Utah Books

In several books I've read regarding Southern History and slavery, this story actually surpised me. Without giving much detail, she becomes famous overnight. Ironic, but to drive into Jackson, Ms. you would never guess just how dangerous a place with was, in fact, all along the Delta and Mississippi was dangerous. She's a born fighter. Good book, takes off towards the end.

A must read for anyone interested in first hand accounts of the Civil Rights movement in the United States.

This is by far one of the best books I have ever read. "Of Coming Age In Mississippi" shows segregation and Civil Rights hardships like it has never been shown before. You feel Anne Moody's heart break and understand segregation how it really was in the deep south. HIGHLY recommended to anyone who wants to open their eyes to another cultural period and understand it for what it really was. It is real, heartbreaking, and impossible to put down.

Though I read this book many years ago, I had to strongly disagree with part of the editor's initial characterization of this book as being "angry". Powerful, painful and anxiety producing, yes. Angry, no.

I personally came away with the lasting impression of a very honest and heart-felt description of the events and struggles that shaped Ann Moody's life, and her active participation in the Civil Rights Movement. She describes beautifully the fears and pains felt by communities during tragic events such as the murder of the young Emmett Till, and injects the intensity felt by the leaders of the Movement, including MLK Jr., as they constantly tried to dodge authorities.

I strongly believe, and echo other reviewer's opinions, that every High School and young college student should be required to read this book.

Thus a civil rights advocate was born.

I read this book seven years ago, on a whim, because I was wanting to understand why Southerners were especially proud of their heritage when there was so much suffering among its own people, especially its blacks.

Ann Moddy lived a life that most whites would be ashamed of, but that many blacks endured. This is a part of American history that mainstreem history books seldom cover in any detail and leave to the "Black Studies" department.

Moody lived her life struggling for identity, struggling for change, struggling for advancement. She made something of herself and has never looked back. (I read somewhere that she doesn't like to talk about her growing-up years and has lived a life of seclusion.). She can only be admired for what she has made of herself.

Moody never once expresses hurt. All she wanted was justice for all. She left Mississippi with more than a tinge of anger.

This book should be required reading for all social studies classes. It is engrossing without being sentimental or overly emotional (and it certainly is not "girly" at all.) For anyone, regardless of color, gender or legal status, this should be a must-read.

This is the fourth book I have recently read by women who have left polygamy behind, and I found it to be the best of the bunch. Although it is frightening to realize that this lifestyle is still endured in the 21st century and in America, I try to read up on the subject so that I can try to gain some understanding. Each book I read just makes me wonder all the more how these women can stand these husbands who ignore them and their children so shamefully. Not just stand them, actually, but yearn for them.
Irene's book was, in my opinion, the most well-crafted of the books I have read by these women. In some of the others I found the wives to be a little less candid than Irene is, and they seem to try to make more excuses for themselves than Irene does. The most puzzling thing to me, especially after reading another book about the same husband by one of Irene's "sister-wives," is how they all go crazy trying to get their husband's attention and affection when he so clearly only cares about himself and "the Principle." The wives are starved for affection and the children are just plain starving. I understand that they are brought up to believe that this lifestyle is divinely ordained, yet the men involved are such total creeps that you wonder how any woman can yearn for them.
Irene gives a very vivid and clear portrait of the years she spent in polygamy, and how she finally emerged to enter into a happy marriage with one man who cherished only her. It is heartbreaking to see how she threw away so many good years, but her (13)! children seem to be a blessing to her. I am so happy that she has found peace and joy at last.

This is a wonderful book. I couldn't put it down. Irene is a great example for others. She tried to stay true to her religion and endured many trials. She lived in many horrid conditions that many of us could never handle. She was one of many wives and felt so physically neglected. She finally learns to "deal with" being one of many wives. She couldn't have made it thru many of the trials without them. The Mormon way of life and the rules that they follow are so inriguing. I couldn't put it down because I kept wanting to know what would happen next and how many more trials she would endure before she finally left. I really enjoyed her perspective and her writing style.
She ultimately becomes a born again Christian and figured out that she didn't have to DO anything to earn God's Love. He offers it Freely to those who believe.
I was raised Catholic and now I attend a non denominational "Christian Rock Church".

I have been fascinated with the subject of polygmay and have read everything I can get my hands on, this book it nice because it gives you insite to a group other than the FLDS (specifically books written around the subjects of Warren Jeffs or Colorado City). Irene had such a trying life and her story will keep you hooked from begining to end.

I read this book hesitantly. Do I really want to know about all the suffering in a lifestyle so alien to me? Irene did such a wonderful job, I was angry, in tears,and ended with just complete joy and tears in her new found faith which came as such a surprise. What a story of human suffering and perserverance and complete triumph. Truly wonderful, would definitely recommend a hundred times over!

This book is not necessarily one you would want to read before going to sleep for a couple of reasons: 1) it is so engaging it is hard to put it down, and 2) it makes you feel angry with the way the author was treated. The author lived in deep proverty. She was torn because of her devotion to her husband and religion, yet experienced extreme angony because of this devotion.

4 1/2 stars, really, but we can't do that. This is the original 1855 version. Whitman added to the collection throughout his life, ending up with an overstuffed and very uneven "deathbed" version, which is better known. There are some good poems in it which aren't in the original, such as When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd, but there's a lot of pretty weak stuff, too. The 1855 has a small number of pretty consistently excellent poems which are highly original and loosely but definitely connected. Reading it is a very different experience from wading through the bloated, inconsistent final version - there's something Whitmanesque (i.e., at it's best) about the original collection as a unit. Malcolm Cowley's introduction is also a bit wild and wooly (written in the late 60s or early 70s), but interesting and enlightening.

At least as available for the Kindle, this is not the 1855 edition. It seems to be the final edition, which is of course great, but not what I intended to get based on the product description posted. Also, the foreward and afterward mentioned in the description are missing. I don't expect the moon for a low price, but I do expect to get what I pay for.

Choosing the fullest, most complete version of Whitman's text, before the final editing of the deathbed edition, but following the additions made after the Civil War, the Norton Critical is a must have for students of poetry, or literature, and of nature. The wild, ecstatic hunger for the world, the ravishment of the senses, as Norman Mailer put it (though not about Whitman), the mysticism of the flesh, Whitman is, arguably, the most accomplished poet of American letters.

A must read for poets, students, and pagans (Whitman as spirit of the Green Man himself!).

I bought this and returned it. There must be someone out there with the right voice and reading skills to bring us Whitman's words and rhythms. Ms. Gibson's soprano sing-song doesn't make it.

There seems to be some confusion, both in the editorial reviews and the customer reviews, about what edition is being referred to in this listing. the first editorial review correctly discusses the first edition as shorter and "less bloated" than the deathbed edition. however, the rest of the reviews seem to discuss either edition indiscriminately.

the two are effectively different books. the cover shown is of the first edition including an illuminating essay by malcolm cowley--that's certainly the edition I prefer, and I hope thats what you would get if you ordered this.

This book, which follows step by step the itinerary of a battalion of German security police in the East during WWII, is a scary confirmation of Hannah Arendt's theory on the "banality of evil" that emerged after Eichmann's trial in 1961. It shows how perfectly average people, representing a cross-section of a developped country's society, when placed in certain circumstances, are able to perform the most gruesome and crual acts of barbary in an efficient and non-committal way against innocent populations. It is a depressing book, all the more so as almost none of these perpetrators suffered any consequence after the war. They went on to live their banal and mediocre lives as ordinary people, until the 1960's when some of them were tried and suffered very light sentences.

Very well-done and insightful study on ordinary Germans in the Holocaust and Browning's overall thesis extends to "ordinary men" in many circumstances.

Christopher Browning is a distinguished historian of the horror of the Nazi holacaust against the Jews during World War II, His book on Reserve Police Battalion 101 is a microcosmic examination of how ordinary men responded to the Hitler's regime's insane plan to kill all of the Jews in
Europe.
The book focuses on the Reserve Police Battalion 101 made up of lower middle class men from Hamburg. These men were typical Germans in their views toward Jewry and the Nazi propaganda drummed into their heads. Most of the soldiers were long married, had some level of education and managed to avoid frontline service. These men were not in the military elite and most prefered civilian life back home in Hamburg.
These approximately 500 soldiers particpated in several shooting of Jews in Polish villages; transportation of the Jews to death camps and Jew hunts in which the hapless Semites would be captured. They are responsible for the shooting of 6,500 Jews at Jozefow and Lomazy; 35,000
at Majdanek and Poniatowa and placing Jews on trains to Treblinka. In all they participated in the deaths of 83,000 Jewish men, women and children.
The vast majority of the German soldiers took part in the murders. Some were reluctant to engage in this murderous enterprise by they were in the minority. Among reasons given for the odious and criminal behavior of the men in Reserve Police Batallion 101 are according to Browning:
1. Peer pressure of their comrades in arms. These were men in hostile territory who did not want to be accused of letting their buddies down.
2. Obedience to orders from higher authorities.
3. Fears of their or their family's punishment if orders were not obeyed.
4. A belief that the Jews were not Aryan human beings and were responsible for the killing of German women and children.
Browning claims each person's motivations are a mystery to the rest of us and we can never say beyond extrapolation what led these men to commit such abhorrent deads of cruelty and murder.
Browning has included a long appendix in which he responds to the criticisms on his work made by Dr. Daniel Goldhagen. Goldhagen believes that Germany was pervaded by antisemetic culture making the entire nation into Hitler's willing executioners. Browning contrarily argues that antisemitism was not limited to Germany. Browning states that German authoritarianism, conformity with the social group and Nazi propaganda all played a role in turning regular individuals into mass killers. He is cautionary on the power for harm which can be inflicted by authoritarian states on their citizens.
Browning's book is a classic of holocaust literature and is essential in any study of the gruesome and heartbreaking study.

Another brick from the the Professors' classroom. I got to page 148, which was quite a feat, believe you me. But important it is. I don't deny that, and true too.

Here's a token of the Professor's clear narrative style: "The portrayal of German-Polish and German-Jewish relations in these testimonies is extraordinarily exculpatory; in contrast, the portrayal of Polish-Jewish relations is extraordinarily damning. If we begin by examining the first two relationships as described by the former policemen, we can better see the asymmetry and distortion involved in their account of the third." Of the third! The third what? Do you know what he's taking about anymore?

Please, give me a break, mister. I believe the Lord gives gifts and talents to every one of His creatures. You can pick to be a bullfighter, a fireman, or a professor. But pick right.

This book (as described by previous reviewers and the product description) details what the men in the Nazi Reserve Police Battalion 101 went through, specifically during the SS Invasion of Poland.

Browning describes in detail the process of dehumanizing the Jews, and writes at length on the style of execution that the Germans refined and perfected in Poland, prior to the widespread use of gas chambers: the person to be killed forced to lie down flat on their face, and then shot at a particular spot in their neck. The accounts of these executions is not just gratuitous violence -- graphic gore for the sake of shock or horror -- but rather, demonstrates that over time, the police officers involved in the executions worked to make the process of mass killing more humane (an idea that was at the root of the gas chambers, as ironic as that seems). It also serves to drive home the point that after so many hundreds of people were shot, the officers were able to completely dehumanize the people they were killing.

What is unique about this book is that it is not just another historical account; the author takes into consideration what the Nazis themselves had to go through, psychologically and emotionally, in order to carry out their orders. Many other historians have analyzed historical events during WWII while still demonizing the Nazi forces ~ but Browning shows us that the troops really were Ordinary Men, and these men suffered tremendous emotional tolls as a result.

And herein lies the Truth that makes this book so chilling: any one of us could have found ourselves in the very same position, carrying out the very same orders, as the German troops in WWII.

Browning describes the various social conditions and governmental policies that effected how the Nazis were able to so completely dehumanize their enemy and rationalize their own involvement -- in part, because the men were assuaged of their sense of responsibility for their actions, and also in part due to the tremendous number of times that the actions had to be carried out. Repetition bred a sense of normalcy.

In the Afterword, Browning addresses another author who has critiqued Browning's work -- Daniel Jonah Goldhagen -- whose work I feel compelled to mention since it directly relates to this book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is studying modern history, sociology / psychology, or WWII, but keep in mind that it is extremely graphic and very, very hard to read -- not because of the language used, but because of the events that Browning so meticulously describes.

The book likens the experience of living in the western Dakotas to that of monasticism. Some poetry in prose as she enthuses over the landscape, and her occasional visits to a nearby Benedictine monastery. (Norris is a Presbyterian.) The book is marred by some digressions on economics that may have seemed necessary to the author, but which did not magnetize this reader; also, there are some remarks about her fellow townspeople (their provincialism, their being "set in their ways") that seem to flirt with "Snobama"-type elitism. There is the incredible claim on p. 210 that the Benedictine order predates "the Catholic hierarchy" -- to employ the popular code, whiskey tango foxtrot? But Norris's genuine affection for the monks, for the landscape, and (yes) for most of her neighbors, does come through and make us almost forget the flaws.

The key to this book is right there in the title. The Dakota of Kathleen Norris' experience, depiction, and understanding is a decidedly spiritual state of being. Just as "deep calls unto deep," so the austere, high plains landscape both evokes and instructs Norris' interior world. Having traveled with Norris through her "Cloister Walk," and having learned her lexicon in "Amazing Grace," I was prepared to look around Dakota with her penetrating vision, to listen to the wind with her attentive hearing, to think deeply about what we were seeing together, and to let my heart grow still as she taught me. Now, though I've never yet been to the high plains, I have truly been to Kathleen Norris' unique and personal Dakota -- and is that not the best accolade for a travelogue, that the reader honestly feels that he's made the trip? I gave this book to a deep-souled friend who needed the time of quiet contemplation it provides, and I recommend it to you as well.

I read this book every couple of years and find it a fresh, new read everytime. I recently ordered an extra copy for some friends. To my parents, this was one of those books you love and give copies of to all you friends, siblings, and children. I think I will be doing the same thing.

I had been meaning to read this book for years. After finally doing so, and then skimming through the 40+ previous Amazon reviews, it is clear that the book will appeal most to those of a highly spiritual bent (but probably not devout followers of an organized religious denomination or practice). I am not highly spiritual, so the book does not speak as intensely to me as no doubt it does to many. Nonetheless, I admire the author's sincerity and her individuality.

As for the "Dakota" angle, that too is present, although not to the degree perhaps suggested by the title. Don't expect some sort of travelogue or overview of the Dakotas. In point of fact, much of the content is rather prosaic, which of course is not really a criticism of what is essentially an inward, spiritual book. Actually, the "geographical" locus of the book has more to do, I think, with the High Plains and with small towns than it does with the Dakotas.

The book consists of thirty or so short stand-alone chapters, interspersed with what the author terms "weather reports". Thus, it is somewhat of a hodgepodge; it certainly is not an example or product of linear thought (which also denotes it as spiritual in nature). I ended up marking a few sentences or paragraphs for future reference. In that sense, I found the book to be somewhat like a magpie's collection -- a few sparkling gem-like pieces of glass amidst a lot of string, weeds, and twigs.

Having moved from a large city to a small town in West Texas, I could totally identify with this book. I learned a lot about the dynamics of a small town, both good and bad. Spiritually, I came to the realization that I found my own desert. The insights that accompany that realization along with the prose of the book are definitely worth the time.

That having been said, this book is not for everyone. It is highly spiritual and insightful, but in an understated way.

I found that this book lingered in my thoughts long after I'd finished it. I think that Williams did a fine job paralleling the environment with her own sense of ebbing loss. I am certainly no ecologist, in fact a speech language pathologist, so I can't comment on the factualness of the ecology references. But I felt nature while reading it. Never been to Utah--can't comment on the accuracy of descriptions. But I could sure see it in my mind. I am a woman so the anti-male climate I may not be best to judge. I read it as a dialogue of women, a sisterhood or lack there of at times. Having lost a loved one to breast cancer, I can comment on the sense of impending loss and the need to search for something you that you can stop and "save". I enjoyed this book for what it was to me.

A rare combination of personal journal and field notes, this story compasses the death of a marsh and the death of a mother, the tenacity of struggling species and the re-birth of a daughter. It moved me to tears -- a decidedly rare experience for me with non-fiction -- and surprised me with those tears at odd times: the beauty of a bird and a place and a moment, or the stoic wisdom of the women who battle with and lose to cancer. In addition to possessing a questioning spirit, and a lover's eye for birds in the wild places she roams, Williams is a downwinder. She and her family are among the officially "inconsequential" population who were conveniently ignored during America's atmospheric nuclear testing in the 50s. The several women (and a few men) in her family who have died from cancers probably linked to those tests have moved her from interest to activism. This book is a record of her baptism in nuclear fire as well as her search for wings. REFUGE is among the armful of books I would grab if my house were on fire. I own two copies so I can lend one without fear. It is absolutely first rate.

Terry Tempest Williams is a national treasure. Her unvarnished verse carries one deep into the mystery of the Earth and sends us helplessly into the depths of our own hearts. The landscape of wildness breaths a spectacular wisdom under the watchful eyes of this keen observer of wind, rock, desert, sky, sage, along with the birds who soar and dance and play in a benediction to non-sentient life.

When I need to recapture my own mortality along with my own humility, I always return to the verse of this elder of silence and truth. Williams stands alone in the power to convey both outer and inner wildness. Her verse is poetic and healing. One does not read these words but are instead initiated into the heart beat of wild nature. Savor its beauty as you might a calming sunset or a wind swept sea shore calling you ever deeper into your own soul.

Read everything she writes and find peace deep within.

I loved and hated this book. It is beatifully written. I found the author frustrating at times. Some parts got a little long winded about the birds. It takes you on a emotional rollercoaster but the pay off of finishing this book is worth it. Any one who has been affected by cancer will find this book very inciteful to the process of going through treatment and also the death process. Terry Tempest gives the most authentic and honest account of what life is like living through cancer I have every read. She put into words thought and feelings I could never express fully.
The research of the history of the Great Salt Lake was very fun to read about. I have lived in Utah all my life, but I have never been to the Lake I now am very curious to see it and the bird refuge. I think I will find the trip much more interesting now than if I had gone before reading this book.

The first time I went to Utah, I read Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" and loved it. This time, at a bookstore in Moab, I picked up Williams' "Red" for a contemporary view of the ecological issues around this gorgeous desert landscape, which is unlike any place I have been. Although I liked "Red," people told me "Refuge" was even better.

This is a very special book. I'm no birdwatcher, but it made me want to be. I'm no scientist, but I wished I were. I'm no Mormon, but it gave me respect for a religion I have never been able to fathom. Terry Tempest Williams has profound insights into the natural world. Her observations of the Great Salt Lake and the many migratory birds that visit it are as moving as her account of the death by cancer of her mother and grandmothers. Not surprisingly, they taught Williams awe of birds and sunsets and their own bodies. All of them are brave and spiritual women, and we would be wise to learn from them.

I think what I most admire about Williams as a writer is her emotional courage. Time and time again, she strikes out where more conventional writers would hesitate. She finds redeeming passages from the Book of Mormon. She follows her mother through her long and circuitous spiritual journey with cancer. She follows her grandmother as she moves into Eastern thought and modern physics. She dips respectfully into ancient Indian and Mexican culture. She walks in the desert at some peril to her well-being. She speaks of the intimacy of her marriage and about her decision not to bear children.

Yet his is not a book "about" the desert or cancer or birds or Mormonism, but about life and how it can be richly observed, experienced. shared and redeemed. It's one brave woman's answer to "Desert Solitaire."

The ups and downs of love and tragedy for a young college couple. Good portrayal of the doubts and missteps taken in response to life events and the decisions and emotions which tend to keep people on the right track, even when faced with adversity. An enjoyable read with a happyily-ever-after ending.

"The Locket" story is continuing on with the same characters. Michael and Faye's romantic relationship continues. This book is sentimental, sad, and touching. This is a wonderful book.

This is the first Evans book I read. I fell in love with his writing immediately. I love his down to earth style and his ability to write a wonderful romance based on true love, not lust. If you are tired of having to skip over porn while reading a romance novel, check out this one. I recommend you start with the first in this series, The Locket. The main characters Michael, Faye, and Ester are easy to fall in love with. This book certainly doesn't sugar coat life. It is very frank about the unfairness of life, but it is not super depressing and the message is full of hope.

This book would appeal to both males and females. I think anyone who enjoys a love story, whether they are 14 or 80 years old, would love this series.

Michael and Faye's story began in another book and continued in this one is one that promises lasting love and emotion....hope even in the event of adversity......

Maybe it is idealistic for me to feel that "love conquers all" but having been married to my first and only husband for nearly thirty years and two children and two grandchildren, I KNOW that love does conquer all and that no matter what happens you can get past it and continue to live and be happy!!!

Though I must admit the story was poignant and I agree that life is like a carousel at times, it left me unsatisfied... This is the first book I've read of Evans, and he's a good author, but at times I was left hanging and wondering...it felt like a soap opera episode... It's a decent read, though, and the publishing company did a really good job designing his books, so don't be surpised if you're drawn to this book.

I love family stories, and this book is like a quilt stitched together by the ties that bind the Eccles women to each other. Author Carolyn Howard-Johnson pieces together their stories like patchwork squares handed down from generation to generation, until the reader truly feels enveloped in this family's rich heritage. Her writing brings the characters and the setting to life as vividly as an Oscar-winning documentary, and her lyrical style paints them in colors and details to rival an exquisite picture postcard from her beloved Utah.

Having lived all my life in Alabama, I thought I knew all there was to know about discrimination. What an eye-opener this book is about religious intolerance--a subject that becomes more and more relevant in today's world of terrorist threats and suspicion. Would that we all could see the issues from both sides as does this book's heroine, Sky Eccles. Empathy is a hard thing to learn, but this book goes a long way in teaching it.

This is a book that is both entertaining to read but it also has the subtle ability to change perceptions I think about a loaded subject. I was aware of recent explorings of the family systems in the often mysterious land of Mormonism. The writer has managed to bring a personal experience into the characters of her story and the complexity of being in and/or from a Mormon community in a modern times.

I think it is true that it is impossible to write anything without it being somewhat autobiographical but this author has managed to remove herself enough to let this be a story that is entertaining to read and enlightening. It can't get any better than that for a writer or a reader. Being a writer myself makes me doubly critical and I give this 5 stars. This book was thoughtfully written and well researched.

June of the Corn Huskers Ball

Carolyn Howard Johnson gives us a great book in "This is the Place", the story is just riveting and so interesting. Based in Utah, you get inside the mind of people that are in the midst of the Mormon culture. If you have an interest in the Mormon religion, how it works, the beliefs and how it effects popele, you will enjoy this book. A great read, I would recommend this book. I read it in one afternoon, I couldn't put it down!

Carolyn Howard-Johnson writes this fiction with such feelings that you would swear it was an autobiography. The tale of a young woman who struggles in a multi-denominational home, she deals with many of the things most young women face. Her "hominess" resonates with such items as the big old piano in the parlor, the "doilies" on the arms and backs of the chairs and sofas, that I felt like we must be sisters.
This is one story that will warm your heart from cover to cover.

Janet Elaine Smith, author of soon-to-be-released Old Habits Die Hard (the 3rd Patrick and Grace Mystery) and Bank Roll (the 1st Max Stryker Mystery).

There are certain issues involving our cultural that you cannot question as an author without getting all kinds of hits--both positive and negative and none of them have anything what-so-ever to do with the literary merits of the story. One of those is to question or comment on some particular religious organization, even if indirectly. It takes literary courage and becomes a fine line between the art, prose and the balance of truth.

However, the truth is determined by our own personal insights as to what is correct. It almost always reflects the life long training and the belief system of your family, community and those who educated you. Very few ever really explore religions outside their own youthful indoctrinations into whatever cultural and religious heritage we were born into. So, when author Carolyn Howard-Johnson writes a book based on her alienation from the surrounding culture of Mormonism in Utah she is bound to open herself up as a target.

Carolyn's book title is taken from a quote of the LSD leader Brigham Young when he looked out over Salt Lake City and proclaimed "This is the Place". Contrary to some reviews I had read about her book, I found that there was no attempt to attack any organization. She deals with people in her book and it is the actions and views of her characters that become the focus of the issues in her story. However, the culture she writes about is a collective thought and action process of a group. She writes about her lead character having to deal with life as a non-Mormon in a state where this is the primary social driving force. The premise seems to be that no matter what you do or achieve as a non-member of this cultural you will always remain feeling like you are on the outside or at least separated in some social way.

Carolyn uses her lead character to bring out the past as she explores her family genealogy. We discover how a group of early founders escaped from the bigotry and persecutions of other places. They came to Utah to build a place where they would not endure such things again. In her book, it seems that the former persecuted become intolerant of outsiders over time. Maybe not in brutal ways like blacks had in the south but at least socially there was a division between the non-believers and those of the LDS church.

When reading her book one gets the feeling that her story seems almost personal and autobiographical. It feels like we are following along in a memoir of someone exploring their family and themselves looking for their roots and meaning. It is well written and the prose is top notch stuff. It flows with energy as it almost dances through the pages. Her characters are all alive and have depth and animation. This was her first novel but it feels like classic piece of literature like many other great first novels of our time.

This book will continue to be controversial but hopefully in a healing way. I get the feeling that the author is trying to throw a mirror out there for people to look into for discovering there own roots. I think the author obviously has great writing skills and talents. I hope people read this story with both an open mind and heart so that they can fully enjoy the actual story she has created.

An aspect of this work which has not been emphasized by reviewers is the singularly excellent description of morphine addiction found in Joseph Boyden's novel. My understanding is that a close relative of Mr. Boyden's was an army doctor during WW1 thus the extraordindarily detailed knowledge which the author has brought so effectively into this work. In truth, medicine needs to be taught not only from textbooks but also from works of art. "Three Day Road" should be included in medical curricula in order that doctors get a much needed 'gut feel' about opiate addiction. Once read, never forgotten: that is the power of Boyden's work.

I read a great deal, fiction and nonfiction. Three Day Road is one of the best novels I have ever read. The protagonists are complex and rich, and the microscopic details of World War I trench warfare widen into a vision that transcends time, place, and character. I read it two years ago and bought it because I wanted a copy. I think of it often. You will too.

This is such a painful, graphic and well written book. It is not easy reading however, it gives a deep picture of war and it's everyday misery and the pain. Told from the point of view of a Cree Indian, the story is unique for the insight into Native American contributions to the "Great" War and how the daily, boring grind of war uniquely affects Native Americans.
It is a story of hope,addiction and the amazing ability of the human being to overcome physical and mental pain against all odds.

I do not often read fiction involving wars, particularly World War I or II, as the books are usually "been there, done that." However, I picked this up on a recommendation from a friend and read it in about 3 days. Great, different approach that I really enjoyed. Give it a whirl, you won't be disappointed.

This was a great story of two young Indian men and an Aunt. The young men battling through the horrors of warfare and trying to gain the respect of the discriminating Canadians, English and French. Author swings back and forth from childhood in Northern Canada to the war scenes. The men become accomplished scouts and snipers and succumb to addictions of killing, drugs and heartbreak in the efforts to stay alive. Best story I've read in some time.

From page one, Natalie Collins pulls her readers into the mind and life of Allison Jensen, a young girl caught in a maelstrom of stilted church and family values. Mormonism takes a decided hit in this heart-wrenching and suspenseful tale of religious piety gone awry.

Allison's world is turned upside down by the disappearance of her best friend, Cindy, after a confrontation with a bearded stranger. Learning quickly that the adults in her life would not answer her questions about her friend, or her doubts about the Mormon faith, Alli took the first chance she could to get away from her hometown. Immersing herself in the world of forbidden pleasures, she gained a false sense of identity and freedom that quickly came crashing down after being attacked by a man dressed like the one who had taken Cindy. With the support of her outcast lesbian aunt and her partner, Alli begins her search for the missing parts of her childhood memories that still haunt her, uncovering a web of deceit spun by church leaders and her family. In spite of a somewhat predictable ending, readers will still be drawn forward, just to see where Collins leaves her heroine.

Wives and Sisters is a gripping tale oozing with skillful feminist commentary about the patriarchal nature of Mormonism, which may earn Collins disparagement in her home state. A spirited decision for a newcomer, and it earns her the status of a voice to watch.

Wives and Sisters was an okay fast read . In one chapter Allie was telling Jake that this was not a movie of the week but in all actually to me this book was a movie of the week read I just finished this book yesterday and already I can't remember the characters names {I had to get the book from the back of my book shelf to remember }
Although this book was intense I felt like it didn't answer any questions that the main character was asking though the whole book it left me wondering why I even read this book ...Oh yeah I had nothing else to read .... Written well and scared me to hell .... I now will hide from the Mormons when they come knocking on my door 2 stars is what I give this book nothing more nothing less

I read many of the reviews for this book, and if I had gone by some of them I wouldn't have ordered it. How glad I am that I didn't "listen" to them. Collins is an exceptional writer, able to express so many of the feelings of other struggling Mormons, while spinning a tale of murder and mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed this book -- reading it in three nights. Couldn't put it down. I was so enthralled with "Wives and Sisters" that I promptly ordered "Behind Closed Doors," and anxiously await getting "Saints and Sinners."

I picked this up on the bargain book rack. For my few dollars, it was an excellent buy. An absolute page turner from the first to the last. Very disturbing and fascinating look into a culture unfamiliar to most people. Excellent read. Can't wait to pass it on to my friends.

Interesting insight into life as a Mormon/LDS.

The story line is good but not great. Collins does a fine job with character development. If you are just looking for a good novel with a little mystery, I wouldn't suggest Wives and Sisters. If you have a particular interest in LDS life but know very little about it... this book may be worth your while.