Idaho Books

It was an okay book but baby island was much better.

This book deserves two separate ratings. Five stars for content and 1 star for the mechanics of writing. The message of being healed from past hurts is right on and in line with scripture. The author demonstrates that past hurts can leave a person in shackles, a prisoner of pain and bitterness. The resulting unforgiveness, anger, depression, and problems (such as eating disorders) are as destructive to an individual's life as the abuse that precipitated them. Ms Brown relates four tools for getting through these things. See the truth, Give ones sin in repentence, forgive, and forget. Throughout the text are woven in personal stories and applicable poetry, for a moving and healing experience through this bible study. However the book is horribly written. Nearly every page has typos and grammatical errors. Even the weekly and daily breakdowns for group study are put in wrongly. The problem is so pervasive that it is very distracting, and made it very difficult to finish the book. I have never seen such a poorly written book actually make it into print.

For several summers I carried the first edition (1973) of the Sierra Club Totebook - Hiking the Teton Backcountry. Long ago I misplaced my guidebook, but recently I found a copy at a local library book sale.

Pocket size, low weight, and durability were its key attributes. The trail descriptions were perhaps too concise, but overall it was a useful guide in the 1970s. Today, this out-of-date, little 160-page book is amusing, and may appeal to collectors.

The sections on hiking gear, food, and trail safety illustrate how much has changed. We are advised that a canteen is not essential as running water is plentiful; no mention is made of treating, filtering, or boiling stream and lake water. Terry stitched socks, either cotton or synthetic fibers, are considered more comfortable than heavy wool socks. Long pants of wool or cotton twill are best. A light down jacket is preferable to bulky, wool sweaters. Packs with light weight, magnesium frames are recommended for heavy loads. A good quality goose down sleeping bag will cost $80 or more. Tents should not be viewed as luxury items as tarps offer too little protection in high mountain country. A tough, light weight, nylon poncho coated with plastic resin is highly recommended. A flashlight is essential; no mention is made of headlamps.

The author, Paul Lawrence, mentions trail foods by brand name: Tang, Milkman (a more palatable powered milk), Perma-Pak (a creamy, powered milk product), Granola cereal, Darigold canned butter, Wilson's bacon bars, Wyler's fruit-ades, Mount Logan bread, and Pilot Biscuits. There is a discussion of "today's wide variety of freeze dried entrees". Lawrence recommends Mountain House products. Bleuet butane stoves are easy to use, but white gas stoves like Svea and Optimus are better at low temperatures.

For those looking for a more current guidebook, I suggest Teton Trails - A Guide to the Trails of Grand Teton National Park by Katy Duffy and Darwin Wile. It offers detailed trail descriptions and updated information on hiking gear, backcountry rules and etiquette.

Well done, very good direections to biriding sites and birds. This book makes birding Idaho for a visitor much easier and enjoyable.

I don't live in Idaho Falls, or even Idaho, but I received this as a gift when I visited there, from my brother who knows I like to know the history of wherever I am.
Idaho Falls seemed like an okay enough place, although strewn with ugly, slapped-up developments and strip malls, but this book made it apparent to me that Idaho Falls is a place with a history, a place with much more depth than you could see just by walking or driving through it.
This book tells the story of the town's earliest incarnations as a Wild West boomtown under two other names, tells of its newspapers, and gathers together a lot of really old and interesting photographs.
Most of the photos seemed to come from the local newspaper archives--the book's author was a newspaperman--and I think it would have benefited from a wider array of sources. Also, scattered throughout the book are new, uninteresting photos that just felt like filler.
For a resident of Idaho Falls, I would practically insist that you buy this book. It will open your eyes.
For anyone else, however, this book--at least to some degree--fails to make Idaho Falls seem like a place that should matter to the rest of the world. But I suppose that's okay.
It's a local history, and for what it is, it's pretty good.

Really injoyed the book even though it's dated and a lot of the sites are now completely gone, it was of great value to find many are still intact.

I enjoyed the storyline related to the actual kayaking ie what he experienced but the filler related to history and conflict surrounding salmon is quite exhausting.

A stream ecologist takes up fly fishing here. And in this 80 page book, the author strikes out for Kelly Creek in Idaho. For the better part of 15 years "Cush" makes an annual pilgrimage to a remote stretch of creek in the Clearwater National Forest.

Each year's trip varies primarily in weather and numbers of trout caught. Get this - a ten to twenty fish day is considered "slow" for these guys. The cast of anglers changes slightly from trip to trip. Cush brings work colleagues, in-laws, the wife and his son. The latter years chronicled have a similar rhythm and become predictable, but thankfully its a quick read.

You have to admire Cush's connection with this water to return year after year regardless of weather or car problems. What I admire most about Cush though is his simple, basic approach. He fishes a Royal Wulff almost exclusively and doesn't go beyond a can of spaghetti for dinner. As you read the Kelly Creek Chronicles you come to realize the recipe for success on this remote creek is pretty simple.

This book covers the history of soil conservation (or lack thereof) in the Palouse, an agricultural area in eastern Washington state which is mainly dedicated to growing wheat. The book covers the time period from pre-settlement to the present, of farming practices in the Palouse region. It is especially concerned with the issues of erosion and soil conservation. Especially during the period from shortly after settlement to the present, it uses a wide range of historical sources to highlight in detail the ongoing efforts of experts to stop soil erosion. The pre-settlement and the settlement itself are somewhat pre-historic in the sense that they were poorly documented at the time. An expanding mechanization and scale, increase of monoculture and use of chemicals characterize the successive periods that follow. For more than a century experts have warned of the dangers of soil erosion while farmers have ignored these warnings with impunity.

Despite its focus on soil conservation, the book never really explains the issue. For instance, it does not describe in a systematic way what soil is, how it is formed, and what its role in farming is. What there is, is mostly scattered throughout the book, where here and there a few lines are spent making some assertion about soil, often in the form of a quote. Similarly, the book falls short in explaining why Palouse farmers insist on using summer fallow. It is also short on practical recommendations for soil conservation (other than contour plowing) and fails to discuss the benefits of no-till chemical farming. It is difficult to determine where the author exactly stands on the issue, as he mostly uses quotes and only in the epilogue speaks for himself. The intention of the book appears to be to promote the need for soil conservation, but it fails to make the case. After reading the book, the conclusion could easily be the opposite: For a century farmers have produced ever-increasing yields while consistently ignoring calls for soil conservation, so perhaps the experts were wrong and soil conservation does not matter after all.

The Politics of Rightousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism by James Aho is certainly a well researched and well written book about an issue of supreme concern in our country. There are times, however, particularly in the first 150 pages of the book, during which Aho's subjects and points seem to be forgotten and/or spread too thin. In other parts of his book, he seems to base some of his premises on farfetched ideas and foundations. Albeit the foundations of many of the Identity ideals are farfetched within themselves. Regardless of these lulls in Aho's focus, I would strongly recommend this book to anybody who is interested in learning about these dark and mysterious cultural misfits.