Utah Books

This book is so popular with rockhounder's and has been used so extensively, that the sites depicted have been virtually picked clean. Readers should use this book as a general location reference and search elsewhere for collectable material.

I found the book to be very useful in finding sites to look for rocks and fossils during a recent trip to Utah. The directions to the sites were clear, and advice on conditions helpful. All of the sites I visited (10-12)were as described and productive, particularly when viewed as jumping off points to explore. The only thing I would ask for are more sites and a wider variety of things to look for. Two weeks more of vacation would be nice, as well. While I'm asking, gas money and a mailer to avoid carrying 25 lbs. of rocks home on the plane...

I found this book very useful in exploring the different sites in Utah. I have only been to a few sites but was not disappointed in the results. One should read the Forward/Intro section. It has good tips on the Utah and it's climate that literally could be a life saver.
The author has put a real effort in listing the different sites and given good directions. I like the site format including the elevation and the best time to collect. I used it to visit Utah in early March and petrified wood from sand creek. I have given the book a four star rating due to it's age. It was published in 1996 so it's seven years old at this writing. the Utah sites still seem to be intact compared to the sites in New Mexico and Colorado. As I have suggested in my other reviews I would like to see GPS Coordinates for Main turn offs and the initial starting points at a collecting site. The forest service/BLM has a habit of closing roads. and there are Vandals that deface signs right when you need them the most. I also use the GPS Data for mapping software at home before the trip. preplanning at home beats driving 10 miles of washboard and dust on the wrong road.

I found this book to be very helpful in finding rock-collecting sites in Utah. It has directions to the collecting sites, information about near by attractions, tools needed, elevations, driving conditions and best time of year to go. I use the book religiously when I'm out and about. I give it a 4 star rating, and could have been a 5 star rating had the pictures of the rock specimen been in color, instead of black and white =)

I hate doing this kind of review but I think it's only fair to others. The people who wrote this book seem to be so nice I gave them an extra star. However I've lived in Utah some 64 years and have prowled the entire state in detail and I can honestly say that there is little that is recognizable about our spectacular red rock country as portrayed here. The book needs really decent maps and even a few photos and a far more easy to follow "visits" for any other visitors. I honestly anticipated reading this and scraped up to buy a new copy but alas...

Romancing The Mesas is filled with the passion usually found in romance novels. Only in this one,
the object of the affair is the timeless and unique beauty of the red mesas of Southern Utah. It's
also a story about the Mormon pioneers who settled the area and the hardships they endured. I grew up in Virgin,Utah and knew Ruth and Russell. Romancing The Mesas is clearly a labor of love.

I haven't experienced a better book in many years! Romancing the Mesa's is a wonderful first hand account of what the settlers had to endure to carve out a life in southern Utah. It's told to a British family by those who lived it or by story passed down from their relatives. I was caught up in the emotion, amazed, and amused by almost every tale. What a wonderful legacy of family history and beautiful account of pioneering life. Truly, I have been romanced by "Romancing the Mesa's". Many thanks to the authors.
Randy Stewart

I haven't experienced a better book in many years! Romancing the Mesa's is a wonderful first hand account of what the settlers had to endure to carve out a life in southern Utah. It's told to a British family by those who lived it or by story passed down from their relatives. I was caught up in the emotion, amazed, and amused by almost every tale. What a wonderful legacy of family history and beautiful account of pioneering life. Truly, I have been romanced by "Romancing the Mesa's". Many thanks to the authors.
Randy Stewart

This book has a certain realism that compelled me to keep reading and reading. I wanted to know where it was taking me. From keg parties to ward parties, from acid trips to child birth everything in this book is very real, perhaps a bit too real for some. The author drew me into the scenes and characters which a language and style that was easy to read, very descriptive. I could tell the author was telling this story from the heart.

I had Harrell as an English Professor in 2002 and I was excited about his up coming book. He is one of the most captivating teachers I have met and one of the most captivating writers I have ever been taught by. The book is excellent and I look forward to many more.

The characters were depthless and the situations are trite. The protagonist goes back and forth between desiring righteousness and embracing sin that you are never fully convinced of his moral conversion in the end. The contradictions in the novel are so staggering that you will become dizzy with stream-of-consciousness that falls flat.

That doesn't mean this book doesn't have redeeming qualities. I was pleased to see some variety from the stock "goody-goody" Mormon characters, and there is a lot of subtle symbolism that might help people who feel they don't fit the classic mold of what is good but are still good people.

I just thought the book was poorly written and the editing of the storyline was severely lacking. For an adult novel, the writing was surprisingly juvenile. I expected more from a creative writing English professor.

Vernal Promises by Jack Harrell is an impressive work of Mormon literature that speaks of an ordinary man who sees everything positive as coming with a cost. Jacob Dennison is beset by mixed morals at every turn, his test of faith is to follow his one inner voice, even though the cost could push him to the brink of ruin and take a greater toll than he imagined possible. A compelling narrative about complicated choices, Vernal Promises is an impressive novel and documents Jack Harrell as a master storyteller able to grasp the attention and interest of his reader from first page to last.

A fantastic reference book that makes back country exploring not only possible for anyone at any desired level of difficulty (or not), but also great fun. This book rolls trail information & descriptions , places and history, for the whole state, into one comprehensive book; great value for money.

This book like the first one, is a comprehensive guide to the Utah back roads. Anyone who is interested in driving the back roads must have this book.

4wd Adventures is a monstrous book. Seriously, this thing has to weigh a couple of pounds. It comes loaded with historical information, information on nature, and some nice maps.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Well, I'm a bit iffy on this encyclopedic compendium. Let me tell you why, when I first arrived in Moab I talked with a bunch of fourwheelers and asked them where they were headed. They told me I have to check out the Sands Flat Rec. area. Honestly, I blew them off. Why? Well, I had this huge book full of trails. What did they know that my 4wd Adventures couldn't tell me? So I pick out the best of the best of Moab and go driving around some trails. Overall I was disappointed. The trails had some fun spots (I'm talking mainly the ones located within the Arches), and it was lovely to see, but overall...ehhh, I wouldn't do it again. I head back to my hotel and remember my earlier discussion with the fourwheelers, and I decide to check it out. I couldn't believe my eyes.

With their help, I had found the Slickrock Trails. This is the spot that helped put Moab on the map! Why in the world was it not included in this book? Everything else was! This area is a gem, and absolute marvel. But the book? Basically, the book was a real let down, especially for the price I paid. Note, I haven't tried much of the other trails, but a good portion of them are rated as 1, 2, and 3 on the difficulty level, which can be likened to driving up your dirt driveway. I'm not one of those maniacal fourweelers with the giant tires and portable welding kits, but I was surprised by how much of this book I don't really need.

Want my advice? Skip this one and check out the Guide To Moab, UT Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails by Charles A. Wells, Shelley Mayer.

As a long-time WordPerfect user I wanted the opportunity to learn about the history behind one of my favourite computer programs. Perhaps this is more necessary for me than for many in the U.S. because I'm from Australia, which is a little far away from where some of the early action took place.

From that perspective, it's very interesting to read about the evolution of the product through various versions. Of course, the Wikipedia article on WordPerfect has more-or-less the same information, but nothing compares to Peterson's dramatic telling of the to-ing and fro-ing between departments to actually achieve this end.

Unfortunately, this book is no longer in print form. A full text can, however, be found online.

The politics between Alan, Bruce and Pete towards the end, when Pete is forced out of the company, is of interest, but as always there are many sides to the story. The highlight of this book for me was seeing WordPerfect grow.

W. E. Peterson joined Word Perfect in 1980 as a part-time office manager, and left as Executive VP of Sales in 1992. He says their success was based partly on luck: the right circumstances at the right time. They depended on their own efforts and finances, not on burning up borrowed money; did this concentrate their efforts on success?

He says "reliability was more important than price" (p.41). A word processor is a means to an end, not an end in itself. A $1500 product can be less costly than a $500 product that breaks down more, once you include the effect of losses.

Page 60 says the demise of word processing departments in the mid 1980s was unexpected. This happened to key-punch departments a decade earlier. Will Internet E-mail reduce the market for word processors in turn?

The problem of printer support in WP was solved by the use of tables; but this resulted in slower printing. Isn't it better to use separate executable modules for each printer family?

One very important item of their success was their evaluation of their product by consulting with the secretaries who used it. This is much better than an ad-hoc committee of non-users.

His evaluation of other companies (p.100) is interesting. Using a "lines of code" rule alone may result in bloated and redundant code, which can lead to higher maintenance, overhead, and support costs.

His story of the "free Hawaii trip" (pp.131-2) illustrates the difference between "goals" and "objectives". A fixed cash bonus is a goal, a Hawaii trip an objective.

In July 1991 Pete was informed that he "was too hard on people and too many people were afraid" of him. He seems to have ignored this warning. The stress of the delayed release may have been affecting a lot of people. If the VP of Development was giving lectures from a book, could this have caused the delay? Does this show a problem in a "flat management" philosophy? Is it correct for any large company? Can reading a book safeguard a company from Microsoft? Note that this clash of personalities did not occur when WP was profitable. "Victory has a thousand fathers", falling sales has a thousand finger pointers.

This is a perfect book for those aspiring entrepreneuers on lessons of both starting a company and managing one. Never letting down his guard and sticking by his own way of doing things, Peterson's pivotal point to leave the company came in the midst of too much control for one person to handle. Peterson though was able to handle the decisions for many years to his credit and definately seemed the driving force in providing overall profitability in the company.

Look interesting and informative for people who are planning to go to Escalante soon. Good resource. I saw Bryce and Zion Parks on my first trip to Utah- can't wait to go back The escalante looked so beautiful even though I only saw part of it on the way to Capitol Reef National Park

This book is divided into three sections; Cedar Mesa in SW Utah, The Escalante Canyon and Grand Staircase-Paria Canyon. The Escalante-Grand Staircase hikes range in length and difficultly. Included are the following hikes:
Upper calf Creek Falls -2m
Lower Calf Creek Falls-6.2m
Devils Garden-.07m
Fortymile Ridge to Sunset Arch-3m
Willow Gulch to Broken Bow Arrow-4m
Kodachrome Basin's Panorama Trail-2.9-5.4m
Cottonwood Canyon Narrows-3m
Willis Creek Narrows-4.8m
Lick Wash-8m
Wire Pass to Buckskin Gulch-3.4m
and 9 hikes in the SW area of Utah

This book might be good for getting ideas on where to hike, but some of the information contained in it is not accurate, or lacks sufficient detail. For example, the author fails to mention that a permit to hike Wire pass to Buckskin Gulch must usually be obtained 3 months ahead of time. Also, the directions to Sunset Arch are different than any other guide book. (?) He also fails in giving accurate campground information. There are many more camping opportunities than what he mentions. I would advise consulting other guide books before setting off on any of the hikes and would not use this book for trip planning.

This is a streamlined version of Adkison's lengthier book about the national monument, but is perfect for the short hikes in this beautiful region. It has everything a pocket guidebook should have: clear descriptions, mileage, elevations, maps, and ratings. This is my favorite guidebook for the Grand Staircase whenever I do short hikes.

This guide was perfect for my two days of hiking at Alta in August 2006. As a purely recreational hiker traveling alone, this book was the ideal companion.

This book is a must have if you're a hiker near the Salt Lake City area. It's great for the novice hiker, families with smaller children, or nine-to-fivers like myself trying to pick up a quick hike on weekdays before or after work. All of the routes in this book have two conveniences in common. None of the trailheads are more than an hours drive from the bottom of the canyon, and none of the hikes are more than a few miles round trip. This makes it really easy to knock of several hikes a season. Most of them average about one hour of hiking time. Brian Brinkerhoff also does a great job of describing what kind of terrain to expect. Some of the included hikes are paved for easy wheelchair and stroller access, or for the ease of beginning trail runners worried about their ankles. Several on Brinkerhoff's list includes highlights such as waterfalls, alpine lakes, and even some mining ruins, concentrating on the little and big cottonwood canyon areas.

Brinkerhoff's little guide is just the right size for stuffing into the pocket of your cargo shorts or daypack, and it covers a fair sampling of short and easy South Salt Lake City and American Fork area hikes especially suited for hikers with limited abilities or families with small children. Also, the brief hike descriptions, with trailhead info, trail notes, distance and hiking time estimates, are generally helpful and reliable. But this book falls short of its potential, for it could easily have been greatly improved without sacrificing its convenient size or adding much to its cost simply by adding a few more details to some of the hike descriptions, extending the coverage a bit to include a few more popular and spectacular local hikes, and especially, by improving the trail maps.

Having hiked every trail in the book, many with this text (and others) in hand, I routinely found myself correcting or supplementing Brinkerhoff's cursory trail descriptions and hand-drawn maps (which are currently little more than wiggly dotted lines with a few essential features like paved roads, trailheads and lakes) with such things as as elevation, distance, topography and terrain notes, maps of converging trails, and occasionally, minor corrections. Admittedly, some of the trails covered in the book don't actually require anything more than instructions to the trailhead, but most of them connect with other trails the reader might want either to follow or avoid, and in such cases better descriptions and maps would be a genuine help. And since the book is so small (and admirably so, for it is by far the most portable of the many Utah trail books available), it could easily have been expanded to cover a greater number of short and popular local trails--like Ensign Peak, Provo's Rock Canyon, and a host of candidates from Sandy and Millcreek Canyon. As it is, despite the title, the text really only covers Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons and American Fork Canyon (with the inclusion of a single trail in Pleasant Grove under the American Fork Canyon section).

In my opinion, improvements of the kind I have mentioned would have made the book a much more serviceable text without adding significantly to either its bulk or price, and thus, should have been included. As it stands, I recommend "Best Easy Day Hikes SLC" as the best available short and cheap guide to easy Wasatch area trails, but a serious hiker will prefer something like David Day's "Utah's Favorite Hiking Trails," Steve Mann's "100 Hikes in Utah," or John Veranth's "Hiking the Wasatch," all of which are infinitely more informative and helpful--but also bigger and pricier. Or buy this for it's convenient size, and then supplement the applicable entries before your trip with important details from the bigger and better books. Hopefully, a reworked edition will soon save you the trouble.

1. In 1942 the Office of the Attorney General was Francis Biddle and James Rowe, the FBI director was Edgar Hoover of the Justice department, and John McCloy, General Gullion, and Bendetsen of the War department.
2. Hoover attacked the military intelligence as exhibit signs of hysteria and lack of judgment.
3. A heated debate emerged between the Justice Department and the War Department. Biddle said he opposed the mass evacuation. Gullion and DeWitt said the situation was precarious and the Japanese had to be removed. Biddle turmoil arose from a pull between the safety of the country and the fundamental protections allotted by the constitution. The War department said they would support evacuation upon DeWitt's recommendation. However, McCloy was concerned that DeWitt did not have enough grounds to justify a movement of this sort.
4. McCloy said that after the compulsory expulsion of Japanese citizens that some might be permitted to return.
5. What were DeWitts issues? DeWitt said, "I'm only concerned with getting them away from around these aircraft factories and other places." McCloy identified a few key installations: Consolidated-Vultee plant in San Diego, the Lockheed and Martin plants in Los Angeles, and Boeing in Seattle. However, protection of critical facilities did not require mass evacuation. More soldier were required to enforce internment than protection of critical faciltiies.
6. Bendetsen wrote a paper, Feb, 1942, subject, "Alien enemies on the West Coast", he equated the enemy problem on the West coast with the sabotage problem. Bendetsen argued large concentrations of Japanese in close proximity to strategically critical areas threatened US security. However, there was no evidence of sabotage or a raid being attempted by West Coast Japanese. 2/3 of the 110,000 evacuees were US citizens, loyal to America, not Japan.
7. Bendetsen created the idea of designated military areas that surrounded vital installations in the Western Defense Command and exclude all the Japanese as a measure of military necessity. Free citizen movement for relocation was not allowed and imprisonment resulted, a constitutional crisis. The War department stated that exclusion of the Japanese from a military area did not constitute a "arbitrary class discrimination". However, if this class of people were black, the US supreme court would have to disagree based on the history of segregation.
8. General Gullion sent a memorandum to McCloy telling him the danger of Japanese inspired sabotage was great. Gullion, DeWitt, and Bendetsen shared the same fatalistic vision.
9. By mid-febuary, the FBI had arrested 2,192 Japanese aliens, 1,393 Germans, and 264 Italians. Hoover was satisified that no further arrests were required. When asked about executive order 9066, he stated that no case had been made to justify mass evacuation for security reasons.
10. The book, "Valor of Ignorance" by Homer Lea predicted thirty years prior Pearl Harbor changes in power nations would occur so Japan would be capable of invading a lightly populated and barely defendable West Coast. General DeWitt referenced the possible of "Valor of Ignorance".
11. McCloy and General Mark put together questions associated with the Mass evacuation associated with the West Coast presented to Secretary of State Stimson. The central question for the president was "Is the President willing to authorize us to move US Japanese Citizens as well as enemy aliens from restricted areas? " Stimson met with President Roosevelt, on Feb 11, 1942 , said Stimson, "I took up with him the West Coast matter and told him the situation and fortunately found him very vigorous about it and told me to go ahead on the line that I had myself thought best." McCloy call Bendetsen and said, "the president states that there will probably be some repercussion, but it has got to be dictated by military necessity, but a he puts it, be as reasonable as you can." Bendetsen contact General Gullion and relayed the news.
12. General Clark completed his report, Feb 12, on the inadvisability of mass evacuation, objecting against exodus, for two reasons: there was no perfect defense against sabotage and the solution must be weighted according to advantages and disadvantages. 1 for 5 soldiers was required to guard the internment Japanese for a total of 10,000 soldiers. General Clark recommended that identified as critical installations be given higher levels of protection.
13. Journalist Lippman of the "Herald Tribune" liberal viewpoints on the matter of evacuation wrote "the pacific coast is imminent danger" stating that the Japanese Navy was "reconnoitering the Pacific Coast" and General Dewitt believed signaling was taking place. Lippman wrote that a conspiracy theory existed, "a sign that the blow is well-organized and that it is held back until it can be struck with maximum effect." The media frenzy and hysteria caused people to believe that that their Japanese neighbors were the enemy. The fact missing was most of the Japanese Submarines had returned to the Western Pacific. Attorney General response to Lippman column was "My last advice from the War Department is that there is no evidence of imminent attack and from the FBI that there is no evidence of planned sabotage."
14. Dewitt supported Lippmans Fifth column arguments stating, "The Japanese race is an enemy race and many second and third generation Japanese born on United States soil have become Americanized the racial strains are undiluted." Dewitt believed in a conspiracy of organized and concerted action at a favorable opportunity. "The very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken."
15. Executive order 9066 was passed March, 1942, and authorized Secretary of War, Stimson, to prescribe military areas ... from which any or all persons be excluded. Attorney General, Biddle did not believe the executive order 9066 required any enforcement by legisture. Biddle said the power granted to the War Department could be exercised against the Japanese regardless of their citizenship. Bendetsen knew the Congress alone could backup the executive order and was bitter towards the Justice Department.
16. The permanent relocation camps were: Central Utah (Topaz), near Delta, Utah; Colorado river, at Poston, Arizona; Heart Mountain, Wyoming; Gila River, southern Arizona; Granada, southeastern Colorado; Minidoka, north of Twin Falls, Idaho; Jerome and Rohwar, eastern Arkansas; Manzanar, Inyou County, California, and Tule Lake, northeastern California.
17. Bendetsen recommended that once the Japanese evacuation was complete, the curfew on German and Italian aliens be lifted. While persons of Japanese ancestry could not hide their race, a curfew on European Group would require the creation of an identity-card system, which the president opposed.
18. Are all men created equal? "If a patrio who loves his country is liable to imprisonment solely because of his/her national or racial ancestory, then...we would have to question whether we all are still dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." The failure to allow due process to take place deprived the individual, Justice recourse in the courts. The courts system allows an individual to petition for Justice. Therefore, rapid and immediate access to the court system is required allowing the individual not to be deprived the opportunity for Justice. The Judicial system was designed orginally as a safety valve against social inequality.
19. In 1988, Congress passed the Civil Liberties act and in 1989, George H.W. Bush signed the appropriations bill and an apology.

In The Colonel and the Pacifist, Klancy de Nevers writes of two individuals who were directly involved in a dark moment of the World War II era almost completely written out of history--the relocation of over 120,000 persons of Japanese heritage on the West Coast, better known as the Japanese internment camp affair. De Nevers' account involves U.S. Colonel Karl Bendetsen and Perry Saito, a Japanese American Methodist pastor and conscientious objector to war who lived with his family in the internment camp as a young man. The book begins to carve out the framework for the events following December 7, 1941 by explaining how the two men were commonly tied to the town of Aberdeen, Washington. She then follows them through Bendetsen's crucial decisions as colonel of the West Coast evacuation and Saito's work preaching peace in the post-war years.
The strength of the book is in its details. By juxtaposing the lives of the colonel and the pacifist, de Nevers has created a unique read with very real details and surprising honesty from many primary sources. The book portrays the lives of two people with vastly different roles in and perspectives on the same series of events. The author carefully crafts the stories around each other while proceeding with the narrative in chronological order. This is done in a clearly intentional yet smooth manner that manages to keep a firm hold of the reader's attention. While adding detail, the well-placed photos and personal anecdotes of individuals close to Bendetsen and Saito add to the already lifelike characters. De Nevers' vivid portrayal of racial discrimination against peoples of Japanese ancestry leading up to and after the relocation project is a topic not often explored by American historians or novelists.
While these very real moments and direct quotes help to reinforce the authenticity of Perry Saito's story, at times the firsthand accounts threaten to portray Aberdeen and its characters as too normal. Throughout the book more careful measures could have been taken to avoid biased comments. Certain facts are overly emphasized and opposing data is apologized for. Acronyms and abbreviations are liberally used in such a way that assumes the reader is familiar with not only the Japanese relocation project and those parties involved, but also the military and West Coast region.
Overall the book is an interesting read and sheds light on a subject this reader otherwise knew very little about. The title was a bit misleading, as I would have hoped for more information on Perry Saito's works as a pacifist and social activist during and after his internment camp experience. The lengthy and detailed explanation of how the orders for the evacuation were formulated(pg. 85-125) was beyond both my understanding of and interest in military processes. Instead I would like to have found more inspirational stories about Perry Saito like the one about his sit-in at a diner in the Midwest when an unknown African American man was at first refused service.
In conclusion, Perry Saito and Karl Bendetsen lived very different lives despite being close to one another in space and time. Perhaps this window to the past is one we should leave open for the time being. We just might learn something.

The Colonel and the Pacifist deals with a shameful part of the American record: the forced relocation of West Coast Japanese-Americans (many of whom were U.S. citizens) after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The author Klancy Clark deNevers puts a human face on these events by describing how the Colonel, Karl Bendetsen, promoted, engineered, and oversaw the program and how it affected the life of one of the Japanese-Americans, pacifist Perry Saito. Both protagonists grew up in Ms deNevers hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. From there their lives diverged.
When Ms deNevers began her painstaking research she may have had little idea how relevant the issues raised would be in a post 9/11 United States. Many events of over sixty years ago have present day equivalents: racial prejudice and profiling, unwarranted detainments, suspects held incommunicado, fruitless FBI searches etc. This well told story can serve as a cautionary tale.

If you have any interest in the modern or ancient Maya, in Maya archaeology or the Maya inscriptions, you should buy his book! This is the only substantial dictionary of the modern Yucatec Maya language. All the other published dictionaries are either very limited in scope or contain mostly "Classical" (16th century) Yucatec. The authors' scholarship is unparalleled. This is an *authoritative* work and will always remain so. The very complete section on grammar is invaluable, since there is almost nothing similar; works like Tozzer's "May Grammar" are outdated, incorrect and incomplete. Andrew Hofling's recent Itza Maya dictionary is an excellent work too, but is organized differently and is, of course, about a different language. I use this reference book and recommend it very highly to others.

I bought this book on the basis of the one review listed. As a frequent traveler to the Yucatan Peninsula, I wanted to learn more about the Mayan Language. Prospective buyers should know: The book is ONLY Mayan followed by the English translation and not vice versa. The author uses a number of arcane symbols to represent unique sounds in the Mayan language. While a professional linguist may understand "glottal stop" and other phrases, these are not readily decipherable by a layman. The entries are quasi-alphabetical, by their SOUND, not spelling. This makes it extremely difficult to locate a written word (say from a map or other book using familiar letters and characters) in the order of entries (which is by sound and ! # ? characters representing sounds). The description and book jacket mentions the inclusion of many interesting phrases and sentences that colorfully bring new light to the Mayan language. I have leafed through the book repeatedly in attempts to locate some of these (other than the ones mentioned on the cover) and have been unable to do so. The book contains very little narrative and what is written is more suited for a linguist, an anthropologist or doctoral students. This is not a book easily digested by tourists, business travelers or the casually interested armchair archeologist. Because I'm not more qualified than those folks, I'm not able to evaluate the quality of scholarship/research this book represents.

This is an excellent 408-page dictionary compiled by native speakers of the Maya language. The entries are detailed, illustrating different noun and verb forms, and many have sample sentences. There is a pronounciation guide and a good grammatical overview included. The dictionary is extremely comprehensive but is Maya-to-English only (you cannot look up a Mayan word and find its English meaning) and lists entries by only one of Maya's two modern alphabet systems (you cannot look up a Mayan word spelled in the "colonial" alphabet, instead you must use an alphabet translator located at the front of the book). Clearly including English-to-Maya and colonial-spelling-to-English sections would have been impossible for length reasons, but I wish they had published a second volume with that information in it; I would have purchased both.

Readers looking for a less comprehensive phrasebook from which to learn a few words of the language for conversational purposes should try ISBN# 0292708122 or 0781808596 instead. Readers interested in the ancient Mayan writing system (hieroglyphs) should try ISBN# 0781808626. This is an excellent dictionary but doesn't serve either of those other purposes well.

The basis of the book is fascinating, but for the reader (or at least this reader) the execution is lacking anything more than a little hope that eventually the book will get good. The factual information presented is intriguing but it gets lost amidst a cliche love story that reads a little too much like a cheap romance novel. Ultimately the message the authors were trying to present would have been better played out through non-fiction -- they seem to write that well -- or with the help of a stronger editor.

Wow! Downwinders: An Atomic Tale, is really a tale. This is a thriller that easily could be a movie rivaling something like The Da Vinci Code. It has intrigue, bad guys, history, and great characters. It is also a sobering reminder of a dark page of American history... the above-ground testing of nuclear weapons in Nevada, the clans of one-breasted women, and the Cold War and its relics. For those from or knowledgeable about southern Utah, you will recognize life in the Mormon Belt.

Curtis Oberhansly and Dianne Nelson Oberhansly write well (you never know who wrote what... always an interesting twist of coauthored books). Catch this description:

"Trevor Mallory, a slight man standing five and a half feet, was in his mid-fifties, but he still had the energy of three. His astute gray eyes were shot through with flecks of black. They danced with curiosity and matched the color of his long hair bundled tight at the nape and running loosely past his shoulders" (p. 127). And this is a very minor character!

The story is great... exciting, intriguing, and unpredictable. It deserves a much wider readership. Rated PG-13, for adult themes.

If one enjoys being transported in time, to a rarely heard about place of unbelievable actions, deeds beyond reason, the incredible actual events of fifty years ago, then this book is a "must read"! Over 1000 Atomic Bombs were detonated in the name of the Cold War and National Security in the supposedly "uninhabited" area of the Nevada desert. These events, are central to the storyline of this book. The people who's lives were changed, forever, affected by these historic events, call themselfs Downwinders.... The story claims to be fiction, but the honesty and factuality of the description of events, which indeed happened as described, leaves the reader fascinated. It is a mystery plot, taking place in an around Las Vegas, Nevada. A murder triggers the events described and takes the reader on a journey where past and present events meet. The story is intriguing, active and very absorbing. A rancher and his niece, an attorney, a scientist, and various colorful charters make this a truly enjoyable and easy to follow book. Each character is pictured realistically, human in every sense, their actions are not contrived. The descriptions show a clear and deep understanding of the feelings and thoughts of the people who settled in the beautiful deserts of Utah and Nevada. The tale takes us litterally on a journey to Canyons of despair reminescent of the past, to the winding road of the present, and to the hope-filled halls of justice in the future. Given that this historical subject is still mostly hidden from the American public the writers should be highly commended for tackling it in such a truly enjoyable fashion.