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The Alternate Compass

Name: The Alternate Compass
Author: Steve A. Anderson
ISBN: 978-0-9964781-1-3

A CRAFT COURSE ON AN IRONHORSE

by Steve A. Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 4, 2015

A fine trove of byways—Pig Trail, Twentymile Bottom—with a guide who knows how to stop and smell the hops.

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Combination how-to book and guide to the secret pleasures of 21 nationwide highway motorcycle voyages, featuring plenty of craft-brewed beer.

More than a few folks would call these voyages heaven, and Anderson, a veteran of such adventures, paints the tours just so. The how-to element is like a checklist pilots go through before lifting off: what will you need to meet the weather, what equipment will prove invaluable, credit card scams to avoid, what’s in the medicine kit, when should you go with a group, when should you go it alone, etc. The guidebook provides the big picture: which are the best highways, what time of year is best to maximize visuals, etc. Decent color maps help, and photos will inspire your own notions of what to bring, be it a fishing rod, climbing equipment, or birder gear. The meat of the book is in its tips, which are plentiful and range from biking etiquette to the best huckleberry patch in Oregon. The point of these road trips is to get you into unique environments where you’ll become intensely aware of your surroundings in landscapes so remote that the only people you’ll see are the same ones over and over again amid back stretches of the Natchez Trace and all those microbrews. “They offered up a shot of tequila at one of the stops, but I advised them that I was good with the beer we had for breakfast,” says Anderson, who never had more than one for breakfast. Tongue in cheek, hopefully, Anderson writes, “You may consider carrying your passport as an option but also be reminded of no weapons or firearms if you do proceed north.” Though he claims to be not much of a writer, with the exception of occasional clownishness—“I do leave tight pants to the ladies”—the pleasingly unvarnished writing goes down smooth.

A fine trove of byways—Pig Trail, Twentymile Bottom—with a guide who knows how to stop and smell the hops.

Pub Date: July 4, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-9964781-1-3

Page Count: 246

Publisher: Steamboat Pubs

Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.