Hunting & Fishing Books - Page 5

Lyon Hunts and Humor: True Life Hunting and Adventure Stories

Tolbert James Lyon

Amazon Price: $12.95 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sunstone Press Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $10.63

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Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper

Michael Bilton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Comprehensive account of an incompetent police investigation 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Given the number of books that have been published about the Yorkshire Ripper, Bilton's book 'Wicked Beyond Belief' is a welcome breath of fresh air as it does not dwell on the horror and gruesome details of the Ripper murders, or the motivations of Peter Sutcliffe, but rather it looks for the first time at the bungled police investigation and why West Yorkshire Police couldn't catch the Yorkshire Ripper for 5 dark years.

Bilton is well positioned to write a book such as this as he was a local reporter when the Yorkshire Ripper's murderous campaign was taking place and knew many of the detectives involved at the time, some of whom were on the verge of nervous breakdowns due to their inability to catch the elusive Ripper.

One of the great strengths of the book is that it draws attention to the gross incompetence of West Yorkshire Police in conducting the Ripper investigation without sounding wise after the event or self-righteous. At times whilst reading the book, I found the incompetence of the investigation to be literally jaw-dropping. This wouldn't be so bad except with each missed lead, failure to follow-up a clue or police pursuit of a red herring, more innocent women were being gruesomely murdered. Some facts that stand out from the book are:

-Peter Sutcliffe was interviewed 9 times by the police and let go to kill again.

-There were 3 different files for Peter Sutcliffe in the police investigation, each with a slightly different spelling of the name and therefore each assuming him to be a different man.

-Sometimes, when police were questioning Sutcliffe, the officers interviewing thought they were questioning him for the first time, unaware that he had been questioned by police several times before.

-In 1979, a junior detective, after questioning Sutcliffe fingered him as a prime suspect and wrote a report explaining his suspicions and recommending Sutcliffe be brought in for further questioning. The report was lost in the mountain of paperwork.

-The descriptions given by the survivors of Sutcliffe's attacks were largely dismissed by the police as 'unreliable'.

-West Yorkshire Police were warned that the 'Wearside Jack' letters and tape with the Sunderland connection were most probably a hoax, yet continued to pursue this line of enquiry for 18 crucial months whilst the real Ripper, with a West Yorkshire accent went on killing.

-By 1980, the then Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher, was so incensed that the Yorkshire Ripper was still at large after he claimed his 13th victim, that she threatened to go to Leeds and take personal charge of the investigation herself until the Ripper was caught. She was talked out of this by the Home Secretary.

-A Home Office task force despatched to West Yorkshire to help with the investigation worked out after only 2 weeks on the case that the killer lived in Bradford, something West Yorkshire Police hadn't been able work out after spending 5 YEARS on the case.

-Even when Sutcliffe was finally caught, the police didn't search Sutcliffe properly allowing him to hide a knife in the police station and didn't discover his special garment or 'killing kit' until 2 days after his arrest. This garment was worn when Sutcliffe went looking for prey and proved that Sutcliffe killed for sexual gratification and could have thrown out his plea of schizophrenia in court, yet the garment was never produced as evidence during his trial.

In criticism of this worthy book I would say that it was a little too long and could be dry in places. For example, why spend an entire chapter on the career of Detective Inspector Dennis Hoban of Leeds CID, someone who didn't seem to have much to do with the Ripper case and died 2 years before the Ripper was caught? Or why describe in detail all the banking procedures for trying to trace the £5 note clue? I found those particular pages bordering on the tedious.

The only other question mark I have is why was the author totally disinterested in Sutcliffe himself? Although I acknowledge that the book is about the police investigation and not the murderer, I don't think you can discount the killer entirely from the picture. In the book, Sutcliffe is a shadowy figure who is finally collared at the end and doesn't seem to have any motive for his depraved crimes other than he is 'wicked beyond belief'. Call me fussy, but I would have liked a little more explanation than this.

However, I don't wish to detract from the book as overall I found it to be very interesting. Bilton brings to light some important new evidence, notably the warnings that the 'Wearside Jack' Sunderland connection was probably a hoax and the 'killing kit' that Sutcliffe wore when cruising in his car looking for victims. At times the book is disturbing, especially the descriptions of the modus operandi of the Ripper. Another thought-provoking aspect of the book is that the police, the organisation that the public put so much faith in when confronted by such a public danger, can get such a big and important investigation so wrong year after year.

The book ends on a more optimistic note by pointing out that with today's technology, a similar killer would be caught very quickly. DNA testing, computers, geographical profiling and CCTV mean that people can't hide from the authorities the way that Peter Sutcliffe could in the late 1970s.

Editorial Review:

For over 20 years, the dark secrets of the biggest criminal manhunt in British history have remained a closed book—until now. Wicked Beyond Belief is a powerful indictment of the calamitous investigation that logged two million man-hours of police work. Its revelation of crucial new evidence relating to Sutcliffe’s meticulously planned methods caused newspaper headlines, and it argues convincingly that his crimes were far more extensive than admitted. With exclusive access to the detectives involved, pathologist’s archives, and top-secret reports, Michael Bilton’s expose is as riveting as any thriller.

Fish Fights: A Hall of Fame Quest

Bob Rich

List Price: $24.95 By: The Lyons Press Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $3.68

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Successful Quest 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I've known Bob (Bubba) all my life and this is just another example of the success he's had at whatever he tries. His book will be interesting for all people, those into fishing and those as myself who are not. Bob's story telling is great and I enjoyed the book from beginning to end. His conservation efforts should be applauded. Hope he finds time to write some more.

Fun Fish Fights 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Reading "Fish Fights" was a delightful adventure. It is a picaresque journey in the quest of an impossible goal and its telling in a straightforward, light style makes it easily accessible and satisfying entertainment. I found plenty for the expert on the arcane rules of the contest and the varied, specific skills required to boat (and then release) each of the 10 different, magnificent, maddening, game fish that are the object of this game and deserve, we learn, the respect with which they are treated. But the real delight for me was getting to know the protagonist -- a wonderful, bright, big hearted, gentle but very determined and targeted Captain of Industry (and that he truly is, but you'll have to do a little research to find out, since he doesn't tell us about it) that shares the time of his life with us. Not the least of my fun came from his fast, insightfull sketches of guides and companions, a wonderful selection of slightly askew personalities that reflect the diversity and twists, the surprises and flavor that flows from the open and closed waters of and around the Everglades. I wished I could have been with them, swapping tales, peeling sunbruned skin (me, not them) doling out dreams and plotting how to outsmart those cunning denizens of the not-so-deep. It is a charming, fun filled, man of a book.

Editorial Review:

One man's quest to catch ten record big-game fish.

Their Fathers' Work: Casting Nets with the World's Fishermen

William B. McCloskey

Amazon Price: $24.95 List Price: $24.95 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press Amazon Marketplace: 28 new & used starting at $3.15

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

If you have ever eaten a fish or crab, then read this book! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This is a superb book. McCloskey writes from such a deep base of personal experience, that within a few lines we are transported to the heaving, noisy and often foul-smelling deck of a rusty trawler pitching in a cold northern sea or the cramped camaraderie of the galley on a Japanese squid boat. You feel the shudder of the steel deck as the boat pitches into a steep swell, taste the salt in the air and gag on the stench of diesel fumes and dead fish. The book is a collection of essays, exploring the challenges that face commercial fishermen in various parts of the globe. We hear lots of languages - Russian, English, Spanish, Norwegian, Japanese and more - and experience very different cultures, each united by the sea and the grueling task of pulling food from its depths. Gradually, the similarities grow much larger than the differences. No matter where he is, McCloskey can rapidly blend into the crew becoming just one more figure shrouded in foul weather gear pulling in the nets. This remarkable desire to muck-in with the deckhands no matter how hard the work or how severe the conditions, is the secret to his vivid and exciting writing. I can never look at a piece of sushi or a bag of fish and chips in quiet the same way.

Editorial Review:

McCloskey's vivid prose puts you right on deck, working like the devil as the decks roll, the spray flies, and the nets are hauled. His love of the boats, the fishermen, and the sea shines through this fascinating tribute to a way of life.

Nobody Ever Sees You Eat Tuna Fish

David Brenner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Pleasantly surprised 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Knew this book was out of print, couldn't believe the great condition the book was in. Thanks!!

Fish Whistle

Daniel Manus Pinkwater

List Price: $14.95 By: Random House Audio Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $9.49

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Hilarious, moving essays and stories, well read 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you can get a copy of this audiobook, BUY IT.

This two-tape set contains readings, by the author, from his essay collection _Fishwhistle._ These in turn are transcriptions of his NPR essays. They cover a wide variety of topics, from Zen to raising malemute dogs to children's literacy.

It's hard to describe Pinkwater's style. Suffice to say that I've seen friends that I've played these for laugh unto injuring themselves.

Eat pudding.

Fantastic! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This audiobook will become a classic - I'm BUYING this one because I've been checking it out of the library every year for a comedy visit.

Give yourself a treat.

"He was daft." and of course, "Eat pudding."

Brimfield Rush: The Thrill of Collecting And the Hunt for the Big Score

Bob Wyss

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

The antiques business from the other side of the table 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

If you don't live in New England or make a practice of frequenting flea markets, you might not be familiar with the name "Brimfield." It's not just a small town in south central Massachusetts; it's become an all-encompassing term (in both noun and verb forms) for the event that overtakes that region three weeks of the year. Author Bob Wyss has provided us with a look at Brimfield's history as well as the work that goes on behind the scenes. It's a view we casual visitors don't usually get or could even guess at. The emphasis here is on the dealers and the residents, and not the average walk-in buyer.

Chapters are arranged in sections chronologically by the flea market weeks: May, July, September, and the following May. Though the book begins with a couple in search of a human skeleton -- which they eventually discover and gleefully buy -- the focus throughout the text rests on two burgeoning art dealers, Rachel and Joe. Linked in a new professional and personal relationship, they face a number of challenges as they attend Brimfield to buy and sell items for their Pennsylvania art business. Joe is the risk-taker and Rachel the financial manager, and together they struggle to become successful at a work that is fraught with a variety of dilemmas. Should they merely collect, or buy and sell? How much should they reveal to an unsuspecting seller, since "a score has two sides, and for every winner there is a corresponding loser"? (p. 92) What's real and what is fake? And when will they become comfortable enough to stop moving from show to show and settle down in their own permanent gallery? They find most of their answers by the end of the book.

Wyss includes interesting side stories to the lives of Rachel and Joe, with glimpses at other Brimfield dealers, field owners and town officials. He details the town dispute with its police force in 2003, which resulted in the firing of all but the chief and which certainly contributed to a major silver theft in the field that year. He looks at the thrill of "the big score" in the antiques world, citing several cases that include the discovery of a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence behind an old painting bought for four dollars in Adamstown, Penna., in 1989. The piece sold for $2.42 million at Sotheby's in 1991, and was later bought by Norman Lear for $8.14 million in 2000. That score set the dream devoutly to be wished by anyone ever attending or dealing at a flea market or auction. Wyss also discusses the effect that eBay and other online opportunities have had on live auctions and flea markets. And even a knowledgeable dealer can mistakenly drink his way through a case of Bordeaux before learning that the going rate for it is $1000 a bottle.

I read this book in the middle of a Brimfield week, and it gave me a new perspective on the event. This time I saw more paintings than I'd ever noticed before. I caught saw PBS's Antiques Roadshow personality Gary Sohmers charging down a path, dressed just as described in the book. I understood that a "big score" could still be gotten by a visitor or dealer. And I realized that the "Brimfield Rush" is not just the frenzied way that customers enter the fields at the opening bell. It's that feeling that permeates your very own nervous system when you buy something you know is wonderful.

A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer

David C. Powell

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This engaging memoir presents one man's lifelong love of the ocean and gives a highly personal, behind-the-scenes look at California's magnificent and innovative aquariums. David Powell, for many years curator of the world-renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium, tells the story of his life as a pioneering aquarist. From handling great white sharks to transporting delicate fish on bumpy airplanes to night diving for fish in the Indian Ocean, A Fascination for Fish describes many of the mind-boggling challenges that make modern aquariums possible and offers an intriguing glimpse beneath the ocean's surface.
Powell's career in diving and aquarium development goes back to the beginning of modern methods in both areas. From the early techniques he devised to get fish into aquariums alive and healthy to his later exploratory dive to a depth of eleven hundred feet in a two-person submarine, Powell's action-packed narrative inspires laughter, wonder, and philosophical reflection. A Fascination for Fish also includes many stories about Powell's diving adventures on the California coast, in the Sea of Cortez, and in many remote and exotic locations around the world.

Man vs Fish: The Fly Fisherman's Eternal Struggle

Taylor Streit

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Editorial Review:

Man vs Fish comprises the highlights of Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame guide Taylor Streit's fifty years of fly-fishing. From New Mexico to Argentina we follow Streit, and his sidekick "superfly," from hooking the tail of a great marlin to getting hooked, barefoot, to the living room carpet. Reading these dramatic tales will inspire the armchair angler to thrash their way to a wild place, don waders, and become part of the action.

"Taylor has been to exciting places I'll never visit, and he has written about those places. He's caught peacock bass in Brazil. And he has witnessed people wrestling alligators. He bagged a 28-inch brown trout in Patagonia while red stags kibitzed from the background. . . . All the tales are good fun and great writing. There's some wonderful satire to boot. . . . These stories catch fish. And all of them are hefty lunkers."--John Nichols, from the Foreword

Health Healing and Amuse System: Humor As Survival Training

Paul McGhee

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