Colorado Books

I am a fan of Louis L'Amour and Matthew White will give him a run for his money. This is a great book worth reading and hard to put down. I hope he will write a sequal and maybe even a trilogy. Keep up the great writing and hope to read more books written by Matthew White.

Fort Medano is a great western story. When I started reading this book I couldn't put it down. Matthew White has done a wonderful job of bring the real old west to the palm of your hands. I felt like I was right in the middle of the action riding side by side with outlaws, soldiers, and Indians. I highly recommend Fort Medano as a must read western from an author on his way to becoming the next Louis L'Amour.

A promising new young writer has written a good clean book that anyone can read and not be offended. His insights are remarkable as he presents all types and classes of people from those upholding the law as well as the law breakers, people of different races and cultures and yet does not condemn anyone but depicts how they feel and why. A very good read and one that you will not want to put down until you get to the end.

A great guide for the collector who wants to identify the different fossils in the slabes he has collected.

The Fossils of Florissant written by Herbert W. Meyer is a wonderful collection of flora and fauna from the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument just outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado in the shadow of Pikes Peak. Encased between layers of volcanic ash from an erupted volcano 34 million years ago are animals, leaves, and plant life at the time and are remarkably well preserved.

"The Fossils of Florissant" is a collection of different museum specimens all brought together in one readable tome for not only the specialist paleontologist but the causal reader of interest as well. This book is easily followed and is laid out well. There are ample illustrations and photographs to whet the readers interest making for a book to keep. These fossil specimens are so well preserved that a color patterns of tiny flies are preserved.

"The Fossils of Florissant" is a feast for the imagination as one wishes to understand life's history on planet Earth and this is a clear snapshot into time as it was on a wooded lake shore some 34 millions years ago in the Eocene. There are pictures of flowers, spiders, and insects galore making this one of Earth's richest deposit of life on Earth in this time.

The reader will enjoy this book as it is. The book is well appointed and there is pictures of fossilized vertebrates from this time even thorough they are small. The larger vertebretes are only fragmetary but this show that this area was a one time teaming with life and is a good cross section into how life was at that time. If you have any scientific background you'll enjoy this author's prose. Even if you are a casual reader, you'll enjoy reading about life's past.

"The Fossils of Florissant" gets a solid five stars from me. This is a highly readable well illustrated book that will capture and hold your attention till the end. The study of geology and paleontology at plases like Florissant clearly shows that the world is, if for nothing else, an everchanging, evolving place.

This is a delightful book, well written and profusely illustrated, about one of the world's premier fossil insect and plant localities. It is written for the serious paleontologist, as well as the casual inquisitive reader interested in the natural world.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is remarkable because it constitutes a highly detailed snapshot of life at a time when the earth was entering a period of major climate change. The setting is a 34 million year-old forest, along a lake teeming with exceptional diversity, in the shadow of an erupting volcano. Due to the outstanding quality of preservation, many unique fossil plants, birds, butterflies, spiders, bees, and fish from this site appear to have met their demise only yesterday.

During the last 100 years, a large number of prized fossils from Florissant have been scattered to museums all over the world. The author has traveled extensively to find and catalog these specimens, and assemble a collection of color photographs printed in exquisite detail. He meticulously reconstructs the ancient ecosystem from the fossil record, at times much like a detective unravels clues from a good murder mystery. Interesting twists abound. For example, why is the only fossil of the tsetse fly-the blood-sucking, disease-carrying scourge of equatorial Africa today-- found at this location high in the Rockies?

When it comes to fossils, big is not necessarily better. Dinosaur books have grabbed the imagination of many in the last few years, but The Fossils of Florissant, by Herbert Meyer, is a newcomer that deserves to be at the top of the heap.

Weller's prose and photography make this book an often-visited favorite of mine. His emotive musings fuse with incredible photography to give a sense of place to a destination that may seem desolate to some, but which teems with unique and tenuous life.

The first thing that struck me about this book was the depth of Weller's exploration of Great Sand Dunes National Park. His images feature all seasons, a wide variety of subjects, and capture the many moods and emotions of this national treasure. As you delve into the book and read Weller's essays, he takes you on a virtual journey through the wilderness of the park - you can practically feel the sand in your fingernails and eyes; feel the rain of a summer storm; and step out of your home into an entirely different world. I highly recommend this book, both for its photography, and for Weller's writing.

Great Sand Dunes National Park: Between Light And Shadow is a collection of essays and photographs by Boulder, Colorado-based nature photographer John B. Weller and showcases the landscapes of the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The truly breathtaking, full-color images of sand dunes, tracks, and wildlife are perfectly complemented by the brief reflective pieces describing the author's journey and experiences. Great Sand Dunes National Park reveals captivating beauty amid shifting sands and seasons; it is exceptionally easy to lose oneself in the panoramic interplays of light, shadow, sand, and natural life. A "must-have" for nature and environmental photography collections.

Well written short biography's of some notable Colorado historical figures and some recent ones. Entertaining and informative.

I wasn't thirlled when I was given this book as a present - but as soon as I read the first lively biography, I became a fan of this well-written, sprightly collection of biographies of the colorful, eccentric characters who people Colorado's history. This book adds a well-researched human touch to the history of the west, and anyone who loves that history will be captivated by it.

I thoroughly enjoyed Here Lies Colorado. It gave entertaining insight into some really colorful characters and the times in which they lived. The author writes well about his subjects who are wide-ranging. I'd read about a few people and then say to myself, "Okay, just one more"....again and again and again! Needless to say, I finished the book too quickly.

I love her adventures

I truly enjoyed this book. It is one of the books I re-read every winter. I found the main character refreshing and unique from the "sleuths" I've been reading for years. The sense of humor is wry and the writer throws that quick-wit at you. I find myself chuckling out loud. The read is fast-paced. You hate to have it end. This was the first book I picked up by this author, in this series. Excellent!

I thought this book was AWSOME!!!! Because really at like the beginning I was a bit bored then i really started getting into it. then once they arrived at the ranch and they were giving you clues on who did it it let you belive a total maximum of things. i found this book great!

Under suspicion for embezzlement Abigail Pierce, accompanied by her sister Moriah, flee St. Louis to run their late father's store at Fort Lookout, Colorado. The commander of the army post, Captain Bryce McGregor tries, but fails to persuade the siblings to go home as they do not belong in the rugged unsafe Rocky Mountains even inside the fort. Bryce does convince the women to stay with him until the store can be renovated and made hospitable. His young daughter Pamela serves as a perfect chaperone so Abby and Moriah accept the kind offer.

Pamela adopts Abby as a mother figure and the former St. Louis resident cannot stop her heart from reaching out to the young child. Inadvertently Pamela plays matchmaker as Abby and Bryce fall in love. However, Abigail willingly sacrifices her happiness because she knows the scandal she fled would destroy the man she cherishes as a rising officer cannot afford a dishonored (even if she is innocent) spouse.

There are few if any authors that can provide such well drawn characters including secondary players with a colorfully vivid nineteenth century Americana panorama inside an exciting historical romance than Leigh greenwood can. His latest tale INDEPENDENT BRIDE matches up two honorable individuals in love and encouraged by her sister and his daughter and even to a degree his men, but those same principles stand in their way of happiness. Mr. Greenwood shows that principles are important even if it costs achievement of a personal goal all that within a fabulous post Civil War romance with a deep message.

Harriet Klausner

Favorite scene with Abby-
Shooting the intruder in her store.

Favorite scene with Bryce-
Abby telling Bryce she can't be with him.

Together-
The gunfight while getting the cows to the reservation.

What did you like about Abby-
Her stubborness and her strength. Her love for Pamela. Not willing to give up, despite obstacles.

What didn't you like about Abby-
She was too stubborn to listen to advice on how to protect herself. She wanted to do things her way. She wouldn't let herself love and be loved because of her past.

What did you like about Bryce-
His love for Abby and his daughter, Pamela.

What didn't you like about Bryce-
Only that he wouldn't let his soldiers marry.

If I had to cast Abby, I'd cast Hilary Swank.

Abby and Moraih's father had left them with their Aunt Emma. He would send money home for them. But the girls still worked. Moraih worked for her aunt in the dress shop. Abby worked in a bank.

That's were she met Albert. They were engagded to be married. But one day Abby found out that Albert was embezzling money from the bank. She gave him two weeks to return the money or she would turn him in. Someone else also found out and turned him in. Albert was arrested, he implied that Abby was his accomplice. They never found any evidence that she was involved.

In the meantime, Abby's father died. The girls decided to move to the west and take over the trading post at Fort Lookout.

When they arrive, they find that the trading post is nothing like the store their father had in St.Louis. They were also confronted by three thugs. Who thought they were going to have their way with Abby and Moraih. But Colonel Bryce McGregor intervene's. He throws the three in jail. Then tried to send Abby and Moraih back to St.Louis. The two are determined to stay and make things work. They had nothing else.

The Colonel agrees to let them stay in his extra bedroom. That is until the trading post is ready. While staying at Bryce's home, Abby falls in love with Bryce and his dauhter Pamela. But Abby has vowed that she would never let another man into her life. Especially after Albert.

Can Abby get over her past, to become Bryce's wife and Pamela's mother. Or will the embezzlement issue in St.Louis caome back to haunt her.

I have read a lot of American history with the Old West being my favorite subject. I have always said that Stephen Ambrose's books about the Old West are some of my favorites that I have read over and over. I just finished reading Money Mountain by Marshall Sprague. It is now my favorite history book of the Old West. He writes so well it was hard to put down. Of course, the subject matter is unbelievable mining history. Some prior historical knowledge of the Cripple Creek Mining District in the late 1800s is very helpful to have before you read this book.

I was looking for a complete history of Cripple Creek from it's beginning, and I found it in this easy to read and follow book. Great details encompassing many different pioneers and stories of the area.

I don't know where I got this book, but at whim I just picked it off my bookshelf. I was not particularly interested in Colorado, or gold mining, but this well-researched history of the Cripple Creek district was so well written, that I just couldn't put it down. This book was written 50 years ago, but Marshall Sprague's style is so crisp, so fresh, it reads like it was written yesterday. He has a real knack for chapter-ending punchlines.

There is only one "problem" with the book. It seems so contemporary, that when I read such statistics as the price of gold, and they were off by hundreds of dollars, I had to remind myself that the book was indeed a half century old. The author died in 1994. I am sorry I cannot tell him how his writing shines. I plan to read other titles of his.

A beautiful, fluid and masterfully written novel. It takes what seems to be a simple act of murder in a dive bar called La Tortuga and builds, nuance by nuance, a group of characters and a series of events that are utterly real. We look through the eyes of Kiko Vigil, as he is viciously murdered while sitting across from his lover, Lorraine Garza, the wife of a crime lord. Only a drifter in wheelchair, knocked over by the killer as he runs to his car with a struggling woman slung over his shoulder, has the answers everyone is looking for. Danny Mora, or Moony as only his oldest friend knows him, is hired by Vigil's colleague to investigate the murder when the INS decides it would be better for time to swallow it hole. The deeper he gets into his investigation, the further he gets from the drifter and closer to a killer that puts all he knows and loves into mortal danger.

This book is a stand alone to Ramos' other books in his Luis Montez series. It's ending left me in shock, slack jawed at what had just happened. You could not find a higher standard of writing than the one found in this definitive work.

My sister recommended this book to me. I was intrigued, so when I read it this last weekend I was pretty excited. Wow, what a great book!!! I loved the characters and Ramos talks about the city like someone who loves it.

I was drawn into the lives of the characters right off. They come across as very realistic and natural. I want to read more about them.

Ramos also managed to surprise me with the ending which happens less and less lately.

A beautiful, fluid and masterfully written novel. It takes what seems to be a simple act of murder in a dive bar called La Tortuga and builds, nuance by nuance, a group of characters and a series of events that are utterly real. We look through the eyes of Kiko Vigil, as he is viciously murdered while sitting across from his lover, Lorraine Garza, the wife of a crime lord. Only a drifter, in a wheelchair, knocked over by the killer as he runs to his car with a struggling woman slung over his shoulder, has the answers everyone is looking for. Danny Mora, or Moony as only his oldest friend knows him, is hired by Vigil's colleague to investigate the murder when the INS decides it would be better for time to swallow it hole. The deeper he gets into his investigation, the further he gets from the drifter and closer to a killer that puts all he knows and loves into mortal danger.

This book is a stand alone to Ramos' other books in his Luis Montez series. It's ending left me in shock, slack jawed at what had just happened. You could not find a higher standard of writing than the one found in this definitive work.

I found "A More Valued Success" to be a thoughtful and insightful book. The book walks the reader through the steps necessary to making value driven decisions and life changes. I liked the practical and concrete examples that were provided. Spitale's concepts are easily applied to the reader's everyday life. This book is a relevant guide, inviting the reader to conduct a meaningful inventory, assessment, and plan for positive change at work and at home. Spitale writes with confidence and uses a clear, readable style. Nicely Done!

This is a great book and is so easy to follow. The book is an amazing roadmap for people in business and for families. The examples in the text are inspiring and easy to apply to my everyday life. I am using this book to re-align the way I make decisions and I am so happy that the author is donating a portion of the proceeds to charity.

A More Valued Success is a quick enjoyable read. The book speaks to the importance of values both in business and one's personal life. There are numerous examples and analogies that drive home the concepts introduced throughout.

I recommend the book for business executives as well as families!

This is a really awesome book. It takes you into the minds of 6 college students trying to live in a condemed home. These six people need to learn how to cope and live together, by making....and breaking rules. I highly recommend it to any teenager out there looking for some entertainment.

This is a really entertaining book. 3 guys, 3 girls live in an abandoned house where there are lots of opportunities to break the house rules. Like falling in love with a house-mate. I liked this book

This book, Reality 101; Never Fall In Love, lets you get into the author's head and see each caharacter as to who they're really like. Mac, the funny, sporty boy. Micael, the preppy, dependable, older-brother type, and Dane, the been-to-jail-for-little-things-but-YOU-don't-have-to-know- that-thay-were-little, punk rocker are the boys. Then there's Emily, who spent her whole highschooldating vanilla ice-cream, Holly, who daydreams like a five-year-old and Paris, who was named after her MARRIED father's girlfriend, enough said. With humor and many other ways, this book really keeps you entertained. I really enjoyed it.