Canada Books

David Richards truly expresses the beauty and subtlety of fly fishing magnificenly. Whether a fly fisherman or not, this book truly is an enjoyable read. Through detailed and off-beat decriptions of his life and his love of the river, he reminds me why I love to read!

I read this book and every fishing trip I have ever been on came rushing back. As I read I could feel the weight of the fly vest on my shoulders and smell the campfire. No one other than a down home salmon fisherman could have written this book. While he fished the Mirimichi I fished the Restigouche and once had the privilidge of meeting his Uncle, Richard Adams, on the Matepedia.
I know the beauty of the land and the feeling of a line tighten under a heavy fish, Everything is so real, from the sound of the water and the singing of a reel being stripped of its line down to the irritating buzzing of the bugs. He speaks of the friendships on the river so accurately one knows it is not fiction.
A wonderful read that I tore through and will sit down again to read it again to savour anything I may have missed.
My only regret is there were only 5 stars to give it.

This is a beautifully illustrated book about a baby who does want to go to bed and so with a "vrruum-chugga-chug" zooms off in his little car awy from "the Mother" - he meets a sleepy tiger, dreaming soldiers, a resting train, and drowsy musicians until his little car itself falls asleep, not even the Moon will play - then he's rescued by the Mother and goes to bed - my little ones love it (and are usually asleep before the end!!)

This book is a joy to read. Richards tells his stories of the Miramichi as if you're around the campfire with him, and spins fish tales, one after another, not really connected but somehow all connected, till when you finish you feel you've somehow received wisdom. David Adams Richards is a master ---- I believe he's one of this era's great writers. Summary: The book is like Walden, but more interesting.

My neighbor lent this book to me when I was having trouble getting my 2 year old to go to bed and go to sleep with it being light out at bedtime during the summer. She loved the book and would ask for me to read it again every night. It is one of her favorite books. The action words really invite her to get involved in the story. Words like "vrrruuum-chugga-chug", roaring tigers, parading soldiers,resting not racing trains, musicians playing a lullaby, a sighing drowsy moon, and a yawning baby who doesn't want to stay up all night after his adventures. This could be a classic book.

After I read this book I had a burning desire to visit the Canadian Shield and paddle a wood and canvas canoe on the Churchill River. I only wish I could have done it in 1960, when this book was written. It is a much different place today. This is an excellent book about a canoe trip of 500 miles by six friends. I only hope I will be as lucky to do such a trip someday.

It's a great book. I haven't paddled the Churchhill River yet, but rivers closeby, and you still find the wilderness and the loneliness that Sig Olson describes. After reading this book and others by Sig Olson I just want to go out paddling and enjoy the wilderness.

I first obtained this book in my youth through the old Outdoor Life Book Club (which also introduced me to other classics such as John J. Rowlands' Cache Lake Country). I'm not sure I read The Lonely Land all the way through at that first encounter, but I recently rediscovered it when cleaning out a family home. I picked it up out of nostalgia, but I soon found that I couldn't put it down.

Apart from the inherent interest of its subject matter -- the majestic wilderness of central Canada's Churchill River drainage -- I was quickly taken by the immediacy of Olson's account. The wind, the waves, the thunder of approaching rapids all spill off the page in vivid detail, as do the detailed descriptions of each night's camp and its routines. As compelling is the exuberance of Olson and his five companions as they explore pristine lakes, shoot the Churchill's wild water, and find refuge time and again on the solid, reassuring outcrops of the Canadian Shield.

Finally, at each stage of the journey, Olson quotes from the journals of those who came before him, the "bourgeois" who led the brigades of voyageurs into the heart of the Lonely Land in search of furs. Men like Alexander MacKenzie, George Simpson, and David Thompson, who worked for the Hudson's bay Company or its competitors: the record of their observations informs Olson's account with vivid descriptions of the land as well as a sense both of how much and how little had changed over the one hundred and fifty years since they had last paddled, poled, and lined their way up the same great river system.

I know that Olson has many well-regarded books to his credit, but a new reader could do worse than enter this world of woods and water by way of The Lonely Land.

I read this book while in Antarctica, and I spent several storm days lost in Olson's vivid tale of an epic journey through the vast Canadian wilderness. His insight into the socio-historical condition of the indigenous peoples and French-Canadian missionaries and traders is unique. Also, I found the illustrations by Frances Lee Jacques to be immaculate line drawings worthy of admiration in their own right. "The Lonely Land" fueled the wanderlust and naturalist in me as much as any Ed Abbey or John Muir book.

I was looking on information on old canoe routes of the voyageurs and I came upon this book. It tells the experiences of Olson, a famous naturalist of the 50's and 60's, and 5 of his friends, as they paddle three wood and canvas canoes down 500 miles of the Churchhill River in Saskatchewan in 1960. Olson describes the setting and experience so completely, including diary entries of famous fur trappers who traveled the same route, that I have thought of nothing else but going to see the country he describes, the Canadian Shield of Northern Saskatchewan. It is a different place now than it was 40 years ago, less lonely I imagine, but still something I must do. I would recommend this book to anyone who longs to experience this land, North America, before it became overpopulated.

don't let this be your only source. I used it more of a starting point for further research.

This passage reassured me when I read it in the Foreword: "Many of our authors work undercover; others aren't so secretive. None of them accept freebies for positive write-ups."

Canada's Maritime Provinces is a simple, easy-reference guide to touring Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Maps, facts, history, motel listings, restaurants, famous entertainment locales, highlights, expenses, and much more are covered in this small, handy, portable and information-packed reference. Canada's Maritime Provinces is a "must-have" for anyone planning to see the sights on or near Canada's windswept and beautiful coast.

February 2003 - just back from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. I found the book helpful, accurate and comprehensive - exactly the qualities required in a travel guide.

I'm currently using this book to plan a Sep 2003 trip up to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island & possibly the Bay of Fundy. Lonely Planet has to be my favorite series of travel books, and this edition is right on par with their other guides.

One goal of mine has been to stay in B&B's the whole time (I picture lots of intimate Atlantic oceanside places), and there is a good focus on these accommodations. Another increasing trend in the LP series has been to supplement with web addresses for more information. The author looks like they have gone to great lengths to provide an extraordinary number of links for accommodations, activities, visitor info and often, restaurants. Coverage of maps (including city) and suggested itineraries are two of my favorite aspects of Lonely Planet, and this guide has great ones. This book also doubles as a history primer for the area. Two easy-read examples within that I enjoyed included background on the New Brunswick-to-PEI bridge & the history of why Halifax gives a Christmas tree to Boston each year.

Overall, there is more information contained within than I could use while visiting the area. It's simply the best choice for visiting the Maritimes.

One last note, Lonely Planet also released a full guide on Quebec as well.

As the previous reviewer stated, this is a great guide for locals as well as visitors. The author combines some fine local history and stories with essential travel tips that will definitely point travellers in the right direction for an enjoyable vacation.

Could NOT put the book down. Was on vacation up IN the Yukon riding on the Yukon Queen DOWN the Yukon River. And probably missed lots of great scenery because was reading this book. Read it in less than 24 hours. What a great writing style and format!!
One, after reading it, should then see the Charles Bronson/Lee Marvin move about it... The book of course gives alot more details and background but the movie is great too.
Reading the book makes you want to go out and buy a bowie knife and build a cabin!

It was a bitterly cold December 26, 1931 when four members of the RCMP approached the small cabin of a mysterious trapper named Albert Johnson. There sole intent was to question Johnson about a complaint made by a neighbouring trapper concerning traps that had been tampered with. But without a word, the trapper fired upon the constables, injuring one. Shortly thereafter, Johnson had disappeared into the bush, thus instigating an epic manhunt that would last close to fifty days, and span some 150 miles.

Forty years later, author Dick North set out to document the story, and, more importantly, try and cast light on the identity of the mysterious Albert Johnson. Relying heavily on eye-witness accounts, North pieces together an interesting, sometimes rivetting story. But admittedly, there are limitations, and in the end, much is left to conjecture.

North concludes that Albert Johnson was more than likely a man who also went by the name of Arthur Nelson, and who for seven years prior to his death supposedly trapped and prospected in northern Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Alway quiet and "non-commital" this Arthur Nelson came and went mysteriously, and exhibited traits quite similar to that of the Mad Trapper.

Although disdained by some--especially women, around whom he evidently was extremely shy--many were understanding of his peculiar loner idiocincricies. But, provided that this Arthur Nelson is in fact Albert Johnson--which appears to be fairly likely--he apparently grew increasingly paranoid and suspicious of people. All of which led people to believe that he was hiding something. And as is always the case, there is much speculation as to what it was.

The author addresses this at the end of the book, but given that there is little evidence to work with, it's left to the reader to decide: was he a murderer, illegal immigrant, or simply a misanthrope caught up in events beyond his control?

All and all, a very interesting book and thrilling read, but in order to get the fully story--supposedly--of who the Mad Trapper was, one has to read Trackdown, which was published in 1989.

Trackdown is the result of twenty-odd years of North's obsessive research into the identity of the Mad Trapper. In the first part of the book, North addresses several theories of who the Mad Trapper could have been, but in each case he manages to uncover evidence that dismiss these individuals.

The turning point in his hunt comes when he was contacted by the North Dakota State Historical Society. As it turns out, there is a small article in a county history stating that the Mad Trapper may have in fact been a man by the name of Johnny Johnson.

Born Johan Konrad Jonsen in Norway in 1898, Johnson had emigrated to the USA with his parent at the age of six. Life in Dakota was a constant struggle and brought the family little gain, so at a young age Johnson reverted to crime. This resulted in several prison sentences before finally in 1923 he disappeared, presumably heading north into Canada.

Initially, I was very skeptical about this theory; to me, there was little resemblence between the three mug shots of Johnny Johnson, the 1930 Ross River photo showing Arthur Nelson and the pictures of the dead Mad Trapper. But as I read on, North did put together a compelling argument, and the more I read and the more I studied the pictures, the more plausable it all became. Interestingly, the Johnson family had in fact been in contact with the RCMP several years after the incident; Johnson's mother, having seen the picture of the Mad Trapper, was certain that he was her son. But the RCMP dismissed this claim, as it did all other such claims, leaving the mystery unsolved.

While North's argument seems plausable, I was still left with a nagging sense of doubt. While his evidence is compelling, it is far from conclusive and could quite easily be picked apart by someone with the time and resources to do so. One way to solve the matter would of course be to exhume the Mad Trapper and take DNA samples and conduct other forensic tests. North, believing that the body would still be in reasonably good shape, attempted to do this; but these efforts were stymied by the locals.

So although North presents a compelling argument for Johnny Johnson being the Mad Trapper, the case is not closed. The myth lives on.

Thes is a very interesting story.It is well written and well researched.It was also done by Rudy Weibe and Thomas P.Kelley.
Kelley also wrote "the Black Donnellys".His style was much different;more along the lines of a Pulp fiction writer;where the story is essentially the same,but greatly embellished with fictional conversation,descriptions of events and details whenever needed to tell the story as excitedly as possible.
In Johnson's Case, he had every right to refuse entry to someone without a warrant.It may not have been smart on his part,and no doubt really angered the law.So on the return visit the law was going to get him regardless;blow him away if necessary (they were armed and equipped with explosives to do it).What Johnson's mental state was ,who knows,except those who came to get him;and they tried.Don't forget they really had nothing on him at this point except their pride was damaged because of his resisting. What really happened ;there,s only their side of the story. At this point Johnson was in a no win situation and the law knew it,and so did he.I remind you again,the law was in total control when they set off this chain of events.
In the case of the Black Donnellys ;they opened their door to the demand of a constable and posse and 4 defenseless people were murdered and their home burned down on top of them.
These are two very sad stories in Canadian history ;neither one resolved,but both deserve to be known.
Without books like these, stories like these, would be swept under the carpet.
This is real history;not the stuff about trappers exploring a river in a canoe and asking students what they were called.
This brings to mind what a War Correspondant once said;
"Don't believe a politician or anyone in uniform."

Awesome read, very well written with plenty of facts to back up Mr. North's work. You appreciate his passion for a definitive answer to who A.Johnson truely was. It is sad that the Canadian's refused to solve the mystery. Nevertheless, I am one of the believer's John Johnson was the Mad Trapper.

This book has been a big seller for many years... and the inspiration for motion pictures such as CHALLENGE TO BE FREE. No one knew who the "Mad Trapper" was til author Dick North tracked him down -- all spelled out in this and a later book,"Trackdown." You'll thrill to this tale of a powerful but desperate human being who led the Canadian Mounties in an incredible chase through the lofty Richardson Mountains in the dead of winter.

The Mad Trapper was the inspiration for still another book about the frozen north -- MARK OF THE WHITE WOLF, an e-book out of Blue Knight Enterprises in Hyde Park, NY.

Manon was the daughter of a well known
Hockey Coach in Quebec, Q.C. and later
went on to play in games, or exhibitions
in three men's leagues. She also was a
sports pioneer who played roller hockey
as well. She represented Canada splendidly
in several Olympics and this is her story.
Get it while you can and check out her
great site. Much about her at mykaussie
dotcom as well. You go, girl!

I loved reading about Manon and how she got as far as she did. I have a continuing argument with male friends that if little guys like Theo Fleury and Paul Kariya can play hockey, and be some of the best players in the NHL, so can women. My only problem with this book was that it ended too soon. I want to know more about Manon's career with the Atlanta Knights, and her struggle to get to the NHL. Sequel, anyone? Heck, I'd love to write the sequel...

This a wonderful book. I've had the pleasure to talk with Manon about this book after reading it. She is even more charming in person.

I am one of if not the biggest of lady Manon's fans. The book gave me answers to many questions I had wanted to ask her. I also learned quit alot from Manon about life, dreams, and my passion hockey. Manon is one of the most beautiful, and compassionate people in the world. I am just sorry the national hockey league did not give her a chance. She is and will continue to be one of greatest goaltenders in the world. I highly recommend her book.

Wonderful book! As a female hockey goalie and one of Manon's biggest fan, this book gave me a lot of answers to a lot of questions!

"To understand the world, we must understand mean and lowly things." - Aristotle

Kate Jackson recounts her expeditions with the flare of the best natural field scientists from Jane Goodall to Frank Buck - every bit as fascinating and courageous. Scientific exploration - hardships, danger, daring, mysteries, accomplishment, exotic cultural surprises. Including a glimpse into modern scientific camaraderie around the world and government bureaucratic malfeasance. Highly recommended glimpse of an intrepid person enjoying herself physically and intellectually.

"No person who is enthusiastic about his work has anything to fear from life." -Samuel Goldwyn

Kate Jackson is a much-accomplished scientist at a releatively young age. I do happen to know Kate on a personal level...yet her blend of skills still amazes me. She is one part curiousity, two parts courage, and three parts intelligence. Her most impressive skill to me (with my more literary bent) is her sure ability at narrative---her descriptions pull you into the jungle and make you feel your rotting socks in the jungle heat. I think everyone should read Kate's book, as I am sure you have never met anyone like her either.

"Mean and Lowly Things" is a phenomenal account of the trials and tribulations of herpetological field work in one of the most remote places of the world. Jackson tells her story of collecting amphibians and reptiles in the swamp forests of the Northern Congo without bias and in a way that highlights and accentuates the reasons why someone would long to camp in a secluded swamp forest to catch these creatures. "Mean and Lowly" gives down-to-Earth and easily accessible insight into the little-known area of herpetological field work. Jackson shows exactly how mundane things such as drinking water and dry clothes can be hard to come by in the field, yet how tenacity, passion and curiosity can overcome just about any seemingly insurmountable odd. From impossible government bureaucracies and maggots that grow in your skin, to traditional village customs and published scientific data, "Mean and Lowly" truly covers everything one has to deal with as a scientist in the field in an easy and enjoyable read meant for anyone. It is a wonderful and tantalizing book filled with stories that will make you want to leave for the rain forest tomorrow.

The reason that scientists don't know much about the reptiles and amphibians of the Congo, we learn in Kate Jackson's gripping Mean and Lowly Things is because it's a very difficult place to live and most scientists would rather work in places less remote. As a new Ph.D., Kate Jackson doesn't have much of a choice; she can go to the Congo and find snakes on her own, or she can play second, third, or fourth fiddle to some other researcher in a place with running water. Choosing the road less traveled seems to have made all the difference because Jackson turns out to be made of exactly the mettle needed for surviving in climates of perpetual damp, heat, bureaucracy, poverty, and, oh yeah, maggots, biting ants, malaria, sleeping sickness, foot long millipedes and of, course, cobras.

Reminiscent of Raymond Ditmar's very out of print Snake Hunter's Holiday Jackson plunges into the submerged and remote forests of the Congo with a resolve and story telling ability that keep readers on the edge of their seats. Whether cheering along as she captures venomous snakes, or cringing as she describes discovering that maggots are growing under her skin, either way, it's a gripping and enjoyable book that makes you appreciate those people for who intentionally choose the difficult path, try harder when things seem hopeless, and persevere.

Mean and Lowly Things is a gripping firsthand account of Kate Jackson's adventures as a herpetological fieldworker in the Congo. While the book provides the reader with scientific detail it's written in a style which brings the experience of conducting field research vividly to life, and as such it mirrors the best travel literature. Keen observations of culture and life are balanced by frank description of the frustrations, fears and feelings of inadequacy which all travelers undergo when venturing to the fringes of the map.

It becomes obvious within the first few pages that Jackson passionately believes in the epigram from Aristotle that opens the book: "To understand the world, we must understand mean and lowly things." Every page of the book breathes the excitement of discovery and the wonders of the forest, and she returns again and again to the message that there is indeed great value in studying toads and snakes.

The opening chapters deal with Jackson's early years of study and work in museum collections, which provides a fascinating insight into the world of hard science with a personal angle. But we really get into the meat when she finally organizes her own expedition to a remote field camp deep in the African Congo. The skills needed on such a venture weren't taught in graduate school. They were simply things that had to be figured out for oneself through a process of trial and error. And when dealing with venomous snakes, errors can be costly. We travel with her as she learns the ropes on a trip marred by civil war, cultural barriers, and a medical evacuation due to raging infection caused by a scraped leg that came into contact with contaminated swamp water. Despite this experience, she comes away with "an altogether irrational longing to return."

Jackson goes back to the Congo for two more expeditions, which are also described in the book. Her focus is on the work and on the phenomenon that she observes, and in that sense, as well as in the way she brushes aside discomfort and understates real dangers, her writing style takes one back to the great 18th and 19th century explorers who first described Africa's mysterious interior. In camp she slept beneath a patched orange tarpaulin on a simple groundsheet, covered in a mosquito net: a situation that caused her Bantu guide to quit because the living conditions were too harsh. The inedible food prepared by her cook - bland manioc which tasted like "a cross between a chunk of wood and an overcooked potato", and soup made with smoked fish which was often half rotten and infested with maggots - caused her to lose 10 pounds in the course of 5 weeks. And then there were the seemingly insurmountable cultural barriers.

But all of that discomfort and frustration is eclipsed by the wonders of discovery and by the thrill of the chase. It's a message of life lived passionately, with purpose, and to the fullest. All of us could benefit from that.

Though my atlas is in need of an update now, more than seven years after I purchased it, it is still the only one I use when I have a choice. It is, quite simply, the most readable atlas there was when it was made, and, I can say from experience, more accurate than AAA. The hierarchy of lines and type, the fonts, the use of color, and the use of solid color borders on the highway roads especially, increase the readability of the map greatly. It is the only one that can be read at a glance while on the road (not that I recommend doing that...often).

I bought my National Geographic atlas last November. I have been pretty amazed at its accuracy and detail. I think it is ALOT better than Rand McNally or AAA maps. I threw away all my other atlases!

Blows Rand McNally and AAA away! If you need an atlas, quit looking and buy this one. Best I've seen.

Take it from a real "map nut", this is the best road atlas ever. RM and AAA might as well stop publishing. Not only is it VERY readable, but it contains references to interesting places along the way, places like "Carhenge", lots of rail and otehr museums and other off-beat but interesting sites you just shouldn't pass up.

My friend from Ohio summed it up best: "When I look at it, I can see the roads." As the earlier reviewer says, it blows Rand-McNally away. I was a big RM loyalist until we used the National Geo atlas on a recent drive from New Mexico to Iowa.

The major highways and state roads are much clearer on these maps than in the RM, and the national parks are exponentially more visible.

It is a pleasure to use this atlas. Can't wait til the 2000 version comes out in September.

I've had this atlas and travel planner since it came out and I love it. We've toured across the United States several times and this book is always my companion. It has so much more to offer than just maps. The suggested scenic road trips and the national park information is helpful. The pictures are exceptionally good and the color finish on the maps is so much easier to look at and read in the front seat of the car with the sun glaring in. I, too, wish they'd publish an updated version. I highly recommend this for road travelers.

This is certainly the best road atlas I've ever come across. I've owned my own copy for about 7 years and absolutely love it. The binding is very durable, and I take it everywhere with me. In addition to accurate and clear road maps, it also contains a ton of additional useful information for people interested in pure vacationing. I've crossed at least 30 states with this atlas. I just hope NG continues to offer revised versions of this atlas in the future. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I've owned this atlas for five years. It is BY FAR the best I've ever had. I travel a lot of miles every year in some of the remotest drivable areas in the U.S. This collection has never let me down. When WILL they put out a new edition?!

We use this great road atlas all the time! We keep it in the car and refer to it as we travel quite often across the USA. One of the best we've seen...wish they would publish an updated version!

I like roadtrips, and since 1999 The American Road has been an indispensable inhabitant of my car. I can't understand why NG quit producing this atlas...That's a bargain for sure.

It's a very study volume. Mine has started to pull away from the binding a bit, but that's to be expected when I throw it around the car all the time. The plastic-like cover is spill-resistant and extremely durable. No pages have ripped or become unbound. I am very rough on it, and I'm impressed that it's survived as well as it has.

The maps are readable and accurate. There's not much more exciting than that to say about a road map. They cover all of North America, though Mexico receives no detailed coverage, nor does northern Canada (where there are few roads anyway).

Aside from the maps, the atlas includes descriptions of every region of North America (Mexico is treated as one region, and Canada as two). These are really interesting, and they get the wanderlust flowing. There are also descriptions and pictures of all the major US national parks, a handy mileage chart that includes lots of cities, city/population indexes organized by state, and a comprehensive and balanced list of scenic drives around the country.

A Natural History of Trees is a compilation of a rich resource of material on native U.S. Trees. While you'll do better with a Peterson's Field Guide for identification, I don't think you'll find more fun.

Grouped by Family(beginning with Pines and ending with the Ashes) the stories are king here. Just pick your favorite tree and sit back and enjoy. The history of the White Pine, for example, seems almost mythic in its sheer height and size back in colonial days. It very well helped build near most of colonial America, too!

From White Pine to White Oak to Redbud to Sycamore, this is a fascinating and informative read. There is an index of both scientific and common names, plus a glossary and a section called Keys to Species and Genera (which is much easier to decode with a Peterson's Guide at hand).

Also recommended, Petrerson's Field Guide to Eastern Trees(ISBN: 0395904552) and National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees(ISBN: 0394507606) for IDing and Trees in my Forest(ISBN: 0060929421) and the Man Who Planted Trees(ISBN: 1570625387) for more great stories.

What an extraordinary book. You might not think it possible, but this book about trees reads like fine literature. It is full of stories, legends, and facts about these giants in the earth, not to mention the author's interesting ruminations. Here's a sample of Peattie's writing on the bur oak, after the pages devoted to its Latin name, range, characteristics, and the like: "[W]hen we are gone the rippling fox squirrels and the jeering crows will not remember us; the big dull yellow leaves of the Bur Oaks will cover the paths of our autumns. But these same trees will see our children and our children's children, and look to them the mansions that they are."

Wonderful stuff. In addition to all this the book is chockablock with anecdotes of specific trees and their histories, and how our forefathers and the American Indian viewed the various types of trees. Tree lover or not, you'll enjoy this book.

This is a great book for tree lovers.Though not very good for identification(one of the field guides would be better for that),this is an excellent book for the reader who has already learned to identify the various trees and now wants to learn something about them.The short,non-technical articles cover a host of topics,from botany and historical reports to the author's personal acquaintance with the various trees discussed.

This book and its companion volume, "A Natural History of Western Trees," are by far the most detailed accounts of the trees of North America. It's truly too bad the author didn't have the chance to complete the third book in this series: "Southern Trees." Never have I read a richer, more lovingly or enthusiastically written description of trees. Aside from being packed with facts, the books offer a glimpse of man's interaction with trees and teaches one how to interact with them and respect them. The author's enthusiasm is contagious!

This is the essential book for anyone who cares for the trees and forests of the USA. The writer has a talent, unmatched as far as I know, to spin a tale on trees, bringing to life not only the trees of North America but also the people who walked among them.

It also is an essential book for anyone interested in the history of the USA. Fittingly the book starts off with a description of white pine and the birth of what is now the USA. In short anyone who claims to care for trees or to be interested in how the USA came to be and who is not familiar with the contents of this book is in serious danger of appearing to be a charlatan.

[Quality of the reprint could be better; actually this book deserves to be in hardcover. However, the quality of the reprint could also be a lot worse, or -horrible thought!- the book might go out of print altogether]

"A jolly, laughing lady," those are the opening words of the biography.
The closing words are:
"To be able to share what I have learned with others is a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"

In between those personal words, I got the chance to intimately share the life of Winnifred Eaton. Birchall opens the family vaults, secrets and intimacies; shares her deductions and her thoughts about Winnifred with me as reader; and writes in a zesty, tangy language that kept seducing me to read on and on.
The things I learned about the early filmindustry in Hollywood and the look behind the screens, are as fascinating as all the facts about the working conditions for women in the first half of the century in the USA

This biography by Birchall leads me to wonder and think about Winnifred as a human being and also about the culture and times that Winnifred went through in her life and tackled straight on, in her own inimitable style.
What more can a biography do?

Normally I am none too fond of biographies as genre. This one had me enthralled, qua content and style of writing.

Birchall's fascinating and beautifully written account of her grandmother's life is an important work for scholars in women's studies, Asian-American or American studies, Canlit, and the movie industry, and for the general reader seeking a compelling biography.

Other reviewers have mentioned Eaton/Watanna's background. I will stress instead the absorbing interest of Winnifred's successive reinventions of herself in societies that had no ready place for her. Like a brilliant slackrope walker with an increasingly awkward load, Winnifred managed to shift her balance not only to survive, but pulled off one tour de force after another. Her performances as a Japanese-American novelist, as a screenwriter and as a rancher doyenne would win applause from Daniel Defoe.

Eaton/Watanna has become a focal interest of American scholars in recent years. As her granddaughter, Birchall had informaitonal advantages in writing on her. Her graceful, well-considered book shows how glad we should be for Birchall's advantages.

I didn't mean to like Winnifred Eaton. After all, she was a bit of a fanfaronade and very much of a poseur, not at all the sort I wanted in my circle of intimates.

But Diana Birchall's sparkling biography changed my mind. Writing with unblinking honesty, Birchall describes the many lives that her chameleon grandmother lived, from journalist and novelist to story editor and screenwriter. Of most interest to me were the stories of her career as wife in two unconventional marriages and mother to four children. Birchall's graceful use of language is enhanced by her wit and intelligently ironic style. She concludes this delightful biography with the acknowledgment that sharing what she has learned about her grandmother has been a privilege and a joy. Surely it is no less a privilege and a joy for the reader.

In my library I have dozens of books inherited from my parents and my grandparents. We have been readers for several generations, and I grew up with many of these books. One of these books was a novel called "The Heart of Hyacinth" by an author mysteriously named Onoto Watanna. The author was unknown to me, but I thought the book was one of the most beautiful of all the books I'd inherited, with lovely Japanese-style illustrations and drawings.

But now I've had a chance to learn about the woman who lurked behind that exotic nom de plume. I learn she was not Japanese at all, but half Chinese and half English. Yet her true story seems to be as fully exotic as any of the character's lives from her books.

Diana Birchall has done a wonderful job of bringing her fascinating grandmother to life. The book give a wonderful look at a most unusual woman, and what life was like for young women at the turn of the last century. At least what life was like when the young women were as self-confident and gutsy as the young Winnifred Eaton.

"A jolly, laughing lady" are the first words of the bigraphy; the last ones are: "To be able to share what I have learned with others has been a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"

Inbetween these words Birchall indeed shares with the reader the life of Winnifred, in personal and intimate detail. Birchall also seduces the reader into not just reading, but thinking about the culture and times Winnifred faced in her own inimitable style, from her life in Canada as young girl down to the years of Hollywood.

Normally I am none too fond of biographies but this one enchanted me, by the content and by the style of Birchall's writing. Full of zest, lifely images and easy to read on and on. As non native reader I appreciated this very much; it was a joy and a privilege to share. Would that all biographies were such a good read!