Guests
by Jason W., December 22, 2012 12:00 AM
Nature can seem remote and disconnected from daily life. But it doesn't have to be. All you need is a sense of wonder, kindled easily enough by this wonderful book. With insatiable curiosity, a poet's keen eye, and a deep concern for every form and facet of life, these essays romp and root through subjects great and small, personal and universal, wild and wildly human. By illuminating the depth and richness of the world just outside our door, The Tangled Bank makes the case for restoring nature in our community with native human spirit: "The earth spins, and we go
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Guests
by Jason W., December 30, 2010 2:39 PM
Much like the man himself, Werner Herzog's journal from the filming of Fitzcarraldo is hallucinatory and horrific, lovely and poetic all at once. This is a book about madness and obsession, about depth and illusion, about a place where nothing is as it seems. Filled with darkness and light, it's the story of a vision so contradictory and shifting it becomes life itself. I've stayed in Iquitos on the Amazon, and this is by far the most honest, accurate description of the place I've ever read. In fact, I've never read so honest a description of any
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Guests
by Jason W., June 14, 2010 4:05 PM
This book is as much about people and place as it is about the mythical hominid in our backyard. Pyle is a naturalist and a rational man thrust against doubt, and the beauty of the wild unknown flits through these pages like the shadow of his prey flits through hemlock and fir. Pyle favors hard science and the poetry of the backcountry, and, in his quest to understand the Bigfoot phenomena, he hikes and backpacks Washington's deep wilderness and returns to interview First Nation elders, serious Bigfoot hunters, loony hoaxers, anthropologists, and the residents of dying logging towns. Reading this made me think hard about what it is that drives determined people into the territory of the unknown. And it made me wonder what really does lurk out there in the deep winding ridges and forests of the Northwest. By the end of Where Bigfoot Walks, I wanted to believe — and I understood not just why some people do, but what implications that belief has for everyone living in its
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Guests
by Jason W., August 4, 2009 9:18 AM
This absolutely gorgeous book won a National Outdoor Book Award, and while it's a torture to read in the rainy season, it's almost indispensable in the summer. It is one of the few books with good information on hiking the Wallowas, and the hike selections are often innovative and unavailable in other guide books. Lavishly illustrated with beautiful color photographs and superb full-color topographic maps by Moore Creative Designs, 100 Classic Hikes in Oregon will make your mouth water and your feet itch for the trail.
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Guests
by Jason W., August 4, 2009 9:07 AM
Banville really is a writer closer to Nabakov and Joyce than most of his contemporaries. It's easy to see in this novel of obsession, which follows a former felon turned art historian who is asked to verify the authenticity of a stack of suspicious paintings. Things get complicated, and the narrator falls deep under the spell of a mysterious woman. The language is erotic and sensual even outside of the sex scenes. Various interludes, in the form of brief art reviews written by the narrator, offset the action, provide pacing, and eventually weave themselves into the plot. Stylistically, Athena is masterful, and the detective-novel genre gets a good workout in the hands of a writer able to make every line beautiful, and every word
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Guests
by Jason W., July 27, 2009 9:12 AM
Coetzee's beautiful tale of Michael K's search for meaning and dignity is inspiring and powerful ? and unfortunately relevant. The war, racism, and human-rights abuses framing The Life and Times of Michael K are as close as tomorrow's headlines. By focusing on one man's attempt to live a life of freedom, Coetzee universalizes our evils, and Michael K's heart-wrenching story becomes revealingly human. The savagery will haunt you, but Michael K's innocence and resolve will have you cheering. The Life and Times of Michael K changed for the better what I thought literature was capable of, and what it should aspire to: it cuts like barbed wire, but heals like a lover's touch. I owe my friend a lifetime of thanks for recommending this to me; it's simply a brilliant
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Guests
by Jason W., July 27, 2009 9:04 AM
The massive Missoula floods carved the dramatic scablands of eastern Washington and flooded the Columbia and Willamette valleys to depths of 400 feet as far south as Eugene. Bretz's Flood is the bracing story of the geologist who, like Galileo and Darwin before him, challenged prevailing thought and put forth a theory that incited academic controversy for
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Guests
by Jason W., July 27, 2009 9:01 AM
You don't have to be young to start over, hip to seize life, or daring to have adventure. You don't need to be moneyed (or utterly destitute) to meet the right people. A simple life is fuel enough for insight and meaning, and change is often good. Jim Harrison's writing is marvelous, and in his new novel — On the Road for the common man — he takes the reader on a trip with a teacher-turned-farmer who hits the highways after personal
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Guests
by Jason W., July 27, 2009 8:47 AM
The legendary "lost book" of the Beats, this early collaborative novel reveals two of the finest Beat writers at the beginning of their careers. Some of these chapters are brilliant short stories in and of themselves. An illuminating and enjoyable
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Guests
by Jason W., July 22, 2009 9:31 AM
Planetwalker is one of the most powerfully eloquent testimonials to the human spirit that I've ever read. John Francis's sacrifices turn out to be anything but, and his story is incandescent with beauty and wisdom. Writing with humility and courage about the power of conviction and community is one thing; proving it through a life of action and then writing so honestly and lucidly about it is something else entirely. I first read Planetwalker a year ago, and it continues to resonate, inspire, and subtly guide me as I walk through a life more complicated than it need
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