Central Books

Tales of the Road: Highway 61

Cathy Wurzer

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Editorial Review:

Highway 61 traces approximately 440 miles through Minnesota, from Pigeon Falls at the Canadian border south to La Crescent. Along the way, the road hugs the North Shore, zips through St. Paul, and navigates bluffs along the Mississippi River. While places such as Split Rock Lighthouse or Sugar Loaf Mountain offer well-documented stopping-off points, observant travelers may wonder about historic buildings , abandoned sites, and decaying structures they see along the way.

In this companion book to a new Twin Cities Public Television documentary also called Tales of the Road (airing in November 2008), Cathy Wurzer unearths stories about these places and more as she travels down the road and into the past, spotlighting famous and fascinating locations, many of them little remembered today. Learn about bootleggers crossing the St. Croix by ferry or importing hooch from Canada onboard vessels designed in White Bear Lake. Visualize--or maybe even visit--the quaint tourist cabins, supper clubs, and lodges that served tourists who began motoring up the road in the 1920s. Take stock of historic and current industries: Russ Kendall's Smokehouse in Knife River, a rutabaga plant in Willow River, the pottery factory in Red Wing. Each tale is illustrated with historic and current views to show how much-or how little-Highway 61 has changed. Here's one road trip you won't want to miss!

Cathy Wurzer is host of Morning Edition on Minnesota Public Radio and cohost of Almanac on Twin Cities Public Television. She has been honored with four Emmys for her work on Almanac.

PrairyErth (A Deep Map): An Epic History of the Tallgrass Prairie Country

William Least Heat-Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Interesting and thought-provoking 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

If only every county in the United States had as passionate and articulate a chronicler as William Least Heat-Moon.

I came to "PrairyErth" after having read and loved "Blue Highways." This tome--though longer and less expansive, geographically--possesses many of the qualities I admired in Heat-Moon's earlier work: the narrative tone (there's none of that stuffy, impersonal, third-person prose one finds in some travelogues; the author is himself part of the story), the occasional dips into philosophy and history; the candid interviews with "locals"; and the intense search for meaning in the most ordinary of places.

I have never been to Chase County, Kansas, but after spending a month or so accompanying Heat-Moon through the pages of his book, I feel as though I have. The book is subtitled "a deep map," and that is indeed what the author provides here. Square mile by square mile, the reader is introduced to the prairie, its topography and history, its residents and its wildlife. Heat-Moon correctly understands that the essence of a place is often best captured through anecdote and observation. There is nothing sweeping or grand about his narrative, and that's what makes "PrairyErth" such a delight. It's a detailed, intimate read; one almost has the feeling of looking over the author's shoulder (and back through history) as he ambles and rambles about the quadrangles of Chase County.

If there's one criticism I would offer, it's that Heat-Moon sometimes lapses into needless digressions about himself and the challenges he faced while writing the book. It struck me as a bit self-absorbed--as did the occasional Faulknerian stream-of-conscious, punctuationless prose. These stylistic excesses add little to what is otherwise a magnificent and fascinating travelogue.

Editorial Review:

Three months on the New York Times bestseller list, PrairyErth is now in paperback. Robert Penn Warren pronounced Heat-Moon's Blue Highways "a masterpiece." Now Heat-Moon has pulled to the side of the road and set off on foot to take readers on an exploration of time and space, landscape and history in the Flint Hills of central Kansas.

Weird Missouri: Your Travel Guide to Missouri's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets (Weird)

James Strait

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Editorial Review:

What's WEIRD around here?

“Best Travel Series of The Year 2006”—Booklist

That’s a question Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman have enjoyed asking for years—and their offbeat sense of curiosity led them to create the bestselling phenomenon, Weird N.J. Now the weirdness has spread throughout the U.S.! Each fun and intriguing volume offers more than 250 illustrated pages of places where tourists usually don’t venture: it’s chock-full of oddball curiosities, ghostly places, local legends, crazy characters, cursed roads, and peculiar roadside attractions. What’s NOT shockingly odd here: that every previously published Weird book has become a bestseller in its region.

Great Plains

Ian Frazier

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Plain Joy 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Let me add just these two things to the remarks of the many other reviewers: Ian Frazier's rhapsodic discussion of the joy the Great Plains engender (like the mysticism of deserts and the melancholy of moors) is good reading. Sitting Bull, though not an eyewitness, reported that Custer fell laughing in his last battle. Frazier expertly uses this intriguing anecdote to discuss the joy he connects with the Plains.
And that last page of the book! This is some of the best and most evocative prose I've read anywhere. It's worth the price of the book to read that one page. It's nearly hypnotic and I hope soon to memorize the entire ending.

Editorial Review:

National Bestseller

With his unique blend of intrepidity, tongue-in-cheek humor, and wide-eyed wonder, Ian Frazier takes us on a journey of more than 25,000 miles up and down and across the vast and myth-inspiring Great Plains. A travelogue, a work of scholarship, and a western adventure, Great Plains takes us from the site of Sitting Bull’s cabin, to an abandoned house once terrorized by Bonnie and Clyde, to the scene of the murders chronicled in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. It is an expedition that reveals the heart of the American West.

Exploring the Boundary Waters: A Trip Planner and Guide to the BWCAW

Daniel Pauly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

With more than 200,000 visitors annually, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is among the most alluring wilderness areas in the country, unique because it is most often explored by canoe. Comprised of more than one million acres, the BWCAW is an exceptional combination of expansive wilderness, abundant wildlife, and fascinating natural and human history. Exploring the Boundary Waters is the most comprehensive trip planner to the BWCAW, giving travelers an overview of each entry point into the wilderness area as well as detailed descriptions of more than one hundred specific routes - including a ranking of their difficulty level and maps that feature the major waterways, portages, and the designated campsites. The book is crafted so that readers can design their own route through the almost inexhaustible network of lakes and streams. Daniel Pauly, Boundary Waters expert, worked with the U.S. Forest Service, the Minnesota DNR, and local outfitters to gather information about how to obtain a permit, the rules and regulations of the park, safety tips, and how to help maintain the ecological integrity of the wilderness. As engaging as it is informative, Exploring the Boundary Waters not only contributes advice on the pros and cons of each route, but also brings the reader a natural and historical context for the journey by offering insight into the pictographs, mining sites, logging railroads, and ruins one may encounter throughout his or her expedition. With its accessible and personal style, Exploring the Boundary Waters is the perfect guide for anyone - novice or seasoned veteran - arranging a trip to the BWCAW. A companion Web site, http://www.boundarywatersguide.com, presents useful information that can be downloaded for planning a trip, including gear lists, overview maps, and route updates.

Weird Minnesota (Weird)

Eric Dregni

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

An offbeat travelogue 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is an enjoyable coffee-table style book about odd things, places, events and people in Minnesota. In comparision to some of the other books in the "Weird" series, I felt that this one was better because it contains many things that are significant cultural or historical icons to Minnesotans, instead of simply bizarre things or painted-up junk in people's backyards found in some of the other books in the "Weird" series. For example, entries include Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in Bemidji, the Kensington Rune Stone in Alexandria, museums of questionable medical devices, etc., things that have a story behind them. This book would make a good travel guide for those inclined to spend some leisure time in the land of 10,000 Lakes.

Coffee table book, not a travel guide 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

If you are looking for a book to flip through and read about random odd places in Minnesota, this book if fine. If you actually want to try to visit some of them, don't bother. The book is not at all set up to help you actually find the places highlighted. Sights are not grouped geographically, and there is no index to let you do it yourself. Some of the entries I saw didn't even list which town they are in/near.

Moon Minnesota (Moon Handbooks)

Tim Bewer

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the old European charm of St. Paul and sophistication of Minneapolis to the tall grass of the Prairie land and the quaint towns along the Mississippi, Moon Minnesota is the essential guidebook to make your visit truly unique. The thriving Twin Cities nightlife bustles with places like Whiskey Junction and Fitzgerald Theater, Duluth's historic inns recapture Victorian allure, while Bluff County boasts of the humorous SPAM Museum.
Tim Bewer brings years of travel writing to the table in this second edition of Moon Minnesota. A long-time Minnesotan, Tim's fun and insightful list of travel suggestions include the Best of Minnesota, A Long Weekend in the Twin Cities, Historic Minnesota, and Wacky Minnesota.
Outlining the guide by region, you are able to make your way through the state or devote your entire visit to one location. Because Tim manages to present you with endless options, a quiet afternoon hike through Savanna Portage State Park can turn into a journey through the area's history. With expert writers, first-rate strategic advice, and an essential dose of humor, Moon Minnesota ensures that travelers have an uncommon and entirely satisfying experience — and a few new stories to tell.

Only in Minnesota

Roxanne Kjarum, Berit Thorkelson

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Only in Minnesota is a pictorial tribute to all that makes the state unique. Combining the natural, historical, and cultural facets of life in Minnesota, it showcases the people and what they do for fun (the Uptown Art Fair, ice fishing), where they live (from the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Rochester to smaller towns and rural regions in between), their favorite places (Mille Lacs, Split Rock Lighthouse), and more. More than 160 dazzling, four-color photographs, showing a variety of subjects--from farms and churches to tourist destinations and state parks; from nature scenes to city festivals and cultural events--are the focus of Only in Minnesota. These photographs are accented by lively captions and fun facts. The result is a homage to the Gopher state from a local author and photographer whose love for Minnesota comes through on every page. Roxanne Kjarum is a freelance photographer who shoots advertising for money and the natural world for love. Her first published work was in Sierra Club magazine in 1988; since then her photography has appeared in numerous publications, including MPLS.ST.PAUL Magazine, Lake Superior Magazine, and Metropolitan Home.

The Sierra High Route: Traversing Timberline Country

Steve Roper

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

practical guide to an undescribable experience 5 out of 5 stars.
30 of 30 people found this review helpful.

This book outlines a magnificent experience following an off-trail, higher version of the Muir Trail through the High Sierra. We have followed most of Roper's route over several years: sometimes we thought we were lost or overwhelmed, but it always turned out fine, and usually excellent. He treads a fine line between complete instructions that would allow no mistakes, and an experience that gives the hiker their own opportunity for route-finding, discovery, and growth. This is one of our favorite books, and we keep an intact copy plus another one torn apart for each journey and sometimes given away to people met along the way who need it. We still travel the trail some of the time, but genuinely value this alternative farther away from the crowds.

Great book for the strong willed 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 20 people found this review helpful.

My girlfriend and I recently took some of Ropers advice on a Mt. Conness Loop 5 day hike in Yosemite. It was an increadible trip. Roper gives just enough hints to get you there but few enough to make it still feel like exploring. Be advised however when he referes a section of your hike as 'adventurous' or 'exciting' he means it. We pushed ourselves to the physical and mental limit on this trip.

Editorial Review:

Guide to a spectacular 195-mile timberline route in the sub-alpine region of California's High Sierra.

Movers and Shakers, Scalawags and Suffragettes: Tales from Bellefontaine Cemetery, 1849-2006

Carol Ferring Shepley

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Not yet published By: University of Missouri Press

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Editorial Review:

The history of Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis is told through the stories of those who are buried there. The book is organized into sections, such as artists, fur traders, and Civil War generals, which feature biographies of individuals. Besides being a history of a significant place, this book functions as a guidebook to St. Louis and its notable residents. Because so many of St. Louis s leading citizens (such as William Clark, James Buchanan Eads, Susan Blow, and Adolphus Busch) are buried in Bellefontaine, the book is a tale of the city.