Johnson Books

being a relatively new fan of nascar, and having family members that work closely with it gave me the incentive to read this book. after the untimely death of nascar great dale earnhardt, i found it difficult to watch the weekly races.they seemed to be missing an important member of nascar and my reason for tuning in every weekend. after reading this book,i have changed my mind.nascar is truly the junior johnsons,the kale yarboroughs, and the ricard pettys. they made nascar what it is today. they paved the road for the newcomers. i still miss dale,but now i find i really do have another reason to tune in. i enjoy watching. i no longer have a favorite driver. i just cheer on the front runner. the book was a good read. i reccomend it highly.

To all outward appearances Jr Johnson was a country bumpkin, yet this book shows beneath that "good ole boy" veneer was a sophisticated mind and drive on which crowds cheered and engineers with PhDs came for advice, the latter not covered by Tom Wolfe's book. A quality presentation.

Tom Higgins of the Charlotte Observer and ESPN and Steve Waid of WC Illus. can tell a story like no one else can. Mix Tom, Steve and Junior together and you get lots of NASCAR history AND sore ribs.

being a relatively new fan of nascar, and having family members that work closely with it gave me the incentive to read this book. after the untimely death of nascar great dale earnhardt, i found it difficult to watch the weekly races.they seemed to be missing an important member of nascar and my reason for tuning in every weekend. after reading this book,i have changed my mind.nascar is truly the junior johnsons,the kale yarboroughs, and the ricard pettys. they made nascar what it is today. they paved the road for the newcomers. i still miss dale,but now i find i really do have another reason to tune in. i enjoy watching. i no longer have a favorite driver. i just cheer on the front runner. the book was a good read. i reccomend it highly.

The author's enthusiasm and optimism are contagious!! After I read JUST JUMP, I was fired up to select my goal and then follow the path to success--that is go "from mediocrity to excellence." Using examples from her own life, the author demonstrates to the reader how creativity and courage can not only resolve problems, but also bring fun, excitement, and a sense of achievement to one's life.

Great read, Johnna gets right at it - get rid of the negative thoughts and it will help you to Just Jump. Spend your time on your passion and you will have a good life.

I laughed out loud reading about the many adventures Johnna has taken in her life. Her humor reminded me that even an expert on attitude has her moments of shear panic and terror. That inturn motived me to take action in my own life! I will for sure purchase the workbook companion and put my new knowledge to action and work towards my goals. A very inspiring book to get you off the couch, out of the negative places in your head and out there in life making your dreams come true.

I highly recommend this book to anyone! This book moves one from thinking to believing to doing! I find this read as though I am having a conversation with my own personal coach. Better yet, it motivated me to continue to develop a specific plan to improve, create results, and just jump! Regardless of one's profession, sex, stage in life, etc, this book is a great read that I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to read it. I look forward to more from this author.

Whether you have recently experienced the death of someone close or want to prepare children around you, Joy's book provides information in a non-threatening, conversational format. Reading the stories of real children and the questions they ask, helps to make death a part of living.

This is an extremely readable, concise, enjoyable book about a very difficult subject. We give it to our families in our hospital.

I reviewed this book for Bereavement Magazine and was touched and delighted by the many stories and very human examples. I'm giving it as gifts to friends who work with grieving children.

This is the book I heartily recommend to clients and to workshop participants who need to know about helping children around issues of death and grief. Joy Johnson has put together a practical and extremely helpful book that reads easily from cover to cover or can be used as a reference. She addresses the most frequently asked questions and also makes sure to address the more difficult issues....anger, AIDS, suicide, murder, drunk drivers, and others. It's also one of the best bargains you will ever see in a book. 180+ pages for $7!

Packed with the information you need to deal lovingly with a grieving child. Explains death and grief from the various perspectives from infants to teens and offers you the information you need to respond compassionately

An excellent book written with the utmost reverence for God and truth, and yet also a devestating blow to Modern "Christendom" -- Kierkegaard passionately skewers hypocracy with his amazing talent. Read this book if you want to be reminded that Christianity demands the following of Christ and not the "building of sepulchers of the prophets and garnishing of the tombs of the righteous" that is entailed by "worshipping" Him in the hideous whitewashed spires of "Christendom".

"As high as true Christianity stands above all heresy and error and aberration, just so deep below all heresy and error and aberration lies [the] twaddle [of Christendom]."

"Think now what passion there was in primative Christianity, without which it never would have come into the world; propose to one of those figures the question, 'Dare a Christian tranquillize himself in this way?' 'Abominable,' he would reply, 'that a Christian... should tranquilly keep silent in the face of the fact that God every day is mocked by people pretending by millions to be Christians...'"

Kierkaagard's Attack Upon "Christendom" was written, not as an attack upon Christianity as a whole, as many believe, but as an attack upon the Lutheran state religion present during his lifetime. He offers a great deal of evidence showing how the priests in his native Denmark are not, as they believe, "Witnesses to the Truth", but are in fact liars who mislead the masses and merchants who have their careers (which is, in K.'s view, the wrong way to look at it) only to make money and have a royally subsidized position.

All of this does, however, become somewhat prolix, as this book is actually just a series of articles and pamphlets that he wrote in a 2-year span, which were then combined into the present work. Still, though, this book is an enjoyable read, due to the satirical style of K.'s writing and the, however arguable, relevance of the subject. I recommend reading "Training in Christianity", though, as an introduction to this book.

If you want to reassure yourself that Christianity is wrong or stupid or whatever, read Nietzsche's Antichrist. If you want to read something that actually frightens Christians, this is the book for you. The difference is Kierkegaard is a Christian with extensive Church experience so unlike Nietzsche he knows where the bones are buried.

The whole thing amounts to an elaborate Conspiracy theory. In order to be rid of Christianity Society has not rejected it, but enthroned it. But in so doing created a hierarchy (the institutional Church) with the covert purpose of making certain that Christianity does not exist. Christianity is professed as the StateReligion. There are many civil servant employed to promote it. There is much Real Estate devoted to it. Church attendance is high. And, as a result, Christianity is effectively nullified, because it actually exists nowhere.

One must remember that SK and Han Christian Andersen were drinking buddies (they fell out when SK reviewed one of Andersen's novels) and SK here announces another naked emperor. In a Christian nation no one is a Christian!

If you are just starting SK I suggest this book because here he is at his most open and "direct." Everything else has deep ironic undercurrents, but a "surface" reading of this one is probably close to right.

The first reviewer on this page "a reader" does a prefect job of summarizing "Attack Upon Christendom."

Though deadly serious in his attack, with the utmost reverance and love for faith in Jesus Christ SK comes out swinging. It is hard to imagine how much ridicule he endured for this series of articles and rebutals.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of this collection of writings is SK's absolutely brilliant use of metaphors, and his comical sarcasm.

As a Christian, this is a very difficult book to read, but one that is crucial to understanding Christianity in what SK labels "New Testament Christianity" terms. In the beginning of the book, Valdemar Ammundsen is quoted as giving us this haunting reminder:
"Where Kierkegaard is wrong, that goes on his account. Where Kierkegaard was right, the bill comes to us."

There is so much I would love to quote out of this collection, such as the metaphor of the "Obediant Hound," but I hope that anyone even considering reading this will do so and experience it for themselves.

By backing up all of his claims with consistent citing of the Bible and Christ Himself, SK forces us to consider things that have either been forgotten or overlooked in regards to being a Christian.

I understood after reading the book in swedish way I lost contact with my now 14 years old doughter Emelie Finette, living in Westheim/Marsberg. I have seen her for only 6 hours totaly.

I also understood that we parents who wants to have equal rights for the children will have a long way to go yet.

Thanks Aaron for a wounderfull book.

Tommy Jonsson

Aaron Kipnis offers a comprehensive view of all aspects of the men's movement in this 302-page volume. Inspired by issues raised by members of an addiction/recovery men's group headed by the author, the book looks at various male images. Kipnis critically examines the old masculine values of the "heroic" male as well as those of the newer, sensitive man (what Kipnis calls the "feminized" man), and addresses at length the emerging "authentic, integrated" masculinity inspired by Robert Bly and friends. Intertwined with these accounts are stories and vignettes from men in the group, new knights of the round table on a quest for a new masculine paradigm.

Although the metaphor of the knights seems to get a little corny at times, the book has much to recommend it. This is the first, if not the only, book that globally looks at all facets of the men's movement. Everything from circumsicion, to myth, ritual and initiation, to the politics of male-bashing, is covered. There is an excellent table comparing the masculine images of the heroic, feminized, and integrated man and looking at how these differ along physical, mental, and emotional lines. There is a section on men's resources, with names and addresses of organizations and suggestions on how to get involved. Also, unlike most books on men's issues, this one actually has an index--a refreshing feature indeed!

Aaron Kipnis has put into words what I have felt for many years. He says that the "value placed on men's lives, as compared to women's, is greatly depreciated in our culture." It starts with how male infants are treated by their mothers right up to how devalued were the lives of so many men who fought in Vietnam. Had it been women who were dying senseless deaths over there, Kipnis points out, the war would not have lasted near as long.

He tell us in a way that resonates with me that, "Men frequently feel disconnected from an authentic source of aliveness within us." Maybe it is because so many of us have constructed an "heroic personality that is hard, inflexible and, like the armor of old, heavy to drag around."

This book was given to me by a friend who, with me, is a member of The Mankind Project, New Warrior Community, a group that Kipnis talks about in his book. The book has helped me to really understand the obsessive overachieving and workaholism of so many men and how they have numbed their lives and avoided real intimacy with both men and women in their lives, especially their significant others. (In reality, not very significant!)

Kipnis says, "This numbness includes loss of emotional and even physical sensitivity." Men come home and escape into a few beers and the tube or even worse. The price we pay, he says, is pain: isolation, alienation, stressed-induced illnesses, sex and love addictions, codependence (taking care of our women before even thinking of ourselves and being dependent on them for approval), fear and anxiety and God knows how much more.

This is a powerful book and an easy read. It is mesmerizing because it is so damn true and accurate. Kipnis does not stop at describing this devastating phenomenon. He offers up many ways for us to seek healing. He tells women readers that they would do well to listen carefully to what they can do to help the men in their lives starting with their male infants and sons. He encourages us to join men's groups and seek therapy from psychologists who understand the acute losses to the masculine soul and may be wounded healers themselves. He shows us that the spiritual dimension of life is critical for our emotional and mental health and that sharing openly with other men the pain and fear we're experiencing is the beginning of healing.

Kipnis speaks of the "uninitiated male". We in the New Warriors understand him when he says that the uninitiated male has many problems. He quotes another author who says about Shakespeare's Hamlet: He has "no roots in the instinctive world--and he makes only division and tragedy of [the divine and sacred] in us, not paradox and synthesis." Kipnis says, "The narcissistic male, unable to wield the power of the father, cannot generate and protect life or transform the world, only devalue it.---Hamlet retreats into immobility as a defense against the conflicting emotions he feels."

I like the way Kipnis tells the real stories of pain, healing and joy that he and his men's group colleagues experienced. That gives life to the book and helps men and women understand that we can rediscover ways of male initiation and heal the wounds between fathers and sons and between we men and those whom we claim to love but find so it so difficult to do. This book is a must read for every man and still, I realize that only a small fraction of men and their women will read the book and benefit from the wisdom and practical ways of healing found within the book. I am very thankful that The New Warriors have entered my life and made possible a path, a life-long path, of loving myself and following the ways of healing of which Kipnis speaks so eloquently. He makes the masculine soul real.

I have discovered my masculine soul and I am in the process of empowering myself to be vulnerable and open with my brothers so the strange paradoxes of life can be understood and realized, especially, the paradox that the more open and vulnerable I am, the more powerful I am as a man, a spouse, and as a leader. As a personal life coach and leadership consultant, I am grateful that Aaron Kipnis has written this and other books which I can strongly recommend to clients and friends.

I read this book in 1992 (?) and it gave me an entirely a new perspective on myself as a white male American. I was so taken that when I got to the end and saw that Aaron invited readers to contact him I did. Consequently I went to Santa Rosa to meet him and ended up not only attending a course he and his partner were giving at Sonoma State but got involved deeply in men's work. I included this and Aaron's other books on the reading list I used for a course I tought on men and women for 13 years. And it led to my writing an essay "Confessions of a Recovering Male" which has been published in several places, including an unauthorized translation into Slovak!

Aaron is real. He speaks from his heart and from a life that has been a challenge for him (as I suspect all men, including myself, find life.)

I am delighted to see that it has been re-issued. Just read it; if you are a woman trying to understand a man, or a man struggling to understand himself or a son/daughter trying to understand your father. The ultimate irony of all this is that I came upon this as Amazon Recommendation #500 something on a day in which I made email contact with Aaron for the first time in many years!

(Although the reviewer line above says I am from Claremont, CA, I emigrated to Tasmania 4 months ago and am now a resident of Hobart, TAS, Australia)

If you love to get your Revelation views from the front page of today's newspaper, then you will destest this book. If your favorite preachers are those who love to get their Reveltion views from the front page of today's newspaper, then you'll really desest this book. And if you think that Hal Lidsey and Tim LaHaye are significant scholars on Revelation, then you will absolutely hate this book.
BUT if you are a true student of the Bible and love expository teaching, then get ready to have your socks blessed off.
Jim takes a "preterist" view of Revelation and powerfully supports that view. He insists that the reader be consistent with the 12+ scriptures in Revelation that limit the time period for fulfillment of the book to a time that was "soon to take place". NOT "SOON" from 2005, but "SOON" from 79 AD. He also makes the "symbolic" nature of Revelation crystal clear.
And what makes his book the "top of the heap" of preterist commentaries on Revelation is his exposition of chapter 21. Jim is the "ONE & ONLY" perterist commentator who doesn't "bailout" or "jump ship" when it comes to chapter 21.
So to say that there isn't another commentary on Revelation like Jim's isn't an exaggeration. God bless. Mike

Great stuff. Although some things he doesn't cover enough I say. I don't have a list of pro's n con's really, I read this book over a year ago. It is on my list of good commentaries of the book of Revelation. However, I think that commentaries on this book are best when eat the meat of each one and spit out the bones, seeing which views and exegetics work best with harmony of Scripture and history. Jim's book is great, but don't stop with this one, also read "Revelation: Jesus Christ's Last Message of Hope" by Wayne Jackson as well as "An Eschatology of Victory" By J. Marcellus Kik. These are my top 3 recommendations for studying the apocalpyse. There are views by all that I don't believe are biblically irrefutable but we're saved by grace, afterall, not irrefutability in apocalypses. Enjoy your book!

This is the best work on Revelation that I have read. Jim gives a very scholarly approach and looks at the symbolism contained in the Old Testament to unlock the meaning that the original readers of Revelation no doubt were very familiar with. This approach makes so much more sense with the rest of the scriptures than the premillinial view point does. Jim's style of writing is so easy to read,yet he gets to the very heart of the message that was intended by John when he wrote the book. Thank you, Jim.

I have consulted almost 100 commentaries in my study on this grand book of the scriptures, but none possess the provocative and dynamic aspects as Jim's Revelation. As with all commentaries by Jim McGuiggan, he presents the material in a conversational manner, which exhibits his keen insights into the scriptures and tremendously helps the lay student. For years Revelation has been a perplexity and an enigma, which has prompted too many students to put it on the shelf and leave it to the "scholars." However, I suggest that with the help of this book, Revelation comes to life and enables the student to understand it in its historical and literary setting. On the other hand, many authors abuse this grand book in today's religious environment. McGuiggan will aptly quail the heresies that are being taught in many of these modern commentaries such as the doctrines of the "rapture," the "tribulation," and the "millennial reign." He will have the reader focus his thoughts of Revelation in their true Biblical sense--as literary figures to be understood symbolically. I am unable to do this book any sort of justice in the minor space I am allowed, but I do suggest that any student's library is incomplete if they do not own this book!

Reverend Deborah L. Johnson brings us messages from Spirit that talk to our hearts, minds, and souls to help us embrace our inherent wholeness. This book is a practical tool to use daily as a reminder of who we are and how to live in the world as "spiritual beings having a human experience." The letters are organized in sections to help us easily choose a topic for our current need or interest. Iyanla Vanzant recommended this book in her June 2004 column in Essence magazine. I recommend it for anyone who is interested in finding wisdom to live by and inspiration for daily life. If you liked Neale Donald Walsh's Conversations With God books, you'll love this one, too.

God spoke to Rev. Deborah Johnson in the form of letters. Here she shares this "correspondence," which she has organized and edited brilliantly. Every page and virtually every paragraph shimmer with revelations and wisdom, easily accessible and at the same time loving, profound and life-altering. I wish I could give this book to everyone on our planet. It would be a happier world. How fortunate we are that this book is the first of a series planned by the author.

I was fed up with religious dogma. I wanted to find a basis for spirituality that applied to the present as well as the past. "Letters from the Infinite" provides that basis and goes on to explain how to apply that spirituality to my everyday life by using its 'Tools for Living'. These are practical steps that anyone can take to open themselves to their God. It explains that God is good, all of the time and that we are perfect, whole, and complete right now. Then it explains why we can't stay that way. Why we must continue to open ourselves to more fully enjoy our selves, our relationships, and our lives.
I highly recommend this book. I believe that anyone who has a desire to find the higher meaning of life must read this book, regardless of where they are on their spiritual path.

The message this book delivers resonates totally with my belief system. While it supports that Jesus lived and brought a powerful message to mankind, it puts spirituality, religion and the church in proper perspective. Is also provides insight into the true meaning of life and the individual's relationship to the infinite...to God. I challenge other spiritually minded people to read this book and not be affected by the message. I cherish this book will keep it as a resource.

This book is meant to be savored. It is all things wine and the appreciation of wine. Johnson's actual presence, his life's tale wanders in and out of the narrative. We learn about his schooling, his early university days, about his wife, his early work and publications but that's just part of the beauty of reading this book.

Imagine if you had a friend who not only spoke eloquently but who could talk at great lengths about a subject he held dear to his heart. Imagine this friend to be well-traveled, with many connections and stories to tell. Hugh Johnson might be that ideal friend. He doesn't talk down to the reader, he doesn't namedrop the way some wine writers do, glorifying personalities in the wine trade. Johnson is certainly living a comfortable life but his presentation of facts, experiences and meetings with great wine and great winemakers is lively and surprisingly modest.

The book is divided into several sections: Prospects, Bubbly, White, Red and Sweet. Throughout these sections he explores past episodes of his life, the people he met and the wines he encountered. His style is direct, light, poetic and friendly, an approach in prose that both informs and involves the reader. You never feel like you're being lectured to, mostly that he is here to mentor, to share and express his love of the great fermented grapes of the world.

I would recommend this book to all kinds of readers, especially the wine lovers. If you're starting out or know the difference between a Pouilly-Fusse and Pouilly-Fume, then read this. For wine writing, this work is a treasure. I wish there were more writers like Johnson working in the industry.

A Life Uncorcked is a celebration of the vine. It is a fun read and very informative. I especially love his take on the current wine rating systems, finally someone with sense!

I recently published a brief review of this wonderful book in the print edition of The Washington Examiner newspaper (www.examiner.com -- April 29 & 30th Weekend Edition). Here is that review:

Recently, I had the opportunity to catch up with world-renowned wine writer Hugh Johnson as he breezed through town promoting his new memoir on the inner workings of the wine world, A Life Uncorked. This is a deeply personal book. Yet, as Johnson admits, it is not an autobiography. Rather, this memoir is a personal journey, as much about wine as it is about his life.

For Johnson, wine is essentially "a social game" not merely an interest or a hobby. Wine is "about human relations, hospitality, bonding-all the maneuvers of social life-and all under the influence, however benign, of alcohol." Who can argue with that?

This social experience is richly transformative: "However good a wine may be, sentiment can make it better" and "with the right companion, a single wine can be a continuing conversation." In person, as in his writings, Johnson comes off as witty, personable, and charming, and his approach to wine is wonderfully infectious.

Never one to shy from a fight, Johnson (a Brit) takes issue with Robert Parker, the preeminent American wine critic. Johnson criticizes Parker's wine scoring system, which treats wines "like American high school students"-50 points just for showing up, 60 = dreadful, 70 = pretty poor, 80 = not bad, etc. Johnson decries the effect this approach has had on the wine industry, where wines are Parkerized to get higher scores.

Ultimately, Johnson's unpretentious and highly enjoyable attitude towards wine appreciation is compelling. As he plainly explains, "It depends on whether you see wine primarily as a drink or as a recreational substance. In a drink you look for something refreshing and satisfying without too loud a voice, not too intrusive on your food or your thoughts each time you take a sip." So take a page from Hugh's book, and enjoy a jolly good read with glass in hand.

I must admit that I've never followed the author's wine advice but I cut my wine teeth on his fantastic wine atlas. I bought this book on a whim and it's taken me months to drift through it - not because it's a hard read rather it's sort of a wine vacation experience best experienced without haste.

If you're a wine fan who needs a vacation but can't get away; read a chapter or two and live vicariously.

btw, yes, there is an oft-quoted sentence disparanging GWB and RP in the same whack. Not entirely off the mark though, is it?!

This book is the real deal. It's a story Spanish-American War from a real participant's view, instead of some long-winded pseudo-intellectual pedagogue.
Unlike the more famous [and high ranking] participants, such as Theodore Roosevelt and George Dewey, who wrote about their exploits, Charles Johnson Post was a private. He was a combat veteran who successfully dodged Spanish bullets and survived the Cuban campaign only to nearly die in the horrific quarentine camp which awaited the returning soldiers.
Not only did Mr. Post write a great story, but illustrated the scenes of the war.
My reason for not rating this a 5 is that there were not enough of Mr.Post's artwork and for printing copies of his water colors in B&W!

The Little War of Private Post is undoubtedly a classic in the genre of "American Memoirs of the Common Soldier". Common in this case is most uncommon as Charles Post recounts his days with the N.Y. 71st infantry during the Spanish American War. His account of the experience of combat rings true, but truer yet, an unfliching look, sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious, of his experiences as a citizen soldier in the Spanish American War. From the incompetence of the high command to the inadaquacies of the supply chain, Post leaves no doubt in our mind as to the idiocy of going to war in haste to serve the popular will, a timely reminder for our present situation. His descriptions of the food, the living conditions, (especially aboard the transport ships), the lack of unified command strikes one as curiously contemporary in light of the more than 100 years separation. Post went on to live a varied and adventurous life, his war time sketches and paintings have a very vivid impact onto our black and white images of the Spanish American War. They can be found in larger size in Living Color in older issues of American Heritage, February 1957 as I recall, where I first saw his art as a boy. A lively and entertaining account of a now forgotten era, highly reccomended by this old reader.

A classic story of one man's experiences during the short, but brutal war in Cuba. Private Post details his everyday struggles to keep his health, his sanity and his life intact. Amazing information on small details of what life was like in the army at the time. The heat, bad food, military blunders, inept commanders, cunning Spanish foes, the wounded, sickness and victories are explained in Mr. Post's basic and direct style. A must read for any fan of this conflict that allows the reader to suffer along with the soldiers wearing wool tunics and armed with weapons that were outdated. A classic. Check it out.

I first read this book in 1961 when it was published by Signet in a mass market edition when I was at university. I have found it so valuable that it is still in my collection.
As a long time "grunt" historian of the life and times of the common soldier I have had occasion to refer to this time and again for details of clothing and equipment. Post was an illustrator for a New York paper and went to war carrying his sketchbook as a member of a New York National Guard unit still equipped with Indian War vintage single shot "trapdoor" Springfield rifles firing black powder whose smoke revealed their firing positions to the Spaniards concealed with smokeless firing Mauser rifles.
A less grim story is that the box knapsacks carried by the troops were admirably suited to carry bottles of whiskey in the blanket rolls and demijohns in the compartments along with a pair of spare socks and some toiletries.
Seldom was an amphibious campaign more mismanaged or carried out but this is not the place for that discussion.
This war was the last gasp of that primitive nineteenth century organization dominated by the technical bureaus and in which the Commanding General of the Army commanded only his own personal retainers in peace time. The main result of this war was the establishment of a proper general staff for planning and training on the European model.
The commentator, Graham A. Cosmas, is a long time specialist in the history of the Indian fighting army.

Funny, horny, passionate, insightful and a damn good read!

Foreman gives testosterone a good name!

This is Earth First! founder, Dave Foreman's first novel. Set partly in New Mexico's Diablo National Forest and partly in southeastern Arizona, Foreman's natural descriptions read as if they were drawn from his own field notes. This story is as much about commitment to wild places as it is about survival.

Interestingly, Foreman's novel is similar to Barbara Kingsolver's current bestseller, PRODIGAL SUMMER (2000), in many respects. Both novels involve sensual love affairs that unfold in nature. Whereas Kingsolver's lovers, Deanna Wolfe (a forest ranger) and Eddie Bondo (a hunter) debate coyotes, Foreman's lovers, MaryAnne McClellen (a wildlife ecologist) and Jack Hunter (a burned-out, Sierra Club lobbyist) protect Mexican wolves. Like Deanna, MaryAnne understands: "If life in all its fecund, blooming, buzzing, beautiful diversity is to survive, we humans must find within ourselves the generosity of spirit and the greatness of heart to make room for the full flowering of other species and natural life processes" (p. 176). Kingsolver even lives in Tucson, where parts of Foreman's novel unfold.

Jack Hunter is a complicated character. No longer a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., Hunter has become "a hard-drinking, sullen horseshoer in a backwater nowhere;" yet he remains "a man born to greatness" (p. 206). When confronted with Forest Service logging plans and saving the lobos, "Hunter knew he couldn't run any more," Foreman writes. "It was time to stick his spear in the ground and fight for home. He saw the grand cottonwoods and bouncy stream of Stowe Creek Meadow. He saw the tall ancient pines of Mondt Park. He saw the wolves of Davis Prairie. That was what was real. That was what was important. That was what made his life worth living . . . he would fight for it now. No matter what the cost" (p. 200).

Dave Forman has written a howling-good first novel which, like Kingsolver's, I recommend to those who share a love for wild places.

G. Merritt

This was a wild read. Sex, romance, wilderness, wolves, good guys, bad guys, and a moral to the story. The story is about those who love the west and do battle to protect the land and its wildlife. Many of the characters and events are probably emulations from the author's own life that has been dedicated to the protection of wilderness and wildlife. If you want to gain a sense about why some people are willing to devote their lives to the wild then read this book. When you are done, choose your place to stand and defend.

Having moved to the New Mexico outback myself a few years ago with the notion that cowboys and ranchers were noble and strong caretakers of the land, I was shocked to learn about the whole public land multiple use system and what arrogant cretins the abusers of it really are. Dave Foreman has ripped the masks off every wise-use, militia belonging, united nations fearing, and custom-and-culture ranting local rural resident and revealed them for the ignorant, bombastic yahoos they really are. I hope I live long enough to someday hear the howl of a lobo here. This book let me dream that might someday come true.