Wisconsin Books

This has become my camping "bible". (In point of fact, it was a contested item in dividing marital property following my divorce.) Informative, easy-to-use, fun to read, excellent descriptions, and the only way to plan a camping trip. My partner and I tent it, and this book has proven to be extremely useful in finding a site well away from the electrified gulag. The overviews of each park's campsites allow one to make an informed choice regarding a site. The detailed description of each park's history and special features make this book an ideal way to find exactly what you're looking for in the way of year-round outdoor recreation at any of Wisconsin's state parks, natural areas and forests. A very minor criticism is that the photos used in the book are very much in need of up-dating.

This book is a must-have if you plan on camping in any of the Wisconsin State Parks.

Not only does it contain the usual maps and information for each park, but it also has descriptions of the campsites by campsite number! In my opinion, the campsite descriptions alone make the book worth buying.

I frequently make reservations at a campground before I visit a particular park for the first time. In the past I was assigned the next available campsite number and I had no idea what it is like until I arrived at the park. Several times I arrived at the park only to find that my site was quite sloped or too small to put my tent on!

Now, before calling in the reservations I read the book and pick out a few campsites that are level, grassy, and partly shaded (my preference!) and ask for them by number. It makes the entire camping trip so much more enjoyable.

This book is very complete and informative. I was only familiar with Gov Dodge SP. After buying this book we planned 2 more camping trips to places we were unfamiliar with!! The details are great. Down to which campsites are shaded, gravel, good for RVs, etc.

Highly recommended!!

Living in WI and doing a lot of camping in state parks, I had been looking for a book like this for years. I actually started collecting all the Park Newspapers and creating my own scrapbook of parks, campsites etc. Then 3 years ago I found this book. WOW is saved me alot of time it has all the info for all the parks inclding campsite descriptions, hunting, hiking, fishing and concessions stand info.

As invaluable to someone recreating in WI as the Wisconsin Gazateer Map!!!

So much information - perfect for any age. Great directions and descriptions. Don't leave home without it!

In Wisconsin's Outdoor Treasures, Tim Brewer showcases practical and informative field guide information for 150 of Wisconsin's most interesting and unique natural destinations ranging from the Mississippi River bluffs and backwaters to the forests of the great Northwoods, to the glacial hills and valleys hallmarking Wisconsin geology and topography. Wisconsin Outdoor Treasures offers the Wisconsin visitor, tourist, as well as born and bred native resident a wealth of places to hike, canoe, kayak, bike, backpack, camp out, enjoy the wildlife, and more. Here are scenic drives, cross-country ski and snowshoe suggestions, as well as the resource information for enjoy the simple solitude of waterfalls, lakes, scenic bluffs, and deep forests. From National and State parks and forests, to county parks, private natural preserves, wild and scenic rivers, and Wisconsin wildlife refuges, Wisconsin's Outdoor Treasures is a comprehensive, authoritative, occasionally inspiring compendium of places to go and things to do in the Badger State, spring, summer, fall or winter.

This book summarizes natural places in Wisconsin - I have found it most helpful with campsites. I am a beginning camper and it was great to see - at a glance - what resources and activities were available at the different campgrounds. I especially like that its chapters are based on sections of the state, making it easy to find a close location for a quick day trip or a destination farther away to take a longer vacation. It even includes contact information for the places listed, so you can call ahead to find out about special activities. Great book!!

This guide is a necessity if you travel in Wisconsin. Our family has rediscovered old childhood haunts and discovered some of Wisconsin's natural treasures that were otherwise unknown to us. This book shares in-depth information vital to state park campers, such as electric sites, beach, nature programs, etc. You can really plan a tailor-made state park vacation based on the information in this book!

Cornelia Peake McDonald's diary shows us what life was like for the South during the Civil War. This inspiring story shows the noble character of Mrs. McDonald and the people of the South in general as they fought for their homeland and their beliefs. Most of us can only dimly imagine the hardships they endured with courage, authentic trust in God, and sacrifical help from neighbors and friends--hardships which included battles being waged in their yards, the death of loved ones, cruel treatment, and women with children being driven from their homes as refugees.

I stumbled on Cornelia Peake McDonald when I discovered she was a relation. Of course I had to obtain this book when I was surprised to find her diary(or in this case an edited form of it) still in print.

This book is not for the light hearted history buff that wants the stories of battle. It is the diary of a woman living through extra-ordinary times. A diary that her husband asked her to keep when he announced that their town was going to be taken by the union while he had to go to Richmond. Col. Angus W. McDonald organized the 7th Virginia Cavalry and served on the staff of his friend Jefferson Davis.

The town of Winchester changed hands a few times. As such Cornelia was on the front lines. She had to deal with the union occupiers who were not too gentlemenly with seccesionists. Cornelia refused to turn over her house several times. Food was hard to obtain as access was denied to people that did not take an oath to the union. Yet she talks of union soldiers that violate orders and trade for flour and bread. As a good conferate she does not like the union forces as she describes life on the occupation. Yet she finds decent people that help her to what extent they can. In fact she even spoke up for a doctor that stayed in her house and did not bother her too much and kept soldiers from pillaging too much.

She speaks of fears of the occupation as everyday more and more mistreatment happens as people are forced from their homes. Some dropped in the middle of nowhere without food or money. The fact that women are accosted if they walk around in pairs. You feel hear heart ache at the loss of her youngest child.

Eventually she and her family become refugees to Lexington. You learn of her hardships as she deals with starvation and tried to get firewood for the family. Creating Confederate Candles, spinning wool for clothing. She even had to beg a man to make shoes for her boys.

She was faced with breaking up her family. Especially after the Col. died. She decided to keep them together no matter what. After the war, they learn their homestead was unusable and decide to stay where they are.

You also get to hear about the personalites of the war. She sits in a pew near Stonewall Jackson in church. Dinners with the Ashby brothers, meeting Robert E. Lee after the war. There are others that I will leave for you to find. :)

Cornelia is an interesting woman and a product of her era. She speaks out against slavery and yet is offended by actions of freed slaves. She speaks of the short lived effort of reconcelliation of the North that was destroyed by John Wilkes Booth. At first she is happy with Lincolns death as she thinks he got what he deserved. And yet on reflection she realizes it was a big mistake that will hurt the South. She talks about the abuse of Jefferson Davis and the fact an innocent woman and her innocent son go to the gallows for the assassanation.

It should be mentioned this is not the full diary and the fact she lost some of it as she moved around. Yet her memory is rather good as she rewrote events that were lost. She eventually penned a copy for each of her children.

All in all a facinating read about a tough resourcefull woman struggling to keep and feed her family.

I read this journal/reminiscence during a short period in whichI read several other Confederate women's diaries and reminiscences,and something that made this one particularly significant in my opinion was that unlike some of the other southern women whose writings I read, Cornelia McDonald lived along a major battlefront of the Civil War from the early months on. Thus, although she definitely preferred to have the Confederate forces around her and appears to have retained some bitterness toward the Union government after the war, she had a more complex view of Union soldiers than did some other Confederate women who lived further from the warfront through much of the war. She mentions the kindness of a shoemaker in her town who sympathized with the Union cause but made shoes for her large family of children even though she could not pay him, and at one point she even has a good word for the Union general who heads the forces occupying the town where she lives. The story of her struggle to feed and protect her children, help nurse soldiers, maintain tense but somewhat peaceable relations with soldiers who occupy her home, and support her family when she is eventually left alone is a story of courage, resourcefulness, pain, and gratitude. Cornelia had not lived only the life of a sheltered belle before the war, and despite the chaos around her, she manages to combine practicality and a love of beauty to keep enough sanity to survive the war and go on with family life afterward.

This book provides a glimpse into the struggles and mindset of a southern wife & mom and her family during the civil war. Cornelia McDonald's fortitude and faith under extraordinary trials and tragedies is inspirational. We are a homeschooling family and I think this would be an excellent supplement to a high school student's studies of this time period.

The "great river" is the Mississippi River that provides the western border of Wisconsin. This 250 mile stretch of the river showcases spectacular scenery. Beginning in the north at Prescott, and continuing down to Potosi in the south, there is a superb highway running down along side which is called the "Great River Road". Norm Rogers and Chris Dinesen Rogers have collaborated to produce for the traveler or vacationer traveling along this highway system a highly recommended and very portable compendium of 101 suggestions of things to do and see. Designed with one specific suggestion per page, each entry also includes a specific and relevant fact. If you are planning a day-trip or an extended weekend along Wisconsin's share of the Great River Road, then begin planning your itinerary by browsing through the pages of Norm and Chris Rogers' 101 Things To Do On The Wisconsin Great River Road!

For the past several years, Chris and I have traveled the Great River Road in Wisconsin, and while doing so, looked for the perfect travel guide. Everything we found seemed to be self-serving, paid advertisements, so we decided to write our own. "101 Things To Do" is a list of fun things that can be enjoyed by the entire family. It turned out to be the best little book. Even after driving the Road a dozen times, it still keeps us busy. I would recommend this book to anyone.

A delightful travel companion with interesting suggestions and fun trivia! Definitely leads you down the "road less traveled" with great results!

Professor Herbert Braun has authored a monumental book. The author leaves few stones unturned...as a result the research is absolutely profound. "Jorge Eliécer Gaitán" is a legendary Colombian populist who unfortunately is assasinated before he can fulfill his political ambitions. To this end, Braun carefully documents the fact that had he not been killed, Gaitán would have certainly won the 1950 presidential elections in Colombia.

Braun tells the complete story of Gaitán...the politician who boasted that he was not a man...he was a village. The author painstakingly demonstrates the enormous importance Gaitán played among the poor. Moreover, Braun also does an excellent job of showing how Gaitán filled a gigantic void in Colombian politics. Unfortunately, the assasination of Gaitán triggered the conflict that haunts Colombia to this day. In my professional opinion, this is an spectacular book and must be read by everyone with a special competence in Colombian - American affairs.

Bert Ruiz

This book concisely details the impact of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan on 20th Century Colombian politics. This work begins with an account of Gaitan's days as a student and his early professional life as a lawyer. Gaitan came from a middle-middle class background and rose through the ranks of the Liberal party to eventually become its Presidential candidate in the late 1940s. Gaitan's political outlook was left-of-center and he was a champion of the lower and middle classes. Because Gaitan was the people's candidate, he was not especially liked by the Colombian oligarchy. Gaitan was assasinated in 1948 and to this day it is not officially known who the intellectual authors of that crime were. However, the people felt their candidate had been murdered by the oligarchy and this led to a brutal 10-year civil war that claimed over 200,000 lives. This is a must-read book to understand the root causes of Colombian political violence.

This book provides the reader with a precise insight on the evolution of Colombia's restrictive political system. In other words, the author shows the way in which this country's ruling elite have been successful in excluding the masses from major political decisions. This situation has been an influential cause for the fall of such popular figures as Jorge Eliecer Gaitan.

Koanes wrote:

Mr. Wagner obviously spent a great deal of time searching libraries for newspaper and magazine accounts of the period, as well as interviews with a few surviving old timers, to sort through the B.S and get to the facts about what was really going on in Milwaukee in 1903-1909. I can only imagine what it was like to see a motorcycle flying down the street with no brakes, dodging pedestrians, horses, carts, and wagons.

Knowledgeably written by Herbert Wagner (a recognized authority on Harley-Davidson motorcycles), At The Creation: Myth, Reality, And The Origin Of The Harley-Davidson Motorcycle, 1901-1909 is the meticulously researched history of this popular favorite two-wheeled motorized vehicle and the Milwaukee, Wisconsin company that made them. Black-and-white photographs (some of them vintage) wonderfully embellish the straightforward, factual recounting of the history of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, including its first race, first dealer, the first customer, as well as the many myths concerning its creation that would later go on to become full fledged urban legends. At The Creation is an excellent and fascinating survey for motorcycle buffs in general, and Harley-Davidson fans in particular!

Herb Wagner has written a book that will become a classic. What
a good story. And his conclusions will amaze you. The pioneer days of motorcycling in America are brought to life with exquisite detail. Never seen before photgraphs. A must read for
any motorcycle enthusiast.

"B is for Badger" is a wonderful book for learning about Wisconsin's traditions, history and culture. I'm a fan of this book series, but a few of the books I've purchased are quite detailed for young children.
This book is entertaining and informative, though each page is short and sweet enough for the younger ears, but puts forth something for both adults and children to learn about.

The illustrations are beautiful, and aptly capture the people, places, traditions and unique treasures found in Wisconsin.

This book is one of a kind. Great illustrations and well written!
A must have for children in WI!

This is a beautifully done book. It is good for little children and their older siblings (and parents) as it is written on two levels. The illustrations are wonderful.

This book evokes the details and places that make sense to the reader as soon as we read the words, but which were beyond our imagination moments before. Very early in the book, in Ehiopia at the time of the early 1980s famine, Meti tells her friends that she was a "very interesting and quite phenomenal secret" way to get a state of sweet flavors, by eating small drops of glycerin from her mother's lotion.

"Eew! I can't believe you've been drinking lotion. That's disgusting!"
"You eat mud all the time, debeb!"
"But that's different. Mud is cool. That's where food grows... [Y]our secrets are boring and stupid."

To me, there's no way her life is boring--I didn't get to the book for a long time, but once I did, I read it not just once, but 1 1/2 times straight through--I had to ply myself away from it, to not just read it as if it were on repeat. This means that the book is not riveting, hard to put down, but fast and immensely fulfilling. Quickly, we learn about Ethiopia and its war, Meti being shipped off by herself to Italy at age 10, surrounded by nuns, Fascists, Communists, and fellow Ethiopians and Eritreans, Meti coming to the United States by herself at age 16, being detained in the Los Angeles airport, landing in Juvenile Hall, learning Spanish from Selena songs before she learned English. Along the way, we meet family members and friends we also root for, and others.... I didn't know whether I would've stood up to those others, or withered away before their eyes.

The book's most unique characteristic, however, does not consist of specific episodes (and they are crazy) but its tone--straightforward syntax filled with deservedly lyric diction, declarative sentences undeterred by the circumstances around them, a bizarre mixture of indignation, imagination, and deep, deep faith. Because I not only know (from the words "A Memoir") but feel (from the language) that the "Meti" in the book is not a mask for the real Meti, not just a persona, I reeled with wonder for days after finishing the book.

In "Blue Daughter of the Red Sea" Meti Birabiro allows us to experience the struggles of her early years and subsequent immigration to Italy and then to America. We'll see through her eyes the tumultuous events of her childhood and the 'vampires' that dominated them. We'll follow her exodus from Ethiopia to Italy where she comes face to face with the ugly head of racism time and time again. We'll continue to follow her as she makes her way to Canada only to be 'detained' by immigration in America. We're shown life in a detention center where one's fate is uncertain. Equally mesmerizing is her new life as a refuge in America and the relationships she makes and journeys she takes.

Her relationships with the people around her, how she views herself, the constant inquisitiveness of her personality, and how she decides to handle all the obstacles life throws her way are all laid bare. The one constant throughout this memoir is Meti's search for personal meaning and purpose; freedom to be herself and to feel. After reading this memoir you'll not only feel that you've met the real Meti, but you'll crave to know what has happened in her life since this writing. I wholeheartedly recommend "Blue Daughter of the Red Sea"; seeing the world through Meti Birabiro's eyes is fascinating...

Blue Daughter of the Red Sea is the page turning story of a girl's journey through life. The story begins in Ethiopia, takes the reader though Italy, and finally to the United States. I found Birabiro's vignettes to be most compelling. It is fascinating to see life through the eyes of someone who has gone from squalor to facing fascists to a detention center in the United States. I would highly recommend this book.

A vast majority of the literature related to terrorism protection/prevention has related to what the government and or the individual can/must do. Dr. Alexander brings a much needed perspective to the table - that of business. 85% of the identified Critical Infrastructure in the U.S. is in the hands of private industry (business). Dr. Alexander discusses how a broad spectrum of CI could be targeted by terrorists (not just the airlines). Thought provoking and insightful. I found it a wonderful addition to the necessary readings list of anyone wanting a strong background in Critical Infrastructure Protection.

Business Confronts Terrorism: Risks And Responses by Washington DC political consultant Dean C. Alexander provides the reader with an informed and informative overview of terrorist threats to business both abroad and here at home. Alexander also explains the ways in which terrorists take advantage of our ordinary, everyday economic system to finance their activities. He goes on to explore corporate security measures; analyses the relationship of the public and private sectors as they collaborate to defeat terrors groups; and reveals how the threat of terrorism has affected American labor, management, and business in general since September 11, 2001. Simply put, Business Confronts Terrorism should be considered mandatory reading by every American private citizen, business owner, labor leader, and government policy maker.

We think of terrorist attacks as something that should be the responsibility of governments. But as this book points out, most of the targets are not government buildings or institutions, they are businesses. Targets have certainly included aircraft and also banks, theaters, churches, buses, trains, pipe lines, gas stations, restaurants, department stores, hospitals churches and of course office building such as those at the World Trade Center.

Security tends to follow the last successful attack. After 9/11 a tremendous amount of effort was spent on air line scurity, almost nothing on subways, bridges, tunnels - can you imagine the effect of blowing up a few of these in New York City?

This is not a prescription of what to do to avoid or stop terrorist activity, as the title suggests, it is an introduction to the risks involved and an explanation of what is happening on a world wide basis as a result. A small book, it covers these aspects very well.

Gonzalez, Rigoberto. "Butterfly Boy" Memories of a Chicano Mariposa", University of Wisconsin Press, 2006.

Angry, Passionate. And Ironic

Amos Lassen

I have finally gotten around to reading Rigoberto Gonzalez's "Butterfly Boy". It is one of the most moving books I have ever read. We follow a young Chicano as he matures into accepting himself as a gay male and Gonzalez writes about in eloquent beautiful language and with candor. It is enough for one to be gay; homosexuality automatically comes with minority status but to be gay and poor and Chicano is another story altogether. This is not an easy subject to write about but to write about in such exquisite prose makes this book very special. Subtitled "Memories of a Chicano Mariposa", we learn that "mariposa" not only means butterfly but also "faggot". Like other gay coming of age stories, Gonzalez describes the trials of being an effeminate kid with a high voice who enjoys putting on girl's clothing. We also read about how he found homosexual themes in classic literature and his feelings of validation when he read E.M.Forster and Herman Melville. With that rapture also comes sadness when he discovers that he is different from others and the emotions of tears and smiles and anger and acceptance face each other off all through the memoirs. Gonzalez tells this story is prose that is poetic and the story is intense and heartfelt. Gonzalez compromises nothing and he tells it like it is. It is very difficult to write about the sexual orientation of a young person because it is so personal that it is hard to convey. Gonzalez manages to do so with beautiful tenderness.
Gonzales not only faced the issue of being gay--he also had to face near-poverty, illiteracy, and abuse. Above these there was love; he loved himself and who he was. The Chicano culture puts great emphasis on machismo and this made self-acceptance that more difficult. Feeling alone in the world, the only sense of connection that Gonzalez had came from a violent relationship with an older man. His mother died when he was twelve and his father had abandoned the family. When Gonzalez found his voice as a writer and also attempted to reconcile with his father, he was finally able to accept himself, claim his identity and bring together the issues of sexuality, race and class. This is a must read and should be on everyone's list. I don't understand why it took me so long to read it.

Years ago Rigoberto Gonzalez did a reading at the University of California, Riverside, his alma mater and the approximate locale where he met the "older lover" who abused him. Someone in the audience asked him why he felt he could write a memoir so young? Rigoberto, then in his early thirties, answered, "Because I write about another time that is no longer my life."

BUTTERFLY BOY: MEMORIES OF A CHICANO MARIPOSA speaks to us about cruelties we do not want to confront: physical and sexual abuse among gay men, child sexual abuse, continuing cycles of abuse, poverty among immigrant farmworkers, family abuse linked to socioeconomic conditions, and inequality in secondary and higher education. These are some of the issues most of us have lived, our "dirty little secrets," but very little of us admit to. I praise Rigoberto Gonzalez for his courage to bring this out to light.

Without a doubt, BUTTERFLY BOY is an example of taking risks with one's writing. Each scene is more heart-breaking than the last, and addictive. Addictive not in the sadistic sense, but because Gonzalez weaves a narrative that pulls you in, and its unsentimentality and your empathy that won't let you go. His prose is poetic and never dramatic. A read you won't be able to put down.

This book will become a classic in Chicano/a and ethnic literature. Worth the buy at any price.

Nothing can be more true than when Gonzalez said that he writes about a life no longer lived. He is an accomplished, award-winning writer and a leading figure in Chicano letters, movers and shakers. He is currently a professor in creative wrting at Queens College in New York. It's hard to believe he went through all the events he writes about, plus more I can't imagine, and still become as successful as he is now. Considering his up-bringing and where he's arrived, I hope this book falls into the hands of those who face similar adversities and have shrinking hope.

What makes a writer?

This seemingly simple question can elicit many complex answers and even more questions. Case in point: Rigoberto González's poetic and heartbreaking memoir, "Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa" (The University of Wisconsin Press, $24.95 hardcover).

González is an award-winning author of poetry, fiction and children's books. He is also a book critic contributing regularly to the El Paso Times.

How did González, the son of migrant farmworkers whose first language was Spanish, become González the writer? Answers begin to emerge from his painful assertion of himself as a gay man in a culture steeped in machismo.

González tells of his journey into adulthood and a life of literature in a nonlinear fashion, moving back and forth from childhood to adulthood, Mexico to the United States, self-loathing to self-revelatory empowerment.

The book begins in Riverside, Calif., in 1990. González, as a college student at the Riverside campus of the University of California, has fallen in love with an older man who, as symbolized by painful yet beautiful "butterfly" marks he places upon González, brings both tenderness and brutality to the relationship. The unnamed lover cheats on González and doesn't hesitate to beat him up to establish his superiority over his young man. At times, González believes he deserves such brutality.

Other times, he is grateful to have escaped the oppressiveness of his family and its legacy of dropping out of high school to work in the fields. The escape comes in the form of literature. A sometimes-callous, sometimes-tender teacher named Dolly lends the young González a poetry book and works with him to subjugate his accent. And the fire is lit: "I became a closet reader at first, taking my book with me to the back of the landlord's house or into my parents' room, where I would mouth the syllables softly, creating my own muted music."

González then suffers the death of his mother when he is only 12. Compounding this loss, he is shipped off to live with his tyrannical grandfather. His own father -- who abuses alcohol and carouses with women --eventually starts another family, further alienating González. Again, books prove to be González's salvation, eventually leading to his surreptitious and successful application to college.

González remains closeted in both his sexuality and intellect, realizing that neither facet of his identity would be understood or appreciated by his family.

In the midst of scenes from his college life in Riverside and his adolescent exploration of sex and literature, González recounts a long and agonizing bus trip with his father. He leaves Riverside and travels to Indio, where his father lives, so they can begin their journey "into México, into the state of Michoacán, into the town of Zacapu, where my father was born, where my mother was raised, and where I grew up." This passage home takes on a special aura because González will turn 20 while there. Throughout the trip, González longs for his lover while seething with an almost uncontrollable anger toward his father. Throughout, he wonders if this trip was a mistake or a necessary part of becoming an adult.

What makes a writer? Obviously, talent is a necessary ingredient. And in the case of González, add to the mix hard work and a burning desire to be heard. Ultimately, it is a mysterious alchemy.

In any case, "Butterfly Boy" is a potent and poetic coming-of-age story about one man's acceptance of himself. There's no mystery in that.

[This review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]