Arizona Books

How can anyone not love Amelia Bedelia? The entire series is great and kids love the humor involved.

Amazing news! Amelia Bedelia has been mistaken as the new classroom teacher, and you just know she will take her duties very seriously. Look out! Amelia will follow every direction to the letter, and amaze every student with her interpretation of schoolwork.

There are lots of laughs here for young readers!

Recommended!

amelia bedelia is teaching a classroom but she does everything wrong but in such a funny way! Calling the roll, practicing a "play", "painting" pictures, planting "bulbs" and literally doing math problems with apples has never been funnier than in this book! Read it and you'll see why

One day, while Amelia Bedelia, the housekeeper who literally takes everything literally, was cleaning, the phone rang. It was Mrs. Rogers, calling from the airport. She was supposed to meet the new teacher, but the plane was late. To further complicate matters the phone was out at the school. Mrs. Rogers wants Amelia to go by the school and tell them the teacher will not be there today. Amelia attempts to do just that, but the principal mistakes her for the new teacher and that's when all the fun starts. Amelia Bedelia teaching a classroom full of children, imagine that. Well, my almost three-year-old son Devon and I imagine it all the time.

Devon already knows his letters, upper and lower case. He knows they make words and he loves to sit while I read Amelia Bedelia stories to him. We've been doing it for over a year now. At first I made up the story line as his didn't have the attention span or the ability to understand. Now I've started reading, pointing to the words as I go along. Ms. Parish has written an excellent series for children and in this one, Lynn Sweat's illustrations set off Amelia's tales to a tee. If you want your toddler to read early, and I do, then this is a series for you.

Jack Priest, Dad in Training

One day, while Amelia Bedelia, the housekeeper who literally takes everything literally, was cleaning, the phone rang. It was Mrs. Rogers, calling from the airport. She was supposed to meet the new teacher, but the plane was late. To further complicate matters the phone was out at the school. Mrs. Rogers wants Amelia to go by the school and tell them the teacher will not be there today. Amelia attempts to do just that, but the principal mistakes her for the new teacher and that's when all the fun starts. Amelia Bedelia teaching a classroom full of children, imagine that. Well, my almost three-year-old son Devon and I imagine it all the time.

Devon already knows his letters, upper and lower case. He knows they make words and he loves to sit while I read Amelia Bedelia stories to him. We've been doing it for over a year now. At first I made up the story line as his didn't have the attention span or the ability to understand. Now I've started reading, pointing to the words as I go along. Ms. Parish has written an excellent series for children and in this one, Lynn Sweat's illustrations set off Amelia's tales to a tee. If you want your toddler to read early, and I do, then this is a series for you.

Jack Priest, Dad in Training

This was a very professionally written account of the lives of 15 very diverse people who also happen to be professional lacrosse players. The book really makes you view these athletes as interested in their sport, valued members of their community, and very different from the multi-million dollar primma donnas who play other professional sports. I definitely recommend this book.

After the Duke Lacrosse scandal, it was refreshing to see an upbeat well-written book about lacrosse. These players truly honor their sport, and make the casual observer want to learn more. The stories were interesting, and it was a good overview of the NLL, and the players who make the league work. I really enjoyed it, and hope to see more books like it.

This book was interesting, insightful, and sometimes even funny when explaining the lives of 15 "ordinary" people who have jobs, wives, kids, and play professional lacrosse on the weekends. It makes you realize how different pro lacrosse is from other pro sports. (And I mean that in a good way.) The writing was clear and engaging, and I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

It was great to finally read a good book on professional lacrosse. The writing was interesting and insightful, and provided a good mix of lacrosse history combined with people who play the game. I would definitely recommend this book for the lacrosse fanatic, or even the casual observer. I enjoyed it!

This book is filled with stories of professional lacrosse players. The players are atypical from other professional sports players, who are often filled with self-admiration and greed. Yet, they are not exactly everyday people either. The players do have full time jobs and families, but many of them are in noble fields such as teaching, law enforcement, the armed forces, fire fighting... Of course, it takes a noble character to be devoted to such an underpaid and under-appreciated sport. The players sacrifice their bodies, time, and some family commitments for the love of their sport. The writing is clever, and the author gives good insight about the players' individuality, achievements, reminiscences, and dedication.

My sister who lives in Arizona told me about this book after reading about it in the newspaper. She knew I had gained a great appreciation for the Desert after completing a 28 day survival trip in the southern desert of Utah about 20 years ago. Ken's book allowed me to regain some of the senses and feelings that I experienced while living in a world that has such a lack of appreciation. He certainly has an artistry for words that captured many of the experiences and emotions that were mine during those 28 days. I also have a fascination for the penal system and the affect that it has on a person. Ken validated how it is definitely not a place for rehabilitation but a place where time weighs on a person so heavily. I liked very much how he combined the Wilderness of the desert with the prison experience. It was an excellent book and I read it start to finish in one sitting.

My sister who lives in Arizona heard about Ken's book in the newspaper and after reading it, she was certain that I would like it as well.

She was right. I read the book in several sittings. One of the reasons that it meant so much to me was because about 20 years ago, I took a 28 day survival class for one of my college credits. The experience took place in the southern desert of Utah. I learned to love and appreciate the desert. Ken has the words and the artistry to describe many of the things that I felt and experienced from participating in that Wilderness.

I also have a fascination for the prison system and how it changes a person's life. As Ken pointed out, prison certainly cannot be defined as rehabilitation. I like how he described the issue of doing time and how it weighed so heavily on his soul. He used his education and knowledge of the environment to lighten the burden of being in prison for 12 years. It was his escape and through his words he allowed us to escape with him.

Buddhists say that wisdom, at least a form of it, comes to those who gain access to a plane of imagining beyond hope and hopelessness. To be able to see clearly, witness openly and without prejudice, is to enter this imagining. To be able to see for seeing's sake.

"Wilderness and Razor Wire" is an opus and an opera of seeing. Written during the author's twelve years of incaceration in the Arizona State Prison, the essays in this book focus the eye and the ear, sense of scent and touch, on the fragile bits of wildness which entered prison cell and corridor, walkway and window. The heat of the desert, the gaze of the owl, the aroma of spring's bounty of flowers in a barren place, inside a landscape seen as barren, but isn't, are beautiful, and defiant. This is a book to read when contemplating, to borrow from Bill McKibben, The End of Nature. The only end of nature, the book implies, is when we stop looking for and imagining it.
This is a triumphant book.

Ken Lamberton, also referred to Mr. Lamberton to many thirty-somethings in Arizona, was caught for doing something many other instructors have done before and will do again. In this book, Lamberton teaches us lessons of nature, and yet also seems to share important lessons of life. This is the way he was in the classroom and he still has that gift today. This book is perhaps more meaningful to those of us who actually sat under him as students and still respect him in adulthood. Reading this book brought back many memories of basic science lessons where Mr. Lamberton actually took us out of the classroom and into real nature. He has us imagine and look at nature in a different way - a more appreciative way. There were tests for us back then, but none like the test his family went through - and survived.

Lamberton's book, a literary work indeed! I am fishing for a word to describe it and the emotion it conveyed to me, but I cannot find a good word. It is a book filled with beauty and brokenness, arrogance and repentance, reel love and real love. It really is a story of the human condition, trying to walk a ridge line and not falling into the abyss. Some of us fall into the abyss due to our own stupidity and get caught up in all kinds of trouble for violating some cultural rules scripted as law. (Had Ken been in Kenya among the Luo people, the age of 14 is just right for marrying and he could have had as many wives as he could afford.) Others fall into the abyss due to illness which can be equally devastating. Still others would rather take their life on the ridge line before falling.

When someone takes a serous fall and survives it may take years for them to recover and all too often those who witness the fall are not there at the time of recovery. Karen, Ken's wife, was always there. An impressive part of this book is the story of a remarkable wife with her three children, committed to an intellegent man. She believed her love would return and again light up her life!

I think this is one of the greatest and most realiistic sci/fi novels in existence.If you like Star Trek or Babylon 5 you must read this book and don't forget the prequel Antares Dawn.Mr.McCollum gives very detailed and realistic descriptions,and why not he's an engineer involved with spacestation FREEDOM!

Another book I couldn't put down. Not quite as much action as the previous book, but still plenty of things happening, and definately still very interesting. I'm fast becoming a big fan of Mr McCollum!

Now all I need is Antares Victory...

It's great that this long out of print book and its mate ANTARES DAWN are again available. An exciting, hard science adventure story set against the backdrop of interstellar war. Mr. McCollum's characters are a bit wooden sometimes, but the story moves along, the alien menace feels real, the puzzles are puzzling and the revelation at the end is a clever one, leading into the last book of the trilogy. The good news is that that book is at last available. I read ANTARES VICTORY, published by scifi-az.com, and it is a very satisfying conclusion to the series. I hope the books become more widely available because they are quite enjoyable.

Excellent, believable hard Sci-Fi with a dash of romance and Hornblower thrown in. Loved it. Sorry he left the series hanging. I'm still waiting for the denoument.

For those who have been waiting for the final book in the Antares Series, ANTARES VICTORY is currently at the 70,000 word mark and things are coming together nicely as I begin the buildup to the climax.

It won't be long now!

These boatwomen are indeed remarkable, and superb ambassadors of the Grand Canyon Colorado River corridor. Sure, I'm biased: my first commercial river trip featured two of the profiled women plus another guide noted in the Acknowledgments. All were consummate storytellers, and gender was never an issue. Ms. Teal has an unfortunate habit of occasionally padding her descriptions with platitudes, but these lapses do not significantly diminish the value of this book.

A friend who is a river guide gave me this book. I never really understood the fasination with rafting until I read this. The writing leaves a little to be desired, but the subject matter and the information is very moving.

A friend told me about this book several years ago when I was raft guiding on the Colorado River a little north of the Grand Canyon. I bought the book, and absolutely loved it. As one of the rare breed of female white water rafting guides, it was amazing to read about other women who shared my passion for the river and for the wild places around us. Breaking into the Current is NOT a male-bashing book; it filled with stories that are waiting to be told--stories by and about interesting women who went into a career that few women would consider entering. I loved reading the stories about Lava Falls, the making of Crystal Rapid, and all the others. Each time I return to the book it makes me ache to be on the river yet again.

A few years back on my first trip through the Grand Canyon I was lucky enough to be in a group that included Louise Teal as one of the guides. I bought this book after the trip and read it on the drive home. I was blown away. Her love of the canyon, the river, the people...it all glows from every page. Rafting the Grand is a life-changing experience; and the elements that make it so are all here--captured and expressed by a woman who has become part of the river and vice versa. She tells the stories of the women who 'broke into the current' with humor, sensitivity, respect and love. On top of all that, she is a very talented writer and this book works purely on that basis. If you've ever run the canyon, buy this book. If you have ever wanted to run it, buy this book. If you've got no interest in the canyon or the Colordo river but enjoy good writing about real stuff, buy this book.

I recently travelled a rafting trip of the canyon and was totally enthralled by the experience. In many ways it changed my life. Reading this book brings back so many memories of what the trip there is really about. I felt a true connection with the women that travelled it before me. The descriptions are so beautiful. This book crosses genders and is simply about a wonderful place and some extrodinary women that have travelled there.

This is an account of a woman's journey from the wilds of Oregon to the wilds of Arizona around the turn of the century. These are honest and simply told tales of life on the frontier told with an innocence and freshness that captures the reader. This is a western classic.

I couldn't put this book down. I felt as though i was alongside the wagon on it's way from Oregon towards the "Four Corners", and with Hilda & Ken through life at their trading post. Early 1900's life on Navajo Land was anything but simple. Hilda's writings carry you with her through suspense, joys, dancing, humour, births, sickness, deaths, everything we experience now, but as a white woman in an Indian world in a time when life was much more basic, survival was difficult & and instant gratification didn't exist...I loved it!

Ably narrated by Jane Merrifield-Beecher, Desert Wife is the story of Hilda Faunce and her life as a trader's wife on the Navajo reservation before the outbreak of World War I. Hilda faced challenging experiences as she came from Seattle, Washington to live in the bleakness of the southwest desert, learning the Navajo language, and acclimating to an alien territory and a strange new world. Hilda presents the interaction between Navajos and whites in their trading practices and how the Navajo coped with sicknesses transmitted from the white man. She touches on the sweetness of Navajo singing, the misconception of war when they had to register at For Defiance, and a great deal more. Desert Wife is the product of Hilda's four years of reservation life and learning to appreciate the cultural differences between the Navajo world and her own background. Desert Wife is highly recommended listening for students of Native American studies, the twentieth century American west, and Women's studies.

The third installment of Living Voices of the Past is another wonderful history lesson!

Hilda Faunce leaves her comfortable Seattle, Washington, home to journey to the Southwest and the Navajo reservation with her husband in 1914. While one may think that everybody had cars back then, the Faunce's made their way in the manner of the original pioneers: by wagon.

Hilda's journey is not so much a journal of her trip as it is her life on the reservation between 1914 and 1918. Hilda's writings are indeed an historical eye-opener.

First, there is the problem with the language; then the protocol; and the normal daily variances of two races trying to live side-by-side. Cultural diversity may be a late-twentieth-century term, but the fact is that many in America were already experiencing this phenomenon.

The entire journal is mesmerizing; Hilda uses very descriptive language to convey the sights and sounds of the unusual customs and landscapes that she encounters that transfers the listener to reservation life during the second decade of the twentieth century.

Two aspects were particularly telling of a different culture: contending with a white-man initiated illness and the onset of World War I.

The Navajo's were forced to face and contend with small pox, a deadly disease they had never known until the white man arrived. Many of Hilda's new friends died, devastating the young woman.

Newspapers were a rarity and treat on the reservation, so Hilda did not know much of what was going on outside her and her husband's little trading post. While the world was trying to blow itself to smithereens, the Faunce's and the Indians were trying to make a living by mainly trading...especially furs and foods.

Desert Wife is an important historical document that from which we can all learn tolerance and the need to just get along!

Hilda Faunce Wetherill uses pseudonyms for some people and sites in this book and the editor does not call that to our attention. The name of the trading post she describes as 'Covered Water Trading Post' is actually Black Mountain Trading Post about 20 miles west of Chinle, Arizona. She refers to Lorenzo Hubbell Sr. as 'Mr Taylor' and his daughter, Barbard Hubbell Goodman, as 'Mrs. Gray.' She also refers to the Hubbell Trading Post at Ganado, Arizona, as 'lugontale.' (See pages 125-126 and 144-145, "Indian Trader- The Life and Times of J. L. Hubbell", Martha Blue,2000. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing Company).

She mentions that her husband bought the trading post but, in fact, she and her husband managed the Black Mountain Trading Post for Lorenzo Hubbell Sr. who bought the post in 1914. The Hubbell family continued to own the post after Lorenzo Hubbell's death in 1930 and they operated it until 1937. (see page 284, Appendix Two, "Indian Trader - The Life and Times of J. L. Hubbell", Martha Blue, 2000. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing Company)

The Devil's Cradle is so well written that you do not want to put it down. You just have to find out what happens next and house work and everything else just has to wait! I love the fact that I have visited many of the places in Arizona that she writes about in her stories. After reading her first two books, I immediately went on line and ordered the next three. Can't wait for the next one to be published!!

Ms. Nobel is very talented and gifted. It was also a pleasure to meet her at a book signing! An intense rollercoaster ride of emotions from start to finish. A great who dun it! And she makes you want to visit the beautiful places that she's written about! Run do not walk to buy Dark Moon Rising!

I am in the middle of THE DEVIL'S CRADLE and am completely engrossed! What a fun time it is to be able to visit Kendall O'Dell and tag along on her journies. Both DEADLY SANCTUARY and THE DEVIL'S CRADLE were loaned to be my a good friend, and I have throughly enjoyed them both.

Hopefully, we'll be able to enjoy Sylvia Nobel's next book very soon.

vicki galloway poormansq2@aol.com

Five stars is not enough to rate this top notch book. It was a page turner to say the very least and most enjoyable! Very, very clever and witty. Couldn't put it down! I'd say it's a good thing I have found this brilliant author because Sue Grafton is running out of letters.

I enjoyed Sylvia Nobel's second novel, Devil's Cradle, as muchas I enjoyed her first novel, Deadly Sanctuary. The heroine, KendellO'Dell, is a feisty redhead who is smart, quick-witted and very daring. The book is written in a lively, fun-to-read style that keeps you turning page after page. Each new page adds new questions and just when you think you have something figured out, you find out you are heading down the wrong path. The whodunit ending was not at all what I expected. I challenge any one to figure this story out before they get to the end - it is anything but predictable. In addition to providing an excellent story line, Devil's Cradle gives an excellent description of Arizona and its many wonders. By the time you finish the book - which won't take long if you're like me and have trouble putting it down - you'll feel as though you've traveled with Kendell through the Arizona desert, mountains and plains. If you like a good mystery with a little romance, you'll truly enjoy Devil's Cradle. I hope Ms. Nobel finishes her next book soon - I'm ready to read it.

I am a Tucson native and love the whole history of my hometown, and this small little postcard book just was a really neat little find.

I am so pleased to find it, there is even on birds' eye view of my childhood home on one postcard. If I had only known.

I nice history of postcards and Tucson. A quick little read.

I had the good fortune to visit Tucson several years ago and really enjoyed myself tremedously. However after reading this book, I can see all of the sights that I missed. Each and every postcard tells a story. Seeing the background of a city from the perspective of postcards is a quite innovative way to portray its history. This book is an amazing collection of historical postcards that are displayed in a truly attractive manner. Anyone with an interest in the old southwest or history in general will truly enjoy this book.

This book will fascinate anyone who has lived in southern Arizona, since it collects dozens of old postcards that show how Tucson really looked in the past--and how it saw itself.

As a long time resident of Tucson I'm so thrilled to find this unique history of Tucson book written in such an engaging manner. Such a great idea for a book, using old postcard images and putting together a history that really flows. My only question was why did it take so long for someone to come up with this great idea? All the images are in full glorious color which makes this a perfect browsing book for all my out-of-town friends and relatives.

I originally purchased this because I love old postcard art, and incorporate it into my own artwork.
What surprised me was that the story for each postcard drew me in, and I just sat and read the entire book. The writing engaged me as much or more than the postcards...wonderful work!
This makes Tucson come alive for me - much more so than a tourist brochure or TV advertisement or a dry history book. The author has conveyed a sense of Tucson as a real city with an interesting history, and now I want to visit and see for myself.

This collection is among my favorites published in recent years. Janet McAdams lyrically links the personal with the political. Her work is engaging, memorable, passionate, yet not didactic--some poems will even keep you awake at night. Many poems reward multiple re-readings. I'm already looking forward to her next book.

As a poet myself, I can only stand in awe of the work in "Island of Lost Luggage." Janet Mc Adams is a major talent. I've turned my initial envy of her gift into a goad to write better and wider myself.

This Island of Lost Luggage is wonderful. Janet McAdams's poems are lyrical and gritty at the same time, swollen with life, drenched with place, and she never seems to take the easy way in or out. Highly recommended!

I used to write poetry, even studied with some of the greats, including C.K. Williams, Ellen Voight and Louise Gluck. But I found that in any workshop, I could rarely tell a great poem from a mediocre one. This made me feel less than smart about poetry. Janet McAdams has helped revive my love for the form, and my sense of poetic savvy. For with "Island of Lost Luggage" I Know I'm in the presence of Great poetry. That is clear from page one. How to say why this is Great isn't as easy, but I'll venture the following: Mc Adams is gifted with rich language, of course, but she is a more than a fine wordsmith. She takes on issues that have huge resonance, that go beyond any mere narcissim. Each time I enter one of her poetic worlds I find more layers within it, more associations building within me. So, Thanks Ms. McAdams for restoring my poetic sensitivity, and for this wonderful book, a gem, that's most highly recommended for all readers, lovers of poetry or not.

Even if poetry isn't your "thing" this book, given the quiet and serious attention it deserves, will unlock many mysteries. Highly Recommended.

Not that more to say than the title... This book contains many great photos made by a master, and the print quality makes justice to them (well, to confirm another review, there is one image that went too far on the reds, and has a deceptive burnt look - while many are great, and the splitND use is far more unobtrusive than Rowell's eg, with due respect ;o).
Page layout is more conservative than in other Muench books I have (I think to Primal Forces, great images but layout on the kitsch side), and that suits me well.

This is the first David Muench book that i've purchased and because of the beautiful photos inside it will not be my last.

Besides the several landscape books from Muench, I have collected quite a few other landscape books from other famous photographers. By far, this is the one I like most (together with one by Apse called "New Zealand Landscape"). The photos in the book fully demonstrate that one can always breathe new life to old scenes with enough skill, perception and perseverence.

This is a gorgeous book of southwest photographs. It has many examples of how to take great photographs. An interesting feature is the photographers comments about each photograph, found in the back of the book. There are only a few flaws in my humble view. Some of the photographs were printed with very exagerated color saturation. This is painful in some cases. Another problem is Mr. Muench's use of a split density magenta filter for several of the photographs. He tries to give the scenes a warm glow but the magenta color looks totally fake, especially when one sees it only across the top of the photograph. Please throw that split density magenta filter away and let the southwest present its beauty naturally. Still a great and valuable book to own.

This book offers a breathtaking view of the Colorado plateau. The full-page color photos are so incredibly vivid they almost jump off the page. It really makes you feel like you are there.

You get a look at towering mountains & magnificent nature made stone sculptures. Cascading waterfalls, meandering steams, peaceful snowscapes, brilliant autumn leaves, beautiful flowers & endless skies take your breath away.

Muench is a master at capturing detail and light, and this setting shows off his talent to the maximum. A narrative by James Lawrence provides a history of the area and conveys the feelings inspired by this natural wonderland.

Some images have small quotes & poems under them. In the back, each photo is shown in miniature with comments from photographer and technical details. This book provides a beautiful world to get lost in.