No comments about Barefoot Conquistador: Cabeza De Vaca and the Struggle for Native American Rights (Exceptional Biographies for Upper Grades).

No comments about The autobiography of a pioneer girl.

1 comments about Bradford Washburn: An Extraordinary Life: The Autobiography of a Mountaineering Icon.

1. Bradford Washburn led a super extra-extraordinary life as one of America's greatest mountain photographers, cartographers, scientists and mountaineers. Its not every kid who climbed three highest peaks in the Alps in a two weeks period like he did while in his teens.
   
   The book is an autobiography written by Washburn with help from Lew Freedman. Its a well written account, highly interesting, highly informative and many gripping accounts of many of his "extraordinary" adventures. He wastes no word in this book, every passage, every sentence say something about his life. Although 314 pages appears to be too short to write a life about one of the "extraordinary" Americans of our lifetime, I thought the book accomplished its purpose. If you want more detail on Washburn, you can read many of his books he wrote over the years including ones that he wrote while as a teenager.
   
   The book reflect his accomplishments, his deeds and his desire to explore. Ironically, one of his greatest accomplishments appears to be marrying his wife, Barbara, who proves to be extraordinary person herself, a soul mate who shared in her husband's passion that very few men are lucky to have. The book reflects his pride in having such a wife and sharing his life with her.
   
   If there was a downside to this book, it doesn't reflect a lot regarding his children and his other aspects of his personal life. The book seem to be centered around his life of adventure. I would like to have known if he was ever an avid Red Sox fan since he was born and rise in the New England area where he also lived through out his life. Or if he had other quirky interests beside what he is well known for. The book also don't reflect much on some of the disagreements he have known to have with other folks in his fields. It could be that the book wasn't gear toward such matter and it might be left to future biographers to figure all that out.
   
   The book comes well illustrated with photographs of Washburn's many adventures. They are all in black and white and many reflects the passages in the book very well. However, on page 231, he wrote about posing for photographs with other veterans of earlier McKinley climbs. I would have like to have seen one of these "one in the lifetime" photos.
   
   Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in mountaineering, photography or just like reading about adventuresome people. Bradford Washburn definitely led a very interesting and adventuresome life and this book is well worth the effort to read.

No comments about The Intrepid Explorer: James Hector's Explorations in the Canadian Rockies.

No comments about The Last Conquistador: Mansio Serra De Leguizamon and the Conquest of the Incas.

1 comments about Paddling South: Winnipeg to New Orleans by Canoe.

1. Prospective readers should be warned that this book is in many ways not what it seems. First of all, it is not a continuous narrative of traveling through the heart of America by canoe but a disjointed sequence of introspective musings by one of the two ill-prepared twenty-year-olds from Winnipeg who undertook this trip in 1969. One wonders if the discontinuity is due to the fact that their travels were expedited by car, motorboat and sailboat, or the fact that the events are being recollected some 40 years later. Some philosophical comments about how both Winnipeg and New Orleans have both had their characters shaped by flooding suggest that Hurricane Katrina may have been the catalyst for this long-delayed trip down memory lane. Or perhaps it is the author's attempt at catharsis/apology for the progressive deterioration of his relationship with his erstwhile friend and travel partner, which serves as the excruciating theme of the narrative.
   If nothing else, this tale will help dispel any romantic notions about paddling the Mississippi system even 40 years ago; industrial traffic and damming seem to have rendered it dangerously impractical as a canoe route, especially for the unprepared.

No comments about My Life (Hesperus Classics).

No comments about The Archaeology of Heinrich Schliemann: An Annotated Bibliographic Handlist.

2 comments about Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian.

1. This is an excellent book on what life was like for englishmen in British India. John Beames was obviously a good writer and the narrative flows quite smoothly. His description of Calcutta with some specific street names (Chowrangee) brought back memories because things did not appear to have changed much in 1968 when I was in Calcutta.
   
   I agree with the publisher that the first chapter on ancestry is quite turgid and boring. So if you wish skip the first chapter. You will not miss much. Too bad that John Beames died before completing the book. However, his grandson has a nice epilogue to the text.
   
   Much of what Beames states in the book sounds familiar to me. I used to know a guy in Hyderabad, whose granddad was a "assistant" to one of the British Collectors and much of what he said coincides with several narratives in the book.
   
   Of course in keeping with the times Beames had the usual prejudices against the natives but that was the culture in those days.
   
   I found it interesting that an intelligent perceptive man like John Beames seemed not to question the white elephant, viz., what in tarnation were the British, doing in India?



2. John Beames was not a major historical figure, but this book should appeal to anybody who has an interest in British India. Beames describes his early life as the son of a minister in England and his college days at Haileybury, as part of the last generation of young men to pass through the East India Company's private college. The majority of the book is taken up with his career in the Indian Civil Service between 1858 and 1893. Beames is notable for his clean command of the english language - which was considered exceptional for the times he was writing in - hardly a phrase of purple prose in sight. He was also notable because he was considered to be an ordinary man, one of the civil servants who did their duty very well and to the best of their ability, contributed to history, but yet are not remember as many of the Viceroys India who had far shorter careers, often far less distinguished.

   One of the historical gems in the book is Beames' description of Calcutta. For him it was womderful city of palaces and parks, of high society, young woman keen on romance, and young men with too much leisure on their hands. These descriptions present such a contrast to the images of Calcutta today.

   In his descriptions of Indians and Anglo-Idnains Beames is perhaps a perfect man of his times in that he often displays the usual prejudices of the British in India. At the same time, however, he was not overtly racist and would acknowledge that individuals should be judged as individuals. In this respect some of the most entretaining passges are reserved for those of his english colleagues in Indian who he considered to be incompetent fools despite their often high standing in that society.

   A wonderful book for anybody who wants an insight into those times.

No comments about Beasts, Men, and Gods.