4 comments about Trailing Louis L'Amour from California to Alaska (Trailing Louis L'Amour).

1. As the author I am pleased with this book...I hope others are. Amizon also sell TRAILING LOUIS L'AMOUR IN NEW MEXICO and my first novel VENTURES WEST. Bertram (Bert} Murphy



2. Louis L'Amour has a vast multitude of readers around the world-but only one like Bert Murphy.

   What the New Mexican author has done in this book, and the companion title ( Trailing Louis L'Amour from California to Alaska), is to help put into historical and geographical perspective the L'Amour novels.

   Thus, this first book, that looks at the 7 novels set in New Mexico reveals that Murphy, has not only read the novels, but has poured over them- exploring and contextualising them for others. If you want to be part of Killoe's Cattle Trail, Conagher's Stage Line, Flint's Malpais, Shalako's War Path, Daybreakers Trek, Radigans Sierra Trails, or participate in a Showdown at Yellow Butte then Murphy is the best side-kick you will find and the above chapters in his book detail the well known LL stories.

   If you plan to read, or have read any of the LL novels set in NM, and you like having additional information on the time and area, then this book is a must. Good maps also assist the reader to chart the area involved in the particular stories and plenty of large black and white photos give a 'feel' for the terrain. There are times when I feel that the book could have been tightened by a some better sub-editing (eg on p101, within the space of some 13 lines, we are told, twice, that Chato, an Apache war chief, lived from 1854-1934). However this book is a 'ramble' and such finer points do not lessen the interest of what Murphy has to tell us about his home state.

   There is a lot of a L'Amour character about Bert Murphy-he has lived and worked around many states of his homeland, seen active service in two major conflicts, and climbed through the ranks finishing as a Major-General and Asst. Adjutant General of New Mexico. He has also been a pilot, engineer, oilfield well puller and roughneck, rancher, scuba diver, deputy sheriff, writer etc. In short, an interesting hombre......remind you of anyone?

   New Mexico is known as the Land of Enchantment and Bert Murphy has done his best to take us on a trail of enchantment in looking at some of the works of the great western novelist, Louis L'Amour

   FOOTNOTE: Murphy has also chanced his arm with a 'fictional'(?) hero, James Houston Slack (in 'Ventures West') - a story about the development of tough fighting man, from teenage orphan.




3. Don't wast your money on this book. I couldn't make it past the second chapter, the disjointed irrelevant writing is horrible. Every other paragraph is about some different subject, and most have nothing to do with Trailing Louis L'Amour. There are many misspelled words, and some locations are completely mis named. The author calls the San Jacinto Mountians the "San Joquain" Mountians, and Panamint Valley "Panama Valley." He comments on L'Amour's detailed research, yet it is obvious he didn't spend much time on research himself.



4. Bert's done it again with this detailed account of tracking L'Amour and his characters across the northwest from California to Alaska. Bert has been there and done that and he makes the geography and time of the novels come into focus with his insight and knowledge of the locations and history of the areas.

No comments about The Coastal Companion: A Guide for the Alaska-Bound Traveler.

4 comments about Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska--Including Extensive Hitherto Unpublished Passages from the Original Journal.

1. I found this book to be very informative about the land and extream weather of Alaska but it ran a little dry quickly. This is a journal of around 9 months of Rockwell kents life while in Alaska. I have read other books that were written from journals and Kents does fair better then most. I can understand that a journal in Alsaka can run out of new and interesting things to write about and this book seemed to try to fill in the gaps with Kents thoughts and many philosophies. All in all I do recomend this book to anyone who really want a real veiw of what Alaska is actually like.



2. Of the many wilderness adventures that flood our view on the television or in movies, with dramatic, life-risking events, we can become weary of the slick presentations. Rockwell Kent tells of us of another type of adventure, the day to day living on remote Fox Island off Seward, in Alaska. The small pleasures, the difficult trips in an open boat to get supplies, the child's sweetness in his friendship with a magpie, all these and more stories are told in a daily journal. And illustrated as Kent always does, with insight and style. Kent as a writer is equal to Kent as an artist, intellectual and candid in his telling a story and sharing impressions. If this is your first reading of a Kent book, you have a long list of other books ahead for this was his first book done as a "first person" storyteller. His desire for remote and wild landscapes to paint took him, and then takes us, through his work, to many other places over many decades. But none are any more delightful and majestic than this trip to Alaska. To check out the validity of this remote place, I took a trip to Fox Island several years ago, and though I didn't see it in the winter as Rockwell and his son did, it was dramatic, beautiful and matched the feeling I'd gotten when I first read the book years ago. The nice touch of this edition is that the editor, Doug Capra, has a very fine introduction to the book and Capra knows his subject. He has been researching Kent for years, but more than that, he has something to say and says it well. Few Kent editors do. But the book--it makes a wonderful Christmas gift because it has a really fine description of what a meaningful Christmas celebration can be in a remote place, shared with a hermit on the island, the father and little boy. There are some delightful details in this story: the food taken for the trip; the books for father and son; the rigerous baths when the bay freezes and the ice cold waters no longer are available. Kent is no ordinary artist, writer or father. And this is no ordinary adventure. It makes you wish, even yearn, for that place, that time, those people. I knew Rockwell Kent in the final few years of his life and he still carried that energtic view of life, that love of beauty and nature that comes alive in this small work. And three cheers to Doug Capra for bringing this new edition to life for it is of the quality for which Kent was famous in his published books. (A wretched edition of this treasure of a story was published a few years before and this edition puts to rest a Kent lover's dispair about having a bad edition of a Kent work on the shelves, any shelves. I almost never throw books away but this earlier paperback with bad design from cover to cover merits polluting a garbage pail.) So, invest in some good reading, some laughs and some wistful thoughts about what a wilderness adventure could be. And for those who have courage, still can be.



3. You can pick this book off your library shelf any time, open it to any page, start at any paragraph and begin to feel a mantle of peace settle over your jangled nerves. "Wilderness" is the record of artist Rockwell Kent and his 9-year-old son spending a winter in Alaska on Fox Island in Resurrection Bay, near Seward, with only one elderly Swede as a neighbor. This "journal of quiet adventure" nonetheless is exciting in the relationships between father and son and old Olson and between the Kents and the harsh winter weather. Beautifuly and profusely illustrated by Rockwell and Rockwell, Jr.



4. Unlike the true frontiersmen (ie; Dick Proenneke, One Man's WIlderness or James Huntington, On The Edge of Nowhere), this man is a typical anti-establishment artist who escaped to the outdoors in search of himself. His work reveals his own state of depression. It would be interesting to know what became of his son.

5 comments about Alone Across the Arctic: One Woman's Epic Journey by Dog team.

1. I needed something to read during the benchmarks, so I ran to the library during passing time and grabbed the first book I could find on mushing (I'm an addicted musher). I had a hard time putting it down. The pictures were wonderful, and the story was great. It was a pretty fast read, I finished it that day, but I enjoyed it. I've reread it twice since I bought my own copy.



2. This is a great book that will inspire you to be a stronger, more adventursome person than you might otherwise be. I like the way the author incorporates diary entries from her expedition, and also the text inserts including helpful background information that might otherwise have bogged down the flow of the story. I bought both this (the version for adults or teens) and the companion book, Big Enough Anna, which tells the same story in a manner appropriate for young children. Both are fantastic, and I plan to give copies to friends as gifts. Way to go, Pam Flowers!!!



3. Excellent true story, well told with many explanations so the reader understands what is going on.



4. As I read this book, I felt like I was with Pam as she crossed Alaska. A truly well written book which gives the reader a wonderful insight into the beauty of Alaska and most of all into the human emotions of such an arduous journey. It is a book of truimph, beating all the odds!



5. I found this to be an interesting and exciting read despite the protagonist's obvious ineptitude and insufficiency for being the team's leader. She loves her animals and tries her very best, but she was not always equipped by nature physically or emotionally to guide and protect her team of dogs. To this day, I don't think that she can even comprehend that her Lead Dog "Douggie" was trying to get away from her when he ran off from his Lead responsibilities. Several times she makes bad decisions which endanger her team and their expedition. Despite that ineptitude, I got emotionally "hooked," and I found this book to be an exciting and fascinating read. It is also wonderfully-illustrated and well-explained. The overall map of the expedition route was helpful, although it was not always complete.

2 comments about Riding the Wild Side of Denali.

1. I read Miki Collins' Riding the Wild Side of Denali in one sitting on a cold November Yukon morning and dreamt about it for many days to follow. If you'd like to taste real adventure and feel the cold crispness of life on the Alaskan trail, grab this one! Here, Miki relates the empassioned tales, sometimes hair-raising, sometimes hilarious, that she shares with her twin sister Julie as they embark on their wildest dream (or folly!!), yet : that of utilizing Icelandic Fjord Horses on their remote trapline at the base of Mt. Denali, AK. If you'd like to find out what it takes to convince a bush pilot to fly a horse that would like to join him in the cockpit of his small plane, or want to read true tales of a modern day trapline, ran by two women, huskies and Icelandic Fjord horses, this is the book for you. Humour, respect for the animals, images of human determination and the natural beauty of the alaskan wilderness are the gifts Miki Collins will leave you with. Whether you are a wilderness, adventure or horse lover or dream of the North as the last frontier, you'll love it. It would also make a great gift for teenage girls: the Collins are true models of women becoming all they can be.



2. What can you say?? AS always the Collins sisters give a humble yet riveting approach to bush life in Alaska. Unlike so many of the yuppies that take a two week trip somewhere and hurry back to suburbia to write about how they challenged the extremes of nature the Collins sisters simply live it. There is no bravado - just a matter of fact - this is what has to be done so we did it approach - that's what makes their writing so interesting to the common folk like me - it's not about them its about whatever they are doing - and therein lies the big difference between the yuppie on vacation and someone who lives what they are writing about.

1 comments about Call of the Wild: My Escape to Alaska.

1. I thought this book was amazing. I've heard that alot of people are a bit unhappy about him "abandoning" his family, but nonetheless. it is an exciting adventure. If you were going to repeat his journey, this would be a MUST HAVE book. not only does he go into depth about how he did each task, and which tools he used and where they were bought, but he also gives insight and tips into daily activities and tasks that most would consider mundane or embarrassing (see "poopcicle" :-)
   I found it to be a great insight into Alaskan wilderness living and survival and thought it was wonderfully written. another book that was hard to put down, and will stay filed in my "keep this book" list, so I can refer to it someday when my dream of doing this is realized.

No comments about The Road to Gobblers Knob: From Chile to Alaska on a Motorbike.

1 comments about Wrangell-St. Elias: America's Largest National Park.

1. The beauty of this book is in the photograghs! Herbon does well to use a simple, interesting text, which includes just enough history to make the pictures come alive, but not too much where you will lose interest. The photos speak a thousand words!

   I would have enjoyed some photos from more parts of the Park from the ground. Most photos were strictly from the air or in Kennicott or McCarthy. Since I am planning a backcountry trip there in Aug 2000 I would have enjoyed pictures from the areas that hikers are venturing to.

   I would recomend the book for anyone planning to vistit McCarthy/ Kennicott and the Wrangell/ St. Elias Natl. Park.

No comments about Frommers 500 Places to See Before They Disappear (500 Places).

No comments about Alaska Tales.