Boise State Books

Outstanding book that would be even better with pictures.

My brother sent me a copy of Beyond Burlap for my birthday. I fell in love with this cookbook. Now, I send it to all my friends who have ever asked what can I make with potatoes. It is very complete and appeals to all tastes and ages. A perfect gift for anyone!

Beyond Burlap has an excellent assortment of potato recipes! I never knew there were so many ways to prepare a potato! The Potato Mocha Poundcake is my favorite. The stories and fun potato tidbits make Beyond Burlap a fun cookbook to own!

All potato lovers should own this book!

From 1955 to 1957, Boise, Idaho, was caught in the grip of a full-blown Gay panic that made national headlines and gave Idaho's judicial system a black eye. This study of the panic, published in 1965, is both of its time and decades ahead of it. Gerassi brilliantly dissects the (chiefly economic) motives of people involved in promoting and prosecuting the scandal. He also displays a sharp eye for character and incidental detail.

A must-read for anyone interested in GLBT history, and also a classic piece of investigative journalism, Gerassi's book is an astonishing piece of work. (Neil Miller covers a similar scandal in Sioux City, IA, with the somewhat inferior _Sex Crime Panic_.)

The Boys of Boise is one of those books that anyone interested in understanding the issues besetting those living an alternative lifestyle must read.

John Gerassi writes an editorial history of a series of politically motivated arrests and harrassments of those in the homosexual community in Boise, Idaho in 1955. Gerassi writes from a mid-1960s perspective in the midst of the sexual revolution looking back on a different perspective when homosexuality was even less accepted than it was in the 1960s.

The book explores several issues as they impacted a prosecution of a given portion of the homosexual population: community politics, the input and influence of a religous community (in Boise - the LDS), the role of the popular local press, a grab for power by those outside the main community power structure, the role of law enforcement and the courts.

Why is this book a must read for understanding issues facing those living alternative lifestyles today? The events covered could happen in any community today - to those who are exploring poly relationships, BDSM, and Gor - as well as to those who continue to simply live within the Gay community. There are laws on our books in each state and locale that could be discriminatively enforced to bring problems to individuals or groups - in violation of protections they believe they have under the Bill of Rights.

The only possible negative in the book - and for some it is not a negative - is the amount of space devoted to reproducing the entirety of court dialogs and certain other primary sources. While I personally enjoyed having the sources there - other historians would prefer they be relegated to either appendices or simply referenced and summarized. It should be noted that when Gerassi wrote this book - he was a reporter/editor for a news periodical rather than a university professor.

The book definitely belongs in the library of scholars devoted to Urban studies, gay studies, the sociology of alternative lifestyles and the like.

I supposedly wrote this book. But I didn't and I've never heard of Enos Mills. Maybe I'll read it someday. At any rate, I hope that no one who knows me accidentally orders it. I've repeatedly asked Amazon to take my name off.

What I find fascinating about this book is that I did not write it. I don't know who wrote it, but I think he or she would be annoyed to have the book attributed to me. I did write a work in the same series (on Gary Snyder) but I've never read a word by Enoch Mills.

I picked up this collection of essays and interviews after being dazzled by "A River Runs Through It." The high quality of Maclean's prose there is continued on in this collection. Particularly good are the essays "This Quarter I am Taking McKeon: A Few Remarks on the Art of Teaching" (this is an absolutely wonderful essay if one is interested, in any way, in careers in teaching) and "Billiards is a Good Game" (which Maclean believed was one of the finest things he ever wrote).

These and other essays and interviews reveal Maclean's character and style, and reinforce his position as a master of American prose. This position was evident in "River," and his essays here while reinforcing it also reveal another distinctly American quality to it - the ammount of care and hard work Maclean took in his writings.

This volume is recommended to those who want to read more of Maclean, are interested in writing or education, or are simply looking for good reads. As a collection of essays and interviews it succeeds admirably in all these qualities, and is well worth reading.

A wonderful collection of interviews, lectures, and short stories, some easily the equal of those found in "River." The interviews reveal a charming and intelligent man. His gift for opening lines is shown again and again, as his is talent for making prose blur quietly into poetry. I just reread "River" for the first time in several years, and remembered this book. I loaned it several years ago, and the borrower apparently couldn't bear the parting. A fine book.

These Thomas Guide's are great. Really enjoy looking at the detail. Fun just to see places you've been or to plan a trip.

Written by Boise native Carol Lynn MacGregor, Boise, Idaho 1882-1910: Prosperity in Isolation is the true story of how the community of Boise thrived at the turn of the twentieth century, despite being geographically bypassed and isolated from the main railroad lines. Boise, Idaho 1882-1910 covers the removal of the Northern Shoshoni from the land, the progress of government, infrastructure, and business, the development of arts and culture, and changes in the community's ethnic and religious makeup. Also observed is the seamier side of Boise, such as racism, prostitution, and crime that marked its growth and progress. A handful of vintage black-and-white photographs illustrate this fascinating case study of small-town America.

It has been 20 years since I last lived in Boise. This book and its numerous color pictures, however, confirmed for me that despite intense growth, the essential character of the place remains the same. The strength of this book is the writers' obvious sensitivity to the character of the place and its people -- a sensitivity that allowed me to make this conclusion. For example, although the title says Boise, the authors, through pictures and descriptions of the rugged and beautiful Idaho outdoors, display an understanding that Idaho wilderness is inseparable from Boiseans' notions of themselves. Very much worth purchasing.

Dollhausen's been doing this since the 70's, apparently: wiring up chips and led's into beautiful sculptures. Of course, these days he uses Pic chips.

The book has a dozen or two beautiful pictures of his works.

Glorious!

This book does not teach you how to "do" statistics, which would mean doing a lot of mathematical manipulations and handling formulas and checking tables, etc. Rather, this book is about what needs to be understood to use statistics effectively, what statistics is about. Come to think of it, this makes a lot of sense, because today, we have lots of aids to do the manipulations for us. We don't really need to know the formula for computing stadard deviation, when Excel can do it for us, with a few clicks of the mouse.

The book reads sequentially. Each chapter assumes the reader has a firm grasp of the preceding ones. So, if you do not have the time to read a book sequentially, this book is probably not for you. This book does not assume that you'll already have known something about statistics. It starts more or less from scratch. It is consistent all along focussing only on the whats and the why's of statistics, rather the painful and tedious how's.

Although it otherwise is an impressive and useful work, we were disappointed by lack of color photos.

I have used other books in this series and they never dissappoint. There is far more here than you can do in any one vacation, but I like it for the full overview that you get of the entire state. Don't expect a lot of maps and directions, but do expect some neat "insider" tips and different travel recomendations.

Having only been to Idaho three times (once for 10 minutes!) I can say that this book will undoubtedly help me plan my next much longer excursion to the great state of Idaho. The chapters cover sections of the state with details on various cities, what to do, where to eat, etc., all of which will be helpful. As with any book on this subject, some items may be out of date even as the book is printed, but I trust that the author's references to restaurants and lodging are dependable. Having looked at other books on Idaho, this one not only covers the hidden gems, I think it covers all the unhidden gems this state has to offer. Though I already admitted I'm no expert on Idaho, I found this book to be comprehensive enough for someone planning a two-week trip to explore this corner of the US.

This book is helpful. There are not a lot of Idaho-specific guidebooks, and this one is pretty comprehensive. One drawback is that it does not have any pictures. Idaho has some beautiful wilderness areas and a few pictures would greatly enhance this book.

This book was a fabulous guide to planning a family vacation. As it turned out, we followed a similar path as the one described in the book --across Idaho to Yellowstone. Advance plans included sites described in this book, and when we added activities, we always checked with the book first. It was never wrong. Using this book helped make our family trip (with three teenagers!) a fun adventure. Thanks Richard Harris for all your good research and tips!