Saturday, April 27, 2013

Good Guides: The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds


The culmination of many years of research, observation, and study, The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds is factually, visually, and organizationally superior to any other photographic field guide available.

Available in Eastern and Western volumes, these easy-to-use guides feature over 4,600 North American bird species with stunning color photographs.

by Donald Stokes and Lillian Stokes
Little, Brown and Company, 2013
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Monday, April 22, 2013

Reading the History: The Old Fashioned


American tavern owners caused a sensation in the late eighteenth century when they mixed sugar, water, bitters, and whiskey and served the drink with rooster feather stirrers.

The modern version of this "original cocktail," widely known as the Old Fashioned, is a standard in any bartender's repertoire and holds the distinction of being the only mixed drink ever to rival the Martini in popularity.

In this book, Gourmand Award--winning author Albert W. A. Schmid profiles the many people and places that have contributed to the drink's legend since its origin.

The Old Fashioned
An Essential Guide to the Original Whiskey Cocktail
by Albert W. A. Schmid
The University Press of Kentucky, 2013



Saturday, April 13, 2013

Reading the History: Kit Carson


Best known today for his role in the tragic "Long Walk" of  the Navajos as Col. Christopher Carson of the First New Mexico Volunteers, "Kit" Carson was a mythical hero in dime novels of the 19th century and movie Westerns of the mid-20th century who fought savages, protected the virtuous and helped open the frontier.

This biography portrays the real-life Carson as Scots-Irish border man - a trapper, guide, hunter, soldier - shaped by his culture and his times. Rather than a stereotypic Indian killer, it argues that he matured intellectually and ethically as he grew older.

The Life of an American Border Man 
by David A. Remley
University of Oklahoma Press, 2012

Continued in ... Out of the Past

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