People and Society Books

Great book for anyone choosing to develop innovation and synergy in their organization or community. This is a sleeper business book any CEO could use to reinvent their organization. I have already given five copies to CEO's I know.

As a college administrator, I often wonder whether I am listening to and hearing what people are telling me they need from an education. As a consultant and facilitator, I wonder whether people are really finding their own way or whether I am leading them toward ready solutions to problems I have pre-conceived. The concept of Wisdom Councils in this book presents a simple, elegant model of a process that leads groups of people to discover creative options to issues they have identified as important to them and to their organization or community.

Jim Rough has discovered a way for organizations to learn about what people they serve want and need from them in a way that allows for authentic consensus. The book, written in 2002, offers disturbing and challenging insights into the movement of our government and organizations away from activities that recognize and nourish basic human values. The intervening time has proven him right in his observations.

Jim presents a rich tapestry of historical, philosophical and practical anecdotes, stories and personal experiences that reinforce his lessons. Every leader searching for the heart and soul of their followers needs to read, reflect on and implement the the lessons of this book. Although Jim's vision of a constitutional amendment fostering the development of Wisdom Councils may not come to pass, every educator, corporate CEO, minister, and government official should consider gaining skill in this area to facilitate a better understanding of their clients, customers and communities.

How is a new author to capture the public imagination in such times as ours?
Jim Rough's premier book has done this in spades - no, in hearts. Without
giving the story away, I urge all who are discouraged and perhaps
embarrassed at our nation's fall from global grace to get this thoughtful
little book. It suggests a simple solution by which government, governance,
and civic life in the U.S.A. might come alive again. In this very bright
first book, we find a simple way to move from today's mechanistic,
short-term/close-up, hypercapitalistic priorities into a new democracy which
applies our innate native wisdom and creates social and economic systems
which operate sustainably and intelligently.

Society's Breakthrough is a simple read with profound implications. It
proposes a nationwide awakening into a new civic vitality and creative
power. Rough proposes a take-over, a civic coup, a rebirth of democracy
which taps and activates the social intelligence of We The People. An
alternate title might have been "Reconstituting Democracy: A Constitutional
Amendment for We The People of the 21st Century."

Jim Rough writes for everyone, not for the scholar, yet he manages to convey
a profound message. He proposes that the ordinary person is not only capable
of understanding deeply complex issues, but is the BEST engineer and
designer of new choices. We The People have never actually come to power in
this country, Rough contends, yet it is We The People who are best able to
understand and interpret our social systems and create self-organized
solutions even to today's "impossible" problems. Rough proposes that we need
only implement a simple structure in order to activate the collective wisdom
that resides in We The People. The "Breakthrough" which Rough proposes is no
modest thing, being a constitutional ammendment. Its effect is to bring
about a quiet yet total revolution. Skeptical at first, I found the book
persuasive and exciting. Get it, and breathe again!

Society's Breakthrough
Jim Rough's new book, Society's Breakthrough! is a challenging yet thoroughly hopeful look at old and often intransigent problems. Rough offers us new ways to explore those problems. He shows us how to transcend them in favor of what truly matters to us and to our society. Most important, Rough offers an inspiring and hopeful vision of a future we can have a hand in creating ourselves. His vision of a society in which "We the People" truly govern ourselves and the institutions, organizations, and communities we create is nothing short of uplifting. And I think it's workable!
Through innovations such as "choice creating," "dynamic facilitation," "wisdom councils," and a simple, yet far-reaching amendment to the constitution that he calls the "Citizens Amendment," Rough asserts that We the People can reassert control over a system that has gone astray. Society's Breakthrough describes how such changes would enable us to "come together and seek what is best for all, rather than automatically relying on self-interested competition."
Whether Rough is right in regard to all the details of how the changes would come about, not, his vision of "a living conversation" as the basis for society-making and policy creating is brilliant. It permeates the book. It lifts you above the details, inspiring you to imagine a societal system that is "more collaborative than competitive, more thoughtful than argumentative," and that would allow us to "exercise our creativity in the service of all. Perhaps more important, though, than the vision is that Rough outlines a method that makes such a living conversation possible at any level of society.
I started the book as a skeptic however Rough led me through his proposals and reasoning with clarity, power, and convincing examples. I recommend this book to anyone interested in change in government, organizations, and business. And to anyone interested in becoming a more thoughtful and empowered citizen.

This is one of the most brilliant and compellingly comprehensive books I have read in recent time, and certainly one of less than 100, probably less than 25, and perhaps even one of the ten most important books available in English.

Everyone, including corporations, is starting to realize that Green is Good (see my list on Natural Capitalism), and that the Earth is at a tipping point. The ten high-level threats are Poverty, Infectious Disease, Environmental Degradation, Inter-State Conflict, Civil War, Genocide, Other Atrocities (e.g. kidnapping for body parts or child soldiers), Proliferation, Terrorism, and Transnational Crime.

What this author has done is pioneered the concept of Wisdom Councils at every level of society, a leap ahead of citizen involvement initiatives like Citizen's Councils formed in Denmark to study issues of national importance for legislative action. This book suggests a strategy for bringing "all" together as "We the People" where We assume our rightful role as intelligent top authority.

The author is acutely aware that we are fragmented, ignorant, inattentive, and ineffective as a collective at any level. He suggests that we got that way because we adopted a mechanistic system to govern us, where self-interest is the prevailing value, rather than dignity, sharing, open-mindedness, and so on.

He articulates a vision of a We-ocracy, a circle instead of a box, with a spirit similar to our Native American councils, where people seek what's best for all. And, he suggests a surprisingly simple social invention, not fully tested, that can make the vision real.

It was my great good fortune to meet the author personally at the Nexus for Change conference organized by Peggy Holman and others, and I found him to be one of the most sensible, down-to-earth, and focused individuals I have ever met. He told me there that collective problems require collective solutions, and I agree with him completely. It's about all of us, as well as each of us. Along with this book I recommend Tom Atlee's "Tao of Democracy" and the other books linked to below.

The author's conception of the Wisdom Council, which is now enjoying significant success and public appreciation in the Eco-topia of the Pacific Northwest, is one of a continuous Constitutional Convention with all of us as permanent delegates. It is a way "We the People" can come into existence and collectively choose topics, explore them and evolve consensus ... possibly some sensible sustainable decision or policy that goes out 200 years (what the Native Americans called 7th Generation thinking).

It's a simple approach that bridges all eight of what I call the tribes of intelligence--government, military, law enforcement, business, academia, non-governmental organizations, media networks, and most importantly, all citizens in all civil societies including social advocacy groups, labor unions, and religions.

The book describes an innocuous-seeming Constitutional Amendment to the United States Constitution. But the author inscribes the book to me, ending with "we don't need an amendment, we are out doing it." Now, there are experiments in cities and organizations in different countries, begun by ordinary citizens, proving that this strategy can work. (see www.WiseDemocracy.org) This is good news for those of us who care about society as a whole.

I recommend this book, and the three books below, to every citizen and especially to the 48% that do not vote. We get morons and thieves in power because we all do not vote and hence these charlatans are elected by a minority of dogmatic fanatics aided by less than honorable tactics such as Karl Rove has pioneered (see "Bush's Brain").

But beyond the bits of power our system currently provides to "the people," all-of-us-together can assert power over the system. This book, the books below, and the many books I connect in my varied lists, show us how. They are ammunition in our combat with the Republican and Democratic Party mafiosos. Unity08 is in my view a scam--a last ditch defense of the totally corrupt two-party "winner take all" and share the spoils system. Only the Center for Wise Democracy, Reuniting America, the Transpartisan Policy Institute, and a couple of other massive social networks now in formation, can transform political hypocrisy, corruption, and illegitimacy. Our government today, all three branches, is illegitimate. We can fix that.

We are long overdue for a popular uprising. This author, like Gandhi (see the DVD), provides for an informed non-violent revolution that is both inevitable, and unbeatable. We the People ... what a great concept. Time to honor it again, with the Wisdom Councils and the strategy of full engagement that the author outlines for us.

Bush's Brain
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents)
Seeing the Invisible: National Security Intelligence in an Uncertain Age
Bush's Brain
Gandhi (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)
Don't Bother Me Mom--I'm Learning!

I was completely amazed at this book. Robert Wolff beautifully illustrates the reality that has only been presented as fiction in books like "Mutant Message Down Under" by Marlo Morgan, and idealized for the future in Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" series. It gives one hope to know that not all humans live out of harmony with their surroundings, and indeed, each other. I was impressed by his candid portrayals of the various adventures he has had, and the honesty with which he presents his misconceptions, mistakes, and cultural blunders. It makes me hope that one day, books from great minds such as his will be included in high-school required reading curriculums, so that maybe a new great thinker will learn from the past, and give us hope for the future.

If you are interested in learning more about primitive societies prior to civilization, thinking outside the box of western or eastern culture, observing civilization from a unique perspective, this book is for you. As an empathetic anthropologist, Robert Wolff was open-minded enough to really observe and listen to the people he was employed to "help" rather than impose his societies' values on them. He tells their story, and in so doing creates a window to a life style and a society that, otherwise, would have vanished without notice. I once posessed 15 copies of this book, all of which have likewise vanished to friends' libraries.

If you are interested in learning more about primitive societies prior to civilization, thinking outside the box of western or eastern culture, observing civilization from a unique perspective, this book is for you. As an empathetic anthropologist, Robert Wolff was open-minded enough to really observe and listen to the people he was employed to "help" rather than impose his societies' values on them. He tells their story, and in so doing creates a window to a life style and a society that, otherwise, would have vanished without notice. I once posessed 15 copies of this book, all of which have since vanished to friends' libraries.

If this book was a drug the FDA would make it Class 3. It is that powerful and will have that strong an effect on your life.

While it is described as account of a Malaysia tribe, it is, more importantly, a window into another way of thinking about WHAT IT IS TO BE HUMAN. That is also the name the book was originally given by it's author. Robert Wolff opens our eyes to see and think about possibilities for being human that our western world's schools and media do not teach, do not suggest.

Every person I know who has read this books says it changes the way they walk through the world, the way they see, the way they know.

It discusses ideas that impinge upon parapsychology, shamanism, Carlos Castaneda's works, intuition, healing...

The book is a precious gift that will make you feel joy and sadness-- joy from knowing the possibilities of being human, and the beauty of the Sng'oi, sadness, because the Sng'oi were reported to be "absorbed" by the Malaysian culture several years ago. They are gone.

Read the book and see if you can find a way to begin seeing as they did, and find a part of them in your heart.

The book has been re-issued under the title Original Wisdom, so it is readily available without a wait.

This book is an autobiographical account of psychologist Robert Wolff's time among indigenous/aboriginal people, mostly in Malaysia. It's rich, exciting, fascinating, insightful, thoughtful, and an incredible exposure for those of us in the "modern" world to what life was like for our ancestors of the past 100,000 years and what life is today for those still-extant tribal people. This book, and Peter Farb's "Man's Rise to Civilization" are *the* two classics in this field.

Originally published in 1917, reissued in 1987, now released again with a new introduction by Jeffrey R. Hansen, Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden presents an agricultural calendar year's activities as remembered by Buffalo Bird Woman, an accomplished Hidatsa gardener born around 1839. Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden was a doctoral dissertation by a man who believed "It is of no importance that an Indian's war costume struck the Puritan as the Devil's scheme to frighten the heart out of the Lord's annointed. What we want to know is why the Indian donned the costume, and his reasons for doing it (p.xix)." Wilson also went on to write Goodbird the Indian His Story and Waheenee: An Indian Girl's Story (biography of Buffalo Bird Woman, 1839-1921). Using biography to study a culture was effective because it highlighted the variety of traumatic cultural shifts, changes, and transmutations painfully experienced by Buffalo Bird Woman and her family. The use of empathy informs the dated, 'superior' dominant culture outlook. Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden has been called a classic anthropological document. It certainly is that and more. As a model of respectful viewing and learning, as a mirror of the complex lifeway of ;the agricultural Plains Indians, as a chronicle of human adaptation, survival and ingenuity in the face of cultural disenfranchisement, Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden sets the bar for the standard. In addition, it gives eloquent testimony to one of the enduring gifts of the Hidatsa - their varieties of corn, squash, beans, and sunflowers. Even more enduring, perhaps, is the contribution highlighted by Jeffrey Hanson: "buffalo Bird Woman's Garden is not the end, but the beginning. It is a foundation, a viewpoint, and it presents a cultural relationship with nature that we can all appreciate and from which we can all derive benefit. (p.xxiii). Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden describes planting, preparation, cultivating, harvesting and storing practices, as well as traditional songs and prayers sung to honor and encourage the garden's yield. Beautifully detailed drawings by her son Edward Goodbird illustrate Buffalo Bird Woman's descriptions of gardening and storing produce and other activities. It is easy to see that modern ethnologists and authors such as W. Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear drew fairly heavily from the information presented in Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden. This is an enduring testament to a lifeway revalued today perhaps more as it should be.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

This is a Minnesota Historical Society reprint of the anthropological study done by Gilbert Wilson in 1917, originally published as "Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation." Wilson was among the first of a new school of American anthropologists that felt Indian cultures should speak for themselves, and not be spoken for by "white man's" interpretations. Consequently, the book really is, as the subtitle says, "an Indian interpretation." Most of the text is translated directly from Buffalo Bird Woman's own words, complete with stories, jokes, and personal anecdotes about village life. By the time you are done reading it, you will feel as if you met her personally.

I bought it because I am a Minnesota gardener, so I wanted to see what tips I might pick up from the ways of the indigenous people. The book is rich with useful gardening lore, including diagrams of various tools and structures, along with detailed descriptions of the different kinds of beans, corn, and squash that the Indians grew. Plus, there are native recipes you can try.

I was surprised to learn that, when the Indians dried squash, they didn't use mature fruits with hard skins like we do today, but preferred to cut them when they were 4 days old -- at about 3 1/2 inches diameter. They were more tender that way, easier to slice, and they dried better. The best squashes were marked in the field and allowed to mature for seed.

I also found it interesting that the Indians kept the different colors of corn separate, not like the multi-colored "Indian corn" we buy today for fall decorations. Although Buffalo Bird Woman did not understand the science behind genetics, she and her fellow Hidatsa gardeners did notice that corn varieties will "travel" (her word) from one patch to another if different colors are planted too closely together. So, women with adjoining fields would agree to plant the same varieties side-by-side, to help prevent this "traveling."

The Hidatsa women also understood the principles of good seed-saving techniques, and carefully chose seed from the very best squashes and corn ears in the crop, thereby improving their strains from year to year. Composting, however, was apparently unknown. Leaves and brush were burned, not composted, and they regarded manure as a dirty substance to be removed from the garden. But the Hidatsa did know the value of fallowing, and would allow a less-productive field rest a minimum of two years to renew itself.

Some of the techniques in this book are still quite useful today. I have begun pre-spouting my squash seeds, and planting them in the SIDES of the hills instead of on top, to help prevent the heavy rains from damaging the seedlings. Some of the fencing designs have found their way into my rustic Minnesota garden, too.

This book is also a priceless resource for "living history" re-enactors or "back to the land" homesteaders who might want to know how to build a traditional corn-drying platform, a food-storage cache, a homemade rake, or any of the other tools used successfully for many centuries before the Europeans came here. Simply a delightful book!

This is a unique and irreplaceable book. In the early 20th century, the author interviewed Buffalo Bird, an old Hidasta Indian woman about Indian farming methods in the mid 19th century. The result is a primer on how the Indians grew corn and other crops on the Great Plains. Interspaced with the explanation of agricultural techniques are charming stories, songs, recipes, and ancedotes told by Buffalo Bird. She also describes how the Indians preserved their crop.

The Hidasta lived in North Dakota and this book is a primer on how to garden in the State without recourse to chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or motor powered equipment. The Hidasta grew five crops: corn, beans, squash, sunflower seeds, and tobacco. Their methods of cultivation, storage, and usage of each crop is described, usually with enough detail to be copied by the modern low-impact sustainable agriculturalist. A large number of illustrations and photographs supplement the text and show how the Indians built fences, dug storage pits, dried squash, and laid out their fields.

A good introductory essay introduces the Hidasta, Bird Woman, and the author to the reader. The whole book is only about 150 pages, but there's a wealth of cultural and agricultural information here presented in a charming and easy-to-digest format.

Smallchief

A "must have" for anyone who is interested in doing a garden using authentic Native American practices, as used in the tribes in the Missouri Valley area. Details on laying out the garden, maintaining it, food storage, construction of tools, etc. are all included with sufficient clarity for reproduction.

Ché Guevara Speaks to Youth
The titles of these speeches are enough to tell why this should be every rebel's handbook.

As a physician, he explained that being good people is not enough to become a revolutionary doctor - one must make a revolution. Once that revolution had won through, he explained the tasks communist youth face. This advice may be taken well to heart, because there are too many people who try to be good persons, and leave it at that.

Read el Ché in his own voice, so you can make up your own mind. This is what Pathfinder Press stands out for: offering space for revolutionaries to speak for themselves. And well earned is this addition to the "...Speaks" "series."

Historically, this individual's intellectual development may be traced in this volume. The reader can see how the ideas gelled into what was to become the first experiment in the socialism of solidarity, which was retaken in 1985, just in time before the USSR began to quaver.

...as an equal.Too many books are out there "interpreting" Che Guevara ; most often by academics who fear and hate revolution.Here Che speaks for himself : how the Cuban revolution discovered the "road of Marx" by breaking out of the Yanqui Empire fror good; how "lone wolf" individualists do NOT make social revolutions; how to be a revolutionary MD or anything else "first a revolution must be made"; the need for a disciplined revolutionary youth organization;how to learn from fighting workers and peasants while fighting alongside them;internationalism as a necessity and a duty; the fight against postrevolution bureaucracy.These ideas as guide to action are how revolutionary Cuba has survived and will survive.Young and not-so-young fighters REQUIRE THIS BOOK as "globalized capitalism" tears our lives apart.To fight back "intelligently, as Malcolm X would say.Read "Cuba And The Coming American Revolution" by Jack Barnes side by side with this gem of a book.

Even if you are not so young person like myself, you can find your youth and your belief in the future,through Che's vision in these speeches. Whether speaking to a group of medical students in Havana, or a Latin American Youth Congress, or to anti-imperialist youth from around the world gathered in Algeria, Che's message to young people was not watered down. These speeches are a serious charge to young people to take the present and the future in their hands, and follow his vision of struggle for socialism, for the needs of working people, the oppressed, around the world. The ideas in this book are just as, or perhaps, even more valid than when Che lived.


While this book may not be directly available from Amazon at times, they are available from the booksfrompathfinder on Amazon that you can find by clicking on the new and used books on this page.

Che Guevara was an Argentinean-born revolutionary who helped lead the first socialist revolution in the Americas and initiate the renewal of Marxism. In Che Guevara Talks To Young People, he speaks as an equal with the youth of Cuba and the world as he challenges them to work, become disciplined, and join in the struggles for justice at home and abroad. Guevara excites youth to read, study, aspire to become revolutionary combatants, politicize the organizations and institutions they are part of, and in the process to politicize themselves. The talks collected in this single volume are prefaced by Armando Hart, and were compiled with the cooperation of Casa Editora Abril in Cuba. Che Guevara Talks To Young People is highly recommended reading for students of Marxism, the Socialist struggle in the Americas, as well as the life and thought of Che Guevara.

the book was in excellent condition. and i would recommend the seller to others. i am satisfied with the service i got.

Frances Densmore lived with and studied the Chippewa people of Minnesota for several years. Her research has proved an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to know more about this fascinating cultural group. This book is chock full of information, from naming ceremonies to marriage customs to burial rites. If it were not for Mrs. Densmore, many valuable facts on an important people group would be lost

Chippewa Customs is a detailed and facinating book, containing extensive information that will assist in my research on the history of the Chippewa tribe. This is my first tool to begin my search for distant ancestors. God bless the Author Frances Densmore.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I picked up "Chippewa Customs" by Frances Densmore. Written in the early part of the 20th century, it's a book that has remained readable and certainly enjoyable throughout the years.

Frances Densmore paints a very vivid picture of the Chippewa/Ojibwe people, from how they picked their names, to what they wore in winter, to the fact that they liked fish-heads as a delicacy, or the sleeping arrangements inside the family wigwam. It's absolutely screaming-full of all those little details that you're constantly trying to find but never can seem to put your finger on.

They're right here, of course! My only complaint is that the ceremonies (Marriage, births, etc) are only touched upon barely. I would have liked to hear more about those particular aspects.

This book (which I have not read in entirerty) is probably the first history book written about the Ojibway. Most importantly and interestingly, the author was half Ojibway and half French and was intimate with many of the Ojibway elders he interviews. The authors biography is worthwhile in its own right. I cannot recommend a better book to gain a first hand perspective on colonial Ojibway customs, politics, culture, and the like. While the author (though Indian himself) does deplore Indian's lack of civilization, that really only adds to the book by revealing western society's rascist attitudes to the Indians. The author has been educated and christianized and his rascism is in respect to these institutions. In most other regards he has great respect for his Ojibway family.

I found this book to be most facinating, and helped me to gain some knowledge of how my ancestors lived. Four generations of my relatives were born into the L'Anse Band of Chippewa and Lac Vieux Desert Band of Indians, but I had no history of how they lived. This book helped me have some insight on their lives and their parents lives. I have given each of my children a copy of this book so that they too can have some knowledge of what their native american relatives lives were like. A most interesting read!!

During the 1850s, William Whipple Warren, an Ojibway "Half BReed," a member of the Minnesota Territorial Legislature and frequent correspondent for the "Minnesota Democrat" (a newspaper out of Saint Paul), spoke to all the elders, story tellers and medicine men of the Ojibway Nation and wrote a book. Unfortunately, he died of tuberculosis before finishing it, a fact that has many historians cursing their rotten luck. But what he achieved was priceless. His book tells the story of the Ojibway Nation's migrations, their battles against other tribes (like the Dakota, the Fox, and the Mundua), and how they first came to know the white man. FOr those who, like myself, went to public schools which portrayed the Indians as peaceful children of nature, this book explodes like a nuclear warhead on all misconceptions. Pre-Columbian America was a very brutal and VERY bloody place. Warren details the Ojibway's torure of captives, their vigilante approach to justice, and their vicious blood feuds against other tribes. THis book is NOT for the squeamish. Parts of it make Herbert Asbury's "THe Gangs of New York" look, well, kind of like a kid's game. Do NOT read this book if you posess a weak stomache. But it also proves that the history of the AMerican Indian is far too complex to fit with anyone's politically motivated attempts to push it into a box. I, for one, am deeply disapointed that Mr. Warren died before coming even close to completing his projected 7 volumes of work on the Ojibway Nation. There is much in this book already, though, to fascinate the reader and fill several film scripts. Therefore, this is a book that I recommend strongly for anyone with a strong stomache. William Warren, I salute you!

An excellent book covering the history of the Ojibwas primarily in the Northern Wisconsin/Minnesota area. William Warren did a fine job of badgering the tribal elders till he received the information he sought. Written in the 1880's, Warren writes of the different clans and their interactions, the introduction to the white men they liked (French) and hated (British), and the constant warring with other tribes (mostly Sioux) over prime hunting lands which took the lives of many. According to Warren, "Ojibwa" means "to roast until puckered", needless to say, he's not talking about dinner. If just one book on the Ojibwas is in your plans, this should be the one. I myself would prefer to read a book written by someone who actually talked to these tribal elders over 100 years ago, not someone who attempts to do so nowadays, generations (and clouded memories) later.

The book Vineyard Voices is a documentary in book form. The book puts to paper the exact words of longtime residents in their own dialect, many whose families go back generations on the Vineyard, so you'll feel like you are hearing them speak in person. It's a marvelous idea for a book, to record images and stories of this island from its past. Every community undergoing growth and changes should document its oldtimers.

Anyone who has spent any time on Martha's Vineyard will quickly recognize the names in this book: Luce, Medeiros, Vanderhoop, Griswold. Many of the interviewees, in addition to being 5th, 6th, or 14th generation Vineyarders, are known worldwide: Dorothy West, Henry Beetle Hough, Dionis Coffin Riggs, Alfred Eisenstaedt.
The stories range from rememberances of simpler days gone by to details of life in a fishing community to the outrageous and humorous. My possible favorite anecdote is from Craig Kingsbury titled, "I didn't bring any skunks to the island...Tales from an island legend". This folklegend is as prevalent on Martha's Vineyard as the skunks!
As a former island resident, I found this book to be an enjoyable read and trip down memory lane. For true Islanders, it is a MUST!

Linsey has done the island, and the field of oral history, an invaluable service. This is a true treasure that captures the real feel of the Vineyard, not the prepackaged Vineyard-for-tourists. An incredible read for anyone who wants a look at rural life early in this century.

This insightful compilation of true life stories of the Vineyard and the people that have made it what it is today; an island rich with history (not an island of the rich). You can pick it up and put it down 75 times and get a new feel for the island with each interview. If you are intersted in truely learning about the Vineyard, this is the book.

For Minnesota's Sesquicentennial, the Minnesota History Center created the acclaimed MN150 exhibit of 150 people, places and things that shaped Minnesota, chosen from over 2,700 citizen nominations. They put much time and money into developing the exhibit. (Check out the website for more interesting reading.) This enjoyable and very readable book presents brief profiles of those 150 entries. The 150 entries cover a wide range of topics covering all aspects of Minnesota history.

I believe that learning the interesting stories of people is a great way to learn about history, since history is the story of people. By reading these 150 brief profiles, you'll gain a solid overview of Minnesota in way that's interesting and actually enjoyable to read. This provides terrific snapshots of moments in Minnesota history.

You'll briefly learn about people like Hubert H. Humphrey, Charles Lindbergh, Ann Bancroft, James J. Hill, Dan Patch, Nobel Peace Prize-winner Norman Borlaug, Fredrick McGhee, Prince, Bob Dylan, American Indian Movement, Republican governors Elmer Andersen and Harold Stassen, golfer Patty Berg, baseball legend Charles Bender, GPS inventor Bradford Parkinson, Wanda Gag, heart surgery pioneer Owen Wangensteen, suffragette Clara Ueland, 3M, the first mall, Guthrie Theater, John Thomas, John Ireland, Mayo Clinic, First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Garrison Keillor, Itasca State Park, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sister Kenny, US-Dakota War, space program pioneer Robert Gilruth, and many, many more facinating people. This is a fascinating read for your bedside table.

Everyone will enjoy most of the entries, love some of the profiles, and dislike a few, depending on your biases. From giants of business to radicals on the Iron Range, this is the history of Minnesota. It's all here.

I do wish that part of the winning nominations by the nominators were included. Some were excellent to read. You can read them at the MN150 website. This exhibit was supposed to be "the people have spoken." Also, I felt that Peanuts creator Charles Schultz should have been included and a couple other entries maybe should not have made it. None-the-less, these are minor quibbles.

One great thing about this book is that it's interactive. You can think of what you would include, and after you read this book, you may find yourself realizing the importance of a few things you previously would not have considered or learn about different times and the people who lived back then. In some ways, America is like a hologram, with different appearances depending your distance and perspective, or like the many facets of a diamond.

This book is extremely well written, and I highly doubt that anyone else could have done such an excellent job. Bravo to Kate Roberts. This is a great book for a great exhibit.

Highest recommendation!

When the public was asked to enter suggestions for 150 significant people, things, etc that shaped Minnesota's history and then a committee finalized the selection it is absolutely amazing what a broad spectrum of these choices turned out to be. The entire State was represented. The book captures the exhibit at the Minnesota History Center and provides snapshots of what was important during the past 150 years. Amazing how it was put together in a fun and informative mode. A great gift book for those who care about Minnesota and history buffs.

Of course, I am prejudiced on this one -- my great grandfather, Hamilton Harris Judson, is one of the Minnesota 150 (#70 on Page 93) - and one of the 150 chosen from 2,700 nominees. However, this is a very interesting book and is a must-have for anyone interested in Minnesota history. There are facts that I'm sure most people are unaware of (even those who've lived in Minnesota all their lives). A very interesting book which highlights a number of people, places and things that not only contributed to Minnesota's growth, but also the nation as a whole.

This book is a "must" for anyone who is proud to be a Minnesotan or is interested in Minnesota's history. You do not have to read it cover to cover right away -- just pick and choose. And then read some more.

I had lunch with Van Reid in August of 2001. He was as fun to talk to as his books are to read! I love the humor, the insight, the intrigue and the adventures of the Moosepath League! I agree that this installment is not as "heavy" as Daniel Plainway (at least to all but Ephram, Eagleton,and Thump!) but all the other elements are present. I laughed out loud several times while flying, which caused my fellow passengers to wonder about me, I am sure. Moxie!

How could I have missed this series? I enjoy stories set in this period because my own father was born in 1890; in Kentucky. He was a small-town boy, following the work to Ohio where he and several of his brothers settled.

I can picture him being a member of such a club as the Moosepath League and having small adventures such as author Reid depicts in this series of books. My father was not bumbling like most of these characters, but he was witty and funny and would no doubt have led them on even more exciting adventures.

Reid paints a vivid picture of a small town of the late 80s ... filled with characters who would make entertaining neighbors. They'd certainly liven up any neighborhood with their quaint, old-fashioned, yet quirky fun.

It's obvious this is a satire, and I love satire myself. (I discovered these books because on Amazon.com they were placed beside one of the books I wrote: THE TOONIES INVADE SILICON VALLEY. While the TOONIES does not disparage our lovely Valley in anyway, I certainly delighted in poking a bit of fun at our techie culture ... tongue-in-cheek humor, of course ... as Mr. Reid does in these books.)

Fun reads! Enjoy all four.

For excellent quality, humor, detailed plots, and kind, likeable characters, you can't beat Van Reid's "Moosepath League" novels. The latest, "Mrs. Roberto", seems to me to be a little lighter in tone than "Molly Peer" or "Daniel Plainway", but is still immensely involving and entertaining. This kind of writing just cannot be found anywhere else today. If you are fond of the classics or nineteenth century American literature, you will love Van Reid.

The willing adventurers of the Moosepath League of Victorian Portland, Maine, have lost none of their good-natured innocence in this fourth adventure, despite entanglements with tavern keepers, loose women, pickpockets, hoboes and worse. Indeed, Van Reid's droll storytelling depends upon it.

Misdirection and misunderstanding form the strong foundation of the meandering and digressive missions of the League's six members, who gather at the Shipswood Restaurant in the spring of 1897 for one of their regular dinners. They raise their water glasses (prohibition has been in effect in Maine for 46 years) to their only female member, Miss Phileda McCannon, who's making a journey to settle her deceased aunt's affairs. Mr. Tobias Walton, their chairman and the oldest at 48, is a bit subdued on this occasion as Phileda has not given an answer to his proposal of marriage.

Joseph Thump, Christopher Eagleton and Matthew Ephram are still in a small state of excitement after nearly running down a tavern keeper named Sparks who could have been Thump's double, but for his workingman's clothing and his high-pitched voice. The youngest member, Walton's faithful assistant Sundry Moss, 23, is the only one who dares to hazard that the crowd of ruffians backing away from the near-accident were pursuing Sparks rather than attempting his rescue.

The trio of Thump, Eagleton and Ephram have not seen the last of Sparks. Walking home through an unfamiliar and doubtful part of town, Thump happens to save a policeman from certain death-by-falling-piano, thereby incurring Mrs. Sparks' heartfelt gratitude for preserving her cousin, the perpetrator, from a murder charge.

This might again have been the end of it, but the trio, inspired by an incident in a play, determine that the lovely balloon ascensionist, Mrs. Roberto, must be in need of rescuing. Their mission leads them to a house of ill-repute (not that they ever realize where they are) and a run-in with the gang that's after Sparks, from which they escape thanks to Sparks' youngest son and his urchin friend who lead them over Portland's slippery rooftops. Sparks' network of less-than-respectable relatives continues to aid the trio as they seek Mrs. Roberto from Bangor to Dresden Mills, taking up with a large party of hoboes along the way.

Meanwhile, Moss, attempting to distract his employer, has taken Walton to visit his uncle in Norridgewock, though they never make it quite that far. The train is delayed in Bowdoinham where Walton is pressed to come to the aid of a glum prize pig. Perplexed by the locals' assumption of his expertise in porcine matters (the reader has been let-in on the misunderstanding), but as willing and easy-going as ever, Walton embarks on a visit to the Ferns, unhappy owners of the depressed pig, where Moss, a farmer's son and a bit more worldly than his fellow Moosepathians, soon susses the problem.

With digressions for the furtherance of romance and good acquaintance, Reid piles misunderstandings upon misunderstandings, constructing a hilarious journey through the towns and by-ways of Maine and the social strata of its best inhabitants. It all culminates in a spectacular and chaotic natural disaster, reuniting the League and necessitating numerous rescues and confusion and some wonderfully vivid writing.

Lots of local color and history round out the adventure. Reid's prose is playful, witty and dry, as well as eloquent and visual. The contrast between the transparent innocence of the steadfastly clueless trio and the sharp wits of Sundry Moss (think young George Burns and Gracie Allen) is a pleasure, further enhanced by the ready-for-anything calm of Toby Walton. Reid (whose Maine roots go back more than two centuries) leaves us with a tantalizing hint of the next to come in the League's adventures. These books are for anyone who enjoys wit and good-natured storytelling in the Dickensian tradition.

I ran across this when I googled Kemp's name years back. I went to Howard with Kemp and just wanted to see what he was up to. I had read a few of his pieces in this or that magazine. I was shocked and excited when I saw he had published a book and this was it. I ordered it and it was awesome.

Memoirs have always been kinda suspect, but his one written by a dude in his 30s, was so genuine in its recollection of events and emotions. it pulled me in, sucked me under, pulled me up, revived me, patted me on my butt and sent on my way with a perspective of - what would I do, how would I feel after a life altering event. How do folks cope after loss? How would I?

By the grace of God go I...

Eloquently written and vividly detailed, the Shooting is a story of a child who make a stupid mistake (as children do) that cost his best friend his life. Although he does not end up doing any jail or juvenile time, he ends up paying for it psychologically for decades. It is obvious that Powers has played out the incident in his mind on an endless loop, going over the "what ifs?" thousands of times.
Also, the imagery of his childhood growing up in New York City is fantastic. I never heard of this book before coming across it on Amazon and buying it because it was listed under used books for just a couple of cents. But it is by far one the best memoirs I've read, and I've read a lot. Even though I may have nothing in common with a black man from Brooklyn, it touched my heart, made me laugh, and made me cry. It took alot of guts to write this book, and I hope Mr. Powers has made peace with that one defining moment all those years ago.

I loved this memoir. I related to Kemp Powers' story of depression, guilt, loss and determination. We are all on the quest (at least I hope we all are) to make something of ourselves and to do something meaningful with our lives, yet many of us don't pursue this goal with the burden of having taken a life on our backs. This is a must read!! Here is hoping a paperback is coming soon so I can pass it on to the many young boys I know who would benefit from Powers' story!

Kemp Powers tells his story about an unimaginable moment at 14 when he accidentally killed his best friend in a gun accident. The actual shooting is described in just a few pages, the remainder is Kent Power's life before and after, impacted forever by that moment.

The real pull of the book is the undercurrents about life and fate. There are no answers except the story.