound appreciation for the town and people of Bodie, California. The author touches upon myriad aspects of the town's development and decline, including anthropology, technology, and geology. The book also deals with the human side of this hard-scrabble community, and includes many personal reflections of actual Bodieites. The author also infuses the book with a unique sense of humor, which perfectly suits the subject matter. Highly recommended!

Mary Sojourner has the unique talent for taking us, with just a few strokes of the pen, into the stark, cold underbelly of human greed and arrogance, then flinging us into the heartbreaking beauty of the natural world. As a lone warrior and guardian of that natural world, she stops at nothing to protect it, facing arrest and the lawyers of multi-million dollar corporations with the same unyielding stance. Her essays are a testament to the best--and the worst--of the human spirit and this world we live in.

This is a collection of fifty-one personal essays about living (and dying) in the southwest that will leave you angry, sad, happy, disillusioned, and hopeful. But beware: if you are looking for a touchy-feely, I'm OK-Your OK collection, this is not for you. These essays are opinionated, sometimes in-your-face, always passionate critical critiques of living in the contemporary southwest that are a sheer delight to read. In pieces ranging from aging, gambling, land development and nature to the demise of local businesses and the joy of shopping in downtown Flagstaff, AZ., the reader is treated to one woman's opinions in a thoughtful, clear, and highly readable manner. Sojourner is destined to be a major player in the environmental, activists' genre. Highly recommended.

I borrowed this book from a friend, and started reading it. I couldn't put it down, even when it got late! Each story has a new person of a new sex, age, and story.I recommend this book to anyone who likes short stories, and enjoys stories about being a human, no matter where you live or how old.

Seeing that Hammond has a novel coming out reminded me of this book of short stories, which I read when it was first published a couple of years ago. My memories of the stories in Breathe Something Nice are still vivid and disturbing, in contrast to not remembering a single detail from many of the books I have read in the interim. These are memorable the way short stories should be.