Montana Books

This is fun reading about quirky, off-beat places outside of the normal tourist attractions in this beautiful state. The authors obviously enjoy the unusual places, and give the reader the story behind the attractions. Many of these attractions will be must see on our next trip out west.

Fantastic book that makes you want to get in your car, head to Montana, and then get off the interstate and out of the cities. The vignettes of the small towns, unusual places, and unique people give even the armchair travel a delightful tour, without even being there. Nice writing, an excellent read.

This is a fun look at the people and places of Montana. A must read for planning a trip to the state!

"Montana: Behind the Scenes" has already found its place among my most treasured reads, and I haven't even finished reading the thing yet. I've read slightly beyond the first couple of chapters but felt the need to put in my two cents' worth about this delightful paperback even before I got past the Gumbo chapter (more on Gumbo later). I was captured first by the witty cover, and soon found myself going way beyond the posted speed limit just to get to the Gumbo. What is this Montanan-style Gumbo, you ask? It's not what you think. It's even better. Rest assured, you'll want more Gumbo than this brief chapter provides, but it'll whet your appetite for more Montana, Durrae-and-John-Johanek style. You don't have to live in Montana to appreciate this book, but reading it will make you want to put THIS trip on your travel planner. The sooner the better.

I'm a lifelong Texan, but my family and I have been vacationing in Montana off and on for many years. We've done all the standard tourist stops several times over. So this book provides just what we need. Here you will find the places and people that make Montana unique. You'll discover Joe, Montana (yes, it was). You'll drop in at the Jersey Lilly Saloon in Ingomar (pop. 10), home of internationally famous...uhh...beans. You'll visit the Fairview Bridge, which could accommodate trains and automobiles - just not both at once! You'll learn all about lefse, the potato-based, Norwegian version of tortillas. You'll stroll through an incredible rock-garden recreation of the Bible. You'll wander through the deserted streets of St. Marie - possibly the NEWEST ghost town in the U.S.

So if you want to know where stay along I-94 near Billings, or what size trailer can be accommodated at Hebgen Lake Campground, this is not your book. But you really want to get to know the state and its people, the Johaneks will take you there. All in all, it's an engagingly-written, idiosyncratic, informative and altogether charming book.

THE BIG BURN is a fascinating and harrowing historic novel set in the midst of a forest fire that trashed Northern Idaho and Western Montana in 1910. It was a large forest fire. "How large?" you may ask. Okay--If there are 640 acres in a square mile and there were nearly three million acres affected by THE BIG BURN, then we're talking an area nearly 4700 square miles. Sonoma County, where I live, is one-third that size. If you consider the San Francisco Bay Area counties of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, Marin, AND Sonoma together, then you've got a sense of the scale of the destruction. For those of you on the East Coast, we're talking Long Island, plus all of New York's boroughs, and the counties of Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, and Columbia.

"Field Notes: In the summer of 1910, rangers who were used to working in isolation suddenly found their forests filling with strangers. With new fires breaking out daily through July and older ones stubbornly resisting control, the Forest Service's District One had no choice but to hire more and more men to fight them. By the end of the month, there were almost three thousand firefighters scattered across the district's several forests...W.B. Greeley, would later write, 'It was a case of hiring anyone we could get. We cleaned out Skid Road in Spokane and Butte. A lot of temporaries were bums and hobos. In a bad fire year, the temporary is the weakest link in the chain'...They went into the burning forests wearing the clothes they'd been recruited in, and the ones wearing street shoes or snug wool suits would regret that. They worked for twenty-five cents an hour with board, thirty if they provided their own food..."

In THE BIG BURN we do meet a few scoundrels. But the main characters here are three young people--Jarrett, a local boy who leaves his harsh dad; Seth, a southern kid in a black regiment who is trying to live up to the memory of his dead father; and Lizbeth, a young woman originally from New England, who is falling in love with the land she's found herself homesteading with her young, widowed aunt. All three cross paths before finding themselves in the midst of Hell on Earth.

Perhaps the publisher is calling this an "ages 12 and up" to spare younger children potential nightmares from the vividly drawn scenes of towering flames bearing down on our heroes. But for any kid whose tastes run to disaster and survival, mixed into a coming of age story, THE BIG BURN is a riveting read.

Jeanette Ingold has pulled out all stops in her book called The Bug Burn. In this exciting tale of Idaho's wildfires in 1910, three young adults battle the forces of nature. Seth, Jaret, and Lizbeth each fight life in their own way, and overcome personal obstacles. Seth is an African American trying to fit-in in the army. Jaret is a rebel son as he goes looking for a job in firefighting after he got fired from his railroad job. Lizbeth is a niece who is trying to convince her aunt not to sell their homestead. I like this book because it is full of action and adventure, but educational at the same time. I would give it five out of five stars because I had a fun time reading it and learned a lot from it. I can't tell you the ending, but I can give you a little sneak peek. The strong wind blows many fires together, creating a giant blaze. That blaze charges forward, burning everything in its path. Eventually it comes to a city named Wallace, and everyone has to work together to try to stop it. Do they succeed? Read the book, The Big Burn, to find out.

I think that The Big Burn was a very precice and educational book. The main carachters were Jarett, a young man wanting to fight fires with his older brother; Seth, An afircan American young man trying to show his pride for his country by joining the army; and Lizbeth, a young women trying to stay and keep her aunt from selling their home. The setting is 1910's, in Idaho and Montana. They over come some goals, and others are crushed. This all adds up untill the climax were all the flames come together and

In light of the recent wildfires in Colorado and Arizona, THE BIG BURN is an interesting book, but it would certainly be noteworthy under any circumstances. The story follows two young men and a young woman as they encounter and combat the infamously ferocious Montana wildfires of 1910. Jeanette Ingold deftly switches perspectives throughout the tale to keep the reader interested in this well-crafted historical novel.

Jarrett, the brother of a forest ranger, is on a quest to prove himself to his gruff father; Lizbeth, living with her widowed aunt, wants to preserve her adopted Western home; and Seth, a young black soldier, is dedicated to serving his country and overcoming racial prejudice. Apart and together, they transcend traditional teenage roles and attempt to save their homes from the fires that ravaged the Montana and Idaho wilderness during the summer of 1910. Some of the plot developments may seem cliché (romance blooms where you'd probably expect --- close calls end with last-second rescues, etc.), but overall the adventure is unlike any other book available. This overlooked event in US history provides a wealth of excitement for a talented writer. The parallel stories of the three protagonists allow for several viewpoints of every episode; Ingold paints a comprehensive portrait of the true historical events of the period.

Ingold intersperses the chapters with "field notes" chronicling the wildfires and wilderness firefighting from an objective standpoint. These sections are actually where she writes best and they are a testament to the thorough research that went into writing the book. Both historically accurate and dramatically engaging, THE BIG BURN is a great choice for anyone who is interested in learning about the phenomena of forest fires while also reading a great story.

--- Reviewed by Lowell Putnam

Ingold tells the reader that if you talk with anyone in Idaho or Montana for long enough, the subject of the Big Burn will come up, and the person telling you about it will expect you to know all about it. After reading Ingold's well-researched book, any reader would be able to contribute to the subject. Set in 1910, when forest rangers were new, railroads were huge, and immigrants were still flooding the country, The Big Burn tells the story of the wild fires of the northwestern United States. Ingold gives us three main characters: Jarrett, Lisbeth and Seth. These teenagers each deal with the fire in their own way, and find that there is more to fighting fires than a little water or ditch digging. The three do meet in the tale (it is plausible), and each tell their view of the events in concurrent chapters. Ingold breaks in with facts and accounts of actual events, which makes the fictitious story feel all the more real.

Ingold has done her homework, and it shows in the story. Her afterword, acknowledgements, and list of suggested reading at the end all provide valuable information. The only problem I had with the book was a bit of charaterization--the relationships between the characters felt forced and unbelievable, particularly the budding romance between Jarrett and Lisbeth. On their own, the characters were strong, interesting, and contributed to the story. But when they came in contact with the others, even the minor characters became a bit forced in the relationships in which they were observing or participating. Otherwise this is a wonderful example of great historical fiction.

I am always careful about books written by journalists from back East, especially when they deal with Montana's vigilantes. Frederick Allen, however, has made a worthwhile contribution to a controversial field.

I gave him five stars, although I do not entirely agree with some of his conclusions. It seems to surprise him, for example, when Plummer and some of his contemporaries started bouncing off the walls mentally after shooting somebody.

My experience in law enforcement has been that such behavior is normal. There are some sociopaths out there who just like to kill and don't feel any emotion about it, but they are few and far between despite what Hollywood scriptwriters would like you to believe.

This is a well written book, but it didn't change my opinion that the vigilantes cleaned up a situation that had spun out of control at a time when nobody else would, or could. The country was, after all, engaged in a bloody Civil War and the struggling miners in Montana's goldfields needed something to restore order in their isolated, vulnerable communities. Vigilante justice proved to be better than no justice at all.

This amazing book works on three different levels. It is first of all a compelling, action-packed narrative of Montana's vigilante period - carefully researched, engagingly written, and peppered with memorable characters and dramatic action. Western fans will love it. But Allen does not stop there. His brilliant examination of Henry Plummer, the mysterious and elusive sheriff-protagonist, adds deeper and darker shadings to the story. This is less a black-and-white tale of heroes and villains than one about how power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The author does not trade in the romanticism surrounding the vigilantes. Finally, and most remarkably, Allen's book can be read as an allegory about the uses and misuses of all governmental power. In the nineteenth century, Montana's besieged citizens cried out for help against their version of terrorists -- only to discover belatedly that the response by unchecked governmental authorities could be equally lawless. Who would have thought that the Vigilante Trail led to Abu Ghraib?

People who hate "High Noon" have been known to cite the goings-on in Idaho Territory of the 1860s as proof that an enraged citizenry would never back down from outlaws. According to "eyewitness accounts," a locally formed vigilance committee rounded-up Sheriff Henry Plummer and his bloodthirsty compatriots and, with the aid of lots of rope, soon put an end to the rampant murder and robbery in the gold camps.

While this account made for excellent melodrama, it was a bit too pat to stand the test of time, and of late, had become the center of some arguing and fist shaking in the vicinity of Alder Gulch. Frederick Allen painstakingly examines the players and their times. His conclusions will not please the revisionists nor the vigilante apologists. While the vigilantes started out with the best of intentions and went after the worst of the thugs, their focus was lost in the chaos and power struggles of their era. Like many mavericks, they went from being heroes to embarassments.

But Allen confirms that Henry Plummer, George Ives & Co. were not martyrs of misdirected justice. It's too bad the vigilantes didn't have the forsight to stop while they were ahead.

This is the type of book that gives University Presses a good name. The author is a former political editor and columnist with the Atlanta Constitution and commentator for CNN. He has managed to write a scholarly yet reader friendly book that challenges some standard accounts of the famous Montana Vigilantes and their sometimes extra-legal activities. In what was the deadliest chapter of vigilante justice in American history, from 1864-1870, in excess of 50 men were hanged in Montana. The majority were inocent of capital crimes and a disturbing numer were innocent. This is a riveting book that will, in addition to bringing the reader up to date on a significant chapter in western history, cause one to ponder the significance of the Vigilantes on our current political debate over the war on terrorism. This is first rate scholarship in a reader friendly format. Highly recommended.

One tends to associate the dark legacy of lynching almost exclusively with the South of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but in point of fact the most extensive episode of vigilante justice in American history actually took place in the Montana territories in the 1860s. The Montana vigilantes have long been hailed as heroes in Montana (Montana Highway Patrolmen, for example, still bear a patch honoring these men and their cause), men who took upon themselves the obligation to rid their community of dangerous individuals. In this thrilling historical account, however, Frederick Allen pries open the chinks in the vigilante movement's historical armor to show that their brand of frontier justice eventually descended into something much darker and much less defensible.

In the early 1860s, Montana was a wild country overrun by thousands of men clamoring for the new-found gold in its rivers and streams. Even as gold camps began appearing overnight, there was no government of any sort to oversee justice - just miners' courts to settle disputes over claims and the like. The nearest outpost of territorial authority lay hundreds of miles west of the Montana frontier. Thus, it is easy to see how lawlessness could prevail under such conditions; it manifested itself most particularly in the form of stagecoach robberies on the paths leading away from town. A man could lose a whole season's worth of gold dust in the blink of an eye, and such hold-ups could turn deadly on occasion. What could the settlers do to secure their safety and safe passage back to the States or elsewhere? There was no legal system in place in the territory, there were no cells to hold prisoners, and there were no courts or judges to adjudicate cases. There was a sheriff, however, a fascinating man named Henry Plummer - and he really stands at the core of the entire drama. He came to be suspected of complicity in the robberies and murders in the area, and this growing sense of doubt in their sheriff served as the final impetus for the leading men of Bannack and Virginia City to take the law into their own hands. Plummer was among the 21 men hanged during the first six weeks of 1864. There will always be a level of debate as to Plummer's guilt or innocence, and Allen examines this fascinating man's life in great detail. The real question is how a man twice convicted of murder could have become a sheriff in the first place, but this speaks to the true remoteness of the Montana territory in those days.

In all, 51 men were killed by the vigilantes over a six-year period. Allen agrees with the consensus opinion that the early stage of the movement was justified, as there is evidence that all 21 of the men lynched in the first six weeks of 1864 were guilty, dangerous men - including Henry Plummer. Were the story to stop there, the Montana vigilantes would deserve nothing but admiration for bringing order and security to their local community. They did not stop, however, and their activities inevitably devolved into acts of personal vengeance and the very perversion of justice. In that first crucial period of early 1864, accused men were given trials of a sort, their fates usually decided by the entire community. Hangings took place in broad daylight, and the identities of the vigilantes were in no way kept secret. As time went on, however, men were summarily executed by individuals acting upon little more than their own authority. With no hope or manner of defending themselves, it is very likely that some innocent men were hanged - and there can be little doubt that many of the guilty had not committed crimes serious enough to warrant death.

As is always the case in history, the most fascinating aspect of this whole story is the lives of the men involved. Allen identifies the vigilantes as leading citizens of the area, an unusual amalgamation of men both for and against the battle for Southern independence being waged during that chaotic time. Politics came to play a significant role in the whole saga, as the appointed leaders of the newly-established Montana Territorial government did themselves no favors by immediately alienating the significant number of Democrats among the local populace. This new government was ineffective at best, with the executive and judicial branches nullifying each other's authority - and this provided the pretext for the vigilantes to continue their operations.

A Decent, Orderly Lynching really is a fascinating book. Allen brings to life the mining camps of gold-rush Montana, recreating all aspects of society there on the remote frontier. He offers penetrating assessments of the men at the heart of this story, those on both sides of the hanging rope, drawing a sharp distinction between the early, honorable activities of brave men determined to establish order in their lawless region and the excesses of those who continued to pursue vigilante justice after Montana's new territorial government had been established. Through it all, he maintains an objective air, making his own judgments based on the evidence in hand - and his research efforts were impressive, to say the least. The story of the Montana vigilantes is a most telling part of the history of America, and Allen has done a superb job telling that story to those of us unfamiliar with it.

I was on a vision quest in my life looking outside and was taught by elders and others to look within and with the help of this Book and Hyemeyohst Storm and other books he wrote I was able to learn more and feel more in touch with the earth medicine of Nature and its often looked over healing power The Power of One "Nature" may we all find our way to a place of peace and serenity within and share it by being.. JG

The Red Road curves through a parallel universe with only tenuous ties to contemporary reality. Storm speaks to the wanna-be warrior in all of us, with humorous vignettes spiked with hidden awareness, as he looks back at the valiant fool he was, beginning his quest before he even knows he was on it, missing all the clues to his personal Grail. (The sign said "Stop", he looked at it, but he couldn't see the message for the word...) Conservative Native Americans shun this guy for letting the cat out of the bag...But for the rest of us waschisus, this is as close to understanding life on the Res as we'll ever get. No matter what your path to personal enlightenment has been, any spritual trekkie will enjoy this guy's experiences. Great read!!!

This is a book about more than the guru-guided personal search for self-understanding of a half-breed, more than a remarkably profound exposé of the life-philosophy (not religion) of the native american peoples. More even than a confirmation of the inner validity of other ancient systems of thought and knowledge to be found in other parts of the world, for example in Scandinavia. This book is exactly what it claims to be: the revelation of A WAY, an approach to life and the problems of identity, balance and peace, second to none, and applicable to everyone, where ever in the world they may live, and whatever religious and cultural tradition they may formally adhere to. Something that if widely spread, and attended to in the right way, might just ... just ... (to coin a heavily misused, but in this context really appropriate phrase)"save the world". In other words, not without subversive, but highly life-enhancing social and political connotations. My advice: Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. And then practice, as best ye may. Good luck, and may the Spirit give you strength in the quest for yourSELF.

I found this book over two years ago and I have yet to finish. I can't bring myself to accept that it will end, so i've been doing everything i can to avoid turning that last page. It's that kind of book. There are so many layers of brillance and value to this amazing piece of artwork. Athough it is psychologically complex and methaphysically profound, it is Storm's simple love for the Earth and his masterful, unassuming language that set this book apart. The characters have a fully developed humanity to them that is unparalleled. Truly destined to be an all time classic. This is more than a book.

This book speeks to me about the inner turmoil and multitude of voices that haunt the uninitiated and estranged males in our society. To not belong, to be cut off from community is a plague on our youth and spirit. The feeling of isolation leads to antisocial behavior, unhappiness, stupidity and violence. Herein is the story of a disenfranchised man and how, with a mentor and female partner, he finds strength in the Self to command and conquer the demons of a disfunctional conformist society. This is a primer on taming the destructive, finding peace and living with beauty. Great insights for all!

Maybe it wasn't "No Life For A Lady" but many great ladies lived it. Some of them, like my own mother, even managed to hang on to the majority of their original principles while doing so, no easy feat in itself, considering the never-ending work that began before dawn and ended after dark each and every day; and the rough environment that swirled around them. Practicality ruled; convention took a back seat every day. In her biography, "Miss Agnes" sounds like a curious mix of two - the wild and exotic freedom allowed her by the remote area of her home, yet prudently sent away for a proper education, which served her well. Most children living at that time and in those remote areas were not so fortunate.

Her father was a brilliant engineer for the Santa Fe Railroad, working in the right profession, at the right place at the right time. The Railroads were engaged in a headlong, competitive quest to connect the east and the west, unstoppable. His talent was combined with ambition, and he met the challenge of taking the rails over the Raton Pass in what was felt at the time to be an impossible achievement due to the grade involved. He was also capable of keeping his family close to him while his work went on.

Her mother, on the other hand, was a lady who thought a man would always handle things for her. That too, was something that "became a lady", although it left her ill-equipped for tragedy; and when she lost him in the prime of his life, she was left without a rudder, but with a handsome inheritance, and it wasn't long before another man was only too happy to "take care of her" but without the same motives.

However, all's well that ends well, and the new husband served a purpose not fully appreciated until decades later - he bought the New Mexico ranch with the widow's money, established them in a broken down log cabin, and subsequently left them all for a better life somewhere else as the real work in creating a ranch out of a wilderness began to heat up! It was this twist of fate that established the Morley land and cattle holdings; and the legacy that has become legend in that part of New Mexico.

She has a way with words; a sharp wit and she "speaks the language" of the range and it's people. (a cow doesn't have 'knees' on it's hind legs, though - they're referred to as'hocks' so I do offer this bit of sniveling trivia critique.) Her adventures with other pioneers who became well known to history later on are important, varied and many; and she was fully as able to deal with an outlaw as with anyone else, and on their terms. It was indeed a well-known fact that the homesteaders and ranchers did this on a regular basis in order to preserve their own harmony in a sparse and vastly diverse community. They all needed each other in one way or another, most recognized it.

It's a book not only well written, but authentic, full of the fun and tragedy of the every day life of a remotely located ranch family, accentuated by the knowledge that hers were of the people that not only helped settle the vast Territory of New Mexico, they did it against all odds; headed early on by a single woman unqualified for the life, and who never quite overcame that handicap, instead, placing her reliance in her children. Her one strong area of practicality was in the quest to formally educate these same children. In the process, and in the best of both worlds, each brought education and good ideas back to their New Mexico roots, staying with their land because they were now the generation who sprang from it; and had come to love it.

More than a mere biography of her life, it's an important historical work from many different angles. She noticed everything; hers was not a life that slipped quietly by her - she understood the underlying human quality known as "character" and that it meant different things to different people due to different circumstances. One of the last lines reads, referencing her emotions about a painting Maynard Dixon, the artist inscribed to her:

"a girl and a man riding together across a twilight-lit desert towards a hazy purple mesa".

That sufficiently sums up, beyond the danger - the intangible beauty of the way it was - even if it wasn't "No Life For a Lady".

I live seven miles from Datil, NM whereof Ms. Morley writes. Not only does she write about her life but also about how the family, her mother, brother and sister, came move out here. She writes about the early cowboys and Native Americans. She writes about the Penitentes.

Agnes Morley was the daughter of a Civil War vet who went home to Iowa and got an engineering degree that led to his becoming a premier engineer for the Santa Fe R.R. He was there when the race took place to be first over Raton Pass and also through the Royal Gorge (where Bat Masterson organized a posse that unsuccessfully held off the Denver and Rio Grande RR as I recall with members of the Dodge City fraternity that included Doc Holliday, Ben Thompson and other notable gunfighers and even Eddie Foy, later a great comedian, who went along for the excitement)all typical of the early days of railroading in the West. Morley was also an associate of the New Mexico participants in the Colfax County War in New Mexico, a parallel to the Lincoln County War that made Billy the Kid famous. Equally famous was Clay Allison, a wild man of the West who was a principal character of the War, which was centered in the vicinity of Cimarron, New Mexico. Agnes's father died in Mexico while pushing the railroad from Benson, Arizona to Guamas, Mexico. He was either accidentally shot in taking a rifle from his buggie, or as his grandon thought, was murdered as part of a plot relating to railroad competition. After his death his strong wife took over the rearing of their children. She managed the Cimarron newspaper that irritated Clay Allison, and he burned it out one night. In the aftermath he learned that a widdy woman ran it, helped set it back up, stating that he didn't make war on women. She later settled on the large range that her husband had aquired north of the present small town of Datil. The adventures there of her family are classics of Western experience that are not exactly things of the past. Read about her and her brother (who went to college and is in the football hall of fame) as they walk down the top rail of their corral with a pet bear cub, a rooster, a goat and sundry other animals following along on the ground. Read how, when she was away to school her brother wrote of the mountain lion that raided the place, killed their bitch hound who defended her pup and generally wrought havoc. Her brother wrote her the information and told her, "You should have been here, there was a hellacious fuss." which she read to her horrified teachers and class, not realizing it was anything out of the ordinary. She knew outlaws and lawmen, such as Elfego Baca, who Disney immortalized in a movie. When he defended her neighbor in a self-defense killing, she recommended to Elfego that he forget the fancy arguments and just tell the truth. He said, "The truth! The truth! This is a murder case. We lie. They lie. Everybody lies." As I recall the killer was convicted on his first trial. He told Agnes, "Elfego took my cattle on the first trial and when he got me off on appeal, he took my ranch." Elfego lived until 1946 as a fixture in Albuquerque. His type are by no means gone. You can go to Datil and vicinity today and see the old west exactly as it was then, with the bark off. The last big cattle drive took place just to the east on the San Augustin Plains. Moderns drive rapidly by and console themselves that the violent old west is dead. If so, the body is keeping damn well. The sheriff of Catron County which encompasses the old Morley ranch requires all heads of households to own and keep handy a gun. Good idea, too. I used to roam that country with my five dogs, camping out in my specially designed pickup which everyone called "the teahouse of the August Moon," due to its resemblance to that edifice. Agnes also tells of such characters as Montague Stevens, an Englishman who lost one arm in a hunting accident, who was a famous bear hunter. I'm writing this substantially from memory but it's close enough. Go see for yourself. And if you only read one book about New Mexico this would do. Another dandy is "Land of Enchantment."

I work for a school that just purchased 600 acres of the ranch described in this book. The area IS as beautiful as she describes, is as rugged and the people are just as hard-working and caring.

I found the book to be a great story. She says she is just a story-teller, but what a good one! It makes the past come alive. My husband and I read parts of it out loud, while camping in the very ranch she describes.

WARNING! Once you start, it is hard to put down.

The title is misleading, as she truly must have been a great lady. This is a classic memoir by a woman who grew up in 19th-century New Mexico, and worked and rode side-by-side with the men, taking the full responsibilities and knocks of a hard life and keeping a great sense of humor through it all. The only concession to her gender is that she apparently rode sidesaddle, remarkably enough!

An excellent and well conceived book. Clear instructions. A master piece in terms of nouvelle cuisine, with an extreme care in mixing spices. I have just ordered two books written by Norman in order to see how he combines tastes and ideas for Latin American and Caribbean Cuisine and Exotic Fruit.

I got this book on the recommendation of a friend who is a good cook and she was right. I have tried several recipes already and they were terrific. The recipes have also given me ideas on how to combine food in a more creative way.

Norman Van Aiken's New World Cuisine signaled a turning point in cuisine that offered a new way of approaching the world of the islands, Florida, and Latin America with a fever for taste and a lust for culinary adventure. I not only read and re-read every word of this book I also cooked my way through most of the recipes.
His writing style is very inviting and brings the reader/cook into the New World kitchen in such a way that the flavors he explores become familiar by the end of each recipe.
Norman Van Aiken is one of todays culinary heroes and for me stands above the lot of the over-exposed chef/actors that litter the stages and bookshelves of contemporary dining.
This book is highly recommended for people who already posess a good bit of cooking knowledge. It is not for the meek, this book is for people who love to cook, and who love the world of fruit, spice and the sea. His cooking style is bold and very alive. New World Cuisine is a must for anyone interested in why food tastes so great today.

The recipes in this slick cookbook are neither for beginners, the lazy or the poor. One could invest a good deal of time and money in preparing some of these elaborate dishes. There are some fairly simple bread recipes in this book that I want to try; and I can testify that the Key Lime Cheesecake with a Toasted Nut Crust (page 258) is as good a cheesecake recipe as I have ever seen. I believe the secret is that the eggs are separated. The cake is as light as a souffle when done. I have baked it three times now, and my friends cannot get enough of it. (This recipe alone makes the book worth owning.) Directions are minimal, however, so you're on your own. (For example, you are never told to grease the springform pan. Neither are you given any indication as to how the cake will look when done.)

What this book does provide, however, is insight into what a meal would be like at Norman's Restaurant. Also, all information about the wonderful fresh vegetables and fruit of South Florida--complete with great photographs-- makes those of us who must drive half a day to see the ocean hungry for salt air.

There are a lot of ways to do fusion, Norman's is simply one of the best I've encountered. But be warned, a lot of work is needed to prepare the dishes. Most of his recipes require that you prepare an additional sauce or prep-kit (like his bean kit that can be used for soups or BBQ sauce), so you have to read the recipes very carefully. If you do spend the time, you will be greatly rewarded.

Norman's dishes are all generally rich and spicy. His themes are Caribbean and South American, with Asian and European (primarily French and Spanish) influences. He uses a lot of Habanero (VERY hot), red onion, assorted tubers, and plantains, he is clearly very influenced by creole cooking (he is based in Florida afterall).

Starters: He has a great "starter" section with drinks (his delicious "Hot Lolita" is a tequila drink with honey and hot peppers) and accompanying nibblers (Norm's "Not and Nasty Nuts", peanuts baked and spiced); a great way to kick off a dinner party. His guacamole with fried plantain chips are great for picnics. He also has an eggplant with goat cheese that is simply excellent.

Soups: Very very rich, but oh so good. He has a plantain chicken soup that is to die for. Again, so rich it's good in small portions for a dinner party. He also has a gazpacho that is completely unlike any you've tasted, and a "conch" soup that he says his "patrons would riot if I took it off the menu". I believe him.

Salads and Main dishes: Tea Spiced Pan Seared Tuna and Spinach Salad has become one of my favorite quick meals (great citrus dressing). Juicy steaks (venison and traditional beef), lobster dishes, chicken (creole in nature), and others, his main dishes are a little eclectic, but generally excellent.

You'll also find side dishes (lots of peruvian potato and boniate sides), sauces, and prep kits in the back which I've enjoyed. I made BBQ oysters with his BBQ sauce and they we're superb. He has desserts, bit I personally haven't gone there yet...

If you are into the effort (for intermediate to advanced cooks) and like or want to get into (spicy) fusion then you should buy this book. I've given it away to two friends and will likely continue to buy it for others.

This is a great cookbook. It brings back many memories of great and talented family cooks. I gave away six copies as Christmas presents to family members. We are not Southerners, but we are foodies and we do remember church socials and events fondly here in New Jersey. The baked rice, Texas Chili rice and the squash casserole have become big hits in my own household. Kudos to Ms. White and her friends.

A cookbook will be judged primarily on its recipes and this one really delivers the goods. Unlike so many books that chase prevailing food trends and offer gimmicky recipes with needlessly lengthy ingredients lists, this one presents plenty of time-tested classics that are economical and simple to prepare. A cookbook that you'll really *use*, rather than just put on your coffee table. The affectionate background material included by the author is a charming bonus.

It would be impossible to single out one recipe in this book and say it's the best. They are all the best and they work well together. I must say, I never thought molasses would be a staple in my cupboard but it is. If you bought this book just for the neat meatloaf recipe, it would be worth it. These are tried and true recipes of the past, each one with its own unique story.

I collect Aferican-American cookbooks. My perfect book is a good mix of authentic recipes and backroung info to add to heritage of the recipe. While I like the format and actual page layout of other African-American cookbooks better, this book has some solid recipes. Where this book excels over others is that there is a story behind nearly every recipe and there is lots of variety in the recipes. The recipes are easy to follow and do remind you of church anniversary dinners!

I am a cooking fanatic and a cookbook lover. This is a wonderful book just to flip through - the stories are amazing - and the recipes will exceed anyone's expectations!! My favorites so far are the Macaroni and Cheese and the Mean Greens. (They are my favorites because those are the only two that I have tried!) I made the Macaroni and Cheese last Thanksgiving and being one of the last dishes to the table I was surprised to see it as being one of the first to go!! My family asked why I didn't make more! And the Mean Greens have given me a name. (The only thing that I hate is that people keepe requesting them!) I left this cookbook over a friends house by accident and because I know I will have a fight on my hands tryig to get it back so, I just ordered another one so that he can have it! I also ordered Brown Sugar, the dessert version of the same cookbook. I can't wait!!!

The author is a biologist with experience in the area. He is also an entertaining writer. Anyone exploring the Northern Yellowstone / Beartooth area for fishing should get this book. It will lead you to some of the best places.

It is a wonderful area to explore and this book is the best guide.

Good guide to all the lakes in the Beartooth Mountains. Ever wonder if all those lakes have fish in them. This book tells you. Tells you depths and last time they were stocked and other useful information.

Pat Marcuson knows the beartooths. If you are planning a trip into the Absaroka/Beartooth wilderness area you need two things a good map and this book. After a few trips into the Montana wilderness especially the Beartooths you will quickly find out you need to know what your up against and what going to be there when you get there. Pat's book will give you the best fishing advice because he's been there and fished the lakes for a decade working for Montana's Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. So again if you're a fisherman looking for trout in the Beartooths you have to get this book.

This is the best fishing guide that I have ever read. When I first purchased the book, I had little experience or success with fishing for trout in mountain lakes. I had taken an earlier backpacking trip to the Beartooth Mountains, but only caught 4-5 fish in 9 days. Then I purchased and studied this book in detail and during my next two 9-day backpacking trips to the Beartooth Mountains, I caught fish for dinner almost every night. Where once I had to settle for catching small brook trout, I now could plan trip routes to catch big fat Cutthroat trout for dinner. It was a true joy to read the detailed descriptions of each mountain lake and to understand Pat's reasoning behind stocking each lake with specific trout species. Not only that, but Pat gives you details on what years are the best to fish each lake based on their individual stocking schedules. Finally, Pat gives invaluable fishing tips such as how to locate and catch fish in these remote mountain lakes. I thank Pat for what has become a lifelong joy of trout fishing throughout the west.

The author managed the fisheries and fish stocking program in the Beartooths for many years, and provides enormous detail in this book about every lake that has fish. There have been some changes since he wrote the first edition, and not all of them are noted in this latest edition (1997) but, overall, the info is great. I don't know of a similarly complete and authoritative fishing guide to any other wilderness area. One small gripe: this book talks solely about the lakes of the Beartooths without mentioning that some of the best fishing is in the feeder and outlet streams, some of them a long way from the nearest lakes.

This is a very nice addition to Doig's early book, "This House of Sky," which relates the story of his family (esp., his father and maternal grandmother) from the time of his mother's death, on Doig's sixth birthday. This is an account of his mother over approximately a year before her death, as the Doig's moved around the West trying to find a place suitable for her health. The writing is a good example of Ivan Doig's style and fits well with his other works.

First, read Doig's House of Sky. Together, these books create memoir at its best, set in a beautiful, hard place. This is straightforward language from the heart, a memorable read.

HEART EARTH (published 1993) is an autobiographical coda to Ivan Doig's 1978 memoir of growing up in Montana, "This House of Sky". Presumably Doig wrote "This House of Sky" to be an integral, whole work, but years after publishing it he recovered a stash of letters his mother wrote to her brother, at sea in the Pacific, during the last year of WWII. Doig uses those letters as the springboard for fleshing out more of his memoir of his early years and his parents, as well as a few others who were significant presences in and influences on his life. Like "This House of Sky", HEART EARTH is an affectionate tale of decent, hard-working folks, ekeing out an existence in a grand yet fiercely challenging pocket of this country, and even though a coda of sorts, HEART EARTH can stand alone.

Through one of the serendipities of life, I read HEART EARTH first, years ago in fact. Recently I read "This House of Sky" for the first time, which prompted me to re-read HEART EARTH. Based on that experience, I strongly advise readers who have not yet read either book to read HEART EARTH first. It is the better-written book, and reading it before "This House of Sky" will generate more of an emotional wallop.

Another wonderful tale by western author Ivan Doig. Washington Post rates Doig as one of the 'finest writers' in America today. He is the ONLY author who made the San Francisco Chronicle's TOP 100 fictional and TOP 100 non-fictional best Western Novels of the 20th century lists.

This is another fine Ivan Doig work. If you like it, and I bet you will, try his TRILOGY series of his fictionalized biographical family settling into the TWO MEDICINE high country of Montana from Scotland in the 19th century. Fabulous writing, poetical prose and a great set of tales. "Dancing at the Rascal Fair" is #1 followed by "English Creek", my favorite. I have given Doig books as gifts to many, many people and they all say: "Who is this author? Did not know him and he is absolutely wonderful!"

"Heart Earth" is a nice way to get into Doig's writing, but there are many more of his works to enjoy, too. Buy one and you will get hooked!

Professor Peter B. Liebowitz

As a sometime writer, I am always humbled by Ivan Doig's rapturous rendering of human experience in the written word. His love of language is a perfect match for the sense of wonder he brings to whatever he's writing about, and he can spin what is often a simple idea into a lengthy interweaving of carefully observed details and nuances of feeling and gentle humor.

He does that here with a handful of letters written by his mother from Arizona and Montana to her brother on board a Navy destroyer in the Pacific during the closing months of WWII. They are also her own last months, dying as she does of heart failure in a high altitude sheep camp where she has been spending a summer with her husband and young son, the author. Doig generates pages of meaning and significance from single sentences in her letters, notably recreating one of her last days, herding sheep on horseback and alone, while husband and son travel to nearby Bozeman.

This is a short book compared to his other fiction and nonfiction, really more like an appendix to his memoir of growing up, "This House of Sky." It captures almost worshipfully the day-to-day reality of people living proudly and with determination on the margins of a rural wartime economy only beginning to recover from the Great Depression. Enjoyable also is Doig's gift for replicating the wry humor in the way they deal with and talk about life's vagaries. Highly recommended to readers of his other books, this is also an excellent introduction to Doig for those who haven't read him yet.

Easily one of the most beautiful books that I own, a masterpiece within the genre of the illuminated journal, and a treasure among natural history books. It is a celebration of sensorial intelligence, the gift of a full-bodied rapport with the breathing earth. To delve and read within this book, drinking with your eyes the colors and the sinuous lines and the astonishing textures that explode from the text and blossom on the pages, is to feel your skin becoming more porous, to feel your thoughts becoming far more supple and awake to the more-than-human life of the land around you.

Whenever I wander into this book, I'm struck with gratitude to the author/artist, and with a deepening sense of wonder...

I have followed Hannah Hinchman's published work for some years now. I have found it most helpful in enabling teachers to help children to observe closely and make graphic fieldnotes in places where they can learn first hand about their own local natural environment. I am in the process of taking some leave to continue with my own professional writing in Europe. I am keeping my own illuminated journal of how the seasons are changing the natural environment here in central France. This book is a delight to return to every day or two. I have looked through it with my nine-year-old granddaughter who does not speak English and we found so many things to discuss in it. As well as being an authoritative work on a place in Montana, U.S.A., it is also an excellent resource for anyone interested in looking closely at the natural world around them anywhere!

The artwork in this book is lovely and the sketches of the author's dog are captivating. Her paintings of the Montana landscapes transported me back there in the time it took to turn the pages. She captures the wide open spaces and the feeling one has when out walking in those lovely fields and mountains. My heart sank when I started reading her commentary and came across her views of those who hunt or make their living on the beautiful Montana land. While she apparently has developed the skill to communicate the beauty of the Montana flora and fauna, Ms. Hinchman has not yet learned to see the beauty of the people of Montana. I am sad to say that reading those few comments kept me from purchasing the book and I don't think the book would have been any less if those comments had been edited out. While she fancies herself an observer of nature the hunters, loggers and ranchers she ridicules have observed the Montana landscape and its creatures with a greater love and respect and for a much longer time than she has. I would recommend this book for it's illustrations but not for the author's views.

"Little Things in a Big Country" is an artistic journal chronicling one year in the artist's life in the eastern part of Montana, known as the Front. The words and watercolors in this book work together beautifully to convey Ms. Hinchman's careful observations of the world of The Front. Her sketches include things as common as seed pods, animal tracks, and ice formations. What a treasure this book is! Reading it gave me a new appreciation for the power of keen observation of the world around me.

This was the first artistic journal I've come across, and as a new (to me, at least) genre of book, the form impressed me.

This is such a calming and inspiring book, one that I will enjoy reading again and again.

Hannah Hinchman is a Great Artist! I have all of her books and this one is full of beautiful watercolors and designed pages. All that you treasured in her other books only more of it!
I have been to Montana once when I was 17, she describes it all so prefectly. A true inspiration to any art journaler.
THANK YOU HANNAH!