Montana Books

This is the newest guide for the whole family that wants to hike or backpack 70 of the best trails through the combined US/Canadian national parks of Glacier and Waterton Lakes, now Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park.

* A completely revised guide with lots of fun to-do's for kids
* USGS map information and trail profiles
* Informative sidebars and trip finders

In 1932, Glacier National Park in Montana and Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada were joined together to create the world's first International Peace Park. More than a political union, the park was created in recognition that the beautiful, rare, and delicate ecosystems of the northern Rockies shouldn't end at national or political boundaries.

From nature walks and short hikes to glute-burning backpacking trips, this book showcases 70 of the best trails. Each area of the park is accompanied by a trip finder, which shows the difficulty of specific routes and the special highlights of each trail. This new edition also has more complete information blocks with USGS map information and trail profiles.

There is only general info in here for facilities, accomodations and activities other than hiking. The title is deceptive. On the positive side, it has useful maps and data for hikes all of which include a graph showing the altitude change along the path.

This is a history of the legal executions of Montana from 1875, when the first official government court sentenced William Wright Wheatley to hang for the murder of Franz Warl, to 1943, when Philip J. Coleman was hanged for the murder of Mrs. Rosalyn Pearson. Interestingly, the court system of Montana gave a condemned man more chances for appeals than today's court systems but the executions came off sooner - and communications were not as fast as today!

My 4-star rating of this book is a compromise. For documentation and detail, this book is truly a 5-star effort. If you truly want to know how the condemned passed their days in the death cell, how they behaved in their final hours, and the method of their hanging (Montana employed two different methods and several different gallows), as well as how long it took them to expire at rope's end, here's your book, probably the next best thing to being there (as a spectator, that is).

For overall appeal, I would lean toward 3 stars. Montana's legal hangings weren't as gruesome as those carried out by the various vigilance committees that meted out dubious justice in the early years, but their efficacy at curbing murder and mayhem is certainly called into question by the thickness of this book.

This is probably an excellent book for criminal justice scholars, and there's certainly some interest to be found in the number of local and "galloping" gallows the state built and maintained. But unless you have a ghoulish slant in your reading interests, you may, like me, have to put this book aside every 20 pages or so. The hangman's place in the romance of the Wild West has been vastly overrated.

It's a good gift for a girl in elementary school (up to 4 or 5th grade I'd say) I gave it to my cousin who just entered first grade, and she is busy getting ready with projects and birthday parties, so on so on. The calendar is great for her to keep track of this things and since it is Hannah Montana, she enjoys seeing herself as "socially-active", plus it teaches kids to be organized. The reason why I gave it a fout is because it won't give the kid hours of fun.

ps: I haven't actually seen the calendar so I can't give a description of it. But my cousin said it was adorable.

My daughter was celebrating her 11th birthday with a Hannah Montana theme, as well as a sleepover so we wanted some Hannah activities to do. My daughter loved the book! Our only issue was a packaging problem, in which the cover got creased and ripped when it was wrapped in plastic to ship.

Mr. Arkava's sense of Montana is overwhelming - like he spent all his life here. As a home-dweller in Montana for 43 years, I can tell you that the moon shines loud, the animals sing to you at night, and the sun beats hard in the summer and retreats mightily in the winter.

There is also the gaze of the old mountains on young hearts (yes, even though my face is full of wrinkles, I still have a very young heart which beats faster with each word I write) and the majestic views of a still young land from the peak.

I admit the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness is even more beautiful than my hometown of Big Timber. I sent this book to three of my four kids to remind them how beautiful this place is (my eldest child, Barbara, still loves her mother and hasn't moved away even though HER three kids have long left).

Being a hiker and nature lover, I found this title one of the best hiking guide books so far. The author convinced me to try the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness, his detailed description of trails in this wilderness is a first. It ties in well with another book, "The Pintlers, Majestic They Stand", both of history and mountain adventures in the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness over a century ago.

Michell is an extremely careful and conscientious chronicler of this difficult, dense subject. He writes unusually well - absolutely clear English - and makes his way through a wide array of topics. Invaluable to the student of the subject.

This book is great for those who want an in depth look at Hindu philosophy and the place of temples within it. It's a bit scanty on cultural practices and rituals - that is not the book's aim. It does a wonderful job of explaining things so that a Westerner (like me) can understand. It is, however, a very heavy book. It is certainly not light bed time reading like a National Geographic would be. :)

interesting account if a bit dry and academic. led me to Wallace Stegner's "Wolf Willow" which is richer with anecdotes and better writing. also led me to "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" which is a must-read for any Jefferson-loving American. all three titles made me interested in the lives of the Indians before 1800: was their life as brutal when the enemy was other tribes rather than white goldseekers, homesteaders et al? or were they at peace with the earth and each other?

This is a lyrical, vividly written narrative history in a style which will appeal to a general audience. The author has closely studied an area along the Montana-Saskathewan border beginning with Sitting Bull's surrender to the U.S. Cavalry in 1881 and ending with the post World War I influenza pandemic. Although largely empty now, in the early 20th Century this vast dry-land prairie was home to many thousands of small-scale homesteaders struggling to wrest a living from an unforgiving landscape. The author includes interviews and correspondence with the late author Wallace Stegner, whose family attempted to make a living on both sides of this borderland. The numerous photos and illustrations are great, and along with the text give the reader an evocative sense of the hard life on the high western plains.

I read Mi Rincon en la Montana by Dean Graighead. I like this book because it's a historic book. A woman wants a life in the mountains. I'm reading the book in Spanish because that's my first language.

This book was awesome and I have read it over and over again. I think this book was awesome. The most enthralling story of a courageous young man who loves nature and hates his New York buncha-kids-and-two-parents-in-one-apartment lifestyle. He runs away to the woods. And the sequel is awesome too!

Two stories in this book.
"The Marriage Maker" Ethan is a wealthy man whose sister dies leaving him the custody of his nephew. He convinces Chloe to marry him. Chloe has avoided taking risks for a very long time. Even her daycare that she owns is a shallow risk on her part. Chloe eventually admits to herself first that she loves Ethan. Ethan avoids Chloe at every turn. I tried to stay interested in, but I found the character list confusing. The only two characters I managed to keep straight were Ethan and the baby. I remain clueless as to who the long string of women are who surround Chloe. I knew they were important, but they really did live in this separate bubble that barely touched the world that Ethan created for Chloe and the baby. Even when Ethan reached out to the family for help, their characters were apparitions.

I had higher hopes for the second story as it was about a race car driver and his love, but I didn't really get into the story even after three tries.

Favorite scene with Cleo-
Realizing the baby is sick and in the hospital

Favorite scene with Ethan-
With the baby in the hospital

Together-
With the baby in the hospital

MR. AUGUST - The Montana Man: He'd lived for his son and the land--until she came into his life...

His Mystery Woman: She was called Sierra. She was beautiful and vulnerable, and he felt an immediate connection to her.

All rancher Clint Barrow knew was her name. But from the first he'd needed to stake his claim. He'd brought her hometo heal, but as the days stretched into long, hot nights, Clint wanted the woman herself. And just when their denied desire exploded into full-blown passion, Sierra's past began to come clear. Would she soon have to leave her Montana man behind?

Initially I was put off by the cover - pretty bad! However, the story and characters are WONDERFUL and very well written! I highly recommend this one - ignore the ugly cover!

This book continues the story of a Montana sheriff started in "The Horse Creek Incident." It's not an afternoon read as there are many subplots that take Sheriff Baker off of his main case of concern-a lynching of a popular cowhand. I was at first reluctant to purchase this book as I thought it might be more of a murder mystery following the detective work of Baker. I'm glad I bought it. There are several incidents with criminals and the chase that kept this tale moving for me. The characters are believable and the writer brings out the realistic side of law enforcement. The story carries the reader along somewhat like the Lonesome Dove series, with the benefit that there is a healthy husband and wife relationship (something I just don't remember ever happening in a Larry McMurtry story). In fact, I found myself wishing that it could be made inta a movie. We see the corruptible nature in people, but Richards also allows the noble and generous aspects of his characters to shine through. I had a weekend that involved some hours of waiting and this book turned what may have been a real tedious time into a very enjoyable experience. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone that would like a western with an eye for how real people faced the realities of life during this time.

This is my first western and I was pleasantly surprised. A nice, quick read about a new sheriff struggling to bring law to the wilds of Montana. A decent introduction to the genre.
I kept feeling like I was reading the first in a series and the real story was not the lynching, but the life of Herschel, almost at times it seemed forced on us with the various side missions to catch other criminals that plagued Billings. In the end though, it all comes together to close out the book nicely.