Showing posts with label Hunting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hunting. Show all posts

Saturday, 9 September 2023

Bittersweet

Finished September 4
Bittersweet by Susan Wittig Albert

This novel is part of the series featuring herbalist China Bayles. Here, the story is set in a more remote part of Texas, in the small community where China's mother Leatha and stepfather Sam live, in the week around the Thanksgiving holiday. China and her family are planning to go to Leatha and Sam's for the holiday, but Sam is now in the hospital with heart issues. Sam is insisting the plans continue, so they do.
Besides China's family, Leatha has also invited China's friend Mack Chambers, a game warden in the area, newly transferred there after a recent divorce. Mack loves her job, and her previous husband had issues with her long and sometimes erratic hours, and with her less feminine interests. Mack lives alone with her dog and horse, but wouldn't say no to a relationship. She's recently started dating a divorced man who recently moved to the area, but isn't feeling the passion she's had before. 
Leatha and Sam have been converting the ranch that has been in his family for generations into a birding destination, redoing the lodge onsite, and building a viewing tower and other amenities. China worries about whether they can handle the operations with Sam's medical situation and their age. 
A more common use of cattle ranchers locally are canned hunting camps, with the owners importing a variety of animals, some for their value as trophies, and having hunters pay big bucks to shoot them onsite. The regulations around this activity are still in development, but for a lot of ranchers, this offers them a way to hang onto their land. 
There is also a new technology coming into play: drones as surveillance and investigative tools.
All of these elements come into play in the plot here. 
I found the first scene made me uncomfortable, but as the plot begins to move back and forth between China and Mack for most of the stories, I soon found myself captivated. 
There is also a lot of information at the beginning of chapters on plants from herbs to bushes, and invasive species versus local ones. At the end of the book are a few recipes from scenes in the story, a nice and useful addition. 

Saturday, 3 September 2016

You're Not Lost If You Can Still See the Truck

Finished August 26
You're Not Lost If You Can Still See the Truck: The Further Adventures of America's Everyman Outdoorsman by Bill Heavey

This is a collection of articles from Field & Stream, freelance articles and other writings from award-winning journalist Bill Heavey. Covering hunting from deer to ducks, and ants to turkeys; fishing for a variety from bass to tarpon; the retail side of the outdoors business; and Heavey's personal life, this collection has pieces both hilarious and touching.
The book is organized into four sections by date: 1988-1999, 2000-2004, 2005-2009, and 2010-2014.
The writing is stellar, the situations relatable, and the personalities large.
I enjoyed this book immensely despite knowing little of the details around the equipment that he includes here. I read several bits out loud to family members as I chuckled, and noted lines of great truth.

Wednesday, 11 November 2015

The Poacher's Son

Finished November 10
The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron

This debut novel is the first in a series featuring Maine game warden Mike Bowditch, and was a finalist for the Edgar Award. Mike had a rough upbringing, beginning with poverty and arguing parents. His father Jack is a backwoods man, eking out a living hunting, not always legally, working at camps, and comfortable with little in the way of material possessions. He also drinks too much, is quick to anger, not afraid of a fight, and has an eye for a good-looking woman.
After leaving with his mother when he was young, Mike tried to reconnect with his dad both as a teen and as a young adult, but never was able to manage it. He did gain a love for nature and wild things though and became a game warden. He still has a lot of issues and some of them have affected his relationships and his attitude towards difficulties that arise.
When his father leaves a cryptic message on his answering machine and Mike finds out that his father has become the prime suspect in the murder of two men, one of them a police officer he knew in school, he can't believe his father capable of such an act. He knows his father can be violent, but in a bar brawl kind of way, and he can't believe in the motives that the authorities are ascribing to Jack. As Mike becomes obsessed with finding Jack and getting him to trust in the justice system, he finds new friends and discovers how many people have come to care about him along the way.
This is the story of a young man, still aching to be a man his father can be proud of, a man who must sort through his own myths about his father to find the truth. It is a coming of age novel that will having you thoroughly engaged in the story and characters.

Wednesday, 17 June 2015

The Wilding

Finished June 17
The Wilding by Benjamin Percy

This novel is about a man, his relationships with his father, his wife, and his son. But it is also a tale of the wild nature in all of us. There are three main speakers: Justin, a schoolteacher who has never lived up to his father's expectations of male behaviour; Karen, Justin's wife, who has largely withdrawn from their marriage after the stillborn death of their second child years before; and Brian, a young man, suffering both physically and mentally from injuries received in Iraq.
Justin works hard at his job, but has left the house repairs slide lately due to his heavy workload. He still loves Karen strongly, but has almost stopped trying to connect with her after repeated rejections. His father is a man's man, and wants to take Justin and his sixth-grade son Graham on a weekend hunting trip at the spot he and Justin go to every year, as the area is slated for development. This will be Graham's first hunting trip.
Karen is obsessed with exercise, running daily and cooking only healthy, organic food she has carefully researched and bought. She is also obsessed with the obverse, looking up ugly diseases and disgusting illnesses on the internet to make herself feel better. She has no respect for Justin, but there seems to be little rational reason for her feelings toward him. Having lost one child, she is protective of Graham, and worried about the influence of Justin's father Paul.
Brian suffered a head injury in Iraq when a bomb sent off near the vehicle he was in, and has bad headaches and unexpected mood changes as a result. He lives alone, operating the business he inherited from his father, and is obsessed with the idea of becoming a wild animal.
The hunting trip is a opportunity for Paul to orient Graham to hunting, and yet Justin shows himself to be comfortable in this environment, a man who knows how to do things and worries about things appropriately.
When the presence of a bear becomes apparent, Justin must decide how much he is willing to risk for his family, and whether he can overcome his father's authority to protect Graham.
Karen also finds herself put in the position to make a choice that will affect her family, and she finds herself strangely pliant in the face of another's wishes.
Brian is drawn to Karen after meeting her through work, and yet also drawn to the wildness in himself. He will be forced to make a choice as well.
I liked the immediacy of nature in this book, from the two instances with the owls to the setting of the hunting camp and the recurring bear. The native story about nature and its revenge was also an interesting element.

Thursday, 1 December 2011

Facing the Hunter

Finished November 28
Facing the Hunter: reflections on a misunderstood way of life by David Adams Richards
This book is a reflection on hunting, from a man who has hunted since he was a child, and who still hunts. Richards looks at the way of life he grew up with and that the people he knows well grew up with and pulls back the curtain on that for the rest of us. He talks about the current popular stance against hunting and the perceptions of hunting that the people who take that stance have. He talks about those who give hunting a bad name.
I grew up in a family where my father hunted occasionally and I remember taking moosemeat sandwiches to school. I remember fishing when I was young and how my father taught me to kill the fish quickly to limit its suffering. Richards also talks about respecting the animals, about the responsibility the hunter has to injured animals and about trusting your feelings about what feels right.
This is a very open, honest look at a behaviour (occupation? pastime? I'm not sure of the right word, but I know it isn't sport) that has a bad rap, and not reasons that reflect the hunting that many people in our country do. Many people hunt for food, and as a way of life that is involved with nature in a very true sense. This is a book that creates discussions and that is always a good thing.

Sunday, 6 July 2008

Suspense

Finished July 5
Blood Trail by C.J. Box
Joe Pickett is back, still working as a game warden, but not assigned to a particular area. Joe works where he is needed, which means he is away a lot and he and his family now live at a house in town rather than at the warden's house.
He is just looking forward to some time at home with his family, when he is called back in on a special case. Someone is hunting hunters. A hunter has been found dead, treated like the elk he was hunting would have been. Two previous hunting deaths are looked at in a new light following this. The governor wants to ensure this is stopped and has asked Joe to assist in this case.
While this is happening, the antihunting activist Klamath Moore arrives in town and stirs up things further. A decrease in hunting will impact the state's revenues and that isn't good for the governor or the game wardens. Everyone is working together on this, even those who don't like each other. But there are still secrets, and Joe is determined to get to the bottom of them.
A classic suspense, with mistreated good guys, and not always clear lines between right and wrong.