Season of the Book

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

By PJH Staff

The Odd Life of Captain Ron
R.R. Massen
A note the author wrote and tucked inside our copy of The Odd Life of Captain Ron called the book a work “of important literature to store in the bathroom.” While R.R. Massen may’ve only been half-kidding, this collection of personal anecdotes about living on the margins of society as a longtime guide is chock-full of vignettes that allow the book to be read in short intervals.

Whatever Massen may lack as a writer, you discover over the course of the book that the man, who has taken people into the wilderness on whitewater rafts, snowmobiles and sea kayaks for more than 30 years and experienced his own share of life, has seen it all –and taken plenty of astute notes along the way.
- Ben Cannon

Fairy Tale Blues
Tina Welling
Fairy Tale Blues, Tina Welling’s charming novel about relationships set here in Jackson Hole, examines the married life of AnnieLaurie and Jess McFall as they square off with their personal demons and recreate their lives and marriage with love that still runs deep after more than 20 years together.

The story is told from the perspectives of both AnnieLaurie and Jess in alternating chapters where each narrates the real-time events of their separation, deemed a “marriage sabbatical” by AnnieLaurie – something she rashly embarks on after being presented with an identical pair of blue topaz earrings over their anniversary dinner – the exact ones Jess gave her for Valentine’s Day less than a year before. Stunned and angry that Jess did not realize he was giving a duplicate gift, she leaves for the restroom, but ends up in her home state of Florida, from where her perspective of the story is told.

The story is threaded with adventure, flirtations with infidelity, new friends, and life challenges, and there’s enough lightness to the events, to keep them fresh, interrelated and real. In a way, this is a coming-of-age story about baby-boomers, and it will most likely appeal to that generation – those who are facing empty-nests, aging parents, marital strife or growing pains.
-Teresa Griswold

Damnyankee
Thomas L. Walsh
With time closing the doors on the World War II tales that can be told by the survivors, Driggs resident Tom Walsh’s serendipitous encounter in an Irish coastal village would turn into an urgent calling to record one harrowing tale of a downed American flight crew. Damnyankee is a story of tragedy, survival and returning to the place where a group of lives were changed forever.
– Ben Cannon

Final Finesse
Karna Bodman
Part-time Jackson Hole resident Karna Small Bodman was White House Deputy Press Secretary under Reagan and later served as senior director for the National Security Council. Her time as a Washington insider influenced her latest novel, Final Finesse, a political thriller about a Homeland Security official racing to uncover an insidious plot.
– Ben Cannon

Spoon
Robert Greer
Arcus Witherspoon is a clairvoyant part-black, part-Indian Vietnam vet who gets picked up hitchhiking barefoot, running away from the crooked poker game where he just got taken for his boots and his last $90. “Spoon,” as he’s called, gets taken in by the Darley’s, the family that is hanging on to their Big Horn River ranching heritage that becomes more decrepit by the day. Their son T.J. doesn’t really want to go to college, and can’t quite get his dad to snap out of the funk he entered when his first son died in a swimming accident before T.J. was born.

Spoon and his cow-hand magic become like tallow to the dry, cracked dynamic of the Darley’s ranch. Slowly the dad comes around, and Spoon’s clairvoyance becomes something the Darley’s can depend on.
– Henry Sweets

I Always Did Like Horses & Women: Enoch Cal Carrington’s Life Story
Earle F. Layser
Earle F. Layser’s biography of enigmatic, Cal Carrington, attempts to find the truth of a Jackson Hole icon, and like any good biography, ends up being as much about the time and the place as it is about the primary subject. 

According to I Always Did Like Horses & Women: Enoch Cal Carrington’s Life Story, Carrington arrived during a growth spurt for Jackson Hole, shortly after the territory had been named a state. As tourists and “nesters” came to the valley to experience the “Wild West,” Carrington came to embody the strong, silent cowboy type for visitors such as Eleanor “Cissy” Paterson, an East Coast publisher and editor with whom Carrington would have an ongoing affair. But friends’ accounts of him also varied greatly. He was also known by some to sport an indefatigable smile, by others to be a rough individual, worthy of avoiding.

Even once he’d arrived in Jackson Hole, Carrington remained an elusive figure, disappearing for months at a time, which aided rumors that he was a cattle or horse thief, that he allowed other thieves to hide out at this Flat Creek Ranch.
Constructed from interviews, first-hand accounts and other documents from Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum, as well as stories handed down over the last century, I Always did Love Horses and Women is as much a portrait of Cal Carrington as it is of Jackson Hole and the Old West.

However, Layser takes caution not to lose the story in the romanticism of the time and the place, the convenient myths for tourists. Nor does he let the conflicting stories dominate the narrative, so that readers are left to decide for themselves what is true. Rather, he uses the conflicting stories and a great deal of research to create a many-layered portrait of a man who many people knew, but few people understood.
– Matthew Irwin

Finding Beauty in a Broken World
Terry Tempest Williams
Terry Tempest Williams authors books that serve as profound environmental and political commentary. Poetic and perceptive, Williams’ writing is a product of her Western upbringing.

Her latest book - Finding Beauty in a Broken World is “a call for engagement; engagement with other people and engagement with other species.”
Finding Beauty makes three sharply poignant turns – from a mosaic workshop in Italy to a praire dog observation deck in Utah and then to Rwanda’s war-stricken environs. The book is full of active molecules forming bigger ideas – thoughts carefully chosen to amount to cohesive commentary on the strides and setbacks of society.
– Robyn Vincent

Beyond the Tetons
Susan Marsh and Rebecca Woods
Not unlike many excitable outdoor addicts, local authors of Beyond the Tetons, Susan Marsh and Rebecca Woods, are amped on hiking. Luckily for the rest of us, they committed their passion to paper by completing the second edition of the trail guidebook, highlighting this area’s abundance of hikes just beyond the Teton Range, often more easy to access. 

The first edition, published in 1999, was in desperate need of revision, according to Woods.

“It was time for a major update and field check,” Woods wrote in email on Friday.
“New private property considerations that affect access, road conditions, landslides, avalanches, trail maintenance schedules, forest fires and wildlife consideration—among other factors—affect trails.”

So Marsh and Woods each separately filled two extended seasons exploring the ever-evolving earth nestled within the Hoback Corridor, Snake River Canyon, the Palisades, the Caribou Range, the Salt River Range and the Wyoming Range.
The second Beyond the Tetons edition – which includes more than 35 new trails - provides hikers with detailed directions and map points to each trail along with hiking distance, elevation gain, maximum elevation, use restrictions and the ideal time of year to hit each hike. There is also a section on valley history and the geology of the mountain ranges and information on indigenous trees, plants and wildlife.

The authors have also conceived the blog beyondthetetons.blogspot.com where hikers can connect with one another, post photos and receive the latest on conditions.
-Robyn Vincent

Wild 4 Nature 3D
Dondi and Joseph Tondro-Smith
See. Wildlife. In 3D. Dondi and Joseph Tondro-Smith have an affection for the natural poetry of the wild. They want to translate and transmute that vision for the larger public of the U.S. They want everyone to see what they see when they look at nature.

So they started in their own backyard. The Teton Valley residents created a book of poems about Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, highlighted by 3D images, or the other way around, depending on how one looks at the book. The first of many that the couple intends to make on U.S. parks, Wild 4 Nature includes sections on American Bison, Grizzly Bears, Elk, Moose, Tetons, Yellowstone, Trout and more. They even include a pair of 3D glasses.
– Matthew Irwin

Letters from Jackson Hole
Huntley Baldwin
Don’t mistake it for a book of reprinted correspondences about pioneer life. Letters from Jackson Hole is a lighthearted A-to-Z guide to some of the Jackson Hole area’s quintessential natural and cultural attractions.

Local artist Huntley Baldwin created dozens of watercolors to illustrate an array of local icons including the changing seasons, accessible landmarks, historical figures and contemporary annual traditions. Letters from Jackson Hole is full of facts (“Know your Tetons”) and humorous observations about the locals (they, unlike Baldwin, really like to ski), and might be enjoyable for locals and visitors alike as an easy flip-through. Looking for a  great little gift idea for someone who doesn’t live here but for whom Jackson Hole holds a special place? Letters from Jackson Hole could be an option. You may want to flip through it yourself before sending it off.
– Ben Cannon

Yellowstone’s Rebirth By Fire
Karen Wildung Reinhart
The metaphor “rebirth by fire” is as old as literature, itself rising from the ashes of overuse all the way to Harry Potter. In the case of Karen Reinhart’s book, the phrase can be taken literally, and with a freshness inspired by Reinhart’s emotion for the people and the place – an emotion shared by the whole nation, if maybe a little more by the folks of Jackson Hole.

With photos taken during the legendary1988 Yellowstone fires, maps, week-to-week updates and firsthand accounts, Reinhart examines America’s fascination with its first national park through a period of great tragedy and heroic recovery, amplified by questions of the fire’s origin and fears over its long-term affects. And if there are any doubts over the continuing legacy of the 1988 fires in Yellowstone, this book puts them to rest.
– Matthew Irwin

Squatters in Paradise
James Perry
A revelatory chat about working in Yellowstone National Park – the brash tourists, the heinous food, the meager pay - with three Taiwanese park employees I picked up hitchhiking near the airport compelled me to read Squatters in Paradise – a memoir of the savages (“park nomenclature for seasonal workers” as the author puts it), who make the park tick.

Through this often-sidesplitting diary by 25-year valley resident James Perry, we learn about everything from dorm style living and employee carousing and canoodling to incriminating service industry secrets (check chapters “Operation Maple Syrup” and “Fuck the Cooks”).

Indeed, this special breed of seasonal, typically global workers is the nucleus of park operations. And what Squatters in Paradise illustrates is that working in the parks – while it forges intimate bonds with nature and wildlife can be a mentally debilitating, incessant love-hate experience.  

But this read is not just for the “savages;” it speak to anyone living in the valley, addressing our escapist nature; our desire to disentangle from the real world, to live in some sort of utopist lifestyle where we aren’t regular contributors to the ills of society.

The book also tackles how living closer to nature can birth one of the most prodigious realizations I’ve had since moving here:

“The first time that I wandered through a department store without buying anything – without even being tempted to buy anything – I knew that I’d become a dangerous person. I had come to the epiphany that awaits all those who spend time in quiet places; we don’t need all this shit. The last thing a consumer-based society needs is some prophet coming out of the hills with that message.”
-Robyn Vincent

Luck-Struck
Skyler J. Reep
This book speaks best for itself. From the opening chapter, “Getting the most out of this book”: “Become excited by the prospect of taking control and creating your own luck. This may be the best book ever written, but it cannot do a bit of good for you if you cannot become excited about changing your life. Since you are reading these words, I’m certain you’ve taken at least a cursory interest in improving your luck. Try to transform that interest into a craving for better luck. Look at this moment as the first step on a journey to better luck in all its many forms: health, wealth, happiness, romance, and all good things in life.”
– Matthew Irwin

Butterflies of Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks
Steven Poole
This past July, a tiny, blue butterfly rested on my foot as a lounged on the shore of String Lake in Grand Teton National Park on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was delighted by its presence, but did not realize it was a Western-Tailed Blue (Everes amyntula) until I read Steven Poole’s new guidebook, Butterflies of Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks.

The guidebook is a gem. It contains more than 250 photographs and illustrations of butterflies, but it is not difficult to navigate. It is organized by colors, sizes and types of butterflies like “Sulphers” and “Coppers.” Of course, I went straight to the “Blues” and found the little friend I encountered last summer in less than a minute.
I’ve seen guides for flowers, birds, mammals, and various insects, but never a guide just for butterflies before. Printed in full-color, the 214-page book is small enough to stash in your backpack, but fine-quality enough to grace your coffee table as a conversation starter. Scientific descriptions will appeal to biologists, but kids will like it too.
-Teresa Griswold

Wildlife in American Art
Masterworks from the National Museum of Wildlife Art
Adam Duncan Harris
Much of what defines art is asking oneself, "What constitutes art?" In our age of abstract, conceptual and anime-influenced high art, realism often ends up defending itself along utilitarian lines. (The same happens to humanities studies in the face of an increasingly technologically (read: math and science) based consumer economy).

Wildlife art, in particular, seems to be subject to ridicule about its contributions to art history, being as it is inexorably tied to realism, or at least representational concepts, and constantly in danger of anthropomorphizing animals. A common "apology" for wildlife art is that it provides a natural history of regions and species – a view that has in fact led some artists to strive for ever more realistic portraits. But what if we looked at wildlife art as art, not as record?

This is the beginning of a much longer subject, addressed in detail in Wildlife in American Art, the first catalog by the National Museum of Wildlife Art, written by its present curator Adam Harris. Both history and scholarly essay, the work is of value to anyone interested in wildlife art, of course, but more importantly, to anyone expressly interested in the nature of art.
– Matthew Irwin

We Are Rich
 Dori Carter
What’s worse, Aryan old money, Jewish new money, or the Mexican help? Dori Carter lets you decide in We Are Rich, a collection of 11 stories that chronicle the changing-of-the-guard in Rancho Esperanza, Calif., a community that was founded in one of America’s perfect natural climes by Midwestern blue bloods in the 1900’s, who are eventually replaced by Hollywood types a century later.

As the two demographics mix - or don’t - and the working class looks on, Carter has plenty of opportunities to make hilarious observations on the ennui of the habitually rich-acting, and truly-rich people of Rancho Esperanza. She has a gift of incision; articulating things we’ve all thought before.

The stories are fun to follow, with bite-sized climaxes in every one. Many of the characters re-appear, and the book spans many decades, to enable Carter to better wield suspense over her readers. She provides tiny morsels of much-wanted information at critical junctures in the book, either revealing mysteries in “holy shit” moments or adding subtle context to weave smart psychological and sociological undertones throughout. There are always fresh perspectives provided when characters that have already been introduced become the narrator in a new story.

Ultimately, the book is not only good for a laugh, but it will sate your appetite for gossip, mystery and sociology as well. With vivid, if curt, language Carter lets you easily imagine yourself enjoying a cocktail under an oak tree, listening to vapid people talk about how they travel, longing for your first love or having sex with a rich person’s spouse - pick your poison.
– Henry Sweets

Targhee Backcountry Ski Atlas
Brady Johnston
 An atlas for the other side of the Tetons is so overdue that just about any pile of photos and a general idea of the area would have sufficed. But this Targhee atlas by Brady Johnston is well planned, well executed and well illustrated with photos by valley photogs, Jonathan Selkowitz and Greg Von Doersten.

In addition to documenting the area’s peaks and lines, Brady takes the extra step of rating the slopes. Though “at your own risk” is an element of backcountry skiing that may or may not encourage riders to educate themselves (all I need is a shovel, right?), Johnston’s ratings seem necessary for the much-cliffed-out area.
– Matthew Irwin

Two Years, No Rain    
Shawn Klomparens
Shawn Klomparens is the rather rare sort of Jackson Hole writer who keeps a finger firmly on the pulse of contemporary urban America. His latest book, Two Years, No Rain is about a San Diego radio weatherman suffering an existential crisis at 34.
It’s been said the big life questions strike earlier than they used to, replacing the outdated midlife crisis, and Two Years, No Rain is a tale of a heartbroken loser who is catapulted into popularity in a most unexpected way.
- Ben Cannon

Bunkhouse Built
Leif Videen
Leif Videen is a rather young buck to have written the book on makin’ your own saddle gear, but it’s people like Videen who carry wisdom from one generation to the next, and he has lots of instruction from the old timers. Videen’s book, Bunkhouse Built, tells you how to make your own horse tack and cowboy gear “the old way,” starting from what tools to buy.

Videen writes with authority, but uses a common sense tone, making observations like “artificial Sinew is real strong and won’t rot,” or “take care to cut your lacing evenly” that sound straight from the mouth of an old cowboy.

Videen has experience as a hunting guide and cowboy. He grew up in Wisconsin “where the farms end and the woods begin” and moved out to Wyoming after a couple years of community college in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan.)
Bunkhouse Built is practical for a horseperson who wants to learn how to stretch their dollars, but also provides a nice accent for the coffee table of a Western second home.                  
– Henry Sweets

GTNP Guidebooks
Charles Craighead
Photos by Henry Holdsworth
Sure, Grand Teton National Park’s guidebook series was published in 2005 and 2006, but this is the year of the national parks – the year of The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, anyway.

The thorough GTNP series, written by the region’s great historian Charlie Craighead, deserves a revisit.

The series includes Common Wildflowers, Geology, History, Canyons and Lakes, Wildlife and Day Hikes and Short Walks. For any visitor, buying them all might be a bit much, so The Best of and The Kid’s Guide, are good entrances to park life and history.
– Matthew Irwin

PERMALINK:
Season of the Book | Planet JH News Article: Cover Stories

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