No comments about Sea Cows, Shamans, and Scurvy: Alaska's First Naturalist: Georg Wilhelm Steller.

1 comments about The Personal Narrative of James O Pattie: The True Wild West of New Mexico and California.

1. I can't recommend this book because its partly or mostly untrue. Pattie, is one is to believe him, traversed nearly every corner of the old West from 1824 to 1830, participated in countless battles with Indians, rescued Mexican maidens, was one of the first Mountain Men to reach California, became a hero when he vaccinated 18,000 Californians against smallpox, explored large parts of the Rocky Mountains, and ended up in a Mexican jail from whence he made his way back to the United States and dictated his story to a journalist.
   
   Pattie tells a good tale and there is an air of authenticity in many of his travels. He probably saw some country out West, and his descriptions are no doubt valuable, but it appears he vastly exaggerated his exploits. The problem with reading the book is that you can't be sure what is truth and what is fiction.
   
   Well, telling whoppers was a tradition among the Mountain Men and Pattie seems to have been a master teller of tall tales -- and smart enough not to make them so tall that they are manifestly untrue. There's enough authentic material about the Mountain Men in the 1820s to ignore this book without loss. If you're captivated by Pattie, the editor, Richard Batman, has written "James Pattie's West" which tries to unravel the truth in this story.
   
   Smallchief

4 comments about Night Watch: Memoirs of a Circumnavigation.

1. This is such a great read! It's laugh-out-loud funny! And I feel as though I am in a conversation with the Author. Her point of view is 20/20 and I love the lady -- no fretting, just twirling her binoculars.
   
   I'm buying this book for a friend who thinks she wants to do the same trip!



2. Every night I bugged my wife by reading delightful passages to her. She couldn't wait until I was finshed so she could read it, but I hated for the book to end as I enjoyed my time with it so much. I loved it.



3. Night Watch is a great read! a wonderful mixture of action (sailing) and contemplation (cultural reflections). The author has a freshness of style which I admire, managing to be both eloquent and earthy. I was truly sad when the saga ended.



4. I found this book to be a compelling and heartwarming recounting of an amazing experience. The writing is excellent and I found myself easily transported around the world through Ms. Knecht's delightful narrative. Read this book! It's outstanding!!!!!

No comments about The Female Shipwright.

No comments about In The Footsteps Of Daniel Boone (In the Footsteps).

1 comments about The Tree Collector: The Life and Explorations of David Douglas.

1. This is a page-turner for gardener and non-gardener alike. It includes many of the journal entries and letters that survive David Douglas' incredible travels, particularly in the Pacific Northwest in the early 19th century. His experiences on a 10,000 mile walk between the Pacific coast and Hudson Bay are unimaginable today. He collected over 200 species -- important sources today of timber as well as ornamental garden plants. This biography suggests that his death at age 35 by falling into a wild-animal trap in Hawaii may have been murder and not an accident as commonly thought.

2 comments about Dougal Haston: The Philosophy of Risk.

1. I was left wondering after reading this book.. Not about Dougal Haston, but at the motives of the author, someone (I had never heard of) named Jeff Connor.
   You would think that someone who had this much (supposed) access to Mr. Haston's private journals, and interviews from nearly everyone who knew him, would at least produce a book that someone might recommend to a friend! Not so, in this case! This is absolutely the very worst written book I have ever read!
   This book starts as a very slow read. Connor describes all these different local climbing groups (which no one ever heard of, or wanted to hear about) who somehow were at war with each other! He lists all of Mr. Haston's early climbs (with no map of course, so no one outside of Scotland has a clue of what he is talking about!). But there is a reason for Connor's dwelling on these early climbs. He is trying (hard) to make one point: Dougal Haston was NOT the best climber in Britian, not even in Scotland! A young man named Robin Smith was! Smith was a young climber in Scotland about the same time as Haston. He dies in the Pimar's in 1962. (One previous reviewer mentioned that they could not understand Connor's choice of subjects for his book -Haston- when he clearly took great pains to tell the world, repeatedly, that Smith was Haston's better in every way! Nor could I understand it at first, since he clearly prefered Smith to Haston. But.... JUST LOOK at the cover of this book.. Dougal Haston's name is in far larger letters than Connors. How many copies of this book would have sold with Robin Smith's name on the cover? Not taking anything away from Mr. Smith.. By all reports he was a first class climber!) The author speculates repeatedly about what the future fate of Haston would have been had Smith survived his Pimar climbs. The implication is clear. The author obviously beleaves that had Smith survived, the world might not ever heard of Haston! He aparently beleaves no two world class climbers are allowed to come from the same region of the world.
   In the latter half of this book the author's subtle hero worship for Don Whillans, Britains "Bad Boy" of climbing" comes through.. Mr. Connor is free to "hero worship" whomever he likes, but please don't try to pass it off as "journalism"!
   Most american's mentioned in this book take some sort of verbal jab from Connor (for instance, he attempts to give the reader the impression that Layton Kor was a pothead, and Norman Dhyrenfurth wrote "chatty" expedition news letters). But no one, american or otherwise, takes a bigger beating in this volume than John Harlin! According to Connor not only was Harlin no more than a "poser" and media hound, why he could barely climb! The author attempts to portray Harlin as a man who had be drug up easy routes in England by better climbing companions! He writes this about a man who had climbed the north face of the Eiger before any Brit had (and long before any Scot had)!
   One wonders if the publisher (let alone the author) considered a fact checker before this book went to publication? The author bills himself as a "climber" but one must marval at his basic lack of mountaineering knowledge. For the basic errors are many!!
   Connor twice referrs to the "American West Ridge Expedition 1963"...
   The American Mt. Everest Expedition (that's what is was called, AMEE, for short) never even thought of climbing the west ridge of Everest until the walk in. The expedition raised money on the premise that the objects of thier consern would be Everest, Lhotse, and Nuptse! Not once, until over 40 years later did I ever hear of it descibed as the "American West Ridge Expedition"...
   Connor states (twice in this book) The "American West Ridge Expedition" put 4 climbers on top! Umm, no Jeff, read basic mountian history, six men reached the summit, four from the col route and two from the west ridge!!
   This author tells the world of the troubles Dougal Haston will have while getting ready for his first everest expedition in 1971.. One of the things he states that Haston must get ready for is "capricious post-monsoon weather conditions", I guess forgetting that the 1971 International Everest Expedition was in the spring??
   This author tells the world that in 1970 on Nanga Parbat, Reinhold and Gunther Messner "reached the summit via the Diamir face". Umm, no again Jeff! As the world knows, the 1970 expedition led by Karl Herligkoffer that the Messner brothers were part of, climbed the Rupal face of Nanga Parbat. Only after reaching the summit did the Messner brothers decide to DESCEND the Diamir face. The Diamir face itself had been climbed in 1962 by a previous Herligkoffer expedition.
   Connor states of Peter Boardman: "Boardman died on the North-East Ridge of Everest in 1978". Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker disappeared on the Northeast ridge of Everest during a Chris Bonington led expedition in 1982.
   I could go on...
   If the author was this casual about checking these basic facts, than how accurate are all these new "inside" details he presents as fact??
   As I say to start with, this is a very poorly written book, although the subject matter could have been fascinating. I do not reccomend this book at all.



2. Dougal was one of the lucky lads born at just the right time to come of age in the `60's when his special type of charisma was coin of the realm. He was handsome in an unusual Jean Belmondo sort of way, arrogant, enigmatic, rail thin and intense, spoke little and modestly, dressed like a peacock, and had the gleam of destiny in his eye.

   He grew up poor and rowdy in Currie, Scotland, was a moderate student, and discovered climbing when a young teen. From that time on, everybody and everything took a back seat to his ever-widening aspirations. He was flashy, determined and as ascetic on the hills as he was sybaritic on the ground. He went from the Scottish Hills, to the Alps, to Everest in ever-increasing adulation, not the least of it from the ladies. He was killed in an avalanche in Switzerland at age 36. The stylish scarf he wore choked him.

   The book gets off to an extremely slow start. The first third is devoted to Dougal's early days in Scotland. Intricate details are given of every hill he ever climbed as a lad. Many of these elaborate facets could only be of interest to another Scottish climber, as there is no map shown, and the reader is not given a sense of the progression of difficulties. Also, Mr. Connor is strangely ambivalent about his youthful subject. The author is at great pains to remind us that a contemporary of Haston's, Robin Smith who was killed in a fall in 1962, was Dougal's superior in every way---on the mountains, socially and academically. At times, I wondered why the author had not chosen Mr. Smith as his subject. When Dougal gets to the Alps, the book kicks in and becomes a fascinating read about Haston's expanding skills and extreme climbing right on to the Himalayas. The author focuses on the strong partnerships Haston forged and his hard work as a member of the team. The book is at its best when Haston is allowed to speak for himself via diaries and journals.

   Haston, except for his genius on the mountain, was not an admirable man. He had no particular interest in money, but didn't care how he came by it taking advantage of his friends and forgetting favors. He was a wild drunk (for some reason the author backs off of the word "alcoholic," which Haston certainly was). He was at fault in a fatal auto accident where he ran away from the scene leaving the dead and injured on the road. He left friends and family behind when they no longer did him any good. In his own lights, he lived as he had to; his whole being was focused on the next climb, what and wherever it was.

   Enjoyable and thought provoking with enough technical material to satisfy the climbers and enough human interest for the general reader.

No comments about Maverick in the Sky: The Aerial Adventures of Word War I Flying Ace Freddie McCall (Amazing Stories).

5 comments about Living With Cannibals And Other Womens Adventures.

1. This is a pretty quick read and very enjoyable. What I liked so much about this book is that while all these women have one thing in common -- adventure -- they all have their very own and very different approaches to it. From a single mom who takes her daughter through a foreign country, to women kayakers, to mountain climbers. All these women have found the one or two things they really loved (one lady loved India and also loved riding her bike so she rode her bike through India) and pursued it.
   
   Basically this book teaches you to find your thing, be proud of what it is you like to do as an individual - and go for it.



2. This book is a collection of short true stories of women travelers and adventurers. (Some are modern and some are from previous centuries.) Many threw convention to the side to follow their dreams. I enjoyed it!



3. The picture on the cover and the title made me think that this was going to be "A short superficial collection of stories about women adventurers," and probably adventures that wouldn't be worth mentioning were the people male. I was pleasantly surprised. Common themes are, "Ms. X from a very early age indicated that she wanted to travel" and "After living a conventional, homemaker life, at age 30+ Ms. X started traveling." The stories are written so that that one can readily identify with the adventurers, perhaps precisely because up until the time they start traveling their lives are so similar to people like me who are not. Like a prior reviewer, once I started the book I was hooked.



4. The picture on the cover and the title made me think that this was going to be "A short superficial collection of stories about women adventurers," and probably adventures that wouldn't be worth mentioning were the people male. I was pleasantly surprised. Common themes are, "Ms. X from a very early age indicated that she wanted to travel" and "After living a conventional, homemaker life, at age 30+ Ms. X started traveling." The stories are written so that that one can readily identify with the adventurers, perhaps precisely because up until the time they start traveling their lives are so similar to people like me who are not. Like a prior reviewer, once I started the book I was hooked.



5. Pairing well known adventuresses with lesser known heroines makes this book a great read for those with various levels of familiarity with the history of women explorers. Delightful anecdotes are coupled with high adventure which kept me saying, "I will just read one more story..." until I found myself half way through the book in one sitting. This is a great book to read to your daughter.

5 comments about Who's Who of NASA Astronauts.

1. FROM: Autograph Collector Magazine-June 2002 edition
   Collectors of space autographs looking for complete information on NASA astronauts and how to contact them will find Lee Ellis' new book "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts" an excellent resource. The book contains extensive biographies, space flight data and other facts for all 367 NASA astronauts from the first manned space flight of Alan Shepard to current NASA candidates. Of particular interest to collectors is a complete section of astronaut addresses. Arranged for easy reference, each biography covers personal data, education, organizations, special honors and full NASA experience.



2. I'm the coach for a local high school science bowl team. We have used the book, "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts" as the authority on
   all of our questions about NASA astronauts. We use this book to create questions for the students and use this book to officiate
   any dispute on a question about NASA astronauts. "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts" is a valuable resource for anyone wanting
   accurate information on NASA astronauts. Also, I have used other
   books about NASA astronauts and "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts"
   is the least expensive.



3. For me, this is a difficult book to review, because as one reviewer has already pointed out, most of the information presented in this book is available at several NASA websites for free. The NASA sites also include nice photographs, links to other NASA information and are continuously updated. In some cases, the information presented in the book is taken word for word from the NASA sites.

   On the flip side of things, a book like this is readily available, portable and good for those you do not have computer access. Futhermore, the information presented on the former astronauts, especially those from the Apollo era, is not always available at the NASA sites.

   In general, I'd say that if you are interested in owning and reading a book that contains good biographical summaries on all the NASA astronauts, this book is for you. If you just want a book for a quick reference now and then go to the NASA sites.




4. Who's Who of NASA Astronauts is a valuable resource for anyone wanting concise and comprehensive information on the biographies of the NASA Astronauts. This book give personal data, outlines the events surrounding the NASA astronauts and gives the accounts of their space flights. People who would enjoy this book are space flight enthusiasts, students wanting background information on the qualifications, selection and application process to become an astronaut, reference librarians for their general reference section, speaker bureaus, autograph collectors who want to write to astronauts, schools and alumni of astronauts and business associates of astronauts. I have known Lee Ellis, the author of "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts" for many years. Over that time, he has demonstrated high ethical standards. The sources Mr. Ellis used in the publication of his book include personal interviews with NASA astronauts, information from the NASA history center in Washington, DC, the NASA website and various other news reporting agencies. I would like to reply to a comment given by a previous review and say that not all reviewers are aware of the principles and guidelines that must be followed in the publication of a book. I want to assure everyone that Mr. Ellis has complied with all the NASA requirements and conditions in the preparation of his book. I have talked to people of all walks of life who have read "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts." All of them have mentioned how much they have enjoyed the book and are looking forward to Mr. Ellis' next publication.



5. I've enjoyed reading about astronauts and their explorations over the years. I'm especially interested in the moon-walkers and this book does a fine job of detailing the astronauts lives and their NASA experiences. The author has done a good job of organizing the astronaut biographies which makes finding information much easier.