Teton Country Anthology by Robert W. Righter


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
"There is no greater wonder in mountain scenery on the continent, than the tendency it has to shorten the distance to the eye and lengthen it to the foot." This quote is from Nathaniel Langford who wrote in the 1870s, when writers did not limit their sentences to 140 characters.

Other contributors to this anthology are: William A. Baillie-Grohman, The Associated Press, William Owen, Owen Wister, Theodore Roosevelt, Major Sir Rose Lambert Price, George Bird Grinnell, Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson, Stephen Leek, Olaus & Margaret Murie, and Fritiof Fryxell.

Two of my favorite essays are from the section named Seeing and Settling the Country.Fannie Kemble Wister wrote about her summer of 1911 at a dude ranch and Frances Judge wrote about her Gram and Gramps who were 1892 pioneers to the valley. These add to my empathetic imagination for human perspectives to Teton Country.

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Armchair travel to Alaska's Inner Passage

Alaska's Inside Passage by Kim Heacox


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Four essays and 117 color photographs are great for armchair traveling whether you have seen this for yourself or dream of doing so.

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Desert Light by Dean Lee Uhlinger


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The photographs from this book can be an introduction to armchair traveling and the text can be an introduction to storytelling from the cultures of others.

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Sights of Columbia, SC

Statue of Strom Thurmond.

Statue of Civil War General Wade Hampton

Statue of George Washington

Never Bust by Blue Sky

I Don't Think Those Yankees Are Kin

When I spell out our surname and insist there is no t in the middle, I am occasionally asked if we are related to Mary Chesnut, the author of A Diary from Dixie which is used as primary source material for many historians of the Civil War/War Between the States.
"Oh yes, I know who you mean: Mary, the wife of cousin James. We are going to her house for a visit in the summer of 2009."

When I made the reservation for our one-night stay at Chesnut Cottage Bed & Breakfast, I told the host, Gale Garrett, he knew how to spell our last name.

"Are you related?"

This time, as a serious family historian and amateur genealogist, I admitted I had not been able to yet document the familial relationship. If my husband is related to her husband, the relationship is no closer than a fourth-cousin, many-times-removed.
We walked around historic sites of Columbia SC. A short, rain shower only raised the humidity and heat for which Columbia, SC is famous so we returned to our room for an afternoon nap.

An hour into our nap, I heard a rattling of the glass in our room door, as if someone were shaking the door or a wind gust blew against it. By the time I got to the door, no human was on the other side. In my drowsy state, I muttered to whatever spirits might still linger in any old house, "Thanks for letting us stay here. I appreciate it."

At our breakfast the next morning, Gale Garrett told us of the unexplained noises he heard during the renovation of the house and of the photographed cat who did not appear in printed pictures. Now I can imagine my experience was the spirit of our Southern lady declaiming, "I do not think those Yankees are kin."

Snowfall Dec. 19, 2009

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Originally uploaded by hikerdee

The First Snowfall of this Season

The first snowfall of the year brought just enough snow to remind drivers we live in the Midwest and how many of those drivers forgot how to drive in slippery conditions.

I read for entertainment

Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I prefer the author's Molly Murphy series to the first book of this series and yet I will read all three books of this series. A too-quick resolution by way of arrest of the villian was the reason I gave this 3 stars instead of my usual 4 or 5 for this author.

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Please read as supplementary material

End the Fed by Ron Paul


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I don't know if I can recommend this book to people who have opinions contrary to me without them thinking this book is only Paul's opinion. Paul does seek to educate mis-informed people about the history and consequences of the actions of the Federal Reserve since 1913. Sometimes his logic takes leaps of faith as he tries to prove his point quickly and in simple terms. To those readers who would open this book while holding a contrary opinion, I just ask them to hold this question in their mind, "What if the author is right about this?"

For those readers willing to devote more than 210 pages of reading on this subject please follow this link, my family porch: Lords of Finance for another recommendation.



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Eleven years old and still a good reference book

Profiting from Emerging Market Stocks by Mitchell Posner


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My rating of four stars is based on this book being 11 years old. Much has changed during that time.
This book is worthy of being a reference because it still has many good checklists for information necessary to have before committing your investing funds. One such checklist is for determining political risk and another 5-page checklist is given for selecting emerging market stocks. These checklists may be useful to check the fundamentals of our domestic stocks too.
This book is worth the reading time.

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What Kate Stalter says about CTRP

Ctrip.com By Kate Stalter
Posted 11/25/2009 02:22 PM ET


Chinese travel agency Ctrip.com (CTRP) recently cleared a long cup-with-handle pattern. After making a strong upside move, it appears to be consolidating gains well above its 10-week average.

•CTrip.com is a mid-cap. It trades a million shares a day.
•Fund ownership has grown in each of the past two quarters, a good sign of support from professional investors.
•Funds own 27% of shares, a healthy number.
•CTrip’s Earnings Per Share Rating is 99. Quarterly profit growth accelerated in the past three quarters.
•Return on equity is excellent, at 35%.
•Its group, Leisure-Services, continues to be a strong performer.
•CTrip has an outstanding Composite Rating, 99.


Chart Analysis
•Emerging from its bear-market correction, CTrip made several successful pullbacks to its 10-week average (Point 1). None of these, however, were long enough to constitute proper bases.
•Its most recent pullback (Point 2) could be viewed as a handle to a long cup-shaped pattern that began in May 2008 (Point 3).
•However, the handle was somewhat flawed, correcting about 16%, a little more than you see in an ideal handle.
•It cleared the high of that pattern (Point 4) in heavy volume earlier this month, after a better than expected third-quarter earnings report.
•It’s now consolidating those gains a bit. Watch to see if it goes on to form a proper base.
•With the current outlook being Market Uptrend Under Pressure, be very cautious about any new buys.


Stock Checkup
•CTrip.com has the best Composite Rating in the 43-member Leisure-Services industry group.
•It also has the group’s best SMR Rating, thanks to a strong return on equity and accelerating sales

http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=NTk5Mzg3OQ=="

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was the first book of the speculative fiction genre I have read. I found some of the information about the alternate world a bit jarring in places because my thought of "I don't remember it that way" took me out of the story rather than hooking me deeper into the world-building the author was doing.
The author created likeable characters and a truly-dastardly villian to keep you entertained. I'm willing to recommend it to acquaintances who have not tried reading this genre before because the telling of the narrative encourages your curiosity.

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A Dog Named Christmas by Greg Kincaid


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The book is an easy and enjoyable read. It has the best structure and craft of writing of the last three Christian-genre books I recently read.

I'll recommend it those readers who enjoyed Marley and Me.

If you don't want to read the book, watch the Hallmark Presents A Dog Named Christmas on CBS, Nov 29 9-11 EST.

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Just when you think it will ...

Killer Cuts by Elaine Viets


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I recommend this to cozy mystery readers who also watch Split Ends and Tabitha's Salon Takeovers.
I can hardly wait for the next novel in this series because the action in the last chapter really thwarted Helen Hawthorne. Darn you, Elaine Viets and your dastardly plotting!

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The Completion of Downsizing Our Collection of Books

Done! Done, done, done!

The task of downsizing our collection is finished. I suspect that many normal people think I have a long way to go if I were to ever put this house on the market. Donna and Shannon Freeman would be telling Clive that our collections of books is "too taste specific" and "has too much of our own personality still in the house for potential buyers to see themselves living here."

I mentioned in a previous blog we have eight bookcases filled with collections of Harvard Classics, Library of America, local history, books we bought while traveling, Civil War history, fantasy series, cozy mysteries for entertainment, National Geographic and Time-Life books for armchair travel, and reference books for investing, Photoshop Elements, and genealogy. This project is finished because I added the titles of six boxes of books in garage storage to the to-read shelves of my husband and I at goodreads.com AND I offered the titles of books in eight boxes to my Half.com listings.

My husband and I have more than 400 books to-read. I don't expect to be done with That Project for another 4-6 years. Hikerdon began his collection of some fantasy series in the early 1990s. He did not feel the need to rush to read them because he liked to read a series one after another without waiting a year or more for the next installment to be released. Confusion about the many different series from a same author have led him to purchases that did not complete a series. Goodreads.com is a useful tool for keeping series straight. My project of reading all the books I bought on our travels (project started in 2007) will not be completed in 2009 as I thought it might when I finished The Best of Edward Abbey. I found more books for that project in the box marked "Western books. "

Guess what we DON'T need for Christmas!

my to-read bookshelf

Hikerdee's to-read book montage

Hikerdee's favorite books »

Hikerdon's to-read shelf

Hikerdon's to-read book montage

Hikerdon's favorite books »