California Books

Everything about this book is of the speaks of quality. The numerous color prints are excellent,and the paper and binding have a luxurious feel.

This is a combination art book, art history book, book about religion, and travel book. The different perspectives that are brought together in this one volume makes it absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in Haiti. I have read it cover to cover twice, and plan to read it a third time.

Only one chapter suffers from a dry, academic approach, that is the one on African Voudou, and may be safely skipped without missing much. That chapter, which contains no color prints, is much below the standards of the rest of the book.

I am surprised that I am the first person to write a review of this book, because it is really an incredibly well done volume.

The authors include anthropologists, folklorists, art historians, voudou practioneers, and artists. Yet the organization of the book makes each chapter fl! ! ow into the other. Well worth the $100.00 purchase price.

Don't be put off by the word "voudou". This is not a goofy "new age" kind of book that teaches you to do spells. It is high quality, facinating analysis of the art, culture and lif of Haiti.

This book is the catalogue of the recent New Orleans Vodou exhibit. I had studied comparative religions when I was in college, so the origins and practice of vodou are of natural interest to me, but I knew absolutely nothing about vodou until seeing this exhibit. Having lived in New Orleans, I had always thought that voodoo involved sticking pins into dolls to bring bad luck or disease to an enemy and other darkly occult rituals. Obviously, I didn't understand vodou at all, not even to know the correct spelling. The Hollywood film industry is responsible for a large part of our misconceptions about vodou.

I quote André Pierre, a contributor to the catalog: "The Vodou religion is before all other religions. It is more ancient than Christ. It is the first religion of the Earth. It is the creation of the World. The World is created by Vodou. The world is created by magic. The first magician is God who created people with his own hands from the dust of the Earth. People originated by magic in all countries of the world. No one lives of the flesh. Everyone lives of the spirit."

Spirits (lwa) of vodou define parts of the universal human experience. The spirits all have names and personalities, very much like Roman Catholic saints. Like Mexican altars to deceased ancestors for El Dia de los Muertos, these vodou spirits are offered their favorite things that represent these personalities. These items are placed on altars or sewn in sequins and beads on 36" x 36" flags in their honor. The spirits, like saints, are invoked to grant favors or assist in getting through a difficult time, or they are praised for their virtues and help.

My two favorite Vodou spirits are Ezili Freda and Ezili Danto. These cousins are diametrically opposed forces of femininity. Ezili Freda represents love and luxury, a city girl who has elegant fashion sense, likes sweet drinks and Virginia Slims cigarettes. She looks pretty, dressed in white lace with pink trim. Her day is Thursday. Mater Dolorosa represents Ezili Freda.

Her country cousin Ezili Danto is linked to protective motherhood. She dresses in bright red and blue calicos and drinks strong rum. Black pigs symbolize Ezili Danto and her favorite food is fried pork. She smokes unfiltered Camel cigarettes and her days are Tuesdays and Saturdays. Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Mater Salvatoris represent Ezili Danto.

This catalog allows a closer study of the brilliant sequin art associated with vodou. Spirit bottles, mirrors, jackets, vests, leggings and flags are covered with the flash of sequins that are anchored with seed beads. The symbols of the vodou spirits and their aspects are reflected by the designs made with the sequins and beads.

The Sacred Arts catalog is an obviously well researched and comprehensive look at Vodou. I highly recommend it for a broad range of people, from cultural anthropologists to decorative artists.

I've been obsessed with this book ever since I was introduced to it. I find it well-researched and unbiased. It provides an accurate glance into this unfairly shunned religion.

As the title says, if you are interested in Vodou-influenced Haitian art (in other words, most Haitian art), this is the definitive book on the subject. If you are not interested in the subject, the breathtaking illustrations are likely to make you a convert.

Consentino has compiled some excellent information to go along with the pictures, including interviews with Vodouisants and artists. He avoids the all-too-common sensationalist treatments of Haitian Vodou, and is never condescending or patronizing. He (correctly) treats Vodou like a world religion, and gives it due respect; his scholarship is impeccable both in art and comparative religion. Well worth the cost: this is a coffee table book you will cherish.

This is a very entertaining and rewarding book. Charles West has a fine talent, and he has created a wonderful character in Bob Fisher, who vividly floats above the conventions of the mystery genre. Fisher is an "accidental" detective, inheritor of an investigations and collections agency, whose life is in something of recoil from his televised attempted murder of a larcenous televangelist. The name "Fisher" is resonant of both Christian and mythic symbolism, and it seems Bob's destiny to confront the phony and insincere in his own struggle for a belief system-- specifically in the book, when he is hired by Eternal Truth Temple to recover a Sacred Disc (floppy) believed to have been hijacked by a committee of disillusioned former acolytes. Bob himself is in some spiritual flounder as a result of his disillusions and disappointments, and attempts to find some comfort in the conventions of the classic crime fiction detectives. It's an overcoat which is mostly as ill-fitting as his former incarnations. The power of this book, and the development, is in the unfoldment of the main character. All takes place within that hotbed of cornpone/cult religiosity, California's Central Valley. It ain't LA, and it ain't New York. In fact, it ain't sure what it is, struggling with the transistion from agrarian fruit basket to urbanized fruitcake basket. What it is is Central California, a place West knows well, and finds a wonderfully believable setting for a delirious cult whose chief potentates are Yogi Ben Barr, and Baba Der Ursus. Charles West is a careful and controlled storyteller with a satisfying and sparse style. The pace is brisk, and West seems to be having a lot of fun with the conventions of a form he has mastered-- the mystery novel. If the characters are sometimes uncomfortable-- hilariously so-- with the familiar and subserviant roles which the genre assigns its players, West is very confident and easy with the assignment. Suspenseful and funny, poignant and cynical, The Sacred Disc is a highly successful first novel. It left me hoping I had not seen the last of Bob Fisher. Something tells me, I haven't.

Charles West is an English teacher in Fresno California and lives in the Sierra foothills. He has impeccable credentials for writing, having been a Fellow in the National Endowment for the Humanities in Shakespeare, the recipient of an award in Chicano literature from the Council for Basic Education, and a fellow at the Teaching Shakespeare Institute at Georgetown University and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C.. The Sacred Disc is his first novel, and it earned West the Salvo Press Mystery Novel award. Bob Fisher is about to embark on his first assignment as a private investigator. He inherited the Anderson Agency, after working as head of the Collections Division. His first case appears, in the guise of Baba Der Ursus, Yogi Ben Barr, and Cooper Page, attorney-at-law. Yogi and Baba were co-founders of the Eternal Truth Temple, another cult organization situated near Yosemite National Park. Fisher's job is to find a missing computer disk that ostensibly contains the sacred text of the Eternal Truth Temple. They claim one of their committee members is probably responsible, Fisher agrees to take the case, and the search is afoot. Fisher must be a dude, because his presence around women seems to elicit similar results: "That was more than I wanted to know about the weather. It was always hot in San Joaquin during the summer. The variations didn't interest me. Nor did it interest Mrs. Baker very much, though she continued to smile, probably more as a result of the drink she was finishing than pride over her husband's meteorological expertise. It seemed her robe was either shrinking or getting shorter. A latent chauvinist impulse made me wonder if she was wearing anything under the robe." Fisher gets himself into enough mischief to satisfy the reader, while getting closer and closer to the answer to the puzzle. Fisher's sidekick, Holly Pena, is an interesting secondary character who promises to emerge in subsequent sequels. Holly runs the "office," but she also seems to come to the rescue whenever Fisher gets in over his head. All in all, The Sacred Disc is an interesting and entertaining first mystery for Charles West. The writing is crisp, characters are well thought out, and the plot line is simple and believable.

Shelly Glodowski Reviewer

This is the story of a laid back private investigator, Bob Fisher who has inherited a collection agency and takes his first case to find the Sacred Disc for the Eternal Truth Temple. Suspects include former temple recruits. As he begins the investigation, bodies start to appear. The ending is great. This is the author's first novel and I can only hope this is the start of a series.

Charles West scores with this first mystery novel, the tale of an "accidental" detective named Bob Fisher who inherits a collections and investigations agency in a barely-disguised Fresno, California. The Fruit Basket of the World becomes for West the Fruitcake Basket of the Universe. It's a peculiar California demimonde the author depicts, where agrarain tradition is decomposing into urbanization and corporate corruption. It's in this environment that Fisher is hired by the founders of the Eternal Truth Temple to recover the Sacred Disc-- a floppy, in this case-- which contains the tenets of their faith. But any church with high priests who call themselves Yogi Ben Barr and Baba Der Ursus is its own worst enemy. Fisher, in fact, seems born beneath whatever star determines that his karma bring him into constant conflict with phony belief systems. His dissillusioned past is blighted by his televised attempted murder of a televangelist who was scamming veterans, and his relaxed exploration of his own elastic morals drives the development of this novel. West enjoys playing with the mystery conventions, and the characters in the book seem to recognize their parts in the formula, and the chafing against type is one of the unique elements of West's voice. The writing is lean and effective, the story-telling controlled and on target. Don't walk, run to get this book. Read it. Then impress your friends with the new talent you've discovered.

I have purchased other trail books for colorado, but Sherry's book is by far the best! I can plan for a local day ride, or plan for a weekend get away (including trails, lodging, etc.) Can't wait for Book Number 2!

Yee Haw! Saddle up Colorado is here! Finally, a book for trail riders that gives comprehensive, usable and easy to read detail and does not take a lot of time to figure out what, where and how to find the trail of your desire! Sherry Snead ropes in the finite details of trails, location, parking, places to stay and distances to landmarks. A must read for every rider interested in hitting Colorado Trails with their horse!
Saddle Up, Colorado

This book is remarkable & beautiful, in it's presentation and detail, on how to access the trails of Colorado. You need not look any further for a trails book if you love to trail ride and spend time with your horse. This book gives you all the information you will need for lodging, camping, horse hotels, trail maps and overall trail descriptions with beautiful color photos.
Whether you are a horseman, hiker, biker or anybody who enjoys the great outdoors will love this book. This trails book is state wide, so if you want to go for 1 day or 1 week this book has it all and you will never run out of trails to ride, bike or hike.

Great idea and very well done! This is a beautiful, comprehensive, and intelligent guide book that features about 100 of the best trail rides in Colorado. With clear and concise details about degree of difficulty, elevation, dogs, whether or not shoes are recommended, fees, directions, maps, best season to go, and color photos, this book will make a great gift for all the people on my list who have horses and love to take them on trails. The photos are so great that I can picture myself there, especially the ones of places in Colorado I have already been. I love this book!

This is a delightful book for anyone interested in victorian homes in San Diego. Not only are there wonderful photographs of these homes, but the author also provides the reader with some interesting historical facts about San Diego and examples of the various styles of victorian homes. I especially enjoyed the paragraphs that provided insight into the lives of the owners of the victorian homes. It makes a lovely coffee table book.

The book details an area of SanDeago many do not consider and dows so with excellent phot-documentation. Those who love Victoriana will mot want to miss this excellent book.

This book gets it right! It has the right amount of informative text and beautifully detailed pictures to go along. The photos and maps are stunning. If you are interested in Victorian homes, architecture, or this fascinating historical time, this would be an excellent book to own. I highly recommend it.

Being a San Diego native of 39 years, I never knew so many cool Vitorians homes existed. The author spent a lot of time capturing clear/high res pictures of these San Diego gems, along w/interesting historical information. I've had three fiends in the last week spot the book on my coffee table and couldn't resist to pick it up and thumb through. Addresses are listed too...so if you live here or are just visiting, pick up the book and spend a 1/2 day seeing a part of San Diego history many of us miss.

Since we are new to San Francisco, I find that this is a very good reference for me to pick a good public school in my neighborhood. This provide you with a summary of public school in your county and the rankings of each individual school by their test scores, school award winners.
I find it very useful in helping me to locate a good public school for my son but I hope it can also provide information of private school so as to make to list complete.

It's so difficult and time consuming to find information that objectively compares schools. This book does the work for you...it presents a lot of info in a very readable format. I highly recommend this book to any parent.

This book gives you a tremendous amount of valuable information about Bay Area schools. Anyone looking for a home in the San Francisco area should definitely buy it!

Uprooting a young family is a traumatic experience no matter how many times one has done it before. We are relocating to the West coast from Maryland. Locating the right house in the right neighborhood translates to finding the "right" schools for your children. It is difficult to find comprehensive information about schools when you live far away. I daresay it is difficult for local residents as well. This is a personal decision that one doesn't always want to share with outsiders, even co-workers. Advice from real estate people or school administrators is not always objective. It is difficult to know what questions to ask and what facts to compare. The book gave me an effective roadmap for this important decision. It helped me overcome one difficult hurdle.

"The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market Cookbook" is filled with fabulous photographs, appetizing recipes and excellent tips about seasonal fruits, vegetables, herbs, meats, cheese, eggs and fish!

Peggy Knickerbocker has done an excellent job at researching seasonal foods and the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market! She is a food and travel writer that has written for Gourmet, Food & Wine, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and Saveur.

Christopher Hirsheimer is a photographer whose work has appeared in Saveur, as well as cookbooks written by Lidia Bastianich, Rick Bayless, Julia Child and Jacques Pepin.

California is a state bursting with flavor. In such a large state, virtually anything can grow there. Kiwifruits, rice, wine, olives, tomatoes, corn, strawberries and much more! The influx of other cultures help infuse their produce and culinary contributions.

Excellent recipes in this book are: Avocado and Grapefruit Salad with Frisee, Fried Zucchini Blossoms, Shaved Raw Asparagus with Lemon Vinaigrette and Roasted Halibut with Braised Artichokes and Potatoes.

This entire book reminds me of my previous life in California where food never tasted fresher. Where ingredients are fresh, recipes are simple, yet the result was sophisticated and intoxicating.

Great book!

What a great resource. I had to read this book for work and I now cook from it all the time.

This is a spectalarly colorful cookbook with innovative tasty recipes for items found at a Farmer's Market. I use it all the time. Excellent.

The subtitle's "A Comprehensive Guide to Impeccable Produce Plus Seasonal Recipes", but it's oh-so-much more than that. Filled with recipes culled from dozens of cookbooks, plus personal interviews with favorite farmers and purveyors... a must-have for Bay Area residents and a fantastic gift for anyone who loves San Francisco.

This book really shows the heart of Santa Barbara through beautiful photography that really captures all aspects of such an amazing city-- we are using it for guests to sign at our Santa Barbara wedding :)

I have been a Santa Barbara resident for over twenty years and the book truly captures the beauty of our city. We recently purchased the book for family in Germany so they can share in the blessing we call our home.

Sven Klein - Santa Barbara, CA

The pictures are increadible. This truly captures the beauty of Santa Barbara. There are many shots from areas that most tourists will never see. This is a great book to suplement a travel book to help plan a trip.

It's a wonderful book for keepsake!
Great pictures that capture the beauty of Santa Barbara; the book also provides ideas for sightseeing. With the book, you don't have to worry that you don't take good pictures or you miss any thing. If you enjoyed sight seeing or taking photos, this that sure worth what you'd paid for it..

I have dozens of general interest history books that I can't get through because of terrible prose and/or a level of scholarly detail that keeps me from being drawn in.

This book is pleasantly written and delightfully concise. I can't recommend it highly enough. Thank you Paula A. Scott and series editors!

I am a 46 year old native of Santa Monica. The history of Santa Monica has always been of particular interest to me, and I have read or taken a look at almost every book I can find on the subject. Ms. Scott's book is, without a doubt, the best one I have seen. If Santa Monica history is of interest to you, you must get this book. It's on my coffee table and it never fails to draw the interest and attention of my guests.

From the Gabrielinos to the present, Scott paints a portrait of the city in which my family lives. This is not some dry historical text but a living, breathing drama of steps through history drawing in the environment, the play between the Indians, conquistadors, the Church, various immigration
waves, the impact of post WW II veterans and their families, the drama of supposed visionaries and their attempts at crafting the land and industry to position Santa Monica against the behemoth of Los Angeles, and finally the pro-development and anti-development forces of the 70's and the
continuing intensity of a city on the cutting edge of the environmental movement and pressured by insane land values and the pressure to overdevelop. Santa Monica: A History on the Edge is on our coffee table and I recommend it to residents and visitors alike.

I read this book during recent business trip to LA - picked up what must have been one of the first copies! An enjoyable late-night read, about 2-3 hours - kept me up later than I had planned. Made me want to stay longer in Santa Monica.
This history reads like a coming-of age-story. Santa Monica is surrounded on three sides by LA, on the fourth by the Pacific. It has maintained its independence from the LA megalopolis, its own character - this book traces the development of one of America's most upscale cities from its roots as ranchland, through contender for the main oceanport of LA, through its roles as a vacation spot for Angelinos, site of major aircraft factories during WWII and muscle beach in the 50's, to a modern city with all its socioeconomic diversity - great food and museums!
Three of things I found most interesting in this history were the influence of railroads on development of the town, the importance of water rights in maintaining home rule, and the nature of urban development. The history of this town is not just growth, but frequent ups and downs, social and economic turmoil - you wouldn't recognize these historical trends in Santa Monica today. A serious history, but also a heartwarming and inspirational story.

P.S. From before - I am eleven and found this book great! It also had some hard terms. No way is this a book for 4-8 year olds! More like 6-13 year olds! :)

I read this book really fast because it was so good - you know like when you can't put it down? well, it was that good. it helped me a lot on my non-fiction summer reading. i also liked how there was a story you could relate to about saving sea lions and putting them into a rescue program. Sea Lion had great pictures and I really got a great amount of information from this book. I mean, who knew there were only 5 types of Sea Lions and only 35 species in the Pinnipedia family (the family sea lions belong to)??? Well, now you know and I know! YAY!!! Anyway, who knew that there were eared and earless seals??? And that the female only has one pup each birth??? Well, now you know some more!!! So click the mouse and buy this book and you can find out a little bit more about these great animals. I LOVE SEA LIONS!!! :) LOL

I liked this book a lot. It had good pictures, pretty easy terms, and really cool fun facts about sea lions. Plus, in the beginning it started out with a little story about rescuing sea lions at the Marine Mammal Orginization. It was a great book. I think everyone should buy this book. You should too! I loved this book. My sister read it for 6th grade summer reading and it was a great report. :)

I really liked this book. The pictures were great and the information really helped me on my 6th grade summer reading report. I highly reccommend this book!

Dennis Powers is a great story teller! And "Sentinel of the Seas" is another great example! OK, I could be biased, Dennis is a dear friend of mine. But it also gives me insight into how he can weave such a good story. Dennis is one of those people you just like talking to and I think that comes out in his books. It is also how he gets people to tell him interesting things while he is doing the research. In "Sentinel of the Seas" he captures what it must be like to live in this remote lighthouse. A really fun read!

I loved this book! Dennis Powers's "Sentinel of the Seas..." is thoroughly captivating. Each chapter is filled with fascinating descriptions of the men---and there were heroic women too---who risked everything in order to secure the west coast. There are tales of immigrants who could only find work that no one else wanted, so those men took brutally hard jobs. Powers ties together the social, economic, and political scenes to portray life at a time when if a man was out of a job for whatever reason, he was simply out of luck.
Before the Oregon Territory was settled, a few hardy pioneers ventured west via wagon train, but that kind of travel was inefficient. It took months and it was full of hardships and hazards. There were no railroads or other methods of transporting goods to the developing west coast, so ships were essential to transport men and materials. And the stormy, rock-strewn Oregon coast caused too many ships to go down; that was expensive in terms of lost lives and lost fortunes as well. So the lighthouses were essential. But imagine building one amidst the raging, murderous sea with thunderous tides that could--and did--carry off men along with tons of desperatly needed goods.
This book is is a thriller.

Really enjoyed this book, Keeps you interested and the tale of building St. George Lighthouse is amazing. A harrowing tale of perseverance for ten years in all kinds of weather.
Also included is Lighthouse keepers at other lighthouses and a chaper on Women Lighhouse keepers. Mr Powers really does his homework when he writes his books and I have enjoyed working with him on three of his books at the Del Norte Conty Historical Society Museum in Crescent City California where three of his books have their roots.
Sandra Nuss
Researcher, Del Norte Co. Historical Society

Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (5/07)

"Sentinel of the Seas" reads like a novel. Dennis Powers has written another classic masterpiece which chronicles man battling the sea. As in his earlier works "Treasure Ship" and "The Raging Sea," Powers has thoroughly researched his work. He spent five years in preparation, searching archives, original journals, dairies, ship logs, Lighthouse Board Reports, and doing personal interviews of survivors, and their families. The lighthouse was built on St. George Reef which is one of the most hazardous reefs off the West Coast.

Powers recounts the history, engineering and construction of the lighthouse. He also explains the various lighting and sound warning devices used over the history of the lighthouse. Powers masterfully weaves into the record heroic stories of the men and women who designed, built, and maintained the St. George Reef Lighthouse from it's completion in 1892 until it's abandonment in 1975, and renewal in 2002.

"Sentinel of the Seas" heralds the career of Alexander Ballantyne, who supervised the project, as well as the careers of George Roux, and Fred Permenter the lighthouse keepers. Powers details the work of the "wickies," lighthouse life, the history and the development of other U. S. lighthouses. He shows a deep appreciation for the courage the lighthouse keepers demonstrated in the midst of crashing waves, tumultuous storms, and hurricane force winds which they faced on a recurring basis.

Turnover among the personal was significant. Powers explained it this way: "This station was one of the least sought-after assignments in the service. Potential wickies had already heard what duty would be like on Dragon Rocks. It had earned its reputation." I personally enjoyed the insight into the contrast between routine work and boredom of the assignment with hazardous way of life of the lighthouse keepers. Powers uses descriptive phrases that made me feel "the enveloping curtains of cold mists" or hear the "barks of the seals, cries of the seagulls, and the crashing surf."

This is great adventure reading, brilliantly written. I highly recommend "Sentinel of the Seas" to everyone who loves epic adventure stories of the adventure of the sea, shipwreck, and nautical history.