Mountaineers Books BLOG

Senior Editor Mary Metz says she’s no Paul Bannick, Amy Gulick, or Alan Bauer, but we can’t help but be completely enamored with the images she recently took of what she thinks is an Anna’s hummingbird fledgling and what she’s also guessing is its mother. These two were enjoying Mary’s backyard over Memorial Weekend.

Can anyone confirm or deny her guess on the species of these two humming birds?

“By his own words, Hank Lentfer describes Faith of Cranes as ‘a story of how one man, blinded to present beauty by the fear of an ugly future, regained his sight.’ I think this is a theme to which many of us can relate. Many of us are blinded to what is present around us. We cannot see the trees, literally, through the forests of suburban neighborhoods, city high rises, and the tangle of beltways that encircle us. We fear a bleak future. We worry about rising populations, rising temperatures, rising debt, loss of loved ones, loss of wildlife habitat, extinction of species, our own demise. These worries, in the same vein as Lentfer’s own despair of the future of his beloved Alaskan way of life, can blind us to what we actually have before us.” — review of Faith of Cranes by Hunting Life magazine

Enjoy the entire review at huntinglife.com

Mike Hamill, mountain guide and author of Climbing the Seven Summits has created a fantastic video with images and video from his travels around the world. Most of us will never step on the highest peak on every continent, but in this video we can enjoy the smallest taste of what it means to be a seven summiter.

Enjoy.

When we ripped out our lawn, I worried about my kids not having a place to run around anymore. Today, I’m happy we made the choice. Now we rely on our neighborhood park for open space. Our kids bicycle up and down the public sidewalk. You can’t kick a ball in our backyard anymore, as it’s been converted to garden. That backyard is now densely packed with nutritious snacks and provides the kids with hours of entertainment. Our property has become less about physical exercise and more about exploration: exploration of foods and digging and small creatures.

Joshua McNichols, co-author of The Urban Farm Handbook was recently interviewed by Seattle Weekly for a piece titled, “Urban Farmer Joshua McNichols Can Get Kids to Eat Their Vegetables.” And, he really can!

Head to seattleweekly.com to hear how Joshua gets his young children involved in gardening, how he finds time to commit to eating local and sustainable and wether he thinks urban farming is a fad, or is here to stay.

To The Arctic, the newest release from our conservation imprint Braided River was recently named the book, “Most Likely To Save The Planet” by the Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Over 4,000 titles are submitted every year to the “IPPY” awards, and we’re thrilled to see that the judges view To The Arctic as a book that is not only beautiful but also capable of making a real impact.

Grab your copy today, see if the 3D IMAX movie of the same name is playing in a theater near you, or check out what To The Arctic photographer Florian Schulz is up to lately at welcometothearctic.org.