Review by George R. Pasley: ENGLISH CREEK A Review by George R. Pasley - Over this past year I have enjoyed reading the novels of Ivan Doig. Born in Montana, current resident of Washington, Ivan's historical novels feature wonderful character development and a wide variety of writing styles. Most of them are set in Montana, in the time since statehood. - More...
Tuesday AM - November 27, 2007

Review by MARY GUSS: "Ghost Sea" by Ferenc Mate - You can't miss with this book -- it has a compelling mixture of mystery, Native culture and sailing adventure going for it, with romance and characters thrown in. The Native culture that figures prominently in the story is the Kwakiutl Nation of Canada. When I put down "Ghost Sea" I headed immediatly to Wickipedia, histories and mythologies of the Kwakiutl and anthologies of Native culture to see if what I had just finished reading could really be true. It was. Fact is every bit as wonderful as fiction here. I learned about the Kwakiutls' rich and fascinating culture and mythology (though at the time the story takes place it is in conflict with the government busily trying to put a stop to the expressions of that culture -- particularly the potlatches). For that eye-opening education alone the book is well worth the reading. - More...
Tuesday AM - November 13, 2007

Review by MARY GUSS: Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marsha Pessl... A - In multiple ways, Special Topics in Calamity Physics is a big book. From the story itself to the extreme literate-ness of the writing, there is a great deal about it to like. If you are like me, the thrill-ride of the language will grab you first and instantly. Then the slow, deliberate unwrapping of the layers of the story will render you nearly incapable of putting the book down. And at that point you will be glad for the sheer size of Special Topics, all 514 pages of it. - More...
Tuesday PM - October 09, 2007

Review by GEORGE R. PASLEY: ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver... - Kingsolver's most recent book is part travelogue, part cookbook, part garden book, part political commentary but through and through it is a narrative that tells the story of one family's effort at living differently. More...
Tuesday PM - October 09, 2007

Review by Mary Guss: The March" by E. L. Doctorow a Book Review by MARY GUSS - I have heard it said that two of the three most written-about events on earth are the sinking of the Titanic and the American Civil War. The March is a novel about the latter, fictional, but weaving in characters who lived and died during that time. It is a very linear novel -- the progress of the march is linear, the ragged lines of people are linear -- but there is periodically a bulge in the line where events or people are expanded. Those bulges are the most satisfying parts of the novel, balancing somewhat the frustration of losing people out of the line, never to see them agarin or to know what ultimately happens to them. - More...
Thursday - April 12, 2007

Review by Mary Guss: "The Forest Lover" by Susan Vreeland a Book Review by MARY GUSS - Although it is fiction, "The Forest Lover" is based on the life of Emily Carr, an actual historical character. Carr is already known to many Southeast Alaskan's. Others will newly come to appreciate her through this novel.

Emily Carr was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1871. Before she turned twenty she left Canada to study art in San Francisco. From there her studies took her to London, from which she returned in 1906. Back in British Columbia -- in the wildest parts of that province -- she searched for inspiration and escaoe from everything that hemmed iher in. The first page of Ms. Vreeland's novel relates: - More...
Thursday - April 12, 2007

Review by Mary Guss: Fugitive Wife by Peter C. Brown - If you are in the mood to curl up one of these winter days with a good historical yarn set in Alaska, you could do much worse than Fugitive Wife by Peter Brown.

The story opens in June of the year 1900, shipside amid the hustle and bustle of the Seattle docks during the Nome gold rush. Watching the loading is the book's protagonist, Esther Crummy, a farm wife from Minnesota, on her way to visit her sister in Ballard. She turns out to be in the right place at the right time to find herself instead offered a job aboard one of the ships bound for Nome, as the horse handler. Esthre agrees to take that job in very short order, making the reader think she's either crazy or full of adventurous spirit. The truth turns out to be something quite different. - More...
Monday AM - January 29, 2007

Review by Mary Guss: The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch - Jim Lynch lives and writes in Olympia, Washington - an unlikely place for the unlikely hero of his first novel. That hero is 13-year old (but looking 9) Miles O'Malley. Wishing he were tall, dark and handsome, he is instead self-described as "short, pink and ordinary." Don't you believe it. While he may be the first two, Miles is far from ordinary. - More...
Saturday - December 09, 2006

Review by Mary Guss: The Blue Bear and The Last Shot by Lynn Schooler - Lynn Schooler is a wilderness guide and 35-year resident of Juneau. On his boat the Wilderness Swift he takes people out to observe and photograph Alaska from Misty Fjords to Prince William Sound. He also writes. Over the past five years he has written two nonfiction books that deal with watery topics. The stories are set over a hundred years apart and have vastly different subjects and protagonists. But each provides the reader with an engrossing tale. - More...
Saturday - December 09, 2006

Review by Mary Guss: The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake by Samuel Bawlf - Ever since sixth grade geography, the tales of the early circumnavigators of the globe have grabbed and held our attention. Their stories are as exciting and unlikely as any fiction that could have been written about the times. Of course we remember that Magellan was the first to sail around - inconveniently getting himself killed before returning home to Portugal by meddling in local politics in the south seas. The second circumnavigator, and a much more likable character, was Sir Francis Drake. He spent three years making his voyage around the globe and did it in a vessel that was not much larger than today's salmon seiners. - More...
Wednesday - November 15, 2006

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