North America Books

There is nothing I can say that would do any justice as to how great this book is. It was everything you could possibly hope for in an ethnographic text. You learn a lot about a culture very different from ours and it is truly just fascinating!

What do people make of places? Basso's opening sentence is a good example of what the Apache call `letting one's mind have room'. As we read through the chapters of the book Basso continues to add layers to the meaning of this opening question. It allows us to reflect on various uses of the word `make'. We make sense of places by interpreting them. We make places intelligible by foregrounding them. We make use of places; as sign posts or land-marks through the use of descriptive naming. We make places or constitute them as sites or repositories of learning; we invest them as placeholders for morality tales or homilies. We make places vital; we invest them with agency, we enchant them, animate them, in the spirit of golems; we take a piece of earth and through magic or metaphysics we bring it alive, giving it a mission and a life of its own.

Wisdom sits in places. The Apache are a good example of virtue ethics. This is a theory of ethics, usually based on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, which argues against an ethical universalism and in favor of a particularism. It foregoes the quest for nomothetic foundations and looks instead to the development of certain skills or character traits. Aristotle created a catalogue of areas of behavior or traits with a continuum of possible dispositions. The virtuous behavior was the means between the two extremes of each continuum. Thus the virtue of bravery was somewhere in the range between cowardice and foolhardiness or irrational voluntarism in the face of impossible odds or a meaningless risk.
Aristotle's concept of phronesis finds an interesting parallel in the Apache moral imagination. Phronesis is a meta-virtue; it is the ability to choose the right action for each particular event; the ability to find the virtuous means between vicious poles. It is the essential skill for particularism which is the theory that the right action, the correct moral choice is particular to each unique event. It is opposed to the universalist proposition that there are sets of moral propositions or codes that we can apply in a covering law model. Universalism holds that when two of our moral codes clash we resolve the dilemma by applying a meta-rule, most commonly a deontological (Kantian) or utilitarian proposition.
The Apache's sense of wisdom is a good example of a pragmatic ethics informed by a set of virtues that are learned and continually developed throughout their life's journey. In the first chapter we note how each speaker brings the homily (the moral lesson associated with a place name) forward, making it their own, fleshing it out. One imagines that each speaker and hearer of place names is expected to silently immerse themselves in each homily; making it real by seeing it happen. The act of giving vision to the oral narrative is a process of developing layers upon layers of particular exemplars of the lesson. It is thus internalized and carried forward for the next use. As one gains wisdom one becomes more proficient at seeing when and where to apply these lessons.
This is similar to the thought of the American pragmatist and logician, C. S. Peirce, who proposed a fallibilism about knowledge, truth, and scientific results. He felt that we were always discovering more and that a full statement of any putative universal law was always deferred. Peirce's original pragmatism differed from what James and Dewey later made of it. For Peirce we expanded our sense of a truth through a process of discovering layers upon layers of particular applications and gradually gaining more of an understanding of the wider truth. But his sense of fallibilism posited rich moral concepts such as justice or duty as essentially contested concepts.

We have maps in our heads. There are other interesting parallels with the ancient Greeks besides virtue ethics. There is a significant body of study regarding Plato's thought on the spoken and written word. Plato argued that reality resides in absolute and eternal forms. Thus the impressions available to our senses are imitations that is but a shadow of these eternal truths; they confuse us and should not be trusted. Worse still are the imitations of imitations; thus his polemics against poetry, art, and the written word. It would be interesting to combine this with the study of texts in the 20th century to look at the Apache's preference for maps in the head. Barthes, Derrida and others all expanded our notion of what can serve as texts and it might be interesting to look at Apache use of places through some of those lenses.
In addition there are interesting parallels with the sophists. Although Plato and Socrates succeeded in creating our contemporary disdain for sophism, recent work in the study of Isocrates and others brings a new appreciation of certain tenets of sophism. The sophists exhibited some similarities to the Apache notions of epistemology. They both saw the elders and ancestors as the source of wisdom and warrants for knowledge to be used for current problems. They both argued that the knowledge of the past resided less in universal laws than in practices of the ancestors; actual responses to past dilemmas that are best accessed through interpretation rather than a rote use of the covering law model or a slavish rehearsal of rigid and dogmatic rituals.
They both thought that knowledge (as justified true belief) was discovered and ultimately ratified and warranted by the voice of the majority; the interpretation that found the most general favor. The sophists proposed that vigorous debate in an open forum of citizens is the most epistemologically sound form of inquiry. Their best speakers would take both sides on various propositions of what the ancestors would have done in the current crisis. The goal was to make the best possible argument for all options and let the citizenry decide.
Both the ancient Greeks and the Apache continued to observe religious rituals but it would also be interesting to compare characteristics of their religious cosmology, the role of the gods, and their associations with natural entities and nature in general.

This book was mediocre at best. Although Keith Basso did provide some insight into why the Apache people cherish their land, I felt that Basso kept on saying the exact same thing in every sentence. I had the point of the entire book by the time I was ten pages into it, and it kept on going, therefore making me lose my concentration on what I was reading.

Anthropologists, language students, and Native American culture afficionados will find this book, and any by Keith Basso, written links into a cultural past which struggles to exist today. As the Western Apache tribes become more modern, the information found in this and other Keith Basso writings, become necessities in the preservation of traditional Apache culture; with the exception of the knowledge of a few hundred very traditional Apaches still living in Arizona.

What do people make of places? This is the central question examined by Keith Basso in his ethno-linguistic study of the relationship between language and landscape among the Apaches of Cibecue, on the Fort Apache Reservation in central Arizona. Basso, a professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, has spent over 30 years conducting field work among the Western Apaches. His publications concerning this group include articles on language, patterns of silence in social interaction, witchcraft beliefs, and ceremonial symbolism, among others. The idea for Wisdom Sits in Places stemmed from a study conducted between 1979 and 1984, in which Basso, with the help of a grant from the National Science Foundation and the guidance of the Apaches, conducted a study of Apache places and place-names; how the Apache refer to their land, the stories behind the place-names, and how these place-names are used in daily conversation by Apache men and women. The result is a stunningly informative account of the use of landscape and language in the social interactions of the Western Apaches.
Basso divides his book into four sections: Quoting the Ancestors, Stalking with Stories, Speaking with Names, and Wisdom Sits in Places. Each chapter's focus is to examine how landscape and language serve distinct purposes in Western Apache society. Basso incorporates the oral history of, and discussions with, local Apaches, as well as his formal training as an ethnographer-linguist, to explain the underlying themes of this book.
First, Basso introduces the reader to the idea of place-names and in the Western Apache construction of history. As conceived by the Apaches, the past is a "well-worn `path' or `trail' which was traveled first by the people's founding ancestors and which subsequent generations of Apaches have traveled ever since" (31). The ancestors gave names to places, based on events that occurred there. Regardless of the physical changes in the landscape that occurred over time, the story of what took place, as well as the place-name, was passed down through generations and serves as a connection between the people and their ancestors.
Second, Basso examines how the language and the land are "manipulated by Apaches to promote compliance with standards for acceptable social behavior and the moral values which support them" (41). The historical tales of place-names are without exception morality tales, intended to influence patterns of social action. Their purpose is to serve as warnings, criticisms, and enlightenment for those who are behaving improperly; not in accordance with the Apache way of life. The telling of a historical tale is "intended as a critical and remedial response" to an individual's having committed one or more social offenses. Apaches contend that if the message is taken to heart, a lasting bond will have been created between that individual and the site at which the events in the tale took place. In short, the land, accompanied with its historical tale, "makes the people live right" (61).
Third, through the act of "speaking with names", place-names can be condensed "into compact form their essential moral truths" (101). "Speaking with names" is considered appropriate only under certain circumstances, generally to enable those who engage in it "to acknowledge a regrettable circumstance without explicitly judging it, to exhibit solicitude without openly proclaiming it, and to offer advice without appearing to do so" (91). Evoking images of a particular place and narrative thus replaces a more direct form of advice or criticism, with "a minimum of linguistic means" (103).
Finally, with the guidance of his Apache friend, Dudley Patterson, Basso examines the path of wisdom in Western Apache society. Patterson explains there are two mental conditions, "steadiness of mind", and "resilience of mind", which lead to a third and most desirable condition, smoothness of mind. These three conditions are not innate; therefore, one must work on one's mind in order to gain wisdom. To work on one's mind, "one must observe different places, learn their Apache place-names, and reflect on traditional narratives that underscore the virtues of wisdom" (134). A resilient mind, according to Patterson, does not "give in to panic or fall prey to spasms of anxiety or succumb to spells of crippling worry" (132). A steady mind is "unhampered by feelings of arrogance or pride, anger or vindictiveness, jealously or lust" (133). Steadiness and resilience give way to a sense of "cleared space" or "area free of obstruction", conditions necessary for smoothness of mind. Only those who continue on the trail of wisdom their whole lives come closest to having a smooth mind, and are "able to foresee disaster, fend off misfortune, and avoid explosive conflicts with other persons" (131). Thus, wisdom is intertwined with the idea of survival through the consistent and thoughtful evocation of landscape and language.
Keith Basso and the Western Apaches of Cibecue have provided readers with an insightful and provocative account of the connection between language, land, and a people's cultural history. Wisdom Sits in Places opens the door for future research on place-names by shedding light on a previously overshadowed topic in anthropological studies. Basso's dissection of certain stories and social interactions can be overwhelming and a bit dry, but his purpose is made clear when his examinations are added together with the Apache narratives. What results is a clear picture of what language and landscape mean to the Western Apaches, the functional versatility of place-names, and the importance of being aware of one's sense of place.

I bought it as a gift for my husband who is into photography. He's really enjoying it. It arrived before Christmas too even though I got an email that said it would be late. I've had good experience w/ amazon on book orders.

This is a beautiful book of photography done by one of the most outstanding nature photographers America has ever known. The photos from all over N. America are outstanding. A wonderful coffee table book. Also an inspirational book for photographers or anyone desiring to be amongst the glories of nature. Galan Rowell knew what to look for in a great photograph.

I love this book! I'm in to landscape photography and this book is some of the best examples out there.

This book is packed full of breath-taking scenery with every page, from front cover to back, presenting exquisite photos of North American treasures. It is a picture book filled with eye candy for the nature lover, world traveler, and science enthusiast. I highly recommend this book to inspire your soul, renew your mind, and lift your spirits.

I have been a fan of Galen Rowell's work for years, and I had been anticipating getting a compendium of his North American work for a while. If you want to see some of Rowell's best from a technical standpoint, then by all means grab a copy, but be warned that this is some of the worse image quality I've seen in a photography book published in the last 10 years. Most pictures are overly grainy, there are some major pixel problems where colors blend (particularly in colorful sky shots), and color casts often don't match his originals. With the technology as good as it presently is, this is inexcusable for such an expensive book. Rowell deserved better.

This is an excellent translation of an amazing account. Favata and Fernandez give an accurate and interesting rendition of Cabeza de Vaca's words. Their notes aid in understanding and appreciation of the story. I highly recommend this translation to anyone interested in Cabeza de Vaca himself, the time period, or just a good read.

This is a startling yet interesting tale of Cabeza de Vaca's journey through the southern U.S. These men suffered greatly through their journey and yet accomplished what they set out to do in the end.

Truly a remarkable story of survival of the fittest.

Highly recommended.

Although this is a short narrative, the book presents the best description of early North American life I have read so far. The book is Cabeza de Vaca's autobiographical account of his participation in a failed Spanish expedition to colonize Florida in the early 1500's. Through a series of events, the members of the expedition end up traveling along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico into Texas and then overland into Sonora, Mexico. Only four members of the expedition returned to Spanish civilization, but they had earned the respect of many of the Indian tribes.

The Account not only presents details of the journey but also presents general historical aspects of North American Indians and Spanish colonization in the 1500's. Cabeza de Vaca has performed a great service in documenting the practices of food-gathering, agriculture, slavery, trade, and spirituality among the Southwestern Indians. His narrative also highlights the the perils of 1500's exploration and the harsh attitudes of Spanish colonists towards Indians.

The translators also deserve credit for their work. Using clear modern English, they have made The Account easy to read. They have also supplemented their translation with translation notes and histroical notes that are very useful, particularly in identifying locations in the text. Moreover, they have also included an introduction that places The Account and Cabeza de Vaca into a historical context.

In summary, The Account is not only a great narrative of the personal history of Cabeza de Vaca's travels across North America but also an important document about early Spanish colonization and Native American culture. I strongly recommend this book for all readers.

Texas history begins n 1528, when a hurricane sank a Spanish ship off the coast of Galveston Island. Four survivors washed up naked on the shore, including Governor Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and the black man, Estebano, who had been the slave of one of the drowned men. Thus begins one of the most remarkable adventures in history. This book is Cabeza de Vaca's first person account of his experience. He and his men first became the slaves of hostile coastal Indians who tortured them, but ultimately, after several years in captivity, escaped to go with other more sympathetic inland Indians. He describes the many Native American tribes he encountered, as well as their customs and how they lived. Most of them starved when not eking out subsistence on cactus fruit and nuts. The Indians had never seen a bearded face before and most were in awe of the Spaniards. They believed he had healing powers and demanded that he heal their sick. Cabeza de Vaca was a very pious man and called upon his god to help him. He prayed for patients, made the sign of the cross on their bodies, and extorted the promise that they would henceforth follow the true God. The sick Indians swore that they had been cured and Cabeza de Vaca became recognized as a powerful shaman, eagerly greeted by the Western Tribes who begged for his blessing. Cabeza de Vaca was North America's first lay missionary. Nine years after the shipwreck, he encountered quite by accident another group of Spaniards exploring New Mexico (and capturing Indians to enslave). Because Cabeza de Vaca insisted upon humane treatment toward the Indians, the cruel Spaniards imprisoned the crazy (and perhaps dangerous) naked man and took him to Mexico City. After living among the Indians for nine years, Cabeza de Vaca felt uncomfortable wearing clothes and could not sleep on a bed.

This is an extraordinary story, full of wonder, horror and faith. It is a work of literature. Those with an interest in Texas history, Native Americans, or the Spanish conquest of America will find this easy-flowing translation extremely compelling reading.

If you thought that the only thing that the Spanish explorers did was pick up gold and enslave the natives, this book is for you. Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca was truly a modern man in the way he thought about people and things. Given only his wits having lost his clothes & food, he survives in a strange land for 10 years and walks out a reviered man among the natives. I had no idea anyone had done this. Our only regret is that he did not write more of his adventures and the socialogy & language of the people he lived with. Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca had more than the usual dose of Duty, Honor and Country about him, and he kept all three when adversity struck.

My 2-year old son loves this book. He loves all the animals and way it reads. It is a great edition to the collection.

My grandson loves this story. It has simple text and colorful photos which appeal to small children.

very cute book that fits in perfectly with the Brown Bear, Polar Bear and Panda Bear set! i just wish it came as a board book.

My boys love this whole series of books - they both sing along while we read them and actually start singing them spontaneously in the car or while playing. The artwork is amazing - just like the others in the series! My only wish is that this was in board book format!

This book is one of the books in a series by by Bill Martin (Author), and Eric Carle (Illustrator). We truely enjoy giving their books as Christmas and/or birthday gifts.

..and buy this book right now. A freind of mine showed me Floyd Scholz owl book and i was amazed. I found that he wrote another book , Birds of Prey, and ordered it. Just got it in today and it's fantastic. This book contains gorgeous photos of several species of raptors, but not just in outdoor shots or hard to reference flying poses. These are studio photos, close ups of spread and folded wings, details of the feet and head and a number of full body shots. There are also scientific line drawings of the birds, detailing the feather arrangement and body proportions. The back of the book has one the coolest sections ever...how to carve raptor statues! This mans carving skill is amazing to the point where it's almost ridiculous. His bird sculptures look 100% real and the clear step by step instructions make it look easy.
This book is perfect for artist's reference. It does have some text, such as the species profile at the start of each chapter which is awesome. However this book mostly photos, scientific drawings and artwork...which is also awesome.

Seriously, buy it.

This is a gorgeous book packed with large color photos of many beautiful live birds. Its intended purpose is as a sourcebook for artists, but it will universally appeal to any bird lover.

The introductory chapter illustrates common features of raptor anatomy. Detailed chapters follow on 17 major North American species with numerous color photos and line drawings with dimensions.

A practical application is included with a step-by-step section on carving and painting a finely detailed kestrel in wood. There are even instructions for making remarkable lifelike eyes from acrylic plastic.

The book concludes with a gallery of the author's own fabulous museum quality carvings. This is a great combination of nature photography and fine art.

This book is an absolute must-have for anyone who wants to draw these birds... or simply appreciates their beauty. These aren't simply glamor-shots, they're close-up detailed images, from a number of different angles. Every one is well lit, in crisp focus, and shows wonderful detail.

Not only bird artists, but any bird lover would enjoy this book. The pictures are excellent, in focus and from all angles.

This book is often in use at my lab table.

This wonderfully photographed book is an excellent reference for anyone interested in carving birds of prey. An extremely thorough series of photographs is included for each bird covered in the book. Additionally, patterns and other carving consideration are included for each specimen. The book concludes with a chapter on creating acrylic eyes for carvings, a chapter on carving and painting a kestrel, and a chapter exhibiting some of the authors carvings. Incidentally, the author's carvings are great.

Scholtz's other book, Carving a Red Tailed Hawk, does not do this book justice. This book contains better photographs and better carving.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in carving birds of any type.

Bailey provides a compact and highly competent study of the post Atlanta campaign with Hood sparing well with Sherman initially then turning north in his great desperate gamble while Sherman marches through the heart of Georgia virtually unopposed except for Wheeler's undermanned cavalry. Bailey captures the strategy and politics very well with a big picture view of the situation. She captures the odd situation of Hood going in one direction with Sherman in the other. Hood, the great fighter seemingly moves without consultation although Beauregard is placed as the department commander by Davis, which had as much control as Johnson had of Vicksburg in that campaign. Bailey captures the desperation of Hoods movement with failed logistics, supplies and a virtual mythical expectation of troops from the TransMississippi. Bailey covers the hopes and political implications of a Lincoln re-election that is fascinating. She also details, with his movements, Sherman's desire to subjugate the south along with his views on black troops and the infamous desertion of black followers by union Jefferson C. Davis. The controversial failure to close the trap at Spring Hill is well discussed as well as the tragic battle of Franklin and the battles of Nashville where the outnumbered Confederates put up a desperate fight to total collapse redeeming General Thomas. The Nashville desciption of battle is economically told but captures the main aspects particularly recognizing the first use of black union troops in battle who fought bravely but were initially sacraficed in a desperate ill perceived frontal attack. A very well written book that gives a highly competent overview of the final campaign of Hood, Thomas, Sherman and President Davis as far as a real confederate threat in the west. In her efficient writing style, Bailey closes with a very good but brief study of the post war controversies between the generals and politicians.

Anne J. Bailey's The Chessboard of War doesn't break any new ground on the subject that it covers, nor at only 181 pages does it make any attempt at being a comprehensive and detailed campaign study. Joseph T. Glatthaar and Burke Davis have written defining books on Sherman's March to the Sea, and Wiley Sword's The Confederacy's Last Hurrah is the definitive volume on Hood's 1864 fall campaign in Tennessee. So why read this book? In a word: perspective. Bailey has grasped the direct connection of Sherman's historic march through Georgia and Hood's desperate last ditch gamble offensive campaign in Tennessee, and has written about them together, as part of the same piece. Sending General Thomas and a portion of his army back to Tennessee to take care of Hood was a crucial element of Sherman's plan to march on Savannah. Bailey puts the pieces together, and assesses the success and failure of the players involved.
Bailey writes well and her book is a quick and easy read. While Chessboard does not cover its subject in great depth or provide any startling or controversial new takes on any of the commanders involved, it does serve as an excellent introduction to this material. It also provides continuity, allowing the reader to keep track of the two mighty armies that struggled for months over Atlanta, and see how their fates were still connected even after disentangling from each other and moving in separate directions.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in how the Civil War was won in the West. For the novice, it is a quick yet accurate introduction to the subject of Sherman's and Hood's 1864 Autumn campaigns, and for the more serious student it provides an excellent perspective that has not been much explored elsewhere.

Theo Logos

Bailey's Chessboard of War is the best accounting I have read of Sherman and Hood. The book is balanced, well written and objective. Its inclusion of the participation of black soldiers and the Sherman's slave camp followers was particularly welcomed. Although Bailey is from Cleburne TX and is an admirer of Patrick Cleburne she also gives George Thomas his due. Rarely is that done. An impressive piece of work.

A gem -- no other word for it. In more than six decades of Civil War "buffdom," I've never seen a clearer, more complete, more reader-friendly book on any segment of that war. There is not an unnecessary word in it, but it leaves nothing unsaid. Truly a small masterpiece.

This book is a very thorough and detailed account of two of the Civil Wars' most important and consequential campaigns, but sadly two campaigns about which relatively little has been written. Sherman's march to the sea and Hood's campaign into Tennessee destroyed the last hope for the Confederacy in the Deep South, and did much to undermine the confidence of Lee's army. Without Sherman's psychological victory over the Southern psyche, and without Hood's rash attacks on Franklin and Nashville, the war, at least in that theater, would probably have been prolonged for at least another year. Both men, in their own way, contributed to the war's ending, and this is one of Bailey's main focuses.

This book provides a detailed narrative of the operations of both generals, and discusses how the actions of each affected the other, as well as the ramifications of Hood and Sherman's respective movements. Sherman comes off looking quite well, though not perfect, while Hood comes across as a tragic sort of hero who was too impetuous for his own good. Through it all Bailey remains objective and fair, and provides the reader with a very good look at the "chessboard" of the late Civil War.

This is the best book on the coast guard i have seen. would recomend this book to anyone in the coast guard or just wants info on the coast guard history, and what they do.

Great book to have on your coffee table for friends to see your history with and the history of the Coast Guard.

This is one of those really fun books to read and to look at. I got the book and spent an afternoon looking it over and explaining all the photos and pictures to my six-year old grandson. He totally enjoyed it along with me. The book has a simple and humble enough title "The Coast Guard". What a delightful surprise awaits inside it. First off, the book cover looks like a book you would want to have on your coffee table in your professional office lobby where others could see your good taste and entertain themselves while waiting for you. Tom Beard has put together the ultimate book on what the Coast Guard is all about.

The author, along with a large staff of others, have put together some of the all time most interesting photos and stories about this branch of service. I even noticed that my part of northern California was covered with some USCG history dealing with the great Yuba City floods of 1955. The book is an absolute "must have book" for anyone who has ever had any member of his or her family in the USCG. I was in the Army and yet, I spent a full afternoon just looking through the book and the next day reading the stories. It will entertain you even if you are not someone who reads military books.

The book relates the history of the lighthouses, the rescue boats, the ice cutters, the service in different wars, the battle against drug dealers and all kinds of air and sea rescues. It is a full history from the beginnings of the service to the present day under the Office of The Homeland Security.

This book is the best book ever written about the USCG. Everything you could ever care to know is in there. It is a collector's book for sure. The Military Writer's Society of America gives this book it highest rating of FIVE STARS!

This muti authored book covers the Coast Guard from 1790 to present from A to Z. I'm proud to say I was a member by choice for four years active and twelve years inactive. To the authors "Well Done"!!!
Lar

The other services came out with a similar book years ago. Every time I walk into a book store I immediately go to the military section with the hope of finding this book waiting for me on the shelf. I always left feeling disappointed. This book retails for about 75 bucks. Some may say that is too high a price for a book, I say it is worth every penny. Semper Paratus.

This Codex is remarkable at any price. The colors and reproductions are simply gorgeous and the text is helpful. Present are a bewildering number of religious pictograms, some calendric and other representing the mystical or dreamlike journey of the strange character 'one-eye.'

The characters are, overwhelmingly, bloodsoaked and violent. There is decapitation, dismemberment and heart sacrifice. This document gives the lie to those anthropologists who claim that the mesoamerican societies are 'misunderstood' and were not human sacrificial--that tales of human sacrifice and cannibalism were tales perpetrated by the Conquistadores to justify their conquest and subjugation of gentle cultures.

Well, not quite. Judging my this and other codices, as well as archaeologic revelations, suggest that these societies were just as bloodstained as advertised. This is not to justify the Spanish Conquest but just a simple fact.

At the same time, many of the characters in this codex require major interpretation. Virtually everything is split, injured or vomits blood. Depictions of people [children?] being tortured and blinded are especially disturbing. Nevertheless, this is a document well worth owning.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexic

Even if you, like me, don't have much of a knowledge base about ancient Mexican history, it's cool just to show people the book. I've flipped through it and gained a vague understanding of how it fits into history, and I appreciate that it brings to life an aspect of a culture that I really only know through mythology. The preface to explain the Codex is probably well-written, although, admittedly, I felt rather daunted by it. Skimming through it was still valuable, though. A good conversation piece!

Sin duda este es un título que no debe faltar en ningúna biblioteca personal, ya que la restauración de uno de los principales códices es perfecta, para aquellos interesados en la cultura y ciencia ancestral este códice es de gran ayuda.

This is a very strange and beautiful book in pictures. It reads like a dream if you tune in to it, and reveals very deep meanings about the relation between life and death, the human relation to the forces of nature, and time. Even though there are no words, it is possible to understand. If you get into it the symbols become more and more recognizable, and they begin to speak. the calendrical symbols and the spirit deities are completely recognizable. The sequences are all about times, and there is a big element about sacrifice. It has to do with the consequences of change; there is no life without death. The book has a very powerful image of life and death fused back to back that pretty much is the epitome of all the book is about. It's all about life and death in relation to time.

I will not go over their 5 star comments except to say that I agree. The amazingly colourful and crisp art in this short book is rivetting. As much as one may credit the reknowned author, deep congratulations should also go to the publisher for a masterful print job.

This was the first of Priscilla's books that I came in contact with and I was pleasantly surprised and I got impressed later on in the book. Impressed because it isn't often that you find an American author that cites an old Swedish song. One that just so happens my parents sung to me as a child and that I've always loved highly. Being a Swede that has never crossed the ocean in that direction, I found it very helpful to read her books to get just a little peek into the native American people, that you see in various films all the time and hear quite a bit about, but never this personal. I am grateful for this chance to look into their ceremonies closely and get inside another persons experience with them, from both a native American and a non-native American perspective.
That on one hand and then Priscilla being a psychologist and writing about a western psychologist's meeting with these traditions and ceremonies, was superb to me.

So different but yet so familiar.
-Yes, she's got it all covered so well, that although Meggie recons these things are all knew and she has her own beliefs, because of her psychological education you can not help but feel that what is happening in this book is all very usual and every-day kind of things. Priscilla deals with all of Meggies questions and therefor she also deals with my own questioning as a reader. The feeling, a long time after reading her book is that it is perfectly normal and nothing out of the ordinary going on in it. Not all psychologists manage to make me feel at such ease with things the way Priscilla does, which is an excellent skill. The skill of integrating a western type of societal hierarchy with tribalism. That and Christianity along with naturalistic belief's without to much of a clutch can really be something to master.

This was a very good book, a book hard to put down. The characters are your friends and you want to keep them in your life. If you want to another read a book that goes straight to your heart, read Stolen Moments by Barbara Jeanne Fisher. . .It is a beautiful story of unrequited love. . .for certain the love story of the nineties. I intended to give the book a quick read, but I got so caught up in the story that I couldn't put the book down. From the very beginning, I was fully caught up in the heart-wrenching account of Julie Hunter's battle with lupus and her growing love for Don Lipton. This love, in the face of Julie's impending death, makes for a story that covers the range of human emotions. The touches of humor are great, too, they add some nice contrast and lighten things a bit when emotions are running high. I've never read a book more deserving of being published. It has rare depth. Julie's story will remind your readers that life and love are precious and not to be taken for granted. It has had an impact on me, and for that I'm grateful. Stolen Moments is written with so much sensitivity that it made me want to cry. It is a spellbinder. What terrific writing. Barbara does have an exceptional gift! This book was edited by Lupus specialist Dr. Matt Morrow too, and has the latest information on that disease. ..A perfect gift for someone who started college late in life, fell in love too late in life, is living with any illness, or trying to understand a loved one who is. . .A gift to be cherished forever.

Many thanks to Priscilla Cogan for writing this beautiful book continuing to weave the story of Winona, Meggie O'Connor and Hawk. Not only is this a wonderful love story, but a story that allows the reader to learn about beautiful Lakota traditions.

I fell in love with this book and didn't want it to end. It was a story of relationships at many different levels. The growing love between Meggie and Hawk, the Lakota wisdom Winona shared with her Grandson Adam, and the struggling relationship between Wynona and her daughter Lucy, who in many ways rejected her Lakota heritage. It was simply beautiful, and I couldn't put it down.

If reviews had a 10-star rating, that would be my pick for Compass of the Heart.

Priscilla Cogan has brought us the second title in the Winona Trilogy, the first being WINONA'S WEB. Although reading COMPASS doesn't really reveal anything that would ruin it for the reader if she chooses to read it first, I would still recommend finding WINONA'S WEB and reading it before COMPASS.

The story is a contemporary romance and takes place on the Indian Reservations in Northwest Michigan. Winona Pathfinder is an elderly medicine woman who knows she is dying. She calls in her younger cousin Hawk, who she has been teaching and tells him to gather the family. The family is her daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren. As the family tries to communicate in this sad and awkward time, the author lets us hear what each one is really thinking although tradition and manners has them saying something different. We learn Winona's daughter is as much a woman of the present as her mother is of the past. And one of her grandchildren will someday carry on the tradition. Hawk is surprised when she tells him to give her social pipe to a white woman named Meggie. Meggie is a psychologist who attempted to treat Winona and convince her she wasn't dying, instead Winona taught Meggie about the earth and spiritual world. Hawk is even more surprised when Winona asks him to watch over Meggie. Hawk has dedicated his life to his people and he feels to love a white woman would be a betrayal, yet here is the wise woman he left the South Dakota Reservation for, telling him to watch over the one white woman he already fights temptation with, Meggie O'Connor.

The reader will be drawn into the enchanting world of Indian life; its myths, its beliefs. And they will see how our American Indians must balance their past with their present. The glimpse into their version of the afterworld is captivating. I think we all can learn from the different traditions and methods of other cultures. Priscilla Cogan shows a side of the Indian culture that is both mesmerizing and fascinating. Also, take notice of the Glossary of Lakota words at the back of the book.

Look for the first award-winning book in this trilogy, WINONA'S WEB, to become a movie in the year 2000.

As in psychologist Priscilla Cogan's debut novel, "Winona's Web," which was praised for its noteworthy depiction of Native American beliefs and customs, Compass Of The Heart, also invites readers into a world of little known rituals. This is a place where individuals struggle to
maintain tradition amid America's homogeneous secularity, and where spirits of the dead materialize to instruct, advise, or sometimes tease.

With a cross-cultural romance as her springboard, the author probes the minds and hearts of those with one foot in the past and another in the present. A practitioner of Native American rituals, such as pipe and sweat-lodge ceremonies, Ms. Cogan is an Irish-American who joins her Cherokee husband to teach workshops pertaining to these healing practices. Thus, she brings an informed eye to her novel's setting.

Hawk, a medicine man, has come to upstate Michigan, "to the tiny Ojibway and Ottawa reservation of Peshawbestown" to study with Winona, an aged teacher. She not only instructs but tells him of her imminent death, saying it is time for her spirit to go home. Winona asks that Hawk give her pipe to a divorced psychologist, Meggie O'Connor, who employs him as a part-time handyman. When Hawk protests that she is a white woman, Winona replies, "She is a woman of good heart."

A divorcee of 40, Meggie is attracted to Hawk, and they soon become lovers. To the obvious chagrin of other tribespeople Hawk invites Meggie to be a doorkeep at an inipi, a therapeutic sweat lodge ceremony for which the men gather in a hut heated by steam from water poured on red hot stones, believing that the excessive perspiration washes away "that which was false and unclean." It is also at this inipi that Hawk receives instructions from a former teacher, now dead and living in the Spirit world.

It is at such a point that those with less than an avid interest in the minutia of ritual may feel the story's pace flounders, as plot turns to podium for the advocacy of the author's beliefs.

Nonetheless, the blossoming relationship between Hawk and Meggie is truncated by the unexpected arrival of beautiful Rising Smoke, the medicine man's ex-wife. As old desires reawaken, Hawk believes himself to be in love with two women. To further complicate matters, Meggie discovers she is pregnant.

Winona, meanwhile, is caught between worlds, awaiting with impatience her new life as she observes the interplay between Hawk and the white psychologist. Disgruntled with the people "Back There," Winona mutters of Hawk, "What he needs is a good kick in the butt," and hisses to Meggie, "Go fight for your man! She (Winona) never could understand white people with all their confusion about what was important."

Only a return to his former home and the ministrations of another teacher enable Hawk to choose between the two women. Discarded again, Rising Smoke wrecks vengeance on an unsuspecting Meggie.

Alternating narrative voices, among which are Fritzi, a white furred terrier, proves to be cumbersome. While peripheral characters whose motivation is unclear, and whose plights are left largely unresolved tends to puzzle.

However, there is much to be learned about Native American tradition in Compass Of The Heart, and Meggie's Thanksgiving toast is a valuable reminder: "I would like us to remember that people of different races can come together, help each other, teach each other, and celebrate their differences.....Rooted in this continent, the native people taught and continue to teach respect for the land and all its inhabitants, the truth that we are all in this Creation together."

- Gail Cooke

Buddy Levy's work on Cortes has to be among the pinnacle of available historical literature on the subject of America's conquest and the key personality that shaped that chapter of history. What's even better is the way Mr. Levy delivers the tale--you'll find it impossible to put down. Whether you are a history buff or a casual reader of historical non-fiction, do yourself a favor and buy this book. Unlike what one may expect with such a scholarly piece, the book is not dense because the author is not pedantic or boorish in his approach. This is not to say that the work lacks historical integrity or that its not thoroughly researched, rather, its because of Levy's writing style that you feel you are watching an epic cinematic work rather than reading a book. Mr. Levy makes it simple and refreshing.

I have read quite a bit about the conquest of the Aztec and the destruction of Tenochtitlan, to include Hernan Cortes' Conquest of Mexico.
This is the easiest and most compelling description I've read to date. Levy makes you feel as if you there as part of Conquest. His description of the smallpox plaque and how that helped Cortes is one of the best analysis of factors that I've read to date. If you want to understand the Conquest, this is the book you need to read.

Conquistador is a masterpiece of well researched historical knowledge balanced with a swift narrative. The book reads like a wikipedia article, trimming down decades of conflict into some 350 short pages. The book covers one of the greatest conflicts in history, and is truly on a greater scale than the most epic fiction such as Lord of the Rings. Read it. You will not be disappointed.

A brilliant synthesis. I thought i knew this subject well but Mr. Levy heightened my experience of it. Wonderfully nuanced descriptions and the characters come to life. Very well done and hard to put down.

A terrific book, full of action. Amazingly, this is not a complete biography of Hernan Cortes. The book concentrates on his conquest of the Aztec empire. While you may not support what the spanish did to those peoples they conquered, one must be impressed by Cortez's accomplishments. The story is an amzing adventure. If you saw this in a movie, you would think they fabricated this story to make it more exciting. There is no need to. A must read.