|
|
|
|
|
|
HomeShop at BookSurgeLiterary CriticismGeneralMY RIVER: A Memoir |
|
|  |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
My River a memoir Sep 23, 2009
I started reading this book thinking that it would be an interesting story of growing up in the Washington area. What I discovered was a very well written book that once started, I couldn't put down..There were several instances where I was left wanting to know more. I felt like I was walking with the author as he went on his various explorations as a boy and was able to visualize what he was seeing. The book left me wanting to explore some of these places he went to only to find out that some of them were forever altered by the eruption of Mount St. Helens and the devestating flooding of Dec 2007. At the end of the book I reflected on what I had read and hope that he writes another book about things he had to left out due to length. The timeline in which he grew up allowed a lot of lattitude and safety for children that we don't have today sadly to say. Being able to go out hiking and fishing as a teenager for a week with two of your friends and not having to worry about dangerous people remind me of my own youth. I plan on contacting the author to discuss some of the places he wrote about. He has led a very rich life. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a love of the outdoors and growing up in simpler times.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A great read on a rainy Saturday May 03, 2009
This book is so entertaining that I didn't want to put it down. I am not a fisherwoman but enjoyed the delightful stories of a young man and his education of fishing in the surrounding rivers and streams of his childhood home. His adult years were extremely interesting and a refresher course in the 60's and 70's missle race. A very well written book that entertained me from start to finish.
My River Feb 04, 2009
A very interesting book, as it was written by my wifes cousin. Her parents are mentioned thruout the book, and there are many names mentioned that I recognize from the Chehalis area.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
My River Is a Must-Read for Anglers Aug 26, 2008
Richard Stearns, through his memoir, My River, shares his childhood and teen years in the idyllic Boistfort Valley, just west of Chehalis, Washington. It is there his fascination with fishing was born and nurtured. After Stearns leaves the valley in pursuit of an air force career that entailed electrical engineering and national defense, the sport of fishing is never forgotten but in fact becomes a passion. Thoughtfully, he explains the essential role fishing plays in his life; his tales are sometimes humorous, sometimes alarming, always interesting.
To display various themes, Stearns employs two points of view: the author as a child and the author as an adult. Even in the adult scenarios highlighting career in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and California, the reader never forgets that the mature man's heart remains at home in the Boistfort Valley, for he always refers to himself as Dicky--never Dick or Richard. In addition, the theme of serious illness, which applies only to his later life, is portrayed my means of epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter. This technique makes for an appealing writing style as the reader follows three levels of this man's life at once.
Stearns has built an admirable legacy through his efforts to sustain healthy fish habitats in the Pacific Northwest. His own and fish survival will continue, for he convinces us that he will be tying flies, wearing waders, and casting under logs forever.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
my river-a memoir Apr 08, 2008
This book is a wonderful example of making the connection of the authors own personal life to that of the loss of one of our important Northwest river systems.
The Author has expressed his own vunerability in a way (as headers to each chapter)that draws one into the story of his life, always worrying of the final chapter??.
At the same time it makes the case for how quickly we can lose our rivers to issues such as poor forest management practices. I have never read a book that so moved me in the way Richard Stearns has in this excellent book. I think this has potential for a very popular read and maybe even a best seller.
|
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
