Bamonte Publishes Pend Oreille History
Tony Bamonte has lived the kind of life that, on paper at least, sounds like something worthy of a made-forTV movie.
He’s been a logger, a Spokane policeman, sheriff of Pend Oreille County, a private investigator, political candidate, a real-estate salesman and writer.
He also was featured in Tim Egan’s book “Breaking Blue,” which detailed a half-century-old murder investigation that Bamonte himself wrote about in a book titled “Sheriffs: 1911-1989, a History of Murder in the Wilderness of Washington’s Last County.”
These days Bamonte mostly sells houses for Tomlinson Realty. But in his free time he concentrates on being an amateur historian and a self-published author.
His latest book, written with his wife Suzanne Schaeffer Bamonte, is titled, simply enough, “History of Pend Oreille County.” Printed by Walsworth Publishing Co. of Marceline, Mo., the book (271 pages, $29.95, ISBN 0-9652219-1-1) is just what its title indicates - a detailed history of Washington’s extreme northeast county.
Bamonte, who is at work on a history of Spokane, says he spent about nine months on “History of Pend Oreille County.” He estimates that he and his wife spent many 12- to 14-hour days compiling the information.
“It just took a lot of research,” he says. “There was a lot of material to get through.”
Many of the book’s photographs were provided by the Pend Oreille Historical Society, which Bamonte says acted as the book’s fact-checker. Others, such as the cover photo of Heather Meade, Pend Oreille County’s first Washington Junior Miss, came from private sources.
Bamonte had 1,000 copies printed in the initial press run. The book is available at Auntie’s Bookstore in Spokane, the Cheney Cowles Museum and the Pend Oreille Historical Society. For ordering information, call 838-7114.
On the shelf
By day, Mitch Finley coordinates the literary reading calendar for Auntie’s Bookstore. By night, he is the author of such inspirational books as “Everybody Has a Guardian Angel” and “The Joy of Being Catholic.”
Finley’s latest effort, “101 Ways to Nourish Your Soul” (Crossroad Publishing, 142 pages, $13.95, ISBN 0-8245-1589-7), is a quick read that is designed to help you meld body with soul.
My favorite chapter? “Watch a Laurel and Hardy Movie.”
In reaction to the ridiculous premise that became the hit film “Sleepless in Seattle,” Seattle author Steve Oliver wrote and self-published a little parody titled “Clueless in Seattle.”
Oliver, the owner of OffByOne Press, has followed that book with a mystery novel titled “Moody Gets the Blues” (236 pages, $21.95 paperback, ISBN 0-9644138-7-6). Set in Spokane, the novel features a protagonist who is both a cab driver and a mentally ill private investigator who “decided to become a detective during hallucinations involving Humphrey Bogart.”
It also boasts a dynamite opening paragraph:
“The cab barreled down Division Street. My passenger, a drunken Unitarian, slumped in the back seat. An April rain streaked the windows and blackened the street. It was two a.m. and I was just beginning to wake up.”
If you’ve ever been interested in the work of the devil - and who hasn’t? - you might want to pick up a copy of “The Devil’s Mischief” (Abbeville Press, 184 pages, $17.95 ISBN 0-7892-0136-4) by Ed Marquand. A Seattle-based graphics designer, Marquand has designed an intriguing collection of devilish images by such artists as Gustave Dore and Michelangelo and vignettes by such writers as Mark Twain, Charles Baudelaire, Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allen Poe.
If not for being shot down over Bosnia, Air Force Capt. Scott O’Grady might never have seen publication of his memoir. As it is, the Lewis and Clark High School graduate is still flying high with the newly released paperback edition of his best-selling book “Return With Honor” (HarperPaperbacks, 188 pages, $6.99). Jeff Coplon was the co-author.
“Crosscurrents,” a literary/arts journal published by the Washington Community and Technical College Humanities Association, featured the works of Spokane contributors in its spring 1996 issue. I learned that fact thanks to a letter from Michael W. Shurgot, vice-president of the Washington Community College Humanities Association.
The area contributors include Janet Strever of Spokane Community College, who wrote a poem titled “The Abstract Blending of 1;” Christine Anderson Garcia of Spokane Falls Community College, whose poem is titled “Affirmative Action;” and Jo Fyfe of SFCC, who contributed four artworks, including the cover acrylic/pencil work titled “Golden Guardian.”
“Crosscurrents,” which had a limited printing, is not sold, and copies are hard to come by. For ordering information, call editor Barbara Boardman at (206) 789-7752.
The reader board
Staff members of Auntie’s Bookstore will read from their fiction, non-fiction and poetry at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the bookstore, Main and Washington.
Stephen Harold Buhner, author of “Sacred Plant Medicine,” will read from his book at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
, DataTimes