No comments about The Rash Adventurer: A Life of John Pendlebury.

1 comments about Oklahoma Pioneer!: Horace Greeley Teeman Hall.

1. Oklahoma Pioneer Review
   011707
   
   Being a Wesley Hall fan I could not pass this one. A tale of proud
   accomplishments in spite of strife, this is a story of doing it the hard way!
   Most new immigrants going west found that to be their path in the early days
   of the Oklahoma territory. This book is a necessary link in the continuing
   biogrpahical odyssey of Wesley E Hall.

No comments about Chrome Horse Chronicles: One Man's Motorcycle Travels Through North America.

2 comments about Cap't Jepp and the Little Black Book.

1. Written by great friends of Capt. Jepp, this book reveals the inner truth behind his life and accomplishments and tells a story for the ages. In a "new world" of information and technology, his tale reminds us that innovation is rooted in a passion for life, the necessities of discovery, and the wonder of the possibilities we can find in our selves and others. Pilots worldwide navigate their way on the coat tails of Capt. Jepp, who gave to his time what the Internet gives to ours -- a pathway for commerce, exploration, and even fun.
   
   Some notable reviews:
   
   "Every pilot will enjoy this story of aviation pioneer, entrepreneur, and businessman Elrey Jeppesen, who literally made the skies safer for everyone." - Stephen Coonts
   
   "Capt. Jepp may have been an unknown giant in aviation, but not longer. What a great story!" - Curtis Lee Brown, Space Shuttle Mission Commander
   
   "And so, each time I climb into a cockpit, I must tip my cap to Captain Jepp and all the other intrepid flyers that went before me and give them silent thankds for a job well done. I trust you will do the same as you turn the pages of this magnificent journey through Captain Elrey B. Jeppensen's life story."
   - From the Foreword by Erik Lindberg, grandson of Charles A. Lindberg



2. Far before it became the quickest way to get around, aviation was a renegade industry filled with thrill seekers. "Capt. Jepp and the Little Black Book: How Barnstormer & Aviation Pioneer Elrey B. Jeppesen Made the Skies Safer for Everyone" is a look at the man who began to take steps to bring the industry away from the daredevil and deliver it to the mass consumer. The tale of a former aviation daredevil turned practical, "Capt. Jepp and the Little Black Book: How Barnstormer & Aviation Pioneer Elrey B. Jeppesen Made the Skies Safer for Everyone" is a riveting story for aviation fans and community library aviation collections alike.

2 comments about Whoa You Donkey . . . Whoa!.

1. A delightful read introducing elements of geology, mining, animal husbandry and especially high adventure and humor in the hard scrabble life of a female prospector.



2. A series of short stories linked chronologically about a modern day lady prospector and her donkeys, mining and treasure hunting from Alaska to the Mexico border. Misadventures with characters like Soapy the mine dog, Klondike Mike, Texas Jack, and Sandilee the biologist. Great reading material for bathroom or outhouse.

2 comments about Eric Shipton: Everest & Beyond.

1. This book together with Shipton's "The Six Mountain- Travel Books" and "That Untravelled World" let you fully understand the life of the great mountain explorer. Blanks in his life, never told in his books, are finally filled up!



2. This book is a competently written biography. It puts into an easily-grasped perspective the full gammut of Shipton's climbing and exploring career and it gives much on his personal life and what he did between expeditions that is not available from his own books. It deals dispassionately but sensitively with such issues as the leadership debacle that preceded the '53 Everest expedition, and shares Shipton's views of his climbing companions, Tilman's reticence, for example. One thing that tickled my interest was that it reveals the sources of many of the pithy comments and aphorisms that have passed into mountaineering lore, such as Tom Bourdillon's comment on food: "The main thing is that there should be some". I couldn't put this book down.

5 comments about Tuva or Bust!: Richard Feynman's Last Journey.

1. A peculiar book: Ralph Leighton's TUVA OR BUST isn't really about Richard Feynman, who, the more one reads about him, begins to seem a genius, yes, but more than a little insufferable. He does instigate this whimsical notion of visiting Tannu Tuva (which had become Tuvinskaya of the U.S.S.R. [the book takes place from the late 1970s to Feynman's death in 1989]), but the ball is picked up by Leighton, and Feynman is merely a supporting actor in the book.
   
   The quest carries itself through many frustrations, mostly having to do w/ the hermetic paranoia of the Soviet Union, which seems to work like an enormous rural county: If you know someone, then things can be smoothed out; if not, then the official channels will be little help.
   
   I'm not sure why anyone would read this book. There's no reason to if you're interested in Feynman, because, besides his concoctions to fit in at Esalen, amongst the New Age mumbo-jumbo, his mind is absent from the book. His personality & his drumming are there on occasion, but Feynman's thinking, no.
   
   Leighton is not intrinsically interesting, and though a fluent writer, gives little sense of character. All the foreigners are forgettable, so the index is very handy. When a name turns up on page 150, say, then one can look it up to see which person this is.
   
   As one reads, one begins to have the same thoughts about oneself that one has about Leighton's attempts to visit Tuva: Why am I going on?. Moreover, I think that one comes up with the same answer: Just to get through the damn thing. By the time that Leighton reaches Tuva (without Feynman, who died just a smidgen too soon), the appearance is anti-climactic, and the land is colorless: A Nevada trailer-park suburb, but with yurts instead of double-wides.
   
   TUVA OR BUST! becomes a critique of bureaucracy. The slow, spirit-killing, mind-numbing bureaucracy of the Soviet Union ensured that Feynman would die without reaching Tuva. Our world, in which stupid little men can control our lives, is death to the spirit, and is death to the spirit of Feynman, insufferable though he may be, and inexplicably kow-towed to by everyone (you get the feeling that Feynman never opens a door for anyone or shuts one for himself).
   
   TUVA OR BUST!, in its pedestrian prose, preaches, unwittingly, I think, for a freedom for whimsy, for the spirit, for the individual. At the same time, excepting the author and his male friends (his wife is also colorless), the book has no individuals. So, by the end, nothing: No Tuva to speak of, no more Feynman, nothing but an accomplishment to scratch off the list.



2. I would never had read this book had I not recently had the chance to see Huun Huur Tu, a throat-singing voice from Tuva. But now that I am fascinated by this little-known, remote area along the Russian-Mongolian border, I found this book very entertaining. It chronicles the enormous challege of trying to visit such a remote land in the days before Glasnost and a fascinating cast of characters at its heart.
   I think my only complaint is that the book loses steam at the end, which I guess is understandable, given the fate of its main protagonist. But overall, it is a wonderful testament to a group of brilliant folks, who spend years trying to follow through on a quest.



3. If you are a fan of Richard Feynman, the nuclear physicist that dreamed of going to Tuva, you will just love this video. If you know nothing of Mr. Feynman, you will still enjoy it. It tells the story of Paul Pena's visit to Tuva in a delightful way. You will like seeing the culture of these peaceful, music-loving people.



4. It was all just accidental. I stumbled upon this book through a documentary that I rented, called Ganghis Blues. I like all types of music and thought "A documentary about Blues music, cool..." After realizing what a fortune of life I had found in this movie, I was drawn to everything TUVA. SO, to the book I go. The book of course came before the documentary, and obviously was an influence in the boys who produced it. When was the last time a book did something for your soul? This one touches your soul, your heart and your longing to achieve a goal or live out a dream. Aaaah. I loved it.



5. I am a confirmed Feynman fan and even met him a couple of times. I was eager to learn more about him and his travels. The subtitle promised details of his "last journey", which, it turns out, he never made. Instead, I was bored with insipid details of the author's attempts to arrange a trip to the USSR and other assorted junk. It did not even spend much time on Tuva itself, but on unrelated trivia. It was apparent that the author was immensely more interested in the trip than Feynman, and that even he wasn't interested enough to stay at it to fruition. The author trades on the Feynman name to shamelessly promote the book and con the reader into plodding through endless drivel. Don't bother.

No comments about Animal Stories.

No comments about Christopher Columbus: Four Voyages to the New World/Bi-Lingual Edition.

No comments about The New Man and the New World: The Influence of Renaissance Humanism on the Explorers of the Italian Age of Discovery.