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BADLUCK WAY

Name: BADLUCK WAY
Author: Bryce Andrews
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1083-9

A YEAR ON THE RAGGED EDGE OF THE WEST

by Bryce Andrews ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 3, 2013

An evocative, poetic account of rugged terrain, the men and animals who inhabited it, and the complex realities of...

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A coming-of-age memoir that illuminates the pleasures and problems of running a conservation-oriented sheep and cattle ranch.

After college, with no clear direction for his future, Andrews took a summer job as a ranch hand on Sun Ranch, a 25,000-acre property in Montana. The ranch “straddles one of the most important wildlife corridors in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.” The farm animals cohabitated with grizzly bears, massive elk herds and, more problematically, wolves. The guiding idea of the venture “was to integrate ranching into a functional, natural ecosystem.” The reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park in 1995 presented a recurring threat to the cattle and therefore the economic viability of the ranch. Park officials tracked local wolf packs with radio collars as they tracked elk. The local pack grew in numbers, and in 2003, when the elk sought higher ground, the wolves began preying on the hundreds of sheep being used for weed control. The USDA gunned them down from a helicopter, but a new wolf pack replaced them. Andrews looks back on the painful task of dealing with another pack of wolves that was picking off the cattle. The ranch was owned by a millionaire whom the author describes as “a well-intentioned conservationist and an avid fisherman.” Neither he nor Andrews, who was born in Seattle, were native to the area, but both loved it passionately. The problem was that even after combining ranching with ecotourism, the venture was a money-loser. The only way for the owner to make up the difference was to sell a portion to developers. Andrews spent a year on the ranch, toughening up in the process and finding his vocation as a writer on outdoor subjects and as a conservationist ranch manager.

An evocative, poetic account of rugged terrain, the men and animals who inhabited it, and the complex realities of sustainable agriculture.

Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-4767-1083-9

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | NATURE | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

- BOOK REVIEW
HOLDING FIRE
by Bryce Andrews

- BOOK REVIEW
DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN
by Bryce Andrews

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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

FROM MEAN STREETS TO WALL STREET

by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006

Well-told and admonitory.

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Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.

Well-told and admonitory.

Pub Date: June 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-06-074486-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006

Categories:

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BUSINESS

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INTO THE WILD

by Jon Krakauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1996

A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...

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The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).

Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.

A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor will it to readers of Krakauer's narrative. (4 maps) (First printing of 35,000; author tour)