100 Books Like Powder Days

This is, again, a different kind of book than the previous two. Namely, this is a deeply researched, historical account of how some of America’s best skiers of the 1930s ended up in the famed 10th Mountain Division, fighting the Nazis in Italy during World War II. No history of skiing is complete without mention of the 10th Mountain Division—many of whose members came back to the US after the war as pioneers in the early days of the US ski industry. Charles Sanders gives a heartfelt and detailed account of some of the key men in this saga—great athletes and soldiers. 

This book encourages readers to turn, flip, and shake this book to help a bunny ski down a hill. Toddlers will love being able to “control” what happens in the story as the bunny gets covered in snow, crashes in a tree, and falls into a hole. There’s even an actual hole in the pages to match the hole in the illustrations. It’s a fun, interactive book sure to become a storytime favorite.

Ray Atkeson was one of the premiere ski photographers of the early days of skiing, although he continued to produce photos from the 1920s all the way into the 1990s. His photos were primarily in black and white and can easily be compared to the brilliant nature photography of Ansel Adams. My mother, herself a ski pioneer, who became the first female to certify as an instructor in California, modeled for Atkeson in the 1940s. This book is a compilation of some of the finest ski photos ever put together.

Mountain towns, skiing, snowboarding, and sweet romance – this story is the perfect winter entertainment. A twist of fate lands Cally and Blake in the same high school after their vacation romance ends, but why is he acting like he wants nothing to do with her? The story complications grow as Cally navigates old and new friendships and lands a spot on the ski team, and then there’s the mystery of what Blake is hiding. This is book one of three in The Rules series and more adventures await, on and off the ski slopes. 

Arnie Wilson is a man with as long a history as a ski journalist as anybody alive. He is a passionate skier who skied his way into the Guinness Book of Records by circumscribing the globe while skiing 365 consecutive days back in 1994, and he also spent 15 years as the ski correspondent for the Financial Times and twelve years more as the editor of the British magazine, Ski and Board. This book is a coffee-table book that is divided into chapters on Arnie’s choice of the 40 best ski resorts in the world.

I must admit that I have a very personal reason for liking this book. Paul Preuss was my great-uncle. This is a book more about mountaineering than about skiing, but as an elite mountaineer of the early 20th century, Preuss was a pioneer of skiing as well as mountain climbing. There have been three previous books written about Preuss’s life and exploits, two by renowned climber, Reinhold Messner and one by an Italian climber/author named Severino Casara, but the book by Mr. Smart is the first English language book about the life and achievements of Paul Preuss. Preuss was not only a prodigious climber who completed 300 solo climbs of which 150 were first ascents,

He was a philosopher of sorts. His strict adherence to a pure climbing ethic that shunned the use of any artificial climbing aids put him at the forefront of the “piton dispute”. Preuss’s stance on… show more.

This book is aimed at sports coaches, with a general introduction and the first half of the book containing chapters on coaching theory and practice. These aspects are usually skimmed over in coaching courses, but the authors explain the theory and why it is important to understand before coaching. They write well, and each chapter is well laid out with graphics, photos, and sub-headings. I found it to be a useful reminder.

The second half contains chapters showing how this can be applied in different sports: striking, invasion games, racquet sports, and so on. I used a lot of their ideas, especially when designing sessions in sports in which I had less experience. The only frustration is watching my children being coached with mundane, poorly planned sessions, knowing that if the coaches read this book, things would improve!

James Jones's brilliant debut novel must have had a great effect on me because I admit, in many ways, my book covers the same ground – how does a man maintain honor and dignity when constrained to live his life by the choices of other, and much more powerful men? I suppose the difference between our two themes is that the question in my book is about those same choices but wrapped in the question of race. Jones’s characters, while in the military, were dealing with personal issues. My Corporal Buck is dealing with an issue about which all of America is on fire.

From Here to Eternity is 70 years old. I read it in 1969, an eternity ago and it has lasted with me from there to here.  When I was in the Marine Corps I knew everything that was happening to me. But I didn’t know what… show more.

Born in 1934 in Berchtesgaden, in the shadow of Hitler’s Eagles Nest, Irmgard Hunt witnessed the growth of fascist ideology among the people she loved during an otherwise idyllic childhood. As the shadow of World War II fell over the mountain, however, Hunt began to question and then disavow the Nazi doctrines she had accepted as a young child. As time went on and the regime crumbled literally before her eyes, she was vocal in confronting her country’s criminal past and in championing the democratic principles her elders had so easily dismissed.

In the 1990s when I worked at the British Embassy in Moscow organising social functions I met a kind, elderly, white-haired man who came to visit the ambassador. Sir Fitzroy Maclean was a distinguished former diplomat, war veteran, politician, and writer, but still he found time to chat with a lowly staff member about Soviet history – and when he got home, he sent me his book. Eastern Approaches is a captivating memoir of Maclean’s diplomatic service in the USSR during Stalin’s Terror, when he sneaked undercover into Central Asia and experienced many escapades, including run-ins with the Soviet secret police. His tales of derring-do evoke a bygone age – but his expressive portrayals of the people and landscapes of Central Asia are recognisable to anyone travelling in this alluring region today.