Cabin Lessons
Cabin Lessons, A Nail-by-Nail Tale
by Spike Carlsen
Storey Publishing • ISBN: 978-1-61212-567-1 • $14.95 Softcover
It’s a tickle to hang out with Spike Carlsen because he’s a funny guy. Mostly he mocks his own shortcomings or how life makes jokes on him. In this book, as he and his wife, Kat, navigate the building of their Minnesota North Shore dream cabin, he pokes gently at local folks and ways. (We really can be odd.)
This memoir shines because Spike is also a likeable storyteller. He travels from purchase of an it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time impossible building site through the construction and occupation of a marvelous modest cabin. He weaves in bits of shore history, philosophical musing and warm family moments that make this a true keeper.
Over the Portage, Into History
Over the Portage, Into History
by John Henricksson, illus. by Kelly Dupre
4SquareBooks • ISBN: 978-1-61766-243-0 • $11.95 Softcover
Knowing whose footprints were set down before ours – or whose paddle strokes – ties us deeper to our lands and waters. In this book, north country historian John Henricksson compiles stories of eight voyageur-era adventurers. Some we recognize, most we don’t. Even with a familiar name like Radisson, John brings revelations: Did Pierre Espirit Radisson really take all of those trips about which he journalled?
Other mini bios cover the first African-American born by Lake Superior, the first Swede to settle in Minnesota, a couple of period artists, an Italian count named Beltrami and two country-crossing canoeists.
The backdrop of these people’s history is our region’s legends and truths. One can appreciate the historical legwork John condenses so we can grow deeper roots.
North Shore: A Natural History
North Shore: A Natural History of Minnesota’s Superior Coast
by Chel Anderson & Adelheid Fischer
University of Minnesota Press • ISBN: 978-0-8166-3232-9 • $39.95 Hardcover
At first glance, this book might daunt a would-be reader by size alone. At 13⁄4-inch-thick (I measured), it’s not just a coffee table book, it’s a whole coffee table itself, with a price as substantial as the size. But the dedication of Chel Anderson and Adelheid Fischer has created a comprehensive, illuminating and, most importantly, readable record of our natural history.
Chel and Adelheid teamed with talented cartographers, illustrators and photographers to brighten the pacing of the text-dense book and to aid in complex explanations.
No one will pack this hardcover volume for the beach, but you will be amazed, as I have been, at how compelling worms, frogs and scientific exploration can be. I’m skipping among chapters – no, not finished yet – and suggest you do, too. Sections cover our headwaters, highlands, nearshore, Lake Superior and islands.
Chel and Adelheid do express concerns about the effects of climate change and natural-resource harvesting. Whatever your views, that should not diminish your fascination and appreciation of this masterwork about a Big Lake shore.
The books reviewed here, unless indicated, should be available through local booksellers by using the ISBN number.