Utah Books

26 miles away from the Utah/Nevada border, stands a sculpture that motorist drive by to look at. I always asked people what the sculpture was about. Researching it, I found this book that explained the history and the artist associated with it. The sculpture always seemed mysterious to me driving by it and not knowing what the heck it was. It's not the best looking thing (a tree with tennis balls?) but knowing the history behind it finally helped me out. This a good book for my collection.

William Chandless was an Englishman who, in 1855, set out as a teamster, hired to travel to Salt Lake City. In this account of his travels, Chandless describes his journey across the Plains westward, as made by the emigrant and the cattle-driver of that time. The second part of the book is of a different subject and nature than the first. Chandless writes a chronicle of his meeting with the Mormons, his observations, and his opinions. An interesting first hand account of the early Western migration in the United States and of the unique society to be found in Utah at that time.

I read this book, when it was first published. I found it interesting and factual. Researched very good. The book includes personal experiences of the authors, who are teachers in the San Gabriel Valley of California. I found it especially interesting as I was taking folklore at the time in college. I found the New Year's Hoppin' John tradition delightful, as I had been invited to join a family from the South. I would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in the folklore and ways of America.

This is a fantastic find. It is chuck full of history and is very detailed. One problem, is the using Craig D. Bates as a source. I believe his work is tainted. How was Lucy Telles as Yosemite Miwok/Mono Lake Paiute? If anything she was a Mono Lake Paiute and that can be proven. Also I liked how you quoted that even though all the paperwork came back that Young Charlie was a Mono Lake Paiute SOME of his family claim he was a Miwok. Young Charlis was a 4/4 full blooded Mono Lake Paiute and NOT a drop of Miwok blood. I should know I was related to his family. Why did some family members claim he was Miwok? There was never any proof he was a Miwok. The rest of the book is great and a must have.

An interesting and amusing collection of folklore and old stories about the State of Oregon. Recommemded for a gift to newcomers to the state.

This book is written by a rafting guide who was captivated by Westwater Canyon, on the Colorado River, close to the Colorado border. This canyon has a treacherous section called Skull rapids, where my own cousin drowned in a rafting accident. The author, after guiding for 5 years, took his mother on a trip through Westwater Canyon, and lost her when their raft overturned (yes, she drowned). At that point his relationship with the canyon became more complicated. During an exodus from the area after that accident, he continued to be obcessed with the subject, and continued working on his book about it. This is not just a book on rafting the canyon. It starts with the early history of the region, from Native Americans, to the little town of Westwater that sprung up as a railroad town. In addition to the history of pioneer rafters, it covers farmers, outlaws, miners, cattlemen and sheepmen. As a native of the eastern Colorado, western Utah region this story takes place in, and a local history buff, I would give this book a good rating on all counts. Having also lost a relative in Westwater canyon, my bond with the author may be stronger than the normal reader.

WGWA? possesses an accurate appraisal of underprepared writers as well as some helpful perspectives and assignments adaptable to anyone who teachers writing intensive courses at the college level.

I particularly appreciate that the authors give ample space to the students they studied, taking care to really understand what the students went through as writers new to academia. I also like that they profile only three real students, rather than generalizing about data. I think the anecdotal/interview/interpretation rhetoric of the book works well to illuminate both the students' and Professor Fishman's struggles with each other and with writing.

I'm heartened that professors such as these are working on this issue, given the fact that community colleges and universities will continue to admit underprepared (I prefer to expand that term to include 'differently prepared) students.

I say 'differently prepared' because in essence, everyone is underprepared for some things, and many are prepared for some things. Students come to us prepared for something, and often that capital they possess can be re-fitted (retro-fitted?) for college work. Yes, underpreparedness is real, but what this text begins to address is that students come to us with skills, talents, competence and even expertise that might be squelched, de-valued, or flatly ignored because an instructor cannot see beyond his or her own assumed frame of what it means to be prepared for college. In addition, WGWA? makes it clear that these student can and do learn to acculturate to university work, to appreciate their professors' goals for them, and to see writing as something as both an expressive and learning discipline.

To anyone who wonders what it would have been like to be one of the women who was sealed to Joseph Smith, this is a very interesting book. The book is actually a journal which is written in the end of her life. The stuggles of a widdow in pioneer times were really tough, but she worked through them. The entries get a little long because she is older and is sick quite a bit of the time. For those who know downtown Salt Lake, it is fun to trace in your mind her travels and wonder at the strong historical cornerstones of the LDS faith that she meets. This is a good book for both LDS and non-LDS readers as it really shows how live was lived in those time.

Beautiful images, I have it prominently displayed by my desk. Starts a lot of converstations that end in waves of nostalgia on my part. Minor gripe: the days for Utah Statehood (January 4th) and Pioneer Day (July 24th -- THE State holiday) are not marked.

The book is an attempt by its authors to come to grips with the effect of the Internet on how to teach writing skills to a university audience. It shows how students are becoming, or indeed have become, facile with elaborate typography and colours, and images and hyperlinks to web sites or other resources on the Web. Yet, if you turn to a teaching text of say twenty years not, nothing is said of this. Because the Web did not then exist.

So the book tries to bring up suggestions for new pedagogies. That do not reject the Internet experiences and abilities of the students, but embrace these. In the hope of ultimately laying out more powerful writings. Still to early to say how fruitful these will be. But worth contemplating.