Wyoming Books

This and a good map of Yellowstone are all you need for visiting Yellowstone in the winter. The photographs are really gorgeous, too!

The book has some pretty pictures and a very basic overview of the park in winter, but is geared very much toward SUV-travelers with plenty of cash and credit cards. Most of the information in this book can be learned from the free pamphlets you get at the park (or they'll send them to you). If you're looking for a more in-depth and personal experience, this book won't help you much.

Another easy-to-read and enjoyable book by Danielle Steel... Three women who were college roommates: Zoe, Tanya and Mary Stuart get-together on a dude ranch in Wyoming to reunite after many years. Now middle aged, they come from different parts of the country with different career paths. Zoe is a physician who works with Aids patients. Tanya is a famous country singer and Mary Stuart is married to an attorney. Once they get over the old conflicts that occurred in college, they become fast friends again. They discover that they share similar painful experiences and it brings them closer together on a new level of friendship. The story tells of their new romances and adventures together on the ranch and it has a happy ending with a twist...

How often does the reader need to be reminded that these women are drop-dead gorgeous??? Their characters were already hard to relate to (how many average people personally know a movie star, an AIDS doctor with their own clinic, and a "perfect" woman who is able to fly off to Europe at the drop of a hat, and did I mention perfect?)
I enjoyed reading about the renewed friendships and the trip to Jackson Hole. And about how the "perfect" wife finally puts her foot down in the end. But constantly reading about how beautiful these women are, became downright annoying at times. Also, the way 2 of them managed to find and fall in love with equally perfect men, within a matter of days at this ranch. I found the movie star's tabloid problems just a tad exaggerated. Multiple sex lawsuits, screaming fans bombarding her bus....does the general public really behave like that?
I liked it, but I wish Danielle Steel would write about a working class family once in a while. And throw in a imperfection or two, just to keep it believable.

I have NEVER written a review before, but just walked in the door after a long trip and came straight to the computer to write this review. If I can save one soul from the pain of having to read/listen to this book, I feel the review will have been worth it!!!!!

I listened to this book on tape on a trip. Danielle Steele is a very lucky lady to have made millions writing like this. I found myself yelling out loud in the car because I was so embarassed and mad! Embarassed that I was even listening to it and mad because I did not have another book on tape to put in for my long trip. So predictable, so sappy, so....everything bad! If she can write, I guess I can too! Don't waste your time. I got this from our public library and if I had paid 1 cent for it...I would have been very mad! I was in a hurry when I picked it up and was thinking that she was a female mystery writer that I had read before. Dumb me! I WILL learn from my mistake! I arrived home before the ending and believe me, I won't bother finding out what happens because I know all 3 characters will live happily ever after. Really pathetic!

At times, I was actually embarrassed to be reading this book. But I got it at a used book sale for $1, and I think I got my money's worth! Yes, Ms. Steel needs a better editor for her commas and run on sentences and mindless repetition. And by the way, I had to check 5 times to see what year this book was written. Pink jeans? Turquoise boots? In 1997?

I cannot, with much fairness, say that this is the worst novel of all time. After all, there is an entire world of literature out there, and I've only drawn on one small corner of it. South Africa alone has filled libraries, and to the best of my knowledge I am completely unacquainted with any of it. Then, there are all of the novels written in every conceivable language, most of which I do not understand, and which go untranslated. And then, consider time. Scholars sometimes trace back the modern novel to Don Quixote, written in the early seventeenth century. Right or wrong, if we accept that as our yardstick, that gives us roughly four hundred years of novels. What an immensity! And all of this is accepting that Earth is the only planet in the Universe (which Einstein deemed infinite) that produces such works. All in all, there have been at least a great, enormous heap of novels throughout history and it is potentially many magnitudes greater than we could imagine. I have only read some infinitesimal portion of them.

And so, I cannot honestly proclaim this to be the worst. Further, it is even unlikely. After all, Ms. Steel has written a scad of novels herself, and this is the only one I've read. I must imagine that this is neither the best nor the worst of her oeuvre (though hopefully on the bottom-half) and thus it is highly imaginable that she alone has written some few, worse books. And, despite the chills this contemplation gives me, given Steel's great financial success, I can only surmise that most of her competitors are derivative and/or plain worse.

But I can, without fear or hesitation, say this: The Ranch is a bad novel. Really, very, quite bad.

It does not do justice to the term "flat character" to say that Steel's are flat. They aren't flat, they are translucent. They are transparent. They occupy negative space. But they are always well-dressed, and how! You get to read descriptions of their wardrobe, and the care that they put into making themselves up, for pages and pages, with repetition ad nauseum. They're shellacked in other ways, too. They are, each of them, practically perfect in every way. Take the main, er, heroine. She maintains the perfect home (to the point that it has covered Better Homes & Gardens, or something like that) and spends her free time volunteering at some sort of shelter in Harlem! The men and women in this book, the ones we're supposed to sympathize with at any rate, are like biting into a cake that has no cake at all, only frosting. And then realizing that the frosting sucks.

The events of the novel ("plot" would be too generous) are obvious, boring and utterly contrived. There just happens to be one attractive man for each woman (and there are no competitions between any of them for anything) and each courtship proceeds about as smoothly as possible; obstacles simply fall by the wayside at the necessary moments. The novel glosses over the moral implications of infidelity with such speed it makes you wonder at the author's own morality. In fact, that brings me to my next, and last, topic...

I've looked at some other reviews of this novel complaining of the grammar. True, the grammar is atrocious, but so what? Grammar is important but can ultimately be forgiven if the other elements are strong. And then there are my complaints, that this book is utterly lacking in plot, character, voice, theme or just about any other conceivable element that goes into the creation of fiction. But that isn't the real tragedy, here. The real tragedy is the insight, forced unwillingly upon the reader, into the souls and lives that must constitute Danielle Steel's main readership. Who are these people that read this tripe, and enjoy it? Who are they that believe in these stereotypical, incredibly shallow characters? That believe that "romance" really is about candlelit dinners and walks down the beach-not the honest exchange, learning, compromise and hard work that creates true relationships? That ask no more of their fiction than a simplistic and completely unconvincing fantasy transport from their lives, the fictive equivalent to the board game Candyland? Rather than trying to answer these questions, I'd rather leave them open for us all, to mourn in our own ways.

For those fans of Ms. Steel who happen to be reading this review-and I don't expect many; I don't believe most of them to be a) computer literate or b) the type to read reviews-please allow me to suggest that there is better out there. If you were to accidentally stumble and crash into a bookshelf at your local library (perhaps somewhere removed from the romance section) your odds of hitting your head on a better book are about 93%. And by better, I mean better written, more enjoyable, more realistic, more meaningful, more thoughtful, more intelligent, more emotional, more, better. If you are a die-hard fan of romance, someday give one of the classics a try-perhaps Wuthering Heights or Pride and Prejudice or Tess of the D'Ubervilles. Anything but this-please, redeem our species!

"If the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam had come together for a one-night stand," their rangy, blue-eyed boy would have been Charlie Blair, Special Agent, FBI. Petite, inquisitive Lauren Miller is "the child Anne Hutchinson and George Washington never had."

Do the twain ever meet in Susan Isaacs always fresh, sometimes frightening eighth novel, Red, White And Blue? You bet. But first we're introduced to the great-great-grandmother they share: A century ago 15-year-old Dora trembled by the rail of an immigrant laden vessel nudging New York Harbor. She was pregnant and unwed. Therefore, when fellow passenger, winemaker Herschel Blaustein, proposed marriage, Dora uttered her first word of English: yes. They were a mismatched, unhappy pair. He yearned to return to Cracow; she searched crowded streets for the face of her former lover. And, Jake, their early-arriving firstborn is a bit of a crank, perhaps due to the fact that "Dora had never actually exhibited any behavior that might be construed as mother love."

Ruthie, their second child, with two top front teeth so crooked that they practically made an X was sanguine, believing in romance.

As a young man, what glib, handsome Jake lacked in formal education he made up for in legerdemain, raking in jackpot after poker jackpot. Inevitably, he was caught cheating and forced to leap from a moving train smack into frigid Wyoming.

Had it not been for the warmth of Queenie Smith's bed and body, Jake would have become a tall ice cube. He changed his name from Blaustein to Blair, remained with Queenie, and sired four children.

Willie, their eldest, had dreams. He didn't want to be like his father who couldn't do anything a man was supposed to do - split a log, ride, or shoot. Willie yearned to own a ranch. Fortunately for the cash poor young man along came Lois, heiress to the Circle B. They produced Charles Bryant Blair who, in the fullness of time, fathered our hero, Charlie Blair.

In parallel begettings, Ruthie married a brutish ne'er-do-well. She named their daughter Sally Ann because "It was the most American name Ruthie could think of for a child who, she knew, was going to be in need of a land of opportunity."

Marty Freund was the man Sally Ann married. Their progeny included Barbara, a dependable girl, prone to considering her place in the universe. She wondered if there was any place for her "from sea to shining sea." During a Catskills singles weekend Barbara found her niche when she met history teacher Jed Miller. Their daughter, Lauren Miller, has her father's red hair, the black eyes of her great-great-grandmother Dora, and a favorite question - why?

Lauren became a reporter, presently employed by the New York based Jewish News. Hearing of a video store bombing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, supposedly a hate crime perpetrated by a group called Wrath, Lauren is convinced that this story is her ticket to fame. She heads West.

Suspecting that their Wrath informant is double-dealing, the FBI needs an undercover agent to infiltrate the brace of bigots. Divorced, dissatisfied with his status quo, and willing, Charlie is dispatched to Wyoming.

At this point the novel's pace accelerates, spinning into a gripping, rapid-fire thriller. Especially noteworthy is the author's ability to mime the prurient invective spouted by white supremacist groups - one shudders.

Working as a garage mechanic, Charlie ingratiates himself with Wrath's leader, Vernon Ostergard - "Not an obvious nutcase, but a guy who had no interests beyond his own bigotry." In the process of winning the degenerate leader's confidence, Charlie alienates Ostergard's general, Kyle McIntyre, a psychopathic killer, and one of the slimiest characters to slither across a page.

Lauren asks too many questions, and is stalked by Ostergard's lieutenant, Gus Lang, "A bully, a man who liked to crush things."

Nonetheless, Charlie and Lauren have found each other. They're in love and in danger, as they pit themselves against unspeakable evil.

A bit like a virtuoso's solo recital, Red, White And Blue gives Ms. Isaacs an opportunity to display her many faceted talent. And, she gives a bravura performance in offering a story which is at once a moving exploration of what it means to be an American, an expose of mankind's darker side, and a touching romance.

I'm surprised this book didn't get more positive reviews. It was another excellent read by Susan Isaacs. I actually loved the generational background of both characters. What I find most pleasing about all her books is that her female characters are real women, with real emotions. Most male authors, Jonathan Kellerman, Stephen White, Leonard Goldberg, etc., have female characters that actually make me angry. (I still love their books however, even though all of their females are on the border of being witches to live with.) Why is it that so many male authors see women in this light? It's truly refreshing to read Ms. Isaacs books and have likeable female characters. She's a truly wonderful author to read and I'm always anxious to get her next book. The Jewish flavor and history in her novels is so delightful...I simply love it.

Since this is the first book I've read by this author, I can't compare it to her other work. I found it to be somewhat superficial, but still interesting. What I got from the book is that you can't tell who is a real American by looking at the color of their skin, where they born, or who their parents were. The Wrath group headed by Vern Ostergard seems to want to save America for the Americans, but who is that? Being an American is loving our freedom, not abusing it, knowing that each of us has a talent and something to give no matter who we are or where we came from. The first part of the book with the history of the immigrants and the Native American pointed like an arrow for me to the conflict of the racist group. In the end, the real Americans are people like the character Charlie who is willing to risk his life for our country and Lauren who bravely confronts the task of reporting on this situation to protect our freedoms through the freedom of the press. While this isn't the greatest quality novel that one can read, it is interesting and thought provoking enough to spend some time with "Red, White & Blue." Enjoy!

Charlie Blair is a very bored FBI agent who is separated from his wife and is contemplating leaving the Service until he is assigned the job of infiltrating a paramilitary group in his old home town. Lauren Miller is a bright young reporter from a Jewish newspaper in New York, who is determined to make her mark by scooping a really big story.The two meet while Charlie is undercover, posing as a mechanic and a new recruit to the "Free America Cadre", a group which fire bombed a video store owned by a Jew and also a house,owned by movie director with a Jewish sounding name. The first section of the story delves into the backgrounds of Charlie and Lauren who are both descendants of Jewish immigrants and who are, unknowingly,distant cousins.Lauren is strangely drawn to this supposed racist, terrorist mechanic while loathing his connection to the group and an interesting story begins to form while they both, in their own ways, try to uncover the criminal activities within the group, to destroy it.

Susan Isaacs explores what it means to be American in her cross-genre novel, Red, White and Blue. Part thriller, part history, and part romance, Red, White and Blue is the story of two people investigating an anti-semitic terrorist group in Wyoming. Charlie Blair, a Special Agent for the FBI, is described as the product of what would happen if the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam had a one-night stand. He personifies the American West: he is independent, has strong character and integrity, and one could see him facing down a gunslinger in a dusty street of an old western town. Lauren Miller, however, personifies the East. She is a tough journalist for the Jewish News in New York, and the bombing of a video store in the Midwest could be her big story.

How Lauren and Charlie come together to break a group of white supremicists comprises most of the plot. Interestingly enough, however, they share a great-great-grandmother in common. Susan Isaacs spends a great deal of time showing how they became American by tracing the story of the generations between Dora Schottland, a 15 year old orphan from Budapest, and Charlie and Lauren.

Though there would seem to be a schism between the historical section and the mystery/romance, Susan Isaacs smooths over the transitions with a narrative voice strong in irony and humor. Her use of detail to quickly paint the portraits of people in the past is masterful. While not destined to be a classic, Red White and Blue could still be said to be a great American novel. Definitely worth the read.

What an invaluable guide! Yellowstone was broken down into the Upper Loop and the Lower Loop, with every major sight listed around each loop. Distances were noted between all sights and thorough desrciptions of the sights themselves were included. I found the directions, descriptions and recommendations to all be highly accurate and informative. While we spent only very little time in the town of Jackson, we followed the writer's restaurant recommendations and we weren't disappointed! The writer also listed numerous activities for kids in Jackson: Ours especially enjoyed the Alpine Slide on Snow King. I'm certain we'll use this guide again and again!

Good basic guide but you want the information to be up to date. I guess I should have looked at the publish date before I ordered. Ex. Says Campgrounds are first come first serve...not true, many now have a reservation only policy which could get you in a bit of trouble. Better books are offered out there.

This part of the country is not to be missed! I never knew such an incredible place existed so close to home. This book was my constant companion throughout my trip through both national parks. I found it to be accurate and well-written. The authors really knew their stuff! I spent 3 days in the parks and two days in Jackson. The book guided me to the best place for bike rentals and restaurants and without it, I don't know how I would have found such a great and inexpensive (comparitively) place to stay.

I purchased two guides for my trip to Yellowstone: this one and Moon Publications. I'm glad I did. Moon offered more in the way of maps and color photos. This book was a much more entertaining read, contained much information about the history of early settlers, interesting wildlife information, and the formation of features within Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park. If I had to buy one guide it would have to be this one: There are tons of heplful and free information available from the park service if you want lots of colorful photos. Pick up the free stuff and bring along this book for a deeper study of the area.

This book provided little help for my last trip to Yellowstone. Don't believe the title. The maps are terrible and the book seems very poorly organized. There is just very little detail except for bars in Jackson Hole. This book should be titled "The Bar Guide to Jackson Hole". Forget about this one if you want helpful and detailed information on Yellowstone.

This book is ideal for anyone who has ever had trouble finding a camping spot. More than 1,200 campgrounds in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho are listed along with detailed information, as well as phone numbers and directions to get there. This is one book you will want to keep in your camper and use again and again. Perfect for planning that trip and hitting the road!

All inclusive of number of campgrounds and locations, but descriptions meager, and repetitive. Allows little discrimination between campgrounds.

I have found this book to be exceptional and informative, although not as useful as Tom Steinstra's book detailing the same in the Pacific Northwest. This has the correct pricing for most, although occasionally sites raise fees. It also gives short but descript explanations of amenities and sites in the immediate area. I am not sure how someone can say this is not useful, unless they do not have an aptitude for map reading. If you review the maps in the book, along with a road atlas, this is simple. I tend to highlight the sites I like on my atlas with a fine felt tip pen so I do not have to thumb through the book while driving...

My husband bought this for me for Christmas, to plan our anniversary trip in June. I browsed through it, disappointed with how difficult it was to find campgrounds along our route, how cumbersome looking up maps was, as well as that difficult table of contents. Just look in the book online -- what does MT3 tell you? Nothing. That's the problem.

Check out www.publiclands.org for help finding a campsite. We're into National Parks, and the best overall guide for the Western US we've found is Fodor's Road Guide USA : National Parks of the West. It has enough detail on each park to give you a basic understanding of what you can expect. Don't try this for a hiking guide though.

Readers who had prior editions of this series will be disappointed. The new author has very little commentary. It's now just a listing of campgrounds with facts. Is there shade, are the campsites private, how's the access road, is it busy ... who knows? Many of the campground notes are literally cut-and-pasted from the prior entry. Unfortunately Idaho wasn't covered in the older edition by Tom Stienstra. Very disappointing!

Our first "easy" day hike was supposed to be a 3.5 mile round trip hike to Fairy Falls. Following the trail head and directions in this book, my young daughters and I ended up on an eight plus mile adventure. Fortunately we had plenty of water, but it could have been disastrous. We showed the book to a couple of rangers who said the directions were flat-out wrong. The maps were small, smudged, and unreadable.

This book was small enough to fit in a day-pack, but contained a lot of useful hiking information. It ranked the hikes on difficulty as well as letting you know how gratifying they were. It was nice to know what to expect along the way, and what to look forward to.

This is the perfect book if you are new to Yellowstone and looking for a guide on what hikes to take the family on. Accurate reviews of the hikes with good directions and maps.

A must have.

I personally have over 125 days in the park and I found the book very helpfull in planning family hikes.

CAUTION! The maps in this book are terrible! You can almost read them in some areas but many spots are too dark gray to be legible.
The maps look like a bad black and white photo copy of a good color coded National Geographic map. The book's maps loose information because of the colored background in the original map.
We went on a trail walk (to fairy falls in Yellowstone) using only this book. We walked for about 1 hour then came to a junction in the trail which we couldn't figure out. As we were looking at the book another family came along and showed us they had the same book. We both were lost!
After a while using another map they had we came to the conclusion that were were about 5 miles from were we wanted to be. So we laughed and started heading back to the car.
On our way back we ran into another family using this same book heading for the same place. Obviously it was not just one's person's interpretation of the book.
I'm disappointed that we wasted about 2 1/2 hours but more importantly, it could have been dangerous had any of these families continued on their path using this book!

My family and I used several of the hikes in this book on our trip to Yellowstone this summer. We are not an "active" family so the "easy" part of the day hikes were very appealing. The author outlines some very fun hikes and short trails that lead to truly breathtaking scenery. It was a great asset in planning our trip as well as a handy trail guide once we were at the park. The hikes are rated by difficulty level and length and are divided by sections of the park for easy planning and reference.

This book is poorly organized and completely confusing. There's no overview of the entire range and her trail maps have you moving all over the book to find a connection.

I have spent over 15 years fishing and hiking in the Winds and have relied heavily on guidebooks to help me plan my itinerary and proper routes. Of the three main guidebooks I use, this one by far is the poorest in terms of descriptive ability and angling information. I am particularly bugged that she clearly doesn't fish, yet touts the book as a fishing and hiking guide. As far as fishing information, she merely photocopied the Forest Service maps from a FS brochure that was originally published in the 1950's! I have already found multiple examples where her information lists brookies, only to go to the lake and find that cutties and/or rainbows have taken over. The pictures and maps are very poor, and I rarely, if ever, use this book anymore. For hiking and trail information, Joe Kelsey's book is far, far superior. Although he is a climber, his information on fishing is impecable. Buy that one and stay away from this poorly written, poorly researched "guide book" from Rebecca.

I really enjoyed Rebecca Woods' Walking the Winds, it wasn't so much about the different hikes and such that impressed me the most. It was the research prior to the readings, the history, geology and wildlife. That research gave me great insight as to the area I would be hiking in. It was very detailed with the better fishing areas in the Winds. Enjoyed it very much.

A detailed hiking and fishing guide and more. The author resides in the vicinity of the Wind River Mountains and clearly is has an abundance of general knowledge of the area. Her book not only has excellent hiking and fishing information but much other information. There is a comprehensive index as well as an extensive appendix with much information such as an index of Wind River Peaks and their elevations, first ascent information on various peaks, lodgings and outfitters in the area, a list of endangered, threatened, and sensitive species of wildlife and sensitive plants, and visitor use statistics in the Bridger Wilderness. The book begins with a review of Wilderness Regulations since most of the Wind River Mountains are located in Wilderness Areas administered by the US Forest Service. There are short sections on minimal impact hiking and camping and on bear safety. After a short, but fascinating, section on the history of the Wind Rivers, there is information on the geology and wildlife of the area.
The core of the book, of course, is the information about the hikes. Hikes are grouped according to the trailheads they start from. Detailed driving instructions to the trailheads is provided. One can fairly easily plot multi-day backpacking trips by thumbing back and forth between the maps for various hikes Each hikeýs distance, elevation gain and loss, and the maximum elevation reached is cited. Relevant topo maps for each hike are listed as are fish species likely to be encountered in the streams and lakes reached on hikes. A nice feature of the book, not found in some other Wind River hiking guides, is that significant attention is paid to so-called "non-maintained" hiking trails--that is trails that are not cleared by the forest service or whose signs are being left to deteriorate or have been removed. The author points out the location of these trails, which often are not to be found on either the Earthwalk or USGS topo maps, and she also suggests where a cross-country route may be more scenic or more adventurous than staying on the trail. Another plus is the authorýs familiarity with the local history of the Wind River area. For example, she frequently describes the derivation of the names of mountains or lakes, often with brief, colorful anecdotes.
This book is 255 pages long and there is a 33 page section devoted to fishing in the Wind Rivers. This reviewer is not a fisherman, but I would think that the maps of the streams and lakes and their drainages and the fish they contain would be very useful to fishermen. Fishing licenses and regulations are discussed and Finis Mitchell's devotion to stocking 300 lakes with fish is reviewed in detail.
This book is highly recommended for dayhikers, backpackers, and fishermen. Hikers who are interested in walking on non-maintained trails or hiking cross-country may especially appreciate this book. The author clearly is familiar with the local history of the area and this too adds to the bookýs interest.

I recently used this book for an overnight hiking/fishing trip in the Winds. I found the information on distance, total elevation, and elevation gained (or lost) quite useful. Also, I wanted to fish in the Winds, so knowing which lakes have fish was very useful. However, there are a few aspects of the book that I found lacking. First, although it is billed as a hiking and fishing book, the information on fishing is confined to just identifying fish species in the lakes. A few paragraphs of information on the fishing methods used by successful fisherman would have been helpful, and some information on the biology of the local fish would have been interesting. Second, there is a general map in the beginning of the book on the locations of trailheads, with little else. There are various other maps throughout the book that detail information in the particular chapters. If you are confining yourself to single chapters, then the maps are okay. However, trying to flip back and forth between maps was not easy. The book would benefit greatly from a better overall map, as well as a more easily cross-referenced set of maps throughout. Lastly, I used the book to plan my trip to Twin Lakes, and then on to Gadsby Lake. I easily found Twin Lakes, but because of a small error in identifying what hill the author described to go around to get to Gadsby Lake, I made a long and tiring trek to locate the lake. I ended up exhausted and never reached the lake. That, of course, is largely my fault. However, a guidebook should be more explicit as to which hill to go around, especially when the area is surrounded by several hills.

This modern day fast-paced western gave the reader a taste of the west. The abrupt ending left the reader feeling as if a segment of the story was missing. ~Affaire de Coeur

Ten pages into this book, I could already predict almost everything that happened except the complete lack of romance between the hero & heroine. Everyone in the book basically gets stupid and tries to find some gold that the heroine's bandit ancestor hid on the hero's ranch. The heroine also miraculously solves the mystery of her long-missing grandfather. This book was one long yawn from the beginning to the end. I've read Janet Dailey before and never found her so boring and predictable. I was THRILLED to come to the last page, even though I was just skimming by that point. Although the library pasted a big red heart on the side, the hero & heroine kiss maybe two times and base a future relationship on that. Ugh.

I've been reading Janet Daily for over 25 years - since I was a teenager. Something More was delightful. The characters were from a western movie with twists and turns along the way. Daily wrote the plot wide open for a sequel. It will surely come.

This is the first Jack Turner book I've read--though I knew from reading reviews that his views about the wilderness were confrontational, provocative, progressive. His descriptions of wilderness are indeed riveting and articulate, and his pitch for why true wild country must be protected can't be refuted. But what put me off was his judgemental attitudes about others. OK, so he detests the hoards that descend on Yellowstone NP every year--who doesn't? Does he have to make snide comments about how they dress? He repeatedly stoops to comment on the attire of people he encounters camping in the back country. . . "a lovely young woman . . .on the top of the pass, sitting on a rock, in shorts, running shoes, a fanny pack, and a skimpy sports bra," a tourist at the Snow Lodge at Christmas, "a lovely woman clad in fashionably cut wool slacks and a black silk blouse reading through diamond-studded glasses," or on a trail he's tackling with ease, "four portly, suffering easterners on a fishing expedition." He even enjoys a good hearty laugh when he comes upon evidence of a hiker who'd had to use pepper spray on a bear. Ho ho ho.

I get his point, I really do--the sheer numbers of people visiting are destroying the very places national lands strive to protect. But I don't think his tone will win him many allies. Jack Turner admits that he drives many miles to purchase coffee from Colombia, chocolate from Switzerland, water from France. He lets his dog run free in the backcountry, and breaks any other rules he considers silly. Heck, he even lives within Grand Teton National Park. The fact is that if everyone used the wilderness the way he does, it couldn't be sustained--and yet he never examines that inconsistency. A book that did that would really contribute to the discussion of how wilderness should be preserved.

Turner, apparently, thinks the poor schmucks who drive all the trucks to bring him his French water and fresh vegetables or who manufacture his nifty camping equipment should not be afforded the same freedoms and opportunities he enjoys. They should just go to Disneyland, where their base appetites for comfort can be fed, leaving him in the world's beautiful places to identify gneiss and debate tarns. In short, he thinks his own stuff (supply your own colorful expression here) doesn't stink.

I felt very angry and judged after I read this book. I may be someone Turner'd sneer at, but I never let my dog off the leash when we visit Yellowstone, or take it on any back country trails, because that's verboten. Jack Turner would comment on how I dress when I visit. This book did nothing to solve the challenges wild lands face in the coming years, it just widened the chasm between two classes of people: those who want to keep the wilderness for those they deem worthy, and those who are just lucky if they ever get to see it.

After an inordinate wait, I have begun 'Travels in Greater Yellowstone'. I have read Turner's other books and found them riveting, especially because he has a wonderful writing style. This reads as well if not better. Let's call it his 'smooth jazz tone' style. Very chill or hip, if you will. More when I finish the book...............

I'll begin by saying that Turner's The Abstract Wild is one of the very best books I have ever read. Based on this book's subject and my own interests, I expected this one to fall far short of that and it did while remaining an enjoyable enough read.

This book consists of essays about Turner's experiences doing exactly what the title suggests. It occasionally gets repetitive, but there are some excellent moments. I believe Turner is at his best when exploring ideas and values, rather then writing travelogues, and my favorite essays here reflect that preference.

The piece on wolves is one of the best I've read on the subject, predicting the slaughter now underway since control was returned from the federal government to states like Wyoming. Along with history, ecology, wolf-haters and wolf-watchers, Turner explores our relationship with the wild and the ethics of reintroducing a species to an area and then encouraging the killing of the animals. Though more of a hike description, some of the same issues are touched on in the essay on grizzlies. The concluding essay on spending Christmas at Old Faithful is another highlight, raising many questions and paradoxes.

On the down side for me, three essays on fishing are three more than I needed even though they also raise ecological issues. Turner's rants against energy development destroying the area also got a little old. I'm against it too but that's why I'm not driving a truck all over the area for recreation like Turner is. Accusing Wyoming of wanting to have its cake and eat it too seems similar to what Turner's doing here with his choices. Maybe he thinks it would be OK to develop Alaska or someone else's favorite coastline to support his driving as long as it's not the area he considers more important.

A pleasant casual read, especially if you're familiar with the area I imagine, but another reading of The Abstract Wild would probably be a better use of your time.

This book is awful! Its characters are outdated and cliched, and the plot and its twists implausible. I was glad when it was over.

I loved the characters and the setting. I really think she's done an outstanding job. I thought the mystery was intriguing and it was like spending time in Yellowstone.