Wisconsin Books

I've lived in Wisconsin for 7 years and had no idea how many equestrian pleasures were all around me. Well written, with great pictures, this book is a real inspiration to get out of the armchair and into the saddle. I selected a trail ride for a troop of Girl Scouts based on the book's description and found it right on the mark - the stable was exactly as described and the girls had a great time. I highly recommend it for anyone who likes horses and can imagine themselves seeing more of the State on horseback.

This book is fantastic! The author has been incredibly thorough in her research of the best horse stables, barns and trails around Wisconsin. It's well organized so information can easily be found depending on what part of the state you live in or are visiting. I especially liked all the added details such as which barns or trails were good for kids. She has even included therapeutic riding stables and what they offer. I haven't seen anything like this guide available anywhere. Even the pictures are great and add a lot to the book. I recommend this book to anyone interested in riding or getting their kids involved in riding.

Professional writer and rider of 33 years' experience in the saddle Anne Connor presents Horsing Around In Wisconsin: The State's Best Stables, Barns, And Trails For Lessons And Training, a straightforward guide to anyone looking to discover the joy of horseback riding in Wisconsin, whether as an adult or a parent seeking to teach a child. Filled with information on 260 stables and barns suitable for boarding and renting, descriptions of 85 of Wisconsin's prime horse trails, places that teach riding lessons to all ages, and much more, Horsing Around In Wisconsin is a superb resource. Maps and detailed directions to various locations, as well as descriptions and summaries of what to expect, simplify the issues of travel and what to expect before one experiences firsthand the connection between horse and rider. An excellent guide for equine enthusiasts, especially useful for those seeking to spend a vacation riding.

This book is fascinating. It covers the Mississippi River past and present. It is more than just a history book, for it covers geologic time as well as modern history. But it is more than a geology book as it covers the river's ecology. But then it is more than an ecological book as it focuses on the necessity of the river's economy. To sum it up, this book covers the Mississippi River in a way that few books do their subject's justice. Reading it makes me proud that the river is part of my world here in the Twin Cities. I've driven over it, walked over it, walked up to it, pondered its power and might, but never knew the river until I read this book.

The river is three million years old. Man has been active around it for a few thousand years. Modern economies have influenced it for a mere 170 years or so. It is not a simple thing. It is a force to be reconciled with. What humans do to this river is profound, but only so far as our vanity allows us to understand our relationship with the river. It has had several sources over the years. It took modern white men years of guessing just trying to find the current source.

This river supplies our needs. It allows for barge traffic that come and go with products Minnesotans (or any of the other states whose boundaries it forms) need and make (or grow). We recreate upon it. We dam it, bridge over it, pollute it, draw water from it, try to make it conform to our wills, then wonder what went wrong when it floods (as in 1993).

This river truly is immortal. Calvin Fremling does the river justice by his book documenting its story. His writing style is pragmatic and relatively unbiased, though extremists (both right and left wingers) my suffer his ridicule. The Corps of Engineers, the environmentalists, the riverats, sportsmen, politicians all receive adequate and relatively accurate assessment and criticism by the author. If there is one person who truly knows the river, it seems to be Fremling. He leaves the reader with the impression that the river's age will allow it to survive inspite of what modern man is doing to it. Who knows, it may be around for another three million years. As Fremling concludes, somehow, I find comfort in that.

Dr. Fremling, I will address this to you. You were graduate advisor to my dad, Glenn Jergens, when he earned his Master's degree. You were my most revered college professor many years later. Now I have my Master's and will teach biology when our son doesn't need me at home quite so much. Your influence on my dad, and on me, was profound. If I am half the teacher you were, much of the credit will be yours. I remember the slide-peppered lectures and the frequent field trips that made scientists of your students. I appreciate more than ever your gift for making learning so effortless because the teaching was so relevant and so rigorously planned. I have rated your book as worthy of five stars even before I've read it, as I suspect it will reflect this gift as well. I'm purchasing two copies, one for my brother and his wife, which will be passed around, I know, and one for my family. Thank you, Dr. Fremling, and congratulations. With all best wishes, Merri Beth Nord

As a person who grew up on the Upper Mississippi I assumed that I knew that great river. Not so. Calvin Fremling's book opened my eyes to the river's past and alerted me to the significant environmental problems that confront the river today. This is must reading for anyone who uses the river or has an interest in it.

Reading 'Into the Heart of the Woods' has become a new source of meditation for me . . . seeing the beauty of the woods and its wildlife while also reading the accompanying words of wisdom is a format that lends itself well toward attaining deeper contemplation. The author has a way of transferring her profound love of and respect for nature while also motivating the reader toward more active participation in the things that matter most - the spiritual nature, welfare, and beauty of all life. Anyone who studies or simply enjoys photography will benefit from seeing the photos, each a work of art.

I've just had a lovely visit with the flora, fauna and soul of the Northwoods of Wisconsin. I did not have to travel from my Pennsylvania home to do so. I only had to open this little jewel of a book and spend time with the very real and yet magical photos taken by the author, Trish Kirk, and read the inspirational quotes she chose to accompany them. This book is a perfect gift for those of us who respect "all God's creatures, great and small" and enjoy the beauty of nature in general. If I ever get to Wisconsin, this book will be how I share the experience with others.

Feeling stressed? Pick up this wonderful book and enjoy a superb photographic trip through nature's paradise with thoughtful, inspiring quotations to keep you company. Trish Kirk's love of nature's gifts shines through this gem.

We have been invaded and we are losing the war. Know thine enemy: Garlic mustard, buckthorn, reed canary grass, and honeysuckle. Read this book and you will know the major invasives, the lesser invasives, and how to attack them. Many color photos help with species identification. The cover photo of a woodland that is totally infested with garlic mustard will send a shiver up your spine.

In addition to the technical side, the book also explains the 'why we should care' part that is essential if we want to get action, especially by our elected officials.

The book itself is an example of what one person can do. The author was a self-described suburban housewife who cared about the local environment, but didn't know how to identify the invasive plants and there wasn't a handy resource guide. So she wrote this one! Sadly Betty Czarpata died of ovarian cancer in 2003 when the book was nearly complete but not yet published.

Winner of the Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species 2005 Invader Crusader Award.

This guide has invasives divided into multiple categories ranging from exotics that are of major concern to natives that are sometimes of concern. It has detailed identification of each species and gives the options for control, including mechanical, chemical, and biological. The control information includes the details on chemical concentration, time of year, and temperature. There is a lot of incorrect information on the internet on invasives control and this book is a good source of reliable information.

This is by far the best field guide for invasive species of the Midwest. I am a prairie steward on an Illinois prairie, and the photos, in addition to the clear descriptions, make it an easy to follow guide. My own book is all dog-eared and stained from bringing it out on the prairies with me.

"The Isherwood Century". What a great choice of title for this invaluable (and well edited) collections of essays, interviews, ruminations on the life and influence of Christopher Isherwood. While his is a household name, primarily beacuse of the worldwide success and endurance of "Cabaret" the musical based on his Berlin Stories (I am a Camera, Goodbye to Berlin, etc), this informed and endlessly interesting survey provides a fine documentation for Isherwood's position of importance on 20th Century literature, his positive role model for gay writers and all gay people who care about significant relationships, his courage as an early pacifist, his impact on those students fortunate enough to have studied in his unique classes. Reading first hand encounters from such a broad spectrum of friends and reporters always give a more fine tuned view than a straight out biography. And for a man whose literary skills polished the concept of autobigraphy that is matched by few others, this is quite an achievement.

Reading "The Isherwood Century" is discovering an involved panorama of life in the past century - politically, artistically, internationally, psychologically, and spiritually. More than a memoir, this book remains intimate despite its scope. At last we have a reference (outside of his own wondrous diaries) that validates the greatness of this significant human being.

As a long-time reader of Isherwood's novels, autobiographies and diaries, I thought I knew everything there was to know about him. I was wrong, and I'm happy to say that I learned a great deal about the intimate Isherwood (as opposed to the person he chose to reveal in his work) from this collection. The informal Isherwood is here in memoirs and reminiscences, first and foremost by his partner Don Bachardy. As you would expect, Bachardy's portrait of Isherwood is precise, detailed, affectionate and harrowing (his series of drawings of Isherwood's last days are included), but the memories of former students of Isherwood as teacher, mentor and friend are equally revealing. The professional Isherwood appears in previously unpublished interviews and memoirs by such colleagues as Carolyn Heilbrun, whose piece about her few intersections with Isherwood as a literary subject takes an interesting turn into recalling his profound kindness to her in a time of spiritual crisis. And the lively and accessible essays by literary scholars served first to remind me of what an original and vivid writer Isherwood was and second to send me back to the novels that so inspired me when I first encountered them. Isherwood achieved thrilling literary effects by combining witheringly accurate observation of his characters with a sensual evocation of time and place as if by magic. It seems only fitting that when the many writers here take very different beads on this complex man and artist what emerges from the collage of viewpoints is a surprisingly emotional and coherent portrait of the man himself.

The Isherwood Century is an impressive collection of essays and interviews on the life and work of Christopher Isherwood, including a fresh, in-depth view of his literary legacy and continuing influence. Included are Katherine Bucknell (Who is Christopher Isherwood?); Dan Luckenbill (Isherwood in Los Angeles); Stathis Orphanos (In the Blink of an Eye: Evolving with Christopher Isherwood); Michael S. Harper (Ish circa 1959-1963); Michael S. Harper (Reading from Isherwood's Letter circa 1959-1963); Robert Peters (Gay Isherwood Visits Straight Riverside); Carolyn G. Heilbrun (My Isherwood, My Bachardy); James P. White (Write It Down or It's Lost: Isherwood as Mentor), and sixteen other informative and insightful contributors. The Isherwood Century is a "must" for all students and fans of Isherwood's accomplishments and thoughts.

This guy's read "Finnegans Wake" a thousand times, so it seems, and his knowledge of Joyce and environs is wide. I'd recommend "Joyce's Book of the Dark" for you Wakeans out there who need to dig deeper into the book of the delpth.

Unlike any other book in English literature, James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) is written entirely on the level of dream consciousness. Joycean scholar John Bishop has tightly focused his attention on the *sleep* aspects of Finnegans Wake. While this makes for a rather monochromatic presentation sometimes bordering the banal, the scholarship, clarity, and thrust of Bishop's presentation are indisputable. At bottom, one really doesn't like to admit there's so much in Finnegans Wake that such restrained scholarship is required to understand just one aspect of it. But then again, this work was the mature James Joyce's magnum opus.

From the text, pages 4-7: "Suppose we charged ourselves with the task of providing in chronological order a detailed account of everything that occurred to us NOT last night ... but in the first half-hour of last night's sleep. The 'hole affair' [535.20], (and a 'hole', unlike a 'whole', has no content), will likely summon up a sustained 'blank memory' [515.33]: 'You wouldn't should as youd remesner, I hypnot' [360.23-24]. What would become equally obscure, even questionable, is the stability of identity... No one remembers the experience of sleep at all as a sequence of events linked chronologically in time by cause and effect."

Joyce remarked to his friend William Bird: "About my new work - do you know, Bird, I confess I can't understand some of my critics, like Pound or Miss Weaver, for instance. They say it's *obscure*. They compare it, of course, with Ulysses. But the action of Ulysses was chiefly in the daytime, and the action of my new work takes place chiefly at night. It's natural things should not be so clear at night, isn't it now?"

Superb scholarship and a major key to understanding the deep strata of Finnegans Wake.

The ultimate treatment of Joyce's confusing classic, Bishop's comprehensive analysis goes beyond typical literary interpretations. Focusing of such diverse influences as Vico's "New Science" and The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Bishop shows the compexity of Joyce, as well as his almost total command of the English language, and language in general. If you've ever wondered about Vico's historical thesis, and want to understand how Vico permeates Joyce, this is the book to read. In the end, you'll come away with a better appreciation of Joyce's text, and a feeling of amazement at Vico's poorly understood, but far-sighted view of mankind.

I need to know all about John R. Commons What did he do in all his life?, What was his best book? etc..

I need to know all about John R. Commons What did he do in all his life?, What was his best book? etc..

I read this book back in law school, intrigued by the title. Initially I was confused by Commons's very strange analytical style (he is quite sui generis in his analytical framework) but the final product is an excellent education in the role courts and judges in UK and USA played in the emergence of the US economy pre-WWII. Within the right frame of mind, this book can be a very valuable opportunity for coming to appreciate the law-economics nexus in a way that gets clouded or obscured by the presuppositions of neoinstitutional economics and the Law & Economics movement. Commons' empirical data in this book consisted of 500 years of court cases involving litigation of commercial questions. From these court cases, Commons extracts a frame of analysis. Commons' method often involves on the one hand, finding analogies and connections between concepts that in our daily and professional lives we treat as separate and synthesizing them into new analytical tools (such as "Working Rules" and "Transactions"), and on the other hand, taking concepts we take for granted as reflecting a certain unity, and busting them open to reveal the internal diversity of different kinds of ideas/events/phenomena that get subsumed and supressed by such a unifying concept (this is done with particularly good result with the concepts of "value", "property" and "liberty" although one is left wishing Commons had not limited himself to judges' opinions in constructing his historical studies.
I think that recognizing this methodology is a key to understanding what Commons was attempting to accomplish in this and in his later works. Commons' technique results in a polyphonic argument that moves in multiple directions at once, sometimes coming together harmoniously into brilliant insights of synthesis. The final framework of analysis that emerges is summarized in Commons' final book - the Economics of Collective Action - which one might want to read as a good sort of introduction to this and to his magnum opus, Institutional Economics.

One of the implications of Commons' analysis is the idea of collective action - it seems to become a logical, defensible, necessary next step in American capitalism from Commons' 1924 point of view. And for many years, the idea gained momentum, but was ultimately gutted and destroyed by the Wagner Act and by a massive ideological campaign launched by the economics profession about the supposed inefficiencies of collective protection and bargaining.

But perhaps one of the richer take-aways of this book for contemporary readers is that, despite the title, one gets a sense that "capitalism" is a rather meaningless word. Commons' framework serves, more than anything, to drive home the fact that our current economic, political, legal, social context - or anyone's context - is really a set of particulars, each with its own history and baggage. Lawyers, I think, understand this since a single change in law, a shift in the allocation of liabilities, or a change in the interpretation of a word, can, slowly but surely, change the entire direction of a society and its economy. In fact, "capitalism" is a rather troublesome word whose role in our language and society seems to gloss over a vast internal diversity of economic practices, institutional frameworks, and social values over time and from place to place, subsuming it all under a catch-all phrase that doesn't really stand on its own two feet in the end. The value of using such a code word is that it allows people like Thatcher to cry "TINA" to shut down opposition to the status quo. A certain popular - though misguided - branch of progressive critical thought spends a lot of effort constructing critiques of capitalism, a tradition started by Marx and the social theorists and just as strong today, as if to confront Thatcher and the rest of the TINA contingent front-on. After reading Commons, I would hope that it would be as apparent to others as it is to me that such a project is futile. We would probably be better off banishing the word from our language. Frankly, I don't think there is any such thing as "capitalism." Capitalism is always used as a sort of placeholder for the any given speaker's internalized conception of the economic, political, and social context in which the speaker finds him- or herself, but rare - if non-existent - is the critic who is able to separate the contingent, local, temporal from some underlying, enduring, constant presence that we can point to and say "ah, here is the core of 'capitalism', whether in 1855 Paris or 1990 Bangkok, or 2007 Toronto". For example, a book I just started reading, by a prominent Italian-American sociologist begins with the claim that "over the lastst quarter of a century something fundamental seems to have changed in the way in which capitalism works. In the 1970s, many spoke of crisis." What crisis? Whose capitalism? Author and reader all seem to take for granted that they all know what capitalism is. I don't think for a minute that Mexican "capitalism" is really that similar to American "capitalism" or to Korean "capitalism" or any other country's capitalism. A thorough reading of Commons will dispell such delusions. Even if we could identify some common demoniminator among countries and over time, it would have to be such a minor element of the overall economy that it wouldn't make sense to frame the debate around such. After Commons, it doesn't make sense to talk in the abstract about grandiose systems, whose internal content is presuppsosed and allegedly comes predefined. Rather, all we are left with are specific policies, practices, institutions, and behaviors, all of which are subject to forces of change and inertias - in other words, all we can meaningfully talk about is the particulars, the subtle changes in "Working Rules," the meaning of "Property", the different kinds of "Bargains" that are available to different participants with respect tot different resources in a given context - in short, who has power to do what and with what consequences. Any grandiose discourse of "Capitalism" seems naive and senseless. It would be refreshing for us progressives if we could get out of the "No Alternative to Capitalism" debates so that we can role our sleaves up and start talking about real issues, rather than discussing the how to replace Capitalism over an espresso in a coffee shop.

LOSS WITHIN LOSS is a major collection of biographical short stories: tributes to friends, lovers and colleagues who have died from AIDS.

Several of the contributing writers are quite famous: the lecturer/poet/teacher Maya Angelou, the playwright/screenwriter Craig Lucas ("Prelude To A Kiss," "Longtime Companion"), the novelist Allan Gurganus ("Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All"), the writer Andrew Solomon ("The Noonday Demon") et. al. Several of the dedicatees lived the lives of celebrities: the poet James Merrill, the film makers Derek Jarman and Howard Brookner, the writer Paul Monette. But it is not their fame which is celebrated in this book: it is their love and friendship and, most importantly, their art which is now lost to the world forever because of a disease, the deadly power of which, was and still is, underestimated. The styles of the stories are as diverse as the styles of the individual writers: some read like the poetry they are; some like straight-forward fiction and some like excruciatingly honest, almost farcical diary entries.

These are not simply sad stories; they are beautifully written, funny, charming, intelligent, very candid rememberances of lives past passed. Besides the stories, there are some photographs of the artists and their works, biographies of the writers and their subjects, a wonderful photograph by John Dugdale on the cover and an introduction by Edmund White
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

LOSS WITHIN LOSS is a most appropriately titled reminiscence of the black hole AIDS blasted in our art community. Edmund White, always the sensitive observor and writer of tender memoirs, takes on the role of Editor here and has selected some very fine writers to personalize the contributions and deaths of their friends. He has also written minibiobraphies of not only the artists who have been lost but also of each of the biographers. Selecting artist/bigraphers to highlight in a review of a book of this total force seems almost incongruous, yet Chris DeBlasio is so beautifully defined by William Berger, and the polarities of the lives and deaths of Paul Monette and James Merrill who died within four days of each other are so adroitly observed by their mutual firend J.D. McClatchy, and Felice Picano's warm eulogy for Robert Ferro and all that surrounded the Violet Quill Club are all so fine that they shine especialy brightly.

The unexpected joyful aspect of spending time with this extraordinary book is discovering how much we didn't know about so many artists in every field - from poetry, to novels, to puppets, to architecture, to dance. Yes, the names ring distant bells, but when the artists are put into context with the time in which they were creating AND that they were creating knowing that their corporal time was limited, the effect is staggering. I do not find this book at all morose; if anything it is celebratory. And the method of presentation and quality of writing leaves the reader with one primary question: What if AIDS hadn't destroyed so many brilliant minds, so many unborn ideas? As a document on the effect of a devastating disease on the arts and as a resource book of what was happening in the forefront of culture in the 1980s and 1990s, this book will be the gold standard. Highly recommended reading - on so many levels.

This powerful, superb book is peopled with a sampling of the great and graceful artists who have been swept into eternity by AIDS. All of the essays are moving. Especially touching is the memoir which gathers together the angelic Paul Monette and the ferocious James Merrill. Brad Gooch contributes his best writing to date in his touching remembrances of his lovely partner Howard.

This book will break your heart and make you smile at the same time. It's truly a work of art.

There are plenty of lawyer-bashing books, but this is not one of them. Rather, like a modern Mark Twain, Marc Galanter uses lawyer jokes to reflect trends in American society. Through thousands of jokes and cartoons that mock lawyers and legalization, he shows on how the legal system is influencing and being influenced by changing relationships between individuals, between citizens and government, and between consumers and corporations. Lawyer jokes are popular because lawyers still fight and win for the little guy. A good read for your favorite lawyer or lawyer-to-be.

I thought about starting this review with one of the hundreds of lawyer jokes that are "told" and given life in this excellent book, but I wouldn't want to spoil the punch lines.

The author, evidencing an extrodinarily broad range of knowledge, shows how lawyer jokes have evolved over time (and how some jokes previously targetted at Jews, minorities, and businessmen have evolved into lawyer jokes), and how this evolution reflects larger changes in society about attitudes towards law and individual rights.

In addition, the artwork in the book combines so old favorites from The New Yorker, plus older drawings from earlier centuries.

This is a great book for lawyers and for those who like to make fun of lawyers -- basically, everybody.

Very funny lawyer jokes. I am enjoying them.

This book gives unprecidented information on icons from Milwaukee's past. Zimmermann's access to the interiors of these buildings allows for a higher level of documentation then most resources ever come close to reaching; this book is a must have for preservation architects working in the Milwaukee area.

H. Russell Zimmerman proves he is Wisconsin's preeminent architectural historian with his fantastic volume, "Magnificent Milwaukee." Long sought after by architecture enthusiasts around the state, the book captures the details, workmanship and romance of Milwaukee's most outstanding architectural treasures. Although relatively few copies of the book were printed, those who possess one have a gem that deserves to be kept and appreciated for generations.

I collect books on American Architecture. Russel Zimmermans Magnificent Milwaukee is one of the very best. It not only contains wonderful pictures of many of the cities grand historic homes it also traces the history of the city through the families that built the homes and the city.