Richards Books

Gargoyle 42 is a brilliant collection of brash, dynamic and creative literary works. Particularly moving is the hard-hitting "Boyfriend" by Jenny Badman. When this woman lays it out there, you'll feel it. Buy the book!

This hot author is already outstanding. Not only has captured the heat of the moment, but she relates it to everyday life. It has flavor and edge. Loved it!

This dynamic work of literature inspired me to take more chances in my life. I found it captivating, seductive and dark. Keep up the awesome work!

I loved this work! My fav section was the poem by Jenny B. It moved me and inspired me to make some changes in my life. This work was spellbinding, riveting and seductive. Encoré Jenny B!

GARGOYLE should be required reading for every creative writing class. This work sparkles with literary elegance and discipline, bubbles with sex and boils with blood. BUY IT! You will feel these writers breathing on your neck deep into the night!

Grace: The Power to Change

This is one of those books that has the potential to totally change the way you think about yourself and most importantly God. It's thought provoking to say the least. We live in a world that is so performance based. The problem with that is so much of the time it is our own strength and performance that we rely, instead of God's strength in and through us - we think so small.....God wants us to think so much bigger! It is through His Grace (His ability, His strength) that gives us the power to think outside the box that the world and sometimes our circumstances seem to put us in. A must read...great study individually or as a group.

This will change your life and the way you think of yourself.
I realize there are a lot of books on this subject but this one will be the one you re-read over and over again.

I had asked God if I would live and die and not really understand grace, and then I found this book. This author explains grace so you get it. In fact, read anything you can get your hands on by this man, and you won't be sorry.

This is my favorite of all of Jim Richard's books. I never understood what Grace meant until reading this book.

My life I would say has literally changed after reading this book. One time reading is not enough. We need to sit with this book and the Bible and go hand in hand.

I have stopped laboring for God after I read it. Now I am at peace and rest. Because Christ has completed the work. I don't have to conquer any sins anymore, because he accomplished his mission on the cross. All I have to do is to say to myself Christ has finished the work. He has stripped Satan of all his powers and gained victory. Even death couldn't defeat him. Now I have the same victory too, where all evil is under my feet through Christ. As the book says where man's strength ends, God's strength begins.

MUST READ!

I bought this book because I was considering getting a Great Dane. I wanted to study up on the breed before committing to having one. It was good because it did bring up both good and bad things about the breed. Danes are not for everyone. However, I wish it would have had more info on everyday living with a Dane and not so much on breeding. And yes, I did get a Dane.

I loved this book. I learned enough in the care section to save at least one trip to the vet (normal stuff that doesn't seem so - callouses for big dogs). This book was fun to read, in addition to being so informative. Great for better understanding my Great Dane.

This book answered all my questions about temperment, exercise and medical issues. I also really appreciated the balanced view - all the up and down side of owning a Great Dane from puppy to old age and death. Thanks to Jill for providing excellant information - I'm sure our new Dane will apprecitate it when he/she arrives!

BUY THIS BOOK! I had purchased and read over a dozen books in preparation for bringing my puppy home, and this by far is the best.

The section on choosing a breeder is wonderful, and has some very important information you need to know before you buy a Dane from someone.

Bottom line, get it, read it, keep it for reference.

This was a very informative and helpful book. The Author provides keen insight into the care,responsibilities and phsyche of the Apollo of dogs.

This book is one to have! This book is what I call the greatest beginners book to waterfowl. It takes you step by step, thru different breeds (Canvasback & Green-winged teal), types (Dabblers & divers), and the anatomy of the birds. It is a great book for any waterfowl painter or Waterfowl carving beginning artist to invest in. It has helped me a lot and it has helped my other fellow artist out also. (Like 2000 Federal Duck Stamp artist Adam Grimm) Take my word: get this book. You'll thank me.

I have been hunting ducks all my life and have read quite a few books on waterfowl, but I have never come across any book with so many pictures on different kinds of ducks and geese. I believe this book is an excellent source for people who are beginners in waterfowl hunting since they can learn about what different kinds of ducks look like.

I've looked everywhere for a table top book with just information and color photos of ducks to help us identify the water fowl we see from our home on the Chesapeake Bay - This is it - Wonderful full size, full color photos that point out the differences in species both in flight characteristics and on the water feeding activities. Age and sex appearance differences are also illustrated as each species has its own chapter. Well organized layout that is ideal for our purpose - best of its kind that I've seen.

The Great Gallery of Ducks... is truly great, if you're looking for a pictorial reference book on waterfowl. The book is crammed with photographs, almost all of which are well-taken, many showing fine detail. A few are underexposed, but most are indeed of great use to birders, artists and others intent on seeing waterfowl up close and personal.

Like my cousin who said he loves his Grandpa book, I too think it's a great book for those who are looking to know more about the anatomy of ducks. Along with Dick's other books and works, he always put so much effort into everything he did. I was there when many of the pictures for the book were taken. The pictures that look as if they were taken on a real pond were actually done at a pond on property Dick owned. He took a goose decoy, placed an electric motor, prop and controls inside, and a remote controlled camera pointing out from its side. Before his death, he told me he wanted to come up with a way to take pictures of ducks and geese from the air. He talked of developing a remote controlled goose with a camera that would fly. I believe he would have done! It is truely a pleasure to look at my copy of the book and remember his genius.

The story of the Loon Society is great. You learn about it from the characters and actions in this early gay pulp fiction novel. I will not tell the story, but hope you can read it and then if you are very fortunate will be able to watch the movie (believe me reading the story will help with understanding the movie). The story of men in the early history of this country may be made up in this book, but I believe it happened more than many people would ever admit. I hope the movie will be reissued, even though it is not well made and did not do well when it was released, it would add to any collection of books/movies.

Ephraim MacIver is escaping his one time lover, following the course a wise man has advised him - a course to discover himself - when he encounters an Indian Singing Heron. Singing Heron already knows Ephraim's name, and begins to instruct him in the ways of the Loon Society, and before sending him further on his journey of discovery they fall in love. As Ephraim's quest continues he meets more Indians as well as Cyrus, and he fall in love with them all.

As Ephraim learns more of the exclusively male Loon Society, and their ways of unselfish love, he tries to understand how he also can love more than one person. Yet at the same time he learns that he may also find a special partner from among all those who have fallen in love with him while on his quest. For this is what marks those of the Loon society out from others, they can share their love while still holding to one partner, they do not know jealously.

This is quite remarkable story, especially considering it was written over forty years ago. At its core is the thought of free love along with its unrestrained physical fulfilment, without jealousy. The story has the feel of fantasy about it as everything falls perfectly in place as Ephraim continues his journey, and with the meaningful dreams. The story is contains many explicit passages of love making; passages which manage to avoid being crude and put to shame much of what is written today.

The story does raise concerns though. The men all seem to be handsome and well equipped, and readily declare undying love within a few days or possibly hours of meeting and before they have had a chance to really know one another. It is easy to get the impression that this love is built on physical attraction; although in fairness it does also speak of the beauty within, and Ephraim at least does not restrict his attentions just to the young. And maybe this is part of the fantasy, this ability accurately to read one another so quickly.

There are two sequels to the Song of the Loon: Song of Aaron and Willow Song.

Given the age of this book, and the fact that it was revolutionary when it was published, this book is well worth reading, if only for the "historical" perspective. The writing is STILTED, the situations, CONTRIVED, and the sex, PREDICTABLE, but...and I must hesitate here in reviewing this book, in it's HISTORICAL CONTEXT, i.e., the period in which it was written and published, it is ground breaking. Is it a scorcer?..Nah!...is it entertaining?...Yes!...will it have you breathing heavily?...uh..that depends upon your imagination and libido. Read it and make up your own mind.

One of my all time favorite gay stories. I'm glad it's back in print for the youger people to read.

Even if the book wasn't attached, Michael Bronski's introduction would be reason enough to buy this edition of SONG OF THE LOON by the late "Richard Amory."

But this way you get the novel too, a groundbreaking, yet oddly ultra traditional novel--really a romance in Northrop Frye's terms--in which the white man and the Indian meet on a field of Eros rather than Thanatos. Yes folks, this is the real Brokeback Mountain in which buckskinned pioneers meet up with and pursue Indian braves on the banks of the "Umpqua" in a territory of long ago. Thinking about the storyline, you realize how ridiculous the plot is, for there aren't very many people on the frontier and every last one of them is a man and every last one of them is either openly or secretly a member of the Loon Brotherhood. Yes, it strains plausibility but Amory's power as a writer is such that while it is taking place you don't really quibble, Sybil.

He was a great poet as well, and the book gets a haunting resonance from Amory's descriptions of American nature, its flora and fauna, in the days before heavy industry moved in to shovel it into parking lots. The skies are an amazing blue, the rivers swift and clear. Over the great forests you can hear every animal's step in the fallen twigs, and the insects hum. "Darker green, the waters of the Umpqua fell in tiny crystals from the paddle--the waves from the canoe sighed in the shadows of white elders and lacy vine maples. A pair of jays screamed high in the treetops, then streaked far into the woods, crying hoarsely."

And because it is porn, it has men galore, all of them with heavily veined, vibrant, pulsating members under their loincloths. Ephraim is a white man on the run from a miserable relationship with Montgomery, a self-hating homosexual who could only have sex when he was drunk, who showed his naked form only to taunt the besotted Ephraim. Breaking free, Ephraim is on a long canoe ride into Indian territory where he meets one man after another, each more luscious than the last, and the members of the tribe teach him about polygamy and the joys of giving up your virginity in the scented wigwam rings. If it isn't Singing Heron, it's Bear Who Dreams--even an elderly medicine man, nice to see that old people have sex in the porn of the 1960s. And finally Ephraim meets his opposite number, the dreamy Cyrus, who is so big it takes three hands to hold all of him steady.

The book comes packaged with a dossier of contemporary reviews, interviews, photos and other invaluable documents, just as though we were reading some "classic" by Dreiser or Balzac or Cather.

It is a wonderful version of time travel and comes highly recommended by thousands and thousands of one-handed readers. What a way to kick off this promising series from Vancouver's estimable Arsenal Pulp Press in tandem with the venerable Little Sister's bookstore of BC.

This is a book everyone should read. The author gives a candid look into a heart-wrenching world of child abuse. Then, through her adult life experience and soul-searching, describes the very difficult process of struggling with forgiveness as most people have learned it should be. Should be is the qualifying term. The author's journey to the discovery of insight in healing first and what forgiveness can be, should be read by all...those effected by abuse, those who know of someone effected by abuse, and those struggling to forgive at all.

Heal & Forgive -- I devoured this book in one evening. And I commented on it in a family rift blog site on the web. I didn't have the same abuse as the author did, but most of my abuse came from my own older sister over many years - emotional (putting me down at every turn) and physical (as in hitting - using hangers, elastic belts, etc.). I don't believe my Mom was witness to any of the physical abuse but I do know that she heard much of what sister would say to me -- and did nothing. My dad worked shift work so he was not around and Mom didn't believe anything I would tell her about sister saying / doing to me.... I learned to never saying anything - became moody about the situation and was accused of having a "chip on my shoulder" - all through my childhood. No one wanted to see my older sister in any sort of a bad light (she was favored by my Dad's Mother & Sister - I was not) - so I needed to be quiet about it and I was. Growing up in a dysfunctional family is not something you recognize until you are older and gain insight. I didn't find out how dysfunctional my family was until I went through counseling myself at 48 yrs. old.

After being on the blog site and reading this book - the big *aha* moment for me (and for the author as related in the book) was when she told her therapist that she just wanted to have *her story heard* - that was the biggest thing she needed in her life.... her two brothers didn't want to hear about it and neither did her 1/2 brother (even though they too had experienced abuse also) and eventually to keep their world quiet about it they shut her out of their lives. She also realized that she, being a female, was not in favor from the get go with her own Mother. Her Mother favored her sons over her only daughter. She was blamed constantly for the abuse because she stood up to the abuser.....

Her story resonated with me.

After much research and reading - she discovered that forgiving first does not help you heal as many therapist believed years ago, but that a person needs to heal (be heard, have therapy, mature, read everything on the subject -- and I recommend Louise L. Hay's books to help you with that healing too) from the past somewhat before they can move on to the forgiveness part.

Her book was wonderful find for me and highly recommended via the people who participate in the blog I am a member of -- and the author is a member of the blog also.

For anyone who has childhood anger, emotional issues, abuse from childhood (whatever the form), problems that are connected in some way via their childhood, this book is a must to read. We all need to heal, we all want to be happy, we all need to be loved. This book can be a step in the right direction to help you on the road to healing too. Get the book and get on the road to healing.

Nancy Richards offers a fresh face to the concept of forgiveness in her book Heal and Forgive: Forgiveness in the Face of Abuse. It deserves a closer look from anyone struggling with recovery from childhood abuse.

A woman who runs a ministry for adult daughters of controlling and abusive families recommended I take a look at Richards' work when I shared with her my own journey. I ordered it last week and found it so absorbing I finished it in just over two hours.

Ms. Richards walks us through her own brutal childhood, one that we discover began at birth, and became exacerbated after her father died and her mother remarried to a man who was extremely cruel and sadistic. We learn about the literal joy he took out of beating Nancy and her brothers, how he ripped everyone apart with his words and would look for anything he could find to perpetrate the terror he inflicted. Worse yet is the ways we learn this man is able to influence Nancy and her siblings to turn on each other, and how she becomes the household scapegoat.

Eventually Nancy leaves home to marry and start a family of her own. We learn her family of origin does not improve, take responsibility or offer amends for their past behavior. Instead, her mother proceeds to divorce and remarry several abusive men in succession, and continues to promote blaming Nancy for all the "family's" problems, to the extent that she convinces everyone Nancy is crazy and to side against her.

Ms. Richards attempts this whole time to forgive her abusers. After all, aren't we all taught to leave the past behind, forgive other's wrongs, and be family no matter what? Don't they tell us that unless we do these things, we won't heal?

But in the course of her efforts she finds the opposite - she is unable to heal. To the contrary, the harder she tries, the more pain she feels, the greater her resentments, and the more abuse her family of origin is able to heap on her.

In Nancy's quest to figure out why this isn't working, she comes across an understanding therapist and several books from psychological and spiritual perspectives that turn our culture's traditional concept of forgiveness upside down. She learns that perhaps the solution for her is to NOT forgive in the way she has been led to believe, that the whole idea of making peace while overlooking the evil of abusive behaviors is in fact self-defeating and self-destructive. Nancy realized that she must think first of her own needs, to protect herself and her own family.

The end result is that Ms. Richards ends up "divorcing" her mother, which also causes an unfortunate loss of relationships with other family members, including her brothers. As of the publication she had not spoken to any of them in twelve years.

She also decides to stop working on forgiving them, and start focusing on her recovery and her daughters. It is these actions in themselves that allow healing to flow into her life, and eventually, she is able to find TRUE forgiveness.

I found this book to be very powerful in both the story it had to tell, and in the message it had to give. I have followed a very close path in my own life; the parallels between her family's behavior and mine were eerie. I too have had to "divorce" my family of origin and in the process lost relationships with other relatives, and even some family friends. So to read such a similar story as mine was incredibly validating.

On a spiritual level I also found Nancy's story and her sharing of some resources regarding forgiveness to be a relief. Like myself, Ms. Richards is a Christian, and she includes pieces of wisdom from others within that vein who support a different concept of forgiveness and do so from a Christian perspective. As someone who felt torn over whether my choices broke the commandment to honor my mother and father, this book served as a valuable resource to help me reconcile this area of my life.

I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone who is struggling with a family of origin that is broken due to unamended abuse. I also believe anyone who is a friend or loved one of someone recovering from childhood abuse will find this book beneficial for understanding the survivor's struggle to find healing and, yes, forgiveness.

Ms. Richards describes how physical and emotional child abuse can turn the non-abusing against the child and the children against one another. One of the ways that abusers maintain control is to divide and conquer the rest of the family. Everyone is afraid to become the abuser's next target. A scapegoat is picked and everyone uses the scapegoat to escape personal pain. Ms. Richards was that scapegoat in her family.

The abuse was particularly hard to bear because Ms. Richards biological father was a kind man who headed a loving family. After her father's untimely death, Ms. Richards found herself at the receiving end of abuse from a string of step fathers.

Even after she was grown and had escaped the den of horrors, Ms. Richards found it hard to escape the consequences of the abuse as she attempted to help her siblings.

During her recover, Ms. Richards found that much of the advice about forgiving abusers just didn't work for her. There was no relief and no reconciliation. Eventually, she "divorced" her family and put her energies into being a good Mom to her own children. When she had gained enough healing from this separation and building a healthy family life, Ms. Richards was finally able to forgive her abusers . . . and to gain relief from that forgiveness.

The lesson of this story is that those who are recovering from such horrible treatment need to listen to their hearts as they seek a happy, balanced life. Advice from others will only lead you so far on the path to recovery. Check that advice for whether it seems right before you try it. Also, don't expect that any abusing leopards are going to change their spots.

If you weren't abused, why should you read this book? I see several reasons. First is to witness and honor Ms. Richards' experiences. That's part of helping her become healthier. Second, this will help you be more vigilant in watching out for abuse among children you come into contact with. Children need caring adults to intervene on their behalf. Third, this book will help you be grateful for your blessings. You may think you've had a hard life, but maybe it wasn't so hard after all.

Heal and Forgive is the best book I've read in a very long time. As the director of Luke 17:3 Ministries for adult children of abusive, controlling or abandoning birth-families, I would be hard-pressed to come up with a more helpful book to recommend. It is unique in its perspective in that it teaches the reader that sometimes it is okay, and even necessary, NOT to forgive. It is a page turner right from the beginning, gripping you with Nancy Richards' riveting and disturbing story of her sadistic stepfather's violence and relentless abuse of herself and her brothers, and her mother's complicity in the abuse and complete refusal to protect her children in the slightest way.

Even more distressing is the author's account of her attempts to protect herself and her brothers, and to stand up and speak the truth about the abuse, which resulted in her treacherous mother convincing anyone who would listen that she was a liar and troublemaker with mental problems. There is a twisted episode in which her stepfather was finally going to move out, but her mother told the then 12-year old author to ask him to stay. He did stay, and years later the mother blamed her daughter for controlling her marriage (at age 12!) and making her husband stay when she could have been rid of him sooner.

Long after the evil stepfather was gone and the author was grown, her mother continued to expose the author's younger brothers to repeated abuse from a string of other losers she became involved with. Nancy Richards tells, in heart-wrenching detail, of her attempts to protect her younger siblings, to get anyone to listen to her or believe her, and to somehow maintain a relationship with the mother she still loved and the rest of her family.

But, in a scenario disturbingly familiar to many abuse survivors, her mother managed to convince most of the family that Richards was the problem, and to turn almost her entire family against her, including the brothers she had tried so hard and sacrificed so much to protect. The denial, betrayals, and blatant lies as the family protected the abusers and scape-goated the author will ring true with so many of us.

And then the author was left to embark on the path to forgiveness, with absolutely no remorse or repentance from those she was pressured to forgive, and not even any validation of her traumatic experiences. At each stage of the process, she faced renewed pain with every new revelation, such as the realizations that her mother was the one who betrayed her the most, and that her mother really never loved her.

Throughout her long and difficult journey to forgiveness and recovery, the author has many valuable insights which she lovingly shares with us. The most important insight, which is the main premise of the book, is that healing needs to come FIRST, BEFORE forgiveness. We usually feel pressured to forgive prematurely, by family and friends, therapists, and society in general. But forced forgiveness is not always possible, and is certainly not healthy.

The author teaches us that forgiveness is a process that begins with healing, and needs to include other elements as well, such as validation, anger, grief, and protection. In the process of her recovery, Nancy Richards read other author's works, which helped her to understand these truths about forgiveness, and she quotes from them in her book. When reading Heal & Forgive, one gets the sense that the author is not just writing about her own experiences, but is doing all she can to present a well-rounded and informed picture that will help other abuse victims as much as possible. She opens her heart to us, and shares her innermost thoughts and every feeling she has that might validate our own feelings and help us on our road to recovery.

The book is an easy read, and I was able to finish it in a few sittings. It was a hard book to put down, and I hated to walk away from it in the middle of the story without finding out what was going to happen next. It was a lot of food for thought. Nancy Richards does all abuse victims a favor when she teaches us that sometimes no matter what we are willing to do and how hard we are willing to try, it is just not possible to have a relationship with some people. We understand how important it is to stand up and tell the truth- to others and to ourselves.

When we realize that someone we love doesn't love us, the truth can be so hard to bear, but it is still the truth, and denying it doesn't change anything. We learn that sometimes we need to make the choice to walk away from a toxic relationship. We feel validated in learning that it is alright NOT TO FORGIVE evil people, and that releasing ourselves from the pressure to forgive gives us the freedom to heal. Only after we have healed will we be able to come to a place of genuine forgiveness.

After reading Heal & Forgive, I admire Nancy Richards for her courage and determination to heal and lead a life of peace and happiness despite her birth-family's rejection, and I am appreciative of her sincere efforts to encourage the rest of us and validate our experiences by sharing her story. Her triumph over the devastation and heartache inflicted by those she loved is an inspiration to anyone who thinks they can never get over the pain and be happy again. I urge all those who have felt the knife of a loved one's betrayal in their back, or who feel pressured to forgive before they are ready, to read this book. It is a must-read for any survivor of birth-family abuse.

This book as been a valuable resource. If you are interested in Amino Acids and their benefits this book will be helpful.

This book is exactly what I was looking for. I needed information about each of the amino acids, what functions they are involved in, how they interrelate, and what illnesses they are connected with. This book is well-organized, highly readable, and extremely interesting. It was just the right mix of research information, along with dosage and uses.

This book has been very useful in helping me find supplements that are improving my medical issues.

quite a bit of the research on which it is based is now dated, and some important aspects of nutrition have been completely ignored. It does however give a simple introduction to amino acids, and this is a complex topic, so that it is a good place to start

This is a wonderful book for those who are serious about using amino acids to balance the neurotransmitters and avoid the need for prescription medications.

The amino acids in the human body are proving to be potent healing substances. This book reveals the findings of research in the 1980s and 1990s on the beneficial role of the aminos in Alzheimer's, cancer, depression, heart conditions, stress and many other disease states.

The different amino acids are discussed in chapters according to type: Aromatic, Sulphur, Urea Cycle, Glutamate, Threonine and Branched Chain. Their food sources, nutrient interactions and proven benefits are given in detail.

The therapeutic functions of specific aminos include pain relief (Phenylalanine), fighting addiction (Tyrosine), treatment of Parkinson's (Methionine), heart protection (Homocysteine), herpes killer (Lysine). Many of them also play a part in immune stimulation or as anti-oxidants.

There are three appendices: 1. The Problems of Vegetarianism. 2. The Much Maligned Egg: The Best Amino Acid Food. 3. Continuing Breakthroughs in Amino Acids. This informative book with its good news concludes with an extensive bibliography, a glossary of terms and an index.

Everyone can benefit from the use of supplemental amino acids. This excellent book shows how to integrate them in one's own health management programme. Similar helpful books include The Amino Revolution by Erdmann and Amino Acids In Therapy by Chaitow.

Another one of our family favorites from the series. We especially like the humor in Snow Glory and the story of the Kittens. We have nearly all the Henry & Mudge stories. This one is on our top 5 list.

These are such wonderful books about a boy named Henry and the frienship that he shares with his big 180 pound dog Mudge. Nice Illustrations and easy to understand stories. They are great books and my 9 year old nephew loved these when he was in second grade. I bought some of these for him when he was 7. Now my son Ramon who is 7 loves them too.

In Henry and Mudge in Puddle Trouble you'll see how kids sometimes don't listen to their parents even when they want to. When Henry doesn't listen to his mother's advice about the Morning Glory will he able to fix the problems it causes? Find out why listening to your parents is important when you read this book. If you are the kind of kid who doesn't listen to your mom then this is the book for you. Check out other books in the Henry and Mudge series like Henry and Mudge and the Best Test.

my son needed to read by himself. his teacher told me to get him the henry and mudge books. he really likes to read these

This book is great!!! I think one of your children would give it 5 stars. The kittens are very cute.

Keillor is probably best known in the Midwest where his tales of the imaginary town of Lake Wobegon are heard on many radio stations in that region. This book is set in a variety of real Minnesota towns and depicts life in the rural Midwest. Those from these stomping grounds will easily relate to the short stories contained in this book. But even if you dwell in a California metropolis you will still find a warmth, perhaps uncommon, yet very appreciated. Take, for example, the following exerpt quoted from The Notebooks of Carl Krebsbach:
"It was the annual January thaw, nature's way of arousing false hopes and tempting the good people of Lake Wobegon to let lown their guard and not wear a scarf so that nature can kill them. A form of natural selection to reduce the optimist population and promote the survival of embittered stoics who believe that fate is against them. Which it is.
The thaw means that snow on the roof melts and freezes on the overhang of the eaves, forming a dam to back up the water so it can get under the shingles and freeze and gradually rip our house apart, which is nature's goal, to obliterate us. Nature is not benevolent towards us, it wants us out of here. It's good to know this. In summer, you can almost believe otherwise.
Luckily, summer is soon over. As it turns cold, our mood improves. we're excited. Cold is a stimulant. So is danger. It's good to have nature to deal with. That's why self-pity declines in the fall. People don't sit around and anguish over what to do with their lives. Instinct tells you. You're a mammal. Stay warm. Stay close to the food supply. Shovel the roof. Make babies. Make a few extra in case the wolves get one. And then on a cold night in January, you walk out in the moon light and agsinst all reason, beyodn all expectation, you're utterly happy."

In addition to Keillor's down-to-earth story telling this book contains wonderful photography by Richard Olsenius. I actually bought this book because I am a fan of photojounalistic photograghy. Great writing and great photography, a bookshelf is incomplete without this volume.

I was what you would call a "Noobie" to all of Garrison's work until recently. I picked up this book at a college library after speaking to my mother about the Minnesota author project I was recently assigned. She was familiar with his work and suggested that I look into it....so I did. I never thought that this would open up such big can of worms, and I mean this in a good sense. After reading the book from cover to cover, I went on the internet to find out more about Garrison's work and turned up some very interesting search results. I then read it again and now I guess you could say that I'm hooked on the Lake Wobegon saga and I am planning on picking up a couple of his earlier writings related to Lake Wobegon.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend this book to anyone who has vast, little, or no knowledge of Lake Wobegon.

I was what you would call a "Noobie" to all of Garrison's work until recently. I picked up this book at a college library after speaking to my mother about the Minnesota author project I was recently assigned. She was familiar with his work and suggested that I look into it....so I did. I never thought that this would open up such big can of worms, and I mean this in a good sense. After reading the book from cover to cover, I went on the internet to find out more about Garrison's work and turned up some very interesting search results. I then read it again and now I guess you could say that I'm hooked on the Lake Wobegon saga and I am planning on picking up a couple of his earlier writings related to Lake Wobegon.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend this book to anyone who has vast, little, or no knowledge of Lake Wobegon.

Fans of Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" are already an imaginative sort. We know what Arlene Bunsen looks like, or Pastor Inquist. We've got a good idea how Roger Hedlund has been rotating his crops, and the main goings on on Main Street. We don't need pictures of this area because we already know it by heart--we've seen it on the radio. This book does exactly what it should...it doesn't dispel our images of Lake Wobegon, but gives us pictures of its neighbors and people living their lives in rural Minnesota. All the images are sepia toned. With a few exceptions, the subjects are unposed and candid, getting ready for the prom, or readying the field for corn.

The composition of the shots are superb. The short prologue gives a first person retelling of how Keillor invented the town that "time forgot and the decades cannot improve." That introduction, however, is so short that it's almost unfair to say that this is a Garrison Keillor book. He essentially wrote the foreword (although it's not titled that way), and the pictures tell the real story.

My only disappointment is that there isn't any color. Certainly sepia tones give us nostalgia the way we'd like to remember it, but sunset on a farm is something you can't appreciate in shades of brown. Rural life has its monochromatic moments, to be sure, but there's enough color and life to help us remember that not everything is nostalgia.

This gripe doesn't detract from the beauty of this book, though. Thankfully we never see Lake Wobegon, only hints and shadows. It allows us to preserve our preconceptions, but gives us a deeper feeling of connection with the area. If you're a fan of APHC, you probably already own this book (or you should). If not, take a look at a lifestyle that might be foreign to you.

From the Central Minnesota prairie, in beautiful black and white pictures and picturesque prose, here is the Genesis of Garrison Keilor's magical mythical Lake Wobegon, site of "A Prairie Home Companion." Here we get to *see* the strong women, good-looking men, and above average children of and for whom he speaks on Saturday nights. Accompanying Richard Olsenius' stunning photography (how can the viewer not be deeply moved by the picture of the veterans at the St. Wendell cemetery on Memorial Day?) are excerpts from the Radio Show, interviews with inhabitants, and essays and musings from Keilor - like this:

"Culture isn't decor, it's what you know before you're twelve. It sticks with you all your born days. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. You can try to wrestle free of it, like those geese who trail the V-formation, trying to look as if they aren't part of this bunch, as if flying south were a personal decision on their part, but your feint towards independence only makes it clearer who you really are. Some people like hot dish better if it's called cassoulet, or pot roast if it's pot-au-feu. Fine. Suit yourself. Same difference."

Whatever you call those culinary delights, you'll like this book. Come see Father Kleinschmidt's Annual Blessing of the Snowmobiles. Ja, you betcha! Reviewed by TundraVision.

These books are the epitome of scholarly research into Sargent's work, made even better by the researchers inclusion of intimate personal and professional details. This presents a great background to viewing the well printed illustrations. One should not just purchase one of these volumes, indeed the experience palls UNLESS all three are not bought . One cannot praise this sort of in depth research and the resulting publications highly enough. The only quibble is one of size, given that Sargent revelled in life-size compositions, it is a a pity that pure economics forbid the printing of larger volumes- I mourn the death of the "elephant folios" so derided by librarians.

Still waiting for the delivery of Sargent's Figures and Landscapes. It was ordered on 4/14. Hope it will be delivered soon.

Deirdre Dunne

A wonderful collection of amazing images. This book will be looked at for many, many years.

The best book on a painter I have been able to buy for quite a while. As with the other three volumes so far published of Sargent's catalogue raisonne, this is absolutley stunning. Paintings are all in colour unless they have been lost, and the figures and landscapes are breathtaking. The text is anecdotal and interesting, with contemporary correspondence and criticism. This is what a catalogue raisonne should be, and never is - something exhaustively illustrated and investigated, rather than an artist's lifetime crammed into one volume with highlights followed by black and white "postage stamps" at the back (as long as the artist is worth it - and Sargent is worth it). A great tome on a great artist, and unbelievably good value. Go out and treat yourself.

The color reproductions are awesome. This books is a collection of Sargent's less known work which is refreshing. Some oils are not as polished as the more well known work which helps to show his technique in early stages---a plus to serious professionals and students. To me, this book provided a wealth of visual clues to understanding his thought process and technical principles. The writing, however, is the typical stuff used to fill most coffee table books. No insight whatsoever into Sargent's painting principles, tonal procedures or color palette. The author obviously knows little in that regard but there is so much information out there the text could have been more illuminating. Buy it for the reproduction quality and awesome collection of works. Worth every penny in that regard.