Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders : A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury

Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders : A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury Review

Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders : A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury Feature

• ISBN13: 9780684868592
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders : A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury Overview

Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders collects forty of John Gierach's finest essays on fishing from six of his books. Like all his writing, these essays are seasoned by a keen sense of observation and a deep knowledge and love of fishing lore, leavened by a wonderfully wry sense of humor. Gierach often begins with an observation that soon leads to something below the surface, which he finds and successfully lands. As Gierach says, writing is a lot like fishing.

This is the first anthology of John Gierach's work, a collection that is sure to delight both die-hard fans and new readers alike. To enter Gierach's world is to experience the daily wonder, challenge, and occasional absurdity of the fishing life -- from such rituals as the preparation of camp coffee (for best results, serve in a tin cup) to the random, revelatory surprises, such as the flashing beauty of a grayling leaping out of the water. Whether he's catching fish or musing on the ones that got away, Gierach is always entertaining and enlightening, writing with his own inimitable blend of grace and style, passion and wit.

Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders : A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury Specifications

There are two things no dedicated fly-fisher can really have enough of: a decent selection of flies on the stream and a decent selection of John Gierach off of it. Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders should go a good way toward satisfying the latter. In this "greatest hits" of essays culled from Gierach's previous collections, the genial wit and astute observer behind Another Lousy Day in Paradise, Dances with Trout, and Trout Bum reels in 40 of his favorite keepers. Considering the quality of Gierach's writing, calling Headwaters a "treasury" is no fish tale at all.

Reading Leaky Waders is like recalling some memorably productive afternoons on the stream with an old fishing buddy. Writing about his sport and his adventures, Gierach is naturally writing about much more: "I've always tried to figure out what a story is about," he'll admit readily. "It's something other than the fishing but that wouldn't have come up without the fishing." As in "The Purist," an essay from The View from Rat Lake: it's vintage Gierach, an excuse to use fishing to open a window onto human nature. "What is it about fly-fishing," he asks,

that attracts ... those people who must engineer a corner of their lives--sometimes a pretty large corner--where things have to be done properly? I'm not sure I know, but whatever it is, it's why the sport can be used to define the very existence of the practitioner.

From there, he connects, with deft precision, the seemingly diverse strands of his own experience as a plumber's helper, a fire on the Cuyahoga River, Zen, a little fishing history, a brief meditation on the dry fly, B.B. King, such noted anglers as G.E.M. Skues and Gierach's own great fishing accomplice A.K. Best, Idaho's Three Rivers Ranch on the Henry's Fork, and a graceful dismissal of snootiness and pretension. It's a skillful performance. Before you're finished with Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders, you'll find 39 more that are just as good. --Jeff Silverman

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From the Jaws of Death: Extreme True Adventures of Man vs. Nature

From the Jaws of Death: Extreme True Adventures of Man vs. Nature Review

From the Jaws of Death: Extreme True Adventures of Man vs. Nature Feature

• ISBN13: 9780312555665
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

From the Jaws of Death: Extreme True Adventures of Man vs. Nature Overview

A harrowing collection of true tales of death and survival under the most extreme conditions imaginable

There comes a time in some men’s lives when their physical and emotional states are pushed to the limit. Maybe their boat has capsized and they are adrift in the ocean, or maybe they’ve fallen into an ice crevasse, with no apparent way out. It is in these moments men discover what they are truly made of and whether they have the courage and physical strength to come back From the Jaws of Death.

This explosive collection showcases twenty-three stories of adventure gone horribly wrong, including:

--“The Devil's Thumb" by Jon Krakauer: the bestselling author recounts his perilous solo climb of Alaska's infamous Devil's Thumb
--"Surviving the St. Patrick" by Spike Walker: the crew of a fishing boat face crushing waves in the middle of a winter storm in the Gulf of Alaska
--"Look for a Corpse" by Larry Kaniut: a man buried by an avalanche fights to make it out alive
--"The Boat Journey" by Sir Ernest Shackleton: when his expedition's ship is destroyed, Shackleton and five of his crewmembers resolve to cross 800 ocean miles in a lifeboat to look for help
--And many more!

This is one of the finest and most extreme collections of true adventure ever assembled.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Nov 14, 2010 23:27:04

Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders

Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders Review

I've been a Raiders fan since 1964, the good majority of my life, and bought this book primarily because of that. I was surprised by how good a book it was in its own right. About a quarter of the way through I realized this would make an enjoyable read for any true football aficionado. I say that because whether the author intended it or not this book really explains what made John Madden's Raiders unique in football history and why there will probably never be another team like it. Here was a collection of people that really loved to play football; loved to tackle and be tackeled. Have you ever had a job that you loved to come to every day? If so, then you realize that's the most incredible experience to have. To get paid for doing something you'd enjoy doing anyway. Madden's Raiders were that. But only Madden could bring those people together without dampening their enthusiasm and this, more than anything else, explains what made that team so unusual and unique. John Rauch couldn't do it (Madden's predecessor) nor could Tom Flores (his successor). I always knew they were special but never understood exactly why until reading this book. It wasn't the winning (for that you could/should back the Steelers, Cowboys, or Dolphins). It had to be something else and it was -- these guys just loved to hit and loved to do things their way. At times I think the book goes overboard on documenting the team's partying because, I guess, that's what sells books. But I think what makes the book special is the other aspects to the team's history. The John Madden era Raiders were truly a family; even Al Davis laments the inability to ever again create that kind of atmosphere for his team (Al's own discription of the Raiders in L.A. vs. 1968-1978 Oakland is very telling in that respect). The discriptions of the selflessness of the players is really something that stands out and I can't see happening in today's me-first incentive-laden contract environment. If you love the Raiders, this one's a no-brainer but even if you only remember the team as different than the rest of the NFL and are curious as to why then I recommend this book as something you will enjoy reading.

Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders Feature

• ISBN13: 9780061834301
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders Overview

They were the NFL's ultimate outlaws, black-clad iconoclasts who, with a peculiar mix of machismo and brotherhood, of postgrad degrees and firearms, merrily defied pro football corporatism.

The Oakland Raiders of the 1970s were some of the most outrageous, beloved, and violent football teams ever to play the game. In this rollicking biography, Peter Richmond tells the story of Oakland's wrecking crew of castoffs, psychos, oddballs, and geniuses who won six division titles and a Super Bowl championship under the brilliant leadership of coach John Madden and eccentric owner Al Davis.

Richmond goes inside the locker room and onto the field with Ken Stabler, Willie Brown, Fred Biletnikoff, George Atkinson, Phil Villapiano, and the rest of this band of brothers who made the Raiders legendary. He vividly recounts days of grueling practices and hell-raising nights of tavern crawling—from smoking pot and hiring strippers during training camp to sharing game-day beers with their hardcore fans (including the Bay Area's other badasses, the Black Panthers and the Hells Angels). Richmond reveals a group of men who, after years of coming up short in the AFC Championship game, saw their off-kilter loyalty to the black and silver finally pay off with their emphatic Super Bowl victory in 1977. Funny, raunchy, and inspiring, Badasses celebrates the '70s Raiders as the last team to play professional football the way it was meant to be played: down and very dirty.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Nov 07, 2010 01:48:05