1 comments about A Field Guide to Gold, Gemstone and Mineral Sites of British Columbia, Volume 2: Sites Within a Day's Drive to Vancouver.

1. The newly revised and substantially updated second edition of A Field Guide To Gold, Gemstone, And Mineral Sites Of British Columbia: Volume 2 - Sites Within A Day's Drive Of Vancouver by Rick Hudson is an insightful and informative collection of area locations filled with the accessible beauties of natural minerals and gems to be found in the Vancouver area. As a concise compendium practical information for finding and recovering prized gemstones and minerals, A Field Guide To Gold, Gemstone, And Mineral Sites Of British Columbia combines the author's years of experience and "know-how" with practical mapping and discovery methods. Enhanced with maps and site drawings, a glossary of geological terms, addresses of government offices, museums and mineral clubs/associations, A Field Guide To Gold, Gemstone, And Mineral Sites Of British Columbia is very strongly recommended for do-it-yourself mining hobbyists with respect to more than 260 sites in the British Columbia and Vancouver area.

No comments about Old Montreal: History Through Heritage.

No comments about Backroad Mapbook: Southwestern Bc (Backroad Mapbook. Vancouver, Coast & Mountains).

5 comments about Resolute: The Epic Search for the Northwest Passage and John Franklin, and the Discovery of the Queen's Ghost Ship.

1. What an historic HOOK this book has. In 1854 the HMS RESOLUTE is in the Artic searching for the lost John Franklin expedition. The RESOLUTE's captain gets stuck in the ice and abandon's the ship. A year later an American whaler discovers the RESLOTE drifting and deserted. The United States government reconditions the RESOLUTE and presents it as a gift to the Queen as an act of national friendship. Years later the Queen had the remains of the RESOLUTE carved into an ornate desk as a gift for President Hayes. And today that same desk still sits in the Oval Office. (Remember the famous picture with John John sticking his head out of JFK's desk.) This story alone would make for a great book but in what is a short 248 page narrative Mr. Sandler covers the totality of the British and American expeditions to the Artic as they all are in a rush to discover the Northwest Passage. Each chapter in the book is an example of excellent story telling covering a separate event or adventure. All amazing pieces of the story to building the big picture of what it took to explore and survive in the Artic. This is a fun, all be it light, overview of a topic you may not have given any consideration. I found the book very educational, entertaining, and very well presented. It even has an 18 page Epilogue reviewing what happened to the 36 explorer that make up the various expeditions. I might add here that I would recommend more highly the excellent book, The Ice Master about the doomed 1913 voyage of the karluk. This book really gets into the personal business of survival, luck and a super story. But not doubt about it, Martin Sandler has written a very entertaining page turner although with a more global overview.



2. Mr. Sandler can write well. The research quality is high. However, the completion of the book and its final editing are of very poor quality.
   
   Several times in the book, very important small segments of the narrative are missing. For example, the book describes how McClure's ship gets frozen hard in the ice in Mercy Bay on Banks Island. It also describes how a sledging expedition from the Resolute gets to Winter Harbor on Mellville Island about 170 miles away and finds a message in a container from McClure. However, the event where McClure sledged from Mercy Harbor to Winter Harbor and back is entirely missing from the narrative. Thus, the narrative makes no sense. This omission is typical in the sloppy finish work of this book. Important earlier events that provide a logical understanding of subsequent events are randomly omitted from time to time.
   
   Additionally, while Sandler puts forth a dozen good maps of the nineteenth century Artic, at least one quarter of the place names used in the narrative are not on any map. As it is unlikely that any reader has a nineteenth century Artic map, this makes the narrative completely unfathomable at times. There was an era when the creation of maps in history books was extremely expensive and horribly time consuming. This era is gone; any quality editor could check and rectify this significant problem with a full hard day's work.
   
   Despite Sandler's good research and clear writing skills, I would not recommend this book. The book "Barrow's Boy's" is clearer and much better organized even though it is missing some excellent research on the personal qualities of the leaders that is found in Sandler's treatment here. However, it appears that this book was finally thrown together to meet a deadline and the final review, finish, and editing are very sloppily executed. This significantly diminishes what should have been a great history and frustrates and distracts readers so that they are quite dissatisfied.
   
   I have not ever written a book review but, after having spent at least eight hours reading this book, I feel it important to report back to the author and editor the effects of their very poor finishing work.



3. RESOLUTE: THE EPIC SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE AND JOHN FRANKLIN, AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE QUEEN'S GHOST SHIP is true adventure history at its best, and a top pick for any general-interest lending collection. Historian Martin Sandler offers up a high-seas adventure journey set in the early 1800s, following a vanished famous explorer, some 39 attempted rescues, a ghost ship, and many discoveries. It makes for a fascinating, involving journey that reads with the drama of fiction but is entirely factual history.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



4. Another Arctic historian wrote a review siting numerous mistakes in the over all Arctic history Mr. Sandler includes in this book. However, he did not know the RESOLUTE story well enough to know if there were similar errors in the 1/3 of the book dedicated to the title ship. After years of researching this story, I am known in the maritime history circles as the world's leading expert on HMS RESOLUTE, and I found 13 mistakes, some very significant, in Mr. Sandler's RESOLUTE story. The cover itself is misleading, as the picture is of another ship! However, to name two: Mr. Sandler made serious mistakes in the service histories of two of the most important players: Belcher and Kellett. The accurate service records are available to anyone who is interested in doing a little research in the Admiralty records in London. He refers to the tensions between America and Britain as being at a low ebb when the 2 countries were on the brink of going to war. To leave an analysis of this relationship out of the book is to miss the significance and importance of the story: RESOLUTE stopped this war from happening. The gift of the desk is the symbol of Anglo-American friendship, much like the Statue of Liberty is for Franco-American friendship. Without this, it is just a story, granted an interesting story, about a salvaged ship, not one that chronicles a history changing moment in the relationship between America and Britain. Lastly, there is no depth to his characters, even though the story provides him with a sadistic commander and an extremely kind captain. I could not recommend this book to anyone.



5. Story is interesting, but it is about the quest to find the Northwest Passage. The Resolute had a relatively minor role in this effort. It was lost, was found, was reconditioned, was returned to England, and, finally, decommissioned. The best part of the Resolute's story is the famous Oval Office Desk. The book was difficult to read because Sandler had so many names and characters in the book. This made it very hard to follow. Good read, but slow and tedious to get through. Not one of my favorites.

No comments about Exploring the North Coast of British Columbia: Blunden Harbour to Dixon Entrance, Including the Queen Charlotte Islands, 2nd Ed..

2 comments about Trespassing In God's Country.

1. After reading George's book My son and I took a trip to Georges sons place on Ivanhoe Lake and had the most enjoyable experance ever. We had the experance of seeing some of the enviromental issues George discusses in his book as well as the enjoyment of experencing some of the best fishing ever.



2. I bought my copy of this book from George himself while on a fishing trip to George's son John's place in Canada. I bought one of the first copies after it was published and George was gracious enough to autograph it for me. Reading this book is a lot like listening to him in person reminisce about his extensive experience in the Canadian bush.

No comments about Leocha's Ski Snowboard America 2009: Top Winter Resorts in USA and Canada (Ski Snowboard America and Canada) (Ski Snowboard America and Canada).

No comments about Canoeing, Kayaking and Hiking Temagami.

No comments about Western Canada 2009 (Calendar).

1 comments about Great Lakes Suite: A Trip Around Lake Erie / A Trip Around Lake Huron / A Trip Around Lake Ontario.

1. I came across McFadden's "A Trip Around Lake Erie" about eight years ago, when a clerk at Schwartz Booksellers in Milwaukee recommended it. In the days before amazon.com, I spent a couple years collecting the trilogy, which took me to bookstores in Minnesota and McFadden's hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, which really is as dirty, dreary and burnt-out as McFadden describes it.

   McFadden mixes fiction and non-fiction together as he tells the story of his family's road trip in a Volkswagen camper around Lake Erie. He later wrote about their travel adventures as they toured the Lake Huron area. He had planned to write about trips around each of the Great Lakes, but then his kids grew up and he got a divorce. Ten years after he went around Erie and Huron, he finally tackled Lake Ontario alone, except for a three-man film crew that followed behind him and tried to stay out of his tale.

   The reader is never sure whether McFadden is telling the truth or making it up. It doesn't detract from the story. Actually, it's a hoot when you come across the surreal parts of his tales. At one point in "A Trip Around Lake Erie," dead fish somehow migrate from the beach at Point Pelee to every room in the McFadden's Hamilton, Ontario home.

   Each short chapter (many lasting less than one page) is a sly little poem. A movie scriptwriter had told McFadden that to make these books more saleable, he should have someone chasing him. McFadden doesn't need such Hollywood conventions. His stories of the road and his many digressions (including bicycling kinesiologists and a brown dachsund named Schenley, because his owners like the whisky)are a fanciful read in themselves.

   I hope McFadden eventually makes it around Superior and Lake Michigan. Even if he doesn't, there's enough humor and magic in this fine trilogy to keep you smiling for years.

   I also recommend a fourth McFadden road trip, "A Typical Canadian Family Visits Disney World," which is a hilarious long poem that is not included here, along with his other novels, poems and essays.