North America Books

Joe Sheer, a fine old man, retired safecracker (jugger), has been Parker's contact man for years. Parker receives a disquieting letter from Joe and wonders if he is getting a little old for the job. Parker decides to pay him a visit, not to present a gold watch, but perhaps to help Joe along to his eternal rest. The usually overly careful Parker flies to Sagamore, Nebraska to have a hands-on visit with Joe using his clean-as-a whistle alias, Charles Willis.

Picture Smalltown U.S.A. Friendly folks, picket fences, nicely clipped lawns, tree shaded lots, porch swings, and you have Sagamore. Now picture deadly purposeful Parker strolling down the sidewalks. Neither one of them are quite ready for the other. Alas for Parker, there is no heist this time, Joe is already dead, and the local and state police are taking far too much interest in Charles Willis. Parker has to put his superb planning abilities in high gear to settle the natives, and solve the mystery of Joe's alleged buried fortune. Parker's sole interest in this is to get Charles Willis back to Miami unknown and uninvestigated.

This is a fine Parker outing where Parker is the only one in Sagamore with good sense, and with much exasperation has to lead the law to the truth. To get the job done, a few homicides happen, and a left over lady with "the eyes of a pickpocket and the mouth of a whore" helps him out. "The Jugger" is best read after you have read a couple other Parker novels for background. For all other Parker aficionados, this is choice.

I read that Stark thought "The Jugger" was his worst book. I disagree. I think I see where he's coming from, though. This story and book are out of character for Parker. He actually has to explain himself a couple of times and his enemies are outside of his world. So, it's a bit different from the previous books. I think, however, that this is the best plotted since the first book. I really enjoyed the novel and it could easily stand alone outside of the series. I hope "The Seventh" comes back in print soon.

Talk about waking from a coma. The Jugger begins confusingly - good confusingly, that is - with Parker in a hotel room in a small town in Nebraska. There's a dead guy in the obituary column, an annoying guy hanging around Parker, a cop outside. Everyone knows more than the reader at this stage, but nobody really knows anything. Turns out after a few chapters that the dead guy is the titular Jugger - a locks man who knew too much about Parker. The annoying guy and the cop think the dead guy knew something else - like where his life's earnings are hidden. Parker needs to make sure no one else knows what the dead guy really knew.
The story unfolds piece by piece, and Parker responds in the only way imaginable for one of fiction's most amoral characters.
Tough, very tight.

History, a great story and an authentic historical craft! Not only that, but just the right size for girl-sized hands. A+++++++ Cannot be beat!

Nine-year-old Kaya and her family have traveled to the Big River to trade and visit with other tribes. While there, Kaya meets another girl her age, Spotted Owl, who is one of the River People. When Kaya looses a race against Spotted Owl, she becomes jealous of her. Her jealousy becomes even worse when Speaking Rain, Kaya's adopted sister, begins to spend time with Spotted Owl. However, Kaya must overcome her jealousy to work together with Spotted Owl during a crisis.

This was a nice short story that fans of American Girls books, particularly those who especially enjoyed the Kaya books, are sure to enjoy. It is historically accurate about what life was like for a young Nez Perce girl in 1764, and has beautiful illustrations and a nice message for young girls.

This is another in the American Girls Short Stories series about Kaya'aton'my', a nine-year-old Native-American girl growing up among the Nez Perce people in 1764. In this book, when Kaya losses a footrace against a girl from another tribe, she becomes jealous; but things go from bad to worse when it turns out that this same girl has become friends with Kaya's sister, Speaking Rain. Eventually, though, Kaya realizes that her jealousy has gone too far, and when a crisis hits, Kaya learns that there is much to be gained by working together.

This is another excellent American Girl story. My twelve-year-old daughter is a great fan of Kaya, and I must admit that I like the stories as well. I like the lesson that Kaya learns in this story, plus I like the story and illustrations for themselves. This is a very good book, one that my daughter and I both highly recommend.

I discovered the "Keepers" series two years ago. At first I was unsure of the format, and it took me a while to appreciate all the activities, but now they are the foundation in my homeschool curriculum. The stories and activities are suitable for a wide range of ages so that they may be used for years with the same child. There is so much depth and insight to all of the Keepers books that it is a compliment to any style of homeschool. For naturalists, home schoolers, un-schoolers, classical educators or public schools - these books are absolutely a must for every child living in North America! I can't say enough about these books.

I've been lucky enough to see Michael Caduto perform theseNative stories in person. He brings Native beliefs to life inunexpected and delightful ways. The stories he and Josheph Bruchac have put together here do the same thing. They give young readers a chance to explore Native cultures while they learn and enjoy the stories! In addition to Native tales, this book provides factual information and activities on nature and animals. It's an outstanding resource for teachers, parents, and kids of all ages.

Joseph Bruchac is a natural stort teller. This whole series is wonderful. I have used these books with children from the ages of four through fourteen. But of all of them the cassette of The Keepers of the Animals is my favorite and the only one that I cannot keep because I am continually giving it away. It is not only the quality of Bruchac's voice but also the cadence that he brings to the telling that adds a resonance, a native rhthym to the stories, that enhances understanding. This is the way that these stories should be told and should be heard. Native American culture has a rich oral tradition and the sounds, the rhthyms of the language are an important part of the telling of a story. We may not have the sounds of the language per se except in the names but we can hear a little of the native cadence in Bruchac's delivery. These are wonderful tapes for small children and again this is my very favorite.

Martin has done a remarkable job of telling a very difficult story of the inter-relationships between the first people of Canada, the new world order people of European ancestry and the animals. I am Mi'maq and reading the history took be back to a time and an appreciation of what was a part of life. My hats off to Martin for telling a story that needed to be told!

This book is a great read for many reasons. One that may not get mentioned, but strikes me as important, is the demonstration of how social rules and the environment relate to economic markets. In short: the relationship of the native North American tribes to the fur markets was conditioned by their culture which went through a sudden, tragic, transformation.

Scholarly works are not supposed to entertain but Martin's interesting ideas about the cultural confrontation between the First People and the first Europeans makes for fascinating reading. He challenges several accepted views about Native population decline resulting from disease and warfare which are sure to spark disagreement; yet his logic is difficult to refute and the perspectives he offers provide new directions for research. Martin manages to avoid casting anyone into the roles of oppressor and victim by presenting the sequence of events as the result of rational decisions by both cultural groups. While anthropologists and sociologists will certainly find "Keepers" of interest, anyone who teaches cultural diversity or provides diversity training will also benefit from this work. General readers will enjoy asking themselves if their ancestors could have been involved in the events Martin describes.

I was captivated from the first page. The narrative seemed so real I was swept into this other time. The characters jumped out from the page they were so real. The book succeeds on so many levels, I could not recommend it highly enough.

This is an unforgettable story of what might have been had Mongols conquered North America before it was discovered by Europeans. The narrator, The Raven, is eloquent in his descriptions of native peoples and civilizations. The research required to write this must have been staggering as the story has a thorough basis in historical fact. This is an undiscovered gem and in a perfect world, would be a bestseller.

Khakhanate is one of the most fascinating and unusual books that I have ever read. I loved It!! This beautifully written book takes one on an exciting adventure in a world that once existed, but only very few know about. The reader is transported to America as it once was - peopled by the Native Americans as they once were. The Mongol incursion seems so real one might think it actually happened. I was literally transported to another world, another time. I highly recommend this book!

When I opened 'Kiss the Sunset Pig' I was expecting a travel book, which it is ... and a great one at that. What I wasn't expecting was how much it would touch my soul. I sat, riveted, as I took a journey not only around the world, but across thoughts, hopes, dreams. Anyone who's ever questioned whether, with the whole world to choose from, they're living their lives in the best place or whether they've filled their lives to the very best of their ability, will find a resonating spirit in this book.
As Laurie Gough makes her way from Canada and across America she hopes not only to settle happily in California, but to find the coastal cave that she lived in for six nights, years ago. But the search is not so much for the cave itself, as for the more free-spirited (she believes) girl that lived there. As she drives, she recalls previous travels in the Greek islands, the Yukon, Jamaica, Sumatra, and Seoul, to name a few. These tales can't fail to inspire. Her bravery alone, traveling solo through often uncomfortable, and sometimes dangerous, situations is humbling to say the least. But it's this bravery she feels has been lost and she hopes to rekindle by finding her cave.
Several times the author seemed to wander into places I thought only existed in my daydreams. Some were so uncanny they made me gasp. Since childhood I have wanted a glass-walled bedroom perched on the top of a house, entirely surrounded by trees. I clapped my hands in delighted envy when the author set up home in just such a room ... and in a Californian Redwood forest at that. These instances were some of the most poignant for me - the fact that daydreams can so easily be reality if you go out and make them so ... that really hit home.
The travel stories are touching, humourous, enchanting, and filled with travel's usual mix of discomfort, frustration, alarm, and achingly beautiful encounters. All are told with the author's clear natural gift for portraying the lightness and the depth in every situation.
So if the idea of sleeping in a coastal cave, inside a Californian Redwood, on a Mediterranean beach, or on the banks of the remote Yukon river lights something intangible inside, I wholeheartedly recommend you read 'Kiss the Sunset Pig' and let inspiration rain over you.

If you enjoyed Kite Strings of the Southern Cross, or even if you were not lucky enough to read it, Laurie Gough's second book offers the same magical combination of beautiful, descriptive travel writing and soul-searching that never comes across as self-involved or forced. Starting in Canada, Gough takes the reader along on her road trip to rediscover a special cave she once stayed in along the California coast - and how she has evolved since that memorable sojourn. Interspersed throughout the narrative are chapters on some of Gough's other international adventures to such exotic locales as Sumatra and Seoul, South Korea (a place that comes across as utterly unappealing).

Much of the beauty in Gough's writing comes not just from her memorable descriptions of the people, places, and things she encounters and learns from (especially those harrowing Indonesian bus and ferry rides and Marcia, her struggling car), but also from her brutal honesty about some of the low points she struggled through along the way. By the end of the book, the reader truly roots for Gough to find her cave so the journey can go full-circle.

Despite an unexpected outcome, Gough manages to discover the meaning and convey the depth of her experience in a way that never seems heavy-handed or cliched. This is a beautiful and inspiring piece of travel writing that offers many riches for fellow travelers, those who enjoy strong writing, and anyone who has ever considered his or her place and purpose in the universe.

Laurie Gough is an intrepid traveller with a youthful exuberance for adventure. I realize, though, that no matter what one's age, some people are born with wanderlust and have a need to travel the world. The interesting thing is, travellers always return home. That's what Gough does. She's been to thirty countries, hitchhiking thousands of miles by herself though fourteen of them. But she always returns to her hometown of Guelph, Ontario in Canada.

At the beginning of Kiss the Sunset Pig, Gough sets off for California from Guelph in a "blue, beat-up mini Ford Bronco" she calls Marcia. To help with driving and expenses, she picks up a travelling companion named Debbie, whom she has met through an ad and, before the trip begins, has only spoken to on the phone. Debbie gets dropped off in St. Louis, Missouri, at the home of a boyfriend she has never met face to face.

"Sometimes I think I'm still looking for an axis," Gough writes early on in her journey. After reading her book, I think the axis may be the wanderlust. It's who she is. For a person with wanderlust, there is no perfect place to live. A place may seem ideal, for a time, but really it's just a base at which to prepare oneself for the next adventure.

Reading about her encounters with strange and wonderful people is frightening at times (for the reader and for her), but I realize travelling with a companion or in a group, as I usually do, one is not open to the same exciting possibilities. Travelling solo, Gough finds herself talking to strangers more readily as she's more open and more herself. "That's the thing about travelling: it's like peeling away a layer of yourself, exposing yourself to the world so it can expose itself to you".

The structure of the book is an interesting one that works extremely well. (She did the same in her first book, Kite Strings of the Southern Cross, which I highly recommend.) Rather than write a book of travel stories in chronological order, Gough reflects on previous journeys as she drives across the United States in a car that needs lots of garage visits along the way.

One of those reflections is the Greek island of Naxos. There Gough created a temporary home under a small bamboo wind shelter on the beach. Her backpack went missing for a time and to ease her panic, she looked at the "dependable milky rock" of the moon. Gough realized things like that didn't matter "in the great scheme of the universe" (she had her passport and money), and I realize too, as a traveller, one needs to practice non-attachment. Gough describes Greece beautifully as a "land where myth and reality swirl around each other in a luminous haze." Yet she needed to move on, "to see the rest of the world."

One summer, Gough hitchhiked to the Yukon, 3,000 miles from Guelph. She says hitchhiking is "always a surprise study of human beings." Her travelling companion Kevin told her of his own world adventures. His advice was "You have no idea what's in store for you, but if you let yourself go along with the flow of the unknown and accept whatever happens, things seem to work out".

The "exotic detours" of which Gough writes don't all have happy endings. Her teaching job in Kashechewan in Canada's sub-Arctic ended after only three months with Gough defeated and exhausted by the chaos of a third-grade class. A trip to Jamaica with her sister ended quickly, as Gough likes to stay with locals while her sister prefers fancy hotels.

Gough is full of questions about where she belongs. Those questions don't at all detract from the book; they help us relate. After all, travel is about looking for oneself, and as travel-book readers, we get to reflect on similar questions.

On her trip to California, Gough plays Joni Mitchell's "California" that includes the phrase "kiss the sunset pig." She carries a tattered notebook called "Cave Journal" and would like to find that cave on the Pacific again, where she spent some time thirteen years previously. Along with her questions and her longing, Gough has a healthy sense of humour about her encounters along the way. She describes a town on the Great Plains called Grainfield as the "size of a bath mat."

At an earlier age, Gough described herself as "still on my way to everywhere." She has learned that travel can mean "hours, even days of despair, rain, heatwaves, snow, mosquitoes, late trains, no trains, followed by a single moment of dazzling elation. It was those single moments one tended to recall." Gough makes some realizations at the end of her California trip that I don't want to reveal here. But I would say, even though she is older and perhaps wiser, I still see her as on her way to everywhere.

Gough has married since the stories written about in her book and has a baby son. They divide their time between a farmhouse outside of Guelph, Ontario, and a Quebec village. Seventeen of her stories have been anthologised in various literary travel books, including Salon.com's Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of Adventure and Romance and Sand in My Bra: Funny Women Write from the Road. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Outpost, Canadian Geographic and numerous literary journals.

by Mary Ann Moore
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I bought this book after using and fully enjoying the Avant-Guide to Paris. I knew nothing about Vegas before a recent trip and Avant-Guide made sure I was well prepared. It had excellent information on cool and hip places as well as "classic Vegas" and must-see destinations. It covers it from the perspective of singles or couples. This is not a family vacation book or a budget travel book. It is fun to read and easy to navigate. Because of this I also bought the New York book which is equally enjoyable.

Dan Levine and his crew have experienced what they write about.It's based on reality,not on puffery. Savvy,irreverent at times, funny and wonderfully practical.It's extremely well organized and easy to use. I've read a ton of stuff on Vegas and this is the only one I actually use and give to others. Their opinions are the same as mine.

My only criticism is the binding. It tends to fall apart after many uses. Dan, would you consider spiral binding?

Thanks, Dan. Samuel Henderson

This book was my introduction to the Avant Guide series, and I was thoroughly impressed. I've been to Vegas several times and used as many guide books, but this is by far my favorite. The author demonstrates a refreshing respect for everything cool -- from groovy local dives to swanky tourist hot spots. If you wish to revel in all things Vegas -- if you dig the history and the kitsch -- this book will show you a good time regardless of your budget.

Be warned: Square types may find plenty to offend on these lively pages. Hotels are ranked from "Very Expensive" to "Cheap A--"; drugs and prostitution are given a comic wink; and the author makes a point of helping you avoid child-infested locations. If any of this sounds like a bad thing, you'd best avoid this book.

But for anyone with a healthy sense of humor, irony, and things absurd, this book is the next best thing to having a supercool, local friend guide your Vegas experience.

This book is one of the greatest books that I have ever read. The reason for saying this is that the book's genre, adventure, is one of my personal favorites, plus James Fennimore Cooper is my second favorite author. The book is loaded with imagery. It sparks your imagination into picturing just exactly where you are at and who is involved in the story that could possibly be around you.
When you first start reading you get caught in the elaborate setting. You are given a straight out setting of a hot summer day in July 1757. Immediately you're imagination is caught in the building of the stories plot.
I would strongly recommend this book to all ages. This book gives you some history and a lot of rising-falling action to keep you reading. There is no strong language but there is some death. It can be overcome, to read a great book. You will more than likely be stunned by the ending, because ... you'll have to read it to find out.
Once you pick up this book you won't be able to put it down. There are so many twists, surprises, and exciting spots in the book that you will want to read the rest of what is happening. Before you know what has happened you are lurched into another portion of the exciting plot. It is well written with several leads to each part of the book. You will end up wanting to read the story again to see what you missed the first time through.

Last of the Mohicans is one of the more accessible Deerslayer novels, I'll grant. But to call it unreadable and boring because no one can understand it is just plain unfair. I suggest if you find this book difficult then try acclimating yourself to more modern uses of the language at first. T.H. White is a wonderful place to start, then maybe some Patrick O'Brian, on to Dickens, maybe the Morte D'Arthur, etc... The main thing here is, of course, to get used to reading different (older) forms of the English language. Once you get into it, it's really a great experience. There's such a wealth of imagery and culture and history in this book that it'd be a shame to ignorantly toss it off as elitist or unnecessary. Just the opposite: it's mind expanding and greatly insightful. And a whole lot of fun!

The Last of the Mohicans is a great book. I read it 3 months ago. I saw the movie and that's cool too.
It's about two ladies and a guy are going to their father. Onthe way there attacked. Then Hawkeye and two other indians save them. They take them to their father,but are attacked many mor times on the way.
It's full of action and fighting. It's awsome.
You shoud read it. It's great!

This is an illuminating and thoroughly enjoyable read. Compassionate, sympathetically written, by times heart rending. A tribute to the almost forgotten Mosopelea tribe. Professor Hobson touched all of my emotions with this. I look forward to his next title.

The Last of the Ofos is elegantly written and historically informed. Poignant and touching, but not cloying, this is a must-read. A wonderful book!

The Last of the Ofos gives us a man whose resourcefulness and sense of adventure takes him across much of the 20th Century of the United States. Thomas Darko is innocent and worldly simultaneously, and brings a fresh but honest look at much human foolishness as he runs rum with integrity, searches for the woman who abandons him without sentiment, shows us the best and worst of those who idealize Native American culture and always returns to the life of simple self-sufficiency that gives him more satisfaction than all his adventures.

I loved the book and the dignity and truthfulness of the story. I stumbled across it in the University of Oklahoma bookstore and my curiosity was generously rewarded.

Of the many excellent reviews of this book - starred in PW, for example - why did you choose the Kirkus Review's? The Ledgerbook was supervised, vetted and blessed by Arthur Amiotte, a Sioux Elder, with more credentials than you can count. A leading advocate of the power of education, Mr. Amiotte 's approval of and great delight in the authenticity of this book has obviously been overlooked in the KR reviewer's research. Throughout the entire country, this book has been cited again and again by educators and parents alike as being the most powerful, interactive teaching tool they've come across in years, not to mention being an extraordinry feast for the eyes. Please research your reviews before choosing the one that will (incorrectly in this case) represent the book to your many readers. Subjecting an extraordinary book to bad PR out of ignorance should be beneath you

*The Ledgerbook of Thomas Blue-Eagle* is a beautifully designed and constructed book that harkens back to the ledgerbook storytelling of the Plains Indians, especially the young students of the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. From the marbled endpapers to the ruled and "textured" pages that are the backdrop of this book's storytelling, this is a well executed picture book for all ages.

This book is the fictitious story of Thomas Blue-Eagle, a young student at the Carlisle School who uses "the white man's language" to relate who he is and where he comes from. Illustrated in a pictograph style, Blue-Eagle's story is a poignant imagining of the real-life stories of the Plains Indians at the end of the 19th Century.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Won the Christopher and International Readers Awards in 1995 because it is an authentic history, fictionalized, with stunning illustrations in the style of Plains Indians. We found it in the museum stores of the Southwest, where it was a favorite of the librarians. There is also a cd-rom called Journey of Thomas Blue Eagle, done by the illustrator.It is a favorite gift book of ours and hugely appreciated by the recipients