Book Description

Sean Condon has moved to Amsterdam. He got married, and he’s unemployed (what’s worse, so is his wife).Sean is back and funnier than ever, this time exploring the strange habits of the Dutch.He also keeps a watchful and wonderfully self-deprecating eye on the whole strange business of writing about yourself doing, well, nothing much, in this post-modern age.Sean’s uncanny ability to find the absurd in everyday life misses nothing and My ‘Dam Life will strike a side-splitting chord with anyone who has ever been unemployed, been married or tried not to be deported from a foreign land. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Worth the Read
His first two books were hilarious, as is this third, but there is also something in this book that the other two don't have...a sense of the writer letting his guard down and letting his true insights show. There are some episodes of the book that are not only serious, but are handled with a professional delicacy that gives this book a maturity the others didn't have. Of course, Sean Condon still remains a goofball and one can only look forward to his next works to come....especially 'Film', a book out in the UK but still being anxiously awaited her in the U.S.

The Slacker Diaries
My 'Dam Life: Three Years in Holland
Sean Condon
Lonely Planet 2003

Sean Condon is an Australian travel writer and unwilling ad man. His two previous books were about aimless drives around Australia and the US. His new book, My 'Dam Life is about his aimless wanderings around the city of Amsterdam. Condon comes off as a younger, less inspired Bill Bryson. Where Bryson manages to balance tales of his own idiosyncrasies with hilarious and insightful commentary, Condon spends too much time on his own psyche and not enough on the places he's visiting.

While I really would have preferred a lot less Sean and a lot more Amsterdam, My 'Dam Life is still an enjoyable read. Having visited Holland four times, I'm familiar with a lot of geography Sean covers, which makes me wonder why he doesn't mention things like Jeronemous Bosch when he visits s'Hetogenbosch. That really would be more interesting than rambling on about punctuation like he does.

Once you accept Condon's myopic worldview and come to terms with the fact that there is precious little you can glean from his books that would help you plan a trip of your own, My 'Dam Life is a fairly amusing account of a slacker's attempt to make a new life for himself in Amsterdam. I have to wonder though. How much of Sean's troubles with shop keepers, dentists and the police were of his own making? My own experiences with the same groups in Amsterdam were much more positive. I guess you just have to shrug and consider the source.

Self absorbed
Boring. Sean comes across as self absorbed, lazy and whiney. The laughs seem forced. The story meanders and doesn't seem to go anywhere or achieve anything. It's probably a personal preference, but I prefer my travel books to reveal some sort of journey - spiritual, emotional or physical, and this book is not one of them. Shallow and pointless. Try other aussie travel writers such as Sarah MacDonald's 'Holy Cow'or Sarah Turnbull's 'Almost French'instead.

Loved this funny book!
I stumbled on this compact book and having just visited Amsterdam for the first time for a week, glanced at the first paragraph and was hooked. It's laugh out-loud funny, a quick read, realistic, and a great exploration about relationship--between foreigners and natives, husbands and wives, renters and landlords, and employees and employers--all in one slim volume.

Good read
Good read overall, but he fills a lot of space telling us historic facts ... Read more

Book Description

The eminent journalist began his book-publishing career in 1935 with this exciting account of the adventurous 2,250-mile canoe trip he and a friend made as teenagers from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

canoeing with the cree
I thought that this book was a great wiild life adventure. It's about two boys going aginst their odds in a canoeing trip from St. Paul Minneapolis all the way to the Hudson Bay. Nobody thinks that they will make it. The two young boys come close to death many times. They almost get lost and find their way thanks to many kind people that help them overcome the impossible and they make it. They encounter Indians and some very nice people, and this makes their trip much easier even though they really struggle through all those miles. That's why I think this book was a good book.

Youthful Adventure
A great book about the power of youth and inexperience. More about adventure than canoeing itself, Sevareid preserves through this amazing experience the intangible confidence (maybe brashness)of youth. Adult leaders of youth should read it. Teenagers who want to challenge anything unknown would be inspired by it.

A lesson for your teenagers
A marvelous book. Sevareid says at 17 in this book, "I knew if I didn't finish this trip I would never amount to much." Buy several copies and give them to friends, kids, and take one to the camp and leave it there.

Canoeing Into the Past
This is a true adventure story written by a great American icon. It was 1930 and in their late teens, Eric Sevareid and his good friend Walter Port, embark on an amazing canoe journey through much of Minnesota and a remote region of Canada. The story takes you back to an era when life was simple but abundant; to a time when the north woods was truly a brutal frontier and men were really men. They fight mosquitoes, flies, boredom, mud, rain, cold, gigantic waves on Lake Winnepeg and being lost in areas where there is no chance of being saved. There is no modern technology. They are often times very much alone against the elements that had no mercy. As you read the book you cannot help visit the thought that these events actually happened, they really did this and they lived to tell about it. The people they encounter, towns they visit and, of course, the rivers and lakes they traverse are all generously given to people like me who toil at computers all day but shamelessly dream impossible dreams of living in a time and place that is now slipping into the oblivion of modern life.

I'm sure many critics would complain about the simplicity of Eric's writing and the lack of visual development in some segments. But take this book for what it is and just enjoy it. Makes a good gift, especially for Nintendo bound teenagers who need to see a bigger world.

Canoing the old Way
Canoing with the Cree is a fast moving true story of two friends that embark on the canoe trip of a lifetime. Once I picked up the book I found it difficult to put down. The historical details of cows stuck in mud, and the Hudson's Bay Company make Canoeing With the Cree much more than a story; a historical reference that is not documented elsewhere. It is doubtful if a canoe trip like Eric Sevreid took in 1930 could ever be taken again. When Sevreid, and his companion left for their canoe trip they knew little about canoeing, but when they came back they were experts. The maturity of these two young men is astonishing. ... Read more

Book Description

"This account of a walk I took while gathering the seeds of flowering plants in the foothills of the Himalayas has its origins in my love of the garden¨my love of feeling isolated, of imagining myself all alone in the world and everything unfamiliar, or the familiar being strange, my love of being afraid but at the same time not letting my fear stand in the way."So begins Jamaica Kincaid's adventure into the mountains of Nepal with a small group of botanists. After laborious training and preparation, the group leaves Kathmandu by small plane, into the Annapurna Valley to begin their trek. ("From inside the plane it always seemed to me as if we were about to collide with these sharp green peaks, I especially thought this would be true when I saw one of the pilots reading the newspaper, but Dan said that at the other times he'd flown in this part of the world the pilots always read the newspaper and it did not seem to affect the flight in a bad way.") The temperature was 96 degrees F. on arrival, and the little airport in Tumlingtar was awash in Maoists in camouflage fatigues. "What I was about to do, what I had in mind to do, what I planned for over a year to do, was still a mystery to me. I was on the edge of it though." The group sets off with a large retinue of sherpas and bearers, and Kincaid, in simple, richly detailed prose describes the landscape, the Nepalese villages, the passing trekkers and yak herds. Direct and opinionated ("We decided to call them [other trekkers] the Germans because we didn't like them from the look of them¨and Germans seem to be the one group of people left that cannot be liked because you feel like it."), Kincaid moves easily between closely observed, down-to-earth descriptions of the trek and larger musings, about gardens, nature, seed gathering, home, and family. Negotiations with the Maoists to pass through villages interject dramatic notes ("Dan and I became Canadians. Until then I would never have dreamt of calling myself anything other than American. But the Maoists had told Sunam [head sherpa] that President Powell had just been to Kathmandu and denounced them as terrorists and that had made them very angry with President Powell."). The group presses on, determined in its search for "beautiful plants native to the Himalayas but will grow happily in Vermont or somewhere like that." Eventually they reach a spectacular pass at 15,600 feet and start back. Down at the village of Donge they have another run-in with the Maoists. They "lectured us all through the afternoon into the setting sun, mentioning again the indignity of being called mere terrorists by President Powell of the United States." To lessen the tension, the sherpas produces some Chang, an alcohol made from millet, intoxicating everyone, Kincaid included. At the airport, the Maoists are threatening attack, but the group must wait three days for an airplane. Finally they get off safely. "Days later, in Kathmandu, we heard that the very airport where we had camped for days had been attacked by Maoists and some people had been killed." In Kathmandu another Maoist attack closes the city down. "As we waited to leave this place, I remembered the carpet of gentians¨and the isolated but thick patches of Delphinium abloom in the melting snow. There were the forests of rhododendrons, specimens thirty feet high¨I remembered all that I had seen but I especially remembered all that I had felt. I remembered my fears. I remembered how practically every step was fraught with memories of my past, and the immediate one of my son Harold all alone in Vermont, and my love for it and my fear of losing it." ... Read more

Book Description

In 2000, one year after the NATO bombings in Kosovo, Paula Huntley took a job in Prishtina, teaching English as a Second Language to a group of Kosovo Albanians. A war story, a teacher's story, but most of all a story of hope, The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo is the journal Huntley kept in scattered notebooks or on her laptop over the eight months that she lived and worked in Kosovo. Neither a journalist nor a historian, Huntley describes with a rare purity and directness her students' experiences during the war and the intimacy of the bond that she formed with them.

When Huntley asked her students if they would like to form an American-style "book club" that would meet at her house, they jumped at the idea.After stumbling upon a stray English-language copy of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Huntley made copies of the book and proposed it as the club's first selection. The simple fable about an old man's struggle to bring in his big fish touched all the students deeply, and the club rapidly became a forum in which they could discuss both the terrors of their past and their dreams for the future.

A compelling tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo shines a ray of hope in these difficult times. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

This deeply touching memoir is destined to be a bestseller
To Paula Huntley's students it's Kosova, not Kosovo, like we Americans like to call that little war-torn country. That's just one of the changes Huntley had to get used to when she began teaching English to a group of Kosovar Albanians. Transplanted from her comfortable San Francisco life to Prishtina, Kosovo, Huntley began keeping a journal to express her struggles and triumphs in her new surroundings. Two years later, that same journal would be published as a book destined to be a bestseller.

Paula Huntley is the epitome of a great teacher --- one who goes above and beyond the call of duty to help her students succeed. One of her noble feats is organizing an extracurricular reading group for her students known as the Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo. As her students read Hemingway's THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, the parallels between their lives and the life of the old man become increasingly evident to both Huntley and her students. Through their interaction, both Huntley and her students learn the lessons of perseverance, faith and hope.

THE HEMINGWAY BOOK CLUB OF KOSOVO offers much more than the typical memoir. Through Huntley's masterful writing and reflections, the reader experiences the horrors that her students lived through during the Serbian genocide of Kosovar Albanians. A timely reminder of what war does to a country, THE HEMINGWAY BOOK CLUB OF KOSOVO gives great insights into the injustices occurring throughout the world.

This book contains a myriad of emotions. It elicits laughter as Huntley and her students struggle to break down cultural and language barriers. It evokes tears as you read of the losses the Kosovars experienced. It makes you angry, fills you with hope and drowns you in sorrow --- all at the same time. But most of all, it makes you think about all of the things you take for granted that Paula Huntley's students only dream of.

--- Reviewed by Melissa Brown

Both more and less than it¿s cracked up to be
The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo is a wonderful tale of the virtues and rewards of volunteering to help those in countries less fortunate (at least for the present) than the US; at the same time, it's not exactly great literature or great writing. However, that's not what it's advertised to be, and it's not the aspiration of the author to compete with the writers of great literature. For how it came to be (a collection of emails to friends and family during the 8 months the author spent teaching English in Kosovo), this book more than meets its goal.
Paula Huntley went to Kosovo with her husband, who volunteered for an ABA project to help set up a new legal system for the new war-torn country. She took a crash course in teaching English as a second language and, once in Prishtina, Kossovo, quickly found a job teaching the language to a classroom of eager and charming Albanian students.
The book begins as Huntley's story but quickly evolves into being the story of the country and its inhabitants, specifically those who were blessed to be her students. Like volunteers everywhere, Huntley quickly learned that she was gaining and receiving far more than she was giving, in terms of compassion, understanding, insight, and personal growth.
It's not 'literature,' but it's sure a terrific little book. Don't miss it. I learned a whole, whole lot about a part of the world about which I have very little knowledge.

Couldn't put this down...
I learnt a lot from and was infinitely moved by Paula Huntley's journal of the eight months she and he husband spent working in post-war Kosova. Understated, beautiful writing and none of the straining for effect that mars so many memoirs. She was clearly writing straight from the heart. I rarely do this but as soon as I finished the book, I found her website and donated something to the scolarship fund for young Albanian Kosovars. A fascinating and inspiring story of some very resilient people.

In response to "New York's" and "peace loving person"
With the review you have given to Paula's book - that is considered an angel for me - you made me laugh despite the sad
reality of what you non-sense'd about.
"Hemingway book club of Kosova" a racist book??? No way, in contrary you were recommending a racist book that protects what
Serbs have done to Kosova, Croatia and Bosnia.
Goodness me, I can not understand people who make (war) crimes
and yet find reasons to justify their ugly deeds. Shame to all of them who do that.

Hemingway Book Club of Kosova, is the best book written about KOSOVA so far, that's in my opinion and if since I can make recommendation in here - I'd like to recommend Philip J. Cohen's
book "Serbia's Secret War" - that has some similiarities with
Hemingway book Club of Kosova.
Hemingway book Club of Kosova talks about LOVE between Kosovars
and Americans while the "Serbia's Secret War" talks about the
Serbian cooperations with Nazi's throughout the 2-nd world war. And by the way, I am asking you since "I have forgotten"
Who was the person who started the First World War, and those in Slovenia, and Croatia, and Bosnia and Kosova at last.
With all due respect to you "peace loving person" - You have no room to protect the Serbs who have done more then horrible crimes
in not less than 4 countries.
Now who's the racist here, Mrs Huntley or the Serbs she talked about (even though she didn't generalize them all).

God Bless Mrs Huntley and her husband, God Bless U.S.A and all
Peace loving people throughout the world - excluding the fake ones.

An Inspirational Story Of Cross-Cultural Connections.
Paula Huntley left her home in California, and traveled with her husband, Ed, to Kosovo in 2000, one year after the NATO bombing of that province. Ed Huntley desperately wanted to do something to help in the war-torn Balkans. So he volunteered for an American Bar Association project to help rebuild Kosovo's legal system. Paula trained to teach English as a second language, (TESL), while she was still in the States. "The Hemingway Book Club Of Kosovo" is her memoir of that period, taken from the journal she kept during the eight months they lived and worked in Prishtina. Ms. Huntley movingly writes of her experience, and of the intimate bond she forged with her students.

The Huntleys arrived in Prishtina and found that the city had not been totally destroyed. Since the Serbs needed Prishtina, the capital city, they had left most of the buildings intact. However, as in most of Kosovo, there had been massive looting, vandalism and violence, murders were committed on a large scale, as was ethnic cleansing of the Kosovo Albanians. Huntley writes, "Most of the destruction in Prishtina was below the surface - in the hearts and minds of the residents. I saw this every day, and I never got used to that destruction."

Her students, and every native Albanian, had lost ten years of their lives under the brutal oppression, and apartheid imposed by the Kosovo Serbs. Learning English, in many ways, was key to the economic advancement of the students and their families. Ms. Huntley was deeply touched by the students' eagerness to learn not just English, and grammatical structure, but about the American culture and work ethic. She wanted to provide a safe forum for them to discuss their feelings, and the traumas of the past decade. A book club was established, that met at the Huntley home. The selection was Ernest Hemmingway's "The Old Man And The Sea." The club took-off and became so much more. And the book became a vehicle through which the young people could discuss their lives. Hemmingway's book was fairly easy for them to read, but the novel's meaning was far deeper than the relatively simple language. The students identified with the fable of the triumph of hope and courage over adversity.

The harrowing stories of the young Albanians, and their courage, and determination, are remarkable, and inspirational. Paula Huntley's memoir is an extraordinary tale of cross-cultural human connections, and bonds forged through literature and loving kindness. Highly recommended! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Lost Boys
In 1983, while the rest of the world looked away, a civil war broke out in Sudan between the Islamic controlled government in the north and the people of the south who were Christians or animists.This conflict would eventually result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands, more than five million people driven from their homes and would would force two million Sudanese to seek refuge in neighboring countries.Among these refugees was a group of at least 20,000 children aged 7 to 17 years of age who were separated from their families and forced to make their way alone over hundreds of miles of an unforgiving wilderness until they finally arrived at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Northwest Kenya where the United Nations Committee for refugees created a sanctuary for "The Lost Boys of Sudan."By that time, more than half were lost to starvation, disease, attacks by wild animals, and bandits.

I first met the Lost Boys in Kakuma in February 1998, while on an inspection tour for the U.S. Department of State.I was amazed by their story and was even more amazed by their dedication to each other and to making the best of their existence at Kakuma. Even though there were food shortages in the camp. They asked if they could get more books and teachers because both were in short supply and education was the most important thing in their lives.I learned that they were still at risk in Kakuma and that hardly a week went by without one or more of the boys being kidnapped and forced to fight in the civil war.These were children to whom fate had dealt a cruel hand but who were adaptable enough to survive.As there was no future for them in Kakuma, I made the decision to recommend that they be resettled in the United States.

After a great deal of debate over issues such as the boys' ability to adjust to life in the U.S., the decision was made and the surviving Lost Boys, about 3,300 were resettled in the U.S.In The Lost Boys of Sudan, Mark Bixler follows the paths of four of the Lost Boys, Jacob Magot, Peter Anyang, Daniel Khoch, and Marko Ayii as they arrive in Atlanta, and begin their cultural adaptation to America.It was not an easy transition and Bixler does an excellent job of describing the journey from a refugee camp with no electricity or plumbing to the land of consumer excess and MTV.Bixler describes how the boys had to put their education dreams on hold while they found jobs and dealt with the reality of earning a living in the U.S.Once they had found jobs, the boys discovered ways to go to school so that they could return to Sudan and help rebuild their country.Their dedication in the face of huge obstacles makes for an inspiring story.

Bixler also does an excellent job of explaining the history of the Sudanese Civil War, the Dinka culture that most of the boys were born into, and the continuing struggle in Sudan.He reminds us that as this book is published the war in Sudan continues with the deaths of thousand of Sudanese in Darfur province of Sudan.There has been a "peace agreement" signed but the killing still goes on and refugees still come to Kakuma for sanctuary.

This book should be required reading for every student in America.To our sham we often take our access to education for granted, and the story of the Lost Boys emphasizes education as an empowering tool where individuals can improve their lives and truly become whatever they want to be.Few in our country have gone through the hell that these boys experienced on their journey to American.Their story is a lesson for all of us and Mark Bixler's The Lost Boys of Sudan is a book that should be read not only by people interested in Africa or refugees, but by everyone who cares about the future of America and the world.


... Read more

Amazon.com

All right, 'fess up: at some point you've been in the apartment of a hipster friend and looked long and covetously at his or her collection of vintage View-Masters or '50s kitsch ashtrays. But then, why would anyone collect such cool knickknacks if not to impress their friends? Filmmaker John D. Freyer knows this feeling well, and from this impulse he's written a fascinatingautobiography, charting his own story and a web of relationships with like-minded eccentrics via the cataloging in words and pictures of all the odd but neat stuff he spent twenty-something years accumulating.

As Freyer was preparing to leave graduate school in Iowa City to return to a typically small New York apartment, he decided to sell all his worldly possessions through eBay and his own Web site, allmylifeforsale.com. People bought his used socks, a can of Chunky Soup from his pantry, his Planet of the Apes LP, and a bag of small, roasted cuttlefish. The things Freyer sold would be junk to most, but they were treasures to him and his pals--a generation searching for a unique identity in an increasingly mass-produced, cookie-cutter age. Discovering how he came to own these things and who took them off his hands makes for a surprisingly intriguing and funny read in this beautifully designed and fabulously illustrated tome. --Jim DeRogatis ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Makes you want to sell stuff!
John Freyer realized that when he first arrived in Ohio, all he had were the objects in the trunk of his car. He has accumulated much stuff since living there, and now that he's thinking of leaving and heading back to New York City, he wants to reduce his belongings to practically nothing.

From this notion was born the allmylifeforsale plan. John invited over some friends to help him tag his belongings, and then he slowly but systematically sold them on eBay.

All My Life for Sale is the true story of Freyer's quest to get back to the basics. He is quirky and honest in his writing, and the pictures of objects, how he sold each one, and who bought it are eccentrically wonderful. There's a certain inspiration one feels after reading this book-a yearning to put belongings in proper perspective.

The style of the book allows the reader to choose whether to read it cover to cover or to skip around the book. The introduction and conclusion are must-reads, however, since they offer insight into how the project got started and how it ended.

just like loveburger - well done!
a great idea that belongs on your coffee table, this book will make onlookers bellow with wonder; a perfect conversation piece.

i saw freyer on conan o' brian last night and i think that he should have gotten the watson fellowhip from hamilton college. this project is a lot more interesting than those people that get paid $22k that go to uganda to talk to rocks.

Who buys from ebay and where do they come from?
Have you ever wondered why would anyone bid and eventually purchase one of the million items advertised on the online auction site eBay? Who are these people and where do the objects eventually wind up?

John D. Freyer decided one day that he had enough of accumulating all kinds of objects and he was going to sell all of his worldly possessions on the Internet.
This required a considerable effort on his part. He wrote a brief description of each object and he photographed them.
While in the process of carrying out these tasks, he began to wonder where these objects originated from and what role did they play in his life.

As he mentions in his book All My Life For Sale, "I also realized that the act of selling these objects would start to change my life in subtle ways. After I sold my toaster, I stopped eating toast."

However, another thought occurred to Freyer, how would the objects affect someone else's life? Furthermore, where were they going to end up?

Consequently, he decided to include a request in the invoice that he sent to the highest bidders asking them to send him an update on the items they purchased.
This all led to his receiving personal photographs, stories and other tidbits pertaining to his once owned possessions.
He was also invited to visit the new owners of the objects.

Seizing this golden opportunity to travel around the US, he informed all of these people that he was going to jump into his car and take them up on their offers. Amazingly he had received more than one hundred invitations.

All My Life For Sale is an engaging memoir of Freyer's experiences that is filled with wit and complimented with beautiful color illustrations.

Perhaps, there is a hidden lesson to be learned from Freyer's adventures, for as he states: "although I hadn't made it to everyone who had invited me to visit, I knew that it was time to stop driving. That it was time to stop looking. I realized that my sale had done far more than just provide me the means and freedom to escape and start over. In fact, I no longer wanted to escape."

what my husband thinks
As a child of a child of the depression and as a school teacher I am very very good at holding on to things. Most of my items come from my saying " I might need this someday" to standing in the middle of a thrift store in Cape Cod in winter whining "I neeeeeeeeed this".

My husband wishes that I be inspired by this book. Although he is already impressed at how many used books I clear out of our apartment on amazon.com "sell yours here".

Neato!
This is a very strange but very cool book, and I'll bet the same can be said about its author. If you like clever, unusual guys, and clever, unusual projects, buy this book, or buy it for a friend.

I'm thinking that this is just the sort of book my brother would like, and that in the spirit of the author's project maybe I ought to mail him (my brother) my copy. But I don't know that I can bring myself to do it. John Freyer, how did you steel yourself to part with those wool socks?! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Very highly recommended reading for women's studies
Gertrude Bell was an English woman who lived an extraordinary life of adventure. She rode with bandits, braved desert shamals, was captured by Bedouins, and sojourned in a harem. The counselor to kings and prime ministers, her illustrious colleagues included Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. Very highly recommended reading for women's studies, and 20th century studies reading lists and library collections, Gertrude Bell: The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914 is wonderfully illustrated with her photography and exemplifies her elegant, vibrant prose, as well as documenting her on of the 20th Century's most daring, resourceful, independent, and larger-than-life characters. ... Read more

Book Description

Fueled by the belief that something better exists than the mundane life they've been living, free spirits Don and Paul set off on an adventure-filled road trip in search of deeper meaning, beauty, and an explanation for life. Many young men dream of such a trip, but few are brave enough to actually attempt it. Fewer still have the writing skills of Donald Miller, who records the trip with wide-eyed honesty in achingly beautiful prose. In this completely revised edition, he discusses everything from the nature of friendship, the reason for pain, and the origins of beauty.

As they travel from Texas to Oregon in Paul's cantankerous Volkswagen van, the two friends encounter a variety of fascinating people, witness the fullness of nature's splendor, and learn unexpected lessons about themselves, each other, and even God.

"A record of a classic road trip. Miller's tale is full of serendipitous adventures and thoughtful Christian reflection . . . offering the sort of deep-thought wanderings into meaning and significance that are the meat of college-age existence . . . a reminder that life was meant to be lived, not just gotten through." (Publishers Weekly)

Reviews (4)

One of the best from America's 1st literary foodie
MFK Fisher holds a special place in the hearts of all 'foodie' Americans. She was perhaps the 1st person to see the sense of writing food-based literary books and articles, and of course it's now a genre unto itself. But few have rivaled her beautiful prose, and I recall reading that she once said she considered it a day well-lived if she'd managed to compose one perfect sentence. To consider her just a food writer is to do her an injustice; she is a writer, first and foremost, who happens, sometimes, to write about food.
Long Ago in France is a memoir of her years in Dijon in the 30s, a book full of rich wine, rich ideas, character portraits filled with rich detail. It's about Life, a life filled with joy, experience, food, travel, and memorable people. This book is a paean to a lost era.
Highest recommendation.

A Reader's Feast
Between 1929 and 1932, young M.F.K. Fisher (later a famed chef and memoirist) and her husband Al Fisher lived and studied in Dijon, France. Here she discovered the people and the food of Burgundy, and she describes both with warmth, sensuality, and humor (without becoming overly sentimental: "It was there, I now understand, that I started to grow up, to study, to make love, to eat and drink, to be me and not what I was expected to be."

Her writing is crisp and evocative. "He took the apple slices from the bowl one by one, almost faster than we could see, and shook off the wine and laid them in a great, beautiful whorl, from the outside to the center, as perfect as a snail shell. We said not a word. The music trembled in the room." Fisher helps the reader discover the beauty of our appetites. She writes of an old soldier who offers her chocolate: "The chocolate broke at first like gravel into many separate, disagreeable bits...Then they grew soft, and melted voluptuously." Then a doctor offers her bread, admonishing, "Never eat chocolate without bread, young lady!" There is a delicious denouement: "...in two minutes my mouth was full of fresh bread, and melting chocolate, and as we sat gingerly, the three of us, on the frozen hill...we peered shyly and silently at each other and chewed at one of the most satisfying things I have ever eaten..."

This was a time of great importance for Fisher, and she generously shares her experiences in a richly satisfying book. It's a small treasure.

A ghost is born in Dijon
M.F.K. Fisher wrote some of the best prose in English--and this memoir is interesting because it documents her arrival and stay in Dijon as a student in the 20's. While some of the chapters were published later, in edited form, in other collections by Fisher, this book is valuable because it deals only with Fisher's time in Dijon. There is more detail about her stay with the Ollangniers, the French family who rented a room to Fisher and her husband Al while he worked on his doctorate. Fisher talks more about the students, professors and her daily life as she becomes, as she put it, a ghost. Perhaps by "ghost", Fisher meant that she knew, at that time, she would always leave a bit of her spirit forever in France. Her days in Dijon formed her as the writer she became, so if you are a Fisher fan, this is required reading.

Excellent - 'the art of eating' & how to live one's life
MFK Fisher wrote like an angel about food and wine and people and conversation and just about everything else that could possibly matter. She lived an enviable life, always at ease whether she was in Dijon or Switzerland or Sonoma Valley, and always writing brilliantly about how to live one's life fully. "Long Ago in France" tells of her discovery of voluptuous living in Dijon in the 1930's; "As They Were" is a collection of essays from her travels that rivals Paul Theroux for vivid evocations of place; "With Bold Knife and Fork" is a collection of some 140 recipes all wrapped up in lovely chapters with titles like "Some Ways to Laugh" and "The Trouble With Tripe." (Reviewed in detail by Susannah Indigo for Clean Sheets Magazine ...) ... Read more

Book Description

With his dazzling debut memoir, A Celtic Childhood, Bill Watkins confirmed his position as a writer who "possesses the skill of an Irish bard:He can mix poetry, song, story, and history together to make a pleasing tale (Missoula Independent).This book became a favorite handsell for booksellers, and eventually broke into the Book Sense Bestseller List (Bookselling This week, November 1999).

Now Watkins continues to delight readers, mingling the myths and traditions of Celtic nations with true and tall tales of his high-seas adventures and explorations of the Scottish Highlands in Scotland Is Not For the Squeamish.Here the magic of a young man's years of soul-searching exploration are animated in crackling detail. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Scotland is Not for the Squeamish
How long has it been since you've read a book that captured you on the first page and didn't release you until the last? If it's been a long time since you have experienced that supreme pleasure, buy a copy of this book and head for a comfortable chair--you won't be moving for a while.

Bill Watkins has an amazing talent for combining poetic storytelling with well-timed humor and a bit of mystery. Whether he's telling about Pete the Poisoner (you have to read the book to find out about him), Adolf Hitler or King James, the reader always finds out something unexpected, and it's all learned on a merry romp through Scotland. The author's adventures alternately terrify and pacify; the people he meets show that he's an equal opportunity friend; and his good-humored spirit is always evident. Anyone who reads this second book of Watkins's trilogy should be prepared to laugh a lot and maybe shed a few tears, but most of all, enjoy an incredibly worthwhile book. One more thing--when you finish the book, hang on to it. You'll probably want to read it again.

Wild Bill does it again!
Contrary to the notion that a sequel is never as good as the original, Bill Watkins has shown that you can improve on a good thing. Scotland is Not for the Squeamish brings the "coming of age" story to new heights. Bill's storytelling expertise transfers to the written word equally as well. I could actually hear the thick Scottish brogue in his dialogue, could feel the water spray on the North Sea, and could see the beauty of Scotland through his eyes; even though I've never been there myself. As is usually the case with a good book, I couldn't put it down, staying up to all hours of the night trying to find out what would happen next. Can't wait for Part 3 to come out! Bravo, Bill!

Read this book!
This is a great book. I couldnt put it down! - riotously funny in places but very poignant in others. Dont let the title put you off - this is a very memorable book and you will be glad you took the time to read it!

Absolutely wonderful
Bill Watkins' second book is at least as good as the first('A Celtic Childhood'), and continues the 'History of Bill' through his young adulthood with great adventure in Scotland('Course, he has to get there first). I rated this book five out of fibe stars only because that is the limit. It's easily a 10!

Greetings- to you & yours: Marie McCarthy Lmk/thecape
Bill,
Delighted to purchase Scotland is not for the squeamish. I'm buying a celtic childhood again to give as a gift, what a riot reading this book on the plane,with the headphones on and "Laughing out loud."well, its that sort of funny book ... Read more

Book Description

Embark on a thirteen-year journey through the stormy, madcap, on-again, off-again relationship between a Boston advertising art director (van Rooyen) and a Boston advertising film-director-turned-sailor ("The Captain").

Boat Bastard examines the torturous, slightly out of step mating dance that ensues between these two oversize personalities, complete with the requisite break-ups, reconciliations, and bloody bumps and bruises along the way. From Boston and Cape Cod to France, Israel, Jordan, and, finally, the Chesapeake, the Captain navigates this affair on his own terms, until one day, van Rooyen jumps ship.

With enormous wit and deadpan delivery, van Rooyen lays bare the very real experience of being the not-so-perfect woman trying to get it right with the almost-perfect man.In the end, she discovers that much as the Captain cannot seem to eke out much space for her within the confines of his boat, so too fares her claim on the affection within his heart.Van Rooyen finally emerges from the relationship with more than her share of sadness and regret, but also with the dignity that comes from having the strength to walk away. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Sour Grapes
Two horribly mismatched people stumbling through a relationship that didn't have a chance in heck of working. I kept hoping that the protagonist would wake up and dump him if their relationship was as bad as the author describes. I also felt that there are two sides to every story and wondered what the "captain" would say if he could write a book. Was he treated fairly by "The Boat Bastard"? I doubt it. It must be terribly comforting to write a book about a break-up where you can airbrush your own flaws while highlighting those of your ex. Then all you have to do is admit to some not-too-objectionable personal foibles yourself to give the impression that you are being brutally honest.

I didn't enjoy this book and would not recommend it. A more apt title would have been "Sour Grapes".

Personal Journeys of Love
Two passionate lovers, moving at a different pace, their egos colliding at high sea and on shore. This is a 13 year trip across borders with their personal history and expectations of each other .

The Boat Bastard is a wonderful book and a must read for all on the ocean of love, or heartache.

"Hell Hath No Fury..."
"Hell hath no fury..." but does not have such a talented one as she who has expressed it with the candor, love, humor, artistry and sophistication of this intimate memoir. Deborah takes you by the hand and invites you to visit the ports of call of this stormy relationship that are the tapestry against which she portrays vividly, and with remarkablke economy of brushstrokes, the human foibles of the characters, including her own, that bring to life this memorable and deeply moving human saga.It is around The Captain and his thoroughbred yacht, who at center stage display exquisite style and presence topside but considerably less elegant and accomodating selves below deck, that the protagonists are unmasked.This is the work of a compassionate artist whose sensitivity and generosity give life to a cast that is above all imminently human. It is, in no way, a "bitch and moan" statementbut rather an expression of courageously processed and resolved experience of abandonment and loss which keeps author and reader intact as they navigate the stormy passage.Deborah offers a compelling and delightfully readable book that belongs in everybody's beach bagfor a first read, with anticipatuion of many subsequent revisits.

Don't Miss the Boat
I don't usually read much in this genre but this one is juicy in form and content. Using consistently inventive writing and open-heart surgery with only local aesthetics for protection, the author travels over male-female oceans familiar in their choppy rhythms and treacherous currents. Yet she adds fascination through taking her own distinct bearings, standing on her integrity, getting blown off course, and finally finding safe haven - albeit not in the destination she desired. Despite the pain and love van Rooyen comes over as more than fair to her fellow seatraveller but I can't help but feel she jumped ship just in time. Otherwise he'd have sailed her into a sea of alcoholic despond infested with vapid wasps in what must be one of the inner rings of Hell. In the end, the feisty Jewishness that blocks her acceptance to the class and salt encrusted establishment proves to be a blessing - you need to read to the conclusion to understand what I mean - as Israeli directness rips the thin topsail of upper East Coast America's illusionary inclusiveness into shreds.
Each time my interest began to die down, van Rooyen found a fresh inspiration to keep me reading right through to the finale and even after that she had a unexpectedly entertaining coda of friend's comments. I hope she writes a mystery next time around as this is a talent to enjoy already and to watch in the future.

Brava,Brava,Brava,Brava.
Congratulations! You have created a masterpeice! You are lovable and forgivable. You are not the victim, nor the victimizer, you are honest, poignant, and funny. I knew you were funny, and sensitive, but I saw a whole different dimension to that in your book. Your intelligence and charm shine like a beacon. You are any woman, and every woman. Including me. I had a very similar relationship, feeling that the object of your affections was always slightly out of reach even though they were seemingly right there to be had. I rushed home from where ever I was to read this book, I was hungry for it. I wished there was more,as I dreadfully feared the arrival of the last page. Your recalling of details was so impressive, but then again, when you give so much of yourself to a relationship, you tend to absorb it all like a sponge, the person becomes your drug. I'm still thinking about the book, it had an effect on me, and I'm speaking objectively! That's what makes a story good, when you are still working it over in your mind. This world is filled with forgettable books, but this is not one of them. God Deb, I loved it, and I love you, and I
could go on forever, but you get the point. Well done... ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (30)

Charming, but something of a letdown by the end
I enjoyed 'Sixpence House' more than I thought I might. At first the general idea of the story seemed slight to me, but Paul Collins is a wonderful writer, self-deprecating but genuinely smart and very funny in an unexpected way. I laughed out loud a lot, which I don't often do when I read. His appreciation for the absurdities in antiquated writing was dead on, and the book quotes were particularly enjoyable to me. I also liked getting to know his son; his observances, so brief and sweet, reminded me a bit of Adam Gopnik's essays in 'Paris to the Moon'. I was wishing the book would go on and on, but then the end abruptly came and I felt deflated. Why did they decide to leave Hay-on-Wye, and with such little thought? Had they invested nothing in the place after all? And if not, then what was the point of the journey? The abrupt ending made me feel as if Collins gave up the ghost on the town, and on the book, too. He just sort of...quit. I'm waiting for part two.

Not lost, not in a town of books, not ever...
When I finished Paul Collins' book "Sixpence House" I had a similar feeling as to when I read "The absence of nectar", by Kathy Hepinstall. Although the stories have nothing in common (they're not even in the same genre for the matter), the feeling of disappointment I experienced was the same. Although I think in Collins' case is even stronger, because of the expectations I had on the book. My shrink - yes, I had one! - once told me that expectations are a bad thing. Why? Because of what happens when things don't turn up as expected. Usually a strong feeling of desolation creeps in. And that is exactly what happened to me with "Sixpence House".

Let me just say, it is not a bad book. It's not badly written either - although the prose could use some help here and there. It's just not a narrative of someone "lost in a town of books", as the subtitle proclaims. First of all, it's not about the old abandoned pub that bears the same name in Hay-on-Wye. True, the author and his wife attempt to buy it while house-hunting there, but this occurs only in one chapter - rather late in the book, I must say. Secondly, it's not a book about being lost in this famous booktown either. As he points out several times, Collins had been there before as a tourist (that's what prompted him to choose Hay as his next area of residence), and as a matter of fact he knows his way around the town very well. It appears to be, however, the story of someone at a loss with what to do with his life - Collins doesn't seem to have a straight job, except for the proofreading of his first book; and at a loss with his own thoughts. Only about half the book is about the famous Welsh town and its characters. The other half... well, it's hard to say what it's about or why it's been included in the book in the first place; to the point that I found Collins' affinity for neologisms takes over him, as he himself states: "I am very good at coining neologisms when free plane tickets are involved." (Page 10); and thus making you wander how much of his appreciations are not of his own invention. Collins keeps on reminiscing about almost anything that comes to his mind; which would be fine, but then the title of the book should have been something like "Reminiscences of my life during my stay in Hay-on-Wye", or something of the sort. What really disappointed me to its fullest was the end. I'm not going to give it away out of sheer literary etiquette, but I'll just say that if I had been blessed with the possibility of moving to Wales, well...

As the strong fan that I am of everything Welsh and, as a typical bibliophile, as fascinated as I feel about the concept of the "booktown", I was hoping for a story about IT, with the author's impressions yes; but nevertheless a story about Hay-on-Wye, its people and its history. Instead, this book sounds like the kind of propaganda written by the typical son of British immigrants who favors the American way of life for no other reason than the fact that it is in a different continent where it does not rain as much. If you want to find out about this wonderful town, I would recommend Richard Booth's book "My Kingdom of Books". Even though it's now out of print, it will make for more enjoyable, focused reading.

Books, Wit and Pleasure
By Bill Marsano. This literate and literary book is an eccentric pleasure filled with sly fun and effortless surprise. Paul Collins was born in Pennsylvania to British immigrants, and the greatest of his inheritances is rootlessness: He has changed addresses as often as underwear and only now that he and his wife, Jennifer, have an infant son does he think to settle permanently.

Collins is a writer and also a lover of books. For him abandoning San Francisco is an easy choice because it's too expensive and because his neighbors, in their painstakingly restored Victorian houses, apparently never read. "All those beautiful built-in bookshelves?" Collins says. "They don't hold any books." Indeed his real-estate agent tells him "You have too many books in here. Home buyers don't like books . . . . Really. You should hide them."

So off they go to Wales, to the famous "book town" of Hay-on-Wye, to buy a house. Collins and wife investigate numerous houses in numerous neighborhoods (my favorite is Cusop Dingle), learn some scary things about British real-estate practices, and commence knitting themselves into the fabric of the community. Collins threads together many incidents and a few adventures; truth to tell, some are but flimsily connected to his narrative. On the other hand, he tells them so well, in such witty and inventive prose, that it hardly matters. It is a delight to hear Collins' explain that you CAN tell a book by its cover; his discussions of some of the wondrously strange forgotten books he's collected ("Hunting Indians in a Taxicab" is one of the best titles; I wonder how he missed "By Horse and Sledge to Outcast Siberian Lepers"?); and listen in on his new career as the "American expert" for Richard Booth, the reelingly eccentric anarchist-genius who made sleepy Hay a used-book capital (and also declared himself king of a secessionist republic and began issuing passports).

I say "hear" because you don't merely read this book: You hear it; it's as if Collins is talking to you directly, because there is that rare quality called "voice" in his writing. If you love real writing or know someone who does, buy this book right away.--Bill Marsano is a professional writer and editor.

Books, books and more books
"Sixpence House" is the name of an old house that was a pub once upon a time. It is some hundreds of years old and stands lopsidedly in the middle of the picturesque old village of Hay-on-Wye on the border between England and Wales . The Wye valley winds green and lush along foot of the brown hills known - with Welsh poetic license - as the Black Mountains. It sounded like an ideal place for a young writer and his artist wife and toddler son to settle down. And it almost was.

Several years ago, Paul Collins was living in San Francisco with a first book ready for publication and a certainty that he and his family needed to move somewhere cheaper and safer. Hay, which he had visited before, sounded ideal. As it famously advertises, it has 40 bookstores serving its 1500 residents, and it considers itself the world's antiquarian book centre. The Hay Festival in early summer attracts visitors from every English-speaking country.

With more modesty than accuracy, Collins claims that he was offered a job sorting out the mounds of books in the American literature section of a rambling bookstore in Wye based purely on his American accent. But Collins obviously knows his books. He has filled "Sixpence House" with snippets from obscure volumes that are by turns bizarre and hilarious. He has also developed a Theory of Dust Jackets:

"There is an implicit code that customers rely on. If a book cover has raised lettering, metallic lettering, or raised metallic lettering, then it is telling the reader: 'Hello. I am an easy-to-read work on espionage, romance, a celebrity, and/or murder.' To readers who do not care for such things, this lettering tells them: 'Hello. I am crap.' Such books can use only glossy paper for the jacket; Serious Books can use glossy finish as well, but it is only Serious Books that are allowed to use matte finish.

Diminutively sized paperbacks, like serial romances or westerns or dieting or astrology guides, are aimed at the uneducated. But diminutively sized hardcover books are aimed at the educated - except those that are very diminutive, which are religious books aimed at the uneducated - and unless they are in a highly rectangular format, in which case they are point-of-purchase books aimed at the somewhat-but-not-entirely educated....."

This book, by the way, has a "matte" cover in a "muted, tea-stained" colour. That means that it is Serious Literature. Oh, surely not that serious, Mr Collins.

The author's theory of house prices was less successful. Assuming that anywhere as far from paid employment as Hay was bound to be a cheap place to live, he went in search of a quaint old home with stone walls, massive beams and a huge garden for his son to play in. This would have been fair enough when Britain's economy really was "sad", but it has developed something of a smirk in recent years. All those affluent townies buying second homes for the weekend have sent house prices in rural England and Wales rocketing out of reach of young families in the countryside. The only houses that are "quaint", but still within the price range of an aspiring writer, come encumbered with entailed land or six inches of water in the basement. Successful writers, as Collins deserves to be based on this book, may find a wider choice.

Interesting... considering I own the house.
The first thing I knew about this book was when an American I didn't know knocked on my door and asked to see my cellar.An odd request, certainly, but he seemed quite nice so I let him. He was a touch disappointed that there were no barrels floating in six inches of water, and I'm afraid I couldn't provide him with any disturbingly charismatic 7 year olds hovering at the light switch, but he did seem very pleased with himself that he'd found the house at all. Paul Collins paints a picture of Hay-on-Wye that is both amusingly accurate and poetically exaggerated. I am surprised that he has neglected to mention that Hay is set amongst some of the most beautiful scenery in the country (the Black Mountains, the Brecon Beacons) and that Hay is home to an internationally acclaimed Literary festival (visited by Clinton a couple of years ago)where once a year the town explodes into a vibrant cornucopia of literary gluttony. (see the Hay festival website). My house is a fabulous house. It may be for sale (see 'Humberts' website) but it is still a fabulous house! ... Read more

Book Description

In his latest collection of death-defying exploits and far-flung travels, Outside Magazine editor Tim Cahill visits the side of an active volcano in Ecuador, the Saharan salt mines and the largest toxic waste dump in the Western Hemisphere. He also ventures to find a Caspian tiger in Turkey and giant centipedes in the Congo. Cahill is one of the last great intrepid journalists, and his thirty wildly entertaining essays display sparkling wit and unstinting curiosity. When not on the move, he debunks hoary notions of the kindness of dolphins and ruminates on religion, death and the perplexing phenomenon of yoga. Charming, incisive and absolutely fearless, Cahill is the perfect travel companion. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Everyman's Guide
Let's be perfectly honest with ourselves, here, folks. Deep down, we are all Tim Cahill - slightly pudgy, kind of geeky, and always a fish out of water when we travel. Not a single one of us can go anywhere in this world and immediately blend in, feel comfortable, look natural. It's impossible and while some of like to pretend that we are jet-setters, globe-trotters, and travel afficianados, the fact of the matter is that we're usually ignorant of the cultures we visit, the places we see, and the historical importance of the lands we visit. There's nothing wrong with that and Mr. Cahill proves that our ignorance can lead to enlightenment, adventure, and humor - albeit at our own expense.
Mr. Cahill has made a career of poking fun at himself in a way that's self-depreciating but allows his readers to develop and foster an unwavering respect for this man and his persepctive on the world - which I think is a common sense approach to people and places. But more importantly, you like the author. You feel you can call him Tim, meet him at a bar in Montana, throw back a few beers, and tell each other wild stories and blatant lies. He's that engaging, friendly, and comfortable in his style.
Being an avid reader of this type of travel lit., I've read many different authors who all try to emulate Tim in one way or another. But unlike his peers (Bill Bryson, for example) his humor is light-hearted and not caustic or sarcastic. And more importantly, when he does have an opinion about an issue his touch is light and simple - there are no vitriolic diatribes against a developer or policy.
Don't think for one second, though, that he can't turn around and whip off a piece that will leave you in a blubbering mess of tears. I read 'Enlightenment' in one sitting - sure, it was a long sitting, but one single one - at a local coffee shop. I got a plethora of stares and strange looks as I guffawed my way through it. The looks doubled when I finished the book in tears and sat there drying my eyes with a coffee-stained napkin.
No exaggerations here, this book will have you in hysterics one moment and tears the next. Buy this. Read this. Treasure this.

Out Looking for Trouble
This is not a quest for enlightenment, as the title says. Tim Cahill doesn't bore you with touristy descriptions of scenery and high culture that you get from the more button-down travel writers, but diaries of everything that goes wrong with world travel. In Cahill's case this can range from the comical to the disgusting to the downright dangerous. He's not a comedy writer, as some think, but uses humor effectively at key points in his writing to drive his accumulated insights home. Otherwise he is very perceptive and even serious when the situation demands it. This is a loose collection of essays from locations ranging from remote and dangerous third-world hellholes to American commercial adventure destinations. The writings are delivered with a lot of humble pie, which is Cahill's secret weapon. A funny example is when he compares himself to a platypus: "so strange, so different from the rest, so inherently dorky as to be unclassifiable by science." I can identify with that. Some winning essays here, among many, include a trip to a town in Ecuador on the verge of demolition by a volcano, and examinations of the true personalities of gorillas and dolphins. Another winning collection from Cahill, in which he proves that enlightenment is not the travel writer's friend. [~doomsdayer520~]

Travel Adventure With Moral Purpose
Engaging stories that allow readers to have adventures without leaving their easy chair, but that generally contain messages about the wonders of nature and our obligation not to destroy it. There are clear heros and villians in Cahill's world, and his comic quips and foibles notwithsatnding, he makes a good case for what he is so passionate about.

Unenlightening -
Well written, sometimes funny, but overall lacking! His earlier books are far more humorous. He seems to be straining to write this - maybe some more yoga Tim!

JL

A modern day explorer.
Many of the tales in this book were fascinating and funny but some were too short or unclear or just not interesting. Tim Cahill travels in a real way and grabs hold of the customs and food of the places he finds himself. Actually it is hard to imagine how he has survived this long, though he has had some scrapes along the way. It is fascinating that in Cahill's view, the bravest thing he has done is "appearing on one silly, unaired television show".

Tim Cahill is one of the modern day explorers who is documenting the amazing diversity of cultures in this world and for that, this book is worth reading. ... Read more

Book Description

Two boys on a bike trip are sure to find adventure.Send them off into the wilds of the American West, and it's a safe bet adventure will find them.

In 1909, Vic McDaniel and Ray Franciso, just out of high school, set out from Santa Rosa, CA., on second-hand bikes, bound for the great Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle. Vic and Ray reported their adventures to their home-town newspaper, and what adventures they had.They met their share of memorable characters, from a young girl who stole Ray's heart to pin-striped hustler who tried to pick Vic's pocket.They traveled beside railroad tracks, fought their way around boulders and up brushy hillsides, and crossed rivers layered with salmon.They survived a grizzly's nocturnal visit and the sudden terror of a snake bite.They held their breaths crossing railroad trestles over treacherous canyons, and discovered that a railroad tunnel doesn't offer safe passage when you're halfway through and a train comes along.

Evelyn Gibb, Vic's daughter, has drawn on his recollections to tell this incredible adventure in his voice.A captivating account of a journey that today we can only dream about, "Two Wheels North" has won the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Nonficiton Book Award. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

beautiful
I bought this book thinking it would be an interesting adventure tale. It is that but so much more. The writing is poetic and heart warming. An absolutely wonderful little book!!

Best Bike Book Ever
If you enjoy reading about cycling and living this is a great book. I've read every touring and cycling book you can imagine, but this is the best! It really gives you a new perspective on how we ride today when you look at what these two boys had to endure at the turn of the century when roads did not exists as we know today. A truly well written adventure, great venacular dialogue, credible and yet an incredible story.

Bicycle touring the way it used to be.
I first bought the book because of its Vashon Island connection, being a lifelong islander myself. But I quickly decided it's one of the best bicycle touring stories in my library -- the boys come alive in the writing, no dreary list of statistics and mileposts, just two boys becoming men on their ride north to Seattle. Puts a whole new perspective on that ride for anyone who has cycled the Pacific Coast route in modern times.

A book not to be missed.
This book is an amazingly well-written story of the adventures of two young men bicycling from Santa Rosa, California to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle in 1909. You are drawn into the narrative until, before you know it, you find yourself riding along with them on their trip, tasting the dust, feeling their occasional pain, and even enjoying a piece of pie with them... and then you realize that, like an Ansel Adams photograph, you have been drawn into an illusion of a reality long past. And, smiling, you dive back into the book and continue pedaling. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Bob Buck may not be as famous as Charles Lindbergh, but he's well known among aviators for setting flight-distance records in the 1930s, flying a B-17 in the Second World War, and finally, becoming a commercial airline pilot who logged more than 2,000 trips across the Atlantic Ocean. North Star over My Shoulder is Buck's memoir of a life spent in the skies. He shares plenty of cockpit wisdom: "A copilot can make a trip or ruin it; get someone who talks too much, gripes about the company, tries to impress you, tells long and boring anecdotes, or is overly aggressive in suggesting ways to run the flight, and the taste is unpleasant." He also answers the question he says nonpilots are most likely to ask him: How do you overcome jet lag? "You don't," he says. Buck addresses offbeat subjects, too, such as what an airline pilot does when one of his first-class passengers is irate about the lack of caviar on a long trip. Readers fascinated by flight will enjoy this book, both for its historical perspective on advances in aviation ("a time no one will ever experience again") and the good advice that springs from almost every page ("sitting low tends to make you level off a little too high, while sitting up high tends to make you fly into the ground and not level off enough"). Pilots will appreciate this book, as will anybody who has ever wondered what it's like to fly a plane. --John Miller ... Read more

Reviews (13)

A Fascinating Story
In spite of a somewhat slow start, the story quickly improves and becomes an incredible account from the early days of commercial aviation, where you read about the author becoming a TWA captain flying DC-2s and DC-3s, through his retirement in the 1970s where he flew 747s across the Atlantic.

The fact that one individual lived and experienced all these monumental changes that shaped modern aviation (such as radio navigation, the birth of the ILS (Instrument Landing System), not to mention having a chance the meet and chat with Charles Lindbergh himself as well as Amelia Earhart), plus the quality of the story-telling, makes this a book that can be enjoyed by pilots and non-pilots alike.

I won't spoil the story by going into great detail, but I highly recommend this book for anyone; from aviation history buffs to bold and bald pilots, or for anyone who simply wants to read a great-and true-story.

Life story of a great aviator
Buck's latest book shifts gears away from his classic style of teaching pilots to fly better. This book is autobiography at its best. The reader travels with the author as he learns to fly open cockpit biplanes and then sets aviation records as a teenager. We then join him in the DC-2/DC-3 days as a new copilot for TWA. The upgrade to Captain, flying a B-17 doing research, numerous ocean crossings in all kinds of weather and then the transition to flying jet airliners - it's all here.

Along the way I was introduced to Tyrone Power and Howard Hughes. Fascinating stuff.

I enjoyed this book for its many stories but most of all for the tremendous amount of history about the golden age of aviation that Captain Buck passes along to us.

This book is a treasure.

An unknown Aviation Legend
North Star Over my shoulder was an interesting look at the life of a pilot who was along for the ride throughout modern aviation history. As a pilot, I enjoyed Capt. Buck's stories spanning from the early open cockpit days to his international flights as the first TWA 747 Captain. This book offers insight to the history of aviation and how it has changed since Capt. Buck started flying. A very entertaining book with a historical flair.

6 Stars
Capt. Robert N. Buck's "North Star Over My Shoulder" is a great memoir that can be enjoyed by flyers and non-flyers alike.