Mike,outdoor writer, naturalist & conservation activist, passed away at 49. He epitomizes,in this his 2nd last book, the adage: "God does NOT! deduct from out Time here,on Earth,...days spent...fishing."

Days on the Water isn't a fishing book, per se. It's about the history, folklore, and traditions of fishing, as much well-written literature as it is a compendium of fishing lore and information. This isn't a "how to fish" book, or a "let me tell you how I bagged the big one" book. Days on the Water appeals to anglers, anglers' relatives, history buffs, nature enthusiasts, and those who appreciate good, straight-from-the-hip prose in the Hemingway style.

M Sanja is a field Outdoor editor-Nature & Fishing PSU Press just published Art Parker's "Monongahela River" It is unique to compare both watersheds, since these rivers converge to form the Ohio River.

I found this book to be very entertaining and well worth reading.
The book tells a story of a group of men deer hunting the first three days of PA deer season from a camp in Warren County. For the most part I like the story, however I feel the author spends too much time in the book trying to appease a non-hunting audience with his occasional questioning of why he is even deer hunting and the ethics of killing a deer. He truly represents a new rarer breed of modern, 60's educated deer hunter who is trying to justify and find meaning behind killing deer rather than accepting the established belief of our ancestors and a current majority of men in PA deer camps, that man has been given dominion over the animals by God and that they are there to be harvested yet respected without any guilt or questioning.
In this aspect I think Sanja fails to capture the predominant attitude in most PA deer camps and thus misses interpreting the hunt and deer camp from that perspective. Overall, a good book though and one that I would recommend.

This slender book captures the essence of the annual trek north to deer camp - the rush to pack, convenience stores, cabins, car breakdowns, and finally the silent woods where time stands still. In camp, hunters share their experiences by the fire, twist the antenna to bring in the Steelers game on an old black and white tv. Although largely ignored by the rest of the world, a million deer hunters and 200 years of history surely qualify this ritual as an essential part of American culture and tradition.

Hunting is like a family reunion where you can chose your relatives. When someone is too old to come out, it is as if they've died. The trophies on the cabin walls are reminders of the hunter's mortality, not the deer's, because the deer remains long after the hunter's last visit. Hunters don't fear death, they fear the empty interval that will come after their last hunt.

Even natives of this area will be fascinated by the history and biology described here. This book could have spent a thousand pages explaining the importance of days in the woods watching, silent, meditating, being pelted by the weather and seeing the sun glide across the sky. But hunters already know these things. Many nonhunters will not "get it," but for hunters this book's simple description of everyday life in camp is powerfully evocative.

What a delightful book for any deer hunter, but particularly for those who, like me have hunted in PA all their lives. I gave it to every member of our camp a few years back. The chapters alternate between a natural history of deer in PA and the story of one camp outside of Pttsbrg. I reccomend it very, very highly.

In 1942 Mari Sandoz published her biography of Crazy Horse. Some, like Stephen Oates, the famous Lincoln biographer consider it the best biography ever written. However, several scholars of American western history find fault with the fact that she often did not cite her sources, and she wrote only one version of events of which several varied accounts exist. However, it's not enough to simply avoid these to flaws in order to make a book "one of the most accurate accounts of the Oglala Chief," as this book is billed on its back cover. The author also needs to bring up some new information based on new sources. Add to this that Sanja tends to make his own definitive statements about debatable topics, and what you end up with is not of much value.

First off, I or anyone else who has ordered most of the books available on the subject [...]could have just as easily written this, ie there's nothing new here. It is based largely on secondary sources, and though Sajna lists some unpublished sources in his bibliography, I don't see where he used them. He even quoted authors like Stephen Ambrose who himself relied on secondary sources for his book Crazy Horse and Custer.

Second, Sanja while claiming to separate fact from myth, comes up with some uncorroborated ideas of his own. One in particular that stands out is his statement that"[s]peculation about Crazy Horse's sexuality also might be fueled by the fact that he did not marry until after Hump [his hunka brother] had been killed and that among his friends as a boy was Woman's Dress...a well-known winkte..."

I suppose this is the kind of "juicey tidbit" that appeals to readers of the 21st century, but it shows a huge lack of understanding of Native American culture. A close relationship between a warrior and his, what we might call, protege, was not at all unusual. And while Woman's Dress did seem to display some effeminate qualities, that is not the same as being a Winkte. A Winkte was a more or less self-proclaimed homosexual, who dressed either in womens' or mens' clothing as it suited him. However, he spent most of his time with the women doing womens' work, though he could join a war party if he chose. There are various notions of how Woman's Dress got his name (as with most American Indian names) but it is not because he wore dresses. And, need I add, that by all accounts Woman's Dress and Crazy Horse were hardly bosom buddies.

Sanja has every right (though one would question why he cares) to speculate on Crazy Horse's sexuality, but in doing so he should make sure he has something to base it on.

The fact is that it is rather pointless for anyone to claim that they have written "the most accurate account" of Crazy Horse's life. Everything we know about Crazy Horse, with the exception of his death and military records that might refer to battles he took part in, is necessarily based on oral history. Those who knew the history are long gone as are those who interviewed them and recorded it.

Readers can, however, read Sandoz, the Hinman interviews, Neihardt's interviews with Black Elk, as well as the wonderful collections of letters and eye-witness reports compiled in books like The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse and The Death of Crazy Horse, and come up with a much better idea of the "facts" than you will find in this book.

For the most part I enjoyed this book. I did however get a bit tired of the " well there is no evidence so we dont know for sure attitude. perhaps a trained historian could have done a little better. Better than Sandoz book!

No photos exist of Crazy Horse, and little was written about him during his lifetime. He, himself, left no written record. Much of what we know about him is a collection of highly romanticized and sometimes apocryphal stories told by friends, foes, and rivals. These have been grossly exaggerated and sometimes outright made up through the years. Sajna attempts, by using only verifiable primary sources, to separate the fact from the fiction. This reflects his long career as a newspaperman. Where he can't nail down something for sure, he presents all ideas and allows the reader to draw his/her own conclusion. This scholarly attempt is to lay down the true facts of this remarkable man's life, an extremely difficult task owing to the dearth of verifiable material on the subject. An excellent, scholarly work. It is high time this man was depicted realistically, instead of romantically.