What is everone reading ?

“This is it, dayhiker.


http://books.google.com/books?id=vKJhyDF8UsUC&pg=RA1-PR13&lpg=RA1-PR13&dq=history+of+appalachia&source=web&ots=wTZB64XC42&sig=avRUeucmcn9IXsAF0IAfli4-fqQ”

“That Kephart book made me cringe when I read it. It couldn't have been more condescending.”

“Wasn't Kephart a drunk who abandoned his family to move to Appalachia?”

“So Cold A Sky: Upper Michigan Weather Stories by Karl Bohnak

From the Bookwire website:

People love to talk about the weather. From Maine to the Midwest, locals are convinced
that their weather conditions are the weirdest. They’ll tell you about the big blizzard, the
great flood, or the hideous humidity, convinced that decades of harsh weather have
shaped the characters of the local people.

Karl Bohnak has compiled just these kinds of stories into So Cold A Sky: Upper
Michigan Weather Stories. As a child in Milwaukee, he longed for snow, often to find his
hopes dashed by uncooperative weather systems. As an adult, he accepted a job in
broadcasting in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan, where he found all the snow he
could hope for. Fascinated both by the U.P.’s unusually severe weather and by the local
history, Bohank began interviewing local residents for their recollections about weird
weather occurrences; those tales were the genesis for So Cold a Sky.

The result is a book that is part oral history, part local color, and part meteorological
record. Bohnak begins his tales of the U.P. with the trappers, soldiers, and missionaries of
the 1700s. At the time, the world was still in the grip of the Little Ice Age, and winter
conditions were even more severe in the U.P. than they are today. Bohnak’s tales of the
1800s include the story of Frederic Baraga, the “snowshoe priest” who spent more than
thirty years ministering to the Chippewa and mining populations of the U.P. The rest of
the book is given over to weather events from 1864 to the present, including chapters on
particularly snowy winters, unusually cold winters, floods, heat waves, and fire weather.
These chapters draw heavily on oral history.

Throughout, Bohnak provides sidebars on tangential topics of interest, such as the
process of maple sugaring or an interview with a school bus driver whose route cuts
through the snowiest spot in Michigan. While the main text is deals with weather as it
directly affects the stories told by residents, Bohnak reserves his more technical
explanations for sidebars and weather maps. Bohnak’s writing is clearly and accessible,
although the casual reader may still skip some of the more technical writing about
weather systems.

Bohnak’s enthusiasm for both weather and his adopted home injects energy into the
book. The stories he has uncovered are by turns charming and terrifying, and certainly
give credence to the legendary hardiness of those living on the U.P. In fact, by the end of
the book, this Midwesterner began to wonder why anyone would live in a place so given
to blizzards, floods, and fires. But as Bohnak himself says in the introduction: “That, I
believe, is the point: we cannot separate weather and environment from the milieu of our
lives.”BookWire Review
September 12, 2006”

“No Shortcuts to the top - Ed Viesturs. Man climed all 14 8000 meter peaks without suplimental oxygen. Awesome book so far.”

“I just finished On the Ridge Between Life and Death: A Climbing Life Reexamined by David Roberts. He had written an essay in 1980 about the risks of mountaineering and came to the conclusion that it was worth the risks involved, but as he gains "time/distance/perspective" he becomes not so sure of that previous conclusion. A well written book; he is one of the few mountaineering/adventure authors that has the ability to write almost as well as his ability to climb.”

“Thanks for the tip tb, I've been planning on reading that book and never seem to get around to it. I think I'll read chili's instead.”

“The Hunt For Red October. I just bought the first five books in the Jack Ryan series.”

“Happy reading! I enjoying all of them.


Reading the newest Terry Brooks now, Armageddon's Children.
last edited: 3/08/07 1:26:53 PM”

“Leo--->

LOL Good luck...I went bonkers one summer and read every single one of them in a row. Made me delusional - I knew more about the characters than a lot of my friends. I'm a huge Clancy fan.

Check out "Without Remorse" when you are done with those - it's one of my favorites that is the life story of John Clark.
last edited: 3/08/07 1:28:23 PM”

“OOOOOOOOOOO that was a good one!”

“A Business Requirements Document for the Client Management Process.”

“In my mind I can hear Sean Connery delivering the captain's lines as I read them.”

“Awesome read HPM”

“I'd rather read my own obituary.

I think I'll take one from Leofric1 and read it in Sean Connery's voice.”

“I am a rather belated Clancy fan. I paid little attention to all the hype when the books are coming out, and only recently realized that the movies were from books by the same author.”

“Do not watch the movies after reading the books. The books are so much better.”

“Funny, as soon as I read Leofric's post I started hearing Sean Connery's voice for the remaining posts on the page.”

“I am reading the Congressional record on anti-trust statues.”

“LOL @ tree and bacpac”

“[b]Alter Rock[b]by Chuck Schoonover

Alter Rock is the story of Jackson Parker, all-American boy, whose happy life is thrown into turmoil. On his 13th birthday he learns he is heir to a kingdom where fantastic creatures abound and Nature Wizards rule the land. Before he can come to grips with this revelation, he is swept up into a hurricane and transported to the world of his birth. Here he discovers his birth father has been imprisoned and the evil Lord Uniegan has usurped his kingdom. Alone and mistrusted, he must conquer his fears and learn to control the awesome power of the bloodfire flowing though his veins. Through luck and determination, Jackson manages to stay alive, with but one goal in mind, a return to his once happy life. To do that, he must join with the forces of revolution sweeping across the land and fight his way to the mystical Alter Rock. Here he must save a nation or forfeit his soul.



http://stores.lulu.com/AlterRock”

“Oh come on, isn't someone going to call me shameless for plugging my own book?”

“ur shameless so horribly shameless”

“"The Bone Doll's Twin", a fun fantasy sotry. by Lynn Flewelling.”

““ur shameless so horribly shameless”
sweetpeastu
3:33:23 PM

Thank you, thank you.”

“Plugging your own book?

Pervert.”

“dang it, be consistent. I am a moron to you and a pervert to bear.”

“Ok, dang it, you people can't take a hint. here is a preview of the first 8 chapters of my book, Alter Rock. Read it and let me know what you think ...

http://www.lulu.com/browse/preview.php?fCID=686760”

“ur shameless so horribly shameless

LOL”

“thank you, now read the preview and you can call me even worse things.”

“Ha. I have to build up to it.

BTW, I don't work free!”

“keep in mind that you are getting older and those woods at trail days have lots of roots. If you trip and fall your medical alert necklace isn't gonna help you. If I hear you yelling "I've fallen and I can't get up!" I am gonna give you your words right back at you.”

“

"I am reading the Congressional record on anti-trust statues."
bacpac

Right on. Never trust a statue!”

“Mere Christianity....C.S. Lewis..”

“The The Hail Came by George Staffanos. It an online book about Thru-hiking the AT.”

“sounds cool, must be a lot of spin in that book ;)”

“I just finished C.S. Lewis "Out of the Silent Planet" The first in a science fiction trilogy. Awesome!”

“Now on to Patriot Games.

I always liked CS Lewis' Space Trilogy, although I found That Hideous Strength to be very dark and I was unable to complete it on first reading.”

“On to "The Cardinal of the Kremlin"”

“Good book, I remembered that I enjoyed it but its been a long time so I don't remember anything else.

Right now I am reading, Unto The Breach by John Ringo. I like the military stuff, and that its set in Georgia (the country, not the state), but every few chapters there are about 10 pages of sex I just skip over.”

“Steven R. Donaldson's "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever"”

“Reedeming Love by Francine Rivers...awesome read!!!”

“Variable Star by Robert Heinlein and Spider Robinson. This is a novel written by Robinson from a recently discovered outline written in 1954 (?) by Heinlein. It was a pretty good read, but the outline written by Heinlein ended in the first 3rd of the book. It would have been interesting to see where Heinlein would have taken it.”

“The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks”

“Marine Sniper, 93 Confirmed Kills, Charles Henderson.

It's about Carlos Hathcock, the top sniper from the Vietnam era. Some say the best one of all time.”

“I just finished the Alchemist. A great book that was given to me by my son.”

“Tara K. Harper, "Cat Scratch Fever"”

“"SAS Survival Guide". How to survive in the wild, in any climate, on land or sea. Written by John 'Lofty' Wiseman, who served in the SAS for 26 years.
Found in a bookshop at Fort Williams. Special price only £4.99.
Skills learned - priceless.
:-)”

“You all should be reading Alter Rock.

I am re-reading all of the Harry Potter books in anticipation of the 7th book (The Deathly Hallows) due out in July.”

“I hear ya Hyway but I ahven't started my re-read yet.

I have the SAS survival handbook too. Interesting reading.

I'm currently re-re-reading a book I recently picked up on hillside and sloped gardening. I'm a little anxious about when we start building that retaining wall, but that's not an immediate project.”