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Post by trinity on Apr 2, 2024 17:02:27 GMT -8
hikerjer , ooh, that sounds like a good one! Definitely adding that one to my list. I am currently juggling a number of books, all of which I am really enjoying: Atlas of a Lost World, by Craig Childs. Beautifully written meandering account of the migration of humans into North America. I am finding this book fascinating, and highly recommend it. Crossing Open Ground, by Barry Lopez. Great collection of essays recounting travels into the wild. Classic Lopez. Dersu the Trapper, by V. K. Arseniev. Fascinating account of the turn of the 20th century expedition of a Russian team through the wilds of Siberia, and the friendship that developed between Arseniev and an aboriginal hunter/trapper named Dersu. This is the book on which the Kurosawa classic Dersu Uzala was based.
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Post by Coolkat on Apr 3, 2024 4:06:56 GMT -8
At this point I'm not sure how many books that are on my thriftbooks wish list are due to this thread and I just added one more. Dersu the Trapper, by V. K. Arseniev. Fascinating account... This sounds right up my alley.
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TrailElder
Trail Wise!
Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed
Posts: 507
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Post by TrailElder on Apr 5, 2024 5:46:54 GMT -8
“All the Wild That Remains” by David Gessner. Started into this and really liking it. His approach to weaving all three stories together (the third being his own) is fun. And it's relevant to me personally because it focuses in 2012 in Colorado, a bad fire year when my neighborhood in Colorado Springs was burning down in the most damaging -- to housing property -- fire in state history. A record that was set a few weeks before in Fort Collins, then broken by ours, and has since been surpassed in the Boulder area....
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rebeccad
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Writing like a maniac
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Post by rebeccad on Apr 5, 2024 7:19:16 GMT -8
“All the Wild That Remains” by David Gessner. Started into this and really liking it. His approach to weaving all three stories together (the third being his own) is fun. And it's relevant to me personally because it focuses in 2012 in Colorado, a bad fire year when my neighborhood in Colorado Springs was burning down in the most damaging -- to housing property -- fire in state history. A record that was set a few weeks before in Fort Collins, then broken by ours, and has since been surpassed in the Boulder area.... Also read this, though I had to look at the blurb to untangle it in my mind from another Gessner book, “Leave it as it Is.” I had to do some sleuthing to find when I read it (listened, actually), and then a few comments in my journal, as I never wrote it up on my blog. Apparently I was kind of irritated (when reading about Abbey, especially) by the same thing that bugs me when reading about Thoreau: it’s a very male way of looking at the world, not to mention living in it. I turned around and read more books by and about women as a curative.
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TrailElder
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Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed
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Post by TrailElder on Apr 5, 2024 15:06:24 GMT -8
Uh huh. Abbey was a misogynist, gatekeeping A-hole. I can only take so much. These guys were ahead of their time. So there is a prophet aspect to their writing, which also can just add up to "nothing new here." Abbey was the worst of the bunch at coming out from the East and claiming the West for himself. Speaking of gender and thinking about authors that I think really get it right: I just read (listened to) again The Dutch House (Ann Patchett) and The Covenant of Water (Abraham Verghese). I think they do a terrific job of portraying the point of view of the other -- and both - genders.
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TrailElder
Trail Wise!
Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed
Posts: 507
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Post by TrailElder on Apr 5, 2024 20:18:39 GMT -8
rebeccad, Gessner mentions several books by women that are held in similar regard as Desert Solitaire. I wonder if you've read any of them? I haven't, but I haven't read any of the ones by men he mentions either! Pam Houston, Cowboys are my Weakness Terry Tempest Wiliams, Refuge Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
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rebeccad
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Writing like a maniac
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Post by rebeccad on Apr 6, 2024 6:00:36 GMT -8
rebeccad , Gessner mentions several books by women that are held in similar regard as Desert Solitaire. I wonder if you've read any of them? I haven't, but I haven't read any of the ones by men he mentions either! Pam Houston, Cowboys are my Weakness Terry Tempest Wiliams, Refuge Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony I’m aware of them all, but have only read Ceremony. I have read a LOT of books by and about women settling the West, though, especially early 20th-Century lives in remote places (early enough to be adventurous, but maybe late enough to have time and access to paper enough to write journals, etc.). Actually, I have a non-trivial collection of such books—about 6’ of shelf space, I think.
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TrailElder
Trail Wise!
Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed
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Post by TrailElder on Apr 7, 2024 7:36:52 GMT -8
rebeccad so cool. Any favorites on that shelf?
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rebeccad
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Writing like a maniac
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Post by rebeccad on Apr 7, 2024 10:08:32 GMT -8
rebeccad so cool. Any favorites on that shelf? Okay, I lied. It's only about 3'. It kind of runs on into the section on natural history, including Craig Childs (I'm really not sure how to categorize his work).
As for favorites, any that are mostly or entirely journals or memoirs of the women themselves. They are often poorly written, but give the best look at their lives at the time. I tend to buy these in park gift shops so at the time each one is of the greatest interest because it's about the area I'm in.
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Post by starwalker on Apr 7, 2024 14:54:18 GMT -8
Don't feel bad, neither does the Library of Congress. They have his books in at least 4 different Dewey Decimal locations, earth sciences, zoology, geography of the southwest and history of the Southwest.
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Post by paula53 on Apr 18, 2024 10:12:27 GMT -8
I am currently reading, Canoeing with the Cree by Eric Sevareid. I was written 75 years ago, but it was re-released this year. It is the story of how two teenagers made a 2,250 mile voyage from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. It was written by 17 year old Sevareid, his first published book. A very good story that held my interest and was very captivating.
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Post by downriver on Apr 18, 2024 22:14:41 GMT -8
I am currently reading, Canoeing with the Cree by Eric Sevareid. I was written 75 years ago, but it was re-released this year. It is the story of how two teenagers made a 2,250 mile voyage from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. It was written by 17 year old Sevareid, his first published book. A very good story that held my interest and was very captivating. Interesting book. I enjoyed it, too. Quite the adventure for the young lads. I remember seeing old newspaper clipping about their journey on some website. Regards, DR
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swiftdream
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the Great Southwest Unbound
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Post by swiftdream on Apr 19, 2024 15:19:20 GMT -8
I remember reading Canoeing with the Cree years ago and liking it. Recently finished Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail by Andrea Lankford. This book really disappointed me. Many like it so I won’t go into details or insert any spoilers. I’d be interested in any insight others have with this book.
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rebeccad
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Writing like a maniac
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Post by rebeccad on Apr 30, 2024 10:17:39 GMT -8
Recently read No Picnic on Mt. Kenya, which is a fascinating and largely light-hearted account of three Italian WWII POWs in Kenya who slipped out of their camp to climb Mt. Kenya. Then returned, having no way to get out of the country and being wholly out of food. In fact, they never planned it as more than a break from the tedium of the camp. Fascinating to read it after just circumambulating the mountain.
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