North America Books

What a great book for your pre-teen! Enough "romance" without the nitty-gritty details. I loved the storyline and ordered the 2nd and 3rd books right away. I worked in an elementary school library for 5 years and became good friends with one particular student. She would ask me to suggest books for her. To this day, we have continued our book club of 2! After I finished reading this series, she was delighted to get them. I know she will enjoy reading them over and over! Thanks for such a great series.

I bought this novel used, not knowing what to expect and not realizing it was the first of a trilogy. I loved this book! It dealt with the relations of the Lakota and whites back in the 1800s. Walks the Fire is a white woman who is captured by Rides the Wind. They are distant at first but a love grows between them that is every woman's dream. Their life together is not easy, but they find joy in their lives. I can't wait to get the rest of this trilogy! I'm hooked! This was my first by this author but it will not be the last. Some of her other series sound interesting and I plan to read several of them. To the author: Thanks for a beautiful....though sometimes sad...story!!!

Not a typical christian romance. This is "old school" christianity, back when the Bible was a regular part of a family's daily regimen. And, this author has done her research and made the novels historically accurate. Yet, if you aren't a history buff and not into Bible study, you'll still love these novels because they are so well written. You get drawn into loving the characters and caring about what happens to them. One of the few books that have made me laugh, cry, and hope. I devoured this series and went on to the next. Let this review stand for every series this author has written. Great work!

All I can say is this book swept me off my feet. I finished this book which is 300 pages in less then a week it is that good! What a amazing story it is. I highly recommened this book to anyone that loves these kind of stories.

I discovered this book at a used booksale, and since I love stories about the west and Indians, I bought it. And once I started to read it, I couldn't put it down! I even thought of the characters during the day until I could get back to the book! I could even picture them-he was very handsome!! I also read Part 2 of the series, and just now I'm going to start reading the 3rd Part Red Bird! Even though parts are sad and made me almost cry, the happiness is there too, and the love of God! An excellent book in all regards!! I'm going to read everything she has written!

This is the wrap-up volume of the author's "Bromeliad" trilogy (the title of which has to do with tiny Amazonian frogs living in tree-top flowers, who know nothing about the world at large, or even that it exists) -- though it runs parallel, actually, to the second volume, which followed the exploits of Grimma and the nomes who stayed behind at the quarry while Masklin and a couple of others went to investigate the nearby airport. Now it turns out that, in their quest for the Ship waiting for thousands of years somewhere out in space, the three bickering adventurers have managed to stowaway aboard the Concorde and have gotten to Miami and then to Cape Canaveral. There, they meet other nomes, much more widely traveled than themselves (thanks to migrating geese), get close to a rocket launch, and make use of the Thing to contact the Ship. As always, Pratchett tells a delightful, very humane story with lots of humor (the nomes tend to be VERY literal), while at the same time commenting on subjects like interspecies relations, religious dogma, and the whole point of society. Written for adolescents but enjoyable for any thinking reader.

DON'T READ THIS BOOK INTILL YOU READ THE FIRST TWO BOOKS IN THE BROEIMLEAD TRILOGY. This book is about when Masklin (a nome) trys to find this one ship that while supposedly send the nomes to a different planet. This ship is faster than light. The one thing that leads them their is a thing. This thing is like a box with lots of electric inside, and only if this thing is by something that is powered by electric it works. Now in this book Masklin, Gurder, Angalo, and the thing go out to find the ship. At the beginning they fly on a airplane to Florida. When they get their they find more nomes (which they never knew that there was any other nomes). Now they have get the ship to them somehow. Read this wing of a book to find if they find the ship.

My Dad has been reading Terry Pratchett books and he thought I'd like this one. He was right! You should read this book , because it is very funny and exciting. The book is about three nomes that got stuck on Earth and need to take a space shuttle home. The nomes get a lot of useful help from Thing, a machine. But too bad when Thing runs out of "pow" (power)!
I don't have the first two books from this trilogy but I am getting them next!

In Diggers, the nomes living in a quarry found themselves besieged by humans. In the end, Masklin rescued them with nothing short of a miracle. This book is the story of that miracle.

This book is so funny that I often found myself laughing out loud while reading it. Not only that, the action is gripping, and the ending is touching. This book is a wonderful buy.

The Bromeliad trilogy soars to a grand finale with "Wings," the companion volume to "Truckers" and "Diggers." This tale runs parallel to the second book of the series, and brimming over with Terry Pratchett's usual wit and satire... and a mild dose of insanity.

Now that humans are returning to the quarry where the tiny nomes live, the nomes must somehow find a new place to live -- and fast. So Masklin is following the instructions of the Thing (a computer who is smarter than all the other characters put together) and going on a secret mission with Angalo and the Abbot to Florida.

After they sneak aboard the Concorde, freak out the stewardess and hijack the plane, the nomes learn that none other than Richard Arnold (grandson of Arnold Bros, founder of The Store) is on board. Now they must somehow send the Thing into space, so it can contact the spaceship and whisk the nomes away. Easy? No way.

Technically, anybody who has read the end of "Diggers" will know exactly what will happen in "Wings." But like flying on the Concorde, it's the ride that's half the thrill. "Wings" is a little tighter and funnier than its predecessors, partly because it has a much smaller cast -- the small bickering trio, plus the Thing. It doesn't get much better than that.

The nomes are fun protagonists, partly because they're so likably naive about the world in general. If they were left alone, they would probably produce a cute little civilization, and their naivete produces plenty of entertaining humor (Concerning the sound barrier: "All right, own up. Who broke it?"). Pratchett manages to make us laugh with the nomes, not at that.

The long-suffering Masklin has a new slew of problems the moment he leaves, ranging from the Thing refusing to talk to him to Angalo razzing the stewardesses. Atheistic Angalo and the abbot just avoid biting out each other's throat. But it's the Thing's dry, superior guidance that really steals the show.

Pratchett brings his Bromeliad trilogy to a close full of action, suspense, and frogs. A witty and wild ride on the Concorde, and not one to be missed.

This book is far more than its title implies. Yes, it's about animals and plants in the wake of glacial retreat, but it's also a travel guide to ancient lakes and seas, an explanation of the cause of glaciers, and seeing the distribution of life throughout North America in an entirely new way. And as if this weren't enough, Ms. Pielou's precise descriptions are consistently presented in a very readable way.
I've just finished my first reading, and will be reading it again soon. It's a great book.

This is a fabulous book. I have read it twice, will read it again and again. I am not a scientist, have little background in geology, ecology, earth science, don't know E. C. Pielou from Norman Mailer, but for me it has been a page turner from preface to index. I have learned that at 40+ below zero Fahrenheit black spruce trees stop procreating via seeds, turn to cloning,which allows them to survive alpine frigidity beyond all reason. I have learned that maple trees followed the ice north faster than chestnuts because they blew in on the wind while chestnuts had to be carried along by squirrels. I have learned that THE ice age was just the latest, that there have been at least 200 similar periods since Day One, and that the next one is surely on its way - global warming or no. There was a time in Earth history when it rained day and night, week after week, month after month, year after year, for thousands of years. Who knew? Treat yourself to a rare delight. Get this book and don't pass it on until you have read it backwards at least once. -Mike Ameigh

Science is data-driven. What we know is based only on the data we acquire and its careful interpretation. Debates about climate change often occur in an over-heated atmosphere, with those opposed to the notion that manmade influences are driving the global climate shift often beginning their arguments with the statement that "the climate changes naturally". True enough. Over the 4.6 billion year lifespan of our planet, it's safe to assume that the weather has changed. It is the magnitude of the changes, and their rapidity, that has caught the attention of scientists. The end of the Pleistocene Epoch and the beginning of the Holocene, the past 20,000 years or so, marks the end of the last glaciation, known as the Wisconsin glaciation, and the beginning of the present interglacial. There seems no reason to doubt that a new glaciation should begin. Short term trends, measured in centuries, have varied, with periods of relative warmth and then cooling. The Little Ice Age, which began around 800 years ago and was a particularly rigorous period in our history, seems to have ended with a warming period persisting from the mid-19th century until the 1940s, at which time a short cooling trend set in that seems to have reversed itself about 1970. The trend has been unremittingly upward since then, accelerating in the magnitude of the temperature increase. It is the trends and not individual years that are important. Since we are in the cooling phase of an interglacial period, there is one inescapable fact: the glaciers should be advancing and not retreating. That would be the natural trend. But they are not advancing, they are most definitely retreating worldwide. From continent to continent, everywhere we look, the ice is melting. This is the antithesis of what they should be doing naturally. It is most probably a manmade trend. And that is the worrisome aspect of recent climatic events.

E. C. Pielou has written the finest book on that strange period when the ice disappeared and flora and fauna fitfully returned to the ice-ravaged landscape of glaciated North America. The large mammals, such as mastodons, mammoths, sabertooth cats and giant short-faced bears, were the most spectacular immigrants. The small human population of 10,000 years ago may be to blame for their extinction: another sobering thought. It is the dramatic destructiveness of the glaciers, the titanic changes in the environment caused by natural climate change, and what it takes to reintegrate a pre-ice age biosphere that has changed almost beyond recognition, that Pielou outlines so beautifully. Pielou does not speculate on issues of global warming. What she does do is brilliantly portray the breathtaking magnitude of global climate change. It only requires a little imagination to recognize that if humanity is indeed changing the long-term natural course of the weather, then we are playing with fire. When it comes to the issue of climate change, it is best to ignore the arguments. First acquire the facts: acquire them truthfully and without prejudice, especially without economic or political prejudice. Then proceed from there. This book is strongly recommended for best outlining the facts without imposing an ideology or agenda. And in the end it is the facts that make the issue of climate change so worrisome for thinking people.

Mike Birman

I love this book. At the beginning the author starts off with a agreeing nod towards the completely discredited Malthus, and I love this book despite that. I'm only two chapters into it and already I love this book. Anyone who blithely thinks that the global warming analysis is completed and that we know all the answers needs to read this book and realize just how dynamic climate patterns can be over as little a period as the past 20,000 years. But reading it requires that the reader put away his science as politics mentality and listen thoughtfully to an amazing story. Did I mention that I love this book?

One of the most far-ranging books I have ever read. The first chapter, on glaciation processes, covers an an enormous amount of ground (no pun intended). This book can give perspective on such issues as climate change and on the ongoing rapid change of plant species in North America.

It provided information about glaciation that made me fighting mad about the abuse of glacier images in Al Gore's movie. He is doing no service to us by using specious evidence in support of his views on global climate change.

The author's style can make you feel that you are on the business end of a fire hose, but what a great way to cover a lot of important territory fast.

Robust account of one of the seminal figures of early America, one attempting the creation of an indigenous culture cast in a more universal mode than that of the provincial Christianity of his roots. The courage to give up his secure life as a minister for the uncertainties of exploration and creative renewal marks Emerson's trail through a pioneer's psychological American wilderntess, to touch on and integrate everything from the post-Kantians, to the Buddhists/Hindus to the Persians and Sufis. That Emerson evolved into a near firebrand abolitionist is an aspect of his life unsufficiently told, and this part of his later career runs clear in this book. All in all, a first rate pioneer story of another kind.

This is the only biography of Emerson that truly matters. Richardson locks in on the essentials - the development of a seeking mind is search of the ground of being and the nature of reality. Emerson is our Founding Thinker and to do him justice, a biographer has to grapple with the how and why a mind grows, changes, struggles and reaches new heights. Even if you haven't read much Emerson, this biography sheds light on what Emerson meant when he said, "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."

In the past, my experience in reading Emerson has been similar to reading the Tao Te Ching; interesting, non-mainstream in its point of view, puzzling to understand what exactly it means. So I would pick up the Tao and read it at different times of the day and different frames of mind, hoping that it would resonate with me, but it never did. Maybe it was the cultural difference, or the language, or not being able to easily identify with Lao Tzu. Such had been my experience with Emerson. I wanted to understand him better because what little I did understand made me want to learn more, but I just couldn't get there.

This biographer, Richardson, really did his homework and any who want to understand Emerson better should appreciate this work. Emerson kept exhaustive journals and collections of his thoughts for many years. He read widely and deeply, kept detailed notes, and thoroughly indexed the notes. What perfect material to access for writing a biography! Apparently Richardson went back and studied much of the source material that Emerson references in his journals and brings into this biography an understanding of who Emerson was reading and what it meant to Emerson, so we receive the pleasure of following along on a journey in the development of a powerful mind. Then Richardson is able to write about this development so that it is easily readable to us moderns. It's quite a remarkable achievement.

"Mind on Fire" shows me that Richardson is certain that studying Emerson and his message is worthwhile. So much consideration has gone into this biography that when I laid it down after almost non-stop reading for several days over the holidays, I felt like I really understood Emerson for the first time, and now have much better insight. I plan to let this book simmer in my mind a few more months, then pick it up and read it again.

If Richardson could also write something as lucid and detailed to help me understand the Tao Te Ching, I wouldn't have 10,000 questions about the 10,000 things. ;-)

Mr. Richardson's 'Thoreau A Life of the Mind' was not only the best biography I've read on Thoreau, but one of the most exhilerating and enlightening reading experiences of my life. So I decided to read his 'Emerson The Mind on Fire.' And it was every bit as intimate and intelligent.

There are times you feel that you're intruding upon Waldo and Henry on one of their walks. It was an endless stroll of two intellectuals and humanists on the path of being very human. Each of the one hundred chapters (both books) are kept short, which helps move the reader from topic to topic without ever feeling put upon (too much detail can drag what is otherwise very interesting.) Though, for me personally, I would love to savor every moment these two great men shared. I don't think I could ever get bored.

Emerson has many close friends with whom one gets to know intimately. His personal address book was a whose whose of literary and intellectual greats.

The relationship between Emerson and his second wife, Lidian, is of great interest. She was also intellectual and as much a partner in life as she was a wife. Her presence is everywhere in Emerson's life.

Emerson's essays are pure poetry. And the behind the scene snippets into how they became a part of his legacy was both insightful and relevant to the day to day interactions and causes he committed himself. His transformation from the unremarkable child into the neverending 'student' of self-education and commitment to social conscience throughout his entire adult life is one to be admired.

Mr. Richardson is one of the best biographers of nineteenth century literaries. He is truly one with his topic.

Robert Richardson's biography of Emerson is superb. Though, as Richardson reminds us, Emerson did not like superlative language when precise and adequate language would do, it is the case that at times the superlative, the precise and the adequate converge (as, in fact, they often did in Emerson's writings). Richardson's biography is indeed superb in its unfolding of Emerson's life -- the loves, the friendships, the losses, the intellectual and spiritual hunger, the religious quest, the writers in America, in Europe, in Persia and elsewhere to whom Emerson owed and acknowledged debts, the grasping at and for a world, the determination of a single, brilliant human being to find his way and to see his life, and all individual lives, as imbued with the divine and thus worth living.

The book is also superbly written. Each short chapter offers enough substantive insight to urge the reader into the next. It is a long book, but not long-winded. Richardson provides the reader with some morsel of insight in a few pages of narrative, and then offers a rest to digest what has been said. His placement of quotations from Emerson's journals, essays and other works is brilliant, offering the reader a useful sketch of Emerson's metaphysics and ethics. In my own case, this has allowed time to reach for other literature more fully descriptive of the events or scenes offered in a particular chapter, or to reread chunks of Emerson's writings while moving through the biography. The book is a useful tool not merely for a study of Emerson's life but for a study of Transcendentalism and of the interplay of ideas across the Atlantic that shaped American thought in so many ways. One sees more clearly where and how such writers as Nietzsche and Thoreau obtained the seeds of their own truths from Emerson's works and thoughts.

Richardson has set the standard for the writing of future biographies. Again, simply superb.

I live in North Carolina and I have been able to identify all the snakes, lizards, turtles, and frogs that I have found using this book. Good descriptions and photos to help you tell the difference between different species.

This book features clear plates with apparently well painted views of probably all the species of amphibians and reptiles occuring in Canada and the USA east of the Rocky Mountains, apparently also including those of Puerto Rico and introduced ones. Unfortunately, the plates of the third edition from 1998 are printed badly, with the colour dots not completely blurring in front of the reader's eye, and the pictures are a little tiny anyway. On the page opposing the plates are the common and scientific names given, as well as some important details of their appearance. Many species are represented with several images (e.g. from the side, from below; adults, juveniles), but this would probably be warranted for even more species.
The species accounts are, however, usually much too short, giving almost no detail about biology and life history of the species. Among them are, however, some colour photographs, whose printing resolution is usually also somewhat too bad, though.
The range maps are in colour and show the different subspecies in different shades, yet they are also somewhat confusing, because water bodies like the sea or the great lakes are not shaded differently from the land, so that their borders look like the state borders, and because the range borders have also be drawn in black (maybe for copying?).
Laudable is the existence of a general section about amphibians and reptiles and their catching, handling and captive care. This section would be worth expanding, though.
The third printing (1998) is/was, as already stated, not very good because of its low colour resolution and its maybe somewhat too small size, and it is/was bind only as paperback with relatively thick pages throughout.

Thank you for your timely shipping of this brand new book. I ordered it for a friend who is looking forward to getting it soon.

I have had this book for several years and absolutly love it. Not only is it nicely informative, it holds up well in the feild. I can not begin to count the number of times I have slipped (I generally keep it tucked in my waist band) in creeks on outings. After years of abuse, my cover is a worn, spine wrinkled and paged stained, but it's still solidly bound.

The book is great. Wonderful range maps, nice pictures, generally good ID characters. Could use some more info on larval amphibian identification though.

The book "Kiki's Journey" is a excellent story. It is about a little girl named Kristina (Kiki) who goes back to her Tiwa Tribe where her parents are from, to see her Grandma Santana and her uncle Tim.When she goes back to Taos Pueblo she forgets becuase she hasen't been there in a long time,ever since she was a baby. During her journey,Grandma Santana takes her for a walk after she comes out of the giftshop and tells her that she is still part of the Tiwa culture even though she lives in Los Angles. At night she thanks the Creator for making her an Native American and for her Pueblo. So,if you are going take a chance to read this wonderful book, your own journey will begin on the first page you read!!!!

The story of Kiki`s Journey was a marvelous story because she goes to see her grandmother and grandfather in her village. Kiki was from her grandmother's village, so she goes and visits. You should look at it. It`s for all ages.

KIKI'S JOURNEY WAS A TERRIFIC BOOK. KIKI'S JOURNEY WAS A SUPRISING BOOK. I FELT GOOD ABOUT IT.THE THEME WAS TO REMEMBER`YOUR PEOPLE. IT WAS A SAD AND HAPPY STORY AT THE SAME TIME.

A heart warming book for all ages, "Kiki's Journey" is delightful. It works as a story, a read aloud story, as a lesson in cultural differences, as well as a lesson of acceptance. The book would be great for kids of all ages, parents, and teachers. The illustrations are also a wonderful addition to the story.

Written by Kristy Orona-Ramirez and illustrated by Jonathan Warm Day, Kiki's Journey is a picturebook about modern Native American life. A young Tiki girl living in Los Angeles knows little about her traditional culture and heritage, as her parents brought her from the pueblo to the city when she was a baby. During spring break from school, she has the opportunity to experience the pueblo with her parents for the first time. At first she feels like a tourist in a place that should be home, but the more she learns and sees, the better she understands the proud cultural history and traditions that precede her, and above all, the importance of family ties. The boldly simple and colorful artwork is the perfect complement to this heartwarming story of discovery.

I like it.IT is cool.The totempoles.I hope you do to.That is why I rate it 5 stars.Also I like the Last American Rainforest.I have to go now.Have a good year. Bye!

I liked The Last Amercain Rainforest because,it has beautiful pictures and creative writing.I love your book because,it's amazing and,I want to buy it.I liked the Wind and the Raven in your story,because,the Raven and the Wind are beautiful. Shelley Gill came to Ashley River .

I gave this book 4 stars because it was'int one of thoese books that you couldn't put down to me. But I learned some stuf from it, like facts from the last american rainforest. Shelley Gill came to our school to talk about her books. She was cool. AND I MEAN IT.

I liked it because she took the story and made half a fact.She came to our school on Tuesday talking to us about herself.The book I wanted to talk is The Last American Rainforest is talking how the earth was before.

I like it.We learn things from it. I learned that Salmon come from trees.

Daughter of a full-blooded Navajo father and white mother, Lori Arviso Alvord grew up on a New Mexico reservation in a family that took pride in its native heritage, but followed few of the traditional ways. She attended Navajo schools but never learned the language; she knew her clan relationships and enjoyed the security of tribal connections but seldom attended ceremonies or understood the depth of meaning in the Navajo concept "Walk In Beauty."

Such a person might expect to shed the remnants of tribal culture on leaving the reservation to become a high-powered surgeon, a career that by its very nature flies in the face of Navajo precepts like privacy and self-effacement.

Indeed, throughout her memoir, co-authored by Elizabeth Cohen Van Pelt, Alvord seems to straddle two worlds separated by an uncomfortable gulf. She first looked upon the deepness of that gulf at Dartmouth.

"For a girl who had never been far from Crownpoint, New Mexico, the green felt incredibly juicy, lush, beautiful and threatening." Unable to see the horizon, she felt claustrophobic. But the culture shock was worse. "I thought people talked too much, laughed too loud, asked too many personal questions, and had no respect for privacy." Navajos do not put themselves forward and cooperation is valued over competition. Not a good prescription for success at an Ivy League school.

At Dartmouth she began to feel her tribal identity more strongly and wonder if a kinaalda ceremony (a celebration of womanhood) would have helped empower her in such alien surroundings. But not until after medical school at Stanford, where she was forced to break numerous taboos (Navajo never touch the dead, for instance) and joined a profession where it is essential to ask prying, intimate questions and invade another's personal space at will, did Alvord really begin to explore the philosophical grounding of Navajo culture.

Becoming a surgeon at the Gallup Indian Medical Center, close to the reservation, Alvord notices that her patients do better when they are calm and relaxed, that harmony - even in the operating room when the patient is unconscious - is important for recovery.

She grows more interested in the Navajo philosophy that "everything in life is connected and influences everything else." To "Walk in Beauty" a person strives to live in balance, symmetry and harmony with everything and everyone else.

While this is an ancient precept, held in common with many other cultures and enjoying something of a renaissance in American medicine today, Alvord comes up with a particularly striking example. One of her surgery patients, a young woman, was the first to die of a strange illness that swept through the Navajo nation, killing 11.

A doctor working for the Centers for Disease Control, Ben Muneta, visited a medicine man, a hataalii, who told him "the illness was caused by an excess of rainfall, which had caused the pinon trees to bear too much fruit." There was "a significant deviation from the natural harmony of the world."

The medicine man showed a sand painting of a mouse and said that twice before in years of excess rainfall a similar disease had struck. " `Look to the mouse,' " he said. Weeks later the CDC determined that the Hantavirus was contracted from the droppings of infected deer mice. The deer mouse population had surged due to an excess of pinon nuts. "It was the rain."

Alvord's tone is quiet, reserved. It does not seem easy for her to describe the alcoholism of her charming father or the difficulties and generosity of her (married at 16) mother. Though she takes us to a nightlong ceremony for the sick and celebrates the strength her patients draw from medicine-man visits, she never explains why it takes her so long to visit a hitaalii during her own pregnancy. Or why she never approaches a medicine man to discuss cross-cultural treatments despite her growing conviction of the efficacy of the "whole body" approach.

While most of the book concentrates on her work and her struggle to reconcile cultures, she provides a wide, sad look at reservation life, beset by poverty and "white mans'" diseases. The long grief of history resides in the alcoholism and the self-loathing of so many - a balance that can never be put right.

At last Alvord leaves. Seeing it as the next natural step in her own "life trail", she returns to Dartmouth as a surgeon and a dean of minority and student affairs. At Dartmouth, she hopes, she can teach the Navajo "Walk In Beauty" principles to new doctors as well as working within the established system to bring better care to her own people.

I am full-blooded Navajo, I was taught to believe in my traditonal ways and it disappoints me that she has talked about very scared ceremonies.

Lori Arviso Alvord walks in two worlds. Raised on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico -- "the rez" -- she is the daughter of a Navajo man and a white woman. Carrying this dichotomy into her education and career, she went from the reservation high school to Dartmouth College, then found her path to Stanford University School of Medicine and a surgical residency in New Mexico.

As the first Navajo woman surgeon, she learned to integrate the science-based world of medicine and the spirit-based Native American culture. The importance of the singing cures, native healing practices, and other spiritual traditions was brought home to her when she observed her patients' outcomes. Surgical skill was often not enough when delivered without respect for the language, culture and spirituality of the Navajo patients.

The main focus of this memoir is Dr. Alvord's path to acceptance of the first Navajo principles: balance, harmony and wholeness, known as "Walking in Beauty." Along the way we learn a great deal about Native American history and culture, sensitively presented.

Dr. Alvord speaks of the cultural bases for Native American alcoholism and the prevalence of gang culture, monumental threats to the health and well-being of her people. The healing of these ills will never be achieved in the operating room alone, and many patients' stories illustrate this lesson effectively.

The outcome of Dr. Alvord's journey is signaled from the beginning, as is often the case with a memoir. While this may dilute the dramatic tension of her story, we're rewarded with a thoughtful and inspiring look at one woman's life and work, in all its contexts. I recommend this book to readers young and old who have an interest in the cultural aspects of medical care.

Linda Bulger, 2008

I picked up this book and I could NOT put it down. What a wonderful journey described here....how she interlocks traditional medicine with Navajo, how harmony and positive spirit is such a process in the healing world. You will not be disappointed with this read. I have shared this with all those close to me. Make it part of your list

--Dr Alvord writes about her journeys as a Native American student and physician. The book seems clearly designed for non-technical readers rather than the professional medical community, and there's little medical jargon. She uses her own difficult pregnancy and the death of a beloved grandmother as case studies in integrating Western medicine and Navajo ideas.
--On the one hand, it's worth reading this book just to hear such an inspirational story from such a role model. Dr Alvord tells her story with dignity and courage and she has many good ideas about listening to patients and integrating Balance and Harmony in our profession (although these ideas don't seem as radical or as rare within the medical community as she seems to imply, and I don't think she does anyone a great service by implying they are).
--On the other hand, the authors remained disappointingly abstract, even given the limitations of confidentiality and space. The stories of Navajo healing barely scratched the surface and the book was pretty scanty with practical advice that would help non-Native healers understand Native American patients. I'd love to have heard her perspectives on the magnitude of Native American health problems, how she handled the constant pressures of time and funding, or how she successfully used traditional Native American methods to help manage serious medical-social problems (i.e. alcohol use, diabetogenic diets, family pressures, basic compliance and responsibility issues, etc). In short, I'd like to have heard more about her successes.
--The book's perspective gives a good counterpoint to those who criticize Western medicine as too impersonal/sterile/uncaring/whatever, while they fail to demonstrate how to predictably improve things and still efficiently deliver technically competent health care to people with different levels of motivation and understanding. Western medicine works beautifully in its own niche, but it will be made to work less efficiently if we mess around with the wrong things. Perhaps medicine will improve if we balance the responsibilities of patients to live a healthy lifestyle with the responsibilities of healers to carefully listen to patients and then help them heal.
--This book did not practically help me to do this, so I cannot give it five stars despite my respect for her credentials. I do look forward to a sequel.
--Other books which may be of interest include Blessings (by Dr. A. Organick), The Dancing Healers, and Primary Care of Native American Patients.

After redoing our backyard this summer and reading this book. We came up with great new ideas to attract more birds. Thanks.

Very good book, has lots of information beyond just bird identification. Only thing I would have done different is have pictures of both the male and female (typically each kind of bird only has one picture).

I purchased this for a gift for my husband for our anniversary. It came looking great, still in the package. It came fairly quick, about a week after I ordered it.

Thank you!

Beautiful book. Highly recommend this book to any bird and garden enthusiast. Quick delivery as well from vendor.

Purchased The Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher: Birdfeeders and Bird Gardens for my mother for Christmas, she is very pleased with the book, more so then her other books she has collected for Bird Watching.

A must book for anyone who wants to understand why so many black boys and men seem to be targeted by the society for failure, criminality, jail, etc. I highly recommend it and the rest of rhe volumes in this series.

As an educator who strives to find direction on how to break the negative experience in pre K-12 education for a high number of Black male youth, I find this book, along with the other two in the series, to be informative and innovative when it comes to establishing a marker for administrators to use in order to monitor the teacher-student relationship and provide the positive environment that is necessary for all students, especially the Black male youth, to succeed.

This book is a must read for parents of African American boys and boys of color.

Reading this book revealed unfortunate truths that were not surprising to me at all. Serving as a public educator for over twelve years, it's sad but true as to why young black males at a very young age lose the desire, hope,and will to do better in school settings due to the facts listed in this book and many more since this book was written. I was overjoyed to see that Marcus Garvey Academy, a school that I taught at for eight years under the sincere leadership of Dr. Harvey Hambrick was mentioned. I was honored to read that Dr. Kunjufu took notice to how Marcus Garvey Academy in Detroit, Michigan and other schools assume pivotal roles in contributing to the solution to this horrible epidemic impededed on the futures and lives of young African American Males. Dr Jawanza Kunjufu did a great job at presenting multiple truths and the sad reality of how young black males are unfortunately targeted from the start.
Adra Young
Author of: The Everyday Living of Children & Teens Monologues

This an Dr. Kunjufu's many other books are exceptional in the fact that he details the facts straight to the point. I enjoy his methods of writing without pullng any punches. I wish that I had read this before my son started grade school, but now he is in the 4th grade and he went from being placed in special education, to a 4.0 dean's list GPA. God bless the power of prayer and guidance. Anyone can change their situation. I also just finsihed my Associate in Business, and I am in my Bachelor's Degree program right now for Marketing. Of course I will go on to the Masters programs and Doctorates. Learn for life...

"Please share a priceless thought through literature" "Give God the glory"

Thank You Dr. Kunjufu