OUTDOOR BOOK REVIEWS HOME PAGE

NEWS & COMMENTARY

NOBA WINNERS BY CATEGORY:

OUTDOOR LITERATURE
 
NATURAL HISTORY
   LITERATURE
 
HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY

NATURE & ENVIRONMENT

CLASSIC AWARD

DESIGN/ARTISTIC MERIT

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

GUIDES (ADVENTURE)

GUIDES (NATURE)

INSTRUCTIONAL BOOKS

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
   ADVENTURE'S 100 BEST
   ADVENTURE BOOKS

CHESSLER'S TOP 100
   CLIMBING BOOKS

SIERRA MAGAZINE
   READER'S FAVORITE
   BOOKS

OUTSIDE'S 25 BEST
   BOOKS OF THE LAST
   100 YEARS

ASLE'S TOP 12
   ENVIRONMENTAL BOOKS

THE REVIEWS 10 MOST
   INFLUENTIAL
   ENVIRONMENT BOOKS

OUTDOOR EDUCATION
   SURVEY:  BEST BOOKS

Best Books of 2005

Best Outdoor Books of 2005

Winners of the National Outdoor Book Awards and the following . . .

  

Like the treehouse that Peter Lewis and his friends construct, this is a book permeated with love.  There is the love of work.  Love of using one's hands.  Love of nature.  Love of family and friends.  Using journal entries, explanatory captions and reflective sidebars, the book covers a three year period in which Lewis envisions and builds a masterpiece of treehouse.  For me, the book is somewhat reminiscent of the Whole Earth Catalog with its emphasis on the creative and inspirational power of the individual.  At the same time, the book is clearly a creation of the new millennial with stylist lay-out, and carefully rendered water colors, drawings, and color photographs.  B&N.com: More Information

Death in the Grizzly Maze:  The Timothy Treadwell Story.  By Mike Lapinski.  Falcon Press, Guilford, CT.  ISBN 0762736771

I've always enjoyed Mike Lapinski's work on bears -- and his pluck.  As a part of the research for a past book, he had a friend spray him with bear spray.  The experience left him stunned and appreciative of how disabling airborne capsicum powder can be.  Fortunately, he recovered from the experiment to write Death in the Grizzy Maze.  In this book, Lapinski chronicles the life of Timothy Treadwell.  Treadwell received national attention and became something of media star for living unnaturally close to Alaskan brown bears.  Many bear biologists, however, felt he was pushing the limits, and, so it was in the fall of 2003 that he and his girlfriend were mauled and eaten by one or more bears in Katmai National Park.  Lapinski retraces the twisting path followed by Treadwell which led to that tragic day in Katmai.  Along the way, we learn about these magnificent animals, their conservation, and the respect that they are clearly due.  

In 1996 anthropologists discovered the 9,500 year old remains of a human that resembled the long-gone Jomon people of northern Japan.  The discovery raised fascinating new questions about the origin of Native Americans.  One of the key questions was:  could have the Jomon people crossed the icy and unforgiving waters of the North Pacific and reached North America?  Jon Turk set out to find out.  Using small one-man sail boats and sea kayaks, Turk works his way north from Japan along the Siberian coast line.  What makes this book interesting are three interwoven themes:  the anthropological story of the ancient Jomons, the deplorable state of post cold-war Russia, and the stirring narrative of Turk's modern day adventure.  

When I first received this book, I set it aside, thinking that it was another run-of-the-mill, long hike story.  How wrong I was.  It took only one chapter of Walking the Big Wild to get me hooked.  In easy going, yet illuminating style of writing, Heur tells the story of his 2,000 mile hike.   Let me restate:  he hiked 2,000 miles from the northern Wyoming border, through Montana, and through British Columbia to Yukon.  These are not the well traveled paths of the Appalachian or Pacific Crest trails.  In many places, there are no trails.  In the end, he reaches his destination, but not without a little help from his friends and his loyal companion, a border collie named Webster. 

Letters from the Woods:  Looking at Life through the Window of Wilderness.  By Michael C. Hurley.  Ragbagger Publishing, Raleigh, NC.  ISBN 0976127504

This is a collection of Michael Hurley's essays that appeared in Paddle & Portage, a quarterly journal of canoeing.  I'm embarrassed to admit that as a long-time canoeist, I had never heard of the journal.  Now after reading a sample of Hurley's work, I'm really sorry that I hadn't.  Paddle & Portage is no longer with us, but Letters from the Woods preserves the best of what might be called, for lack of a better descriptor, Hurley's homilies.  I found them a refreshing change from the brusque and edgy writing so common these days.  He reminisces about boyhood, family outings, and summer voyages, and always turns up a little gem of an insight that gives meaning to the simple pleasures of life in the woods.  

In 1975 Neva Sullaway takes off to sail around the world, and Chasing Dreamtime is about the adventure that ensues.  On one leg of the journey, she is held at knifepoint.  On another, she is arrested.  As the title of the book promises, Sullaway fashions something of dream world out of her experiences, effectively drawing the reader in, not letting go until the book's ending.  The book is not exclusively about outdoor adventure, but it is certainly is adventure:  like a later day Odysseus, she is blown off course, and the journey becomes long and eventful. 

The Laugh of the Water Nymph and Other River Stories by Doug Ammons.  Published by Water Nymph Press, Missoula, MT. ISBN 0-9761580-052950. (239 pages. Color photos.)

One of the first books to catch my attention this year was Doug Ammons' long awaited collection of writings.  Doug is a Missoula, Montana expeditionary kayaker.  In the 1980's and 90's, he was on kayaking's cutting edge, tallying up an impressive list of descents and appearing in several films.  Given that background, one would expect a fast paced, heart-thumping read, and, indeed, The Laugh of the Water Nymph is that.  But there's a deeper and intellectual side to the book that helps it rise above standard river fare.
       At times, the book takes on a reflective quality.  Take, for example, Ammons' discussion of horizon lines early in book.  A horizon line, as a bit of an explanation, is a river runner's term.  A kayaker sitting a few feet above the surface of the river has a very limited perspective.  When approaching a rapid from the quiet water above, the river will seem to disappear, as if dropping off cliff. You see a horizon line in front of you and then nothing.  That nothingness afterwards can be distinctly unnerving.

Since that first day on the Lochsa, I've paddled a lot of rivers. Kayaking has shown me a lot of fun, a lot of seriousness, and a simple fact: life is full of horizonlines. They come in all shapes and sizes - accidents and jobs, people, marriage, and children. Time is the current that pushes us toward the edges of what we know, usually faster than we can cope. And flowing water is the current of time made real. I know that fear comes from doubt about where those horizonlines lead. I also know that the truths of life, large and small, are what lie beyond each one.

Ammons takes us over quite a number of horizon lines on his kayaking odyssey.  We venture to the rivers of Canada and Alaska, Mexico, South America and the Himalayas.  Throughout it all, he writes with sensitivity, humor and candor.

      In addition to well-crafted text, the book is beautifully produced.  It includes an extravagant 36-page midsection with full-page color photos and two large-format pull outs.  Most color work in the publishing is now done in China and points far-east, but in a refreshing departure from that trend, Ammons who self-published the book had it done in northern Idaho. 

     It's very reasonably priced at $29.95, and is available from the author at: http://www.dougammons.com/.