What are you reading?

[Odyssey]

We went out today to a local antiques market. She bought a large wooden apothecary mortar and pestle. She now has a collection of three (and counting) mortar and pestles. It seems you can't have too many on the kitchen sideboard for crushing/mixing herbs and spices. I on the other hand spent time in the book section at the market, and came away with my own collection of sorts.
"Flint and Feather - The Complete Poems of E. Pauline Johnson ( Tekahionwake)". Pauline Johnson was a Mohawk from the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford Ontario, and is most famous for her poem "The Song My Paddle Sings". Her writing is sublime.
"The Collected Works of Grey Owl - The Men of The Last Frontier, Pilgrims of The Wild, Sajo And The Beaver People." Archibald Belaney was English born, and emigrated to northern Ontario at 17 yrs old to follow his fascination with Native culture. He returned after WW1 to stay and live amongst them, adopting their language, skills, lifestyle and even appearance. He was given his adopted name Grey Owl. He might be regarded as a fraudster, but as he wrote about paddling, trapping and guiding in Ontario, he became one of Canada's most loved naturalists and conservationists.
"Devil in Deerskins - My Life With Grey Owl by Anahareo." Anahareo was a Mohawk, who met Grey Owl in Temagami in 1925. Together they trapped and lived in the Ontario and Quebec wilderness.
"Kiss of The Fur Queen by Thomson Highway." Thomson Highway is a Cree from northern Manitoba, and in this novel tells of two young native brothers and their struggles to find their way amidst cultural upheaval.
It looks like I've got some reading to do, as the days get shorter.

 

[red langford]

Just finished Joseph Boyden's third book called The Orenda which is a historical fiction set in the 17th century in what is to become Canada. Riveting and captivating, if grade 8 history class told the story of Champlain, the Jesuits and first contact in this way there would a lot more kids interested in history. It is the third of a trilogy the first one being Three Day Road followed by Through Black Spruce. Three books set in very different time periods but all centred around one blood line.
The Orenda is told by three protagonists, Bird a Huron hunter whose family was murdered by the Haudenosaunee and vows to kill 100 Haudenosaunee for each one of his family members killed. During one of the raids he captures the second protagonist Snow Falls, a young Indian girl who is very special to her people and thirdly a Jesuit priest Christophe who is charged with bringing Christianity to the heathens by Champlain himself. The Christophe character is loosely based on Jean de Brebeuf and the timeline of events is closely linked to actual historical events. Boyden has done some incredible research and there is some great detail about the customs and practices of the time that may surprise and shock but are not presented in a fashion with the intent of doing so.

As was the case with Boyden's first two books after reading this one it makes it tough to pick up another book because there is a let down no matter what you try to read. The Orenda, like his first two books, are that good and considered instant classics by many. All of the books have been showered with awards and as a novice writer all one can hope is he has a long career of putting out books as good as these.

 

[Robin]

I recently bought Hap Wilson's "Wilderness Rivers of Manitoba" after reading a trip report about the Bloodvein River over at CCR's. I am re-reading Farley Mowat's "No Man's River" now, and picked up "Trader-Tripper-Trapper, The life of a Bay Man" by Sydney Augustus Keighley and "by Canoe and Dog Train" by Egerton R. Young for some winter reading.

 

[red langford]

No Man's River is an excellent book

 

[memaquay]

I'm still reading "Reading Rock Art". http://www.amazon.ca/Reading-Rock-Art-Grace-Rajnovich/dp/155488473X in my opinion, the book is not that well written, but does propose some interesting theories about the meaning of Native rock paintings. It's taking me a while to get through it, as I have a hard time following her somewhat scattered style. At the point I'm at now, I think she is saying that petrographs might actually be parts of song scrolls, used by the Ansihnabe religious society, the Mide, for forms of healing.

Red, I've been a Boyden fan for quite a while, but didn't think The Orenda was as good as his last two. I've read quite a lot of history from the time, and at points, I felt like I was simply re-reading the Jesuit Relations again. It was still a great read, but Three Day Road is still my favorite.

 

[Odyssey]

I stacked my books next to my reading chair and found...the last book I hadn't finished reading. I got busy with stuff and never finished it. I'll back up a couple chapters and finish the book. "Driving Over Lemons - An Optimist In Spain by Chris Stewart". His book has been compared to Bill Bryson and Peter Mayle. I love both of those authors. Stewart writes about how he and his wife sold their small home in the UK and bought a ragged dusty little hill farm in Spain. Having only limited money, sheep experience and language skills, he resolutely scratches out a life as a farmer in the Alpujarra Mountains in Southern Spain, learning as he goes along. Often learning by mistakes. It's a fun and leisurely read.

 

[red langford]

Red, I've been a Boyden fan for quite a while, but didn't think The Orenda was as good as his last two. I've read quite a lot of history from the time, and at points, I felt like I was simply re-reading the Jesuit Relations again. It was still a great read, but Three Day Road is still my favorite.

As somebody who only read about that part of history once when forced to do so by the school curriculum, it was fresh for me. It wasn't until the very end of the book that I learned how closely linked it was to real events and realized that for some, the story would be...well....old.

 

[Canotrouge]

I'm reading a few at the moment, so these are the books that I'm into right now: Master guide to Timber Framing, Beyond the paddle, The wood canvas canoe, Bark, Skin and Cedar and The Craftsman. none of them are done yet, but getting there. So far all are good!!

 

[ppine]

Great lists. I just started "The Boys in the Boat" that my friend gave me at this Sat's party. It is the story of the U of Wash crew team that beat the Germans and Hitler in 1936.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Paddling to Winter by Julie Buckles

 

[Iskweo]

Three Day Road, by a Canadian author, Joseph Boyden. A book that Red brought us when he picked up the canoe. Good read about two young Cree men who enlist in the army for the first world war. It chronicles their early life, wartime service, and return in a series of disjointed flash backs that I found very interesting. They use a bit of Cree which brought me back to happier days.

Christy

 

[Alan Gage]

I don't read much in the summer. Too busy doing things outside. Just started for the winter re-reading some John Muir. "My First Summer in the Sierras". Good stuff. Amazing guy. What it must have been like to see and experience those things without really knowing they were there. To just go. Not having read about them and seen a million pictures. Heck, he's the one that discovered glacier bay as it is today (when it was first charted in the 1600's it will still nearly solid ice).

Alan

 

[Mama]

Just finished put down my re-read of Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat. It seemed like a whole different book now that I'm 30 plus years away from high school and now reading it because I want to, rather than as required reading.

Just started in on A Blistered Kind of Love by Angela & Duffy Ballard (It's about hiking the PCT).

 

[daveo4]

I just finished two great canoeing books. One was Canoeing With The Cree by Eric Sevareid (1935). Great book about the way it was done 80 years ago. The other was Yukon Wild by Beth Johnson (1982), where four Texas women paddled the length of the Yukon. It was a well written, humorous, honest with no punches pulled story of the trip, the river, the history of the river and the characters that inhabit the villages past and present. I enjoyed it a lot!
Dave

 

[Odyssey]

You never know what you'll find. This has nothing to do with canoeing, but it's a lesson well learned nonetheless. After some diligent family tree research it was found that a great uncle of ours wasn't lost after all during WW2. His final resting place was found in France. I travelled there to pay my respects on Armistice Day 2011, the first family member to have done so. Poppies laid, prayers said, poems read, and tears shed; I've moved on. Until last week. While wandering a local antiques market I happened to look down. On a dusty table I found an old post card booklet of the very French village my great uncle is resting in.



With my eldest son, we're putting together a collection of memories of a treasured family member, never forgotten...medals, flight logs, personal letters....and a post card book. You just never know what you'll find on a lazy Sunday afternoon...looking for nothing in particular.

 

[Guest]

Selections from the turtle and tortoise shelf of a naturalist’s library read over the last couple of weeks:

Ulendo – Travels of a Naturalist in and out of Africa – Archie Carr (1964)

The Windward Road – Adventures of a Naturalist on Remote Caribbean Shores – Archie Carr (1955)

Evolution’s Captain – The Dark Fate of the Man Who Sailed Charles Darwin Around the World – Peter Nichols (2003)

Lonesome George – The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon – Henry Nichols (2006)

The Last Tortoise – A Tale of Extinction in Our Lifetime – Craig Stanford (2004)

The Sheltered Life – The Unexpected Natural History of the Giant Tortoise – Paul Chambers 2004

 

[Alan Gage]

How did you like "Ulendo"? My curiosity about Africa was recently piqued and I've been thinking of doing some reading about it and am drawn to something from a naturalists point of view.

Since you seem to be on a Tortoise roll you might enjoy this short read: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/93791/timothy-or-notes-of-an-abject-reptile-by-verlyn-klinkenborg/

Alan

 

[sweeper]

I'm reading James Risen's 2 books. I just finished 'Pay any Price' a horrible story of the money in the Homeland Security Military Complex. The government was trying to force him to reveal his sources in his other book 'State of War'.

 

[Guest]

How did you like "Ulendo"? My curiosity about Africa was recently piqued and I've been thinking of doing some reading about it and am drawn to something from a naturalists point of view.

Since you seem to be on a Tortoise roll you might enjoy this short read: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/93791/timothy-or-notes-of-an-abject-reptile-by-verlyn-klinkenborg/

Ulendo was an enjoyable read, though somewhat dated. I got the feeling that those travels in Africa took place decades before the mid-60’s publication date. Carr’s writings often contain self deprecating humor, which I enjoy and I have a soft spot for him as he was my mentor’s mentor.

http://www.conserveturtles.org/about.php?page=carr

Of his books I most enjoyed “The Windward Road” and “So Excellent a Fish”.

Klinkenborg’s Timothy was at the time probably the most famous tortoise in the world.

 

[Alan Gage]

Klinkenborg’s Timothy was at the time probably the most famous tortoise in the world.

That is true, though I doubt she had much competition for the title.

Alan