No comments about Minneapolis and St. Paul (America Series).

4 comments about Barbados a World Apart.

1. Having travelled to Barbados many times over the past twenty years (and I lived there for a time as well), I have to say this is the finest and most complete "coffee-table" book on the island that I have ever seen. It is large-format, filled with superb color photographs (including a number of aerial shots, as well as some archival photographs of Barbados in the mid-20th century). The text gives you a concise, intelligent overview of the island's history. I've given a number of copies to friends who love the island. The jacket blurb says the author was once a Peace Corps Volunteer, and it shows ... this is a real in-depth portrait, not just "post-cardy" superficial coverage. I have several other books on Barbados, but this one is in a class by itself.



2. Extraordinary photography, combined with intelligent, concise, even poetic text. I am English, but I have lived in Boston for many years. Barbados is perhaps my favorite island in the Caribbean--"Little England" as it is known. This book captures Barbados as I have seen no other book do ... perhaps because it focuses on the small things: flowers, the black-belly sheep, the young schoolgirl gazing deep into the camera ... The picture captions are concise, but packed with information; the author chooses and rations his words carefully! There's also, for those who want it, a complete text which conveys the history of the island. A small quibble: there's no information about hotels, restaurants, etc. However, this is not a guidebook, but rather a coffee-table "documentary" book, and in that department it is to my mind incomparable.



3. The photography in this book is beautiful, and the text is well written. Rather than buing this before your next trip to Barbados, I'd recommend a simple travel guide instead. You may want to buy this book later for your coffee table for when you are feeling nostalgic for the warm air and white beaches.



4. This is an excellent text and touching text which adequately captures the essence of Barbados past present and its future in the global economy. As a Bajan I was impressed that in the choice of topics as opposed to the usual postcard presentation. Well and tastefully done.

No comments about 100 Most Beautiful Cities of North America (100 Most Beautiful).

No comments about Amsterdam Spiral Guide (Aaa Spiral Guides).

1 comments about Rocky Mountain National Park: Classic Hikes and Climbs.

1. As a frequent visitor to Rocky Mountain National Park I'm always looking for the best in solid, compact field guides. Gerry Roach's little gem is an good example. The text and tone of the book benefits from Roach's personal familiarity with the trails and summmits described.

   This is an excellent guide to summit approaches for those interested in bagging the major peaks in Rocky Mountain National Park. Roach provides his readers with concise information on distance, elevation, grade, class and snow steepness with a modest amount of editorial. For nearly every peak Roach provides alternate roots suitable for both the casual or technical climber. The book is punctuated with black and white photographs of a number of the better known mountains in the park and their key landmarks.

   Those intimately familiar with RMNP will most benefit from this book. Descriptions are generally terse and primiarly dedicated on how to get from Point "A" to Point "B". The book suffers from lack of either topographical or overview maps. For the reader more interested in hiking or backpacking, as opposed to bagging summits, Dannen's "Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park" (8th Ed.) is the best I've found and a much more thorough and enjoyable read in a pocket format.

No comments about Take This Exit: Rediscovering the Iowa Landscape.

1 comments about Native Cultures in Alaska (Alaska Geographic).

1. The Volume 23, Number 2, Quarterly, 1996 Alaska Geographic issue, Native Cultures In Alaska offers an informed and informative introduction into the daily life of modern-day Native Americans of Alaska. Full-color photographs and a variety of vignettes and anecdotes about tribes such as the Aleuts, Yup'ik, Tsimshian, and more make Native Cultures In Alaska an engaging tribute and fascinating wealth of insight into enduring cultures and traditions that would enhance any personal, school, or community library Native American Studies collection.

5 comments about Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America.

1. This book takes the reader on a fascinating journey through a time when what lay west of the Alberta Rockies was merely a faint whisper of great rivers, mountains and forests that beckoned the tough and determined fur traders of the Hudson Bay and Northwest companies. Of course, the prize that each of these competitors sought to find first was a trading route to the Pacific Ocean. There was word of a great river's estuary located to the southwest across the mountains, but the rivers west of the Rockies all flowed northward! David Thompson, after whom the Thompson River in British Columbia was named and perhaps the most unsung of the great North American explorers, was faced with a mystery to solve. And he did so -- surviving bitterly cold winters in the unforgiving outdoors without today's Gore-Tex garments and GPS gadgets. He followed the stars tenaciously and spent may hours out in the elements making and checking his triangulation calculations the old-fashioned way --longhand.

   I read this book several years ago and remember well how it readily took me away from today's comfortable but harried world. It's well recommended to anyone with an explorer's bent who would like to join Thompson's party as he searches for the route west of the Rockies in Canada's early back yard. He certainly has earned my respect as one of the great, devoted explorers who opened the West. Nisbet brings his personality to life in a very readable, interesting book, obviously the product of a great deal of detailed research by the author.




2. Based on David Thompson's own account of his explorations of the western North American continent, this is a perceptive tale of hardship and adventure. Jack Nisbet has the intuitive ability to cut to the heart of the subject, not just how this area was discovered but how the discovery influenced the native people and the natural history of the area. His own brief but discerning anecdotes about his interactions with the land and its people provide counterpoint and context for the main narrative.

   The writer follows the life of David Thompson from his birth in London in 1770 and his education at a charity school to his apprenticeship with the Hudson's Bay Company and arrival in northern Canada. His major life work was to explore and map what became known as the interior of British Columbia, eastern Washington, western Montana and northern Oregon, focussed on the Columbia River and its tributaries. He crossed and re-crossed the Rocky Mountains through passes known only to native people and he established trading posts and trading relations with native people so he could supply the Hudson's Bay Company, and later the Northwest Company, with the furs they sought. Later in life he "retired" to montreal and later to Ontario where he became astronomer for the International Boundary Commission, guiding the U.S.-Canadian survey of the 49th parallel from Quebec, via the Great Lakes to Manitoba.

   This is a story well told. It doesn't bog down in tedious detail yet still manages to convey the day- to-day routines as well as the excitement of discovery and the hardships faced by explorers in harsh terrain in an often bitter climate. The book has an immediacy and depth that are seldom realized together in an historical narrative.




3. Based on David Thompson's own account of his explorations of the western North American continent, this is a perceptive tale of hardship and adventure. Jack Nisbet has the intuitive ability to cut to the heart of the subject, not just how this area was discovered but how the discovery influenced the native people and the natural history of the area. His own brief but discerning anecdotes about his interactions with the land and its people provide counterpoint and context for the main narrative.

   The writer follows the life of David Thompson from his birth in London in 1770 and his education at a charity school to his apprenticeship with the Hudson's Bay Company and arrival in northern Canada. His major life work was to explore and map what became known as the interior of British Columbia, eastern Washington, western Montana and northern Oregon, focussed on the Columbia River and its tributaries. He crossed and re-crossed the Rocky Mountains through passes known only to native people and he established trading posts and trading relations with native people so he could supply the Hudson's Bay Company, and later the Northwest Company, with the furs they sought. Later in life he "retired" to montreal and later to Ontario where he became astronomer for the International Boundary Commission, guiding the U.S.-Canadian survey of the 49th parallel from Quebec, via the Great Lakes to Manitoba.

   This is a story well told. It doesn't bog down in tedious detail yet still manages to convey the day- to-day routines as well as the excitement of discovery and the hardships faced by explorers in harsh terrain in an often bitter climate. The book has an immediacy and depth that are seldom realized together in an historical narrative.




4. David Thompson. A man of untiring capabilities for exploring, surveying, trapping and trading in western Canada. From the age of fourteen, he gave twenty seven years of his life towards these goals, of which not too many men could begin to attain.
   His duties for the Hudson's Bay Company and later the North West Company were to map, trade, trap, locate future trading establishments and discover a passage to the Pacific for commerce. Herein exists tales of endurance, perseverance, stamina and survival in unexplored regions of Canada and the U.S. Pacific Northwest from 1784-1812.
   An extremely well written book by Jack Nisbet, along with very good, easy to read maps by Jack McMaster in order to follow the whereabouts of Thompson.



5. As we reach the bicentennial of David Thompson's crossing of the Rocky Mountains, it appears that "Sources of the River" is becoming the definitive popular reference. The book deserves it. Like all of Nisbet's books, this one is very well written and enjoyable to read. The book covers Thompson's entire life but focuses on the five years he spent in the Rocky Mountain region of Canada and the United States. That period includes his exploration of the entire length of the Columbia River, the first non-Indian to do so.
   
   Because David Thompson was a contemporary of Lewis and Clark, reviewers are inclined to compare them. This is only partially valid. The latter was a military expedition sent on a mission of exploration. David Thompson was a fur trader working for a commercial company. He had the desire and talent to explore, but trading had to come first. Thompson was the point person for expanding the fur trade across the Rocky Mountains and into the Columbia River drainage. As he advanced his trading territory, his journals recorded an expanding knowledge of the territory and its inhabitants, plants, and animals. Thompson was a geographer and surveyor; his maps are much more accurate than those developed by Lewis and Clark.
   
   Thompson was a rugged individual and this book covers the challenges and hardships of the fur trade. The Indians were an important element in both his trading and his exploration. This book chronicles those relationships. Thompson took a Cree wife who bore him thirteen children and they were together until his death at age eighty-seven.
   
   In addition to the well-researched historical account of David Thompson, we are treated to an occasional aside from Jack Nisbet, often describing his visit to one of the sites important to the history. This book deserves its wide acceptance.

No comments about The Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California, Containing Scenes and Incidents of a Party of Oregon Emigrants.

No comments about A Traveler's Guide to Native America: The Southwest Region (Origins, No 2).