Western Books

I read this to my class. They loved it. It is filled with humor and elicited many laughs from my students. They also reread the book on their own which always makes a teacher smile. I will put this book on my list to read every year.

My 6th grade students loved this book and I must admit, I loved it, too! Fabulous!!

My first-grader begged us for this book after having read it repeatedly at school. It's still one of her very favorites. The poems are silly and witty and fun to read aloud, and the illustrations are funny as well. Books like this really help young children develop a love for words and for reading.

This is a great rhyming book for students. It seems really relateable for children because of the content that it is written about. I was able to relate to it by remembering my school days and I found the poems to be somewhat funny.

If you want to feel less alone in the real world of honest feelings, if you want to get in touch with true feelings, if you want to understand your emotions and explore your guilt and really dig deeper than sentiment--Carol Diggery Shields is the poet for you. Her voice is more original and her psychological depth deeper than most contemporary poets. She makes you feel less alone with your inner life. There is no sentimental frosting here. This is accessible and original poetry with a crafty use of language, a flowing free verse. I've spent my life reading poetry, and I find this poet thoroughly satisfying. Spend an evening or a morning or both with her LUNCH MONEY AND OTHER POEMS ABOUT SCHOOL and you will be moved and amazed at the original angles she takes on truth and human feelings and relationships. This is a poet of psychological, philosphical realization--a thinker who really probes the inner life with grace of expression.

It is summertime and I wanted my daughter, who is eleven, to read at least one book. This was one of the books on a reading list recommended by her school. Once she started it, she couldn't put it down. She loved the "mystery" aspect of it. She said that it was the best book she has ever read!

Sallie March, 11 year old spunky, tomboy and her older ladylike sister Maude live with Aunt Ruthie until their Aunt has the misfortune to be accidentally shot dead by the notorious Joe Harden.

The two girls are taken in by Reverend Peasley and his wife, who immediately put the girls to work running the household while they take it easy. Maude, on whom falls the brunt of the work and being courted by an elderly gentleman, decides it is time to take her's and Sallie's fortune into their own hands and brave the wilds of the frontier in search of their last living relative, Uncle Arlen.

But Maude and Sally soon find that losing their Aunt Ruthie is only the beginning of their problems as they ride out of Cedar Rapids and into the kind of trouble Sallie has only read about in her beloved dime novels.

Told by Sallie as she tries to set the record straight and punctuated by the erroneous newspaper reports of "Mad Maude and her gang", this rollicking Wild West adventure story will leave you begging for more.

This book was so fun to read, and so engaging, that I could not put it down. The characters are very real and endearing, and the plot line makes the reader think about how different people will see right and wrong differently. You gotta read this book!

Very engaging story. Characters are likable, plot is well paced. The sequel is great, too.

If your child or student doesn't like historical fiction, try them on this one. They won't be able to put it down. The book also has enough period details to make it great supplemental reading for an American history unit.

I am not a fan of westerns but I received a copy of this book from a family member and once I opened it on the plane, I couldn't put it down. The characters are great and the story moves pretty quickly. I was captured by the plot and descriptions of the areas.
I would recommend this book to anyone, lovers of westerns or not.

When the sequel comes out, I will be buying a copy or two.

Rick

I found this book to be a very interesting snapshot of life in the mid-west during the 1800s. It was evident that the author did his research. His style is easy to read and most entertaining.

Great Western, much research went into this book, great plot, not your regular shoot 'um up western, the ending? I thought, "What did I just read?", went back and read it again. Very clever! Plan to read the book again. Can't wait for the sequel. Highly recommended to any reader.

The Margin
Life was tough for almost everyone after the Civil war. The economy was devasted, food supplies were depleated because both armies confiscated everything in their path just to survive. Homesteaders starting new lives prior to the war lost land, homes and businesses. Post war chaos opened the door to unscrupulous people who made their fortunes on the back of the pioneer. This is where The Missouri Riders begins. John Dee's mom is about to loose her farm to the bank. In despiration John Dee enlists the aid of two very close friends, all three men of good character. But, influenced by the emotion provoked by the apparent criminal confiscation of his mother's farm John Dee, Tom and Billy rob a bank. Motive, of course, to pay the mortgage. From this point the author, George Banks takes us through hard times and adventure as he pens this wonderful story of the three friends eluding the consequences of their unlawful deed.

After John Dee Tyler's Dad dies, he and his mom learn that the bank is going to foreclose on their farm. It seems there's a new manager who claims the note has gone unpaid for eight months. With no work available in the area John Dee hatches a plan with his two best friends Billy Ray Matthews and Tom Ballard.
As Billy Ray puts John's plan, "Now let me see if I got this straight. We find a bank, go play Jesse James, rob a bank to pay a bank, then come home and eat apple pie. Yeah, I like it! I'm in."
With the agreement struck and made, the three Missouri riders head south to Lexington, where, as legend has it, the James and Younger gang once robbed the very same bank they've targeted.
The robbery goes smoothly. No one is hurt and the boys make a clean getaway. Now all John Dee has to do is be patient and wait the 45 days before making the payment. No sense in hurrying matters and making everyone suspicious.
What John Dee doesn't know is that the new bank manager, Mr. Matting, already had plans for the Tyler farm, and when he pays the note, as they say in Missouri, all hell breaks loose.
With a sense of place that takes the reader easily back to those pre-twentieth century days when life was more simple but perhaps harsher in its demands, George Banks adeptly presents his story of three young men caught up in a tangled web of guilt and fear mixed well with a youthful need to have some fun.
With the Pinkertons investigating and getting closer, the boys make a hard decision. They'll go to San Antonio where a rancher they know is putting together a trail drive. By the time they finish working for him, it'll be safe to return home and see how things are going. Thus begins the exciting adventures of these Missouri riders.
George Banks certainly knows his subject, and the characters he creates are right out of the faraway past. As for history, he paints a picture so true to the times it's easy to "suspend disbelief" and live the tale with these three boys. A tale of life and adventure that make this book a pleasure to read for anyone at any age. Interspersed with pieces of historical fact, the book also serves as a good research tool.
I'm fascinated when John Dee explains how the original pioneers used a combination of feathers and wooden wedges and shims to pry great lengths of limestone apart before soaking them in water a couple of days and cutting them to needed lengths to build limestone fences on the treeless plains. This is just one of the many things I learned in reading this captivating book.
Velda BrothertonFly with the Mourning Dove

Great book which contains a big collection of Dogen's wisdom. In order to understand it without much difficulties, I would suggest that the reader will start by learning about Mahayana Buddhism in general, and then start to investigate Dogen texts. Because the wisdom of Zen Buddhism is often written in Chinese or Japanese, this book is very handy for the westerner user,especially because the translation is brilliant.
As a student of Japanese language for the last 6 years, I know how hard it is to translate the 12-13th century Japanese into nowadays English, so it has really impressed me. A sure pleasure.

Dogen may very well be the most important master in all of Zen history, next to Shakyamuni of course. This particular book is a translation of portions derived from Dogen's masterwork, Shobogenzo. I would suggest purchasing with this "Enlightenment Unfolds: The essential teachings of Zen Master Dogen" by the same author, it's somewhat like a follow-up. Also beneficial readings come from many of the works out there from the late modern master Taizan Maezumi. This book offers clear translations of some of the most central aspects of Dogen's fascinating style of Zen (still one of the predominant schools to have survived to date). One of the previous reviewers mentioned this book's wonderful glossary of terms, to which I must agree; It's at once extensive and dense. If you are looking for a really accurate (as well as fairly easy to read) book on Dogen Zenji aside from the entire Shobogenzo itself, don't look any further. Your needs are all met right here. Enjoy!

To review this book at length would ignore its lessons. My only advice is to read it and discover the Dogen for yourself. You might come away thinking he's an idiot. He'd say he'd succeeded mightily in your education.

"moon in a dewdrop" is a collection of writings by Eihei Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen. The text is divided into four sections, which are clear and easy to understand. There are notes and a glossary so that the meaning of the text can be clearly grasped. The book is a five star raft.
Now to the writing, Dogen speaks from experience, insight gained through deep meditation, lived every day. The text is not meant to be intellectually grasped as a doctrine. This can be understood by the presentation of the first section being "Practical Instructions" and the first writing being "Zazen-Gi" or Rules for Zazen. Sitting with "moon in a dewdrop" is like sitting with Dogen himself, at every turn Dogen is pointing to reality and inviting us to fully enter it and taste it for ourselves. The text is a practical manual to be used in conjunction with Zazen, Dogen wrote for all those, who truly wish to taste the essence of Buddhism and reality.
The writing is five star.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any one who is interested in Zen and a greater depth of reality.

Eihei Dogen is without a doubt the greatest writer in Zen history. His masterwork, the Shobogenzo, represents one of the most comprehensive, fascinating, and valuable works of Buddhist literature. In Moon in a Dewdrop, Kazuaki Tanahashi has compiled the best single volume Dogen in the English language. This contains the best translations I have ever read of several of Dogen's seminal works - Genjo Koan, Uji, Yuibutsu Yobutsu, Sansuikyo, Zenki, and the Tenzo Kyokun.

Carol Drinkwater provides so much information and knowledge about her Olive Farm. Delightful Memoirs of her life. Excellent.

All of Carol Drinkwater's books are very well written and hard to put down. If you like the subject matter of olives, this is a particular treat. Beyond the work and detail involved in maintaining olive trees, the hard work of the harvest, the anticipation of having them pressed and rewarded with fine oil as a result..Carol's books are to me, a realization of a dream. She and Michel took the risk of buying a poorly maintained property and poured their hearts and soul into it.

The Olive Season, the sequel to Carol Drinkwater's The Olive Farm, transcends the travel memoir genre to create a searing personal narrative.

In The Olive Season, Drinkwater has wed her fiance, Michel, in the South Pacific, and has returned to their farm in southern France to bring in another olive harvest. The harvest season proves difficult, however, and the care of the olive farm becomes a challenging undertaking for the newly pregnant Drinkwater, whose situation is complicated by her husband's absence, her own professional obligations, and intrusions from her past.

The events of The Olive Season force Drinkwater to revisit her past, transcend her present and muster her courage to shape her future. Suffused with the idyllic scents and scenery of southern France, The Olive Season is both a superb piece of travel writing and a wrenching examination of life, its tragedies and its triumphs.

A five-star read that will not disappoint.

THE OLIVE SEASON and THE OLIVE FARM are excellent as is THE OLIVE HARVEST. When I recently saw A CELEBRATION OF OLIVES, I thought C. Drinkwater published a new book and ordered it. I received it today and was disappointed to find it's a double volume of THE OLIVE SEASON and THE OLIVE FARM combined, both of which I have. According to Amazon.com readers who buy A CELEBRATION OF OLIVES also buy her other books. I feel like I was duped and cannot return the book.

In the Olive Season, Carol Drinkwater continuous Michel and her dream-come-true olive farm experience in the south of France. Other reviewers of her first book, as well as this reviewer, hoped for a sequel and Carol did not disappoint them. Although the book can be read and enjoyed without reading The Olive Farm, this reviewer strongly recommends that readers first read the Farm, as it provides the necessary backdrop and introduction to characters that enhances the enjoyment of the Season.

In the Season, Carol shares a lot more on personal level than in the Farm. Although I have enjoyed the first book specifically because it largely revolved around their farming experience and dealt less with them at intimate level, I can accept the change in focus because it is quite understandable when one reads about their tragic loss halfway through the book. The closing paragraph of the book confirms this conclusion. Do yourself a favour and do not read the last page of the book before you "legitimately" can after you have read the rest of it - apparently some people actually do that! It will not necessarily spoil your reading experience, but the story unfolds very well and pulls the reader closer to the author as it develops. Similar to the first book, the Season is well written and/or edited.

I again enjoyed Carol's description of the French rural characters she and Michel meet during their farming adventure. Although I appreciate her sharing of her research into various aspects of farming and nature, I find that those specific paragraphs tend to clash with the writing style of the rest of the book. Although short, they are almost reference book fact-like descriptions. However, they are far and in between and do not really distract from the overall reading experience. Their exploits into the French countryside and visits to interesting little shops and eating places do a lot to make the reader want to get onto a plane and explore those hide-away places!

If you have enjoyed The Olive Farm, you will also enjoy The Olive Season, although it is somewhat more "heavy" because of the dramatic events referred to earlier. Would I buy the next episode if Carol writes it? Yes, probably, even if only to find out whether they have managed to find a beekeeper! She clearly wrote, or at least completed, this one, inter alia for her own personal healing, but her writing style is such that I would support sequels in the Olive-saga much more positively than I would support Hollywood follow-on's!

I was a little late in reading this one. Once Hell Freezes Over was the first Brandvold book I read, and that hooked me. This is a very good western and I highly recommend it. I personally liked Hell Freezes Over more, mainly because it focused on people held hostage in a small cabin during a snow storm - elements which I enjoy.

Ben Stillman may be retired but he will always think like a lawman. Joey Harmon, son of Ben's old friend, came looking for him after his father was killed. He is sure he was killed by Donavan Hobbs but wants Ben to find out for sure. Ben cannot refuse and takes on the job. His ex-sweetheart show up in the form of Fay Hobbs, wife of Donavan. Ben is like the rest of us, he makes mistakes, is shot, beaten up and can bleed. His main enemy is Donovan Hobbs and his number one hired gun Weed Cole. Weed????? Through thick and thin Ben tries to work things out. Crystal Johnson, girl friend of Jody Harmon is a good character. Tough as nails, shoots like a man. Leon McMannigle comes into play as a good sidekick to Ben. I hope he is in additional books. A very good western. Lots of action. You can relate to Ben as he is no super hero---just a plain one. If you like a book that is fast moving with a good story you will like this one.

I've always loved westerns... movies, that is. This is the first one I have ever read. But I wager I'll read 10 more Brandvolds-- and more as they come along. I read it because I went to grad school with this young man. Young? How the hell old is he now? How the hell old am I? Actually, I feel about 10 years younger than before reading this book.... Excitement peels away the years. A well-wrought yarn, complex but tightly written. Powerful descriptive details and original metaphor. Characters you know so well you want to hold them, marry them, sit down to dinner with them... and others ya just want to choke the life out of. I'll probably never read another western --except one by Peter Brandvold. And you can believe I'm just itching for the cameras to start rolling.

Any Western novel that uses a quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge at the beginning is worth a look. One of the challenges of writing good Western fiction is making the familiar elements seem fresh and exciting. In addition, avoiding the bland plot formulas of TV and many paperback Western stories is necessary. Peter Brandvold's story of aging lawman Ben Stillman, although a variation of the "riding the vengeance trail" stories, meets these expectations. His characters appear true to life. Ben Stillman is hardly an indestructible superhero. He bruises and bleeds, as anyone. He also tenaciously stays on the killers' trail. The villains are more one-dimensional in their lust, greed, and violence. Donovan Hobbs diminishes to a caricature. Weed Cole is a good portrait of a real Western badman. There is violence and sex in this story. Branvold avoids the gratuitous of both as they emanate from logical plot and character development. This is a '90s Western. The women are tough and independent, but also lusty and desirable. Fay Hobbs holds the reader's attention, and does more than wait around for rescue. The setting up north on the Hi-Line is a welcome change from Arizona sagebrush and dusty Texas spreads. The plot takes a little time to get moving. Beyond this minor quibble, it gathers steam as a locomotive in motion that roars to a thunderous destination. This book is a promising first novel that captures the flavor of the old West without the standard "mixture as before" pitfalls. The epilogue demonstrates this nicely. Good, lightweight reading. ;-)

"Once a Marshal" is the first in a series of Westerns by Peter Brandvold. Jody Harmon calls on Ben Stillman, a retired marshal, to investigate the murder of his father Bill, a friend of Stillman's, in Clantick in the Montana territory. When Ben arrives he finds that a rich Englishman, Donovan Hobbs, is rustling cattle from small ranches and killing the ranchers. Ben feels that perhaps one of Hobbs' gunmen may be responsible for Bill Harmon's death. Ben also meets Fay, his one true love. The only problem is that Fay is married to Donovan Hobbs. This was my first Peter Brandvold novel, and I think it is one of the finest Westerns I've ever read. There is plenty of suspense and I couldn't put this book down until I finished it. I look forward to reading the rest of the Ben Stillman Westerns. Peter Brandvold is an excellent writer!

Ajahn Sumano shows the way in this very humble, up-front book about the renunciate's life. He doesn't sugar-coat anything, but he does make you understand the appeal of chucking it all and going out to watch your breath. Stop the roller coaster--read this book!

The title of a book always tells me the most about it and the core of what it attempts to achieve. Ajahn Sumano's book is an open, gentle forum of questions with honest answers that will teach you and touch you. Everytime I pick it up, I see something new and pass his wisdom to a friend or a client usually that very same day...

I picked up this book just when my life was so full of doubts and confusion. It has been a great source of strength for me especially during those tough times. I don't believe that it is simply a coincidence that whatever page I happen to open always contains the response to my concerns. I feel the compassionate and gentle guidance of Ajahn Sumano in his wise and down-to-earth answers, even to the most mundane questions. I felt so blessed to have found this book and I wanted to share the same joy among my friends, so I have given it out as a gift to several of them.

If you had to get only one book this year, do yourself a great kindness and make it this one.

Q&A books of all kinds have been written many times before but very few bear the genuineness and sincerity that this book has. This heartfelt attitude is what makes it so engaging. The questions presented throughout the pages sound like something I or any spiritually curious person would ask. Ajahn Sumano's answers in return are strikingly simple and compassionate. Perhaps in his early days as a layperson, he may have asked these questions himself. As profound as the answers are, Ajahn Sumano never loses his quiet sense of humor in the delivery of his response (Q:Why do I get a headache whenever I meditate? A: Do you ever get headaches when you don't meditate? Q:...uh, yes. A: There you are. You get a headache because you have a head.).There are many lessons one can pick up, learn and cherish in this book, one of which is the fact that each one of us is student and teacher at once.

After having met Ajahn Sumano on two occasions, I looked forward to the day he would write this book for us. It is written from his heart in true Buddhist fashion. I highly recommend this book for the Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike. Ajahn Sumano gives us a taste of what it is like to be a forest monk in Thailand and how he views all things. Thank you for writing this Ajahn.

Samurai Shortstop is a wonderful, but underappreciated tale about a boy and his love for baseball. Toyo, a 14 year-old boy is faced to grow up faster than he ever wanted to when his uncle committed seppuku, legal suicide in Japan. Everything has changed since the French Revolution, and now there are no more samurais, but now there is baseball, Toyo's favorite sport.
He has just now started the most prestigious school in Tokyo, which means new friends, bullies, and many more problems. He tries out for baseball and starts learning the way of samurai from his father. Toyo and his father never really understood each other, and now that his uncle has died, Toyo only has his friends to help him.

Toyo is a very smart person, and becomes a very good leader. Throughout the book everything that happens helps him, although it doesn't look like it all the time. Toyo starts to put his skill in the art of bushido, samurai fighting style, into baseball. My favorite part of the book is when he fights the older kid instead of letting them beat him up. I would recommend this book to students from 7th grade and up.
--Malik McKenzie

This is a story of a boy named Toyo Shimada. The time is set in Tokyo, 1890. Toyo is sent to a boarding school of a very high caliber, but after he arrives he sees how the upperclassmen treat the first years. To fit in, he joins the baseball team, a sport he loves. He wants to be shortstop, but until he becomes a "man" to the upperclassmen he is stuck in the outfield. He is enraged, but nevertheless he pushes through the tormenting and refuses to quit the baseball team. The only problem is his father, who is still using the ways of the samurai, or worrier. Toyo's father does not want him to play, unless Toyo can convince him otherwise. Other than that, his father has decided to teach him the ways of the warrior, or bushido. At first Toyo does not understand any of his bushido lessons, or why he has to do them, but over the course of the book he learns to use his bushido skills.
This book reminds me of a book called Dairy Queen. The story was about a girl, and football, not baseball, but in the end she overcomes many obstacles just like Toyo. In both books, the main focus is overcoming anything that comes your way. They are both also about standing up to important figures in there lives. It happens to be that in both books that person is their dad. Alan Gratz has written an enthralling tale.
I enjoyed the book, although it does have some pretty gruesome scenes. I liked reading it because you always want to see what Toyo will do next, what the other characters are going to say, or do. It also tells you a lot about what school was like back then, in Japan. It is a lot different from Americans school, and the year it takes place in really makes a difference. Overall, this is a great book and you should pick it up sometimes if you are looking for a great read.

Let me start off by saying this is the best book I have read. It is a very exciting book that keeps your attention throughout. It starts off by the Emperer allowing Toyo's Uncle to commit seppuku (suicide) instead of being killed by the government. Samurai Shortstop has a great mix of baseball and culture. You get to read a baseball story but at the sametime learn about their culture and beliefs. Toyo attends Ichiko which is a very big school that consists of only boys.

Ichiko's baseball team is run by the players themselves and when Toyo and a couple other first years want to join the team the have to prove that they are worthy. Toyo's friend Futoshi makes the team as the right fielder but Toyo has a little trouble making the team because Ichiko already has a shortstop. But when their shortstop gets thrown off the team Toyo found himself starting at shortstop. Toyo's father teaches trys to teach him bushido which is code by which Samurai lived but Toyo has trouble understanding it. Not until the end of the book when he has to help with his father's seppuku does he fully understand bushido. This is a wonderful book because it keeps you off balance and never knowing what is going to happen!

Kyle Walmer
Mrs. Bains 3rd block

It's 1890 and you're in Tokyo, Japan. Between classes in the most prestigious high school in town and baseball practice, you learn the old ways--the ways of the samurai. That's Toyo Shimada's life and we get the pleasure of going along for the ride thanks to Alan Gratz's brilliant story telling.


Toyo suffers from familiar teen angst: a parent who doesn't understand him and friends who try to understand him, but often fail. It's the core of most teen stories, but Toyo's world is changing. Old Japan is dying and a new Japan is rising.


His father represents the old Japan. When the emperor reforms their ancient military system and requires all samurai to hang up their swords, Toyo's family is caught in the middle. The opening scene, where Toyo and his father assist Toyo's uncle in seppuku, ritual suicide, is so intense that you'll wonder if Toyo's just having a bad dream.


Even though Toyo's father isn't samurai in the traditional sense, he too decides he can't live in the new Japan. He expects Toyo to assist him in seppuku, when the time comes. First, he must teach Toyo the ways of bushido, the warrior's code.


Between lessons and baseball practice, Toyo learns to meditate and use a sword--and worries about his father. When the time comes, will he have the courage to do what has to be done? Baseball is his passion, and as applies bushido to baseball, he comes to terms with the changing world around him and begins his journey into manhood.


Samurai Shortstop is the story of Toyo's search for his own path in a time of social change and family turmoil. Toyo's personal struggle is one all teens can appreciate. He struggles with peer pressure, studies, and parental control and expectations. Nineteenth century Japan comes alive and provides the color and unexpected tension that every good story needs.

Samurai Shortstop is about a 16-year old Japanese boy, Toyo. Right from the first sentence of the book it really grabs your attention. Toyo's uncle is preparing to commit sepukku. This is considered an honorable way to kill yourself in Japan. The story draws you into the life of Toyo and helps you to understand his relationship with his father and learning the art of bushido. He goes off to a private boarding school where he learns how to stand up for himself and fight off the seniors who are out to torture the first years. I liked this book because it combines the sport of baseball along with Toyo's high school experience in Japan. If you want to read a book that is hard to put down and will keep you intrigued until the very last page, then this is the book for you.

Superb! As someone of Scottish ancestry who went to graduate school there back in the 1970s, I was naturally drawn to this book. Taken at face value, writing a book on three tiny, uninhabited islands is quite challenging, given the nearly four hundred pages this book encompasses. Mr. Nicolson writes stirring prose as he disects every aspect of the Shiants--history, geology, plant life, animal life, etc. From this, the reader can acquire knowledge on a wide variety of subjects that extend well-beyond these little isles--for example, I learned that the abundant defecation of geese is brought about their need to constantly reduce body weight or else lose the ability to fly, as these are indeed heavy birds.

As one interested in the history of the Western Isles, what these islands experienced has application for this entire area, in that many of the smaller isles have experienced the same trend towards depopulation that have beset the Shiants, with the last permanent residents leaving the Shiants in the early 1900s. The author contends that all of this a byproduct of modern, urbanized society which results in individuals in remote places feeling isolated, a psychology that didn't exist 500 years ago when what one could find on one island or the nearby mainland didn't differ substantially from the small islands you inhabited.

Humor abounds, especially funny to read about his father's experinces in the 1930s, the story of him walking around in the nude as he was the only one there, only to be surprised by unknown visitors having a pic nic. Also in the 1930s, his father invited two beautiful young ladies who were to serve as bridesmaids for the future Queen Elizabeth II for a visit. The author muses on why Dad ever invited them as the rat-infested house had no electricity and conditions were very primitive. The trip ends horribly for the young women, with a rat disrupting their sleep and their having to leave the isle the next day by wading out to the boat taking them back to the mainland. Conditions today are still just as primitive-no electricity, running water, etc.

Best part--the end--beautiful description of sitting on a high hill--with the Isle of Skye to the east, the Outer Hebrides to the west. What a place! What a book!

I bought this book to indulge my interest in Scotland's islands, and found that, and much more. Essentially, this is a memoor with history, geology, flora and fauna tucked into it. The three small Shiant islands in the Hebrides come alive in Nicolson's hands. He's an excellent writer, drawing the reader in without "effect". You can sense his total awe and regard for this legacy. And, except for the rats, you find yourself wanting to live there, for a few summertime weeks, simply exploring coves and beaches and the semi-desolate interiors of these islands. Along the way, you learn a lot, in pleasurable fashion. Nicolson truly touches on the islands' soul. Recommended!

A compelling book about the realities of life in the Scottish Islands. Adam has done an excellent job of blending historical details with his descriptions of this area. Well worth a read!

Not the other way around. This was the greatest theme I took away from Adam Nicolson's "Sea Room," the story of the three tiny, uninhabited Shiant (say "Shant") Islands in the Hebrides of Scotland, which Nicholson inherited from his father (the famed author Nigel Nicolson, the son of Vita Sackville-West).

Nicolson's approach to describing the islands for his readers resembles John McPhee's: it's an engaging blend of natural history (how were the islands formed?), human history (who lived here and why?), archaeology, and ecology (how do the animals and plants of the Shiants form a whole world?). The difference is that Nicolson's passion for place is quite specific: he loves the Shiants like one loves one's parents, infinitely and irreplaceably. You can't imagine him running off and writing a second book about another place.

Nicolson's prose is lyric and detailed at the same time; despite the length (350 pages and more), the story never flags. At the end of the book, Nicholson defends his continued private ownership of the islands (many feel they should be a public trust); I wasn't convinced, but I respected his strong urge to transmit his love of the place to his son and future generations of his family.

By the way, Nicholson publicly offers the keys to his cottage to anyone desiring to stay there (his e-mail address is in the book); but consider first that rats seem now to be part of the natural ecology of the place. But perhaps that won't phase you (it doesn't phase Nicholson a bit!).

Ah, what a fine book this is. Reading it is like spending time with a new friend. Nicholson has a sharp and curious mind and a generous spirit. You may not think you can be much interested in a group of three little islands in the Outer Hebrides - the Shiants - their climate, wildlife, prehistory, geology, archeology, socio-economics, agriculture, shepherding, folk literature, the sea currents around them, and the host of other topics covered in this book, but Nicholson draws you in. Soon you are immersed in whatever there is to be known about what amounts to less than a square mile of rock, cliffs, beach, and meadow.

The book is organized around the turn of the year, beginning with Nicholson's first journey to the islands in his own boat in the spring, and ending with the first gusty wet weather of autumn, as he sits at the window in a two-room cottage writing. Into this annual cycle he interweaves story upon story, often speculative, of how the islands came to be, how they came to be what they are, and the people over thousands of years who have lived here.

As the year passes, Nicholson sketches in the broad sweep of recorded history from St. Columba to the present, noting the several hands through which the islands have passed, including his father's and his own. A team of archeologists identifies the remains of Iron and Bronze Age settlements and spends a summer uncovering a long abandoned farmstead. The discovery of a buried cobblestone with an ancient inscription sends him on one of many attempts to unravel mysteries that he uncovers.

The book is based on considerable research, and Nicholson pieces together a previously unwritten history of the islands with references drawn from many old documents and interviews with historians and other experts. He helpfully illustrates his text with many photographs, drawings, and maps.

This book is for anyone who feels the magical pull of islands. You will not regard them quite the same way again.

This is the first Louis L'Amour book I have read so I can not compare it to any of his other books. This story makes me want to read more L'Amour books. I like a book that can tell a good story in less that 200 pages, I don't want read books by the pound. It reminds me of the old term "pocket book" because they can fit in your back pocket and can be read and enjoyed in a short amount of time. The main characters are likeable and the villians are people that need killing, what more do you want in a Western.

Loved this book, told in the first person this is Matt Brennan who rides into town and into trouble - there are two ranchers who are fighting a smaller third holding who is between them, they want his land and water rights. Within minutes of getting to town both men tell him to join their crew - he refuses both and goes out to see Ball, on the third place - but not before he has fallen in love with the woman of his dreams.

If he is going to set up house he is going to need some assets behind him, he likes Ball, the old man caught between the two ambitious ranchers, and he makes a deal to be a fighting partner for the spread. Between the two of them they think they can make it work.

This is about much more than settling the problems of three men out for power - Brennan has to make peace with them all, but at the same time he has to sort out the huge man, Park, who is the current suitor for Moira (the woman Matt has fallen in love with) but there is also something sinister in Parks past - and in his current dealings. There is also something going on with a crooked lawyer called Booker who seems to be instigating trouble in the background.

Brennan resolves all so that peace can reign in the valley - and its really well done. This is a resolution that I didn't expect but like all of L'amour's books, there are some complex relationships based on loyalty and respect rather than black and white.

Louis L'Amour wrote many, many westerns and in my opinion this is one of the best of them. The story line is very cohesive and involving. The characters are rich and well developed. As always L'Amour weaves a rich and very detailed landscape, with a lot of attention to details. The plot was intriguing and kept you guessing right up until the end. Just a very, very well written story!

When I tell people that I love Louis L'Amour I get some pretty weird looks in return. To my friends I am known to read quite a bit of heavy history and biography and it seems odd to them that, given my normal reading diet, I could find anything good to say about such "light" reading as L'Amour. Still I find L'Amour's talesmithing abilities to be without peer.

L'Amour wrote with a distinctive style and filled his stories with action and intrigue. No, his works are not the extremely violent works that typify modern westerns like UNFORGIVEN or OPEN RANGE. But then L'Amour wrote in a time when such graphic action would not have been readily accepted.

With all this in mind, I loved SILVER CANYON, a tale of vengeance, lies and, as with virtually all of L'Amour's stories, of the good guy winning in the end. The tiny western hamlet of Hattan's Point is a sleepy town until the day that Matt Brennan seems to bring with him a heated, all out war that involves practically everyone in town. Matt makes friends and enemies with equal ease. He also finds the love of his life and is in hot pursuit despite her being the daughter of one of the main combatants in the feud.

Who will win out? Read SILVER CANYON.

THE HORSEMAN

When it comes to reading Louis L'Amour the modern western fan is faced with having to take things in context. Remember that L'Amour's works were primarily written in the fifties and sixties and, as a result, have a certain "dignity" about them that no longer applies with the westerns of today, especially those on the big screen.

Take SILVER CANYON for example. There is plenty of action here to be sure but it is painted much more subtly on L'Amour's canvass than, let's say, on those of Larry McMurtry or on Clint Eastwood's or Kevin Costner's movie screens. Frankly L'Amour or his readers would not have tolerated the graphic, raw, often harsh violence of today's western s offerings. It's still there he just expresses it in ways that are less bombastic. For example, instead of saying, "the bullet smashed into my elbow sending blood and bone flying everywhere..." L'Amour offers, "I felt a tug at at my sleeve..." even though it is apparent to the reader that the first version is still what happened.

L'Amour wrote with a clear sense of nostalgia and romance about the west. He was much for the kindred spirit of John Wayne and John Ford than of McMurtry, Eastwood or Costner.

I thoroughly enjoyed SILVER CANYON, a tale of revenge, deceit and, as is the case with all L'Amour tales, of ultimate white-hatted triumph and justice. Matt Brennan rides into the sleepy town of Hattan's Point and awakens the flames of a smoldering range war. He discovers friends, fiends and meets the girl of his dreams. Like all other L'Amour pieces reading SILVER CANYON in the correct mindset is absolutely essential. If you do you'll find another L'Amour western masterpiece.

Douglas McAllister