North America Books

This is a good book for beginners that teaches the basics of arrow making the traditional way. It also offers alternative ways using modern tools. If you are looking for the way a specific tribe/people made arrows then further research will be required as with any book on this subject. It does however give some detailed information on the arrow crafting techniques of some plains Indians.

I believe this book is a "must-buy"; whether you want to discover the wonders of Native American traditional medicines or just interested in herbs. It's easy to read, and Dr. Cichoke provides the remedies for many illnesses.

I thought that this book was informative. He describes the herb, and the tribe(s) that used it, and how. There is several pages on the tribal tradition, but I would have liked to have seen more indepth about several of the more common tribes and their herbal medicinal usage and practices.

I really appreciated the author bringing together how the whole person must be treated in order to treat dis-ease. This is really missing in allopathic medicine.

I would recommend this book to any herbal practitioner that would like a different view of herbal treatment, using traditional Native American ways.
Kathy Miller

A magnificent compendium of Native American cures and treatments, which are just the thing unless you are actually, you know, sick.

Another book you don't loan out, you'll miss having it for reference.

It lists recipes for ailments, and companies where you can purchase the items needed in the mixes.

I had to buy more than one, one for loans, one for keeps.

The best advice is also given in this book, just because one mix worked for another, it may not be the same for you. We are all different, and so are the many different species of plants. So it doesn't just give you one recipe for one ailment, unlike so many other herbal books.

I really enjoyed this book. It was written in such a way as to really personalize the story of corn. It really brings a stark reality to what has been done to corn today by Monsanto. Totaly disrespect for the plant and the spirit of the plant. We all love corn and can learn a lot from it. Every American should read this book as corn is very special to this land.

In SELU, Awiakta engages the reader to critically think about the role of women and Native sprituality from that of Native understanding. It is not the usual garden variety of new age romanticism, but a honest look at the role of the feminine in Cherokee, and I think the authors point, everyone's life. If you have a keen interest in American Indian Studies, this book is of great interest to you.

I love all of her work, and these books on tape just add another element to the experience of Selu.

As a woman with ancestors of many cultures, and now raising a child of my own, I found Marilou Awiakta's conversations about Selu precious. Several years ago, I used the margins of my book to add my epiphanies and questions, as Ms. Awiakta suggests. Looking back at those thoughtful notes, I am touched by the way that this book became a journal, weaving its wisdom into my everyday life. I still ponder Ms. Awiakta's words in quiet moments, perhaps having forgotten exactly where they began. The spiral of wisdom that passes through each woman who reads this book did not begin within these pages, but is as old as the Corn Mother herself. I joyfully urge every mother to consider these practical and powerful conversations.

Marilou is an old friend of my mom, so my opinion is biased. But, if you want to get inside the thoughts that built the Cherokee worldview, this is a good place to start. Unlike so many so-called "Indian" books, this one is authentic, and has soul.

Let's face it -- folks are having sex, but we rarely talk about it in the church. If we really want to help people, we need to start to talk about what is ailing us. This book is a great tool to open people's minds to what is really going on and how people are really living. I highly suggest it to anyone involved in young adult ministry.

Kelly Brown Douglas has opend a work that will be reqired reading in most schools of divinity. The conroling thesis of her work is the establishment of a sexual Discourse of Resistance as a counterforce to white racist culture that has exploited and damaged African American sexuality.Douglas contends that the damage is so deep that blacks have a difficulty speaking openly regarding issues of sexuality. She has masterfully made the interconnections between sexuality, racism, sexism and homophoia. She challenges the black church to employ her sexual discourse of resistance but does not clearly explain what contstitutes the black church. What about Black Catholics, Black Episcopalions, et.al. Her work underscores the sadness that some theologians (namely, Black Roman Catholics) could never author such a text because much of Douglas's volume counterveins Roman Catholic dogmatic formulations and a Catholic theologian would have to answer to Rome for such a work. Thank God for African American Episcopalions like Douglas.

I think I've recommended this great work to everyone I know.

This book should be a must read for all African American church members. It is challenging, provocative, and engaging. A work like this is the only way to begin the dialogue necessary to resurrect the dying Black Church.

Douglas tells the truth about American history when she reveals how black people were mistreated during slavery. This book shows that sexuality was used to oppress black people, the white culture exists only as the non-white culture is oppressed, day to day social struggles are a microcosm of the macrocosm (for example, "gangsta" rap is a response/result of dehumanizing social influences such as institutions and systems). But the book gets off track when Douglas condones homosexuality and mixes principles of Christianity with principles of secular humanism.

Kelly Brown Douglass has written an excellent first chapter for her book Sexuality and th Black Church. What she has done here is to explain the relevance of using Michel Foucault as a tool to look at the history of black sexuality in the United States. Her basic argument is that black sexuality as we know it today is a fiction, a number of fictions (made of up numerous stereotypes), more or less derived, from what she calls White Culture. That Black sexuality has been a means to discipline and control black bodies. This book is commendable in that it dares to use Foucault and that it touches upon the personal in such aa way as to make all a bit uneasy --- black, white, male, female, heterosexual and homosexual. We all have a lot to learn from her analysis.

I really enjoy this book. I've checked it out at least five times. Each resort section has alot of helpful information. It makes planning a trip a breeze. David Holyoak really nailed it.

Very informative but dated. The lift ticket prices listed are significantly below the actual rate in some cases (i.e. Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, Copper Moutain). They should be updated.

David Holyoak's Ski North America Guide is first class. Nothing like this has been published before. This stocky, well-illustrated guide to all the significant North American ski resorts contains intelligent, un-flowery text and good practical advice. A must for any skier or snowboarder seeking the reality behind the American dream, I wish I'd written it myself.

Arnie Wilson, ski author and editor, Financial Times ski correspondent for 18 years who, in 1994, became the first person to ski for 365 consecutive days (Guinness Book of Records), including more than 100 resorts in North America

This book by far surpasses excellent. If you are planning a ski trip and are interested in going somewhere new this book seems to have it all. It lists every major ski area in the United States. Every ski resort mentioned is chronicaled by state and gives you area and mountain facts and most have their trail map pictured as well. It also lists local airports, directions from most areas to the ski resort as well as lodging suggestions. I could go on and on about the other little tidbits within the publication but you'll just have to read it yourself.

Being new to the States as well as a crazy skier I spent hours on the net trying to collect information about different resorts. This book is the first, and so far the only book, that gives very detailed, professional overview while providing non-biased information about resorts. I visited many resorts in the States in the last 2 years and compared my impressions with the reviews in the book - you can relay on the book! Great advantage of this edition is a an amount of illustrations such as aerial photos, maps of the area, etc. I wish there will be similar book about skiing in Europe.
On the down side I would expect more info about resorts on the NE (for example, my favorite Whiteface is not included).

I had to read this book for my History of Slavery class, thought by the author. Dr. Morgan gave excellent insight in addition to his book. I would suggust this book to anyone for anytype of reading, pleasure and required.

Morgan's analysis will give anyone who wants to know more about slavery an immense amount of material. Comparing the Chesapeake and Lowcountry areas of the American colonies during the eighteenth century, Morgan discusses the economic and cultural sides of the different slave institutions and discusses black-white encounters. No matter how one may try to define slavery in one, distinct way, Morgan shows there is always an exception to that definition. I know Morgan worked for many years to produce this book and that this book is the culmination of an immense amount of research and analysis, but this book would make a larger impact if it was shorter. By the time I was done reading this mammoth book, I had a hard time remembering all the topics he brought up. For any history student, like me, it is worth reading, but make sure you give yourself plenty of time to understand it.

I had the pleasure of listening to this author lecture to in class during my senior year of college. Having the opportunity to discuss this book with the author made Slave Counterpoint come to life. Slave Counterpoint makes the topic of Antebellum slavery captivating for those interested in learning about the early days of slavery in the Cheasapeake Bay region. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has a sharp curiosity about early colonial history and wishes to be engaged in an honest account of events(I would recommend reading this book a couple of chapeter at a time).

Philip D. Morgan's exhaustively researched and extremely detailed text seeks to compare and contrast the social structure and overall formation of the slave systems of the Chesapeake, VA and Lowcountry, SC regions during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Morgan does not adopt a narrative approach: he offers numerous discussions-all of which are deftly integrated into his descriptive analyses-of how black cultures changed over time. Morgan spends the 700-odd pages eschewing monolithic portrayals of black culture at almost every opportunity, preferring to investigate complexity and contradiction rather than to resort to pithy judgment. This is an excellent, important read.

I have read no better detailed study than this book. Long but worth it due to the rich detail.

Great book outlining various ripping locations across North America. A bit outdated as it was published a decade ago, but def has its relevant points that are still valid. I still pull it off the shelf every time I plan a trip. It's very well laid out, organized, and to the point info. It even caters to all types of riding, pointing out the ropes from novice areas to the best spots to find the pow for those advanced riders. No riders handbook would be complete w/o a section on the night life. Once again, a must have for the rider who likes to explore the resorts around North America... or Europe in the European edition.

After 7 years of snowboarding, mostly in the rockies and the sierras, I have yet to find a more organized and informative snowboarding guide. This book breaks down the different mountainsbased on location(Pacific, Mountain West, East Coast, Alaska and Canada). And it breaks them down in terms of freeride, carving, freestyle(park riding)and backcountry. It also tells a good bit about the town lodging, restuarants and things to do.
It gives detail history of snow amounts and all the statistics of the mountain.
Oh yeh, if you are a visual person this is the book. Lots of pictures. It has a mini-map of all resorts slopes.

Just a quick note to say that Ali Hannan was our co-ordinator/text editor and the publishing editors/authors were Tim Rainger, Bruce Sutherland and Ollie Fitzjones. This is also the case for The Snowboard Guide: Europe. Thanks for buying the book and I hope it gets you into some freshies!

This is THE book of resorts in North America. Stop looking now and buy this book! I recieved this book as a Christmas present in 1999. Although the cover is missing, the pages are stained and torn I love it. I still get it out every time I plan a snowboard trip. It should be required reading for anyone who is planning a snowboard trip. This book has taken me all over Vermont, Quebec, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. An updated version would be VERY nice, alot changes at these places in 7 years.

"Thanks again for doing such a stupendous job on the book, we are very pleased with the results and our placement is great." Amani King, Switch Manufacturing USA "Let me start by saying that the Snowboard Guide: North America is incredible!..... The best ever." Sonny Mayugba, Heckler Magazine "Possibly the sickest snowboarding travel book avaliable........ they'll make you amped to ride. " Melisa Larsen, Transworld Snowboarding "I'm going to take it home and play with it." Kevin Kinnear, Transworld Snowboard Life "That North American book is siiiiiick.... it makes me homesick. Keep up the good work." Trey Cook, Switch Manufacturing Europe "You should all be stoked on such a solid piece of work." Barry Duggan, Burton USA "Excellent - bursting with informtion." Sean Newsom, The Sunday Times "I would say that if you are thinking of going to the states then this would be the compulsory travel companion." Chris Nelson, Asylum Magazine

Stunning in every way; beautiful heartfelt poetry, glorious colourful native american indian style artworks. Definately a collectable book, a coffee table book, or a book to contemplate in your own peaceful moments. Loved it's unique wisdom.

Not only is the poetry very appropriate and full of wisdom of the Elders, etc., but the images by Howell are some of the best pieces of art I've seen depicting the culture and heritage of the Native Americans. This is one of my author/poets of all time. Very well done!

This is a "to the point" review. This book is beautiful - in every way. It relaxes me after a dificult day, or when I need to come back to "Spiritual reality". I'm so sorry it isn't being published any longer - along with several other books by the same author & illistrator. the only one I have is "Spirit Walker"; dreaming I owned all the rest as well.

this is the best book of poetry that i have read. I am 15 years old and i have read this book many times. i got it from my grandma when i was little. reading this book helped me though my fathers death in sept. my fav poem is three sisters. i think that people should read this book. now i am tring to get my mom to get me her first book.

Like Dancing Moons, Spirit Walker is a set of jewel like reflections on what matters most, written with the sensitivity and sentiment of Native American wisdom which captured Nancy Wood some time ago. This book is not just for young adults as it is classified; it most certainly is for anyone who wants to hear the rhythms of the world a little more clearly. A great book to supplement one's morning meditations, prayers, etc. The paintings by Frank Howell are spellbinding. This is a rare gift for those who need to slow down, to listen, to heal.

I refer to this book on a nearly daily basis, and it is a must for any serious baseball fan. If you're in a fantasy, roto or sim league, you need to have this book.

Don't miss it.

When's the new one coming out?

John Sickels does a tremendous job. The book is well organized, well written, thorough, and doesn't cloud the joy and anticipation of baseball. The best of the STATS books, and always on my 'must-buy' list every year.

there is no better, more accurate source for minor league future stars and role players available at any price. John Sickels is the best!! He spends his winters watching baseball, and he spends his summers also watching baseball. he talks to coaches, managers, players and scouts. his seven skill approach is the most accurate forum for determining future success. I learned the importance of strike-zone judgement, and noone can convince me it's not the single most important factor in determining future success. My roti-team is stocked with Sickels reccommendations. Eric Chavez, Gabe Kapler, and Matt Clement for starters. it's easy to say now, what great players they will be, but John told me FIRST!!!

I'm writing this because Sickels deserves it. After years of roto info overload I now prepare for Draft Day with only three books: Sporting News Baseball Register (so i can see the statistical history of every player on the 40-man rosters), and the masterpieces from Benson and Sickels. The key in a competitive league is all timing, and Olkin gives you a better feel for WHEN a player will bloom than anyone else. John, thanks for helping me win 5 out of 6 league titles in the last two years. But I'm worried now that my competitors will start noticing your book at my side...

If you're a serious fan like me, especially if you do fantasy baseball, purchase this book. It is the most comprehensive text on the top prospects in baseball and a must have!

I constantly refer back to it throughout the baseball season.

Martin Prechtel is perhaps the most capable of sacred story telling of today's authors. His respect for the power of language is immense and this book where he is retelling an ancient Mayan myth as it parallels his own experience is stunning in its capacity to illuminate todays world in all its contrasts. It is the third in an autobiographical trilogy. However, if you have not yet read the first two, don't worry, it stands completely on its own. This book was previously released under the title "The Toe Bone and the Tooth".

You wouldn't think it possible to say "this is Martin Prechtel's best book yet" because they are all so exceptional. If you are interested in current Mayan culture, indigenous peoples, love, life, Central American politics... this book is a tour de force. Martin Prechtel is one of the most truly amazing, talented, gifted, wise, insightful people you might ever hope to meet. On top of this, he is an extraordinarily gifted writer. Buy the book. Buy them all.

It might help readers to know that this book and "The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun" are written to be read aloud. When you do this the prose has a rhythm that is part of the meaning of the book.

"In much wisdom is much grief" says the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, "and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow." There is much wisdom, grief, knowledge, sorrow, and finally joy in Martin Prechtel's new book. You don't have to read his previous three, *Secrets of the Talking Jaguar,* *Long Life, Honey in the Heart,* and *The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun* to understand and appreciate the message of *The Toe Bone and the Tooth* - but it helps.

This is a story about keeping the Great Story alive - "An Ancient Mayan Story Relived in Modern Times: Leaving Home to Come Home."

It starts out with Martin's return to Guatamala in 1992 after many years in exile from his adopted country, where his village of Santiago Atitlan had been destroyed and 1800 of his friends and villagers slaughtered by American-backed death squads in the 1980s. He was picked up at the airport by three teenage boys (who had been small children when the devastation took place) and smuggled back to the village under a truckload of Mayan squashes. Along the way, the boys were eager to hear the story of the Toe Bone and Tooth that had been outlawed (as well as their language) by the various and many invaders of their country. Landmarks of the Story were everywhere (much as Australian Dreamtime stories are dependent on the land for the telling).

Martin was welcomed in Santiago Atitlan as the Shaman and healer that he was for many years. He had had a Mayan wife and three sons there (one son died) and his little family had barely escaped with their lives.

The ancient story of the Toe Bone and Tooth is inserted here - the Story of a mortal, Raggedy Boy, who fell in love with the Water Goddess, the story of her death after bearing him two corn children and being forgotten when her husband returned to the mortal world. When he did remember her through dreams, he had to re-member her, gathering her bones with the help of Coyote (who had the toe bone and tooth) and descending into the underworld to retrieve her heart. He was helped by an old magical couple. Re-membered, she became an ordinary woman and he became an ordinary man, and from them, all humans are descended.

The next few chapters chronicle the story of Martin's first arrival in Santiago Atitlan - how he'd been lost in a blizzard in his American homeland of Northern New Mexico in his youth, and how he was saved by a mare named Morningstar and an old Spanish lady who cured him of an almost fatal fever with bear grease and herbs. During his convalescence, he had 11 dreams of Santiago Atitlan and Nicolas Chiviliu Tacaxoy, who was to become his teacher, friend and mentor and who had called him through dreams for three years before he finally arrived in the village. Says Prechtel, "Though I was blond and born far away, we were the old and young generation of throwbacks from other times and layers of existence in which a humble dynasty of people in service to the remembrance of the Dismembered Goddess was continued from century to century."

Another chapter tells of Martin's defense of a young Mayan seminary student, Gaspar Culan, who was accused of worshipping idols because he had participated in an ancient Mayan sacred ceremony involving Holy Boy, whom the Catholic Church had branded as a devil but is actually a Christ figure. Martin (who speaks English, Spanish, and Mayan fluently) was to be Gaspar's advocate. Holy Boy had been called a Jew by the Church. Martin pointed out that they had dubbed the deity a Jew (and a devil) because Jews were at least considered to be human and therefore were subject to the 16th Century Inquisition. Mayans hadn't been considered people before that, so if their God was a Jew, the Inquisition could persecute and prosecute them. Martin won his case, and Culan was ordained as the first Mayan Catholic priest.

Several chapters are devoted to the Prechtel family's nothing-short-of-miraculous escape from Guatamala. Martin's teacher had ordered Martin to stay alive at all costs so that he might carry the seed of the story to the U.S. and preserve it for the Mayans whose history and culture had been outlawed.

When Martin got back to the U.S. and his old homeland in New Mexico, he and his family lived in poverty and difficulties for several years, but in Santa Fe he met a homeless couple who were like the old couple in the Story. Here, the narrative goes into the third person as the old couple tell Martin's story and do for him what he had done for countless people in his life - re-membered him for the holy amnesiacs (all of us). Martin's story mirrors the Great Story - "the story of ordinary people, extraordinarily in love and the story of the struggle of what it takes to be graced with such love is the story from which all humans are descended."

The author dedicates this book to the "deer-eyed daughter of the mountain, the mother of the great diversity" and to "all those peoples, plants and animals who have been and continue to be forcibly uprooted, rerouted, relocated, corralled, cut, branded, burnt out, burned down, burnt up, crushed, eradicated or driven from their homes in infinite diasporas of all types, to live where they may be unwelcome, while still trying to keep alive their seed capsules of cultural memory in hopes to regrow a home again. May their descendants be carved by the inherited grief of their ancestral loss to become feeders of what is holy in the ground, dedicated to something bigger than their need for justice and the pursuit of revenge."

This is a fantastic, exciting but true story, and in my opinion, this is a life-changing book. Read it!

TV, more than any other medium, has become America's storyteller. Sometimes that's not so bad; other times it presents shallow and false values to impressionable minds. When I'm hungry for ultimate truths, I've often found it best to go to other cultures and borrow their stories. One of the very, very best is "Stealing Benefacio's Roses." Within this story you will find your heart and be surprised at how strong and lovely it is. You will find your soul and come to know your true self. It's a story that works on the surface level of "Once upon a time . . ." yet also touches the deeper realms of mythology, spirituality, psychology, history and the many varieties of love. The writing is superb. Here's a quote: "Onto the floor I dropped to sleep, drifting on the tossing sea of my aching heart in a little canoe of Gustavo's friendship, into dreams filled with the unkillable perfume of Benefacio's roses." To understand and savor the last five words, buy the book and enjoy the revelations. This is the one you will keep to reread over time.

I have heard that Assata is the aunt of famous rapper, Tupac Shakur. Is this true? Is their any mention of Tupac in her books???

A collection of mostly interviews conducted over a number of years, the voices of Dhoruba Bin Wahad, Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur speak loud & proud while revealing the roles of a variety of government agencies in destroying the Black Power movement.

Originally published in 1993, the topics covered include the Black Panther Party, (Philadelphia) MOVE, the Black Liberation Army and the racism in the American judicial system. Particularly interesting is the BPP chronology and a collection of FBI documents that explain in government-speak the targeting of individuals/organizations.

These are important accounts that challenge and ultimately debunks mainstream media coverage of individuals & events that will continue to have significance when one researches the real history of the Black Power movement.

This book gives a insight of the most famous victim of The F.B.I's cointelpro next to Geronimo Pratt. This book shows that 19 years of Prison has not dulled Dhoruba's committment to Revolutionary Struggle. The excerpts by Mumia abu Jamal and Assata Shakur are very helpful.

After spending about two decades in America's penal system for a crime he did not commit Dhoruba bin Wahad gives us his too brief insights into America and it's relationship with Blacks. Interms of clearity perhaps only matched by Chomsky.

The other two writers [Jamal and Shakur] one on death row, the other exiled in Cuba also peel back the illusions of justice for all citzens in America. A vivid account of what it is to have the most powerful country in the world trying to destroy you for standing up for justice.Also a great general history lesson.

Book should be part of a mandatory reading list in public schools for all students black and white.

This book gives a insight of the most famous victim of The F.B.I's cointelpro next to Geronimo Pratt. This book shows that 19 years of Prison has not dulled Dhoruba's committment to Revolutionary Struggle. The excerpts by Mumia abu Jamal and Assata Shakur are very helpful.