Waterfalls of Minnesota
Waterfalls of Minnesota
by Lisa Crayford
Adventure Publications • ISBN: 978-1-59193-592-6 • $14.95 Softcover
It’s spring and a great time to take Lisa along to a gushing waterfall.
I’ve spent a little time myself with this practical and concise guide, which covers the state, concentrating Up North, where the waterfalls hang out. It combines beautiful photos with descriptions and tips that include notes on parking and GPS coordinates.
The high-quality paper puts the icing on the cake. I recommend this guide, with a few minor cautions.
Each section starts with Lisa’s must-sees, which leads to some confusing jumps, putting, for example, many falls and pages between Lower Gooseberry Falls and the Middle & Upper Falls. It’s also obvious that Lisa is in better shape than I am. A couple of the “easy” trails may not be so for middle-aged casual hikers. The 248 stairs, which Lisa does note, at the Cascades on Baptism River make it more a “challenging easy.” The elderly hikers ahead of us with canes would have agreed. Still, we were all happy to see the falls, and Lisa’s guide helped get me there.
The Sky Watched
The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives
By Linda LeGarde Grover
Red Mountain Press • 978-0-9908047-7-2 • $18.95 Softcover
Linda, a member of the Bois Forte Ojibwe who has become known for award-winning short stories, returns to her writing roots in poetry. And here, poetry best serves these often difficult tales. Linda weaves boarding schools and loss amid stories of sacrifice, love and family.
The book begins with sacrifice, a poetic retelling how, after the Great Flood, little Muskrat, Washashk, swims deep (and fatally) to grab a pawful of muddy earth from which Nanaboozhoo will create new land where all can live. It foreshadows sacrifices that surface, like the mother who keeps a smile until her children, off to boarding school, are out of sight.
Linda blends here her Native and non-Native ancestry, sprinkling Ojibwe words musically among English. These poems express private and collective histories. They shed light and dark, understanding and ultimately a sort of grace to the past, present and future.