Light a fire, pour a drink, and settle into that comfy chair – winter is reading season. If you have someone on your holiday list that loves to read, here's a list of the nineteen best titles I read over the last twelve months, as well as one that I wrote – each is worth a look. A good book makes the perfect holiday gift, and you'll find a wide range of topics and styles covered in the selections below.
A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko - Two friends, zero preparation, one dream. A few years after quitting his job to follow an ill-advised dream of becoming a guide on the Colorado River, Kevin Fedarko was approached by his best friend, National Geographic photographer Pete McBride, with a vision as bold as it was harebrained. Together, they would embark on an end-to-end traverse of the Grand Canyon, a journey that, McBride promised, would be “a walk in the park.” Against his better judgment, Fedarko agreed, unaware that the small cluster of experts who had completed the crossing billed it as “the toughest hike in the world.”
The ensuing ordeal, which lasted more than a year, revealed a place that was deeper, richer, and far more complex than anything the two men had imagined—and came within a hair’s breadth of killing them both.
The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides - A “thrilling and superbly crafted” (The Wall Street Journal) account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook’s death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day. At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, The Wide Wide Sea is a major work from one of the finest narrative nonfiction writers.
Fire and Brimstone by Michael Punke - Fire and Brimstone recounts the remarkable stories of both the men below ground and their families above, focusing on two groups of miners who made the incredible decision to entomb themselves to escape the gas. While the disaster is compelling in its own right, Fire and Brimstone also tells a far broader story striking in its contemporary relevance. Butte, Montana, on the eve of the North Butte disaster, was a volatile jumble of antiwar protest, an abusive corporate master, seething labor unrest, divisive ethnic tension, and radicalism both left and right. It was a powder keg lacking only a spark, and the mine fire would ignite strikes, murder, ethnic and political witch hunts, occupation by federal troops, and ultimately a battle over presidential power.
Epic Wanderer by D'Arcy Jenish - Epic Wanderer, the first full-length biography of mapmaker David Thompson (1770–1857), is set in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries against the broad canvas of dramatic rivalries between the United States and British North America, between the Hudson’s Bay Company and its Montreal-based rival, the North West Company, and among the various First Nations thrown into disarray by the advent of guns, horses, and alcohol.
Drawing extensively on Thompson’s personal journals and illustrated with his detailed sketches, intricate notebook pages, and the map itself, Epic Wanderer charts the life of a man who risked everything in the name of scientific advancement and exploration.
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner - An American masterpiece and iconic novel of the West by National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Wallace Stegner—a deeply moving narrative of one family and the traditions of our national past.
Lyman Ward is a retired professor of history, recently confined to a wheelchair by a crippling bone disease and dependent on others for his every need. Amid the chaos of 1970s counterculture he retreats to his ancestral home of Grass Valley, California, to write the biography of his grandmother: an elegant and headstrong artist and pioneer who, together with her engineer husband, made her own journey through the hardscrabble West nearly a hundred years before. In discovering her story he excavates his own, probing the shadows of his experience and the America that has come of age around him.
Collapse by Jared Diamond - Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted. As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe, and weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Collapse moves from the Polynesian cultures on Easter Island to the flourishing American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya and finally to the doomed Viking colony on Greenland. Similar problems face us today and have already brought disaster to Rwanda and Haiti, even as China and Australia are trying to cope in innovative ways. Despite our own society’s apparently inexhaustible wealth and unrivaled political power, ominous warning signs have begun to emerge even in ecologically robust areas like Montana.
American Buffalo by Steven Rinella - In 2005, Steven Rinella won a lottery permit to hunt for a wild buffalo, or American bison, in the Alaskan wilderness. Rinella managed to kill a buffalo on a snow-covered mountainside and then raft the meat back to civilization while being trailed by grizzly bears and suffering from hypothermia. Throughout these adventures, Rinella found himself contemplating his own place among the 14,000 years’ worth of buffalo hunters in North America, as well as the buffalo’s place in the American experience.
American Buffalo is a narrative tale of Rinella’s hunt. But beyond that, it is the story of the many ways in which the buffalo has shaped our national identity. Rinella takes us across the continent in search of the buffalo’s past, present, and future: to the Bering Land Bridge, where scientists search for buffalo bones amid artifacts of the New World’s earliest human inhabitants; to buffalo jumps where Native Americans once ran buffalo over cliffs by the thousands; to the Detroit Carbon works, a “bone charcoal” plant that made fortunes in the late 1800s by turning millions of tons of buffalo bones into bone meal, black dye, and fine china; and even to an abattoir turned fashion mecca in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, where a depressed buffalo named Black Diamond met his fate after serving as the model for the nickel.
Was It Worth It? by Doug Peacock - In a collection of gripping stories of adventure, Doug Peacock, loner, iconoclast, environmentalist, and contemporary of Edward Abbey, reflects on a life lived in the wild, asking the question many ask in their twilight years: “Was It Worth It?”
Recounting sojourns with Abbey, but also Peter Matthiessen, Doug Tompkins, Jim Harrison, Yvon Chouinard and others, Peacock observes that what he calls “solitary walks” were the greatest currency he and his buddies ever shared. He asserts that “solitude is the deepest well I have encountered in this life,” and the introspection it affords has made him who he is: a lifelong protector of the wilderness and its many awe-inspiring inhabitants.
With adventures both close to home (grizzlies in Yellowstone and jaguars in the high Sonoran Desert) and farther afield (tigers in Siberia, jaguars again in Belize, spirit bears in the wilds of British Columbia, all the amazing birds of the Galapagos), Peacock acknowledges that Covid 19 has put “everyone’s mortality in the lens now and it’s not necessarily a telephoto shot.” Peacock recounts these adventures to try to understand and explain his perspective on Nature: That wilderness is the only thing left worth saving.
In the tradition of Peacock’s many best-selling books, Was It Worth It? is both entertaining and thought provoking. It challenges any reader to make certain that the answer to the question for their own life is “Yes!”
Death in the Long Grass by Peter Hathaway Capstick - Few men can say they have known Africa as Capstick has known it―leading safaris through lion country; tracking man-eating leopards along tangled jungle paths; running for cover as fear-maddened elephants stampede in all directions. And of the few who have known this dangerous way of life, fewer still can recount their adventures with the flair of this former professional hunter-turned-writer.
Based on Capstick’s own experiences and the personal accounts of his colleagues, Death in the Long Grass portrays the great killers of the African bush―not only the lion, leopard, and elephant, but the primitive rhino and the crocodile waiting for its unsuspecting prey, the titanic hippo and the Cape buffalo charging like an express train out of control. Capstick was a born raconteur whose colorful descriptions and eye for exciting, authentic detail bring us face to face with some of the most ferocious killers in the world.
Hunter by J.A. Hunter - Written in the 1950s, Hunter recounts the career of John A. Hunter, a professional big-game hunter and former chairman of Tanganyika National Parks. J A. Hunter led a life of adventure, but, perhaps, the most astonishing tale in this book is his incredible adventures while hunting rhino. As a game ranger, he was ordered by the Tanganyikan government to clear out dozens of rogue rhinos from the area around Makueni, and the accounts of his experiences are spine-tingling. Hunter hunted throughout East Africa-for bongo in the Ituri rain forest (former Zaire), lion in Masailand (Kenya), and the man-killing buffalo near Thomson's Falls with his favorite dog (Kenya).
Mile Marker Zero by William McKeen - Mile Marker Zero tells the story of how a league of great American writers and artists found their identities in Key West and maintained their friendships over the decades, despite oceans of booze and boatloads of pot, through serial marriages and sexual escapades, in that dangerous paradise. Here are true tales of a generation that invented, reinvented, and found itself at the unending cocktail party at the end—and the beginning—of America’s highway.
On the Spine of Time by Harry Middleton - From the solace of mountain streams to the frenetic bustle of Gatlinburg, one of Tennessee's great tourist towns, this memorable journey summons readers to confront the joys and sorrows of life through a new understanding of our place in nature and its process.
Harry Middleton had to endure hardships to find the queen mother of all trout streams in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. He had to live through treacherous mountain roads, the cloud of airborne industrial toxins that shrouds the range for most of the year, an occasional blast of lightning, and, worst of all, a helping of rancid potato salad at a roadside diner. Like Norman MacLean in A River Runs Through It, Middleton makes fly-fishing a religion with its own vision of nirvana, and if it takes an occasional descent into the nether regions to attain it, the author isn't afraid to supply the grisly details. This graceful, funny memoir belongs in every angler's library.
Around the Next Bend by Jon Osborn, Chris Smith, Jake Smith, and Greg Frey - Another collection of fantastic sporting essays from these four accomplished Michigan Outdoorsmen and writers. Every day afield holds something to discover. It could be a monstrous fish, a new grouse covert, a morning the ducks drop in to your call, a dog’s first or last point, or the buck you’ve been waiting for all season. Or, it could be none of these, and it’s simply time spent connected to the land and to others. Whatever the day might hold, there’s something to appreciate, because you just never know what may be around the next bend.
A Cast Away in Montana by Tim Schulz - A Cast Away in Montana is the captivating story of a passionate angler’s first trip to Montana. Through Tim Schulz's humorous, insightful, and reflective storytelling, readers not only discover the thrill of pursuing elusive fish in stunning landscapes but also embark on a profoundly personal exploration of life, loss, and self-discovery. This compelling narrative resonates with fly-fishing enthusiasts and those seeking a meaningful connection to nature as it weaves together engaging tales of adventure, friendship, regional history, and reflection. Whether enjoyed by an angler, an outdoor lover, or simply a fan of beautifully crafted storytelling, A Cast Away in Montana reels in the reader and leaves a lasting impression.
Calling After Water by Dave Karczynski - Dave fishes—and writes—with both eyes wide open to the magic of water. With the trademark blend of adventure, humor, and insight that has made him one fly fishing’s most widely published authors, this collection of nineteen essays charts Dave’s journey as he casts his way from the quiet streams of the Upper Midwest to the far corners of the earth—and back again. Readers will tramp across Patagonia with a shamanic brook trout whisperer, raft through the Himalayas in search of golden mahseer, hunt native brown trout in the Bohemian highlands, and revel in the promise of a Northern Michigan spinner fall. With prose that alternately flashes like the sides of a leaping salmon and glitters like riffle water on a summer morning, Calling After Water is one of those rare books that delights its readers as much as it invites them to reflect on their own love of fly fishing.
The Catch of a Lifetime by Peter Kaminsky - For every flyfisher, there is a moment, etched into deepest memory, when the stars aligned around an encounter with a great fish. Though years or decades may pass, anglers can still recall those fleeting minutes: the direction of the wind, the length of the cast, the course of the fly, the instant of the take, the leaps and surges of the fish. In The Catch of a Lifetime, prize-winning author Peter Kaminsky has collected thrilling, beautiful, and evocative stories on the joys of flyfishing and the one flyfishing memory that stands out above all others. In Kaminsky’s case, it wasn’t the 200-pound tuna he fought—and lost—against the shore in Montauk. It was a plump brown trout, dappled with fire-engine-red spots in a yellow halo, barely fourteen inches and caught early one summer morning as mist rose off a Catskills creek.
The contributors are artists, authors, guides, and poets who have a singular passion for flyfishing, including Carl Hiaasen, Joan Wulff, Nick Lyons, Rachel Finn, Tom Colicchio, Rachel Maddow, Mark Kurlansky, Brittany Howard, Hilary Hutcheson, and John McPhee. Their encounters bring to life vivid recollections of a forty-pound salmon taking to the air, the furious jolt of a barracuda, the acrobatic somersaults of an enormous Florida tarpon, the serenity of a smallmouth caught at last light in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters. The works of flyfishing’s greatest artists and photographers weave their way through more than seventy unforgettable essays.
Fly Fishing the 41st by James Prosek - The New York Times has called James Prosek "the Audubon of the fishing world," and in Fly-Fishing the 41st, he uses his talent for descriptive writing to illuminate an astonishing adventure. Beginning in his hometown of Easton, Connecticut, Prosek circumnavigates the globe along the 41st parallel, traveling through Spain, Greece, Turkey, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, China, and Japan. Along the way he shares some of the best fishing in the world with a host of wonderfully eccentric and memorable characters.
Trout Water by Josh Greenberg - It's the beginning of trout fishing season, and Josh Greenberg — proprietor of one of the nation’s most famous fishing outfitters, on America's most iconic trout-fishing stream, the Au Sable River in Michigan —is standing in the Au Sable at dusk when he gets the call that a dear fishing buddy has died.
The solace he takes from fishing — from reading the movement of the river water, studying the play of the light, and relying on his knowledge of insect and fish life — prompts him to reflect on the impact of the natural world on his life in his fisherman’s journal.
Over the course of a year, the journal transcends fishing notes to include some beautifully lyrical nature writing, entertaining stories of the big one that got away, cheerful introspection about a love that’s hard to explain, and yes, a tip or two.
Eventually, Josh Greenberg realizes he hasn’t been all alone in the woods, not really. Much of his relationship with his family and friends has played out on the river. And as he catches — and releases — trout after trout back into one of the most beautiful rivers in America, Greenberg comes to help us realize, too, that there’s more to fishing than catching fish.
The Optimist by David Coggins - In The Optimist, David Coggins makes a case for the skills and sensibility of an enduring sport and shares the secrets, frustrations, and triumphs of the great tradition of fly fishing, which has captivated anglers worldwide.
Written in wry, wise, and keenly observed prose, each chapter focuses on a specific place, fish, and skill. Few individuals, for example, have the visual acuity required to catch the nearly invisible bonefish of the Bahamas flats. Or the patience to land the elusive Atlantic salmon, “the fish of a thousand casts,” in eastern Canada. Pursuing these challenges, Coggins, “a confirmed obsessive,” travels to one fishing paradise after another, including the great rivers of Patagonia, private chalk streams in England, remote ponds in Maine, and New York City’s Jamaica Bay. In each setting, he chronicles his fortunes and misfortunes with honesty and humor while meditating on how fishing teaches focus, inner stillness, and a connection to the natural world.
For Everything There is a Season by Allen Crater - For Everything There is a Season, is the follow-up to my first book, Outside in Shorts.
Outside in Shorts commemorated a select handful of life experiences that lived on to become the fabric of traditions – mementos of victories and vestiges of failures. An homage to pleasures and pains, fears and frustrations, trials and triumphs. The ones we taste in a cup of coffee poured before a winter trek in the big woods, and smell in the first, fresh days of spring. Those we hear in the soft chuckle of a summer river and see in the silent sip of trout or the staunch point of a seasoned dog. The ones we wear like a trusty old flannel beside a campfire, where they become tall tales, or even legends, celebrating our common bond with wild places and each other.
This writing aims to do the same. Inside you will find a fresh collection of twenty-three sporting essays gathered over nearly five decades in the outdoors. Each passage within represents a short segment of time from that lengthy measure. Each a small memento plucked from the hourglass sands of seminal experiences.
Spend some time together with me swapping stories on the metaphorical “porch” – that uniquely American symbol of gathering. The “transitional space between the cocoon of home and the cacophony of the outside world,” as NPR’s Michele Norris so eloquently described it. Where embellishments as thick Mississippi mud and as deep as an old well are not only forgiven with a knowing nod, but as expected as rain on the opener.
Interested in a signed copy? Drop me an email at allen@stevensinc.com.
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