Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson Jeremiah Johnson (VHS)

Here's the book and the movie about Jeremiah Johnson, aka John Johnston. The movie needs no explanation, but the book is an often grisly look at the life —and death—of Jeremiah Johnson. It's a page turner. At a combined Amazon.com price of about $20, you're looking at a great gift idea for that hard-to-please son-in-law or father-in-law.

Death in the Silent Places

Death in the Long Grass

Death in the Dark Continent

Peter Hathaway Capstick's Death in the. . . . book series has caused many sleepless nights for many readers. Don't make the mistake of opening one of these books just before bedtime. For one thing, you're likely to stay up all night reading. For another thing, you couldn't sleep if you wanted to. The hair on the back of your neck would be standing on end and every soft sound of the night would become the tread of something with claws and fangs and a taste for human flesh.

These three Death in the. . . . books are masterpieces of outdoor adventure writing.

Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett

Read this book and you'll know where Peter Hathaway Capstick got his inspiration. It's a spine-tingling stay-up-all-night page turner. You can buy Man-Eaters with the sequel, The Temple Tiger and More Man Eaters of Kumaon, for less than $20 at Amazon.com.

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West

I enjoyed Undaunted Courage more than any book I've read in many a day. My copy came from the local library, and I enjoyed it so much I almost ordered my own hardcopy from Amazon.com. But I didn't. It's now available only in paperback or used hardback. Damn damn double damn. Undaunted starts slowly due to the necessary explanation of the politics of the time and the reasons for the expedition. But let me tell y'all something: the very second you read about Meriwether Lewis casting off his canoe and starting the expedition, the book becomes a page-turner. You can't put it down.

Green Hills Of Africa

Reading the Green Hills Of Africa is the closest most of us will ever get to an African safari. If you can't go in person, the next best way is through the words of a master writer like Ernest Hemingway. Let his words take your mind there. You'll feel the sweat, smell the blood, sense the fear. Green Hills. . . . is nonfiction, a kind of journal of an East African safari in 1933. It's wonderful reading and proves that classic literature never grows old.

Collected Poems of Robert Service

If you're planning a winter camping trip and can take only one book, this is the one.

On a frosty night around a roaring fire there's nothing better than someone reading aloud one of Robert Service's poems about the frozen north. I can recite from memory about half of "The Shooting Of Dan McGrew,"and in the past I have much impressed two beautiful women around two different campfires with that recitation. Both times I topped that impressive display of manly talent with a complete recitation of "My Madonna" and won the night and the ladies—well . . . one of them anyway. . . .

There is no better way to introduce a young person to enjoyable poetry than through this book. If you have grandchildren, keep that in mind.

A Hunters Fireside Book

This little book (162 pages) has lain on my bedside table for twenty years. If you love the woods and forests, if you love the streams and meadows, you must buy this book. If you know the joy of being afield on an autumn morning, if you have ever felt something that couldn't be put into words, then you must have this book. If you have ever laughed at yourself for the silly things we do, then you must get this book.

Gene Hill writes for all of us that love the outdoors, that yearn to understand the mystery of the hunt. For years, he wrote "Tailfeathers" for Field and Stream. This book is a compilation of essays that will make you laugh, make you cry, make you think, and let you know that you are not alone.

Review by Dennis Dezendorf

Foxfire 11 : The Old Homeplace, Wild Plant Uses, Preserving and Cooking Food, Hunting Stories, Fishing, and More Affairs of Plain Living

Here's the latest (Nov, 1999) in the wonderful Foxfire series of books on mountain lore and plain living. This one is especially useful to a frugal outdoorsman because of its sections on wild plant uses and preserving and cooking food. Anyone with even a passing interest in old time ways would love to receive this book as a gift.

Official Boy Scout Fieldbook

Who knows more about tent camping than any other organization in the world? The Sierra Club? The National Geographic Society? No! The Boy Scouts. The Fieldbook is a condensation of experience about how to tent camp safely, easily, and with the least fuss and bother. This book is about camping, hiking, survival, knots, recipes, and enjoying the outdoors. It is written from a "been there, done that" perspective and is chock full of tips and checklists for the camper.

Buy it new from your local Boy Scout office or click the photo and go to the Scouts' web page and buy it there for $19.95. Look for the "Literature" section. Either way, this little known reference book will show you the way to the great outdoors.

Review by Dennis Dezendorf

U.S. Army Survival Manual

I'll bet you didn't even know you could buy this book. But there it is—hot off the press at Amazon.com for $14.95. I guess you could call this the advanced version of the Boy Scout Fieldbook reviewed above—make that far advanced.