Sky Time in Gray's River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place (Hardcover)

by Robert Michael Pyle (Author)
Key Phrases: mail path, mew gulls, plum grove, Swede Park, Gray's River, Loop Road (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Gray's River, one of the earliest settled communities near the mouth of rural Washington's Columbia River, remains a relatively isolated place, connected to the rest of the state by just one narrow highway. Pyle (author of 14 books, including Chasing Monarchs and Where Bigfoot Walks) has lived there for almost 30 years, gradually fitting into the self-reliant community. There, villagers recently rallied, unsuccessfully, to save the local post office, located for decades on an elderly resident's enclosed front porch, and still take pleasure in phone service provided by a local company founded in 1927 and now run by the first owner's son. This luxuriant account of an ordinary year among the flora, fauna and folks of the countryside—where the author's daily walk to the compost heap "is the closest thing I know to sacrament"—focuses as much on bats, butterflies and the pleasure of fresh berries as it does on people. His pensive account of the role the Grange (once a radical farmer's movement, dating back to 1867) continues to play in village affairs includes a nugget of celebrity reporting: Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic is a stalwart member of the association. (Jan. 11)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Pyle has the ability to find wonder in the mundane and beauty in the unpretentious. Library Journal

[A] luxuriant account of an ordinary year among the flora, fauna, and folks of the countryside Publishers Weekly

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Product Details Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (January 11, 2007) Language: English ISBN-10: 039582821X ISBN-13: 978-0395828212 Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #952,873 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
mail path, mew gulls, plum grove

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Swede Park, Gray's River, Loop Road, Lincoln Oak, Bobby Larson, Deep River, Columbia River, Covered Bridge Road, Grange Hall, Broken Oak, Wahkiakum County, Port Orford, Elk Mountain, North America, Lily Pond, Doug Larson, Captain Gray, Tall Oak, Fossil Creek, Rosburg Store, Old World, Fairview Road, Mae Larson, Steve Puddicombe, Larson's Pond

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4 Reviews 5 star:  (4) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 3 of 4 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Bob Pyle's best book yet!, December 13, 2007 By  Janna Lee (Colorado) - See all my reviews Of all Mr. Pyle's books this one is the most lyrical and delicious. Just read a page before you go to sleep and you will dream of lush forest and lovely creatures on land and in the sky. Every sentence is filled with wonderful images of nature. It would make a nature lover out of any reader. 3 of 4 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars An honest work., August 26, 2007 By  Zach Jorgenson "person with a pen" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    An imapssioned life, observing and enjoying all around him. A great read for those interested in people and nature, the interconnected web of a rural world. We can all learn something from this book. Thanks Bob! 2 of 3 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Another outstanding RMP book, January 3, 2008 By  Joseph H. Beelart Jr. "Joe Hector" (near Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Sky Time in Gray's River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place (Paperback) I first heard RMP read at an outdoor conference in the late 1990s. Late that evening some of us shared single malt with him around a small table in a little trailer. I was hooked. First I read his Sasquatch book, which is not about sasquatch, except for a little bit. Then there is his beautiful western butterfly book, a book to be studied and treasured. It opened my eyes to much I had never seen in my many years of wandering the hills. Enough; this volume is near poetry. But in it, you will find RMP a bit whimsically professorial. For instance when RMP walks through thistles in his shorts, he remarks on itchy scratches. Incidently, Gray's River is in SW Washington across the Columbia River northeast of Astoria, Oregon.		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Another masterpiece by our latter day Thoreau This book is the perfect antidote to the frenetic pace of urban life. Reading this book, I felt could practically see the mossy limbs of the ancient Bigleaf maples and every... Read more Published 6 months ago by Panayoti Kelaidis Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (January 11, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039582821X
• ISBN-13: 978-0395828212
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #952,873 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bob Pyle's best book yet!, December 13, 2007

By	Janna Lee (Colorado) - See all my reviews

Of all Mr. Pyle's books this one is the most lyrical and delicious. Just read a page before you go to sleep and you will dream of lush forest and lovely creatures on land and in the sky. Every sentence is filled with wonderful images of nature. It would make a nature lover out of any reader.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest work., August 26, 2007

By	Zach Jorgenson "person with a pen" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

An imapssioned life, observing and enjoying all around him. A great read for those interested in people and nature, the interconnected web of a rural world. We can all learn something from this book. Thanks Bob!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another outstanding RMP book, January 3, 2008

By	Joseph H. Beelart Jr. "Joe Hector" (near Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sky Time in Gray's River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place (Paperback)

I first heard RMP read at an outdoor conference in the late 1990s. Late that evening some of us shared single malt with him around a small table in a little trailer. I was hooked.

First I read his Sasquatch book, which is not about sasquatch, except for a little bit. Then there is his beautiful western butterfly book, a book to be studied and treasured. It opened my eyes to much I had never seen in my many years of wandering the hills.

Enough; this volume is near poetry.

But in it, you will find RMP a bit whimsically professorial. For instance when RMP walks through thistles in his shorts, he remarks on itchy scratches.

Incidently, Gray's River is in SW Washington across the Columbia River northeast of Astoria, Oregon.