Rating: 
Summary: Nature at its purist...
Review: There is something enchanting and mystical about new fallen snow. However, along with its beauty comes danger and isolation. Winter is comprised of journal entries written by Rick Bass as he and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Hughes, experience their first winter in the northern most part of the country, Yaak Valley, Montana. In the beginning of the book, the author writes about his anticipation of winter. As you read each journal entry, you find yourself enthralled in the author's excitement. When the snow finally comes, there isn't disappointment like there sometimes is when a person looks forward to an event. Bass finds a whole new world in Yaak Valley and to him each snow fall is an event. You can feel his excitement when he writes, "Perhaps all the snow in the world will fall, burying everything, such silence, and then I will come out of it in the spring, different, cleaner, not born again so much as built up." (Page 103) Living in this remote valley with no prior experience of deadly winters, the author sometimes makes light of how truly dangerous the winter can be. He writes about men taking the safety devices off their chain saws so they can cut trees faster. He mentions dangerous wind chills of 80 degrees below zero. At one point in his writing, he describes how he found Hughes standing outside in her nightgown when he came home from cutting wood. She had been standing very close to the fireplace in order to keep warm and her flannel nightgown caught on fire. You can't help wonder just how many accidents occur, however, Bass brushes over them very lightly in his romantic love affair with the snow. The author paints a vivid picture of the local bar, the Dirty Shame Saloon. You find yourself feeling right at home as Bass shares a beer and exchanges stories with the local men and Hughes joins the ladies for a game of pinochle. The valley is friendly and typical of a small rural area. However, in this remote valley that has no electricity and dangerously cold winters, the people depend on each other for survival. We forget how the same beautiful, natural wonders like snow can also be deadly. Bass does a much better job showing us the enchanting side of living in the valley during the harsh winter than he does the life-threatening dangers that exist. Although Bass brushes over the risks and threats of living in Yaak Valley, the book is an easy read well worth your time. I recommend the book for anyone interested in a non-fiction, down-to-earth book that leaves you with a renewed love for nature at its purist.
Rating:
Summary: Nature at its purist...
Review: There is something enchanting and mystical about new fallen snow. However, along with its beauty comes danger and isolation. Winter is comprised of journal entries written by Rick Bass as he and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Hughes, experience their first winter in the northern most part of the country, Yaak Valley, Montana. In the beginning of the book, the author writes about his anticipation of winter. As you read each journal entry, you find yourself enthralled in the author's excitement. When the snow finally comes, there isn't disappointment like there sometimes is when a person looks forward to an event. Bass finds a whole new world in Yaak Valley and to him each snow fall is an event. You can feel his excitement when he writes, "Perhaps all the snow in the world will fall, burying everything, such silence, and then I will come out of it in the spring, different, cleaner, not born again so much as built up." (Page 103) Living in this remote valley with no prior experience of deadly winters, the author sometimes makes light of how truly dangerous the winter can be. He writes about men taking the safety devices off their chain saws so they can cut trees faster. He mentions dangerous wind chills of 80 degrees below zero. At one point in his writing, he describes how he found Hughes standing outside in her nightgown when he came home from cutting wood. She had been standing very close to the fireplace in order to keep warm and her flannel nightgown caught on fire. You can't help wonder just how many accidents occur, however, Bass brushes over them very lightly in his romantic love affair with the snow. The author paints a vivid picture of the local bar, the Dirty Shame Saloon. You find yourself feeling right at home as Bass shares a beer and exchanges stories with the local men and Hughes joins the ladies for a game of pinochle. The valley is friendly and typical of a small rural area. However, in this remote valley that has no electricity and dangerously cold winters, the people depend on each other for survival. We forget how the same beautiful, natural wonders like snow can also be deadly. Bass does a much better job showing us the enchanting side of living in the valley during the harsh winter than he does the life-threatening dangers that exist. Although Bass brushes over the risks and threats of living in Yaak Valley, the book is an easy read well worth your time. I recommend the book for anyone interested in a non-fiction, down-to-earth book that leaves you with a renewed love for nature at its purist.
Rating: 
Summary: Winter Review
Review: This book is about one mans decision to go against everything he's ever been comfortable with and move himself to an environment that is different than anything he has ever experienced before. Rick Bass's girlfriend does move with him from the warm state of Texas to the frostbitten small town of Yakk, but you'd hardly know it. Elizabeth Hughes is rarely mentioned. Bass tells of how he coped with the environment in the beginning and eventually fell in love with the sub-zero blizzards that encompassed him in Yakk. He barely mentions Elizabeth or the other people who live there, let alone his interaction with them. The main focus of this writing is his journey into the woods, cutting the wood, and most of all, surviving the conditons most men wouldn't venture into even if paid. Occasionally he speaks of going into town and having dinner in the local tavern. This is where most of the, if any, interaction with others takes place. Once in a while he mentions how Elizabeth is handling the weather, but that's about all you'll get. Despite my interest in Bass' ability to cope, survive, and enjoy life in such horrific conditions, this book barely held my attention. A man living in the woods doing chores over and over just to survive weather conditions became extremely boring and routine. I absolutely would not reccomend this book to anyone who is looking for more character interaction; the only kind that takes place in this book is interaction with winter and the elements.
Rating:
Summary: Winter Review
Review: This book is about one mans decision to go against everything he's ever been comfortable with and move himself to an environment that is different than anything he has ever experienced before. Rick Bass's girlfriend does move with him from the warm state of Texas to the frostbitten small town of Yakk, but you'd hardly know it. Elizabeth Hughes is rarely mentioned. Bass tells of how he coped with the environment in the beginning and eventually fell in love with the sub-zero blizzards that encompassed him in Yakk. He barely mentions Elizabeth or the other people who live there, let alone his interaction with them. The main focus of this writing is his journey into the woods, cutting the wood, and most of all, surviving the conditons most men wouldn't venture into even if paid. Occasionally he speaks of going into town and having dinner in the local tavern. This is where most of the, if any, interaction with others takes place. Once in a while he mentions how Elizabeth is handling the weather, but that's about all you'll get. Despite my interest in Bass' ability to cope, survive, and enjoy life in such horrific conditions, this book barely held my attention. A man living in the woods doing chores over and over just to survive weather conditions became extremely boring and routine. I absolutely would not reccomend this book to anyone who is looking for more character interaction; the only kind that takes place in this book is interaction with winter and the elements.
Rating: 
Summary: Look forward to "Summer"
Review: This summer I stayed at a lodge in the Yaak Valley. That should probably read the (italics) lodge in the Yaak Valley. Along with various t-shirts, the lodge sold this book, written by their friend. I liked the book a great deal for two reasons. First, I'd never been anyplace quite like the Yaak, and I wanted to experience it again in print. Second, the book, which takes the form of a jourmal, is an almost painfully honest expression of what it means to start a new life in a new place.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting!!!!
Review: Winter (notes from Montana) takes place in the Yaak River Valley of Montana in the late 1980's. Rick Bass's riveting journal transports the reader to this remote area and helps to involve the reader in his transformation from dependence upon civilization to the ability to appreciate solitude. The sporadic entries enable the reader to see the changes that are taking place in the author more readily than he sees them. "I suppose I was pretending that I had always realized what I needed-deep, dark woods and quietness, a slowness-and that I hadn't been floundering for thirty years trying to figure this out, trying to get along in the cities, trying to move fast. He was right, though. I have changed. I can take apart a generator and put it back together. I can file a saw. My heart has changed too. I'm in less of a hurry." (p. 161). Bass finally begins to see that by learning to depend on nature and himself, he is learning that what we think we need is not always the best for us. This book is an excellent piece to help readers appreciate the life of convenience but also envy the simpler life Bass is living in Yaak.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting!!!!
Review: Winter (notes from Montana) takes place in the Yaak River Valley of Montana in the late 1980's. Rick Bass's riveting journal transports the reader to this remote area and helps to involve the reader in his transformation from dependence upon civilization to the ability to appreciate solitude. The sporadic entries enable the reader to see the changes that are taking place in the author more readily than he sees them. "I suppose I was pretending that I had always realized what I needed-deep, dark woods and quietness, a slowness-and that I hadn't been floundering for thirty years trying to figure this out, trying to get along in the cities, trying to move fast. He was right, though. I have changed. I can take apart a generator and put it back together. I can file a saw. My heart has changed too. I'm in less of a hurry." (p. 161). Bass finally begins to see that by learning to depend on nature and himself, he is learning that what we think we need is not always the best for us. This book is an excellent piece to help readers appreciate the life of convenience but also envy the simpler life Bass is living in Yaak.
Rating:
Summary: Winter by the cords
Review: Winter (notes from Montana) written by Rick Bass, captivates his audience with his new favorite season of the year. "I watch individual flakes; I peer up through the snow and see the blank infinity from which it comes; I listen to the special silence it creates."(p.90) Bass journals about his experiences with his girlfriend, Elizabeth Hughes, who is also an artist for the book Winter. Bass and Hughes are from Mississippi and try to make Yaak valley, near the Canadian border, their new beloved home. Winter touches on the many hardships of living with nature such as cutting wood to keep warm and being able to repair anything that breaks because there is no one else to help you out. Bass's emotions of excitement in experiencing his first winter are well written, as well as his sadness to see winter melt away.
Rating:
Summary: Winter Review
Review: Winter is an extreme description of nature and wildlife. Throughout the book we the readers see the beauty of the natural, less hectic life of Montana out in the country where you are who you are and life is what you make of it. Rick Bass vividly describes the wilderness and freedom in a way people can relate to. Peaceful surroundings are amidst his every sentence. Describing his details slowly and without stresses in his voice helps to promote the peaceful and natural ways of the country. Along with the calming surroundings there is still a local saloon where people go to drink beer and watch football giving us the impression that this is not a fairy tale we are hearing about. The desire to keep reading is always with the reader due to the pleasant image and relaxing atmosphere of this book. Rick Bass writes to us in this book from the stand point of a man in his middle age who is ready to give up the busy life and enjoy nature the animals and the people are him. Elizabeth, who is Bass's significant other, as well as the dogs are important in the book and give it a comfortable family image; all we are missing is the children and white picket fence. Being intrigued by nature and simplicity the book will grab your attention an encourage you to continue.
Rating:
Summary: WINTER, a review
Review: WINTER notes from Montana is a diary of Rick Bass' first winter in the Yaak Valley of Northern Montana. The book details his on going struggle of learning about and surviving the hardships of living in the snowbound Yaak Valley . Bass moves from the warm climate of Texas were he was a geologist to the Yaak Valley to write. The book details Bass' struggle as he works to find enough wood to last the long winter and to learn all the tricks of survival in the cold and snow. Bass subtly points out changes happening to him through out the book and this is brought to light when his father comes to visit. While they are fishing ""you've changed," my father said, not uncomfortably, as he mended his line." I think this points out Bass' reason for moving to the Yaak Valley and his purpose in being there. Bass wanted to give up the life of the daily grind and to become one with nature and life. Although the book is meant to view Bass' ideas on environmental issues, he doesn't over state any of them or push them on the reader. The book is well written and very enjoyable to read. Whether the reader is pro or con on the issues in the book he/she can take an enjoyable hour or two and read the book for the pure enjoyment of Bass' writing. .
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