2 comments about Flying Cold: The Adventures of Russel Merrill, Pioneer Alaskan Aviator.

1. Heroic account of how Russell Hyde Merrill brought aviation to Anchorage Alaska. This book is a must read for pilots and anyone interested in Alaskan History and bush pilots. Merrill was an ex Navy pilot who was the fist man to fly into Petrsburg,Wrangell.Kodiak and Anchorage. He discovered Merrill Pass in the Alaska Range and put Anchorage on the map as the "Tranportation Hub of Alaska" He brought aviation to Anchorage in 1927 the same year that Lindberg crossed the Atlantic.He faced incredible hardships and pioneered air routes all over Alaska that are still used today. He was a true hero and a very thoughtfull and kind man whose mark on aviation and Alaska is still very evident even today. He was lost over Cook inlet on 9/16/29. He was never found, but it is evident he went down and perished in the frigid water off Tyonek Alaska. Merrill Field(very busy general aviation airport in Anchorage) and Merrill Pass(important pass to the west through the Alaska Range)bear his name.In Alaska we all stand on the shoulders of this great man.



2. Trained as a pilot during World War I, Russel Merrill was determined to spend his life flying. His love of flight lured him from Oregon to Alaska, the far frontier of aviation, where Merrill piloted the first airplanes to fly into Petersburg, Wrangell, Kodiak, and Anchorage. FLYING COLD chronicles Merrill's daring 750-mile journey across the Gulf of Alaska in a flying boat with a single small motor, his first rescue mission by air, crash landings, and strandings. In 1928, Merrill nearly died after being forced down in the Arctic, showing up weeks later, half dead, but still carrying a cup of rice he had saved for an "emergency." Many photos. A great read.

No comments about Our Little House in the Arctic.

5 comments about Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse.

1. I laughed out loud at this book. I found I could not put it down until it was finished. Even if you are not familiar with the oil industry (I'm not) the book is a must read.



2. This book surprised me - don't be fooled by the title. It is hilarious. Paul seems to be one of those people whose life is a series of laughable events. Highly recommended reading.



3. Paul Carter's "Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs (she thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse" is the first book I've read in a single sitting in over a decade.
   
   This is a hilarious lad book that follows the outrageous life of Paul Carter, who is among those nomadic and enigmatic outlaws who work on oil rigs around the world.
   
   Oddly, there is little about rigs in detail chronicled. Rather, Carter builds his tale around the odd characters and the remote and improbable settings of oil rigs, dealing in turn with boredom, drinking, outrageous anti-social acts, elaborate practical jokes and the bizarre pets he and his comrades of the derricks collect along the way.
   
   Carter's narrative is clean and direct, something that apparently comes naturally to him (while other authors struggle for years to lean-up their prose reading endless swatches of Raymond Carver to do so).
   
   But it is Carter's human and animal characters that haunt: for indeed any lad who has gone off on adventures (working in Alaska salmon fishing and canning for me) recognizes the human flotsam and jetsam depicted here. Those with a past, those who'd like to forget a past, those who'd like others to forget their past, and those who have no future other than their immediate animal needs in the present are all here, faithfully and fatefully sketched like so many guys you've known. Carter makes rig workers into that odd fraternity of a modern French Foreign Legion.



4. I end up buying a lot of books that document people's interesting adventures in far away places. Some of them turn out to be poorly written or boring, but NOT THIS BOOK. I read it in a day, and loved it. While I'm in the oil industry, and that might help viusalize some of the places he ended up in, it's not at all necessary to have a background to enjoy this book- the majority of it is actually his travels to and from the rig. Love the crazy cast of characters, variety of pets, and especially the Brunei native whose dog had a dog...



5. I loved this book! Basically, it's a collection of short (some very short) stories about the author's life on and off the oil rigs of the world, the people he meets along the way and his reflections on all of it.
   
   The writer is clever and extremely funny, he has the knack for telling a story that makes you feel as though you're at a party with him and he's a good mate just back from the rigs. He's also extremely honest about his past, his mistakes (sometimes with dire consequences for him and his friends) and his love life.
   
   I have talked about some of his stories at parties and had people in tears with laughter.
   
   I particularly liked that the author knew where a story should end. He didn't pad them out with uninteresting facts, he just told his stories and let them end where they should.
   
   This book is heaps of fun and has the added advantage of being great for busy people; just read a story and pick it up again when you have a free 5 minutes.

2 comments about Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian.

1. John Beames was not a major historical figure, but this book should appeal to anybody who has an interest in British India. Beames describes his early life as the son of a minister in England and his college days at Haileybury, as part of the last generation of young men to pass through the East India Company's private college. The majority of the book is taken up with his career in the Indian Civil Service between 1858 and 1893. Beames is notable for his clean command of the english language - which was considered exceptional for the times he was writing in - hardly a phrase of purple prose in sight. He was also notable because he was considered to be an ordinary man, one of the civil servants who did their duty very well and to the best of their ability, contributed to history, but yet are not remember as many of the Viceroys India who had far shorter careers, often far less distinguished.

   One of the historical gems in the book is Beames' description of Calcutta. For him it was womderful city of palaces and parks, of high society, young woman keen on romance, and young men with too much leisure on their hands. These descriptions present such a contrast to the images of Calcutta today.

   In his descriptions of Indians and Anglo-Idnains Beames is perhaps a perfect man of his times in that he often displays the usual prejudices of the British in India. At the same time, however, he was not overtly racist and would acknowledge that individuals should be judged as individuals. In this respect some of the most entretaining passges are reserved for those of his english colleagues in Indian who he considered to be incompetent fools despite their often high standing in that society.

   A wonderful book for anybody who wants an insight into those times.




2. This is an excellent book on what life was like for englishmen in British India. John Beames was obviously a good writer and the narrative flows quite smoothly. His description of Calcutta with some specific street names (Chowrangee) brought back memories because things did not appear to have changed much in 1968 when I was in Calcutta.
   
   I agree with the publisher that the first chapter on ancestry is quite turgid and boring. So if you wish skip the first chapter. You will not miss much. Too bad that John Beames died before completing the book. However, his grandson has a nice epilogue to the text.
   
   Much of what Beames states in the book sounds familiar to me. I used to know a guy in Hyderabad, whose granddad was a "assistant" to one of the British Collectors and much of what he said coincides with several narratives in the book.
   
   Of course in keeping with the times Beames had the usual prejudices against the natives but that was the culture in those days.
   
   I found it interesting that an intelligent perceptive man like John Beames seemed not to question the white elephant, viz., what in tarnation were the British, doing in India?

No comments about Voyage To The End Of The World: With Tales From The Great Ice Barrier.

No comments about WINGS AROUND THE WORLD: The Exhilarating Story of one Woman's Epic Flight from the North Pole to Antarctica.

2 comments about Homestead, A Memoir.

1. This was a very engrossing book of what you have to do to build your own place in the middle of nowhere. These people were very brave to do the things they did. I am not a fan of flying which they learned to do and of big rattlesnakes or black widow spiders. The driveway would be enough for me to never go back. Jane is an excellent writer and I have enjoyed her other books also. She really enjoys the west and writes well of it and the people who have lived here. I live in the Willamette Valley where it is "civilized" and not as wild as it is in central and eastern Oregon. I love to visit these places but head on home to Eugene. Thank you Jane for doing these wonderful books. I am waiting inpatiently for the next one.



2. This is such a great story about two incredibly determined people! What these two went through to build their dream house is truly remarkable! Not only is Jane a fantastic writer, she's a very down to earth, kind person. I couldn't put this book down and I would recommend it to anyone!

1 comments about Searching for Fannie Quigley: A Wilderness Life in the Shadow of Mount McKinley.

1. As someone who doesn't live in Alaska and has no knowledge of the Gold Rush, I found "Searching for Fannie Quigley" to be a fascinating book. Jane Haigh manages to combine Fannie's personal story with historical background in a very readable way. I enjoyed the way the author interweaves her own account of "searching for Fannie" including driving around the Nebraskan homesteads where Fannie was born and searching for papers documenting Fannie's two marriages, numerous gold mine claims, and other information. The numerous photographs and maps greatly enhance the value of the book. I would recommend this biography to anyone who would enjoy reading about a remarkable pioneer woman and gaining an insight into an interesting slice of Alaskan history.

1 comments about The World of Gerard Mercator: The Mapmaker Who Revolutionized Geography.

1. The history of maps seems to be an understudied element of history. Yet it had political, economical and religous ramifications and influences.
   
   If you stand in a classroom and look at a map chances are you are looking at a map of which its basic ideas were theorized by Gerard Mercator, a Flemmish born mapmaker who spend most of his life in Duisburg.
   
   In the first chapters we read about his predecessors and influences that made him into the most important cartographer up to this day. It's a book about his personal life, his political life, his economical life and also his religious life.
   
   By challenging some of the basic ideas of the Church, based in part on the ancient Greek Ptolemy, his maps could be seen as heretic. He was jailed for a while but got away with it. He keeps working on new maps, but is constantly haunted by a question: how to draw a 2D map of a spherical 3D world. He eventually came to some conclusion by shortening the lines nearer to the poles; this was both a better way of representation than before, but nowadays somewhat seen as eurocentric, since it makes Europe seem bigger than it really was.
   
   This book is great. Written in simple language so everyone will enjoy it. The author has taken great care into mentioning the political and religious reasonings on mapmaking and also why certain maps look like they do. It's a great book for any lover of ancient maps.

No comments about The Palliser Expedition (Western Canadian Classics).