Hattie Big Sky

Book Description

Alone in the world, teen-aged Hattie is driven to prove up on her uncle's homesteading claim.
For years, sixteen-year-old Hattie's been shuttled between relatives. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she courageously leaves Iowa to prove up on her late uncle's homestead claim near Vida, Montana. With a stubborn stick-to-itiveness, Hattie faces frost, drought and blizzards. Despite many hardships, Hattie forges ahead, sharing her adventures with her friends--especially Charlie, fighting in France--through letters and articles for her hometown paper.

Her backbreaking quest for a home is lightened by her neighbors, the Muellers. But she feels threatened by pressure to be a "Loyal" American, forbidding friendships with folks of German descent. Despite everything, Hattie's determined to stay until a tragedy causes her to discover the true meaning of home.

Customer Reviews:

No way does this deserve a Newbery Award.......2007-08-05

I waited for a very long time until I finally found Hattie Big Sky at the library. Hearing some very good reviews and reading the general synopsis for the book, I was excited about reading this story. And now, once again, I'm going to veer from what everyone else has said and give my part.

Hattie Big Sky follows the story of Hattie, who catches some luck when her uncle, Chester Brooks, unexpectedly sends her a will deeming her the sole owner of some new land in Montana. This is particularly fortunate because Hattie, orphaned very young, was on the brink of having to work at a boarding house. The story basically follows her path and journey in making her home her own.
First of all, kudos to the author for keeping everything clean. I do greatly respect that.

Now, the bad part. Hattie is a little too perfect for my taste. I'm not saying I wanted her to break out and rob someone or anything, but like many stories I'm so tired of reading because of the protagonists' syrupy sweetness, this made her extremely dull. At several points in the story, Hattie makes a remark that if her aunt could only see her, she would have been disapproving. This made me flip back and go disapproving of what? One of the times, the author did make the source clear and the others were just kind of thrown in. So Hattie's constantly saying I'm doing things people won't like and none of the things she's doing really seem wrong at all. And I don't get the impression it was about her taking care of her home all alone...
Then of course there is Hattie's quicksilver change of feelings that I believe was a mistake on the author's part. She contradicts herself constantly, saying she feels a certain way and then two paragraphs later the author writes something going against that.
----SPOILER----
Hattie is asked to sell her land right after a kind of heat spell as if the person is too eager to wait until she isn't weak. Her first reaction is anger, and the author verifies this. "I fought down the hot anger boiling up in my stomach..." This one is not as contradictory as some others, but she quickly changes her feelings, going from anger to, oh, he's so right. She immediately, only a sentence later, begins to take on another thought process entirely. I should really be thankful he's doing this...yadayadayada...This was annoying.
----END SPOILER----
I think all characters should be rock solid in their development. Hattie seems too vacillating when it comes to her own choices and is too good, which I hate hearing and saying, but it's true.

Continuing on a note of characterization, I also found major problems with the character of Perilee, who quickly becomes friends with Hattie. I kind of felt like I was reading a Stepford Wives-Little House on the Prairie blending. Perilee is also too perfect, although her character remains one-dimensional the whole story. She mentions horrible things that happened in her past and stays absolutely, sickly pleasant about it all. Also, at times she seems overly kind and childish. I don't know why. She wasn't developed enough. Perilee's husband (And I just knew they'd have something like this.), Karl, who just so happens to be a foreigner and living in Montana during World War I, is generically ostracized and is thrown through the usual torment of these types of characters, mainly there, I am beginning to think, to fill in the empty pages that needed filling. Everyone in the town refuses to help or even be seen with his family...blah, blah, blah. I'm so tired of this type of plotline that I didn't even care; plus, he wasn't very well written either.
My biggest problem with this story was the way everything flashes by so fast. Hattie mentions some major hurdles, like moving across several states just to reach Montana, having to learn, after living in the city, how to plant and take care all of the inherited land by herself, building a fence that reaches regulations, and farming her land. But each of these problems never lasts long and is quickly done away with. Hattie's journey to Montana is barely even mentioned; she arrives to a house that looks more like a shed and that fades away. She states that she knows nothing about farming, gets some manuals on the subject and only a paragraph later is an expert...Nothing is ever drawn out. Also, she has money problems which, like everything else, is resolved immediately. This became so annoying to me that I wanted to jump into the story and strangle the main character. Basically, following Kirby Larson's writing, homesteading seems very simple, more than simple, child's play...I say, if you're making a point of writing a story about a young girls' difficulty in surviving and raising her own land, there needs to be some evidence, not the miraculous sponge that Hattie turned out to be, reading and using her read knowledge with precision.
It sounds like I hated this book and after writing this review and reviewing the many issues, I almost do, but not quite. I am just very picky about everything, from plotlines to miniscule details. While Hattie's character was too nice, she was not unlikable, and while I didn't take too much of a shine to the story it was okay. I did feel like I wanted to keep reading although most of the time I was frustrated and wondering just where exactly I've heard this story before, finding familiar, overly-used elements that have been written much better over the years...

Overall: Okay read, nothing worth a Newbery, which I find incredibly hard to believe and almost impossible to believe; but the facts speak for themselves. I would not have read this if I knew beforehand what it would turn out to be like, nor would I recommend it. Waste of time.

Fall into the time period!.......2007-07-01

Within the first few pages I felt like I was right back in 1918 Montana. Enjoyable book, well written.

Hooray for Hattie Big Sky.......2007-03-26

I love historical fiction, and this is one of the best books I have read in a while. I couldn't put it down and felt connected with the characters. It is about a simple 16-year-old girl who has moved around from relative to relative ever since her parents died. Then one day she gets a letter with her Uncle's will that he left her his claim in Montana. Hattie goes along with the journey and meets very exciting people along the way , dealing with troubles of proving up her claim and being friends with a German in WWI. This is a great book and anyone who loves historical fiction will love this book.

What? No shock value?!.......2007-03-23

It's refreshing to read an elementary/middle school appropriate book (award winning or otherwise) that does NOT rely on shock value tactics such as inappropriate language or behavior. Just proves that the opening lines or paragraphs of a novel do not have to be filled with swear words or questionable words or acts worthy of a much older audience. Thank you.

Hattie Big Sky.......2007-03-09

HATTIE BIG SKY is a wonderfully written story with likeable characters. Larson portrays both the pioneer life and America during World War I very well. However, the book failed to wow me.

Sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks is tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, so she was so happy to learn that her deceased uncle whom she never knew has left her his Montana homestead. Off she goes from Iowa to Montana, basically to the middle of nowhere, to begin her own life in her own home. With the help of her neighbors, most especially the Muellers, Hattie works to prove up on her claim so that the land is hers forever. Meanwhile, Hattie deals with the anti-German sentiment in the community as well as sacrifices what cannot be sacrificed to help in the war effort. By the end of the book, Hattie has grown up considerably and has learned the truth about home and family.

This book was sweet, but I've read bits and pieces of it in other books. In many ways, HATTIE BIG SKY reminded me of MONKEY TOWN by Ronald Kidd, which I enjoyed more. The questions that faced Frances, the heroine of MONKEY TOWN, were deeper. However, I'd still recommend HATTIE BIG SKY as an enjoyable story about one young woman's search for a place to call her own.

PS. I absolutely love the cover.

True Betrayals; Montana Sky; Sanctuary: Three Complete Novels

Average customer rating:

Love all of Nora's romance books
beware small type
Very Good Reads
Great vendor
True Betrayals/Montana Sky/Sanctuary

True Betrayals; Montana Sky; Sanctuary: Three Complete Novels
Nora Roberts
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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Romantic Suspense | Romance | Subjects | Books

Spellbound
Face the Fire (Three Sisters Island Trilogy)
Dance upon the Air (Three Sisters Island Trilogy)
Heaven and Earth (Three Sisters Island Trilogy)
Heart of the Sea: The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy #3 (Irish Trilogy)

ASIN: 0399147314
Release Date: 2001-05-31

Book Description

People magazine declared that "[Nora Roberts] is at the top of her game," and there's no greater evidence of that than these three novels. From the horse farms of Virginia to the rugged beauty of Montana to an island off the coast of Georgia, these novels showcase Nora Roberts's talents for intense drama, vivid characters, and fast-paced suspense.

Customer Reviews:

Love all of Nora's romance books.......2007-02-25

You can never go wrong with a Nora Roberts romance novel and this is just one more great one in the list.

beware small type.......2007-01-15

i haven't finished reading even the first of these three books, but I am struggling to read the small, serifed type. I don't usually have any problems reading normal type, but something about the font and size of the type, combined with the large book is making this read a bit of a struggle for me.

So far, really like the characters and very typical Nora Roberts writing.

Very Good Reads.......2007-01-14

If you are an avid reader as I aa and a Nora Roberts fan too, you can't beat these three great books combined in one volume.
I am certain that you will enjoy these three earlier works by Nora Roberts.

Great vendor.......2006-11-14

This book was in great condition. The delivery was fast. Thank you for your prompt attention.

True Betrayals/Montana Sky/Sanctuary.......2006-08-31

Truly a great grouping of three story lines. Each one kept me on the edge of my seat and reluctant to put down until I completed it. Descriptions of location and events put you right there. I can't wait to read more of this author.

Average customer rating:

montana sky
Loved it!
Made for TV?
Another great story from Nora Roberts
Fantastic Book!

Montana Sky
Nora Roberts
Manufacturer: Jove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books

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All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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Carolina Moon
Angels Fall
River's End
Sanctuary
Homeport

ASIN: 0515120618
Release Date: 2000-06-05

Amazon.com

Jack Mercy's three daughters are strangers to each other, but to inherit his huge ranch they must live there together for a year -- a year that will bring them together against a terrifying unknown enemy as well as bringing each of them someone to make their dreams sweeter. A rich, stunning story of family, death, and love.

Book Description

Jack Mercy's three daughters are strangers to each other. Now they must learn to live as a family-in order to gain an inheritance worth 20 million dollars...

Download Description

When Jack Mercy died, he left behind a ranch worth nearly twenty million dollars. Now his three daughters--each born of a different marriage, and each unknown by the others--are gathered to hear the reading of the will. But the women are shocked to learn that before any of them can inherit, they must live together on the ranch for one year. They are sisters?and strangers. Now they face a challenge: to put their bitterness aside and live like family. To protect each other from danger--and unite against an enemy who threatens to destroy them all?

Customer Reviews:

montana sky.......2007-09-27

i am very pleased with this audio product of montana sky i absolutley love the story. and i was pleased to receive my purchase quickly and in good condition. thankyou amazon.

Loved it!.......2007-08-10

Loved it! But how could you not love a family saga with lots of love and adventure and mystery? Plus the setting was gorgeous. I'm hopping a plane to Montana next chance I get.

Made for TV?.......2007-07-06

The images and characters weren't "made for TV". I'd love to see it on the big screen. I only discovered Nora Roberts about a year ago - but oh, how much fun I've had getting to know her characters and their stories.

Another great story from Nora Roberts.......2007-07-03

I've never been a big fan of romance novels, but when I discovered Nora Roberts about six months ago, I realized that not all romance writers are cut from the same cloth. She has an amazing talent, and I'm rarely able to put her books down until I've finished reading them.

Montana Sky is an excellent example of Roberts' writing prowess. Wonderful characterization, pacing, and imagery. I really felt I was out on that ranch in "Big Sky" country. And I identified with the characters. The evolution of the relationship between the three sisters is believable and very touching. Especially in the midst of the grizzly murders happening around them.

The many pieces of the plot are fit together with great skill by Roberts, and never seems to get too big or out of hand. It's another winner from a fantastic writer.

Fantastic Book!.......2007-06-16

I loved this book! I just couldn't put it down. I've read a lot of Nora Roberts books that I thought were just so-so and decided I'd never get another book by this author. I picked up Montana Sky on a discount shelf and thought, what the heck. Boy am I glad I did. This book rocks!

Average customer rating:

Big Sky Cooking
Excellent and Different Recipes
Beautiful Pictures and great recipes
A fine blend of full-page color photos, recipes, and dishes
Fantastic

Big Sky Cooking
Meredith Auld Brokaw , and Ellen Wright
Manufacturer: Artisan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Ricky Lauren, Cuisine, Lifestyle, and Legend of the Double RL Ranch
Best of the Best from Big Sky Cookbook: Selected Recipes from Montana and Wyoming's Favorite Cookbooks (Best of the Best Cookbook Series)
Stonewall Kitchen Favorites: Delicious Recipes to Share with Family and Friends Every Day
The Golden Pear Cafe Cookbook: Easy Luscious Recipes for Brunch and More from the Hamptons' Favorite Cafe
Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again

ASIN: 1579652689

Book Description

The West has a permanent pull on the American psyche. It's the place where the prairie meets the mountains, the mountains meet the sky, and the sky goes on forever. It's the home of our legends, our heroes and outlaws, our romanticized past.

Meredith and Tom Brokaw could feel the attraction all the way from their home in New York City. Native South Dakotans, they had settled into a frenetic Manhattan lifestyle, tempered by frequent visits to Montana, until Tom could no longer resist. He convinced Meredith to join him in buying a ranch north of Yellowstone. Meredith, in turn, convinced her friend, passionate cook Ellen Wright, to come and discover for herself the bounty of the region—its trout, bison, and elk; locally raised poultry; native fruits and vegetables. The result is Big Sky Cooking, a personal story of this Montana experience told through delicious recipes and menus, charming reflections, and glorious color photographs.

Nearly one hundred recipes, from new dishes to family standbys to reinterpreted classics, are organized into twenty menus that let you dip into the western lifestyle for any occasion: from a sunrise breakfast with eggs straight from the chicken coop to a picnic on the fly, from a rodeo dinner to a moonlight supper under the stars. The food is straightforward, unpretentious fare, as honest as Montanans and guaranteed to make every hour of the day an opportunity to enjoy the good life.

Along the way you'll be introduced to the region's charms: its slow rhythms, its work ethic, the influences of the ancient people and European settlers who formed the present-day state, the "neighbors" who live two hours away, the glow at dusk that's so extraordinary it has its own name.

Customer Reviews:

Big Sky Cooking .......2007-01-04

Beautifully done. Pictures magnificent. Recipes unique. I gave this book as a gift to a friend who grew up in Montana... she was thrilled!!!!

Excellent and Different Recipes.......2006-11-05

This book is filled with excellent recipes that are different from your every day common recipes. An excellent addition to my wife's cook book collection.
One recipe in the book "McCleod's Hot Mustard" is worth the price of the book.
Carl Robinson

Beautiful Pictures and great recipes.......2006-11-03

Interesting book to read as well as some really good recipes

A fine blend of full-page color photos, recipes, and dishes.......2006-10-15

The authors experienced a frantic Manhattan lifestyle tempered by visits to Montana until they bought a ranch and become involved in the food traditions of the area. When passionate cook Ellen Wright discovered the area's blend of fresh game and ingredients, she joined them and BIG SKY COOKING WITH REFLECTIONS features a fine blend of full-page color photos, recipes, and dishes steeped in Montana ingredients. Sesame-Soy Venison Chops, Elk Pepper Steaks, and Bison Osso Busco aren't dishes you'll find many other places, either.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Fantastic.......2006-09-20

Loved this book and am giving it to lots of friends for the holidays. The recipes are fantastic!!

Average customer rating:

A worthy successor to Thomas Hardy and Aldo Leopold
Lost on the range
The frontier we all can imagine
Dispelling the romantic myth of the American West
Read once and then again

Hole in the Sky: A Memoir
William Kittredge
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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West | Regional U.S. | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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Owning It All: Essays
The Willow Field
The Best Short Stories of William Kittredge
The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology
Who Owns the West?

ASIN: 0679740066
Release Date: 1993-06-01

Book Description

William Kittredge's stunning memoir is at once autobiography, a family chronicle, and a Westerner's settling of accounts with the land he grew up in. This is the story of a grandfather whose single-minded hunger for property won him a ranch the size of Delaware but estranged him from his family; of a father who farmed with tractors and drainage ditches but consorted with movie stars; and of Kittredge himself, who was raised by cowboys and saw them become obsolete, who floundered through three marriages, hard drinking, and madness before becoming a writer. Host hauntingly, Hole in the Sky is an honest reckoning of the American myth that drove generations of Americans westward -- and what became of their dream after they reached the edge.

Customer Reviews:

A worthy successor to Thomas Hardy and Aldo Leopold.......2005-10-16

William Kittredge is a worthy successor to Thomas Hardy and Aldo Leopold. "Hole in the Sky" is both a personal memoir and a portrait of a vanished way of life in the remote Warner Valley in eastern Oregon. The author witnessed the end of farming with horse teams when diesel tractors came to the valley after WW II and changed the rural economy forever. Thomas Hardy's novels ("Far from the Madding Crowd" and others) tell a comparable story of the English countryside in the 19th Century, when the agrarian society that had existed for 400 years was disappearing. Mr. Kittredge also tells how the tractors meant the end of wild birds and mammals that had been part of his life in Warner Valley. He writes with an ecologist's eye for the land, reminiscent of Aldo Leopold in his "Sand County Almanac," a book that introduced so many of us to ecology and the concept of saving wild places.

Readers may be inspired to visit Warner Valley for themselves, and it is a worthwhile trip for lovers of the wild. I first went there 50 years ago, when it was still 36 miles from the nearest paved road. Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge protects the high fault-block mountain looming above Mr. Kittredge's valley. Its marshy lakes harbor many species of ducks and waterbirds. My brother-in-law just returned from a visit in September 2005, and he reports: "pronghorn antelope on the hillsides all 'round, glorious views in all directions, grand sweeping vistas." That's where William Kittredge comes from.

Lost on the range.......2003-06-14

Kittredge's excellent, thoughtful, and well-written book is a memoir of growing up on a ranch in southeastern Oregon. This is arid country where spring runoff from the mountains gathers in lakes and swamps used for millennia as a stopover by migrating waterbirds. Enter the enterprising Kittredge family, and during the 20th century thousands of acres here were transformed into a vast irrigated ranch, its chief output evolving from cattle to grain to hay to feed milling and feedlots. More to the point, they built an agricultural empire and became wealthy.

The author, born into this world in the 1930s, looks back from the vantage point of 1992, long after leaving the ranch behind and settling in Montana. What he sees is the wreckage of three generations blighted by ambition, greed, arrogance, and no small amount of alcohol. Kittredge talks often about how personal stories illuminate and ground people's lives, yet he and so many of the people around him are directionless and unmoored. His book is a story in which words like "reckless," "hapless," and "heedless" are often used to describe actions.

It is a painful book because there is so much heartache in it, so much confusion, shame, isolation, and fear. There are betrayals, infidelities, friendships and marriages ended, deaths from accidents and mishaps. In all of it, from earliest memories to those of a man on the verge of middle-age, the author describes a deep uncertainty about his own worth and his purpose in life. For many years, it seems to be only the grueling hard work of the ranch, which he only half understands, that keeps him distracted from a sense that nothing is real. (Steady consumption of alcohol and extramarital sex also figure into the mix.)

The book is something of a coming-of-age story about a young man whose manhood continually seems to elude him, well into his thirties. He can go through the motions in the hardworking environment of seasoned cowboys and field hands (an episode in which he takes the place of an injured hay stacker is an example), but he remains unsure of himself, wanting the security of the family ranch, while hating himself for not pursuing the writing career he believes is his real vocation. It's a wonderfully (and frustratingly) complex picture of a young man self-destructing. And in his seeming indifference to his own children, you sense a repetition of the same indifferent parenting that has led him into this emotional cul-de-sac. Significantly, he remarks often about the lack of a guiding hand to show him the way to be a man.

As a kind of confessional, it is a compelling book, and the impact of the story is underscored by the vast Western landscape against which it plays out. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the West and ranch life, cowboys, family sagas, and coming-of-age memoirs. As a companion volume, I'd also suggest Judy Blunt's ranch memoir "Breaking Clean" for its similar themes of emotional dislocation.

The frontier we all can imagine.......2001-10-02

William Kittridge's autobiography, A HOLE IN THE SKY begins in the wilderness around the foothills of southeastern Oregon and retells, in lucid detail, the events of his childhood leading up to his time in the Air Force, to his many marriages, to his emergence as a writer who writes in a prophetic voice with a great sense of prose.
Looking back to his childhood years, Kittridge aims to return to that innocent age and allow the reader to engage in his coming of age...to the point where your feet are engulfed in the wet grass of early morning dew, and you imagine the grandeur of taking care of 8,000 acres of open territory.

In the end, he claims that: "We are a part of what is sacred. That is our main defense against craziness, our solace, the source of our best policies, and our only chance at paradise." Thus, we are open to the realities that life, growing up on the western plains, was not an American historical fairy tale, but rather a true test of ones self-worth and distinction.
A wonderful read...I highly recommend!

Dispelling the romantic myth of the American West.......2000-09-17

I read this book to gain a better understanding of my cowboy neighbors in Eastern Oregon, but I gained so much more. Anyone with a passion for southeastern Oregon will love this book. At times, Kittredge's descriptions of the land are poetic. I found myself driving through Kittredge's Oregon recently, and so much of what he wrote kept leaping to the forefront of my consciousness, stimulating my own fresh perspective of this open country and those who call it home.

Read once and then again.......2000-08-13

I'm going to read this book again. The first time was to find out what it's about and who Kittredge is and what happens. The second time will be for the pleasure of reading his writing and the enjoyment of how his mind works. The conclusions he is making about life are true and gracious, out of a chaotic and sometimes miserable past. (But he doesn't moan about that--don't worry.) I'm so glad he recognized himself as a writer.

Incident at Big Sky: The True Story of Sheriff Johnny France and the Capture of the Mountain Men

Average customer rating:

A riveting tale of desperate outlaws on the run.

Incident at Big Sky: The True Story of Sheriff Johnny France and the Capture of the Mountain Men
Johnny France , and Malcolm McConnell
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0393023346

Customer Reviews:

A riveting tale of desperate outlaws on the run........1999-10-10

Beneath some of Montana's grandest mountain peaks lurked a preditor. Caught in the crosshairs of Don Nichols twisted logic was Kari Swenson. The idea of a mountain bride, stolen from a remote wooded trail. Most amazing is how the Nichols' not only managed to elude the persistance of Johnny France, but stayed one step ahead certain death in the Montana winter of 1984 with just the packs on thier backs. You wont be able to put this one down!

Average customer rating:

as good as The Way West
The Beginning of an Adventure
Guthrie Captures the West and the End of an Era
Did not like at all
Vivid storytelling may disappoint

The Big Sky
A. B. Guthrie Jr.
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Way West
Fair Land, Fair Land
These Thousand Hills
Mountain Man: A Novel of Male and Female in the Early American West
The Virginian (Signet Classics)

ASIN: 0618154639

Book Description

Originally published more than fifty years ago, THE BIG SKY is the first of A. B. Guthrie, Jr.'s, epic adventure novels of America's vast frontier. THE BIG SKY introduces Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins, and Dick Summers, three of the most memorable characters in Western American literature. Traveling the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rockies, these frontiersmen live as trappers, traders, guides, and explorers. The story centers on Caudill, a young Kentuckian driven by a raging hunger for life and a longing for the blue sky and brown earth of big, wild places. Caught up in the freedom and savagery of the wilderness, Caudill becomes an untamed mountain man, whom only the beautiful daughter of a Blackfoot chief dares to love. With THE BIG SKY, Guthrie gives us an unforgettable portrait of a spacious land and a unique way of life.

Customer Reviews:

as good as The Way West.......2007-07-28

I felt this novel could just as easily won the pulitzer.Guthrie has a way of knowing his characters deep down and portraying all that and more to the reader.

The Beginning of an Adventure.......2007-05-04

Take the plunge and read the whole series. I found this book by accident and was drawn in by its lonely main character, Boone, from the start. The language is a little odd to get used to at first, as Guthrie's characters talk in the syle of men of their ilk and era. It transports the reader to a time when Indians and trappers lived freely. I think if you stay with it you will be richly rewarded. To me, Guthrie's characters are like characters in many McMurtry books I have loved; I remember them as if they were real people I have known. Also I found Guthrie's plots to be surprising and moving. After finishing this book I continued with four more, reading them in order. Guthrie chronicles the West, returning to Montana after The Way West, a wagontrain journey to Oregon, from the early unsettled times of The Big Sky to post World War II. Some characters, or their decendents, thread their way through each novel. This was an extremely rich reading experience that left me with a deeper understanding of the "progress" we have made.

Guthrie Captures the West and the End of an Era.......2006-07-27

The Big Sky is the first in a series of great Western novels by A.B. Guthrie. The story begins in 1830 as young Boone Caudill escapes his Kentucky home for the plains and mountains of the west. He meets up with Jim Deakins, a pleasant country philosopher, early on his journey and finally the experienced mountain man Dick Summers on the keelboat trip up the Missouri.

I enjoyed Deakins' theological disquisitions. "You can't beat God for bein' picky. No, sir. If he catches you playin' cards or sayin' one swear word...it's to hell with you forever and ever...Even thinkin' is mighty dangerous. As a man thinketh, that's how he is, and to hell with him ag'in. Why you reckon he gave us a thinker then?...God is some busybody."

Guthrie takes us up the Missouri, a slow fight all the way, across the plains, into the mountains and back. He creates for the reader the palpable sense of the openness and wildness of the West. Yet the book steps back from fully romanticizing the end of the mountain man era. The story is often disturbing, not the least in Boone Caudill's quick and often brutal ways.

Highest recommendation for anyone interested in the American West.

Did not like at all.......2006-07-22

Very surprised at the ratings on this book. I thought it was very poorly written and really boring. Actually, just the first 100 pages were boring, I gave up after that.

Vivid storytelling may disappoint.......2005-07-22

Guthrie's story of the 1830s-1840s American northwest frontier, while drawing the reader in with excellent descriptions and characterizations may disappoint some readers.

The main character, while no doubt a faithful representation of a man driven by a need to be free developing into a rugged mountain man, becomes an unlikeable and unsympathetic character as the story progresses. In fact, he finally becomes downright despicable by the novel's end. Of course, that may have been part of Guthrie's goal; to describe a man surviving in the wild places turning into a selfish human being with the ethics of an animal.

The story is completely told from the point of view of men from that era, so the contemporary female reader may be offended by the lack of substantive, strong willed or independendent-minded female characters. In fact, one gets the impression that, to the men in this novel, the sole purpose of a woman is to provide sexual gratification.

In spite of these subjectively perceived "flaws," the story is well told and worth reading. It is refreshing in the sense that finding contemporary, quality authors who can write historical fiction as well as Guthrie is difficult.

Fishing Montana: An Angler's Guide to the Big Sky's Best Streams and Lakes

Average customer rating:

Fabulous pictures each month of the year!

Fishing Montana: An Angler's Guide to the Big Sky's Best Streams and Lakes
Michael Sample
Manufacturer: Falcon / Globe Pequot Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Montana's Best Fishing Waters: 170 Detailed Maps of 34 of the Best Rivers, Streams, and Lakes (Wilderness Adventures Press Map Book) (Wilderness Adventures Press Map Book)
The Montanan's Fishing Guide: Montana Waters West of Continental Divide (Montana's Fishing Guide)
Fishing Glacier National Park, 2nd
Montana Fly Fishing and Camping Guide
Montana Fly Fishing Guide West: West of the Continental Divide

ASIN: 1560446862

Book Description

Information on 16 Montana rivers and 100 lakes.

Customer Reviews:

Fabulous pictures each month of the year!.......2000-12-19

For lovers of the great outdoors - whether East or West coasts - this is an absolutely beautiful calendar. Whether you've been to Montana, or not, or her neighboring states, you will really enjoy the photographs, and annotations, that this calendar reveals month by month. I buy one every year! ENJOY!

Average customer rating:

Take that fork!
Great stuff
Difficult to put down.
Nice Read, worth your time
Absolutely enjoyable.

Nothing but Blue Skies
Thomas Mcguane
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Bushwacked Piano
The Cadence of Grass
Nobody's Angel
Ninety-two in the Shade
Gallatin Canyon: Stories

ASIN: 0679747788
Release Date: 1994-02-01

Book Description

Thomas McGuane's high-spirited and fiercely lyrical new novel chronicles the fall and rise of Frank Copenhaver, a man so unhinged by his wife's departure that he finds himself ruining his business, falling in love with the wrong women, and wandering the lawns of his neighborhood, desperate for the merest glimpse of normalcy.

The result is a ruefully funny novel of embattled manhood, set in the country that McGuane has made his own: a Montana where cowboys slug it out with speculators, a cattleman's best friend may be his insurance broker, and love and fishing are the only consolations that last.

Customer Reviews:

Take that fork!.......2005-09-01

This is the funniest novel I've read since finishing Don Quixote sometime last month. I feel I ought to single out for particular notice Chapter 34, wherein a drunken Frank abducts Lucy and precipitates a riotous vehicular escapade. This episode constitutes about as polished a piece of comedy as I've ever encountered in any of the books I have read and, like I said, I've just finished Don Quixote. Ozell's revision of the translation of Peter Motteux as a matter of fact. Take my word for it, the unfairly maligned Motteux puts Tobias Smollett in the crapper. For what it's worth, Mister McGuane actually alludes to Cervantes' great masterwork twice during the course of his own inimitable relation: once a tad obliquely, when Frank briefly visits Alaska and is tossed in a blanket by a bunch of tanked-up Eskimos, recalling Sancho Panza's similar treatment outside the Inn at the hands of four Segovia Clothiers, three Cordova Point-makers, and two Seville Hucksters, all brisk, gamesome, arch fellows; and once rather more directly, when a Buick Frank had purchased from June is described as being as loose-jointed and ungainly as Rozinante. Well it's all a circle really, isn't it?

Great stuff.......2003-01-11

Thomas McGuane is a remarkably gifted writer and here he is at the top of his form. This book captures the beauty and the tragedy of the west, is full of characters who are real and pathetic and loveable and maddening. The territory of Western pathos and failed relationships covered briliantly by Richard Ford, but McGuane in this book brings a consistent over the top humor and sense of the ridiculous which distinguishes him sharply from Ford. Picaresque bar fights alternate with lyrical descriptions of the fishing streams of Montana, the protagonist's series of soulless affairs constrasts sharply with his desperate love for the wife who has left him. The book is fascinating, and beautiful, and terribly funny.

Difficult to put down........2001-04-09

McGuane is easily among our most talented contemporary authors. There were times that I caught myself laughing out-loud as well as smiling at truly remarkable descriptions written with such skill that I felt as if I were standing in a river somewhere in Montana. He is able to pull the reader into his world of complex and entertaining characters that operate in an equally wonderful backdrop of Montana's ranches, rivers, and small towns. If you are a fan of other McGuane titles such as "Nobody's Angel" and "Keep the Change" you will not be disappointed with "Nothing but Blue Skies." I can't think of higher praise than to be truly sad to turn the last page and realize that such a beautifully and skillfully written story is over.

Nice Read, worth your time.......2000-05-03

This was my first, but will not be my last, novel by Thomas McGuane. Frank Copenhaver, the central character, has hit a rough patch in his life. His anchors have left him. In the opening scene he is taking his wife to the airport. She is leaving him. After some brief background info, McGuane lays before us a man who's life is torn out from underhim and who doesn't really seem to know how to get back on track. Ultimately it is a story of betrayal, love and relationships. Husband and wife and daughter. In between there are great descriptions of Montana flyfishing. Although not as good as The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, this book does come pretty close.

Absolutely enjoyable........1998-04-25

I simply can not stop reading this book. Since buying it, I have reread it so many times that I will soon need to buy a new copy. If you are looking for a novel that is funny, sad, moving, painful, unforgetable, very readable, and unbelievably enjoyable, then get this book. My only warning is that you will soon need to buy a new copy for display.

Voices in the Big Sky!: A Concise History of Radio and Television in Montana from the 1920's to the Present

Average customer rating:

A Book for the Radio/Montana Lover

Voices in the Big Sky!: A Concise History of Radio and Television in Montana from the 1920's to the Present
C. Howard McDonald
Manufacturer: Big M Broadcast Services
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1575021099

Customer Reviews:

A Book for the Radio/Montana Lover.......2006-08-14

My Grandfather (I called him Papa ;D) wrote this book several years before he passed in 2005. I have since read it, and enjoyed the information within concerning early radio in Montana. Both radio and Montana were my Grandfather's biggest interests. I recall countless times hearing stories of him working at radio stations (something he continued to do even into his sixties) and the joy he got out of working at those stations. His knowledge of Montana was also quite extensive or should I say "Obsessive". Here, you see both his passions collide. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys radio/broadcast history or Montana history.

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