Book Reviews

KAYAK ROUTES OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST COAST

Edited by Peter McGee Foreword by John Dowd

No matter how much paddling experience you have, Kayak Routes of the Pacific Northwest Coast has something to offer about one of the world's great kayaking destinations.

Kayak Routes explores 16 areas in the Pacific Northwest, from Puget Sound with its extensive shoreline, cabin-dotted islands and beaches filled with sand dollars, to the Queen Charlotte Islands, with their haunting beauty, ancient forests and archaeological sites, and sheltered bays and inlets.

For each area, expert kayaker Peter McGee provides a brief introduction giving information about the physical environment, unusual plant or animal life and the overall flavour of the area. He describes trips that can be taken, camping sites, emergency contacts, how to get there, weather, hazards and, where applicable, special considerations, such as the need to steer clear of cormorant colonies or seal haul-out areas or the best way to enjoy watching gray whales without disturbing them. Background information is also included for each region, as are black and white photographs and maps showing trails and campsites.

Peter McGee is the founder of the B.C. Marine Trail Association. 288 pages, 5.5x8.5, 20 b&w photos, 17 maps $19.95, paperbound ISBN 1-55054-615-5

Kayak Routes of the Pacific Northwest Coast   can be bought at Chapters.ca (Canadian site and Canadian dollars)

1998 WAGGONER CRUISING GUIDE

The Waggoner Cruising Guide is a must for all the mother-shippers out there. Before you head out for a holiday this summer, take a look at what the guide has to offer. It is a complete boating reference guide covering the waters from Olympia at the south end of Puget Sound, to Prince Rupert BC, just 30 miles from Ketchikan Alaska. The guide tells where to anchor, where to overnight at marinas and public parks and how to navigate tricky passages. It tells how to cross the border and how to use the VHF radio. A useful reference to any mariner, the Waggoner Cruising Guide will be of particular value to those chartering boats for a vacation. This is an all in one source for cruising the Pacific Northwest.

The book has been updated since its 1997 version, to include over 1000 changes including telephone numbers and area codes. New marina maps have been added and now include the telephone numbers and VHF radio channels for the facility. Many new sidebar stories have also been added, including Kay Spences "I Almost Died From Shellfish Poisoning". These personal accounts contain valuable lessons and advice that can help you avoid the same mistakes!

The Waggoner Cruising Guide is the creation of Robert Hale, a longtime Northwest sailing and powerboat enthusiast. Hale and his wife Marilynn have been to nearly every location described in the book. The few he has not visited are described by trusted colleagues. The Cruising Guide is great value for the dollar and packed with easy to use information. Check it out.

1998 Waggoner Cruising Guide 256 pp., 197 photos, plus maps ISBN 0-935727-13-2 Published by Weatherly Press Div. Robert Hale & Co. Inc., Bellevue, WA $14.95 U.S., $19.95 Canada

 Waggoner Cruising Guide, 1998 can be bought at Amazon.com
1998 Waggoner Cruising Guide   can be bought at Chapters.ca (Canadian site and Canadian dollars)

WILD COLOURS - CANADA'S ROCKY MOUNTAIN WILDFLOWERS

Photography by Paul Gilbert Text by Kathryn Graham

With Wild Colours, Paul Gilbert and Kathryn Graham have immersed themselves in the most enviable job of capturing and describing wild flowers in bloom. In order to compose this beautiful book, they spent hours in Canada's Rocky Mountains. From early spring to late summer, Paul and Kathryn's goal was to be in the right place at the right time. Well off the beaten path, Gilbert and Graham searched from the valley bottoms to the highest ridges to capture on film, this wonderfully diverse collection of Canada's wildflowers.

This book is a presentation of wild flowers as you have never seen them before. Paul Gilbert has been photographing the Rocky Mountains since he first picked up a camera. Since then, he has shared his expertise through workshops, classes and hiking tours. He has had great success publishing his photographs in private and corporate collections, as well as in books such as The Last Wilderness and West Coast Impressions.

The photographs in Wild Colours are blessed by the words of Kathryn Graham. Her curiosity about the natural world has led her to learn as much as she can about the natural world. The text in Wild Colours is a lovely combination of flowing narrative and detailed description. Kathryn's published work includes West Coast Impressions, as well as scripts, handbooks and illustrations for a variety of educational materials that deal with science, geography and nature.

Wild Colours, hard cover, colour photographs, ISBN 0-9695737-1-5, Wild Light Press 1997.

Wild Colours:Canada's Rocky Mountain Wildflowers can be bought at Chapters.ca (Canadian site and Canadian dollars)

CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION

by Barbara Marx Hubbard

Conscious Evolution is an inspiring book which suggests that for all our social problems, humankind is in this process of transformation. Just as the caterpillar appears to disintegrate in order for the butterfly to come into being, so too society's crises may be seen as the process of quantum change.

The author describes herself as neither an optimist nor a pessimist but a "potentialist". She argues that after thirty years of the human potential movement we have moved on to the "social potential" movement, and that we can now learn to consciously evolve global society to a new and higher level. Barbara has some good suggestions for consciously assisting our evolution as a species, such as an ongoing registry of "what works" to help spread successful innovations.

1998, New World Library ISBN: 1-57731-016-0 paperback 5.5" x 8.5", diagrams, 280 pp

Conscious Evolution : Awakening the... can be bought at Amazon.com
Conscious Evolution:Awakening Our Social Potential   can be bought at Chapters.ca (Canadian site and Canadian dollars)

BRINGING THE WAR HOME

by William Thomas

Bringing the War Home by Gabriola author William Thomas (a former US officer who served in Vietnam) tells the hidden story behind the mysterious epidemic known as the "Gulf War Illness" which is still afflicting over 100,000 American GIs and their families. Thomas extensively documents the exposure of US, Canadian and other Coalition troops to chemical and biological agents, and to hazardous inoculations. Thomas visited the Gulf during the war and his first hand experiences add to his research to paint a disturbing picture of military cover-ups and distortions.

Earthpulse Press, PO Box 201393, Anchorage, AK 99520. ISBN:1-890693-24-3 1998, 436 pp 5.5" x 8.5" B/W photos $19.95 US

Bringing the War Home can be bought at Amazon.com
Bringing the War Home   can be bought at Chapters.ca (Canadian site and Canadian dollars)

CUBA

1998 by Gordon Robinson

Cuba 1998 is handy booklet-sized guide to Cuba. It is packed with useful information on the country's extremely colourful history, travel information including safety tips and a list of tour companies operating in Cuba. Robinson's personal accounts of travel in Cuba provide useful real life experience that can help flavour your trip. A list of references at the back will point you in the right direction for further research.

34 page paperback booklet with map: $8 Email:cubaking@skybus.com