Bill Stokes: 10 books

Do you believe in ghosts?   No?  How about you visit this house and then decide?There is a "haunted" house up there that squats like a huge wooden toad behind a thick grove of pine trees on the end of a dead end road. Maybe once it was painted, but now it has a gray cadaver-like complexion,...

Contains a never before published essay, "Trout Flouderers".In these stories, popular Chicago Tribune outdoor columnist Bill Stokes gives himself over to his true passion, trout fishing. It is an activity, possibly a madness, that moves him, time and again, to stand knee-deep in cold and murky...

Finally; a book about politics, written from the viewpoint and with input from average Americans. Most political books are written by pundits seeking to convince you of their viewpoints. They chose carefully screened folks to interview who they already know will support their point of view. This book...

Wisconsin had a big party in 1998. It was a roll-out-the-barrel, slice-the-cheese, strike-up-the-polka-band wing-ding that promised to roust every last badger out of state burrows and into the streets to dance with guests.

With a story from way back in such low-tech days that cows were milked by hand, you might have to hand-crank the car on cold mornings, and red fox families held forth across the rural landscape like a wild aristocracy.The red fox, it would seem, as adaptable as a mouse, has more or less moved...

The predatory genes we cannot deny are never more exercised than in deer hunting.  In each individual, they travel an age-related arc that begins in youthful passion and settles finally into old-age relaxation.  The blood lust with all of its attendant furies and dictates can be an awesome thing when...

Satchel was the undisputed king of the resident muskies. He had roamed the flowage for years, periodically terrorizing innocent fisherman by surfacing like a whale so close to a boat that the occupants could look deep into the fish's black eyes and see what seemed to be undiluted piscatorial evil.

A man can love a woman. There's no trick to that. And a man can love a dog, especially if it is a good dog with worship in its eyes. But can a man love a fish?An experienced trout fisherman reminisces about the love of opening day in various location in Wisconsin.

Grieving is very much a part of the human condition and has to happen before you can emotionally heal. Grieving is like having to cross a glacier and scrabble up the rocky cliff on the other side. Grieving absolutely has to happen or it becomes an emotional prison. Grieving: Hope: Joy documents my journey across so I could seek and find Joy again—and I did exactly that!

David Sibley, Don and Lillian Stokes, and many more share their inside tips—and witty observations—on the birding life. The biggest names in birding dispense advice to birders of every level—on topics ranging from feeding birds and cleaning binoculars to pishing and pelagic birding—in...