• Happy Winter Solstice! 🌇🌃

What are you reading?

Just finished The Wager by David Grann (author of Killers of the Flower Moon). The Wager (publ 4/2023) is the story of the shipwreck of the HMS Wager in the 1740’s near bottom of South America. Very readable and a riveting story. It is coming out as a movie soon.
 
I got about halfway through Another Bend in the River while waiting to be either selected or deselected for jury duty. Just need to finish it now.
 
IMG_5483.jpeg

Just started reading this. So far the information doesn’t seem particularly useful. It’s one of those things where you think, “Yeah, I noticed that but never spent time thinking about it”. Guess the purpose to is get you to just be more observant. Theres a reason things are the way they are in nature.

Stumbled across this when looking for books about trees. I realize my knowledge of trees is embarrassingly lacking for someone who claims himself to be an outdoorsman.
 
I highly recommend Tom Wessels' Reading the Forested Landscape for those who enjoy pondering trees, history, and the reason a spot in the woods looks how it does. It's very specific to southern New England, but much of the underlying principles could be applied elsewhere, and some of the specifics would apply across much of 'canoe country' and the northwoods. Themes include disturbance by logging, farming, fire, and beavers. (It may be remedial for the retired foresters among us.)
 
Just finished reading “Madhouse at the End of the Earth”. Very well researched and written story of the voyage of the Belgica, one of the early explorations of the Antarctic. The Belgica becomes frozen in the sea ice over the winter and endures a very difficult time. Not yet famous, Roald Amundsen is the first mate on this voyage. The book is rich in detail as many of the crew kept diaries and the author used them and the ship’s log to create this well written book.
 
I just finished "An Unfinished Love Story" by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. It has nothing to do with canoeing, but is a fascinating history of the 1960's, for those (apparently many) of us who were coming of age in that era.
 
I read Peter Heller's The River and immediately followed it up with The Dog Stars. I enjoyed them both. The former is about a tandem canoe trip, undertaken by two young men on the Maskwa River in Canada, that goes awry. The latter is a post-apocalyptic survival story that takes place in Colorado. It's clear that Heller himself is an avid outdoorsmen and his descriptions of the locales do them justice. The Dog Stars is the better book, but the folks on this site will likely appreciate the subject matter of The River more.
 
Pseudonym said:
I read Peter Heller's The River and immediately followed it up with The Dog Stars. I enjoyed them both. The former is about a tandem canoe trip, undertaken by two young men on the Maskwa River in Canada, that goes awry. The latter is a post-apocalyptic survival story that takes place in Colorado. It's clear that Heller himself is an avid outdoorsmen and his descriptions of the locales do them justice. The Dog Stars is the better book, but the folks on this site will likely appreciate the subject matter of The River more.
Click to expand...
I enjoyed both, but agree about The Dog Stars being the better book.
 
‘TRAPLINES NORTH’ has been a favorite of mine since I was a sixth grader. Very early influence on many of my life paths.
 
Thanks to this thread, I recently finished The Sleeping Island by P.G. Downes and Gil Gilpatrick's The Canoe Guide's Handbook. Enjoyed both.

Fascinating tidbit from the Sleeping Island that's hard to imagine in this day and age of GPS: in 1939 the float planes servicing the north got lost all the time. Downes recounts the story of a trade post going months without resupply and then very nearly being passed over because the resupply pilot couldn't find the post. On his return trip to Churchill, Downes and the pilot get lost again, run out of fuel and land on an unknown lake that just happens to have a cabin on it, where a small family is scratching out an existence in the north. They're able to radio for another plane to resupply them with additional fuel, but would have had no means of explaining their location to the resupply plane without the luck of landing on an inhabited lake. They otherwise had no idea where they were within any reasonable search variance.
 
Last edited:
Well, I’m now reading Empire of the Summer Moon. This is the 2nd time I’ve read it but it seems fresh. I’m also reading Dog Stars (Heller) that I’ve also read before, but didn’t remember reading until I bought it for my reader. Still good, I remember very little.

I have a Follet series and had a couple false starts on it. A lot of DC and politics that I’m burnt out on these days, I’ve looked at a couple mentioned here and made a list to check out when I need a new one, I also started One Against the North (Shoalts). I’ve been juggling them around since I have trouble staying awake to read anymore. Need lots of action.
 
Black_Fly said:
Well, I’m now reading Empire of the Summer Moon. This is the 2nd time I’ve read it but it seems fresh. I’m also reading Dog Stars (Heller) that I’ve also read before, but didn’t remember reading until I bought it for my reader. Still good, I remember very little.

I have a Follet series and had a couple false starts on it. A lot of DC and politics that I’m burnt out on these days, I’ve looked at a couple mentioned here and made a list to check out when I need a new one, I also started One Against the North (Shoalts). I’ve been juggling them around since I have trouble staying awake to read anymore. Need lots of action.
Click to expand...
BF, you sound like me. The older I get the more I find some things I read in the past are mostly, if not, all new to me. I have taken to marking my completed reads with my name/initials and a date.
 
@Robin Trap Lines North is by Stephen W Meader? Growing up we had a little one-room library with loads of old cloth-bound classics - Hardy Boys and all that. They also had 'The Black Buccaneer' by Stephen W Meader. I read that one every summer and loved it. Eventually I got a copy as a birthday present. I'll have to check out Trap Lines North.

@Black_Fly I started 'Empire of the Summer Moon' a few years back but gave up due to the descriptions of brutal and horrible deaths. I know it's the reality but I can't stomach that as much depressing depths of humanity these days, since I get plenty just reading the news. I've been meaning to instead get Pekka Hamalainen's 'Comanche Empire'. I listened to his 'Lakota America' year back and got a lot out of it. It's on the drier, more academic side. One still gets the sense of the brutality but there's less graphic description, at least that's my memory having read/listened to these books >5yrs ago.
 
I just finished "Throne of Grace" by Drury and Clavin. It's a history of the first mountain men and the exploration of the West following the Lewis & Clark expedition. They were incredibly tough men. A number of epic canoe trips are referenced, mostly from the 1820-1830 time frame. It has some gruesome details, but was a fascinating and educational read. I am still intrigued with how they were able to navigate vast distances without being lost most of the time. The book stated that Thomas Jefferson taught someone, maybe Clark, how to use a sextant, but it's hard to believe that many, if any, of the trappers carried sextants with them.
 
Halpc …….
Have you read “UNDAUNTED COURAGE” the biography of Meriwether Louis by Stephen Ambrose? Good enough to read more than once, in my opinion.
Thanks for the “THRONE OF GRACE” tip. I have it placed on hold at the Fairbanks Borough Public Library, North Pole Branch. Looking forward to a good read by a warm fire, durning the short dark days of winter that we are all experiencing to some degree.
I’ve read the journals of Lewis and Clark, other than the near starvation, a grand adventure, with a great deal of messing around in boats and canoes.
…..BBirchy
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Erica
Four Canoe Tripping Books
Replies
14
Views
2K
ppine
P
Glenn MacGrady
  • Locked
What do you think about the idea of having vendor forums?
2
Replies
24
Views
395
Glenn MacGrady
Glenn MacGrady
K
Miscellaneous Ramblings From My 13,500 Mile North American Tour
2
Replies
31
Views
948
DougK
DougK
A
Downeast Lakes
Replies
9
Views
952
themadindian
T
Robin
An interview with Garrett Conover, woodsman, author, wilderness canoeist guide.
2
Replies
23
Views
2K
Benson Gray
Benson Gray
Back
Top