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The BOOK Thread

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Last book, Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks.
Andrea Lankford.
About rescue stories, from stupid thinking humans without awareness.
Long hours, low pay, little emotional support, hard core rescues, death.
Everything I didn't think about when I was "waffle stomping" Yosemite backcountry, solo.

Side note, way too many deaths this year in our National Parks, I haven't looked for a total, but that number isn't something they want to share. The heat has been a bigger factor, hard to work around.

Now, I'm back into Shogun, can't get enough, , ,
 
for park ranger stuff I recommend:

1) Book by Carl S. Chavez about his career with the Calif. State Parks - in particular, his first small book about his first assignment - wintering over in Bode with his new and pregnant wife. Carl went on to be Supt. of Parks.

A Year in Bodie: A Park Ranger's Diary


2) Biography of John H. Riffey - the last true all-round ranger - who work and was buried at Tuweep (Troweap) North Rim Grand Canyon. Its an excellent read - I read most of it on site while waiting for a flatbed tow out after our Jeep broke a tranny fluid line.

John H. Riffey The Last Old-Time Ranger

 
Just finished "The Wager", by David Grann. Excellent read, based on a true events of the Wager's journey from England down around South America's
Cape Horn and being wrecked on a small island on the south coast of Chile on 14, May 1741.
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The Wager.png


Also, just picked up another of Grann's books: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.
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Killers of the Flower Moon.png
 
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I don’t know if I’ve posted in this thread yet, but I have two books that are my favorites.

The first was given to me by my parents one Christmas. John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”. An absolutely beautiful book that has its origins in the Great Depression. A completely beautiful and stunning story. When I first met my wife, I encouraged her to read it but she hadn’t gotten around to it yet. So one Sunday morning I told her I would read her the last chapter. When I finished, she was silent so I turned to look at her and I found her with tears streaming down her cheeks. She had never heard or read anything that powerful. She finally read the entire book and it became her favorite as well.

And that book had a profound effect on my life.
 
My other favorite book is “The Prophet” by Khalil Gibran. It’s a short book, full of advice for the living of one’s life. It’s absolutely beautifully written (poetry, really) and has been translated and sold in more languages than just about any other book in the history of printing. In fact, I would put it at the top of my list.
 
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