Summer 2010 Reading List

[azbackpackr]

Yay, the semester is over, so I have time for reading whatever I want to!

I finally got The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins, and The Grizzly in the Southwest by David Brown--both of which I had requested at the local library. So I have started reading them both--am switching back and forth. First impressions: Dawkins has an annoyingly gushy style, and in my case he is preachin' to the choir (pun intended). However, so far I have learned a thing or two about evolutionary biology and genetics. The Grizzly book is just going to be sad, I can already tell. It is a history of the bear and its habitat right exactly where I live, and its slow and painful extermination.

I just finished a fiction book as well: The Professor's House by Willa Cather, which is our library book discussion group's selection for June. It is quite odd. It takes place in the Midwest, with the exception of a detailed story about the discovery of a cliff dwelling on a mesa in New Mexico.

On my list for summer are the following books:
Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
House of Rain by Craig Childs
Coming Home to Eat by Gary Nabhan
and OF COURSE
The Marauders by our own Robert Gay!!!

I will also probably continue reading more of T. Jefferson Parker's detective murder mysteries, all of which take place around Laguna Beach, LA, general SoCal, etc. My old stompin' grounds. That guy really has a way with words, can write any California character you can think of, from cartel boss to hippie chick, from Vietnamese immigrant to rich yachtsman. My favorite book, so far, of his is California Girl.

[Sredfield]

I'm laying over in Flag for a day on the way to Utah (500+ down!). Stopped at an antique store on 66 that keeps a small shelf of old books about AZ, and usually gets in my pocket big time, this time no exception. The most painful was a book of articles on Sedona area pioneer history, signed by many of the authors.

[azbackpackr]

You wanna buy my autographed Desert Solitaire? $1000.

Did they ever re-open Bookman's in Flag after the roof caved in last winter? That was sad, especially since another part of that complex had had a cave-in previously, so it was not an unknown problem. There were a lot of guys going around making $20 an hour after the big January storm, shoveling roofs, including my daughter's bf, but I guess Bookman's didn't want to pay them.

[trekkin_gecko]

reading right now:
where men win glory by jon krakauer

on hold at the library:
the latest by lee child and john sandford

liz, i'll have to look into t jefferson parker
sounds like my kind of series

[azbackpackr]

Yeah, I like Parker's stuff. He really can write So Cal. If you are from there, you will get nostalgic real quick.

He can really write surfing: the kind of break it is, what it feels like to sit out there on your board waiting for the set, what it feels like to catch the wave, to wipe out, get washing-machined, etc.

He can even make you smell the eucalyptus.

This guy, Parker, is almost exactly my age and grew up 90 miles north of where I grew up.

The library should have some of them. He has written a big pile of them.

[trekkin_gecko]

just placed a hold on iron river, his latest
if i like it, i'll go back and read the rest of them
thanks!

[azbackpackr]

Haven't read it. Hope it measures up. Sometimes writers get better, sometimes not. (Tony Hillerman got worse. It was like he was in a big hurry to get the thing written because his publisher wanted another one, and he wanted another million bucks. His last 3 or 4 just bloody awful.)

And while I am on the topic of Southwest Mystery genre, what is with Michael McGarrity and James D. Doss? Both of them started out with a pretty good main character (Charlie Moon the Ute Indian cop/Doss. Kevin Kerney the New Mexico cop having hard times/McGarrity). At the beginning the characters were poor and scratching for a living. But in more recent books, both of these main characters are disgustingly (and not believably) rich. And Kevin Kerney has this awful wife who it is impossible to for me to like. I wish McGarrity would have the wife dump Kevin and he loses his ranch in the bad economy and goes back to living in a cabin and owning one horse. And Charlie Moon the Ute Indian cop just is not a believable character as a rich rancher. I love his old Aunt Daisy the shaman, though, she's a hoot.

A friend of mine has met McGarrity a few times, and says he is unlikely to allow his character to fall from grace and become poor again. She says he writes the fantasy he wants for himself. But it would be so much more interesting...

[JimmyLyding]

Probably some horrible stuff for my MBA program. In between coming to this site today I've been reading about regression and conjoint analyses. Dreadful.....

[azbackpackr]

Oh, Jim, we co-posted. You might want to look back for ideas for more entertaining reading material!

[cathymocha]

Thanks for the summer reading suggestions.

[Tough_Boots]

I just finished John D'Agata's book About a Mountain and loved it. Its a VERY creative work of nonfiction about burying nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain outside of Las Vegas. Think-- Hunter S. Thompson meets David Foster Wallace but no drugs or guns.

[Al_HikesAZ]

I've got to read Gary Nabhan's Tequila!: A Natural and Cultural History before I face Dirk Prately again.
But I've got to squeeze it in between all of this Tax reading. I wish Congress would quit changing the tax laws all the time so that I can keep up with them. But it means I have job security.
In the process of reading The End of Overeating by David Kessler.
I did read Lone Survivor after tax season. I couldn't put it down and I'm going back to read it again. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK HIGHLY. http://www.amazon.com/Lone-Survivor-Eye ... 653&sr=8-1

[PaleoRob]

Hooray for HAZ censoring my last name! :roll:
Anyway. Don't know what I'm going to read. Hopefully catch up on some research papers. I liked the early Charlie Moon mysteries, but I haven't read anything recently.
Anyone else have my book on their reading list? ;)

[azbackpackr]

Oh, sheesh, Rob, I hadn't noticed that! Sigh...

[JimmyLyding]

The big book on my agenda is "Wildlife in America" by Peter Matthiessen, and I also hope to get to "Shoal of Time: a History of the Hawai'ian Islands."
I agree that "The Grizzly in the Southwest" is fairly depressing, but it's worth reading because it's part of our history. "The Wolf in the Southwest" also by David E. Brown is even more depressing.

[azbackpackr]

I own the Shoals of Time, (inherited from my mom, since we did live in Hawaii for years) but haven't read it. And now I am not inclined to after reading a scathing essay by a Hawaiian, (and professor at UH) Haunani-Kay Trask, who said, "Have you ever heard of a researcher of French history, who did not learn French?" saying a great deal of the written Hawaiian history is not only from a totally one-sided perspective, but is just plain wrong, largely due to the fact that no historians ever chose to learn the language, and they discounted virtually ALL of what the Hawaiians were trying to explain to them about their history. A lot of the misunderstanding has to do with the Hawaiians relationship to their land, and the West's misinterpretation of Hawaiian beliefs and customs.

Book by Haunani-Kay Trask, From a Native Daughter http://www.haunani-kaytrask.com/bio_05_book1.html

As for Peter Matthiessen, it has been far too long since I read anything he wrote. He is truly a great writer. I should look into that one.

[azbackpackr]

PS all the other ones look interesting, too!

[sneakySASQUATCH]

Just snagged a look at Echoes in the Canyons the oft sited (by HAZ members) SAP publication. Sierra Ancha ready or not here I come. I see two midweek days of bushwacking in my future. Then I get to read the RFM for the Bell 206 and 407 (annual recurrent training) FAR AIM 2010 and the RFM for the Sikorsky S76a-c++ models for transition training. So many emergency procedures so little space left to cram them into my brain. Relatively little pleasure reading for me this summer. Sierra Trading Post did send me a complimentary annual subscription to Backpacker Magazine I might get to read someday.

[base871]

Ive got Robs book coming from amazon. Should be here tomorrow! Id pay 1000 bucks for an autographed copy of Desert Solitude! Have you seen what they go for now!

[azbackpackr]

Ive got Robs book coming from amazon. Should be here tomorrow! Id pay 1000 bucks for an autographed copy of Desert Solitaire! Have you seen what they go for now!

Rob sent me a list of autographed copies for sale, various titles, by Abbey. They were pretty much all up there in price. I am going to look into selling it. It is a fairly well-battered paperback. But the signature matches the ones I have seen on the internet. Let me know via PM if you are truly interested.