North Dakota Books

At the time this book was originally written (1830), the Northwest was the upper Missisippi Valley. I originally read this book because the author had lived among the Native American Indians and knew their culture. This was before the true nature of the European White man had become evident to the Indians and the Indians treated the White man as equals. But, in his introduction, even though he blasts other authors for their shallow representation of the Indian, he automatically assumes the Indians are not as good as White people and treats them as such in the book. Frequently though, the Indian looks more honorable than the White man in the ten stories. Despite the author's bias, a picture of the Indian's culture does come through. A good read for Indian and White culture at the time

"Me casé con un comunista" es una novela en que Philip Roth explora la temática de la caza de brujas, que tuviera lugar en los Estados Unidos durante la época del senador McCarthy (años 40 y 50). En este contexto, Ira Ringold, protagonista de la obra, es un excombatiente de la II Guerra Mundial que actúa como propagandista de la causa comunista. En consecuencia, esta es una historia de lealtades y de traiciones. Todos los que están con él, lo abandonan en algún momento, salvo Nathan y el hermano de Ira, Murray. Todos dudan, como hicieron los apóstoles con Jesús, y al final todos caen en la cuenta de que Ira era un buen tipo, algo iluso y llevado de sus ideas como todos los ilusos, pero un buen tipo, más allá de lo acertado o errado que hubiese podido estar en sus juicios.
Me parece, no obstante, que para un escritor como Philip Roth, la trama es sólo la excusa para encarar el tema del creador y su obra, la "relación" del creador con su obra. Aquí el narrador, Nathan, cede su sitio al narrador Murray y éste al narrador Ira, etcétera. En el juego de las perspectivas para juzgar la realidad, Roth siempre resulta vencedor, porque en sus fallos no parece haber culpables, aunque los haya. "Me casé con un comunista" es una novela de víctimas, aun cuando se trate de los propios traidores. Lo que me gusta de las novelas de Roth, y de esta en particular, es su especial delicadeza para tratar a sus anta-gonistas. Siempre les concede la cláusula de humanidad que aún estando equivocados, les pertenece, pues en el fondo de lo que se trata aquí es de la dignidad de las personas.
El juego de espejos con que Roth construye su obra es una confirmación de una práctica suya. Yo no diría que es su estilo sino, más que eso, su "arte poética." En cierto modo, Roth es lo contrario de Ellroy pero también lo es de Bellow. Quizá se parezca más a I.B. Singer, aunque su temática es algo más amplia. Y es que a Roth no le interesa tanto el culpable como la culpa, o el castigo como la expiación.
En fin, aun cuando "Me casé..." es posterior a "Contravida," esta última me gusta más porque en ella la manera de explorar la realidad se halla más a la vista. Es más notoria. Y en este sentido actúa mejor como la novela de iniciación de un consumado, en tanto guía para iniciados. "Contravida" es más explícita que "Me casé..." Es más "manual." La realidad es algo más remota porque sirve de resonancia a los protagonistas, al revés de lo que ocurre aquí, en que la cuerda de la historia (el macartismo) vibra para que se despierten las musas.
La recomiendo para lectura y relectura. Es otra de mis candidatas para abolir el olvido.

Roth's subject and style in his later novels has devolved into political/social/personal interrogations of post WW II America; this one is insightful, original, masterfully written, clever, and authoritative. Roth has stated the significant aspect of the novel is 'voice' and this is a perfect example of it. There are fascinating ironies in the book that entwine to develop a multi-layered novel of a variety of Americans caught up in competeting allegiances of the 1940's and 1950's. It is a study in imperfections of the left and right; the confusion of a nation whose citizens grasp after meaning whether through the studies of history; the search for financial security, the fear of the 'red scare,' the ruts that unlearned abstract thinking can lead to as well as the dangers of ideologies when championed by people with personal, unconscious agendas. Roth has the ability to write a finessed novel like Nabokov if he chose to. Thankfully, he has used his talents to create works of importance that are more than literary. Additionally, I listen to about 12-15 audiobooks a year, and Ron Silver, the actor's rendering of the New York City accent is subtle, true and utterly mesmerizing.

The life of Ira Ringold, a Communist activist-cum-radio star who was betrayed to the blacklist by his actress wife, is reflected upon by the last two people alive who knew him--his brother Murray, a former English teacher, and Nathan Zuckerman, who grew up idealizing him. The result is a complex and fascinating novel about the nature of human passion, betrayal, and much more.

Ira emerges as a tremendously angry and violent figure who latches on to Communism as a means of civilizing himself. Young Nathan is initially swept along by the purity of Ira's fervor, but ultimately gains perspective as he matures and broadens intellectually while Ira remains mired in a pure belief in Communist doctrine that blinds him to all its faults. Murray tries to act as the voice of reason to shield Ira from his own impusivity and rage. All of this goes on again the backdrop of the Hollywood blacklist and the vicious social mercanaries of the elite. Recommended.

It's amazing that Roth continues to produce such first rate novels. This sad story about the seductions of communism in the 40's and 50's, and the hysterical reactions of the paranoid right, is an excellent introduction to the craziness of the HUAC manipulations of public fears (which has so many applications to todays political scene) while telling a story of how the age impacts the lives of one group caught up in it.
Yet the flaws of the characters are fully developed and so that there is no hint of mere propagandizing.

Roth is a national treasure.

I really liked this book. It is actually my first Philip Roth book. I was drawn to it because I find this period of American history, the 1930s-1950s, fascinating. I'm drawn to the idealism of people like the fictional hero of this book (Iron Rinn) and of real life activists who figure in the book (Paul Robeson). I find labor history during that time extremely interesting. I also find the betrayal and spying and generally insane political atmosphere of the Cold War period horrifying and yet something that we should never forget.

I admired Roth's portrait of Iron Rinn. Although he is an idealist, an obsessive, and an altogether annoying person who incessantly repeats himself and refuses to admit any shortcomings in his Communist ideology, it is easy to see why someone like him would be drawn to Communism. A working-class man with little education who has dealt with anti-Semitism his whole life, Iron Rinn is naturally in sympathy with the working classes and with black Americans. At that time, unfortunately, there seemed to be limited organized ways to aggressively address glaring social inequities.

And while I certainly find it upsetting that people like Ira failed to listen to the stories of what was actually happening in Stalinist Russia, his anger at a society that felt that persecuting "communists" was more pressing an issue than poverty, exploitation, or racism is certainly something the reader can identify with.

So basically this book is a skilled and moving portrait of a flawed, angry, and naive man-a deeply human man- who genuinely wants social justice; of the bitterness and pettiness and hysteria of red-baiting (which cost countless people their jobs and reputations), and one individual's too human frailties that are his downfall.

The story is narrated by a man twenty years Iron Rinn's junior who once worshipped him. The story unfolds as this now middle-aged man, Nathan, talks to Iron Rinn's brother Murray about the late Iron Rinn. Iron Rinn lost everything due to his connections to Communism, and in fact both Murray and Nathan were victims through their connections to him, even though neither was a communist (Nathan flirted with it for awhile but was a teenager).

I enjoyed this aspect of the story, Nathan's recalling of his hero-worship of Iron Rinn, because it's a universal emotion we can all identify with-when we are so young and first begin to pick intellectual and moral heroes in our lives and try to model ourselves after them. And then it is quite upsetting when, as in Nathan's case and in many like these, we find out that our heroes are flawed, and in some cases, we can become disillusioned.

Roth also does a great job lambasting the hypocrisy and the pathetic nature of those who persecuted men like Iron Rinn for political purposes. And at the center of the story, showing the banality that usually accompanies these types of political crucifixions, is the fact that Iron is betrayed by his own wife for purely personal reasons.

(I also really liked Roth's description of Nixon's funeral!)

I enjoyed this story on so many levels; the history lesson about American life and politics and the shrewd insight into family relationships. It is a great read.

This is my first Moloney read and I am impressed .

The story starts out so relaxing in a fictional town of Goodlands North Dakota . A small town that most would say is a nice place to farm and raise a family but then Goodlands hasn't had any rain for 4 yrs and the farmers are concerned and then Tom (a drifter ) comes to town and his first stop is a bar where he meets these guys and makes a $50 wager with them that he can make it rain ............

In away the author brings Tom to life in the novel and with his ways of trying to congure up the rain it is so relaxing like you are right there on that field next to him and feel the presence of the rain just beyond grasp , so real you can almost smell the rain and the fresh air .

A very nice relaxing read and I give this author and the plot of the story 5* . I will read more by Moloney .

I originally read this book when it was first published years ago. I never forgot it and, when I ran across a copy recently, grabbed it up to visit once again.

Unfortunately, like many fond memories revisited, this book failed to live up to my recollection. The story stayed in my mind for years because of the originality of its premise, but the writing quality isn't as spectacular as I recall. Either that, or my taste has been educated and elevated over the last several years.

Still, it's a decent workmanlike genre novel: a romantic thriller with supernatural overtones, efficiently plotted and relatively well-executed for its kind. Karen the banker and Tom the rainmaker are sympathetic characters, if somewhat underdeveloped. The other town residents barely rise above two-dimensionality but serve their purpose in advancing the story. The loose ends, with one glaring exception, tie up neatly. (The "town secret" is the one gaping hole in the plot never resolved to my satisfaction.)

If you're looking for great literature, read To Kill A Mockingbird. If you want an enjoyable way to give your brain a rest and kill a few hours, read this.

Once I started reading this book it had me well within its grasp. I could not put it down. There are a few places where it drags and the author goes on tangents (I blame the editor, not the author), but the story itself is gripping.

With a better editor, this author could definitely give Stephen King a run for his money.

I really was interested in this book from the get go. It has a very interesting and unusual plot. I found myself skimming pages toward the last third of the book only because I was beginning to find the writing slow and more "filler" than anything. As good as the story started out, my interest dwindled toward the last part of the book. I think the "main" characters, the rainmaker and Karen, should have been explored further, as well as the entity. It just never seemed to quite cross the line from interesting to gripping.

Canadian writer Susie Moloney's second novel is served ala king - Stephen that is. A Dry Spell is macabre, sometimes far-fetched, and ultimately chilling.

We learn straightaway that Goodlands, North Dakota, the fictional setting for this preternatural epic, is not living up to its name. Despite its motto "A Good Little Town," there's nothing good going on in Goodlands.

A four-year drought has parched the earth, and turned once sanguine farm families suspicious. They're losing their land to foreclosure; their hopes have turned to dust. Despite the Farmer's Almanack prediction for a "wet, cool spring" and a wet August, it rains everywhere but on the wheat and barley fields of Goodlands.

In addition, there are some bizarre happenings taking place : cement driveways rupture; a gigantic oak falls through a plate glass window; water tank spigots vanish as precious liquid is lost.

Banker Karen Grange has been banished to Goodlands for past infractions (a tendency to max out credit cards in an accumulation of the unwanted and unworn). As manger of Commercial Farm Credit it is her unhappy task to inform families that they are losing their homes and, if the drought continues, she may lose the bank. With "some invisible umbrella hovering over Goodlands, and no scientific explanation for it," Karen summons a rainmaker.

Tom Keatley, the tall, long-haired rain doctor uses no incantations or magic rituals. With his emphatically square jaw and narrowed eyes he summons cumulus clouds by sheer dint of will and an occasional shot of Wild Turkey. But there was something wrong with Goodlands, and he knew it. There was "that hum that ran underneath the earth, the incredible, persistent dryness of the place, the way the sky wouldn't open for him...."

Much of what is wrong in Goodlands roils within Vida Whalley, youngest daughter of a disreputable clan. "Whalleys had been plaguing the town, drinking and fighting, stealing and making trouble for years." Directed by an inner voice Vida makes more than trouble.

As events become nightmarish, friends turn on friends and a melee ensues at the local caf?. Sheriff Henry Barker, who normally only chases dogs and breaks up fights, has his work cut out for him. Add to the mix Carl Simpson, a once reasonable man, who blames the drought on government men hiding in silos, and you have a town on the brink of disaster.

Sometimes it is slow going to reach this point, as descriptions of dryness and hoped for respite tend to be repetitious. It seems a bit pat for both Karen and Tom to be the results of deprived childhoods.

Nonetheless, Susie Moloney has penned a harrowing tale in which she recreates the classic struggle between good and evil. Which prevails? Chiller/thriller fans will welcome A Dry Spell.

- Gail Cooke

The beginning of this book takes off like a rocket. It's powerful and serves as one huge hook for the reader, who moves along with the characters as they develop into adults (and depending on the character, not very nice adults), sometimes skipping chunks of time. It's a character-driven story, but the psychological thread that run through the book give s simple narrative a lot of meat if you're paying attention. This was my first Erdrich book, and I'm about to start another, Plague of Doves. I hope it is just as good.

Of the series of dry, psychological books my aunt has lended me over the summer-The Beet Queen had to be my favorite so far of mine. I wish I could sum up these types of books better, where there are just people described through they're life-slightly off, outthere but more or less normal chacters. None really jump off the page or do anything out of this world. They're all dysfunctional. One thing I am sure...these kind of books are not my cup of tea. There was TOTALLY something missing with Karl...I had faith that this would be a good charcter...I was very wrong. Random events and people described in a book, whatever.

This book is amazing and a truly beautiful work about the human spirit. The characters are numerous and complex, and the way the book skips around in terms of characters and time keeps you on your toes and keeps the story interesting -- you never know what to expect.

It was really the highlight of a recent vacation -- I couldn't put it down.

I started this novel after reading Erdrich's Love Medicine. While it is clearly not as lyrically written, it is more accessible, and I admired Erdrich's inventiveness as she creates a very unique set of characters. I never finished "Beet Queen", quitting not that far from the end. When Celestine's child turned out to be so impossible, it was the last straw. "Beet Queen" is just too determinedly bleak, to no higher purpose I could discern or discover in reading reviews here.

I chose this book for my book club because I had read Erdrich's other novel, The Master Butcher's Singing Club, which was flawed, but still great reading. I was so disappointed in this novel. It did not meet my expectations. I expected the wise and wonderful writing I encountered in The Master Butcher's Singing Club, but was given plot twists that were just plain silly. The author ruined her opporunity to say something profound with Sita's death by throwing in dead body humor a la "Weekend at Bernie's." Although for the most part I found her characters compelling, I felt like this book had very little to say. I am less inclined to try her other novels after reading this one.

This story is about a boy who is searching for his dream to become a Dakota Indian. One night he has a realistic dream that he is an Indian fighting one of the battles with the Indians against the colonists. He wants to get to an Indian reservation where hopefully he can fulfill his dream as an Indian but he has no way of getting there until he meets a boy with a broken down motorcycle and he tries to fix it and then in the night he rides it to the reservation so he can become an Indian and fulfill his dreams.

This is a really good book. It's about a boy called Floyd. When he was young he decided he wanted to be an indian. He lives in foster homes and is always moving. This book even has some useful information in it about indians. I would recommend this book to someone who likes adventures and mischief; it's a good book.
In the book Floyd decides early on he wants to become an indian. He learns lots about them and even follows their religion. He lives in foster homes and is always moving. He is never in the same school long so he doesn't have any friends. He is starting to get sick of everything so he decides it's time to run away. He plans it all out and the leaves. The rest of the book is pretty much about what he does there.
I liked this book because it was kind of an adventure. It went lots of different ways. It went from being in one place, then going to a completely different place. It even had some useful information about indians. It's a really good book.
I think you should read this book. It's a good book for all different people. I rated this book 4 stars. This is a great book and is filled with lots of mischief and excitement.

This book is about a sixteen year old boy who wants to become a Native American. He would wear moccasins to school, had a Dakota pipe, would grow his hair long and die it black, he would also try to make his skin darker. Charley Black Crow was his Native American name and would sometimes sign his papers with that name. Floyd believed it was his destiny to become a Dakota Native American. He had a dream which showed him as a warrior. Floyd put it to heart after his dream to become a Native American.
Dakota Dream was not an exciting book. There were no parts where you just couldn't set the book down. It was very boring. The same tone was used throughout the whole story. Native American ways were used throughout the book, and I did learn a little. You also learn how life was in a foster home.
If you know your destiny this is a book for you. It will help you on the way to find your destiny. This book shows what one boy did for his. Now what will you do for yours?

In "Dakota Dream" a young boy runs away from a group home to fullfill his dream about being a Dakota Indian and living on an real reservation. Personally I like this book a lot because I think it would be cool to be a Dakota Indian. The boy one night in in a vision in his dream, he sees himself as a Dakota Indian riding on horseback to go fight the settlers. Thats when it first comes to him, that his destiny is to become a Dakota Indian. He fights his way through life going from group home to group home, not even considering the fact that his parents died when he was a baby, and never saw them before. I think "Dakota Dream" is an exciting, and one of the best books I have ever read!

My junior high age son and his friends had to read this book for school, and they were thoroughly annoyed with the self-obsessed protagonist, Floyd. They wanted him to grow up, already! I read the book to see what all the complaining was about and found myself agreeing.

The "adults" in the book humored Floyd too much; The only person who cared enough to make him grow up was the Sioux Indian Chief. One hopes that Floyd would learn something lasting from the one mature character in the book. Pick up Harry Potter or a Redwall book instead.

Much of what Fischer claims about Nazi Germany has been discounted by legitimate historians. For example, the Lebensborn program was not a stud farm for SS supermen and Nordic women to create a new master race, and Ilse Koch did not create lampshades and book covers from the skin of dead Jews.

Every significant figure in the Nazi regime, even those who ultimately had little to do with the persecution and destruction of the Jews in Europe, is portrayed as either a sexual deviant or a sociopath. I seriously doubt the most educated people in Europe would have tolerated such a regime long enough for it to plunge Europe into its most destructive war.

I guess surrendering historical objectivity is a small price to pay to make money and avoid being bullied by the ADL.

Any author who thinks that Hindenburg was loyal to the Weimar Republic is out of his mind. There wasn't a German alive who liked it and to say that somebody was loyal to it is ludecrous. He also implies that Hitler outwitted Hindenburg to gain the chancellorship. That's also crazy. Hitler just got lucky that Papen underestimated him when he used him in his plot to try to gain the chancellorship for himself (which failed obviously). In fact I don't believe that Hitler and Hindenburg had any interaction at all on the subject (except of course when he was sworn in). The matter was proposed to Hitler through Papen. If Fischer could be so off base on such a basic concept, I shudder to think about how acurate the rest of the information in this book is.

NOTE: This is not an uninformed opinion. I have compared this book with others by Burleigh, Kershaw, Machtan, and Turner on similar subjects.

My recomendation is to forget about this book and get Kershaw's book Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris. It's actually more of a biography of Hiter's power. I found it to be a much more logical, coherent, and enlightening book.

Klaus Fischer's account of Nazi Germany succeeds as a source of basic information, particularly regarding the early roots of the Nazi movement. Since this is its main purpose, it merits consultation by anyone seeking a solid basic grasp of those world-shattering events. However, the reader should be prepared to wade through some fairly archaic, and at times deeply disturbing, ideological baggage that pops up along the margins of the main historical narrative. First, Fischer's fleeting references to Marxism and Communism as historico-social phenomena are shallow, unsubtle and dismissive in a manner only possible for a scholar trained in America (as Fischer was), and thus saddled with that peculiar cultural blind spot of ours. However, this blind spot does not much compromise the narrative, beyond giving the misleading impression that the ideas of Marx are somehow "natural" (as opposed to historical and contingent) breeding grounds for totalitarianism. More disturbing by far is the extent to which Fischer's account of the psychological makeup and personal characters of Nazi party members echoes and reproduces some of the same archaic ideologies for which they themselves were so notorious. For example, Fischer makes frequent use of the term "deviance" to describe Nazi operatives, and explicitly includes under this rubric not only sadism but homosexuality! In his desire to paint the Nazis as twisted fiends, he ends up demonizing gays in much the same way that Jews were demonized by the Nazis. Equally archaic is his reference to facial physiognomy as evidence of criminal character among Nazis. Clearly, Fischer is unaware of the large body of literature (best represented by SJ Gould's The Mismeasure of Man) which documents the intellectual bankruptcy of such thinking. Both of these ideas played a role in the racist, homophobic thought complex which National Socialism inherited from the late nineteenth century and put to such deadly effect. That an historian writing in the 1990s could continue to use ideas that have been so thoroughly discredited by scientific research is unfortunate, and given Fischer's topic, gruesomely ironic. The problems noted here do not distort Fischer's account of matters of public record, but they do raise serious questions about his interpretive competence. In the end, some readers might not have the moral stomach to reap the factual rewards undeniably offered by Fischer's book.

Perhaps Fischer's greatest achievment here is in how much he tells us in so short a book. He covers Nazi and German history from the 19th century to 1945 in under 600 pages!! He shows a special gift for writing the most with the (relatively) fewest words. Even those knowing much about the subject will learn a lot from this volume. And Fischer knows what should and should not be included in a book of this kind. This work will be a valuable addition to any historical library.

I particularly enjoyed the section on the Weimer Republic and the 20's. Most books skip over this period, saying only that the Republic was democratic and flawed, and that Hitler sought to destroy it. Fischer gives us an in depth look at this society, and explains how its insecurities contributed to the disaster to come.

I only wish the book had been a bit longer. There is only so much one can include in a one volume work, I know, but a few hundred more pages would have made it truly outstanding.

For a comprehensive overview of the Third Reich, Fischer's book is one of the best single-volume works on the market. It's eminently readable on all aspects of Nazi society: the sham politics, the ruthless military ethos, the imposition of one man's psychosis on the policies of an entire nation. The opening chapter, "The Origins of Totalitarianism" is a cogent synthesis of the historical strains from which the darkest period of the 20th century emerged: Germany's anti-modernism, which stretched back to the Enlightenment; the economic breakdown, political instability, and unraveling of civil society which the Versailles Treaty wrought; and the scapegoating of two groups which Hitler believed were a mortal threat to the country--the Communists and the Jews.

I don't know why I had the misfortune to pick up this Louise Erdrich book out of all her other ones at the bookstore.

This was one of the most painful books I have ever read. The writing was stilted and unnatural. I like books that are a bit sad and melancholy and depressing, but there was something about the complete and utter negativity of the story and the characters that was too much. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I felt no compassion for any of these unlikable characters. Their constant bad choices one after another. I knew from the beginning of the book that nothing would turn out well for any of the characters especially the hapless and directionless Lipsha.

I just love Louise Erdrich's books. I didn't read her fiction until after I read her book "Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country", which is nonfiction. Anyway, I really enjoyed this book, and while it is somewhat impossible to describe the complete plot (and saying "Lipsha is in love with Shawnee" doesn't do it justice), Lipsha is developed into a sympathetic figure, and Lyman is also rounded out more. It's amazing how LE can spin an interesting narrative out of (mostly) ordinary events. I would love to read more about Lipsha and the other, younger members of the families. They seem so real now, after reading the other books such as "Tracks", "Love Medicine", etc.

This being one of Louise Erdrich's earlier works, it forms the basis and framework for the wonderful works that follow. This purchase was a gift, as it is one of my very favorite books by any writer, nevermind by Louise Erdrich, and I have an older edition permanently placed in my front bookcase (for ease or re-reads). Please, read this great book and then what follows along with the connected works by another great writer, Winona Laduke, and you have weeks, months and years of wonderful literary experiences...which will stay with you forever...I don't really want to spoil the fun, except to say that both Erdrich and Laduke write beyond the Native American genre and world: they touch the human condition and offer the experience to the reader....

I fell in love with Louise Erdrich after reading her short story "Fleur". There was something gritty and seductive about her characters.

Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, Tracks and this book are all part of a saga. The Bingo Palace is the last one in the series (i believe). There is a big sense of despair in the multiple narrators. It is almost like they know their lives cannot possibly get any better. I found the book depressing and a bit lackluster compared to the previous ones.

Erdrich's latest novel of modern native American life centers on a bright, but aimless young man. Lipsha Morrisey is adrift, one foot in America, one on the North Dakota reservation. Son of a crazy woman and a convict, the tribe has given up on the young man who once showed promise - a product of families recalled from Erdrich's previous books "(Love Medicine," "The Beet Queen," "Tracks").

Summoned back to the reservation by his grandmother for reasons that never come clear - a last chance to make something of himself as an Indian? Lipsha falls in love with the beautiful Shawnee Ray, who's slated to marry the tribal entrepreneur, her son's father, Lyman Lamartine. Lyman is handsome, muscled, skilled in tribal traditions, worldly wealthy and ambitious for tribal power and American success. He is all that Lipsha is not.

But Lipsha believes the strength of his love is a match for all of Lyman's assets. Endowed with his mother's luck, granted him in a vision devoid of love, Lipsha begins to win at Bingo. For Shawnee Ray he amasses unearned wealth, squanders his spiritual power, dreams of greatness in his future, and wastes his present in floundering and backsliding.

Although Lipsha's present is the primary focus, the novel dips into the past with chapters centered around other tribal members including both his grandmothers, his mother, Lyman, Shawnee Ray, and Zelda Kashpaw,Lipsha's aunt and Shawnee's self-appointed guardian. There's also a Greek Chorus sort of voice that speaks with the whole tribe's sorrowful wisdom.

This organization keeps a certain distance between the novel and the reader. Lipsha's obsession widens the gulf. His hunger for Shawnee Ray so overwhelms that it bores. Shawnee becomes the focus of Lipsha's every act but there's so little contact between them that passion never develops into love. Lipsha never develops at all.

Erdrich's prose is vivid and spare, always flowing, moving. Every sentence seems infused with the long history, hardship and spiritual mystery of Indian life. Her characters are enigmatic and firmly anchored in the Dakota setting. But for all this richness, the story never connects, remaining more mysterious than moving. Readers of her earlier novels, who can place this one in a wider context, should enjoy the book more than new readers who may be left cold by too-brief glimpses into too many hearts.

This book was absolutely amazing! Everything we wanted to do and everything we didn't know we wanted to do was EASY TO FIND. I spent a bit of time marking the attractions we wanted to see and the routes we wanted to take and NOT ONCE did we get lost. I recommend the trip. However, I recommend it more with this book as a travel companion. For our next trip we plan on touring the South East, don't think I haven't looked to the Insiders' Guide books to help. Have a great time!

We took a South Dakota vacation and found this book to be great reading in our preparation and planning. It covers everything from lodging to attractions to activities to history and on and on.

This book, in combination with "Exploring the Black Hills and Badlands: A Guide for..." helped us have a better vacation than I ever expected.

This is a GREAT book if you are visiting this area. It gives all sorts of information to make your trip more complete. It also gives background information and little insiders tips here and there. The only thing I would look elsewhere for is accomodations. It has good camping and B&B info but not nearly enough hotel and resort listings but you can get that anywhere. This book is worth it just for the INFORMATION included.

My family just got back from South Dakota, where we used this book. I can't begin to tell you how far this book falls short. Want info. on hiking the Badlands? Forget it. Want to know about activities and food in Rapid City? You're pretty much out of luck.

The book's organization is atrocious. Restaurants in one place, lodging in another, attractions in another. So when you pull into a place, you have to flip all over the book just to figure things out.

Basics are missing. For example, say you want to know the best things to do in the Black Hills--it's very difficult to excavate from this book. Instead you learn about real estate, shopping, and many unneeded details. Hikes in the Black Hills? Forget it? How to tackle Wind Cave National Park? Little help.

After travelling around the world with opinionated and helpful Lonely Planet guides, I am sorely disappointed with this book. This book is definately better than nothing, but look elsewhere for help with your trip to beautiful South Dakota.

We bought this book only because the Moon Handbook was unavailable. We hoped to use this as a vacation planner. The book appears to have lots of information, but for us, interested in tent camping and hiking, with some in-town activities, the information was largely irrelevant. Things worth dwelling on--such as Spearfish Canyon--are mentioned with much less emphasis than the exhaustive coverage of shopping facilities, for example. The text is incessantly cheery and reads like a school newsletter. We would have preferred the intelligent critical evaluation that makes the Moon books such great reading--and such great resources.

The author writes light romance novels while only mentioning towns in North Dakota and nothing else resembles it.

I just love the Debbie Macomber's books. Her Christmas books are particularly welcome and BUFFALO VALLEY is no exception.

Vaughn Kyle is visiting Buffalo Valley at the request of his girlfriend, an executive with a large discount superstore which has plans to open a store in the little town. It's been many years since Vaughn had visited the town his mother grew up in, but he's happy to check out the town as it is near his parents' home in Grand Forks. He also wants to take the opportunity to meet Hassie Knight, Buffalo Valley's pharmacist. Vaughn's mother had been engaged to marry Hassie's son, Vaughn, but he was killed in Vietnam. Although Hassie always remembered her son's namesake with cards on his birthday, the two have never met. But when Hassie stops at the pharmacy, instead of Hassie he finds young divorcee Carrie Hendrickson instead. When Carrie finds out who the handsome stranger is, she offers to take him on a tour of the charming little town. It isn't long before Vaughn meets many of the town's citizens and they are all taken with him - Carrie even more so. Carrie has closed her heart since her divorce and Vaughn is awakening feelings in her which have been long dormant.

Vaughn has told no one, not even his parents, that he is checking the town out. But the town soon gets wind that the superstore plans on moving in and they are none too happy about it. How will they feel when they find out Vaughn has ties to this company?

BUFFALO VALLEY is a fitting follow-up to Debbie Macomber's Dakota Trilogy and is sure to please her legions of fans, particularly those who have enjoyed prior visits to this fictional North Dakota town. Readers will also enjoy appearances by characters from the previous books. This book is a very pleasant respite from current world events. I got completely lost in Buffalo Valley this afternoon and felt the tension leave my body as I entered another world. Another great read from a master storyteller!

This was a very cute. Either I just don't like really gushy love
stories or this one was just too easy to guess. I did enjoy it
though. A good beach read.

Buffalo valley has run into a big problem that could destroy what the community has worked so hard to rebuild. Valu-X is planning to build in their town, and no one in Buffalo Valley will welcome the retail chain nicely. With Christmas on the way can every one still pact together to keep Valu-X out?

Carrie Hendrickson is re-introduced to Buffalo Valley working for Hassie as an intern for the pharmacy.

Vaughn Kyle is a man that has his life mapped out perfectly. He has a very successful girlfriend, a great new job that he starts the first of the year. Vaughn decides to go home to see his parents for Christmas, but in the short time he's there his whole life, career, girlfriend - are now a big question mark!

This novel has great characters, plot and town! I love how this town pulls together no matter what! I hope Debbie Macomber takes us back to Buffalo Valley someday.

Vaughn Kyle has just left the Army and seems to have every thing ready to start civilian life in an upbeat manner in Seattle. He has been thinking of marriage and will start a job in the New Year, but returns home for the holidays to see his family in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

A bit restless about his future, Kyle visits elderly pharmacist Hassie Knight in Buffalo Valley. He never met Hassie before, but they are connected as his parents named him after her deceased son who died in Nam. At the pharmacy, Kyle meets trainee Carrie Hendrickson. They begin to fall in love. However, Kyle's employer in Washington State plans to build a superstore that will put the small shops out of business and potentially destroy the serenity and optimism of the area.

BUFFALO VALLEY is a warm regional drama that returns readers to a special place highlighted in Debbie Macomber's Dakota trilogy. Fans of the series will enjoy learning what has happened to the townsfolk in Buffalo Valley since the last novel was published. Though the tale is Rockwell in scope, painting a simplistic evil Goliath vs. idealistic David landscape, the story line retains the flavor and charm of the series, especially as the audience looks into the lives of the cast. Ms. Macomber takes her myriad of fans on a wonderful journey to a Shangra-La threatened by "progress".

Harriet Klausner

I am planning to visit South Dakota this summer and since I manage to turn everything I do into an educational project I have been reading up and writing chambers of commerce for information. This book is written in the neutral public relations politically correct style of a guidebook. (Heaven forbid we ever say anything critical about the Indians or why we're still paying $1.5 billion a year for Indian health care.)In fact I believe the author has a PR background. He conveys a lot of information but he could have made the book much more interesting. For example, the story of the trapper Hugh Glass is one of the best stories ever. Glass was mauled by a grizzly and left for dead by his companions. He vowed revenge on those who left him and literally crawls back to civilization to kill the men who left him. However, the author here really does not get into the revenge theme. I had to get that from a Chamber publication. The pictures in the book are great and I would rate the pictures five stars. However, there just aren't that many books about South Dakota. So if you are going to South Dakota it probably is worth picking up. For an interesting book about the entire Great Plains which includes South Dakota read Great Plains by Ian Frazier, which is a five star book.

At first , I didn't think this book was of much help in planning my trip but the more I read it, the more great information I found. I would advise you to read it like a novel and not just skim through it looking for specific information.

Those factoids and stats you're going to bore your friends with when you get home ... you can find them here. What I didn't find was answers to questions, such as: Where are good places to camp? What do I do to enjoy my trip to the reservation, or a powwow? Where are the best places to eat in Hot Springs? That is, things I wanted to know to enjoy the trip.

An ideal book for those intending to visit South Dakota. As well as giving places to visit and stay it provides an interesting insight into the history of the state. A few more photographs would be even better.