- Cutthroat: Native Trout of the West (nonfiction)
- Travers Corners (fiction)
- The Run to Gitche Gumee (fiction)
- Killing trout and Other Love Poems (poetry)
Cutthroat: Native Trout of the West by Patrick Trotter
My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
The most complete and up-to-date science and history concerning native cutthroat trout. This is a must have for all trout fishermen. Well researched and written.
All 12 cutthroat subspecies (and the two extinct ones) are covered in the book. Each cutthroat has an entire chapter dedicated to it. Each chapter is approximately 30-40 pages long. There is some repetition from subspecies to subspecies, but the author wanted to make sure that all information about a given species could be found in the chapter about that subspecies.
There are two introductory chapters that cover extremely useful information about identifying cutthroat, history and geographical distribution.
There are helpful footnotes in the text. Some great pictures of each subspecies. A few charts, tables and graphs are included.
There is a 60 page annotated bibliography covering more than 1000 sources for additional research.
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Travers Corners: Classic Stories About Fly Fishing and a Small Montana Town by Scott Waldie
My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
Scott Waldie has created a wonderful small town in Montana. These stories often have fly fishing in them, but they are not fly fishing stories, they are stories of life in a rural town. The characters are memorable. The situations are authentic. The stories are told with humor and compassion.
“The Carrie Creek sign creaked in the evening breeze and cottonwood blooms spiraled halfway up its posts, then spun free on the wind to scurry and drift into corners and the doorway of the Boat Works. The sign read CARRIE CREEK BOAT WORKS AND GUIDE SERVICE and the words would have been lost to the night had it not been for the light shining down from the upstairs window. Jud’s shadow moved along the walls and ceiling and grew larger as he walked to the bookcase.
“He stood browsing for some time, hoping that some title, either previously, partially, or never read would leap out at him. Then he looked to the top shelf thinking that things forgotten seem to march their way to oblivion in some kind of universal order. Old photos seem to find their way to the back of the closet, old music slowly sorts itself to the rear of the stack, and old books make the climb to the top shelf to gather dust and respectability.
“The summer wind parted the curtains and filled the room with that rarefied and seldom-felt warmth that loosens you and sends you tumbling through the memories born on such nights, those top-down and whistling, rocking in baby’s arms, halcyon nights. Romance and laughter sail on such a wind. It sets the dreamer to dreaming. It blows the reader to the top shelf.”
So begins “Three Yahoos,” a wonderful look back at that day when children become adults because of the experiences they have, good or bad.
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The Run to Gitche Gumee: A Novel by Robert F. Jones
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
A little too over-the-top for me. It needs to be read as an allegory or something at some level other than trying to take it at face value. Portions of the plot are just too unbelievable, which made it hard for me. I have no problem suspending my disbelief when it comes to fantasy or science fiction, but when it seems like the book is realistic fiction, it needs to believable for me (I’m sure others don’t have this problem). Anyhow, there are shooting at people scenes and “coincidences” that just didn’t ring true.
It was a good story about friendship and heartache. About innocence lost. About renewing friendship and seeking to find one’s way in the battle with aging.
The story is about a couple of kids who have recently graduated high school. They are off on a final adventure together. They are fishing a river from higher up to Lake Superior (Gitche Gumee). As they travel they meet some hillbillies who want to kill them. A couple of gals they enjoy by the light of the moon. A tyrannical father (of one of the girls) who wants to kill them. They make it to the lake. That is part 1 of the book, 130 pages in 1950.
Then one of the boys is off to Vietnam and the story follows him for 20 pages.
Then it is part 2, in the year 2000, for the final 120 pages. The old men try to recreate their first trip. I found this to be the best part of the book as it explored the difficulties of aging. I figure the first part could have been contracted to 50 pages and the second part expanded by 50 pages.
Language alert: I’m a bit of a prude when it comes to “crude” language, and I found the frequent use of the F word a bit bothersome (obviously not enough to not finish the book). So that may be something to take note of for anyone else bothered by that.
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Killing Trout & Other Love Poems by David Fraser
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
The poems were fine for the most part. Concrete images. Real world experiences. The poet obviously spends much time outdoors, which is reflected in the content of many poems. He fishes, but the majority of the poems aren’t about trout (some do have fish in them).
I believe the poems are all free verse (my scansion isn’t the greatest, so I could be wrong). I can’t remember any use of end rhyme. He has a gentle hand with the use of alliteration, assonance and consonance.
I have a small nit, purely cosmetic. For some reason Fraser chooses not to capitalize the beginning of sentences, although he does use standard punctuation. All proper nouns are capitalized.
Ok…time to loan out the first book to your friend so he can survive all the terrible road trips during basketball season.
Dan, Everyone is more than welcome to borrow my books. There are just a few rules (for some reason, some people feel they are extreme, but I don’t see why):
Cutthroat Stalker’s Book Loaning Policy
* Each reader must be individually insured through Lloyd’s of London for $1.3 million in case any of the below mentioned protocols are breached.
** Each reader must purchase or rent (and show proof thereof) a Level A Hazmat suit that meets or exceeds NFPA 1992 standards. Said suit must be used in conjunction with a SCBA.
1 – The book will be delivered in a hermetically sealed container by a bonded Lloyd’s of London representative.
2 – The hermetically sealed container shall only be opened in a climate-controlled, dust-free, UV-free room (hereafter known as “safe room”) and never to be removed from said room unless returned to the hermetically sealed container. The safe room must meet the ICA’s ISAD(G) minimum requirements (included in ISO 5963 and ISO 2788) or at 21 °C ±3° and 53% relative humidity ±5%.
3 – Lint-free, ESD-safe gloves must be worn at ALL times while handling the book. (If the reader leaves the safe room, a new pair of gloves must be donned.)
4 – The book shall never be opened all the way flat (this “cracks” the binding glues and weakens the integrity of the spine).
5 – The book must never be “dog-eared” to mark the reader’s place.
6 – Never use a bookmark because contaminants could be on the bookmark and the bookmark may not be acid-free.
7 – The book must never be turned page side down to mark the place.
8 – The only way a page will be “bookmarked” is by memorizing the page number.
9 – Pages must be turned with as little bending of the page as possible so the tensile strength of each individual page is maintained.
10 – As part of the Hazmat suit, a non-reflective face shield must be worn at all times while viewing the book so additional harmful ioniziong radiation particles and waves are not inadvertently reflected from the cornea of the eye to the book.
11 – Enjoy the reading experience.
Fantastic policy. Is it copyrighted, patent pending? Can I put it up in tablets of stone over my bookshelves?
Eccles
Hi Eccles!
For close friends, such as yourself, there is a small usage fee: $1.93 per character (at 1508 characters, that comes to a mere $2910.44). That’s just a usage fee and you supply the engraved stone. If you would like me to provide the stone and engraving, well, there’s a $200 setup fee, then $24.76 per character (= $37,338.08 + shipping and handling). Keep in mind, being the close friend that you are, you are receiving a substantial savings (usual rates are $1.87 and $23.04 respectively).
I do have a special right now where the policy is embossed on your favorite brand of toilet paper for just $0.98 per square (single ply) or $2.33 (two ply).
Or I could just loan you my copy (standard loan policy applies).
Excellent stuff! You take I.O.U.s?
For you, absolutely!