Montana Books

I really enjoyed the book so did my friends. It was in very good condition.

I enjoyed this novel. For the first time you see the characters letting their hair down and having fun doing human things and not so human things. It was also the great read Feehan fans have come to love. I like that she managed to share a bit of all the characters without rushing the story line. It flows and i am sure you will enjoy it as well.

Write on, read on
N.M. Phillips

the story is captivating and it sums up all the differnt story lines up to this point.

For anyone who has read any of Christine Feehan's Dark Series books this book is sort of like a recap on all of the previous books she's written by re-introducing the characters during a Christmas celebration in the Carpathian Mountains. It also hints at future plots for her other books that haven't come out yet. I would really recommend that you read the other books before this one to understand the full effect of the story line but you should be able to make it through if you want to read just this one.

I've read everything Christine Feehan has written. I love all her stuff. I'm so excited when a new book comes out!

A River Runs Through It is a wonderful story of life in Montana, well, really life in general. In addition to a great story, this book contains some of the best uses of the English language in the 20th century. Highly recommended.

An excellent piece of literary work. From the time I received it, I couldn't set it down.

This is one of the best books I've ever read. It's been a while since I read it, but saw it the other day on my bookshelf and wished I could read it again, fresh and brand new for the first time. It has joy, it has heartache. It has love, hate and the cruelty of the world all wrapped wonderfully around the beauty of nature and the awe of God's creation. Passages in this book can move you to tears in both a sad and joyous way. The ending pages are almost like a religious experience. It's hard to find someone in this day and age that can put words together like Norman Maclean did. The book is very poetic. I happen to love fishing, but it doesn't matter if you've ever fished in your life. This book is one you won't ever forget.

A River Runs Through It deals with tragedy, loss, and other such deep themes, but it's impossible for the reader to distant himself from the realization that much of the tragedy and loss inflicted on the family being explored is, in one way or another, the fault of the family members. While this does not automatically make the situations any less meaningful, it does chip away at the feeling that these tragedies were undeserved or unforseen.

The patriarch of the family is a stubborn, unyielding man who teaches his children by example to ruin another's fishing spot if he has better luck than you that day. His unyielding belief in the Biblical interpretation of a young earth and the scientific evidence of an old one is resolved by a stern splitting of the difference, by averaging the ages and coming up with a "medium aged" earth theory that he lectures to his sons. And when, as little children, they refuse to eat their veggies, the father shouts until he turns red, forces the child to stay at the table until the veggies are eaten, and then gives up in defeat when the child outlasts him.

Is it any wonder, then, when his youngest child grows up to be a free-spirited, gambling, immature man who simply cannot be talked out of his self-destructive tendencies? No one ever reasoned with him growing up - he was taught, by example, from day one that the most stubborn, unyielding person always wins. He was taught to never consider the needs and desires of others as anything but subbordinate to his own. It is difficult for me, therefore, to feel much pity for the bereaved family when the young man finally self-destructs - didn't they see this coming, every moment of every day? Didn't they train the child, every day, for years to reach this eventual moment?

Yes, the story is poignant. Yes, it is beautiful and touching. Yes, it should be read. But it should be read, I think, as a cautionary tale more than as a compassionate one.

One passage amoungst many sticks out from this book that is full of wisdom if you take the time to read closely and relate it to the many aspects of your life and the lives of others:

He thought back on what had happened like a reporter. He started to answer, shook his head when he found he was wrong, and then started to answer. "All there is to thinking," he said, "is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren't noticing which makes you see something that isn't even visible."

This book should be read by anyone seeking an understanding of life. If you've seen the movie, give the book a try. The combination of both will give a feel for a moment in one man's life and a lifetime of reflection. Both are superb!

On one level, this book is a crackup. It mercilessly skewers the worst places on earth, places that combine poverty, fear, and oppression. I dare you to read a single page without laughing.

On another level, this make really makes you think about the huge percentage of the world's population that doesn't have electricity, considers pain to be a second language, and considers a good day one in which you eat. It's incredible.

On the day I wrote this review, this edition is being offered for sale for one cent. An amazing bargain, in terms of entertainment per penny.

though now slightly dated, this is still a very useful book in terms of information about the less stable parts of the world. The political coverage is smart and honest. Nothing is dumbed down or put through the filters that newspapers/magazines apply. The analysis is also short and to the point. And its often better than the professional or governmental analysis. If your entering a "bad" country on short notice, there is nothing better than this book to give an overview of the situation, the players and the basics of whats going on. But it is getting rather dated from the lack of a new edition.

The tone of the writing makes the book interesting as a "read' as well.

However, as a "travel book" to dangerous places its not all that great. The advice he gives is usually generally applicable to any travel to any place. Anywhere can be dangerous and its possible to get into trouble in what seems like safe places.

This really consists of three books. The first, and the most obvious part, t is an actual, honest-to-goodness travel guide to dangerous places. I can easily imagine reporters, security consultants, and others pulling this book off their shelf before going to an unfamiliar place.

Inevitably, there are places left out. Pelton includes the United States here, half-seriously and half tongue-in-cheek. This is all to the good, and gives readers a sense of perspective. Still, its inclusion raises all sorts of questions. What makes the US dangerous is gun crime in some areas, which rates it one star (consistently with other countries such as India). But . . . the rates of gun crime are higher in most of Latin America, and kidnaping is much more common. In other words, if you're going to include the US, then Brazil and especially Mexico should have been in the book, along with many of their neighbors. Clearly his rating of the US reflects a pose more than a serious rating.

The second "book" here is a quick-and-dirty summary of the politics and society of these dangerous places. These summaries have information but tend to have rather more attitude. Pelton tries to be cool, tries to assign blame for conflicts in a non-standard way, and likes to review who-did-what-to-whom facts more than underlying causes.

The third "book" is a summary of issues that make places dangerous, such as the drug trade. This is more informative than the country summaries, but also displays a lot of attitude.

Much of the attitude in this book makes it quite funny. The book looks like an almanac or encyclopedia, but you can actually read in through straight. Over a long period.

It's a great read despite its length. Bring it to a dangerous place and throw it at your enemies.

Disclaimer: the US aside, the only "dangerous place" I've been is the Balkans, and I wasn't in the dangerous parts, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of the information on the ground.

You just do not know how lucky you have it until you read this book. I call it the places most likely not to be in my passport.

Great read. A must for the adventurer (armchair or real).

The expanse and effort they took to writing this book is awesome, especially if one is dumb enough to actually wanna go to these places.

A wonderful book; I was surprised at the beautiful narrative style and imagery, especially for a book written in the middle of the nineteenth century. Its not cheerful, but one of the better books I've read recently.

Pedants and scholars everywhere will celebrate this new translation -- indeed, already on Wikipedia, Sverre Lyngstad's translation is being called 'definitive'.

The only problem is, like all academic translations, it serves as more of a primer or helpful guide to the Norwegian than quality English prose. You need only compare the opening sentence in each translation. Here's Lyngstad's:

"It was in those days when I wandered about hungry in Kristiania, that strange city which no one leaves before it has set its mark upon him..."

Sets its mark? There is such a thing as leaving a mark, making a mark, but setting a mark?

Now, here is Bly's newly-discredited version:

"All of this happened while I was walking around starving in Christiania -- that strange city no one escapes from until it has left its mark on him ..."

Good, clear idiomatic English.

There are reasons why new pedantic translations are done and set up above good existing ones. For one, different publishing houses want to make money. Hilda Rosner's Siddhartha, for example, is clear and readable. But it's been around for fifty years. Better replace it with a few new ones -- Susan Bernofsky's, for example. The only problem is that today's less than rigorous English leads to faltering prosody, as in Bernofsky's, and worse, to sentences that try to 'capture the ambiguity' of the original, leaving the reader with murky or awkward constructions (see above). Look at Penguin Classics and its translations of Nietzsche: taking an exciting, provocative author and rendering him dry, sensible, and British. R.J. Hollingdale is widely celebrated as the best translator of Nietzsche in these translations. And universal murder is done to Walter Kaufmann and his translations because he didn't adhere to the strictly pedantic notion of translation that renders one safe in academic debates (the gesture of murdering the father, routinely done to Kaufmann in Nietzsche studies).

Lyngstad is probably Norwegian, and it is probably believed that this makes him a better translator of Hunger having been written in Norwegian. But the English is nothing more than a phrase-by-phrase, word-by-word fully defensible transliteration of the original, while Bly's, whatever its "errors" can be said to be literature, even as a translation.

I guess I'm a bit thick but I do not see what the big fuss is about. I picked this up because I had read somewhere that he was Bukowski's favorite author. This is the most boring book I have ever read. Yet it seems to get all kinds of praise ranging from "groundbreaking" to "revolutionary." The main character whines on endlessly about how the world is against him and how his genius is being ignored by publishers and therefore by the world in general. Instead of trying to find work he writes philosophical essays which he then tries unsuccessfully to publish then he attempts to pawn off what few belongings he has including a blanket, coat buttons, eyeglasses, hair-cut tickets. I won't spoil the end for you because I couldn't make it to the end. Page after page of this whining drivel was to much to bear and I gave up. (And I've finished some horrible books in my day.) This book should be titled pathetic. Not hunger. Hungry people beg or get a job. They don't write essays in the park. Save your money. I warned you.

I won't repeat the mainstream review material because its covered in depth around this snippit. Hunger is a short book, you can read it in a few hours, and spend days with it on your mind. If you liked Hesse you'll love the early Hamsun. If you like Hunger you'll probably like Pan and Mysteries [there's a lot of connection between them).

Hamson, like Christiania, can't readily be left without it leaving a mark on you.

The unnamed narrator in HUNGER is isolated, impulsive, self-destructive, excessively self-critical, and nearly homeless. While his plight is surely pitiful and unnerving, this novel certainly offers special rewards to readers who believe that mighty books present compulsive narrators, viewing the world from their hidey-holes in garbage cans or the equivalent. No wonder the introduction to my edition was written by Paul Auster!

Fortunately, Hamsun guides his narrator into society. Here, we thank the women, who flirt with the narrator and accept him as a boarder despite his penury and borderline mental illness. Their influence and timely charity help him break his syndrome of perfectionism, self-mortification, arrogance, and remorse, placing him on the docks in Christiania where "... all the workaday life around me, the loading chants, the noise of the winches, the constant rattling of the iron chains, was incompatible with the moody, self absorbed..." As the Silhouettes sang in 1957, "GET A JOB shanna nah nahh shanna nanna nahh (bah-doop)...

For the record, I'd say other writers have presented the marginal and desperate lives of aspiring young writers with much greater complexity and reward than Hamsun. Charles Bukowski for example, allows his Henry Chinaski to risk just as much as this unnamed narrator. But in Factotum, Chinaski is funny while living a life with just as much sad integrity.

The afterword in my edition (Robert Bly) says the story of HUNGER is highly autobiographical. Surely, he knows. But this novel also strikes me as a brilliantly intuitive assemblage of weirdness, especially when you consider Hamsun wrote HUNGER in 1890. But this cluster of self-destructiveness has also become very familiar in our world, in part due to Psychology 101 classes. So, I ask: Is this a case where the clinician has actually surpassed the novelist?

I loved this book. The detail and analysis resulted from decades of research and Maclean is a terrific writer. I love the piece-by-piece, methodical dissection of the story. I find this method of story telling and anaylsis similar to John Krakauer's "Into the Wild". I would like to see more maps and photos, but those that are included in the book are sufficient by most measures.

This is the quintessential non-fiction account of Mann Gulch. It creates the foundation of our study of wild fire behavior. I could not turn the pages fast enough. Many quotable descriptions and observations about the firefighting industry is timelessly captured in this book.

This is a book written about a fire that took place in Montana back in the 1940's during which a group of smoke jumpers lost their lives. It is so well written that I found it difficult to put down. This was the beginning of the study of "fire", and all it's elements, as a science. Fascinating. This particular book is being used as required reading in our local "California Department of Fire" CDF. I read it as an adjunct to the Search and Rescue Team to which I belong. I recommend this to anyone, especially those living in a possible fire danger area.

Any book that I spend a great deal of time checking maps and names, to see who survived, has hooked me. This did. The horror has caused much thought. Check out the song "Cold Missouri Water"

In 1949, sixteen "smokejumpers" were dropped in the remote Gates of the Mountains wilderness in Montana to fight what seemed to be a routine wildfire. Within an hour 13 of them were dead, consumed in a horrific conflagration. MacLean, a college professor and former firefighter himself, became obsessed with the case, and when he retired he spent every summer investigating the tragedy and piecing together what really happened that day in Mann Gulch.

MacLean says that the job of a storyteller is to transform catastrophe into tragedy -- to analyze the series of small screw-ups that lead to disaster and make sense of them. As you go on this journey into the fire with MacLean, you really can't wait to see what he learns next. And when he brings the survivors back to Mann Gulch, he and they discover the limits of what can really be learned and understood in the face of the implacable forces of nature.

MacLean never finished the book. When he died at age 87, his kids recognized the book's quality and had it edited and published. There are some overly literary metaphors from the pen of this former English professor that he might have left out if he had had the chance to look over his own work. This is a really petty matter in the face of the book's overall quality.

In the hands of an ordinary writer and thinker, you might say "Good if you want to know about firefighters," or disasters, or Montana. But this book is so thoughtful about the realities of man as part of nature that it transcends the Mann Gulch tragedy and becomes much more. I'd recommend it to any person of intelligence.

Reviewer: Liz Clare, co-author of "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark"

This book was a great read, classic Garwood and a book you don't want to miss. I do have to give it 4 stars due to fact it took a while for me to get into the book. It just took a little longer to have the story set up- not a reason to miss out on this book. Once the story was set up, it was smooth sailing. What I love about Garwood is the depth she brings to a story, you don't just read it, she shows it to you in her writing.

This is the first "Frontier" book I have read and enjoyed greatly. I felt I was right along side the Claybourne family with their struggles. There are two books left in the trilogy, The Claybourne Brides (One white rose, One Pink Rose, One red rose) and Come the Spring. I am most looking forward to reading Cole's story in Come the Spring.

For The Roses starts out as one of the best of Ms. Garwood's novels. I found myself laughing out loud a number of times as the charachters were introduced. The fiery interaction between family members was easy to imagine and enjoy. However, about three-quarters of the way through I began to get frustrated with the main charachters. A change in setting brought such a significant alteration to their personalities that I found myself hurrying through to get back to the "good stuff". Overall I enjoyed this novel, though it doesn't follow the format of a typical romance. Readers should be prepared for absence of the expected societal scandal and heroine in distress scenarios that come with most novels of this genre.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the detailed character development. I felt as if I could identify with each brother and their personalities. I loved Mary Rose and Harrison together. I loved their love!!! Just a really good book.

I usually love Julie Garwood's books but this one I'm having the hardest time finishing. It's just dragging on and on. I like it better when an author really focuses on the main characters story but this has all her brothers piping in and it just bugged me after about 50 pages.

Night Owl Romance Reviews: http://www.nightowlromance.com

For the Roses by Julie Garwood
Score: 4.5 / 5
Clayborne Series
Reviewer: Deidre Sine

Mary Rose is the beloved sister to the Clayborne's. The Clayborne men protect their family and friends with a vengeance and have become a force not to be reckoned with in Montana. Only this family is different than most, the men aren't a blood family but they have forged their family for Mary Rose. The men were a rough gang of street kids in New York, who fought together to stay alive. One night they saw a parcel discarded and in that parcel they found a beautiful baby girl. That girl was Mary Rose and they decided to move to Blue Belle, Montana and raise her as a lady. Well, Mary Rose is now a well-behaved, independent, beautiful young woman who has returned to Blue Belle after her schooling. All goes well until Mary Rose meets a stranger in town.

The stranger is Lord Harrison Stanford MacDonald. He is a gentleman through and through; however, he needs help to learn frontier survival. While the Clayborne's teach Harrison about survival he falls in love with the strong woman Mary Rose is. Harrison carries with him a secret, a secret that could destroy his newfound love with Mary Rose. Mary Rose must deal with the past before she can have a future.

For the Roses is a wonderfully written book by Ms. Garwood, which I have read, and reread. I find Ms. Garwood's ability to create such fantastic and real characters a tremendous gift to her readers. Readers who enjoyed the Clayborne family can read more in the rest of the Clayborne Bride series.

This was an excellent book to learn about the emerging hemorrhagic viruses. It also talks about the interactions between humans and microbes and how humans induce their own diseases. What I did not like about this book was the long chapter about HIV/AIDS. It was long and outdated, since numerous advances have been made since the publication of this book. If you are buying the book to learn about HIV/AIDS, buy a more up to date book.

I first read this book shortly after it came out about 12 years ago. I was so angry and scared after realizing the real situation for global disease and treatments or lack thereof. I recently was sorting through books to sell and came across this again. I reread it and became even more angry and frustrated and scared. I think this should be a required text for high school history/science. I think the American public has become immune to any kind of "wake up call" as regards our environment and health issues. We are still living with the colossal failures and screw ups of the Reagan years, now compounded and magnified by the GWB years.

There is not room to detail the reasons one should read this book. We have already had plagues in this country, which have been basically hidden from the public. We allowed the CDC to be gutted by the Reagan administration and who knows were it currently stands. Ronald Reagan can take credit for millions of AID's related deaths because of his blissful and willful ignorance.

Reading this book is a necessity and will benefit you in many but scary ways.

In nearly 700 well researched pages, Laurie Garrett has managed to turn a usually dry subject into a gripping tale of disease-warriors combating humanity's oldest enemies. This is only the tip of the iceberg for any respectable medical professional, but for the lay-reader this book contains a wealth of information that is readable and easily digestible.

By turning topics like the Ebola virus, Genetic Engineering and Toxic Shock Syndrome into an easy read, Laurie Garrett transforms complex medical topics into fascinating chunks of information like a true wizard. A must read for anyone with the slightest interest in medicine and science.

This non-fiction book inspired my debut Political Thriller - Patient Zero - about the next avian flu pandemic, which the world is truly bracing for.

Patient Zero - Official ABNA Entrant

If you liked The Hot Zone, you will love this book. The Hot Zone told the scary story of a variant of Ebola that turned out to be harmless to humans. The Coming Plague narrates the history of little-known but lethal diseases such as Machupo, Ebola, Four-Corners Hantavirus, Lassa Fever, Marburg and others. In each of these cases, the list of victims was relatively small, but the onset and progress of these illnesses were frightful. Garrett examines how "disease cowboys" worked backward to patient zero, followed the course of the illness, discovered its means of transmission and identified each disease. In a few cases, the original vector could not be found, despite a careful search. How even medical professionals react when they find out that they too, have the disease is a fascinating psychological study. Often they go into a state of denial, like the researcher in New York who came down with Lassa after studying some samples. At the other extreme was one doctor, who, fearing he was exposed to Ebola, hit the bottle hoping that alcohol would kill the virus. To his relief it turned out to be measles.

A large amount of this book is devoted to AIDS. Garrett details its emergence in the early 80s. She is critical of the government's slow response, which she says was partly due to the insistence of some in the Reagan administration that since it affected only homosexual men it was beneath concern. On the other hand, she suggests that the rampant promiscuity of some members of the gay community didn't help matters either. While there was enough blame to go around, the real heroes were a handful of careful physicians who noted some bizarre symptoms among their gay patients and brought this medical condition to the CDC and the world's attention. While this book presents an excellent history of the emergence of AIDS in both America and Africa, Garrett's information on AIDS is now unfortunately out-of-date.

The author presents more chapters on antibiotic-resistant TB, Legionnaire's Disease, the problem with overdosing farm animals with antibiotics and even Toxic Shock Syndrome. At one point, I bogged down with information overload. But during Garrett's chapters on hemorrhagic and other exotic fevers, this book is difficult to put down.

This book, when it came out, pointed out the coming problems in our medical system like antibiotic resistance, long before it became common knowledge. But it also suggests that as we continue to transform our environment, new plagues and diseases will continue to threaten our existence.
My only criticism of the book is that it was a difficult read, because it is very densely packed with information. This book requires patience to read, but it is well worth it.

i read one of raymond's stories in a community college reader . i thought it was teriffic and very unique . i won't even pretend that i remember the stories in this "BEST OF" collection . a totally subjective selection necessarily . but i know it has "CATHEDRAL" and i would hope it would have "A SMALL , GOOD THING" . i love what i've read of the late MR. CARTER (which is a pretty fair bit) and i'm not sure i can even tell you why . i think he was an excellent author though . if that causes one person to read some of his stuff , that's a great thing . all reading is good . wouldn't you agree ?

Have you ever had one of those Blair moments when after weeks of being nice to everyone you have to finally make a decision which means that enemies are made as they see a must have dismissed? Well this is one of those moments. I have been struggling with Raymond Carver's "Where I'm Calling From" a collection of thirty-seven stories chosen from several previous collections published over 20 odd years which should therefore be an ideal introduction to his work. And... wait for it... I am going to abandon it unfinished half way despite him being seen As "the American Chekhov or the laureate of the dispossessed"

Let me say up front, that his prose, ear for dialogue and depiction of the ordinariness of every day life masking unexpressed pain and joy is the best. His stories are like photos that capture the moment frozen with no past or future with all the ambiguity that the unknown allows the reader/observer. The opposite of Norman Rockwell homeliness, more akin to the photos of Walker Evans of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. But they have no plot, twists, surprises, or surface complexity of character. These are often blue collar workers in small-town or rural settings struggling with jobs, partners, children and booze and it's the unsaid that reveals more then the fractured words.

The stories reflect his own drink problems and failed jobs and marriage in his 20s so he turned to writing to escape and short stories could get something in quickly to pay the rent and get food on the table. His life did begin to turn around and his work started to get critical alarm in his 40's before he died of lung cancer. His accessible prose, realistic situations and comprehensible characters are seen as a counter to egghead experimentalism

But for me, I was left all too often thinking yes and what happens next even while the image created hung in my head. I also think that stories ripped from their original magazine context make the stories work harder then they needed to. I would have welcomed an edition that merged the stories with a set of photographs worthy of the writing. However, if you want to dip in and perhaps read a couple a stories a week or if you enjoy short stories then this is a book for you. As you say at the end of a failed relationship its not you it's me, and lets remain friends. Knowing it's really about the lack of passion. Yet the spurned has the chance of real love else where...will that be you?

Despite occasional accusations of obscurity or frustrating spareness, there's a reason Carver's work stands so highly in opinion: the author's ability to deliver through the written word that which lies at the center of what it means to be a human being, as in being in the world. Anyone who has lived a semblance of a life, and whose ability to form mental connections hasn't been cripplingly truncated, will see in Carver's work the essence of human existence, or at least of experienced existence. This is the art of the short story for adults, for those who've graduated from "just so" fairytales (not that there's anything wrong with fairytales) and have developed the ability to recognize and respond to the deep psychic fulfillment of a master storyteller and his deeply meaningful missives. I would go so far as to say that if Carver's work doesn't touch you in some fundamental fashion, then chances are pretty good you haven't lived much of a life. If a reader is looking to have someone hold his or her hand so as to be led down the aisle of bright and shiny distraction, then by all means go read some Wolfe. If, on the other hand, you are of a piece with the endless, sometimes grinding, and always gloriously contradictory cycle of life (and especially life as lived within human relationships) then Carver's work will resonate with your soul.

I am a hopeless lit. snob. I read only classics. When new books are presented to me, especially books with works published less than 40 years ago, I tend to be very cautious. Raymond Carver's collection may have just changed that. He's accessible to a wide array of readers, from hardcore English majors to "the working man" about whom he so often writes. Stories vary in length from a few pages to over ten, and while some seem to have impenetrable depth of thought, many are easily enjoyed without thinking TOO hard :)

Whether you aren't much of a reader or have books upon books that you've read and loved, this collection has something you can enjoy.

It's awfully hard to live up to praise - especially when said acknowledgments include "one of the great short story writers of our time - of any time" and comparisons to the great Hemingway himself (considered by many to be the all-time master of the form). Happily, Raymond Carver's estimable work stands up to the plaudits.

"Where I'm calling from" is a collection of Carver's work from four of his previous story collections with seven all-new stories to round out the volume. Originally published in 1988, the same year as Carver's death, "Where I'm calling from" is a tribute to an astonishingly accomplished career in writing. Arranged in near-chronological order, the stories follow Carver's progress as an author, and in this reader's opinion it is possible to pinpoint the exact moment he tapped into greatness, and while "Gazebo" may be the collection's first truly revelatory story, it is actually "So Much Water So Close to Home" that was published first. Both stories are the high point of the collection, which is no small feat considering the power and the heft of the other offerings.

At the height of his powers, Carver's writing is nothing short of revelatory. Subtle nuances create powerful depth and Carver's keen acuity for his characters leaves behind not one single false step in his plotlines - and how many writers could honestly make that claim? Not a whole lot, rest assured of that. If his earlier writings are less profound they are still masterful examples of the short story form from a writer who was clearly only getting warmed up.

Literature lovers take heed; Carver's collection is the real deal.

Grade: A

Judy Blunt blew me away with this wonderful memoir. Details so crisp and clean, almost too stark. She reminds me of Annie Dillard in her ability to look at nature dispassionately while allowing the reader to absorb the sometimes horrifying details that challenge you emotionally. She also looks at her own life in that same dispassionate manner, giving the reader the same kind of space to make emotional connections. I love this book so much I talk about it when I teach memoir writing. It deserves more attention than it's getting.

Amazingly raw biography of a life about which most US citizens have no understanding. Eloquent breathtaking descriptive writing.

Judy Blunt's Breaking Clean is a clear, concise picture we get from her life in northeastern Montana, a small town called Malta. She provides great detail with vivid memories and she uses the memories of others to connect with readers. The book was awarded thePen/Jeraud Fund Award for work in progress and the 2001 Whiting Writers' Award.

She begins with her home, and engages the reader into a trip down memory lane. And if you have never read or experienced what a Montana blizzard is like, you will gain tremendous insight into one, the Blizzard of 1964, and its massive impact on the ranch and livestock. Blunt goes into enough detail and information that keeps the reader fully informed without asking more questions. A chapter on fighting fire was another of nature's forces she experienced.

We learn about the school in a small town, horses, pets, teenage lifestyle, to marriage and harvesting and divorce. The sequence of stories is told well.

This is an insightful memoir, descriptive, and emotional....MzRizz

eloquent...evocative writing.With the mid-20th century as the setting Blunt brings her land, her emotions, her experiences alive with an honesty that is at once brutal and tender. This is an all absorbing story of self awareness and liberation; I read the book through twice without stopping.

WOW. What a woman. I was especially curious to read this book since Jeff and his family are from Montana, and lived in Missoula for quite some time. It is too bad life still isn't like that in a sense. Seems more things have gotten in the way and it is falling apart. Kids don't know the meaning of "going to play".

I applaud her for not sticking with the marriage. The in-laws were a bit much. Knowing the land would never be her's was a bit much.

Good read but not one to be taken lightly and def not a beach read.

I am 3/4 of the way through this book. Yes, it reads well. Yes, there are some errors and even some questionable use of source material (in my opinion). But still, it is a good story that Donovan tells. But it should be read in conjuction with other books on the topic and not as the final word. And Donovan does slant things against Reno. Yes, Reno may be guilty of not fulfilling his duty that day (and quite honestly, not being a war veteran, I don't feel completely comfortable criticizing the guy) but the following is a clear example of how Donovan clearly has it in for him:
p. 461 (bottom)-- Captain Thomas French told a New York Times reporter that Reno had been DRUNK during the hilltop fight and had hidden himself from the command..." NY Times, January 19, 1879.
Now here are the actual words from that newspaper clipping:
"Capt. French, of the Seventh Cavalry, who is credited with great bravery at the battle of Little Big Horn, and a coming witness before the Reno Court of Inquiry at Chicago, stated today that he saw nothing of Major Reno from the evening of June 25 until noon of June 26; that Reno was out of sight, and that he (French) could not find any one who did see him; in other words, that Reno slunk away in a hole and left the command to Benteen."

Please, will someone tell me where French said Reno was drunk?

Again, the book must be read with caution and with so many footnotes, many that are hard to confirm without seeing the original material, it is a painstaking task!!!

James Donovan clearly set out to thread a needle. He tried to write a completely fair and honest retelling of the 7th Calvary's defeat at the Little Big Horn and the death of George Armstrong Custer. He carefully lays out the past history of all the important characters, warts and all. He then does his honest best to tell the tale of the battle. Not finished there, he goes on to tell the tale of the courts martial held to determine the fate of Reno & Benteen. He doesn't even stop the story there. He carries it on to the slaughter at Wounded Knee, perpetrated by many of the same people who survived the Little Big Horn battle.

The book is very well written and incredibly well researched with a complete set of footnotes and endnotes. The maps are clear and work well with the text. The descriptions of the characters and people involved helped paint a full picture of what was happening in that part of the world and why.

Another book on this topic, To Hell With Honor: Custer and the Little Big Horn, focused almost exclusively on the battle, and while it clearly has more bias than this book, does more to detail what happened, specifically, during the fighting. This book goes way beyond the battle, before and after, to tell the bigger story of the Native Americans and their fights with each other and newcomers from a fledgling country. It's not better than the other book, it's different. If anything, they complement each other very well.

It's a real joy to get to read a well written book that also educates, so this one is really worth the time.

It starts long before the campaign and ends much more later on.
It lefts no stone unturned, and actually uses all the data available in a tour de force of rigour.
Actually if you are not going to read more then a book about it this one will do perfectly the job.
It is neither pro-Custer or anti-Custer, makes a good job of simply saying what is known and formulating the best plausible guesses when explaining the parts of the fight harder to establish (there other authors are perhaps much more passionate in their arguments!).
Highly Recommended for what it is fair History without undue passion.

ADB

When I was eight or nine, back in the early 1950's, my parents took me to see a traveling exhibit of American historical objects in Trenton NJ. I am not sure if this mobile museum came to town for the annual State Fair or some other reason, and I don't know who sponsored it, but Henry Ford might be a good guess. The ONLY object I recall from this presentation is a rolltop school desk, there because the initials G.A.C. were carved in the lid. "G.A.C."---For George Armstrong Custer. During my childhood, he was considered a full hero who was a victim of the vicious Sioux and Cheyenne. By the time I was a teenager, Hollywood began to depict Custer as a victim only of his own arrogance and stupidity, and the Indians as victims of Caucasian conquest who had one glorious afternoon of victory.
The truth lies between these views, of course, and you will get it if you have the patience to read this lengthy, somewhat scholarly work carefully. It requires half the book to get to the morning of June 25, 1876, when the Seventh Cavalry finally connects with the hostile encampment of native Americans. The next 25 percent shows us the aftermath of the slaughter on all parties, and the final fourth consists of extensive and often fascinating notes. There are photos of the principal players, but I wanted more. There are maps, but I wanted them larger. These are minor quibbles with a massive story, masterfully composed. The Battle of the Little Bighorn, as the author notes, probably has been more written about than even the Battle of Gettysburg. "A Terrible Glory" is a fine place to begin the saga, but you won't want to stop with it alone. General Custer made mistakes, but not as many as revisionist history wants to lay on him. His chief subordinates also made mistakes, perhaps more serious than Custer's, yet there were just so many indians and so few troopers than even if these officers behaved with perfect courage, it is likely the troops would still have lost. The "blame Custer" movement got started early, got nipped in the bud, and then made a comeback, then receded, then made another comeback. Complexities such as these are what has kept this tale alive for 130 years.

I read Son of the Morning Star some years ago after visiting the Little Bighorn Battlefield. I found Terrible Glory a more informative read and apparently extensively researched. Donovan presents a more sympathetic view of Custer. He also discusses the Reno Court of Inquiry in some detail, which is quite interesting. In that context he delves into the actions, and motivation therefor, of certain participants to color the truth of what occurred during the battle. While Custer was in command and deserved a measure of blame, the verdict of history has been unnecessarily harsh as to him and undeservedly lenient as to others.