James Monroe Design, Pu
William D. Baker has crafted a magnificent set of stories and experiences in his life hunting across the Midwest for waterfowl and upland game birds. Baker’s ability to weave a story from the human condition and bring the reader in to the story from all sides is exceptional. His humor reminds the reader to laugh at themselves and remember hunts that they have been on where things did not necessarily go as planned.
Baker and friends engage in adventures and misadventures across the Midwest chasing birds from as far north as Hudson Bay to Chihuahua, Mexico and all points in between. As Baker’s stories spin across the page you cannot help but want to go hunting with these folks and actually want to be a part of the fun and the various groups that get to hunt alongside of Baker and hang around the Carroll House a19th century hotel that they run as an unofficial hunting Camp from. You want to spend time in Aberdeen, ND chasing pheasants, ducks and geese.
Bill Baker is a retired insurance broker living in Argyle, Texas and Victoria, Minnesota. He started hunting as a boy growing up in South Dakota and after high school served in the U.S. Air Force. Baker graduated from University of Minnesota in 1952. The Guide Shoots First is his second book.
The test of a good hunting book is if at the end of the book you realize one of two things, either you were so enthralled that you could not put the book down, or the realization that you actually want to hunt with the people the book is about. I personally read the book over several weeks and I enjoyed it and this collective filled with engaging stories made me long for the plains and the opportunity to visit the lands and the sloughs that Baker and friends hunt.
