Western Books

What an unrelentingly gripping series of stories -- life, death, animals, boys, girls, men, women, horses, snakes, water, wind, earth, blood, fire and sky. Mark Spragg's style is a bit like David Hockney doing his photograph collages. He doesn't show you everything, just bits and pieces to make the whole. He lets you put some of the pieces in place. What a style. It's shot through with his own strong character and some compelling scenes of raw Wyoming life. The stories follow an amazing arc that you don't see coming until the last chapter and then you just kind of want to start all over again, and meet the boy that became the man. Beautiful stuff. Look, I'm not really out here trying to sell my book at every corner but the people who told me about Mark Spragg are readers of my book, "Antler Dust." I had three recommendations from "Antler Dust" readers to check out Mark Spragg, mostly because, I believe, of the detailed outdoors action and the fact that my book takes place in a neighboring state, Colorado. I am going to read more Mark Spragg but for others who like him, please also consider Antler Dust.

Mark Spragg writes beautifully, even poetically, of teenage life in a Wyoming family struggling to make ends meet by catering to "dudes" come West for the seasonal fishing and hunting. His collection of stories is varied, but all are tied to the splendor of unshod love for the land and for the horses he rides through a journey that will steal your heart.

These are two feelings I got from reading this memoir. Life in NW Wyoming is not easy. Days are spent with horses and one's life is taken by horses. In fact, if you love horses this is a great book.

One thing that kept creeping into this book is the distance the author had toward his parents, especially his father. Little but dialogue is written about the father, but he comes across as callous and more worried of turning the boy into a real man. The boy, in turn, writes about his concerns about the man he will become. At times that dragged on too much.

Still, it's wonderful prose written in a manly tone. For rugged cowboys and ranchers it's a perfect read.

I'd worry about peope who don't hurt themselves laughing while reading Wapiti School. My goodness, these stories are terrific, sometimes tough and bitter, sometimes perfect poetry. Just wonderful.

The author writes excellent prose with innumerable well turned phrases and descriptions. The subject matter is primarily his adolescence on a Wyoming dude ranch and hunting guide service that his family, Pennsylvania expatriates, operated in the 1960s, some vignettes from his adult life and descriptions of friends and conditions in windswept Wyoming. The chapters are actually a series of essays rather than a progressive narrative with the ones about life and work on and around his father's ranch, where he essentially lived as a hired hand in the bunkhouse with hardened wranglers from about the age of fourteen, being the most interesting.

I enjoyed the book principally due to the excellent writing and colorful recounting of the author's experiences as a real "cowboy" in an era when most of us male baby boomers only experienced the same thing through ubiquitous western TV shows and movies of the 50s and 60s. It was a life in another era when so many of us grew up in boring suburbia. I recommend it for these reasons.

But maybe I missed something because I never came across any explanation for the author's seeming sense of hurt, isolation, melancholy and general unhappiness that begins, for unstated reasons, during his college years.

This is by far and away one of the best translations/interpretations out there. Not necessarily the most understandable for beginners. A lot of the imagery is culturally specific and can be difficult to understand without a background in taoism and other asian ideas. However, the different sections offer different levels of interpretation and understanding, which i find very helpful. With persistence and patience, the illumination is well worth the trouble. One of the best, easiest to explore and get to know the I Ching, is The I Ching Workbook, by R.L. Wing. There are some inconsistencies in the divination method, but if you can look past that, it is an excellent beginning text.

Very good book to use I Ching Oracle.
Good texts and commentaries according to the translation of Richard Wilhelm.

A more technical book that gives a thorough history of the I Ching, how it was used in Ancient China and contains multiple interpretations for each of the 64 hexagrams. Moving lines are defined within the definition of each hexagram with more of the ancient poetics included and the readings are probably closer to the original texts of yesteryear. Definitions of the hexagrams are more detailed than other guides but still an invaluable resource for anyone working with the I Ching.

I dont think its necessary to say how complex and genius this philosophy is.

So I will just say, that if you are in doubt about which book you should get, this is the version to start with. Its the best translation/version i know of.

With introduction by Richard Wilhelm and a foreword by Jung! Great stuff!

Get it!

This is a very comprehensive book to be studied from front to back. If you are not familier with the I-Ching, I would strongly recommend that you start with the I-Ching for beginners, then move on to this book after you have a better understanding of what is going on and how the I-Ching works and the history.

This is by far my favorite book from that genre. I first read it in high school and have gone back several times over the years. I just purchased it again to give to my 13 year old daughter.

I grew up in Santa Fe, reading this book, serving Mr. Bradford coffee at Zook's Pharmacy on the Plaza. Mr. Bradford's book reassured me that my turbulent adolescence was do-able, by lighting the way.
I have not been back there in thirty years. Santa Fe has been taken over by the rich and the entitled and they have squeezed the soul out of what we knew growing up there, though there is plenty of beauty and spirit left to be sucked dry by the commercial people. But if you want to know the siren song of Santa Fe, read this book. Sagrado is, indeed, Santa Fe. This was what it was like there even in the 1960's and 1970's.
I mean, where else could you have that unforgettable horse AND world-class opera AND the mountains AND the humility of entertaining the Native Americans by just being white people on the Plaza?
I read this book, I can smell the pine wood burning in the farolitos, and the breeze in the chamisa after the Summer afternoon cloudbursts.

This is a wondrous short novel. Read it if you'd like to be a teenager again. Buy an old paperback copy showing a teenage boy and girl standing facing each other with their foreheads touching--a very sweet illustration.

Now a good review (recommendation) doesn't have to be long, so let me give you a few lines of description. A boy moves from Alabama to New Mexico during World War II, and while his father is away in the war, the boy finds friends and a home in the small mountain town of Sagrado. One of his new friends is an sculptor who carves stone heads and places them on a hillside.

On the great book cover: Sometimes book covers actually decline in quality with the many printings of a book. This has happened with "Red Sky At Morning," but remember you are buying the book for the story.

Another example of the decline in a book's cover is seen in the early cover for "Summer of Night," by Dan Simmons.Summer of Night (Aspect Fantasy) The 1991 "Warner Book" edition has a window with a cut out. Through the window you can see some boys riding their bicycles at night. When you open the book, you see a mysterious school in the background.

The later covers of "Summer of Night" were not half as mysterious or fun.

As many others have said, it's impossible to get tired of this book. My parents gave it to me when I was 18 and (again, like several others) the first time I read it I found it a little slow and disjointed. It gets better and better with every read - each time I pick up on the subtleties of a scene for the first time.

Rather than boring the reader with a bunch of obnoxious capers and hijinks, Bradford envelops you in his characters' community, and it's this day-to-day banality (which turned me off so much the first time) that really draws you into the story. Josh's adjustment to Sagrado takes time, but when it comes it's so natural and amusing that you're almost completely unprepared for the sobering conclusion of the story.

I had no idea the book was so loved until I read these reviews. There are so many special moments in the story - the big wet snowfalls that ruins Chamaco's fiesta, the horribly backward residents of La Cima, the refreshing "white trashiness" of the Cloyd sisters, even Parker Holmes tearing an elk sandwich apart with his teeth.

I wish these characters existed in real life, and I wish I could be their friend.

I thouroughly enjoyed this book, I do not know how I missed it for so many years. It was recommended in Nancy Pearl's "Book Lust" (which you really should buy if you are an avid reader.) I have never been dissapointed by her recommendations.

Josh, as the narrator in "Red Sky at Morning" is a 17 year old high school senior at the end of WWII. His dry wit mad me laugh right out loud several times. I loved his sensibility and humor. The cast of characters in this book reminded me of some of the characters in "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving.

This is one of my favorite reads of the year, so much so I will probably hunt down a hard cover edition for my collection.

I loved the Sudden series when I was a boy - and, aged 45, I still have hung on to all 15 of them. They have survived wave after wave of book culls - so they must have something special about them. I too wish some publisher would reissue them all with quality covers. I have the Corgi edition with Sudden in bold and really good cover illustrations - some of the later editions were'nt as attractive.

I have 'spare' copies for sale of Sudden Makes War (Corgi, 1963 -good condition); Sudden Marshal of Lawless (Corgi 1963 - fair condition - slightly torn pages); Sudden Rides Again (Corgi 1975 edition, good condition); and Sudden Takes the Trail (Corgi 1969 - half front cover misssing).

I love western novels but I have never read a western novel to beat those of the Sudden series. I started reading those novels from my early teans and to this day I never stopped for I have read those that I have over and over again. I used to have the whole series but over the years with friends borrowing I am reduced to eight - Marshal of lawless, Rides again, The law of the Lariat, Plays a hand, Takes the Trail, The Range Robbers, outlawed and Makes war. I wish I could lay my hands on the others especially Sudden, Goldseeker, Strikes back, Goldseeker, Deal or Alive, Apache Fighter. If anyone has those and to sell please contact me for I would love to own them again.

I've read all of the Sudden Books as a pre-teen and teenager back on my island in the Caribbean. Simply the best. I looked beyond some of the controversial words and focused on the storyline. Not to make light of some of the language used.
I had all of the books and loaned them to friends, never to be returned.
I am now trying to start my collection all over again and it's costing me a fortune. No Sudden novel is a bad novel.

The entire series "Sudden", by Oliver Strange is undoubtedly the best Western series I have ever encountered in any form. Its been at least 20 years since I've read a copy, but i still feel that high level of excitement that I felt back in high school when I was addicted to the series.
Unfortunately I no longer have any copies of this great novel and I would like to purchase the whole series from anyone out there who would like to sell their copies. Please email me at harveylevers@hotmail.com if you are able to help me !

My biggest hero-"SUDDEN"- since i was just a kid,devouring all 15 'sudden' books from o.strange/f.christian.Funny thing ,since i left them all back home in Guyana when i migrated to New York some 27 years ago, i thought i'd be able to accquire all of them here -big mistake- didn't realize these precious books were actually published in the UK and sadly they are no longer available anywhere.In these troubled times the world need someone like Jim Green alias "SUDDEN" with his quiet cool,sobering demeanor,cocky confidence and deadly accuracy with his two tied down six-guns,shooting from the hips and one by one' slowly but surely eradicating all the varmints and sidewiners thus giving back towns/cities to the righteous, law-abiding and god fearing folks rightfully what are theirs: freedom,peace and happiness and a bright future for our kids . Any one of u "SUDDENITES" who has some extra copies of sudden, a sho' am glad to do business with u and am mighty oblige .I still don;t see the big deal with the hero 's horse name n---er ,aw shucks well lets' rename him TRIGGER or somthin . Seems like all around me i hear the n word being used so loosely by the same people who is making a big stink about a silly horse name whose storied episodes were written in a time when there was no political correctness .Lets' start a "SUDDEN" society and see if we all can be a hero and try to save these really great books from going to 'PURGURATORY ' so lovers of sudden can once more feel and re-live those glorious moments in days of old of the wild west. Methinks mebbe some publishers who've seen all these glowing reviews can find a way to get these golden oldies back in circulation if only for a limited tme so i can get me the entire collection once more and treasure them for what they really are ,just plain ole fun reading that helped build character and discipline in me .. S'long partner...

Absolutely fantastic book. Mrs Rogers is a wonderful writer who captures your imagination and compassion.

I read this book over thirty years ago and still love it. It is one of the best novels ever written. Gayle Rogers is a master storyteller. Although the romance between the two main characters is not as intense for me as when I first read it (keep in mind I am alot older now), the book is as fresh and appealing as ever. A tender, haunting, and beautifully written love story.

I, too, read Nakoa's Woman in the early seventies and could never get it out of my mind. I rate is as my all-time favorite and had wondered for many years why there were no other books, I feared she would never write another. I even wrote Dell to inquire about the release date on the proposed movie but they sent me a form letter instead, stating they were glutted with manuscripts. As an author myself, it only strengthened my belief they never really look at manuscripts before throwing letters into slush piles. In December 2004, I learned she had more books out and have since corresponded with her and now own all five of her books. She is a very sweet lady and we've emailed back and forth. Her new publisher is Sojourner Publishers Inc.

From the first time I read Nakoa's Woman at age 15 it has not ceased to live in my heart. The story is hauntingly beautiful, the characters are endearing and come alive to the reader. My whole family have read this book and have loved it as much as I have. I recommend it to anyone who loves to read, men and women alike. I look forward to reading the authors other books, of which I just became aware.

This is a book that is hard to put down once you pick it up. I enjoyed the historical aspect that reflected on the
comparison of the indian way and the white man's way, and how the lives and priorities reflect in very different ways.
The indian people took Maria in and taught her about the circle of life and how we all grow through this circle. As you walk with Maria and Nakoa through this journey you will become engrossed in their lives and will be able to feel their emotions.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to read love stories, historical books, novels for entertainment, or a book that keeps interested.

Luana Kennedy
Marysville WA

I could hardly put it down!!! I learned so much about Trace. He is a very interesting and smart man! I love him even more after reading this book. I will read it over and over.

I'm so glad I bought this book! It's a great insight on the music business and personal observations.

Loved reading this book! He is a unique person - not afraid to say anything. I'm sharing this book with many friends who all have enjoyed it as well. He is a fascinating person - wish he had email so I could write him a note.....He says what he thinks and lives it as well. Good read. Way to go Trace!

A very well written book by a down to earth country boy made good. He cut no corners and did not wash over his faults. We would have a much better democratically elected republic if more people thought about life the way this man does.

This book was excellent. I couldn't put it down. His ideas are exactly what I've been thinking and wish the Presidential Candidates would talk about. Trace proves that country people AREN'T ignorant and that hard work pays off in the end. This book is refreshing since the media and the Candidates avoid the truth of our nation.

Trace is a true man. Works hard for his family, stands by his beliefs (even when they aren't popular), and has values that make America BETTER. This book gives us an excellent glimpse into the music business. Plus, it is an inspiration for those who work hard despite the challenges and ups and downs of life.

He has some good ideas and points in the book. A guy who actually tells the truth and stands by his beliefs, that is the kind of President we need. Americans should be demanding this but we aren't. We just believe what the Candidates say instead of questioning them when they keep flip-flopping on the issues. Trace will you run for President?

Plus, his focus is his family. Who can argue with that!! I would recommend this book to anyone, even if you don't agree with all of his political views.

If you enjoyed Oke's "Love Comes Softly" series, you will surely love this book! This is my favorite of her books and I recommend this one to anyone who wants to read a good romance novel.

A gown of spanish lace is about a young women that is a school teach.
and a young man that has been raised by outlaws and without a mother.

its a wonderfull book about two young agult finding love..
and a young man finding out how he is... and coming to belive....
its a graet book full of mystery and Love and advetures. and a little acshon. graet graet book!
and I think you would enjoy it!
:-)

I loved this book it was wonderful they was they fell in love. Ariana and Laramie are perfect for each other. Ariana lived the life of a schoolteacher who was hungry for god's word. She wanted her students to feels the same. She loved her town and every thing it stood for. Well. She loved being a teacher. She was adopted. Her parents died in a raid on their wagon trail. All she has heft to remember her mother by is a dress, which she planes to wear when she gets married. That wont is for a while. Soon Ariana is kidnapped so that Laramie's father can get Laramie to kill some one. She is kept in a hut near the camp, the people that live in the camp our robbers and are horrible men. They are widely known. None of them know about Ariana being on there camp except for the boss and one of the other members of the camp. Sam, Sam told Laramie about his past, well at least as much as he knew. Gave him a trunk filled with Laramie's stuff. From when he was a baby. While Ariana is a captive her and Laramie fall in love by simple acts of kindness. Soon Laramie helps her escape. He almost kills someone for it. Once they escape there past begins to unravel, in a strange way the to lovers are connected very closely. Soon all is settled but the ending will take you by surprise. You don't see it coming.

This is the best book that Oke has written. I absoulty loved it and couldnt put it down until I finished it. Read it.

I really enjoyed this book.
My mom read it to me when I was three or four and recently
She recomended that I read it myself.
I am really happy that I did. It is about
a sixteen year old girl named Ariana who is a schoolteacher.
one day two men come to the school house and kidnap her during a blizzard.
She is taken far away to an old, small, dirty cabin and locked in. When she gets a new guard, Laramie, at first she is afraid of him, but then she starts to enjoy his company. He does not mistreat her and he buys her food and soap and all she needs. one day he decides to help her escape. It is a dangerous and risk, but Laramie is willing to take it and liberate her out of camp. Will they survive?
see for yourself. I think that you should definatly buy this book It has many twists that I did not mention. 5 STARS!

Whether you agree with him or not, Nietzsche's thought is pivotal in understanding modern Western society. This one-volume compilation provides an excellent introduction to his core philosophy.

Nietzsche changed my life. This translation and selection heightened and developed my sensibility more than any other philosopher or work of fiction. I think the difference in dynamic plays a role here: in works of fiction the characters represent man in various and hyperreal circumstances, but it is only a representation. With Nietzsche, the life of the real man and what he wrote underscore each other.

Nietzsche is utterly enjoyable. One almost feels a wicked pleasure as he dismantles the various and prevailing constructions of the world. But he always fights fair: he allows his targets to live on the page and fight back.

I love the aphoristic style. The way he briefly but profoundly treats a topic, and then returns to it again with a new twist or perspective. It is rich!

I've typed that name what seems like a thousand times in the last month. I used Beyond Good and Evil for two papers this semester, and he gave me an idea for a short story. What a writer! Not a guy you'd like to be on a desert island with, but his philosophy could be purposely misinterpreted and made into a somewhat logical or at least palatable set of ideas. The interpretation seems to be pretty good...I also used Kaufman's Nietzsche for the research paper I did, and he seems to be pretty knowledgeable and unbiased. I can't wait to read some of the other pieces in this.

a great collection...i don't think it includes 'thus spake zarathustra', though. if it does, my apologies. if i'm right, then that's an odd omission. otherwise, i love it.

The Birth of Tragedy-75 Aphorism-Beyond Good and Evil-The Genealogy of Morals (3 Essays)-The Case of Wagner-Interpretations/commentaries

A great collection, though a strange chronological leap from BOT to BGE. Right for the price and a great review of the later published books of FN. All of Kaufmann's footnotes are maintained. You'll at least want to have had read The Gay Science before coming to this, or even TSZ; Beyond Good and Evil and The Genealogy of Morals are NOT the place to get your feet wet and FN is not joking in Ecce Homo when he says that a close reading and familiarity with his earlier writings is necessary to delve and dredge up all that he has thought through--and to then move on to further possibilities presented by the various threads lain therein.

But if you are really eager to get to these later works, do at least have some familiarity with Hegel and read the Untimely Meditations and then make the leap to this volume.

Caveat: I cannot recommend the Zarathustra translation by Kaufmann, as available through the Viking Portable Library or Penguin; it is truly facile. Hollingdale's translations of the TSZ, Twilight and the AntiChrist are much preferable, thought they lack K's commentary.

If you ever have any intention of formally working with a Spiritual Teacher, this is a must read! It shows that Enlightenment is a process, not a destination. It is a journey of accessing consciousness at deep levels. I have read hundreds of books on spirituality, and this one is authentic, in respect to what is required. Trungpa, clearly lays out the rewards and the ordeals of the spiritual path. I know, since I am student and a teacher. When reading the book, do not get lost in the Buddhist terminology...they are not important.Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (Shambhala Library)

I had been a Zen Buddhist for almost two years when I read this book, but this book showed me that I had been practicing Buddhism all wrong, for I had unknowingly been a spiritual materialist the whole time. This book helped me to see that and to begin to let go. If you are a Buddhist, or for that matter a spiritual person of any stripe, you should read this book.

Essential reading for anyone of any religious or spiritual persuasion who fancies her/himself a spiritual aspirant or truth seeker. Reveals the need to be constantly aware of the tendency we have to fashion our spirituality into a commodity that actually bolsters egoism rather than liberating us from it. Gives many examples of how this process takes place. This book forced me toward a deeper honesty about the motivations behind my own spiritual quest.

Chogyam Trungpa(rinpooche(bright star?))'s (how's that for a possessive apostrophe 's'?) book is so far the best I've read of Buddhism and how to get There from Here. No worry that there is here, but simply you may not be, yet. After 40ish years of off and on study of and practice, I have reread this book from the section, "The 4 Noble Truths" all the way to the end. The beginning I have lived and am familiar with. I've done chi gong, inner smile, inner heat(Kathleen McDonald), Taiji,read TaoTeChing, Chuang Tzu, and practiced other skills of my own devising, BTW. I am no expert, not a scholar, but after working with Kathleen's pedantic methodology and Walpola Rahula's What the Buddha Taught, and even the wonderful Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, Trungpa's presentation is clean and clear, straight to the heart of the matter.
I reread and re-mine these chapters whilst walking a treadmill, before or after sitting. Never really knew what the turnings of the wheel of dharma were(but like the concept), never felt like 'surrendering" to no buddha, dharma, sangha--it's all in the gap.
Trungpa is a master of concision. This book is a service to us beginners.
I hear the book is middle level instruction. That's neither here nor there.
Enjoy.

I kind of backed into reading Trungpa via an interest in his student, Pema Chodron. I am neither in any sense an advanced meditator nor a practicing Buddhist. My only reason for writing a review is to address the question of whether this is a good book for a general reader with vague questions about meditation as a practice, and about Tibetan Buddhism as a belief system and spiritual practice, and IMHO, it is.

This book is definitely one person's guide to transcending self-improvement, and both the goal and the prose quirks of the author may put some people off. But if Sutra study or Pema's tapes have convinced you that there's something here worth investigating, and you want to know how meditation works as a practice (among other things, a social practice) this is a great place to start.

I attended the premiere of this book at the University of Pennsylvania many, many years ago due to my parent's donations to the local public television station. As I was in junior high school at the time, I failed to appreciate this work in all its subtle humour and glory, but having since studied anthropology and sociology at the University level, I realise how great this book really is.

The general plot line of this book is that due to a decrease in the charge to mail fourth-class (junk) mail, the American civilization is buried under flyers, pizza hut coupons, and copies of the Weekly World News. Thousands of years later, archaeologists stumble across what they believe to be a perfectly preserved mortuary complex... however, those in our time would recognize it as a no-tell motel. The book, clearly drawing from Lord Carnarvon's discovery of the tomb of Tut in 1922 ("I see wonderful things!...") chronicles the discovery, excavation, and extraordinary mis-characterization of the "artifacts" found within one of the motel rooms.

For anyone who loves Egyptology, this is simply a MUST read.

It was recomended by a teacher friend. It's quirky, funny & full of imagination. I have read books by Elisabeth Peters on archeology & discovering Egyption tombs so I enjoyed this because it challenges the imagination on what future scientists might discover about our civilization.

The 41st Century is full of mysteries. Like what happened to Ancient Yankees who lived in North America? Why did they die out and how did they live. One day a tomb, untouched, is found and it gives us a glimpse of what these Ancient Yankees were like in the 20th Century. Sacred items, musical instruments, and the sacred point will make you laugh and wonder how much of OUR knowledge is based on such conclusions?

When this book first was published, the Hotel Technology department head inadvertently had the college library purchase this book for the department. When it arrived we laughed hysterically about it, and many times, I have laughed about it ever since.

Two years ago, I ordered a copy for the library where I am currently a Children's Librarian. It did not even make it to the "stacks", someone
liked it so much they "permanently borrowed" it.

If you need a good laugh...!

I've carried my copy of this book over many moves. It grows on me each time I read it. Originally it seemed just a humourous retelling of the Carter discovery of Tutankhamun and the Egyptian hysteria that accompanies it. Later on, after getting much more involved in arguments over interpretations of Roman historical artifacts, I realized how to the point the book is about the way we see the past and argue over the meaning of what we see. Still really funny though.