James H. Pickering

As the title might suggest, "Fiction 100: An Anthology of Short Stories" is a textbook, probably for high school students, that brings together 100 works of short fiction. It comes complete with questions to ponder at the end of each story, a glossary of literary terms, bibliographies of the authors and, yes, footnotes too! One can tell how out of date this book is (published in 1985) by noting a footnote to a Woody Allen story that mentions O.J. Simpson - the latter is described as an ex-football player who more recently was known for television ads. That said, it’s kind of nice to have a book containing a lot of great authors, from Alice Adams to Richard Wright, and everything in-between. Curiously, the stories are ordered alphabetically by author’s last name, certainly something I have never seen before! Not a book to read cover-to-cover, but one to dip into from time to time when you have 15 or 20 free minutes.… (más)

This tells the story of the development of the two locations in the title. It has convinced me to read some of the Enos Mills books I have in my collection. He is Rocky Mountain National Parks version of John Muir. One also gets a bit of a micro history of how the National Park Service developed or, more appropriately, evolved in the 20th century. The writing style is plain but once can get through it. I should talk, my writing is nothing to say is great! I'll have to go back and look at the maps again but I found them a bit difficult to read.… (más)