Andy @ Kent Archive.

Whodathunk?  I mean, my mom was a birder for years, and those folks aren't usually your cage match types.  But every year, a number of competitive birders strain just about everything - their budgets, eyes, sleep cycles, health, relationships - to come out on top in the number of bird species sighted in North America in a single year.

This is another one of those subjects I had no interest in until a good book smacked me across the noggin (hurray for good books, and good authors).

Every year there is a Big Year, but there has never been a Big Year like 1998's epic battle between three very (very) different birders.  Mark Obmascik channels Howard Cosell as he narrates The Big Year:  A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession.

In one corner, a New Jersey roofing contractor.  In another, a corporate executive; and in the third, a nuclear power plant software engineer (all men - is it always guys who are this crazy?).  Obmascik follows the three on their wacky, sometimes hilarious sometimes tragic galavants around North America.  Like any good competition, it's neck and neck (and neck) the whole way.  I think readers of Bill Bryson will really enjoy this book, and I need to credit a co-worker for lobbing this one my way.

Imagine the obliteration of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Olympic National Park, North Cascades National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, Mount St. Helens National Monument, and then some.

1910's worst wildfire in U.S. history was not just a tragic loss, but an event that galvanized citizen support for forest conservation.  Timothy Egan, National Book Award winner, chronicles the events leading to the fire, the heroic and tragic stories from those few horrific days, and the nation's response in The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America. 

Although Roosevelt is listed in the subtitle, Gifford Pinchot and, indirectly, John Muir, were the driving forces behind the development of the National Forest system, and Egan spends the first portion of the book summarizing this backdrop.  Pushed through by the force of Roosevelt's will, the expansion of the National Forests was vehemently opposed by some of the most powerful senators in Congress.  Backed by timber, mining, and grazing lobbies, Congress effectively gutted Forest Service funding.  Idealistic young rangers lived a meager existence in towns that made Deadwood look like a kindergarten, desperately trying to control illegal logging and mining in an ocean of graft and hostility.

When hurricane force winds hit thousands of small fires during a summer of no rain, a handful of these poorly equipped rangers (the legendary Ed Pulaski among them) walked into a maelstrom.  Egan, again, marvelously captures a landmark natural event that changed the West.

[ see Timothy Egan at the Redmond Library:  December 3, 7pm ]

Each year, Fall brings with it the "Oscars" in outdoor literature.  After a season of scrambling, whitewater, equine ramblings, or the like, outdoor enthusiasts can treat themselves to a comfy chair and a good book.  There may be others, but I am aware of two sets of awards given out in the Fall.  The National Outdoor Book Awards are to be released November 12.  Numerous award categories are represented, including books related to history, biography, design, guidebooks, and children.

Also released every Fall are the Banff Centre's Banff Mountain Book Festival (they have an awesome film festival too, by the way).  Categories are similar, but be aware that you might not find the more Canada-specific titles in the KCLS catalog.  You can always request the purchase of a title, though.

I always find at least a few titles that inspire me, and awe me.  Now, get out your snowshoes and crampons!

Some people are so outside the realm of normality that they almost seem to be a different type of human.  Their lives can make for fascinating biographies. Paul Erdös was just such a person.  Born in Hungary in 1913, he soon took to numbers.  At age 3 he would calculate how many seconds his parents' friends had lived.  Paul Hoffman's The Man Who Loved Only Numbers chronicles the bizarre life of Erdös.

Considered to be the most prolific mathematician in history, Erdös co-authored nearly 1500 scientific papers.  During most of his adult life, he traveled from university to university, or conference to conference, living out of two suitcases.  He never owned other possessions, did not have a home, and gave away money he didn't need.  Often, he would simply show up on a colleague's doorstep unannounced, spending a few days or weeks solving research problems before moving on to another city.  

Hoffman's interviews in the math world uncovered some great stories.  Later in his life, Erdös apparently needed an operation to correct his dimming vision, but delayed surgery because he was reluctant to lose precious work time.  He finally agreed to the procedure only when he mistakenly believed that he would be able to work during surgery.

In honor of his work and life, mathematicians humorously developed the Erdös number.  Erdös himself was awarded the number 0.  Erdös co-authors are awarded the number 1.  Co-authors of co-authors, the number 2.  And so on.  A low Erdös number is considered to be a great distinction (Steven Hawking, Bill Gates, Noam Chomsky and J. Robert Oppenheimer are 4's; Einstein a 2).  Hank Aaron jokingly has a 1 after co-signing a baseball with Erdös.  And, of course, a few mathematicians have tried to auction their Erdös numbers on Ebay.

It's not so easy to retire when you are one of Spain's finest swordsmen.  Much as he tries to avoid it, Diego Alatriste keeps getting pulled back into danger's unsympathetic maw.

Arturo Pérez-Reverte is one of my favorite authors, ever since I stumbled across The Fencing Master.  Although he has a number of excellent stand-alone titles, Pérez-Reverte is best known for his musketeer-like Captain Alatriste series.  One of Spain's (and Europe's) most popular authors, he writes in what I think of as a deliciously old world European style - hard to describe - patient and eloquent, but not at all slow.  I find his writing similar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez (without the magical realism).

Diego Alatriste, an inveterate gentleman soldier and veteran of the Flemish Wars (17th century), is willing to fight for God, country and gold, but mainly for gold.  In Captain Alatriste, the first book in the series, he has been hired to assassinate two British visitors.  Always reluctant to shed needless blood, he spares their lives, opening a hornet's nest and infuriating the Holy Inquisition.  Not good.

Pérez-Reverte's works are excellent historical fiction picks for adults and (I think) older teens. If swashbuckling isn't to your fancy, Pérez-Reverte writes some other dynamite thrillers and even a narco-saga that is surprisingly entertaining given the rough subject matter.

I read a fair amount of fantasy growing up, but as an "older person," haven't often been grabbed by the genre.  When it was first published in 2006, Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora sucked me in big time, and it's by far the best fantasy novel I've read in a long time (Lynch has a second book out now, but they should be read in order).

It might be more of a guy book, but I don't think so - if any gals have read and liked it (or not), please consider leaving a comment.

The plot is based on a band of orphan thieves, purchased/enslaved by a blind priest master-thief autocrat, who teaches his fledglings the art of his trade.  They steal for him and he protects and provides (sort of) for them.  Locke Lamora is a slight, runt of a thief, but clever and extremely adept.  As he leads a band of co-thieves on increasingly bold and successful raids, the authorities label him the Thorn of Camorr, and want his head.  A powerful, evil magician is also out for Locke, and rival thieves would like nothing more than to see him fall.  Scott Lynch throws in lots of fun, skin-of-his-teeth adventures, with really great writing, and some unpredictable plot turns.

I'm not sure why this book never made bigger waves - it did get on some "best books" lists.  I mentioned it to co-workers and they all loved it (including a few gals).  Scott Lynch now has a broad fan base, and I read that a studio has purchased the movie rights.  So give it a try, read 20 or 30 pages, and if you're not hooked, money back guarantee (library books only).

As far as anyone knows, there has only ever been one Sitka spruce of this color.  The Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands named it and considered it sacred.  Two hundred years later, when scientists became aware of the tree, they gave it a unique scientific name.

And then a logger-turned-environmentalist cut it down.  To protest logging.  Go figure.

I'm not giving away the story - John Vaillant begins The Golden Spruce:  A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed with this sad event.  It's an intriguing story, and even though it's Vaillant's first book, he writes masterfully.  Readers who enjoy Jon Krakauer will like this book.  In between the story line, Vaillant offers vivid descriptions of the natural and cultural history of the Canadian pacific coast.

Grant Hadwin was apparently a bit of a cross between Rambo and Edward Abbey, which I know sounds nutty.  Those who knew him said that he would disappear into some of the most rugged portions of Canada's pacific forest, carrying just a rifle.  He would re-emerge days or weeks later, none the worse for the wear.  And although he worked on and off as a logger in his earlier years, he came to see the logging industry as a rapacious and malignant entity.  So why cut the tree down?  And - in a further mystery - what happened to Grant Hadwin?

It was a time when elementary school teachers earned more than professional football players.  Most players worked second jobs, and physical conditioning was not only mocked, coaches strictly discouraged it.  Football was mostly a bunch of hard drinking, hard playing hard heads, who just loved the game.

Almost no one watched football in 1958, until a fluke put the greatest game into the living rooms of millions of Americans across the country.  It was a marketing dream come true, and it was a da* good game.  Mark Bowden's (of Black Hawk Down fame) The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL is also a da* good read.

I grant you, this is a fairly targeted book, not likely to put goosebumps onto the sports-averse reader.  I'm no rabid fan of the game, but it's a great story, and what really hooked me were the characters.  Raymond Berry, now considered one of the greatest receivers of all time, was slow, had poor vision, and was born with one leg shorter than the other.  Bowden captures the times, the characters, and the thrill of the game.

Bowden also digs up some nearly unbelievable stories.  I'll just tell one.  Near the end of the tied game, when millions of people were holding their collective breath, a fan accidentally unplugged the extension cord connecting the only television camera in the stadium.  TV screens across the country went black... I'll leave it there, but the story goes on.

Photos are printed throughout the book, but I was so excited about the game itself that I had to hold my hand over the images to keep from spoiling the story.  Even the photographs have a "cinderella story" to them, as revealed at the end of the book. 

 

Scotland Yard still does not have a full accounting of the facts behind the greatest art swindle of the 20th century.  It took the Arts and Antiques Unit a year and a half just to unravel enough of the twisted plot to begin to bring it all down.  What they did find was a pathological liar, John Drewe, who had the confidence and photographic memory to have - earlier in his "career" - convinced the British Atomic Energy Authority that he held a PhD in physics.  He moonlighted as a physicist for two years before resigning under suspicion.  A chance encounter with a talented but down-and-out artist set the stage for the rest of the story, as told in Provenance:  How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art, by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo

Not having much interest or knowledge in art, I would have assumed that the big auction houses could spot a forgery in a flash.  Not so.  As noted by the authors, art forgery accounts for billions of dollars per year worldwide, and auction houses can only make a dent in the thousands of forged works presented.  When in doubt, provenance - the history of ownership - often makes or breaks a deal.  John Drewe's brilliance, if you can call it that, lay in his meticulous forgery of authentication documents.

Summer is a slow season for good nonfiction.  Salisbury and Sujo weave together a terrific story of implausible audacity and page turning suspense, with enough background on the art world that us neophytes can easily follow along.

Memorial Day honors servicemen and servicewomen who have died during our nation's wars.   Jim Sheeler (Rocky Mountain News) won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for his story "Final Salute", and last year published this excellent book by the same title.

It's a tough read, emotionally, but I hope it someday makes a national or regional "everyone reads" list, and is required reading in civics classes.  Sheeler won the confidence of many families during his reporting on the Iraq/Afghanistan war dead, and was allowed to be present during some of these most private moments.

He was also allowed access to U.S. Marine Major Steve Beck, whose job entailed notifying the family of their loss, and providing assistance as needed.  Sheeler could have wandered into politics but does not.  Nor does he flinch from difficult moments.  He provides the respectful "bearing witness" that opens a small window onto scenes of great importance, ones that few would want to imagine.

Scenes we also need to remember and honor.