Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase

Hilarious Stories of Air Travel by the World's Favorite Flight Attendant

"Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase" is a wildly popular podcast about airline travel by real life flight attendant Betty, who shares funny stories from pilots, flight controllers, ground crew, passengers, and fellow flight attendants and is listened to by hundreds of thousands of Betty fans around the world. Now, by popular demand, here is the best of Betty in a book. It's a wonderful way to be entertained in the airport, on a plane, at home, and anywhere you want a good laugh!

Betty interviewed for USA Today

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600 Hours of Edward

2009 Honor Book
Montana Book Award

Edward Stanton is a man hurtling headlong toward middle age. His mental illness has led him to be sequestered in his small house in a small city, where he keeps his distance from the outside world and the parents from whom he is largely estranged. For the most part, Edward sticks to things he can count on...and things he can count. But over the course of 25 days (or 600 hours, as Edward prefers to look at it) several events puncture the walls Edward has built around himself.

In the end, he faces a choice: Open his life to experience and deal with the joys and heartaches that come with it, or remain behind his closed door, a solitary soul.

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Glacier Album: Historic Photographs of Glacier National Park

This book is a wonderful collection of images and stories that tell of the early years of Glacier National Park, from the park's creation in 1910 to the post-war boom in automobile travel. The striking black and white photographs show many of the people and places that helped make Glacier the "Crown of the Continent". The rare images and informative text were compiled by Michael J. Ober, a Montana historian and longtime seasonal ranger at Glacier.

Dream Chasers of the West: A Homestead Family of Glacier Park

In 1913, unmarried and alone at the age of thirty, Clara left Minnesota and headed to Montana to file a homestead claim on free land. Unaware of the dangers that awaited her, Clara thought she could find happiness with a piece of land and a Jersey cow, but life wasn’t that simple. Clara settled on the remote southern border of Glacier National Park. It was a time when neighbors helped each other to survive, and when “men were tough, but the women were tougher.”

In many ways, Clara’s story is the story of countless settlers who were destined to leave their impact on the West, people who experienced despair and anguish, and whose graves lie largely unmarked and unvisited. B.L. Wettstein spent three years researching Clara’s life and legacy, including oral interviews with people who knew Clara. Much of this fast-paced book is based on Clara’s remarkable letters to friends and family. It includes a collection of historic photos of Clara, her family, and the places she lived and worked.

The Sun God's Children: The history, culture, and legends of the Blackfeet Indians

The Blackfeet were people of the buffalo. They originated on the plains of today’s southern Alberta, western Saskatchewan, and central Montana. In the 1830s famed artist and explorer George Catlin called the Blackfeet “the most powerful tribe of Indians on the continent.”

Fur trader, hunting guide, and later, acclaimed chronicler of Native American culture, James Willard Schultz lived with the Blackfeet for many years from the 1870s to the 1930s. The tribe named him “Apikuni” (Spotted Robe). Schultz said the purpose of writing this book was “to integrate the activities of the life of the Blackfeet tribes, in the days of the buffalo, and including certain of their ceremonials of the present time.” The Sun God’s Children describes the Blackfeet as they lived before the coming of the fur traders and their customs, traditions, and religious beliefs, as told to Schultz by the Blackfeet themselves.

How It Looks Going Back

In 1949, taking a break from San Diego’s post–World War II bustle, the Knowles family went camping in Canada. Heading home through northwest Montana’s Yaak River country, they found a two-bedroom, story-and-half log cabin on a small lake.

There was neither electricity nor plumbing. Access was via dirt road, slow at best and iffy during the long, hard winters. Darwin Knowles saw a peaceful life, and adventurous wife Marilyn agreed. Third-grader daughter, Dee (for Doris), could attend the one-room school, and three-year-old Bob (Barbara) have a safe place to play. Enthusiastic but ignorant of wilderness living, the family moved in that fall—working together to cook and heat with wood, hunt and fish for food, haul water, and wash clothes by hand.

They stayed for six years, during which son Stevie was born. Dee’s reminiscence of her childhood in “the Yaak” presents quirky neighbors, growing girls’ adventures, wildlife huge and tiny, and especially one loving family. As she writes, “It was a cozy, scary, painful, hilarious, dangerous, interesting, and grand time, and the most fun I ever had.”

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Great Smoky Mountains Trivia

A new book called “Great Smoky Mountains Trivia” makes all kinds of facts about the nation’s most visited national park easily accessible and fun to learn. This book covers the odd and unusual aspects of the park, including facts about tipsy wasps, beaver lips, and swimming spores. Readers will be amused by the story of Scratch Britches Ridge and astonished by the unusual method the blue-tailed skink uses to keep eggs from drying out. If you’ve ever wondered what the largest animal in the park is, or what the most poisonous animal in the park is, or how many people die each year due to snake bite, or which Smokies bird has the longest song, then “Great Smokey Mountains Trivia” will provide answers to questions you never thought to ask. 

The author, Doris Gove, is a biologist, hiker, writer, and editor living in Knoxville, Tennessee, between two great mountain ranges. She has taught biology, directed two nature centers, and written three hiking guides, and six children's books. She works as a science editor for The University of Tennessee and is the past president of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club.

Death Valley Trivia

Death Valley National Park is full of wonder - and so is this book. Here you will find the biggest and smallest, longest and shortest, first and last, weirdest and wildest, and the who, what, and where of Death Valley. From Telescope Peak to Badwater Basin and everything in between, Death Valley Trivia offers something fascinating, fun, and little known about the area's landscapes, geology, plants, wildlife, weather, explorers, prospectors, outlaws, celebrities - and  more. Carry it on a hike, read it in your car, and take it home to enjoy again and again. Play a Death Valley trivia game with family and friends! These trivial trifles, treasures, and treats will keep you laughing, learning, and guessing. It's fun-tastic!

Splendid on a Large Scale: The Writings of Hans Peter Gyllembourg Koch, Montana Territory, 1869-1874

Jointly published by Drumlummon Institute and Bedrock Editions of Helena, Montana, Splendid on a Large Scale: The Writings of Hans Peter Gyllembourg Koch, Montana Territory, 1869–1874, presents the diaries and letters of a highly educated Danish immigrant who made significant contributions to the emerging EuroAmerican culture on the Montana frontier.

Known as Peter, the young man quickly grew “enthusiastic on the subject of Montana, her beauties and resources,” and his writings offer a wonderfully articulate account of his first years in a new country—as an unlikely frontiersman, often reluctant businessman, aspiring naturalist, avid bookman, and yearning lover (he wrote the bulk of his letters to his fiancée, Laurentze, whom he would wed in 1874).

Whether he was painting a picture of the home he hoped to build for his bride-to-be, lamenting the absence of good books, chronicling his efforts to trade with the Crow Indians, or describing the lynching of a murderer by vigilantes, Koch brought a sensitivity and astuteness to the task that belies his concern that the frontier might render him “rough and unpolished.”

Peter’s passion for education and book culture led him to start the Bozeman public library, but it was as co-founder of the Agricultural College of the State of Montana (today Montana State University, Bozeman) that he left his most lasting mark. In his public spiritedness and as the “compelling, moving, driving force behind the movement for a newer education,” Peter possessed, in the words of the 1919 Bozeman Weekly Exponent, “the intelligence of an aristocrat and the heart of a democrat.”

Edited and annotated by historian Kim Allen Scott, Splendid on a Large Scale includes not only Peter’s diaries and letters, but also an extensive introduction and afterword, Peter’s vivid account of his experiences as a trader at Fort Musselshell in 1869–1870, an essay on his exploration, and an inventory of the most significant titles in that library. The book is designed by Peter Rutledge Koch, great-grandson of Hans Peter Koch and one of America’s foremost letterpress printers and book artists.

The Bottom of the Sky

The Bottom of the Sky, a debut novel, is an aching rags-to-riches family saga that springs from rural Montana squalor into the power chambers of Wall Street and Silicon Valley.  The story contrasts the 30-year struggles of an abused sister and brother who, after one abandons the other, seek to claim themselves from their abhorrent legacy. This bare-knuckled tour de force deals head-on with childhood shame, promiscuity, prejudice, Wall Street’s rape of Main Street, genius, madness and violence. It is a tale of extraordinary sacrifice, of discovery, of redemption.

For William Pack's schedule of Book Signings and Public Events, click on this link to go to his website.

Some Like It Hot: Yellowstone's Favorite Geysers, Hot Springs, and Fumaroles, with Personal Accounts by Early Explorers

Some Like It Hot! is a beautiful visual portrait of Yellowstone National Park's best and most favorite thermal features. This stunning portfolio of photographs by Susan M Neider is uniquely organized by geographic region, so it's easy to find specific geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. Fascinating historical descriptions by early explorers of the geyser basins--including General H.D. Washburn, F.V. Hayden, and famed conservationist John Muir--accompany these vibrant images and emphasize the timeless beauty and wonder of Yellowstone.

Grand Teton Trivia: The Most Incredible and Unbelievable Facts About Grand Teton and Jackson Hole

Grand Teton National Park is full of wonder – and so is this book. Here you will find the biggest and smallest, longest and shortest, first and last, weirdest and wildest, and the who, what, and where of Grand Teton and Jackson Hole.

From peaks to valley and everything in between, Grand Teton Trivia offers something fascinating, fun, and little known about the area’s mountains, plants, wildlife, explorers,  mountain  men, climbers, pioneers, movie stars, outlaws – and more. Carry it on a hike, pack it on a horse, read it by a campfire, and take it home to enjoy again and again.

You can even use it to quiz your companions and play a trivia game. These trivial trifles, treasures, and treats will keep you laughing, learning, and guessing. It’s fun-tastic.

Grand Canyon Trivia: The Most Incredible, Unbelievable, Wild, Weird, Fun, Fascinating, and True Facts About the Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is full of wonder--and so is this book. Here you will find the biggest and smallest, longest and shortest, first and last, weirdest and wildest, and the who, what, and where of the Grand Canyon. From rim to rim with the canyon and river in between, Grand Canyon Trivia offers something fascinating, fun, and little known about everything. Take it on a hike, pack it in your raft, carry it on a mule, or enjoy it around a campfire. You can even use it to quiz your companions and play a trivia game. These trivial trifles, treasures, and treats will keep you laughing, learning, and guessing. It's fun-tastic! Great for curious kids, inquisitive visitors, and inquiring hikers, and smart travelers.

Sherlock Holmes: The Montana Chronicles

Scares and frights and mysteries!

For the first time, here are the long-lost records of four intriguing mysteries solved by the famous English detective Sherlock Holmes when he traveled to Montana in the late 1800s. Using his inimitable eye for clues, his astounding deductive reasoning, and – when necessary – clever subterfuge, Holmes solves a very public murder at the famous Opera House, a supernatural theft of gold at a mine near Georgetown Lake, the disturbing threats to Copper King Marcus Daly’s most famous racehorse, and the sudden odd behavior of a miner’s wife.

            As usual, these cases were recorded by Dr. John H. Watson, Holmes’ affable companion and chronicler, but Watson’s accounts were lost for more than a century. They were recently discovered in an old safe in Anaconda’s Hearst Free Library by researcher John. S. Fitzpatrick, who edited the manuscripts for publication. Not only are the actual crimes unique and challenging, but the stories are filled with fascinating details of life in early-day Montana—details that amply illustrate Holmes’ superb powers of observation.

            This immensely entertaining book is certain to delight all fans of detective stories, mysteries, and Sherlock Holmes.

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