Feb 13 - Oregon Historical Society

The first of a few posts, because it was a bonanza weekend in Portland! It all started off with a visit to the Oregon Historical Museum, which is tightly focused on what amounts to the state's environmental history and does a wonderful job of clarifying the intimate connections between the so-called "Indian wars" and associated genocide on the one hand, and on the other hand the state's fertility and productiveness. Three books leapt into my hands at the museum store, but it was tough to push more of them back on the shelves:

• John Daniel, The Far Corner: Northwestern Views on Land, Life, and Literature ($18.75)
• John Daniel, Rogue River Journal: A Winter Alone ($12)
• S.L. Stoner, Timber Beasts ($14.95, "A Sage Adair Historical Mystery," involving a secret operative inside America's labour movement, circa 1902, in the Pacific Northwest)

I've been really enjoying John Daniel as I dipped into him over the last few days, but I'm looking forward to Stoner, too.