Nebraska Books

Okay, so the Lewis and Clark bicentennial era has come and gone, but this remains a very good study of a sensitive subject - lewis and clark's encounters with Native Americans. Not given to empassioned conjecture or political polemic, Rhonda considers context, comparable expeditions, and lots of careful, well-documented research in telling the story of and drawing thoughtful conclusions about the expedition's recorded perceptions of the inhabitants they encountered and their responsibility for subsequent treatment of Native Americans in the West. The late historian cum history-book-factory Stephen Ambrose deemed this book worthy enough to fill an entire (albeit footnoted)chapter of his popular work Undaunted Courage almost exclusively from Rhonda's text.

This was an excellent bed time book - 3 or 4 pages a night and your off to dream land. Ronda reconstructs meetings with the Indians with the use of footnoted quotations from the journals. This is supposedly better than reading the journals yourself because Ronda brings his objective view to the table were as L & C had Euro-American bias. The book, much like the journey itself, has moments of interest and moments of repetitive dullness.

As the title indicates, Ronda's book concentrates primarily on Lewis and Clark's interactions with Indians along their journey to the Pacific. Aside from the exploration, Jefferson's other mission, as described by Ronda, was to make peace with the Indians, establishing not only a relationship with the U.S. but to also broker peace among the tribes. As the author points out, the latter was very naïve as the two explorers' did not comprehend the complex relationships among the various tribes. For example, the tribes closest to traders had a distinct advantage over the interior tribes due to their access to guns, ammunition and other material sought by the interior tribes such as the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes living well up the Missouri. Tribes such as the powerful Teton Sioux were protective of their roles as dominant traders while their enemies the Mandans and Hidatsas traded with many plains tribes due to their ability to grow vegetables and corn that the plains Indians lacked. Although trying to bridge gaps between rivals such as the Mandan and the Arikaras seemed plausible to the explorers, Ronda points out well that presents and well meaning speeches by Lewis and Clark could not realistically alter relationships until the whites provided a dominant presence among the tribes. A good portion of the book concentrates on the Mandan and Hidatsa since the explorers spent their first winter on the upper Mississippi enduring a very supportive relationship. Strong bonds were made with the Mandan but Ronda well documents the intricate relationships that the explorer's had with the various tribes including sexual contact that Ronda describes had a mystical tribal benefit aside from some cases of trade. It is quite impressive that the explorers were well treated among the less fortunate Indians such as the Flatheads, Shoshone and Nez Perce who assisted L & C over the most crucial part of the trip supplying needed horses, food and guides. After reading of L & C's fortunes with the mountain and plains Indians, Ronda described a different contrast with the Indians closer to the Pacific who had either direct or indirect contact with traders. The Chinooks prove to be savvy traders as well as other tribes along the Columbia River. This change and more aggressive stance toward pilfering, which Ronda describes as possible cultural misunderstandings, try the corps almost to violence altering the more congenial relationship that the expedition featured for the most of their contacts with the natives. Ronda goes beyond describing the contacts between the corps and the Indians; he also explains the cultures of each tribe and clarifies issues that were not clear to the explorers. This is most notable when Lewis and his three man platoon make contact with the aggressive Blackfeet that ends in the only bloodshed between Indians and the corps. Ronda indicates that Lewis may have unintentionally raised tensions by explaining that the U.S. would be aiding the Blackfeet's traditional enemies and in turn under cut there trade dominance. Interesting that later, the Blackfeet become the most feared tribe of future Mountain men. Excellent book that fits well after a general read of the journey since the book covers activities of only key corps members concentrating primarily on Indian relations.

A well researched book that is not meant to replace a reading of the original journals. Dr. Rhonda did an excellent job putting the American Indians back in to the narrative of Lewis & Clark's expedition. The information regarding the various tribes and nations is quite accurate and helps to give an introduction to American Indian history for someone who might not have any familiarity of the western nations. Generally, the book is well-written and interesting. It could be interesting and entertaining for both academic and general readers.

Lewis and Clark among the Indians by James P. Ronda is one of the most respected books in the L&C literature. It is not a general history of the expedition, but instead focuses entirely on Indian relations of the Expedition, explaining not only L&C's responsibilities, actions, and mistakes in dealing with the native people they encountered, but also on the motivations and views of the Indians.

The most interesting aspect of the book for me was the discussion of Lewis and Clark as ethnographers (or recorders of primary data about native American life). Several members of the Expedition made particularly valuable notes on the lifestyles of the Indians they met. Sergeant John Ordway had a talent for recording homey details that give us a glimpse into a long-vanished world of Indians at the moment of first contact with whites. Sergeant Patrick Gass, a carpenter, perceptively described the houses of the Indians. William Clark gravitated instinctively toward political analysis, grasping who the leadership was and how Indian power politics worked. It's not surprising he later proved so talented as a diplomat managing Indian affairs in the West long after the Expedition. But it was Meriwether Lewis who emerged as the premier ethnographer of the Expedition. Food, clothing, cooking utensils, weapons all caught Lewis's eye and were recorded, and often drawn, in painstaking detail.

Thankfully, Ronda steers clear of political correctness, refusing to portray the Indians as saintly victims or L&C as the vanguard of American imperialism. Lewis and Clark among the Indians is academic history at its finest. The research is fresh, measured, and dispassionate. As such it will appeal to those readers with a particular interest in the topic.

It's worth noting that Ronda sets a goal in the introduction of avoiding the themes of "high adventure, national triumph, and male courage." One sometimes senses that he bends over backwards to drain excitement and humor from the narrative.

Fun book to start kids reading nonpicture books with joy. I even enjoyed it as an adult.

Julia Creath-Summerwaite has many memories of her beloved, deceased brother, Daniel. The more exciting ones include dinosaurs, murder, a psychic, and a villain she was determined to keep away. Now Julia is 80 years old. Everyone from those Nebraska days was gone. All she has left are memories.
While wandering through the National History Museum with her grandchildren, Julia recounts her adventures. She tells the children about Daniel's dream: to find a fossilized dinosaur and save the farm. Julia had the same dream. But only she would see it completed.
Julia takes them to the result of Daniel and her struggles. Here, she feels as if Daniel is with her again. She becomes that Nebraska farm girl once again.
Pam Conrad did a good job writing the book and connecting the memories with the present. The recollections keep you reading. I thought the stories were enticing. However, while still good, I did not find this to be an extraordinary book to read.

If you're fond of pioneer stories, be warned. This is not "Little House on the Prairie." In fact it's not a pioneer story at all, but a book about death, dying, the agony of grief, the bittersweet comfort of memories, and the importance of family ties. Given most publishers' current mania for hitting kids between the eyes with mature issues, they've succeeded here. Perhaps one day they'll again realize that kids want to escape reality with excitement, mystery, and adventure, not be bombarded with mature themes, or complex social issues. Espeically irritating were the jumps between modern and olden times so frequently that the reader was never drawn into either period. No sense of atmosphere was evident.

I had to read it twice to get it because it switches back and forth from present to past. It's a brilliant story; one that reaches out to you. It's one of those books where you say you will only read 2 chapters and save the rest for tomorrow and you ending reading the rest of the book. I think this would make a great movie.

This was my favorite childhood book. It inspired me to want to become a paleontologist. I find the study of dinosaurs fascinating. I am now 18 and just re-read it recently. I was just as intrigued with it now as when I was an 8-year-old child. A beautiful book that everyone should read.

I had known of this book for many years, and had even thought about seeing if a publisher would be willing to entertain a translation. It was wonderful to see a member of the family lead the effort and have a copy back in print and in english after too many years out of print. It is a wonderful story of a patriotic naval officer, of a now absent navy tell of his adventures as the most successful captain of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. His work with his crew (from all over the empire) dealing with bureaucratic officers, sinking ships in an old sub, that his German peers recommended not taking to sea (they thought it unseaworthy and an antique), and then further adventures in a French sub, sunk then raised to strike again against them is intersting. Those who have read Lowell Thomas' account, or Edwyn Gray's books on the German WW1 submarine service will find this a very different tale and one worth comparing to other efforts.
For those who wondered where the Captain in the von Trapp family singers came from this fills in a void covering elements of his older children and first wife. Through his first wife, he was related to the inventor of the modern torpedo, who had set up a factory in Austra-Hungary before WW1.
The book is well written and reads quickly, and tells the tale of a dedicated and talented patriot in an prior phase of his life, which was later known to the world in song and story.

This is reasonably light read broken into bite-size chapters covering a variety of experiences surrounding the author's service as a WWI Austrian U-boat captain, the boat technologies of the time and the everyday impact of the politics as Austria's empire unraveled. Austria's relationship with it's wealthy and larger German ally is seen from another perspective as well as the polyglot nature of the many ethnic groups belonging to and participating in the Austrian war effort. A fine military account from the man responsible for "The Sound of Music."

I've wished for this book to be translated into English for a very long time! It was worth the wait.

I've always wanted to know more about Captain von Trapp, in his own words and this book is as close as I am going to get. It did not disappoint as it provided a window to see the Captain, the man.

I could not help but believe this book was more a compilation from a journal he may have kept. I also could not help but believe, if not for his modesty, there was so much more he could have shared.

Perhaps, without realizing it, he showed us many sides, least of which were his tender and compassionate side. How many military captains do you know would allow a rescued kitten to live on board his submarine?

I gave this book five stars, not so much for literary greatess as for the enjoyment received from reading it and having a few more questions answered.

It should be enjoyed by all Sound of Music fans and I believe those interested in history will enjoy it as well. Even though I knew the outcome, I could not help but hold my breath as he told of daring escapades while captaining his u-boats. I found myself, while reading about his experiences, thinking of the movie, K-9, The Widowmaker.

My only complaint, it was only 188 pages log. :-(

To the Last Salute is Georg Ritter von Trapp's memoir of commanding a U-boat in the Austrian Navy during World War I. While his style of writing does take some getting used to, von Trapp provides an engaging and suspenseful tale of life on a primitive submarine during an oft-neglected period of military history. The book also gives us an insight into von Trapp as a man, more insight than one finds in other books on the life of his famous family. His accounts of the horrors of war and the loss of his beloved navy at the end of the war are especially moving. For those interested in von Trapp, the Austrian Navy, World War I, and the history of submarine warfare, the book will be especially useful; anyone interested in the story of an intriguing, thoughtful, and courageous man will enjoy the chronicle of von Trapp's adventures as well.

Captain Georg von Trapp's Memoirs were published in Austria in German in the 1930's. One of his Grandaughters (an offspring of one of the real life von Trapp Family Singers)has translated her famous ancestor's work into English and now we can all see why the Evil Nazi's were so set on getting "The Captain" into their Navy when they took over Austria.

The work is very short and von Trapp has a matter of fact writing style similar to that of U.S. counterpart Gene Fluckey in his memoir of the USS Barb. Unlike Fluckey however von Trapp had to go to war in an antequated obsolete gasoline powered Austrian U-boat which was barely a step above the Turtle or the Hunley. A german U boat Captain told him upon going inside the ship that he "was lucky to be Alive". In addition he had to deal with a multinational crew that grew more restless as the war went on and their countries began to break away from the Hapsburg yoke.

The memoir is a good glimpse of a theatre of WWI which is barely mentioned, the Naval War in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. Very little has been written of the War at sea between the Austrian navy on one side and the Italians and the French on the other. Most I have seen have dealt with the Royal Navy in the Dardanelles.

The book also begins with some von Trapp Family background and reveals many interesting facts such as the Captain's first wife was English and many of 'the children' were a lot older than 'sixteen going on seventeen' when they escaped Austria. Sadly when the Captain died of lung cancer in 1947 it may have been related to all of the gas fumes he inhaled on the poorly ventilated u boat during the war.

Occasionally talky, but overall a real page-burner! Rustlers, gunfighters, gamblers and whores, and plenty of rottin' tootin' action! This book was a favorite of the late Richard Farina's ("Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me"), as well as a favorite of Thomas Pynchon's. Highly recommend!

Warlock is the first in a trilogy by author Oakley Hall, the second novel in the trilogy being Badlands, followed by Apaches. I was simply awed by the writing of Mr Hall, and the universal human truths he reminds the reader of. I can see that more than a few writers must have read Oakley Hall's novels, most especially Cormac Mccarthy. Warlock was published in 1958, and Badlands was at least 10 yrs later, followed by Apaches, which was at least another decade later. Mr Hall also does the fine Ambrose Bierce series of novels, and with a career spanning 5 decades, he is still underated and underapreciated by the general public. do yourself a favor and discover this most excellent writer.

back in 1958 it seems that an excellent book like this could actually be a finalist for the pulitzer prize (which this was). nowadays, gender and racial political correctness would put a squash to any such justice. oh, well. anyway, i have not consumed a lot of westerns in my reading days. 9 of them, if i have counted correctly. "warlock," by oakley hall, is my 2nd favorite of the lot (1st place going to "true grit," by charles portis). mr hall's book is a vastly superior reading experience than cormac mccarthy's "blood meridian," which has been touted by many as the best western out there. "warlock" embraces both the cliches of the western and the prototypes of its characters, while at the same time being anti-cliche and turning prototypes on their heads. how can this be? i don't know. it just is. i'm not smart enough to figure out or put into words the whys and the hows. here's my advice: read the thing.

Like Lonesome Dove and Deadwood, Warlock takes the western genre and refuses all the cliches, creating the possibility of actually understanding history in the terms of men, women, their frailties, and the power of the land. It goes beneath the obvious surfaces, reweaves actual history, and adds a level of writing expertise that makes it an American classic along the lines of what Hawthorne does to the Gothic in The Scarlet Letter. I couldn't put it down. In it, you see the roots of McMurtry's work and Deadwood, and even intersections with John Ford. For those who love the Western, you must read it. For those, like Pynchon, who want to groove on characters, sentences and a fictional world made vivid and compelling, check it out. A wonderful, satisfying and heartbreaking read.

Page 408 of Warlock contains the following:

"Men are like corn growing. The sun burns them up and the rain washes them out and the winter freezes them, and the cavalry tramps them down, but somehow they keep growing. And none of it matters a damn so long as the whisky holds out."

I don't usually read books that talk about whisky and cavalry, but this one was really good. Although a lot of the writing is like the quote above, the plot is a fairly sophisticated examination of the practical complexities of human morality. At first glance, the two main characters seem to be from the wild west boilerplate, one good guy and one bad guy. But the good and the bad are close friends, and they actually identify with each other qutie a bit. There's also an ugly guy who turns out to be the closest thing the book has to a hero. In contrast to the standard cowboy-movie theme, the characters struggle with the difficulties of figuring out what it would even mean to be good, bad, or ugly in a place that has no real laws and exists permanently on the brink of extinction. Apparently the book was made into a movie, but I would bet that it didn't translate well.

Found it eazy read but not much addition informatiom on J Smith, more about times was disapointed sorry can't recommend

I constantly used the reference section of this book and Mr. Morgan [the author] stuck closely to these details when writing his book. If you are interested in the opening of the west US this book will give a good grasp of those times. I especially benefited from understanding the relationship of the Canadian fur trade to that of the American enterprises. The book kept the interest of both my husband and myself, as it was read aloud in it's entirety. I highly recommend the book.

Jedediah Strong Smith is a true American hero, though few people have ever heard of him. After Lewis and Clark, he probably explored and mapped more territory in the West than any other man. In the field of exploration he accomplished a series of "firsts" that is truly astounding. Dale Morgan, the premier modern historian on the fur trade period, has written a detailed and exciting biography of this great man.

Smith, born in New York state in 1798, came to St. Louis and answered William Ashley's call for "enterprising young men" to make a fur trapping excursion up the Missouri River in 1822. He helped Andrew Henry construct his fort on the Yellowstone and wintered in the mountains. Returning east, he participated in the fight with the Arikaras who were attacking Ashley's second expedition on the Missouri, and then returned to the mountains overland. It was on this trip that Smith re-discovered South Pass, the easiest grade over the continental divide. It was also around this time that Smith joined the long list of trappers who were mauled by grizzly bears; he survived the attack but had to have his ear sewn back on by Jim Clyman who was also there (Smith wore his hair long over his ears from then on to avoid the stares).

In 1824 he accompanied Alexander Ross of the Hudson's Bay Company on a tour of the country in the northern Rockies. He became a partner of Ashley, and at the Cache Valley rendezvous of 1826, he, along with David E. Jackson and William Sublette, bought out Ashley. Later that year he began his most famous exploring expedition across the Southwest to California (the first American to do so), continuing north through the San Joaquin Valley to the American River. Then Smith and two others trekked across the Great Basin (the first whites to do so), almost dying of thirst, and reached the Bear Lake rendezvous in July 1827, which "caused a considerable bustle in camp, for myself and party had been given up as lost."

At the breakup of the rendezvous, Smith returned to California to rescue the members of his party he had left there. He found his men in the Sierras and then headed north to Oregon. Here disaster struck. On the Umpqua River, Kalawatset Indians attacked Smith's men, killing all but Smith and three others. They made their way to Ft. Vancouver, where they wintered. In 1829 Smith trapped the northern Rockies and then with Jim Bridger in the Blackfoot country. At the Popo Agie rendezvous of 1830, Smith et.al. sold their fur company to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. He returned to St. Louis and hoped to settle down, but was talked into taking a trading party and goods to Santa Fe. While searching for water on the dry plains of the Cimmaron, Smith was attacked by Comanches and killed. He was only 32 years old.

Not only was Smith an important explorer, but he was a literate man who kept journal notes of his exploits. (His valuable report on his California expedition of 1826-27 was later published.) His reputation was beyond reproach, and the regard that others held for him concerning his leadership abilities, knowledge, and perseverance was supreme. (His men always referred to him as "Mr. Smith" or "Captain.") He was also a devoutly religious man and carried and read a Bible everywhere he went. His opening the South Pass route over the Divide and the knowledge he collected and passed on about California and the Far Northwest did much to encourage emigration. Some consider Jed Smith the greatest of the mountain men, and it would be hard to disagree.

Morgan's biography is tremendous. He leaves no stone unturned in recounting the details of Smith's life and adventures. He writes with great style and authority. His annotations reveal the work of a dedicated scholar. This book is definitely one of the major works dealing not only with a major figure but with the larger field of the mountain men of the 1820's West. Highly recommended.

I can't really say that Jedediah was "THE" mountain man because so many of the trappers of his era were amazing and had amazing stories to tell. He was, however, one of the most unique. His travels for the purpose of "novelty" expanded the knowledge of the West and placed him in some pretty tight situations with British and Mexican authorities. (The cat and mouse behavior between the Brits and the American trappers was very enlightening.) Jed's encounter with a Grizzly bear was enough to seal his legendary fate. Any man who can ride away from such a terrible mauling is truly a man of steel. He even instructed fellow trappers (Clyman...I believe) how to suture his scalp AND ear back into place after the mauling. He also exhibited a degree of intelligence superior to his cohorts with the exception of a few such as Old Bill Williams and Osborne Russell. Oz was without a doubt the most poetically inclined; whereas, Jed's writing seems to be heavily dosed with religion. Two quotations from this book stike me. The first is a quote from Jed's journal during his first California expedition. Thirsty and hungry, he wrote "My dreams were not of Gold or ambitious honors but of my distant quiet home, of murmuring brooks of Cooling Cascades." It's interesting if you compare the hardships of John Wesley Powell about 40 years later down the Colorado. The perception of the time was of bounties unheard of, springs everywhere for water, and extensive grazing lands for cattle. Seems to me that those folks of J.W. Powell's day would've been served greatly if they had access to Jed's journal. The second quotation sums up Jed's life and his legacy, "...had life been kind to him, the world might have heard much of Jedediah Smith." Unfortunately, his life was short and his contributions were great. Also unfortunately, his story and those of many of his fellow mountain men are not found in today's history classes. This is truly a disadvantage because there are so many undertones occuring in the background of these historic adventures. This book sheds light on some of the history surrounding the era and one of the biggest mountain man icons.

Far too little about Jededian himself. Probably no more than a couple of pages at best. Spent the whole book talking about other figures in detail like Ashley. Smith was treated like an obscure character that played a very small role during that period, when in fact he was one of he few icons.

This is a memoir about healing and growth, about souls and landscape, and about the pain and beauty of love. Lisa Dale Norton combs through her childhood to make sense of her past, taking the reader through interior and exterior tapestries that become a beautifully written version of Self.

She faces her mirror with honesty and has meticulously researched the ecology of the landscape, which she distills to poetry. The two are combined and offered to be accepted, or not. The book has the viewpoint of a naturalist, and is food for empathy.

Having taken several of Lisa Dale Norton's writing classes (she is a superb teacher by the way, who helps you dig below the surface of your own memories to be a better writer), I was eager to see if she put into practice what she teaches. She does. "Hawk Flies Above" is a journey not only for the author but the reader. The power of her prose creates images not soon forgotten. Nebraska was never one of those places high on my list to visit, but Norton brings it to life and imbues it with rare beauty. "Hawk Flies Above" is a feast of words. And while there are places I would like to have more detail, that can be said of most things I read. This is a beautiful story of healing and courage.

In this lovely, lyrical memoir, we journey with Norton as she "lies close in to the land, skin to sand, bone to wind." By climbing with her through wounded landscapes--the Sandhills and her own heart--we also find a place of safety, become whole. That's what memoir is about... to find courage, heal ourselves in fellow travelers' stories.

I thought this book was terrific. It is so full of useful information presented in a way that applies not only to writers, but to almost anyone. I'm waiting eagerly for her next book.

Lisa Dale Norton writes about place. She writes about how place affects her, how place slowly and patiently healed her, about the wind, the water, the plants, the birds and the people of a certain place--the Nebraska Sandhills, filling the entire northcental part of Nebraska. And she writes even more specifically about Ericson, Nebraska, and her family summer home, the Big Six Country Club on Lake Ericson.

She writes lyrically about how much she loves the Sandhills, about the nature of the Sandhills and how she knows that she is only a secondary character is this vast hilly, sandy, treeless and marshy prairie. Interspersed between the stages of who she was and is are lovely vignettes from her notebooks about the unchanged, here, and the changing, there. By the end of the book, she wonders how long the water table will support the people she loves and the landscape she is passionate about.

But she also writes her own story, that of feeling abandoned by her mother as a young teen, about being attacked, raped and left for dead in her twenties and about her healing and regaining trust. "The things we do in our twenties and thirties are pilgrimages to find lost pieces of our youth." After years away from The Big Six Country Club, she returns to write her master's thesis on Ericson and The Hungry Horse Saloon. Although she writes in her journals and photographs life, she drifts through that summer and fall not knowing that she must wait and just be in that place for the healing to commence. Norton writes of equating growth with movement and finally realizing that inner landscape must be cultivated with stillness.

Norton's Notebooks are filled with prose poetry (the in-between vignettes). In "Dragonflies," she writes "Their gossamer wings moved like wind through riverside grass. Sometimes in flight, a dragonfly would coast, riding a current but only for a moment. I dreamed those magical creatures were relics from another age and I was some clever character, kneeling at water's edge gathering flowers."

In her narrative, she writes, "What succor is it, then, that rises from remembering, from the stories I tell? Slowly I come to believe that the mere telling itself is food for my soul. Story nurtures. I tell a story and I feel more whole."--as it is with us all.

Yet this is not a sweet and sentimental book. Norton writes with an edge of expectation, moving us forward to see the beginning of healing. She writes of the history of the land and the people as well as her family, long time Nebraska citizens. She writes, "What purpose do these stories serve, which rise from my childhood and haunt me as I travel these hills? I can not give up the belief that these memories, burning like lamps in the night shine through to me for a reason. Could it be a simple as the power of those things we love rising to remind us that we must name them? If I do not name those things I love, who will know what is worth saving and what can be let go?"

This is a good book. It tells of a life, a place and a heart that is healed.

by Judith Helburn
for StorycircleBookReviews
www.storycirclebookreviews.org
reviewing books by, for, and about women

This book arrived in excellent condition and during the time it was anticipated. It is a wonderful book of memoirs by Sylvia Beach about her book store and lending library in Paris during the 20's and 30's.

good, though not quite what I expected, September 12, 2004
I purchased this book knowing little about Sylvia Beach and her bookstore Shakespeare and Company, but hoping to find out more. Since this particular book is rather autobiographical, I figured I could learn a lot from it about her. Actually it was more about her famous friends (Joyce, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and many other writers and other prominent social and literary figures of the day; if you're familiar with the Algonquin Round Table and their expanded circle of friends, a lot of these people cross over), with only rather modest information provided about herself. It is still an interesting read, and the stories she recounts are well done and witty, but the spotlight is less on her own story and more on the people she surrounded herself with. I would like to seek out a more objective biography of her to couple to the information I've learned in this book. Still, do read it, especially if you are interested in the literati of the 1920s-30s.

I've been carrying a first edition of this book around from state to state for several years, and never really quite got around to reading it, as I was more involved with books by the writers Beach writes about, and with the more mundane details of life. What a shame. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and chatty memoir of one rather significant (but don't overstate this) expatriate member of the so-called "Lost Generation". The book is an easy read -- certainly no literary masterpiece, though I doubt it was intended as one. Beach recounts her efforts a running a little book store specializing in modern American literature (and, of course, publishing a small work by an Irish writer, as well), and details her encounters with various figures of the era, be they French, English or American. At times, particularly early on, Beach resorts to simple name dropping -- one day so-and-so came in, this person was a regular customer, etc.; but that is really just a quibble as the sheer volume of significant names brings to mind a roll call of the major modern literary figures of the English language. And "Shakespeare & Co." also has a nice little side effect -- it reminded me of some writers (and a composer - Georges Antheil) that I haven't read yet, or haven't read in a while. I highly recommend this book.

Every once in a great while I stumble upon a book I've never heard of and feel as though I've discovered treasure. This is such a book. Though I had heard of Sylvia Beach and her famous book shop/lending library, her memoir "Shakespeare & Company" was unknown to me. In an easy, conversational style, Beach gives the history of her shop and observational portraits of the various artists who treated her establishment as a salon of sorts. These artists included Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot and Andre Gide, among others. She expounds upon her experiences as James Joyce's publisher and benefactress to a considerable depth, while never overtly acknowledging the intimate nature of her relationship with Adrienne Monnier. Beach's life in Paris and her interactions with 'the lost generation,' was published almost fifty years ago, but remains engaging, enjoyable and relevant today. Indeed a treat.

What a wonderful find! This book is truly a treasure and made me wish I had been an author in Paris during the 20's. Sylvia Beach ran her library Shakespeare and Company on the left bank on Rue l'Odeon for many years and served as the location for English language books in Paris. During that time she worked closely with Joyce and personally handled not only publishing Ulysses but also took care of all his mail and the shipping of his books to various customers around the world.

There is a rather funny scene she describes. Because it was so hard to get Ulysses into America (since it was banned), Sylvia had a dilemma concerning distribution. Hemingway, who proclaims himself Sylvia's "best customer", tells her not to worry and within a few days he comes back to let her know he has a friend who has moved to Canada who will personally bring the books into America by ferry, stuffed in his pants.

I cannot say enough what a beautiful book this is. Beach is as gifted as the authors she esteemed and brings to life a world you wish you could climb into.

I would also highly recommend A Moveable Feast by Earnest Hemingway in conjunction to this.

Stegner once again reveals his writing prowess, This time in a self-indulgent adventure to haunts of his youth.

I have some qualms about this work, however. In particular, I was not so keen on those parts where Stegner relied heavily on book-based history that never directly touched his own life. To be frank, his writing in these parts surprisingly got a bit stodgy.

His thought on sense of place and belonging, however, are remarkable, hitting me right between the eyes. Indeed, he had me wistfully recalling my own childhood in what seemed a remote area of the world with the archaeological junk heap and all. In measuring his boyhood to my own, I noted how little times had changed in that interval of 60-70 years and how much has changed for kids in the last 40. It had me wondering how my own sons lives would be different were it not for the MAFIA (mother's against fun in America).

This wonderful collection of essays and fiction about the last Western frontier is both romance and anti-romance. Writing in the 1950s, Stegner captures the breath-taking beauty of the unbroken plains of southwest Saskatchewan and the excitement of its settlment at the turn of the century. Part memoir, the book recounts the years of his boyhood in a small town along the Whitemud River in 1914-1919, the summers spent on the family's homestead 50 miles away along the Canadian-U.S border. His book is also an account of the loss of that Eden and the failed promise of agricultural development in this semi-arid region with thin top soil.

Stegner is a gifted, intelligent writer, able to turn the people and events of history into compelling reading. The opening section of the book describes the experience of being on the plains and specifically in the area where Stegner was a boy. And it lays out the geography of that land -- a distant range of hills, the river, the coulees, the town -- which the book will return to again and again.

The following section evokes the period of frontier Canada's early exploration, the emergence of the metis culture, the destruction of the buffalo herds, the introduction of rangeland cattle, and then wave upon wave of settlement pushing the last of the plains Indians westward and northward. A chapter is devoted to the surveying of the boundary along the Canada-U.S. border; another chapter describes the founding of the Mounted Police and its purely Canadian style of bringing law and order to the wild west.

The middle section of the book is a novella and a short story about the winter of 1906-1907. In the longer piece, eight men rounding up cattle are caught on the open plains in an early blizzard. Stegner builds the drama and the peril of their situation artfully and convincingly. The final section of the book returns to Stegner's memories of the town and the homestead, ending with his family's departure for Montana.

Stegner lived at a time and in a place where a person born in the 20th century could still experience something of the sweep of history that transformed the American plains. I've read many books about the West, and because of his depth of thought, his gifts as a writer, and his unflinching eye, Stegner's work ranks for me among the best. I heartily recommend this book.

This book has no right to be so absorbing. Though the topic of this forgotten book by Wallace Stegner reeks of self-indulgence-- A writer returns to where he grew up, reminisces about his youth and the history of the frontier town his transient childhood most identified as home and concludes with a 100-page fictionalized account of a the terrible winter of 1906-- he manages to tie his past inexorably to ours, linking his nostalgia for his youth with our own, and exploring the promise and inevitable waste of the American Dream lived out on our frontiers.

Stegner, like Proust, experiences an "ancient, unbearable recognition" spurred by a return to the sites, sounds, and most importantly, smells of his childhood. He dreams of this period and is "haunted, on awakening, by a sense of meanings just withheld, and by a profound nostalgic melancholy." Everyone has some awareness of a deep meaning lurking in our past that has not, or cannot, be fully interpreted.

Perhaps the best part of the book is section three, the novella length exposition on the hope and danger of the high plains that does a superb job of creating looming dread as the winter drops hard on the land. Near the end of section three, Stegner expounds on what it is to be an American pursuing the Dream:

"How does one know what wilderness has meant to Americans unless he has shared the guilt of wastefully and ignorantly tampering with it in the name of progress? One who has lived the dream, the temporary fulfillment, and the disappointment has had the full course.... The vein of melancholy in the North American mind may be owing to many causes, but it is surely not weakened by the perception that the fulfillment of the American Dream means inevitably the death of the noble savagery and freedom of the wild. Any who has lived on a frontier knows the inescapable ambivalence of the old-fashioned American conscience, for he has first renewed himself in Eden and then set about converting it into the lamentable modern world."

Part history and part dreamy reminiscence, this book is an account of a boy growing up in Southwest Saskatchewan in the early part of the 20th Century. The central portion of the book is pure history, and the long chapters on cowboys are particularly challenging because they require an intimate knowledge of cowboy terminology. Stegner does not mince words about the difficulties of life on the plains--extremes of heat and cold, wind, hostile topography, lack of cultural amenities--the result of which is that most who grew up there moved elsewhere. But he also shows a passionate attachment for the country of his childhood. The narrative often seems rambling because, like James Michener, the author tries to incorporate so much besides history--including the biology and geology of the nearby Cypress Hills, the biologically diverse area nearby--and even his poetic musings have elements of fact, as when he describes the wind, or the gophers, or his swimming hole, or his school, or his family's homestead, or the problems involved in the town's incorporation.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Wallace Stegner grew up on the prairie frontiers of North Dakota, Saskatchewan, and Montana, and in the mountains of Utah. As is indicated by the subtitle, this volume combines history, a memoir, and historical fiction. Readers who have spent significant time on the snow swept northern steppes may find a small part of themselves, and of this land, in Wolf Willow. ...
"On those miraculously beautiful and murderously cold nights glittering with the green and blue darts from a sky like polished dark metal, when the moon had gone down, leaving the hollow heavens to the stars and the overflowing cold light of the Aurora, he thought he had moments of the clearest vision ... In every direction ... the snow spread; here and there the implacable plain glinted back a spark - the beam of a cold star reflected in a crystal of ice." (The scene evokes in me a powerful memory, as I recall often standing alone on just such "murderously cold" snow blanketed prairies and gazing into those "miraculously beautiful" night skies.)

pidgeons from hell is the best includes a conan story a good introduction to RE Howard

Robert E. Howard's Pigeons From Hell was the scariest story I've ever read. Scarier than Poe and Hitchcock is putting it mildly! Per Chris Ward of Wizard Comic Magazine Pigeons From Hell was on a television show called Thriller narrated by Boris Karloff. The story is pure terror! Anytime I here a whistle now I get goosebumps and am ready to run like Hell! A must read is "Blood & Thunder - The Life & Art of Robert E. Howard" by Mark Finn. Below are comments from John Nevins and I agree totally! QUOTE
With enthusiasm, skill, and expertise Mark Finn has written the new and definitive biography of Robert E. Howard. Finn not only corrects a number of errors previous biographies and biographers made about Howard and his writings, Finn also describes, with sensitivity and nuance, Howard's environment and upbringing and the context in which Howard's work should be placed. Finn neither places Howard on a pedestal nor demeans him, but instead gives Howard the credit he deserves. UNQUOTE

My favorite stories that Robert Howard wrote are Pidgeons From Hell, Beyond The Black River, and Red Nails. There are so many great ones but these really stand out as the very best.

Tell five other people about Robert E. Howard and enjoy his stories. There's a DVD called The Whole Wide World 1996 Sony Pictures that is about Robert E. Howard and Novelyn Price his girlfriend. Renee Zellweger stars as Novelyn and Vincent D'Onofrio as Robert. Blockbuster carries it. Enjoy Robert Howard Fans!

The Black Stranger is not too bad as a collection of stories, however it draws a few stories from other books by R. E. Howard such as the Black stranger and the Gods of Bal-sagoth which are from Cthulhu mythos or Conan the barbarian books. It is very well written, and the descriptive power of Howard's writings comes out as is expected. I particularly enjoyed Marchers of Valhalla which turned to be one of my favourite stories. In Black Cannaan, the story comes across as very politically incorrect especially with its description of Afro-Carribean people or African-Americans and could easily offend a reader's sensitivities. All together its another good collection of stories from R.E. Howards writings.

This is a great collection and will please any fans of Howard's work, however the numerous typos are disconcerting. Every few pages there are errors that at first glance make little sense. They should be obvious to any proofreader, especially in such quantity.

It's my opinion that the text of this compilation was scanned from another source by a computer program, perhaps run through a second program to check for spelling errors, and reprinted without ever being properly proofread by a human being.

I'm not sorry I bought this book, but I am a little disappointed at how some publishers are so lazy as to rely almost wholly on computers.

If you've seen my recent review of The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard You can feel relieved that this is not that review.

The folks compiling this edition have given us a well designed and well selected anthology that reaches from the high fantasy of Conan among the pirates in "The Black Stranger" to the deepest of regional horror in "Black Canaan".

Buy and slowly savour this wonderful collection, the short story form doesn't get much better than this EVER!

Crashing America is about a street kid named Girl from San Francisco in search of her identity and family. Her mother committed suicide years before and her father seems to think of her as an embarrassing inconvenience.

Katia has done a great job of capturing Girl's character. Through her roadtrip, I kept thinking, "Yes, I've seen this person before," and then groaned as Girl pinged between bad decisions and the fate she drove herself towards.

This is an excellent first novel. I hope to see more of Katia's work in the future.

By MARK V. ROSE, author of BANGKOK, OH BOY! San Francisco, CA
Often funny but sometimes painful adventures of an adolescent lesbian who leaves disappointment in San Francisco (where her partner has just died of a drug overdose) to hit the road for America's heartland. In a raunchy seach for freedom, fulfillment and personal identity, the gritty tomboy heroine (called "Girl") hitchhikes, steals bikes and cars, money and change, works the fields, people and the police and bunks down with attractive and less attractive, oddball partners. Katia Noyes's CRASHING AMERICA is an honest and open tale of a very brazen, but sensitive, rootless young woman who tries to find and even plant some roots in America's farm belt, showing quite another side of the "farm girl" tradition. And, Noyes demonstrates a refreshing other geographical direction--the usual one is towards the western mecca of San Francisco where the disenfranchised try to find "roots"-- Noyes takes us away from it and into the small towns and fields of Utah, Iowa, the prairie and the cornfields of the midwest towards Randa, an older woman she had met earlier in the west and thought she was in love with. She has much more to learn.
I first heard Katia Noyes, a California author, read passages of the book at the San Francisco Public Library and enjoyed her unrelentless humor and directness. It's all there in the book along with a fascinating array of other authentic midwestern characters. And, it's not just for "tom boys." Highly recommended. An extra bonus is the way Noyes uses a unique and individuaized language to express "Girl's" monologue and dialogue. She creates new language rules and it is delightful!

Wish there was a book like CRASHING AMERICA when I was a boy. It's the kind of book they should issue to teens as soon as they get into middle school. Twice I had read it, but it wasn't until a recent trip crisscrossing America, "trying to find a way inside," in the footsteps of Noyes' implacable heroine "Girl," not until I was tangled up with road maps did I really understand it. For sometimes you have to be really young, or else really in tune with your feelings, to "get" a perfect work of art.

As everyone else will tell you, CRASHING AMERICA is a powerful indictment of a society in which class injustice trumps every other factor in life, a system in which our children and our pets are our victims, brought into this world to amuse us and to provide a workforce, but otherwise to be ignored, molested and put down at will. At 17, Girl already seems to have a political understanding that defies common sense--surely no 17 year old ever had the writing ability that our narrator shows here--but such is the persuasiveness of Noyes' invention that I never bothered my head thinking about this until the long strange trip waS over and, like Girl, I was walking up Market Street towards the Castro on a sad Sunday afternoon from the bus depot on Seventh Street, looking at the workerbees who weren't there, for they had vacated the space to the bums and the wounded. Reading CRASHING AMERICA, I was reminded of similar scenes in Evelyn Lau's RUNAWAY and some parts of Tom Spanbauer's second and third novels, but here the brew is different, more focussed, more tragic, purer. Even the name "Girl," so reminiscent of a heroine from Erskine Caldwell's florid middle period, I got used to, as though it weren't so horribly symbolic.

After the tragic death of a girlfriend, Girl finds herself with literally nowhere to go. Her dad, "Mister White Socks," seems to despise her, and her mother committed suicide, her ghost clinging to the long reaches of Girl's memories. She heads midwest to get back to the farmland where the Clutter family got killed. That's the thing about Girl, you just want to shake her for every decision she makes is a bad one! And yet you sympathize with her at every turn and you know why she makes all these wrong turns. Oh! There's one part of the book that you will just throw the book down on the floor so horrifying is the lifechoice Girl decides to make. And yet then you will crawl back to the book just to find out what happens next. Katia Noyes, with whom I once took a writing workshop, has reader identification wired into every word she writes. And she can describe things so vividly it's like someone's waving them under your nose. A store detective wears a "surgically cut bob of red hair and a smug color of coral lipstick."

One caveat, and one spoiler--this book has a sequence in which a common housecat dies a tragic and painful death. It is not for the squeamish! The pages of my copy of CRASHING AMERICA are stained with tears all over that chapter. I've never read anything like it.

The heroine, one tough girl named "Girl," looks hard for love in this reversal of the Amercian pilgrimage story, going from the west back into the heartland. The prose is tough at first, as Girl is one tough young adult, very real. But the relentlessness of the prose in it's pacing, language, and clipped style, portrays perfectly the angular, alienated, alienating world of disenfrancished, love- and money-improverished youth. I really get under Girl's skin, feel what it's like to feel that lost.

What I love most about this heartbreaking story is that she keeps looking for love no matter what, everywhere, willing to take any offered thread, but then hopelessly tossing out what's offered in confusion and pain. This feels so like real life, rather than the romances of found love, that it makes my heart crack. I cry in the end, at the hopelessness of Girl's situation, at how long she has searched, and how long she will probably go on searching.

For me, this story is about the search for the love we never got from Mother, and the search for love and truth in the heartland. Just as our own alienated families have disappointed and betrayed us, so has the country. The American Dream is dead. The fields have gone fallow.

In the end, for me, this was not a hopeful story, but painfully true to life.

Everything about this debut novel is fresh, from the voice to the characters to the story. Couched in the expoits of a lesbian teenager taking to the road--don't let this scare you away, fellow straight readers!--is a remarkable exporation of what it means to love, and to want to be loved, delivered from the point of view of the devastatingly wise 17-year-old "Girl," with whom anyone with a heart can identify. ("All I wanted was a memory of somebody. When you had a mother you'd never really seen, it made you stuck on that. It made me recognize the way that life and history and families are filled with empty spaces. I saw them and felt them all the time.")