North America Books

This is a great book. The review in the August 2007, Journal of Mammalogy is spot on. Consider it an expert treatment on the skulls of many (but not all) North American mammals. I'm unsure of the value of the short treatments of birds, reptiles, and amphibians. I consider this money well spent and am sure I will refer to the excellent photographs and illustrations often over the years.

I have all of Mark Elbroch's books. They are essential for tracking & naturalist studies. I refer to them weekly for identification, more than any other books I own. I've also met Mark & had him sign the "Mammal Tracks" book. An all around great guy to study from & talk to. If you enjoy Mark's drawings check out his site for t-shrirts & other cool stuff.-Kevin

This is an excellent book for the serious amateur or expert. Great line drawings and photos accompanied by concise information on each type of skull.

I really was impressed when I received this book. I did not know that it was going to be in such detail and have full scale images.

It also has a plethora of knowledge useful for fields that study animal bones such as zooarchaeology, mammalogy, and zoology. I would recommend this to not only avocational researchers but academic researchers as well.

Outstanding book...wonderful photos of animal skulls...I was able to identify a fragment of a skull that I found by using this book. I know that it's the upper jaw of a house cat instead of a bobcat because of the small premolar tooth that bobcats and lynxes never have, cougars and ocelots always have, and house cats sometimes have. Should be on every naturalist's bookshelf.

This book is a much needed guide to bird sign and tracks. It complements Elbroch's guide to Animal sign. It is well written and informative.

This is a guide to identifying bird families or individual species by clues they leave behind of their presence. The title may appear, at first glance, to be a typo. It is not. As the authors explain on the first page: "Sign refers to all the possible signs of their passing: sign of feeding, gathering material for nesting, the nests or cavity holes themselves, pellets, droppings, feathers lost during molt, or kill sites."

This book appears to be packed with too much information for a beginner to digest. But its actually quite good for anyone who is interested in birds and would use such a book more than once or twice. The information is organized by types of sign - tracks, feathers, feeding signs, droppings, nests and roosts, etc., rather than by species. This allows you to read about whichever subject you're interested in and to take in the basics behind, say, interpreting signs of feeding, rather than getting bogged down by details specific to a certain species.

Due to the nature of the topic, the squeamish may not enjoy all the pictures. However, the pictures are certainly not as gruesome as they could have been.

In the introduction, one of the authors writes: "real tracking is bigger than one lifetime. Tracking, as our ancestors knew it, was a body of knowledge handed down from generation to generation. Each person added to this knowledge..." The authors clearly see themselves as a continuation if this process, referring to and giving credit to other excellent books, such a Rezendes' "Tracking and the Art of Seeing".

To my knowledge, this is the only book like this specific to birds. I feel this would be an excellent gift idea for that hard-to-buy-for bird watcher.

petervtamas@mail.com

Collaborative written by Mark Elbroch and Elanor Marks, Bird Tracks & Sign: A Guide To North American Species is a gorgeous birder's guide filled cover to cover with full-color photography on thick, glossy, sturdy paper. From bird trails and feathers to pellets and nest, bird signs of every shap, size and format are presented, described, and lavishly illustrated. Portable, authoritative, and "user friendly", Bird Tracks & Sings is very highly recommended for North American birdwatchers and aspiring ornithologists of all ages and skill levels.

I really got excited when I saw this reviewed in National Wildlife magazine. I often see bird tracks or even a nest when out walking but didn't know how to translate that into useful information. This book clues me in on the bird that matches those signs.
The author, a renowned tracker, spent 14 months, 12 hours a day studying bird tracks, scats, nests, feeding signs and roosts plus collected information from museums for this book.
Users of this guide may also want to try:
-Flattened Fauna: A Field Guide to Common Animals of Roads, Streeets and Highways
-Scats and Tracks of the Southeast (also guides for other areas)
-A Field Guide to Desert Holes
-A Key-Guide to Mammal Skulls and Lower Jaws
-That Gunk on Your Car (insects)
Bird lovers now have another tool to identify birds.

Call me cynical but in the last twenty years I have seen field guide publishers recylce the same old info over and over again, just adding a new tabulature or color photos. The text is minimal and always leaves me wanting more.

Not so with this book! Mark and Eleanor have created something that goes well beyond any field guide currently on the market concerning birds! This stuff is new and never before seen except for experienced birders in the field. It is easy to use, fun to use and it will help anyone learn more about birds, their habits and sign. The photography is stunning as well.

I cannot over-recommend this book. Go get it, now!

Ricardo Sierra

I'm into lepidoptera, and own several buttefly books. This is definitely my go-to guide, and anytime I go in the field, this is the book I bring. It's great to have photos, field marks, maps, and there are pictures that show variations among different species. The format's great because one side of the page is all photos, and the facing side has the map and text. I think that if you're just getting into butterflies, a book like Introduction to Southern California Butterflies or the Golden Guide Butterflies and Moths are good to start off with, as this one may be a little to much for someone who is not too familiar with butterflies and doesn't know the basics yet.

This book was recommended by a person who was experienced in butterfly identification. As a beginner, it is awesome. So for the experienced and the beginner, it is wonderful. A must buy for the curious in all of us about those beautiful butterflies God put on the face of the earth!

Glassberg's BTB is the benchmark and the book to buy first. You may not need another.

A quick summary for anyone who doesn't want to read my ramblings. This is a great identification reference. It is intended only as an identification guide. And as that, it is excellent. But with so many butterflies described, the casual butterfly observers may want a smaller book / chart with only local species for easier lookup (perhaps in addition).

First, it is important to know what this is. It is a field guide to aid in identification of butterflies and skippers, with very good photos for that end. The photos may not be artistically pleasing to everyone, but they are taken in such a way to best present the butterfly for identification. Unique identification characteristics of individual species are pointed out when they will aid in the identification. Size and geographical distribution is also given. On each photo the author also tells you how large the photo is compared to a real specimen.

This is not a butterfly reference book. You will not find detailed information about the butterflies in this book. Instead, you will be able to identify what you find, and then use the name to look up more details on that butterfly in another book / the Internet.

This is also not a coffee table book with large glossy photos of butterflies. Due to the sheer number of species described in the book, each photo is rather small, and as mentioned earlier, may not be artistically pleasing to everyone. Little attention is paid to the background, since that is not very important to identification. When the plant the butterfly frequents is important to the identification, it will be mentioned in the text.

The sheer number of butterflies in this guide can be overwhelming to the casual observer. I don't know if I'll ever see more than 1% to 2% of the butterflies listed here. Since the butterflies are not sorted by region, getting a less comprehensive book with local species only may be easier for the casual observer. This book stays at home, while I carry a small laminated "quick guide" to common local butterflies.

I don't observe them through binoculars (the book does have a short section on that as well), I photograph them. There's a short section on butterfly photography that, while mainly focused on film photography, does contain some good tips.

The only thing I have not been able to identify definitively so far with this book are skippers.

A while back I wrote a review of the Peterson Series "Field Guide to Western Butterflies", which I had used in the field during the 4th of July Butterfly Count in the Organ Mountains of New Mexico. I gave it five stars as I thought it the best field guide to actually use in the field. The rival Audubon guide to butterflies left me cold because it simply does not show enough detail for identifying hard species. I thus dismissed photo guides because of this bad experience, thinking that artists did better work in illustrating these beautiful insects. I was wrong! There is a way to produce a photo guide to butterflies that actually works and Jeffrey Glassberg has done it! This is the best field guide that I have ever seen for butterflies. The photos, mostly taken by the author, are simply superb! The best thing that Glassberg has done is to standardize the photos so you can compare the same characters. This is a major innovation and must certainly have taken a lot of time. The placing of maps and descriptions opposite the photographic plates is also a major change from the other popular guides. It sure saves a lot of page flipping!

I am often laughed at because I still use a 35 mm SLR for photographing insects, but Glassberg's photos (all with a 35 mm SLR) show why it still may pay. Digitals are, I know, the coming thing and will soon overtake SLRs, but most digitals still cannot match an old Nikon FM2n with a 55 mm macro or an Olympus with a 90 mm macro, both of which I use.

Glassberg's remarks about how much space digital shots take up (5 MB roughly for a decent high resolution) are probably dated because of gigabyte technology which allows as much as 200 shots at a time, even at high resolution. However, I still like the feel of a SLR and many digitals (but not the more expensive ones) are boxy and difficult to hold. I get irritated with the automatic focus that often keeps me from getting the shot of an easily disturbed subject.

Those aside; if you are at all interested in butterflies and can afford only one book, get this guide! It is the new standard for photo guides and it will be hard to ever beat it.

Buy it for the great cars!
But it for the great photos of the cars!
Buy it for the play by play of each and every race.
-for the Amazing list pro drivers whom were brave enough to get behind the wheels of these 'Big Bangers!
-for the behind the scenes looks at these monster big block engines and how they pushed the envelope of technology.
-for the wild designs as each team played at the first tentative steps at understanding Aerodynamic down force!

Nothing, nothing was more grand or powerful at that time! So get this book that perfectly captures the time when Racing was Dangerous, but Sex was not.

OK, I am a huge Pete Lyons fan. He lived it and wrote about it so we could also live it. Great job and great book. A must read if you are a Can Am fan or a fan of the "good old days" of motor sports where determination and a few bucks could get you in the game.

This is a delightful book for any racing enthusiast who either loved the Can-Am or wants to learn why older fans revere it.

While Pete Lyons is as scrupulous as someone like Doug Nye about accuracy for such details as chassis numbers, Pete uses such information only to make sure that his narrative is accurate and consistent or to authoritatively state interesting facts, such as the cars that won consecutive events, or won the same events in consecutive years, or were raced by certain drivers.

Pete Lyons and Doug Nye are THE names for any library. Once again Pete lives up to a stellar reputation and this book is another must have for your collection.
Can Am is such a beloved series that you have to have the best book in your library and this is the one to build your library from.
I hope this helps you make your decision on purchase.

Reading Lyons' book is like reading the race reports at the time in Competion Press and Road & Track, with the added perspective of knowing how it all turns out after the rubber dust has settled. The candid driver shots of Bruce, Denny, Dan, Mark and the rest of these heroes of my college days, with the exquisite on-track shots and hardware close-ups, bring it all back in a great rush. It's a very difficult book to set down, time just seems to fly, as it seems those years did. It's a marvellous reminiscence of those larger-than-life men and the fastest road-racing machines ever built.

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.

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.

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

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 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

Connie Lapallo's fiction seem so real, as if I was there with those courageous women who came with their families to build a new life in Virginia. Many of them lost so much, material things, husband, brothers, fathers, children, and then, their own life. The description of their voyage on the ship that from England to Virginia, made me feel like I was in the lower bowels of the ship with them. Even the horses had it better on the ship.
Upon their arrival in Jamestown, was unwelcome, they found out that there were no provisions made to accomadate the women and children was heart-sickening, no food, no homes, nothing....
But, the most
Soul Haunting part of the story was the Starving Time. I can't imagine living off of ground acorns, small rodents, tree bark, whatever could found to be edible. Ms. Lapallo really made you feel what the main character was experiencing, when her best friend died, the one who kept every one's spirit alive, seeing good in all things.
The ending seemed a little rushed however, if there is a second book the time between trying to return to England and the main character recounting her life in Jamestown would be a great first half of the second book.
I recommend this story to all teenage girls and their moms to read and discuss. Maybe it will help young girls with the "You owe it to me" thinking to reconsider their attitude.

As a young student, I did not appreciate my History classes. You know why? They were too BORING! Too many names, dates, and disjointed facts that had to be regurgitated in an exact fashion in order to boost up my GPA.
I wish all History books were written like Ms. Lapallo's book. The historical facts are beautifully woven into the mostly historical story. And because of the story format I found myself living, grieving, and surviving with these colonists.
There were so many tidbits that made the story real for me. Because of the rich detail, I felt as if I had been on those ships, being hurled about the ocean during a hurricane. And I felt genuine grief at the thought of all these women mourning for the missing ship. Grief, as SO many men and women perished from disease, hunger, or Indian attack.
This is also a very well researched book. There is a section at the end of the book that explains what is fact, and what is fiction, with charts that tell what happened to each Jamestown survivor. Other pages detailed the main character's ancestry, going from the mid 1500's to present day, and including Ms. Lapallo's own children.
What did I like best about this book? ... I loved that I learned more about Jamestown and the colonial period by reading this book, than I did in all my formal educational experience! So why can't more books be written this way?

This book was a perfect read for me. My family, the Kingsmills, arrived in James Towne around 1613, so this story really helped me connect with what they saw when they got here and the sacrifices so many made to establish this great country of ours. Thank you for taking the time to research all of this so carefully and for conveying it in such an interesting and realistic manner.

Steven E. Bishop
UVa. College of Arts and Sciences 2006
UVa. School of Medicine 2010

Normally, I am not a great reader of historical fiction books. I usually read the typical suspense thriller or popular romance books; however, I must say I was very pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book. Shamefully, living near Jamestown in Virginia most of my life, I never quite understood until I read this book the great hardships the early settlers suffered. This book made you feel the waves of the ocean when the main character Joan was in the cargo department of the ship traveling from England to Jamestown, you felt her fear of losing her family, especially leaving a daughter behind, and her hunger during the starving times of Jamestown. The writing and information provided in this wonderful book left you aching for more, my hope is that the author will hurry with a sequel. I think it would also make a wonderful movie.

Connie Lapallo's book is a wonderful read. Not many people outside of Virginia are familiar with the Jamestown story much less the details of what the women and children went through. The story is woven through the eyes of Connie Lapallo's ancestor who survived the starving time. For anyone interested in geneology or Jamestown history this is a must read!

I am always careful about books written by journalists from back East, especially when they deal with Montana's vigilantes. Frederick Allen, however, has made a worthwhile contribution to a controversial field.

I gave him five stars, although I do not entirely agree with some of his conclusions. It seems to surprise him, for example, when Plummer and some of his contemporaries started bouncing off the walls mentally after shooting somebody.

My experience in law enforcement has been that such behavior is normal. There are some sociopaths out there who just like to kill and don't feel any emotion about it, but they are few and far between despite what Hollywood scriptwriters would like you to believe.

This is a well written book, but it didn't change my opinion that the vigilantes cleaned up a situation that had spun out of control at a time when nobody else would, or could. The country was, after all, engaged in a bloody Civil War and the struggling miners in Montana's goldfields needed something to restore order in their isolated, vulnerable communities. Vigilante justice proved to be better than no justice at all.

One tends to associate the dark legacy of lynching almost exclusively with the South of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but in point of fact the most extensive episode of vigilante justice in American history actually took place in the Montana territories in the 1860s. The Montana vigilantes have long been hailed as heroes in Montana (Montana Highway Patrolmen, for example, still bear a patch honoring these men and their cause), men who took upon themselves the obligation to rid their community of dangerous individuals. In this thrilling historical account, however, Frederick Allen pries open the chinks in the vigilante movement's historical armor to show that their brand of frontier justice eventually descended into something much darker and much less defensible.

In the early 1860s, Montana was a wild country overrun by thousands of men clamoring for the new-found gold in its rivers and streams. Even as gold camps began appearing overnight, there was no government of any sort to oversee justice - just miners' courts to settle disputes over claims and the like. The nearest outpost of territorial authority lay hundreds of miles west of the Montana frontier. Thus, it is easy to see how lawlessness could prevail under such conditions; it manifested itself most particularly in the form of stagecoach robberies on the paths leading away from town. A man could lose a whole season's worth of gold dust in the blink of an eye, and such hold-ups could turn deadly on occasion. What could the settlers do to secure their safety and safe passage back to the States or elsewhere? There was no legal system in place in the territory, there were no cells to hold prisoners, and there were no courts or judges to adjudicate cases. There was a sheriff, however, a fascinating man named Henry Plummer - and he really stands at the core of the entire drama. He came to be suspected of complicity in the robberies and murders in the area, and this growing sense of doubt in their sheriff served as the final impetus for the leading men of Bannack and Virginia City to take the law into their own hands. Plummer was among the 21 men hanged during the first six weeks of 1864. There will always be a level of debate as to Plummer's guilt or innocence, and Allen examines this fascinating man's life in great detail. The real question is how a man twice convicted of murder could have become a sheriff in the first place, but this speaks to the true remoteness of the Montana territory in those days.

In all, 51 men were killed by the vigilantes over a six-year period. Allen agrees with the consensus opinion that the early stage of the movement was justified, as there is evidence that all 21 of the men lynched in the first six weeks of 1864 were guilty, dangerous men - including Henry Plummer. Were the story to stop there, the Montana vigilantes would deserve nothing but admiration for bringing order and security to their local community. They did not stop, however, and their activities inevitably devolved into acts of personal vengeance and the very perversion of justice. In that first crucial period of early 1864, accused men were given trials of a sort, their fates usually decided by the entire community. Hangings took place in broad daylight, and the identities of the vigilantes were in no way kept secret. As time went on, however, men were summarily executed by individuals acting upon little more than their own authority. With no hope or manner of defending themselves, it is very likely that some innocent men were hanged - and there can be little doubt that many of the guilty had not committed crimes serious enough to warrant death.

As is always the case in history, the most fascinating aspect of this whole story is the lives of the men involved. Allen identifies the vigilantes as leading citizens of the area, an unusual amalgamation of men both for and against the battle for Southern independence being waged during that chaotic time. Politics came to play a significant role in the whole saga, as the appointed leaders of the newly-established Montana Territorial government did themselves no favors by immediately alienating the significant number of Democrats among the local populace. This new government was ineffective at best, with the executive and judicial branches nullifying each other's authority - and this provided the pretext for the vigilantes to continue their operations.

A Decent, Orderly Lynching really is a fascinating book. Allen brings to life the mining camps of gold-rush Montana, recreating all aspects of society there on the remote frontier. He offers penetrating assessments of the men at the heart of this story, those on both sides of the hanging rope, drawing a sharp distinction between the early, honorable activities of brave men determined to establish order in their lawless region and the excesses of those who continued to pursue vigilante justice after Montana's new territorial government had been established. Through it all, he maintains an objective air, making his own judgments based on the evidence in hand - and his research efforts were impressive, to say the least. The story of the Montana vigilantes is a most telling part of the history of America, and Allen has done a superb job telling that story to those of us unfamiliar with it.

This amazing book works on three different levels. It is first of all a compelling, action-packed narrative of Montana's vigilante period - carefully researched, engagingly written, and peppered with memorable characters and dramatic action. Western fans will love it. But Allen does not stop there. His brilliant examination of Henry Plummer, the mysterious and elusive sheriff-protagonist, adds deeper and darker shadings to the story. This is less a black-and-white tale of heroes and villains than one about how power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The author does not trade in the romanticism surrounding the vigilantes. Finally, and most remarkably, Allen's book can be read as an allegory about the uses and misuses of all governmental power. In the nineteenth century, Montana's besieged citizens cried out for help against their version of terrorists -- only to discover belatedly that the response by unchecked governmental authorities could be equally lawless. Who would have thought that the Vigilante Trail led to Abu Ghraib?

People who hate "High Noon" have been known to cite the goings-on in Idaho Territory of the 1860s as proof that an enraged citizenry would never back down from outlaws. According to "eyewitness accounts," a locally formed vigilance committee rounded-up Sheriff Henry Plummer and his bloodthirsty compatriots and, with the aid of lots of rope, soon put an end to the rampant murder and robbery in the gold camps.

While this account made for excellent melodrama, it was a bit too pat to stand the test of time, and of late, had become the center of some arguing and fist shaking in the vicinity of Alder Gulch. Frederick Allen painstakingly examines the players and their times. His conclusions will not please the revisionists nor the vigilante apologists. While the vigilantes started out with the best of intentions and went after the worst of the thugs, their focus was lost in the chaos and power struggles of their era. Like many mavericks, they went from being heroes to embarassments.

But Allen confirms that Henry Plummer, George Ives & Co. were not martyrs of misdirected justice. It's too bad the vigilantes didn't have the forsight to stop while they were ahead.

This is the type of book that gives University Presses a good name. The author is a former political editor and columnist with the Atlanta Constitution and commentator for CNN. He has managed to write a scholarly yet reader friendly book that challenges some standard accounts of the famous Montana Vigilantes and their sometimes extra-legal activities. In what was the deadliest chapter of vigilante justice in American history, from 1864-1870, in excess of 50 men were hanged in Montana. The majority were inocent of capital crimes and a disturbing numer were innocent. This is a riveting book that will, in addition to bringing the reader up to date on a significant chapter in western history, cause one to ponder the significance of the Vigilantes on our current political debate over the war on terrorism. This is first rate scholarship in a reader friendly format. Highly recommended.

This is a terrific story of a young white man's time with the Piegan Blackfeet. James Willard Schultz came west for adventure and joined an Indian trading post 45 miles north of Fort Benton, Montana.

He not only traded furs, gold, liquor, and dressmakers goods to the Indians, but became fluent in the language of the Blackfeet, sharing in their hunts and wars and even taking a young Indian wife.

It's a somewhat self-conscious story from a masculine vantagepoint during a time when warrior bravado was in vogue and the buffalo were still thriving. This book portrays a segment of Native American life and culture just before the buffalo were diminished and the people were forced to reservations.

Given that _Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: an Indian History of the American West_ by Dee Brown contains only 2 or 3 pages in reference to the Blackfeet, a book such as _My Life As an Indian_ is a superb addition to one's bookshelf. Recommended.

I just came online to see if it was in print. I have had a copy of this book from the 1935 paperback that my Grandfather gave me when I was a boy. Not that I was a boy in 1935, it was actually in the early 70s. . .I was captivated by the stories JW Schultz lived! Helping his friend steal his wife from under the nose of the ever watchful father. It still grips me even today. Alas, my old copy is just that, old. That is how I came to write these words. Ordering a fresh paperback.

I cannot recommend this book more highly!

This is an excellent first hand account of the major transformation of Plains Indian culture that occured during the nearly complete extermination of the buffalo which was so central to their life. It starts with the buffalo in plenty and ends with reservation life. This is a bittersweet book. Schultz marries into a band of the Piegan branch of the Blackfoot confederacy. But although he lives among them, and loves them and their lifestyle, he never completes his assimilation. This is evident when he writes with almost distant amusement of some of their religious beliefs. Adding to this is the problem that while he loves the life of the buffalo days and deeply laments their end, his occupation as a trader in buffalo robes is hastening the end of the very thing he loves. His description of the post-buffalo, early reservation life is the most distressing, complete with corrupt reservation Agents, and sometimes rascist newcomers.
His stories are not all downers though. His writing is a very detailed, intimate, and at times amusing description of his life and those around him. I've loaned my book to a number of people and they all have liked it. If you read this and like it too, you'll be glad to know he wrote a whole series of books of his life in early Montana, and of the lives of prominent people he knew. I've read many, but not all of them, and I prize every one.

This is a eye opening I can't put it down book! Seeing how the Blackfeet lived, their culture, social structure, horse raids, war, etc., through the author's eyes is fascinating. As he joins their society, marries into the tribe and lives as the tribe did you will find it informative and insightful. As the old ways pass away you feel his sadness and the end will break your heart. A beautiful, lively, fun book that takes you into another time and place as you ride with Schultz and the tribe. A must have!

I absolutely loved this book, I couldn't put it down! I have been to the Blackfeet Reservation and Glacier Park many times, and while reading this book I could just imagine how it was back then. It gave me a new perspective on Indian life. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story about the old west and the Indians.