Minnesota Books

This is a great story, strangely and gorgeously illustrated. It is the story of Bobo, a man who makes food for all the animals - only one day a 'funny thing' comes along. It is not an animal, it insists it is an aMinal.

The funny thing won't eat any of the food Bobo has for the animals, but says he loves eating dolls, not just any dolls, the dolls of very good children. Bobo doesn't like this, so he says he has something much better than dolls, and goes to make it. Something which will make the aMinals tail grow longer, and his beautiful blue points on his back get bluer and more beautiful. The aminal likes the sound of htis and waits happily. Bobo goes back to his house and mixes all the animals food in together and makes a jim jill which he gives to the aminal - which loves it. His tail does grow longer - and his points more beautiful.

A wonderful story of goodness, patience and distraction. Nice lessons for children (and adults!) here. Loved the illustrations - from the same author as Too many cats!

When my children were small they got this book from the library every other time we went, and I just ordered it for my grandchildren. Great to read together - ages maybe 4-7.

A delightful dragon with an apetite for "jum-jills" sits on top of a mountain devouring them. The drawings beautifully show his tail growing longer and longer as it curls around the peak. I must have a copy for my grandchildren!

At a local used bookstore, while walking along the picture books aisle, I spotted a text that looked like it had at six to seven decades on it's shoulders. The book was The Funny Thing (a first library edition, too), one that I'd heard of, and even more important, one by Wanda Gag. For those of you who don't know, Wanda Gag is perhaps the best picture book author/illustrator of the 20's and 30's. Ms. Gag was the recipient of two Newbery Honor awards (for writting) and two Caldecott Honor awards (for her beautifully-detailed pen-and-ink drawings). And though Ms. Gag wrote only a handful of books, her illustrations were some of the first in picture book history to be recognized as 'real' art. That's what makes each of them special.

Now onto the review. Within the first page of the story, we are introduced to Bobo, a baby-faced man who lives in a cave on top of the mountains all by his lonesome. Well, except for the animals, which Bobo takes time out to feed every day. He even has a stand where animals can feast on an assortment of dainties including, "nut cakes for the fuzzy-tailed squirrels" and "seed puddings for the pretty fluttering birds". Everything goes well for Bobo until on a beautiful day, he encounters an animal that looks like a cross between a dog and a dragon. This 'funny thing', as he calls it, talks, insisting that it is an aMinal, rather than an animal. The funny thing then asks what Bobo has for him to eat. After showing the funny thing all the different types of food he has to offer, and the funny thing rejecting each food, Bobo learns of what The Funny Thing loves to eat. Dolls. Yes, dolls. Bobo is terribly upset that The Funny Thing eats dolls, thinking of all the small children left doll-less by the aminals appetite. So Bobo decides to combine all the foods he has to make something The Funny Thing might actually like. And it works. But there's one problem: The Funny Things tails keeps growing longer and nothing can seem to stop it.

Wanda Gags creativity cannot be matched, and her books are some of the few that are just as good as they were the day they were published. The text in the story, as you may have noticed are hand-lettered. And, like always, the pictures are amazing. I'm tellin' you guys, Wanda Gag's work is some of the best out there.

R, your friendly neighborhood reviewer

Imagine my feelings when I couldn't locate my "over 50" years old copy of The Funny Thing! Not only can I repeat the whole story but also my children and their children. Problem is I can't find my copy and without the pictures, I feel a little lost. This book is a tradition in our family and the uncountable times I have served the children "jumjills" has become a family joke. An invaluable book - wonderful story, but then I've always been a Wanda Gag fan - and so are my children and grandchildren.

One story, "Toyota City", is worth the price of all of the "Minnesota Memories" books. Joan and her fellow writers take us back to our childhood and memories of friends and relatives. Even though I am from North Dakota, these collections of stories ring true to the stories we were told when visiting the "Home Place" in Minnesota. Never been to Minnesota? Read the books and find people as they really are. People like you and me or like we wish we were. Fill your wagon with real stories of real people as you join Joan and friends in a journey to the real Minnesota. We were privileged to have Joan visit our home. She is as delightful as her books and her time with us is now one of our very own "Minnesota Memories."

Readers of this book write and say, "Send me another; I want to give it for Christmas to my relatives who already have every refrigerator magnet and walleye shot glass from Mall of America." Tell newcomers or those who have retired from Minnesota winters and relocated in Florida that this is one book they should share with anyone who still holds the North Star State dear to their hearts. It's a gem!

Personal history--two words that, for many, generate mixed feelings. The value of getting something, anything down on paper is inarguable. How many of us wish that Mom or Dad, Grandma or Grandpa had left us something written to remember them by? How many (or few) generations back do you have to go before ancestors become merely names, because the details of their lives have become forever lost? On the other hand, the task of writing personal or family history is incredibly daunting. Where to begin? How to get it all down without becoming tedious? In Minnesota Memories, Graham and Megyeri provide us with a delightful example of personal history done right. Their formula is simple: take a topic and run with it. Imaginary friends, moving away, Elvis, old photos, summer, the skeleton in the closet. Forget the timelines and the begats, the crises and grudges, instead write about the everyday stuff of life. With humor and grace, the authors explore both the ordinary and the odd. They help us feel we have experienced what life was really like in small-town, mid-century America. Minnesota Memories provides would-be family historians a fine example of what a successful memoir looks like. But would someone please tell me, what in heck are "kickerinos"?

You'll be charmed by the North Star memories these 2 ladies evoke of their lives in Minnesota in the '50's. How I had forgotten the polio epidemic, the love-affair with Elvis most of us had, the local swimming holes, and the scrap books I kept but now can't find. I laughed, I cried, and I sent in my own submission to their upcoming Vol. II because I too was introduced to my first theatrical performance at the high school gym when basketball nets served to hold spot lights and the velvet curtain was strung between them. Their writing even captures the speech patterns I wanted to lose, but my Minnesota accent still gives me away. Their guest writers capture memories that my family holds dear--the local church pageant, the one-room schoolhouse that educated most of my family, and the centennial parade with its primite floats and antique cars that stole our hearts and made us yearn for those by-gone years of the simple life, valued time with family, and Christian values that are never appreciated till later in life. This is a fun read, one that all Midwesterners can identify with and appreciate.

Minnesota Memories is the kind of book you finish at three in the morning and wish you had more chapters yet to read. It evokes thoughts of the quirkiness in Minnesota practices--calling casseroles hot dishes, referring to going to any of Minnesota's l0, 000 lakes as "going to THE Lake", or referring to the noon meal as dinner and the six p.m. meal as supper. Remember when adventure was having the family sit down for supper at
seven?

Authors Joan Graham and Kathy Megyeri, both native Minnesotans, recall some of their favorite tales of growing up in the North Star state. The book brings forth pure joy. It is clean, totally charming, and recalls a Minnesota where hard work, innocence--or not getting caught-- and having a little fun was the way to go. The descriptions of the localities, the stories, the lifestyles and even the pictures of ancestors, proms, school and First Communions bring back memories and smiles.

Growing up in Minnesota in the 50's, 60's and 70's meant that what happened in your house, stayed in your house. You learned to keep your mouth closed and talked about politics, the price of strawberries or the weather. As we were growing up, we all thought we were the only ones who had strange relatives, wanted to juggle on the Johnny Carson Show or were fearful that someone would find out we were different.

Minnesota Memories authors share their own family practices and stories, and guess what? The same things that were shushed in our houses, also happened in the authors' homes. As you cuddle in a soft chair to read the stories, you'll remember long forgotten thoughts and memories of life in Minnesota.

One particularly endearing tale tells of Joan Graham mother who had been raised during the Depression and had learned to live with the frugality of many of our parents. She longed for something utterly beautiful and regal. Finally, she was able to send away for an elegant eight place setting of Bavarian china. For almost twenty-five years the treasured china was never used, however...

The writing style is honest and freshly straightforward. You find yourself right there in the room with the story teller. You put the book down and the events stay with you and mingle with your own past memories. This is one sweet little book that feels like a visit back home to Minnesota--or to any state that was once home. This is one book not to miss.

Marilyn Mikulewicz Baranski
Minnesota native--thirty years removed

The book & DVD are unbelievable. Soothing and breathtaking at the same time. Truly a treasure.

For many years, my family and I have been vacationing for several weeks on Minnesota's North Shore. Despite its magnificent scenery both on the
Superior Shore and the Superior National Forest from Duluth through the Canadian border,the North Shore remains fairly uncommercial, maintaining a surprising amount of spectacular imagery, in its uncrowded area
Blacklock's photographic book and its contained DVD do adequate justice to this beautiful part of the earth. His eye is perceptive; his
artistry is at a high level in composing his photgraphs. The four seasons
are fully encompassed. I get pleasure from seeing the images, when I am
not in that area.

To put it bluntly, Craig Blacklock's Minnesota's North Shore is the most comprehensive and well photographed book that currently exists of the Minnesota-Superior shoreline. The book is comprised of one hundred and seventy-five color photographs, as well as a three hour DVD of additional video content. The photographs are organized regionally, beginning with images taken in Duluth and ending with the Susie Islands along the Canadian Border. All in all, the print quality is superb, as is the physical construction of the book. Of course, it's the content of the book that is most important. Thankfully, the photographs themselves are stunning; Blacklock's attention to composition, light and detail are a testament to both his refined technical and aesthetic sensibilities. This said, I found Minnesota's North Shore to be a very different book than Blacklock's well known work, The Lake Superior Images.

Compared to his earlier work, Minnesota's North Shore tends to gravitate towards quieter and more intimate compositions. While grand landscape compositions are still present, there seems to be a greater interest in representing the essence of place through the use of small vignettes and understated moments. A parallel to this approach could drawn with Japanese haiku poetry. Blacklock tends to be very successful in eliciting emotional response when working within this vein, resulting in a body of work that contains an element of depth only found in the best of nature photography. The focus of the book's content is on the Superior shoreline itself, though inland images from the North Shore's scenic rivers, prominent viewpoints and natural history are also included. This bias of images towards the shoreline should not come as a great surprise for those who are familiar with Blacklock's previous work.

Additionally, conservation of the shoreline as both a state and national resource is clearly a primary concern for Blacklock. The book ends on a somber note with a photograph of lakeshore development and an essay on the need to immediately act in order to preserve what remains of Minnesota's North Shore. For those who love the lake, this book may prove to be a record of what was lost if action is not taken. Let's hope that this isn't the case, Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior is undoubtedly one of the greatest natural treasures of the state. In order to preserve this place for the enrichment of future generations, it's clear that the responsibility lies in our hands today.

All in all, highly recommended.

This is a fabulous "coffee table" book full of stunning images of Minnesota's North Shore. My jaw drops with each turn of the page.

I haven't even looked at the DVD yet - but the book itself is more than worth purchasing!

I recommend this book for people who love the North Shore, but also for anyone who loves photography in general. Mr. Blacklock's composition skills are AMAZING!

4 1/2 *

This new book of Craig Blacklock features digital photographs, both new and enhanced from previous work. As expected, it is magnificent.

The best part is the inclusion of a 3-hour DVD, which for me is like having a video chronicle of my own excursions to the North Shore. What a treat to be able to experience this wonderful place like this at home.

The DVD is in 5 chapters, each exploring a different segment of the North Shore. While all are wondeful, special attention should be made to Part 3: Tettegouche State Park. Here the photography and music are truly poetic and form an almost symphonic arc that is inspirational.

On the other hand, Chapters 1 and 5 are a bit over long and concentrate too excessively, in my opinion, on repetitive detail.

I think perhaps Blacklock could also have augmented the inland attractions of the shore (waterfalls and canyons).

These are small complaints, however, the entire DVD is very much worth having. The electronically produced music forms an evocative backdrop, or you can turn it off and just listen to the waves and the birds. The inclusion of two wonderful songs by folk singer Pater Mayer are a big plus, as well.

Night Flying Woman is a marvelous little book that captures the essence of the Ojibway way of life. The story speaks about reverence of all - the earth, the animals, the trees, and our fellow women and men. We are all intertwined in a reality that encompasses all. Although this is a major lesson in the Judeo-Christian heritage as well, we Christians have forgotten this lesson from the story of creation. Night Flying Woman helps to reconnect with this web of life of which we are all a part.

In addition to the wonderful story, the book contains evocative and moving artwork. It also contains something that is missing from too many books - a glossary of words that are unfamiliar to the average reader. This was a GREAT help.

It was a great read. The more I read about the Ojibway the more I wish I had been born sooner so that I could have lived with my ancestors the way we were meant to. I cried when I was done reading it. I would recommend this book to anyone whether you care about the people or not!

In "Night Flying Woman, An Ojibway Narrative," Ignatia Broker tells the story of the forest people, the Ojibway. She shows how the white man's ways desecrated the rituals, laws and beliefs of the Native People, all but erasing their long culture. Classed as caricatures in a land that once honored them, Broker shows how the Native People "faced bias, prejudice and active discrimination." The Ojibway philosophy for living, that of keeping in balance the purity of man and nature, is revived through Broker's telling of Oona's story, the story of many as seen through the "eyes cast down" of one. An insightful story that continues the Ojibway circle and gives us all the hope of the past for the future.

I sat and read this in one sitting. It was that good. An excellent lesson in not needing all the gadgetry this world offers in order to be happy. A great reminder for all of us that we need to care for each other in order we all can survive.

In "Night Flying Woman, An Ojibway Narrative," Ignatia Broker tells the story of the forest people, the Ojibway. She shows how the white man's ways desecrated the rituals, laws and beliefs of the Native People, all but erasing their long culture. Classed as caricatures in a land that once honord them, Brokers shows how the Native People "faced bias, prejudice and active discrimination." The Ojibway philosophy for living, that of keeping in balance the purity of man and nature, is revived through Broker's telling of Oona's story, the story of many as seen through the "eyes cast down" of one. An insightful story that continues the Ojibway circle and gives us all the hope of the past for the future.

"The Silence or the Loons" © 2005

These are a bunch of stories by Minnesota authors (where else do you find loons but Minnesota?). It is a structured story set up: the authors had to put in some reference to a pink ballet sipper and lutefisk or something else like that, so that all the stories had a sort of, tenuous, connection. They were all very interesting. There was the one of the cop who was having fun with a farm wife, who needed the fun. The odd one from Le Seuer, Mn., where she missed 'Wednesday night bingo at the Lutheran Church!' Who ever heard of bingo in a Lutheran church?

This anthology is a great read! I love mysteries of all kinds. This book of short stories is good for reading while traveling or while sitting waiting for an app't since most stories are just a few pp in length. The stories vary greatly in subject. I look forward to reading more from these authors.

Anthologies are like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get. In this box of chocolate loons and a cormorant or two from the Land of Sky Blue Waters, the reader gets, as Garrison Keillor would say, the "pretty good" ( (Pat Dennis and David Housewright,) the OK (Wm Kent Krueger staying on terra mudda he knows,) and Judith Guest's ever-present Edina angst (resulting in another "Hunh?' Moment for this reader.) Each of the contributing Minnesota mystery writers tells a tale with 4 of 8 shared elements. Can you guess the common currents? (If not, peek at the list in the back.) If you can relate to M.D. Lake's assessment `of whose residents `fine dining' brought up memories of lutefisk suppers in the church basement" then bring this book up to the cabin with you . /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer

Thirteen tales of mystery come from Minnesota's best crime writers: while some will be familiar names, such as Ellen Hart and Judith Guest, others will be newcomers to mystery fans outside of the region. These come from a local writer's club which promotes their publications and unites the contributors in an enjoyable pursuit: each received a set of eight clues to serve as a pool, and they were asked to include at least four of these clues in their story. The creative results are wonderfully intriguing and varied.

While writers of the southwest in particular write of the broiling heat of summer, writers of a Minnesota background seem to write about the brutal cold of the winter. That brutal cold of the winter is certainly a factor in a number of stories here but not in all of them. The stories do share a number of clues that had to be encompassed in each story. I'm not going to ruin the clue list by explaining it here but it's a good one. So too are the stories in this anthology.

Carl Brookins who, among other things, wrote the excellent comedic mystery novel "The Case Of The Greedy Lawyers" which I have reviewed here and elsewhere contributes "A Winter's Tale." For the recluse, the snowstorm is bad enough but he really doesn't need to find the lost traveler nearly dead in his barn.

For Kaye Brock, her past is known by all in "Take Me Out" by Lori L. Lake. Being an ex-con has its burdens as does living up to expectations of others.

Then, there is David Housewright's tale "A Domestic Matter". Jack is convinced his wife wants him dead. Reporter Dan Thorn doesn't believe his old friend at first and then follows the reporter's credo to take lots of notes as it's going to be important later.

This anthology also features stories by M.D. Lake, Mary Logue, William Kent Krueger, Judith Guest, Monica Ferris, K. J. Erickson, Ellen Hart, Deborah Woodworth, Kerri Miller, and Pat Dennis. In each of the thirteen stories, some of the clues are the same and yet each author goes in very different directions. While the stories share clues, they also share the fact that almost all of them are highly atmospheric noir style reads. Maybe it's the cold. Maybe it's the short daylight hours. But this is a dark read that should be savored in front of a roaring fireplace. Just make sure you can keep an eye on your surroundings while you are reading.

Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2006

Las huelgas de 1934 que forjaron el movimiento
sindical industrial en el mediooeste
norteamericano y ayudaron a allanar el camino
para el ascenso del Congreso de Organizaciones
Industriales (CIO), relatadas por un dirigente
central de esas batallas. El primero en una serie de
cuatro tomos sobre el liderazgo de lucha de clases
de las huelgas y campa?as de sindicalizaci?n que
transformaron el sindicato de los Teamsters en gran
parte de esa regi?n en un movimiento social
combativo y se?alaron el camino hacia la acci?n
politica independiente de la clase obrera. Incluye
una nueva introducci?n a la edici?n en espa?ol
por Jack Barnes.

THIS REVIEW IS ALSO BEING USED FOR TEAMSTER POWER WHICH IS A CONTINUATION OF THE STORY PRESENTED HERE. THE POLITICAL POINTS ARE VALID FOR BOTH BOOKS.

ORGANIZE WALMART! ORGANIZE THE SOUTH! These are the slogans which outline the tasks that the American labor movement, particularly the organized trade union movement under the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win Coalition, need to address. With those tasks in mind it was refreshing for this old militant to re-read Farrell Dobbs' analysis of the fight to organize the truckers in the 1930's. This volume, and an earlier one detailing the struggles to organize truckers in Minneapolis, are little handbooks for model labor organizing. Dobbs himself was instrumental in organizing the truckers of Minneapolis in the great strikes in that city in 1934 and as documented here the later, successful organizing of the over the road drivers in the Midwest which created the modern, powerful Teamsters International Union. He was, more importantly, a supporter of what later in the decade became the Socialist Workers Party- American section of the Trotsky-led Forth International.

Whatever else may be true about Dobbs this man could organize workers. Why? The last sentence in the previous paragraph gives the answer. In the modern labor movement it is not enough to be a militant on the picket line but one must also have a political approach to labor actions. With the merging of corporate and governmental interests on the labor question in the modern state militants better think politically. As the December, 2005 unsuccessful struggle of the transport workers in New York City demonstrated militants better know the enemy and his tactics well. Moreover, these days, unlike in the 1930's when it went without question by advanced workers, it is as important to know there is an enemy. On the other hand think what it would be like to have a political militant like Dobbs organizing the drivers of those 7000 trucks that Wal-Mart owns to distribute its merchandise. You get my drift. Read what he has to say carefully.

To even introduce this militant labor leader of the 1930's is to state the fundamental problem of today's labor leaders. They do not exist in the modern labor movement. Yes, there are militants out there in the rank and file but militant leaders are no longer produced and that is the rub. Unlike the strategy of independent political action which underlined Dobbs' work the strategy of today's labor leaders can be summed up in two words- class collaboration. That is a strategy of dependence by the labor movement on the good will of the `friends of labor', essentially the Democratic Party- not to fight for victory in the streets but by what at times amounts to parliamentary cretinism. Just start to organize Wal-Mart seriously or organize the South and militants will quickly see who their `friends' are.

The natural audience for this book are today's labor activists so the reviewer would draw attention to the following issues that Dobbs and his associates had to confront and which militants today will confront in any serious organizing efforts. (1)The role of the labor bureaucracy in limiting the scope of struggle. (2) The role of governmental mediators, courts, legislation and the above-mentioned `friends of labor' in curtailing the struggle. (3) The role of scabs and others, including government troops, who will try to break the up the struggle. On the positive side- the following should be noted; have your own publicity organ to get out your message; organize other labor and pro-labor sources to assist in strike action; anticipate that governmental and corporate sources will try to `freeze' workers out so have your own transport, commissary and medical operations. Finally, in the words of the old Wobblie song by Joe Hill- "Don't Mourn, Organize!!

In rereading this book I was struck by what a wonderful thing it was that these rank and file workers were able to change history by creating, out of their struggle, an example of revolutionary unionism. It was wonderful for them and is wonderful for us, because it shows what we can do today. This book also tells the story of how Farrell Dobbs learned that he could trust in both the fighting capacity of the working class and the leadership capabilities of its vanguard. Through powerful examples Dobbs describes the dog-eat-dog viciousness of capitalism and contrasts it with the desire on the part of young fighters to break through the backstabbing and open up a road to workers' solidarity. This book could change your life. Amazon may list this book as unavailable from time to time, but it's always available from the Pathfinder z store. Click on "new and used" at the top of the page.

Dobbs, a leader of the 1934 Minneapolis Teamster strike, which became a citywide general strike, tells its story. The battles with the companies, cops, strike breakers, and their hangers-on are told with masterful effect. It also shows the rising industrial unions as organizations of working-class struggle, taking on the employers and its government. But the real gem at the heart of this tale is how the unfolding struggle transformed ordinary workers, including Dobbs himself, into extraordinary fighters, thinkers, and revolutionary leaders.

Farrell Dobbs was a coal-yard worker and one of the central leaders of the 1934 strikes when in his twenties. Some forty years later Dobbs was the national secretory of the Socialist Workers Party and wrote down an account of his experiences working in the coal yards and becoming involved in unionist movement organizing the drive to establish Teamsters Local 574 and the rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) as an effective nation-wide instrument to better working conditions for men and women like himself. Teamster Rebellion is Dobbs account of the hard-fought strike actions which were often all out battles with law enforcement and hired thugs operating as strike breakers in the employ of the exploitative company owners and such big-business fronts as Citizen Alliance. Teamster Rebellion is a welcome and recommended addition to academic and community library American Labor History collections.

I was looking for some history about the Minnesota Twins and this book more then met my needs. The book is unique in that it is in a question/answer format that allows you to guess the answer before you verify it on another page. The book also has some very nice black and white pictures of players as well as pictures of both the Dome and Metropolitan stadium. Real cool shot! This book can also be used as a reference manual because it also includes hitting and pitching statistics for all Twins players. It makes a great gift idea! I would recommend it strongly.

Best trivia book I have found about the Minnesota Twins. Great section on all the Twins players statistics.

Looking for a gift idea for that baseball fan in your life? This is the book for you. Everything you wanted to know about the Minnesota Twins in a trivia format. If you like stats, this book has every player that ever played for our Twins.

Twins Trivia is a nice little book that brings back many Minnesota Twins memories. I received the book as a gift and as I sat down to read the book, I was shocked to see all those Minnesota Twins names that I grew up with. What a fun book and a great Dad's day gift. You can't go wrong.

Hours of fun reading about the Minnesota Twins. If it is worth knowing about the Twins, this book will tell you all about it!

This is a beautiful tribute to rural Minnesota! I grew up and still live in Otter Tail County. I have many beautiful pictures myself of the same schoolhouse and the small shed from the cover, and treasure the fact that these familiar scenes are preserved in such a beautiful book. Another barn in the book sits on my friend's farm, so it is particularly sentimental. I just feel it is a shame that this beautiful and charming schoolhouse, which survived not only the elements and the test of time, but also the development of modern civilization all around its walls...which sat for so many generations on its desolate perch on the prairie has been moved a different location to make a summer cabin for the author. What a tragedy. Exactly why capturing these pictures is so important, before they are gone forever!

I grew up in Otter Tail County, and a good number of the pictures are places that I have probably seen over the years. The photographs capture the beauty of the place, the words the beauty, heartbreak, and tragedy. Wonderful book.

i found this book by ordering country barns notecards from amazon.com. Which where from this book i just look at the pictures and go ahh. Wonderful color really touched me

Photographic quality and angle of pictures is superb. They lent a poignant yearning of this time period - how nice it would be to see the people and hear their voices at these sites. The accompanying text made the pictures more vivid. Wonderful book - when it is back in print, I'm going to buy it.

This is an absolutely amazing book..... MacKenzie flies around his birthplace regions, and then finds these places, that once he photographs, become temples of the ravages of time. These are photos that make one sense's shudder at the visual touch of the moment when something went awry with a schoolhouse, or a barn or a house. He has frozen, via huge, elegant landscapes, a moment in time, an uncomfortable, but spectacular moment. I was stunned by these photographs and by the senseless beauty and brooding quality of them.

It takes a special type of person to embrace an adopted child as if they were one's own. "Blueberry Summers: Growing up at the Lake" is author Curtiss Anderson's reminiscence of his family life as he grew up in 1940s Minnesota. Focusing on the coming of age stories that riddle all of our lives and turn us into the people that we are today, and serving as a memorial to his adoptive parents, "Blueberry Summers: Growing up at the Lake" is a top pick for those seeking to look back at a childhood much like their own and for community library memoir collections.

What a pleasure to read an old-fashioned, heart-felt, utterly sentimental memoir with the power and poetry to evoke the innocence, happiness, and yes, disappointments of childhood and growing up in a family that...mattered. Anderson captures the essence of the whole experience in language that flows effortlessly and often lyrically from the first joyous to the final rather sad pages. What ever happened to no-nonsense writing like this?

In my memory, summer always stretched out like a lazy dog. I read books in a sacred spot under the canopy of a cottonwood tree, rolled in freshly-mown grass, and ran against the chinook wind, spreading my arms wide and hoping to fly. Anderson's book brought back those magic moments. I read it slowly, savoring my own memories as inspired by his.

Curtiss Anderson has done for the Minnesota Lake Country what Peter Mayle did for Provence and Frances Mayes for Tuscany -- transported me there on winged words and introduced me to the sights, sounds, and scents not to mention characters both comical and crochety. Of course the Lake Country of Anderson's youth ('30s and '40s) is what gives this memoir its particular magic plus the author's own poetic prose:

"Nature would always challenge, threaten, protect, and entertain us with its sweet and sad surprises," Anderson writes. "Things would happen that had never happened before and would never happen again. That is the essence of wilderness and wildlife."

Who can forget Clara Johnson and her famous doughnuts (Anderson shares that recipe on page 27), dear old Great-Aunt Ingaborg who was "Norsk to the bone," or young Sarah Schumacher who in the adolescent Anderson's eyes "was the most exquisitely created human being who ever lived?" Each of them is as unforgettable as the entire cast of characters from Anderson's extended Norwegian family.

Anderson's coming-of-age summers beside a northern Minnesota lake will resonant with everyone who grew up in the age of FDR, rumble seats, and water pumps constantly in need of priming. As for the younger generation, I'd make BLUEBERRY SUMMERS required reading if only to prove that it's possible to have fun deprived of play stations, paintball fights, and virtual TV.

This was a delightful,carefree book to read for summer enjoyment. The insight into Curt's boyhood and his relationship with his parents and their friends was so well done. You just felt like you were on the lake fishing sometime.
I recommend.

This beautiful book found me a year after my precious cat died from throat cancer. I bet I read it 10 times, each time finding something new that related to us. It is tucked away, forever to be kept, tear-stained in the hallows of my mind and heart.

If you've never had or loved an animal, this book will change your heart and life forever...trust me!

On a late winter day in 1972, a cat (soon to be named Dulcy) found a woman worthy to be her human and with whom she would live for the next seventeen and a half years. When Dulcy's lithe and graceful hunter's body began to fail, and the time came to say good-bye, then her story became a song of acceptance and bravery that would drive to the core of anyone who has ever felt close to an animal companion. Dee Ready's A Cat's Life: Dulcy's Story is beautifully, memorably illustrated by the spectacular artwork of Judy J. King and simply wonderful reading from first page to last.

This outstanding book is a story about the befriending, training, hurt, and love that a cat, Dulcy, and her human experience throughout their life. As Dulcy's tells her life story with her human you will smile, laugh and even cry as their life together unfolds. As an animal lover and friend this story made me remember all the patience my dogs (2) and cats (2) have had to endure while training me. This is a 'must read' for anyone who loves or has loved an animal and will bring back memories of the special bond you had with them. The illustrations were great and the story wonderful!!

If you were to take a survey that asked what a cat did with its life, chances are people would say "nap, look out the window, and get into stuff." And of course theyÕd be right. If those people lived with cats, however, they might have a lot more to add, and if they loved their cats, they might understand the magic that a cat brings to the life of the family it lives with.

The author of this book invites us to observe how this magical bond comes about between human and cat and how deep such a relationship becomes when each learns the ways of the other and grows to love and depend on the other.

Dulcy fits the stereotype many people have of cats. SheÕs independent, persnickety, bossy, and fastidious. But as we read, we find out some amazing things. Dulcy actually teaches her human how to understand cat language; and we learn that she is very complicated indeed and experiences many human feelings. We see her express jealousy, superiority, intelligence, impatience, understanding, loyalty, and above all, love.

Dulcy lives a long, full life and has many adventures, some humorous and some humiliating. And because the book is written in her voice, she shares many of these adventures with us. We get to know her human, too, and while we sometimes wonder how Dulcy puts up with her humanÕs foolishness, we come to understand her human in the special way that Dulcy understands her.

In the end, when Dulcy has been very ill for a long time, her human does not want to let her go. When she takes extraordinary measures to prolong Dulcy's life, we get the sense that Dulcy hangs on to life purely for the sake of her human. Just when her human feels that there is no hope, Dulcy manages to scrape together a few more days, even weeks. And when she goes, she goes sweetly, leaving behind a look of love and a lifetime of memories.

As one who has been "owned" by many felines during my lifetime, I found "Dulcy's Story" to be the history of a wonderful relationship between human and pet, all of the joys and all of the sorrows until the ultimate sorrow of losing a companion of many years. I've gone through it so often and it never gets easier, whether the decision to take the pet to its final rest is made by me through euthanasia or by a natural death. Reading "Dulcy's Story" demonstrates just how these beautiful creatures wrap us around their little paws until we become slaves to all their whims and demands, and we love every minute of it! Unfortunately, many of our family and friends don't understand our loyalty to our pets and, therefore often dismiss us as a little crazy. But that's all right - we know we're OK; it's the rest of them that we worry about and even feel sorry for them if they have never known the unconditional love of a furry friend. Dulcy was a very special cat to a very special human, and the story of their life together is a wonderful testament to their relationship.

It makes me wonder if one or both of my current cats were to write a book on their life with me, what would they say? I would like to think that they would say their lives have been enriched as much as mine has been living together for nearly nine years and hopefully many, many more years.