University of Nevada Books

At last out in paperback, this unusual novel finally gets a foothold. It's not a "Western" at all. There are no blazing guns, sheriffs, or bad guys. There is just the beauty of the western high country bringing sustenance to a kid farmed out from a depression defeated Montana ranch to a find life packing mules and horses into the mountains. . . . We see the mountains grow into Ty Hardin as he grows into them, even when yanked from them to fight a war he is obliged to fight and which wounds him physically as his mentor, Fenton Pardee, knows it will, somehow. . . . Hardin returns to his high country to repair, and subsequently suffer the failure of a love that cannot be. He soon finds the deeper love of the woman he marries. But that too goes awry, his love dying with their child in a botched delivery. . . . That sadness takes him from the Montana mountains where he found life into the High Sierra, the west's highest range, where he knows life. He becomes a legend and dies there, trying to rescue a drug addled boy who should never have tested a country so high. . . . The book is a startling testament to something we have cherished but have never quite resolved in our literature -- the perennial allure and majesty of the American west.

I admire a spellbinding story where the characters are real, their choices and dilemmas have a grab that keeps you absorbed by their story. Then you add to this a complete understaning of the settings, the profession, the way people behave in the wilderness West, and it becomes an insight into a vanishing breed as an extra bonus beyond being a great story. The prose is as good as it gets - it often has a poetic quality. This book should be a best-seller: that is the bottom line, plain and simple.

Great book, hard read, must find a place that has no noise, then you will get through, you will enjoy it. Sound like a prop from a college wrote it.
Over all I enjoyed it.

Read this. It will stay with you. And it will probably lead you to check internet sites for pack trips into the mountains of western Montana and the Sierras of California so that you can experience what the novel describes and visit with the characters even more closely.

I loved this. One of my favorite reads of the last year. It communicates a life ethic that is 180 degrees from the culturally promoted one of contemporary American life. The persons you meet within its pages will awaken memories of folks from the margins of your life.

I can't say enough good things. It deserves to reach a wide audience. Make sure you've got plenty of time to give to this novel because you'll find you want to keep going and going till you've reached camp.

Great book if you love the mountains and enjoy escaping into a great story line with wonderful descriptions of the life of a packer in the mountains. I could not put the book down!

The Brothers Bieter have written a very important chapter in American immigrant history. It boggles the mind to comprehend the forces that brought young men to America from a primarily maritime economy and succesfully transplanted them in the high deserts of Idaho and Nevada as sheepherders. How a network of friends and relatives immigrating over four generations were able to bring their culture's music, dance, games, gastronomy and traditions, adapt them to new circumstances and see the pride exhibited by their children and grandchildren is truly inspiring. The evolution of immigrant Basques into Basque-Americans is a worthy study for any anthropologist, linguist or sociologist.

While most Americans have studied the immigration of Europeans to the United States, our knowledge of the Basque immigration is limited. The Bieters have written a well-researched and informative account of the Basque journey from Spain to the United States. The book, packed with personal anecdotes of Basque immigrants, belongs on the bookshelf of every American history enthusiast.

I just finished reading this book. It is a relatively quick read, something I was able to finish in a day. It is a very good read, though, something all decendants of the Basque immigrants to the Western US should read. It gives, in my opinion, a very good idea of what it was like for a young Basque to come to this country and try to make a living. It also describes well the choices the decendants of these immigrants have made to continue the Basque culture. It does so in a very direct way, making me think about my choices and the convenience of the aspects of Basque culture I have chosen to keep alive for myself. In some areas, I wish there was more depth (for example, the discussion of Anaiak Denok, a group I hadn't heard of before), but, overall, it is a very good introduction to what it means to be Basque-American and why some of us choose to identify with both the Basque and American culture. I strongly recommend this book, not only to Americans of Basque decent, but anyone who is interested in the issues of ethnicity in America and why some would choose to be both American and ethnic at the same time.

As an amature student of both history and Basque culture I am very impressed with the quality of this work. Both Misters Bieter should be praised for what is both a most interesting and informative book. There is a professional blend of historical theory about the roles of various generations and historical facts and manifested by the various stories, all held together by the ongoing saga of the Bilbao family. This is good history writing. I don't know if this kind of book can win prizes or awards, but if so this one deserves to do so.

Being of Basque decent myself, I try to read and collect as many books about my heritage as possible. The Bieters' have extensive knowledge and insight to show the development of the Basque in the beautiful state of Idaho. Following the journey they have told, I can relate it to the journey of my Basque ancestors. It is a wonderful look at a wonderful culture.

Ruth Farley is a rock. She is stubborn. She is strong. She is self-centered. And she is as undeniably irresistible as the natural stone sculptures in Monument Valley.

Ruth ventures West, determined that she will not yield to society's limited expectations and dull conventions for women. She will live on her own in her beloved canyon. She will build her house where that huge boulder rests, the one two men have told her cannot be moved. She will have sex and enjoy it, thank you very much. She will do it all despite the cost to herself and her loved ones. And Ruth exhibits all this staunch feistiness in 1920s rural, tiny-town America.

In Ruth, novelist Susan Lang has created a character who arrests the reader's interest and refuses to free it. She is far more compelling and believable than another female character untypical of her time, Jane Smiley's Lidie of The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton. And she is as intriguing as Kate Horsley's Sara Franklin, another young woman who travels to the Southwest in Crazy Woman.

The novel's only flaw is that it seems a little rushed toward the end. But perhaps that is only because Ruth is so fascinating that we don't want to let her go.

A time, a place, a person, a community of settlers separated by miles of miles, a philosophy of spirit -- all flow forth in Susan Lang's quiet drama of survival in an untamed wilderness by an untamed woman.

Lang obviously knows her landscape of place and soul. She risks and sustains the characterization of a woman beyond her time, yet, within it, allowing her to make the mistakes such a woman could make in the era in which she makes them. The core standard of such a character is that she is better than she has to be while being no better than she needs to be, according to her own dictates.

The absolute strength of Lang's writing is her own intercourse with the mysterious and magnificent sensuality of comprehending a wilderness of land and being. She understands tiny things that, for her, and now for her readers, loom large.

The only thing I didn't love about this book is the fact that it kept me up late at night until I finished it. The writing just puts me right there, as if I'm watching it the way I would a movie, encountering bears and cowboys myself. I loved Ruth, too, the main character and enjoy her stubborn ways, even when she's finding out she has to change-which she does in some way, though not at her core. I like the way Lang has her trying to force her will on the land until she learns that the place has a spirit "stronger than that of a person." I only hope the author has another book around somewhere so I can find out what happens to Ruth next!

In 1929, barely 21 years old, Ruth Farley heads west and claims a homestead in an isolated canyon in Southern California, at that time still the land of rough-and-ready miners and cowboys. What is she looking for? She doesn't quite know, but she knows what she doesn't want - a conventional woman's life of settled domesticity. To her this means she must be totally self-sufficient and independent. Ruth is stubborn, brave, strong, and subject to fits of free-ranging lust that she is not always successful at keeping under control, although she makes weak attempts at it. With 21-year-old chutzpah, she has the delusion that she can spit in the eye of conventional norms for women without paying a high price for it, and she protects this delusion with a cavalier disregard for what people think of her.

Part of her delusion is that she can carve out an independent life for herself in an isolated mountain region without the help and support of neighbors, and a major early story line of the book is her stubborn insistence on moving, entirely alone, a boulder that must be removed before she can lay the foundation for her cabin. The boulder could be easily moved with the help of neighbors, or by using a couple of horses and rope to drag it to a new location, but Ruth is determined to do it herself. The story of her struggles with the boulder, and her eventual triumph over it, becomes a metaphor for Everywoman's struggle to achieve independence against overwhelming odds, and any woman who has learned from hard experience that "what doesn't kill us makes us strong" will identify deeply and emotionally with this element of the story.

Unfortunately, succeeding at moving the boulder by herself reinforces Ruth's delusion that she doesn't need anybody. The rest of the book is a harrowing account of what she pays for this delusion, coming close to death at the hands of violent men and again at the hands of Nature, and seeing the first true love of her life killed because she is a white woman who has taken an Indian lover. Ultimately, of course, she has to learn to see life, Nature, and people as they really are - complicated, unpredictable, sometimes violent, and sometimes unexplainably compassionate.

If the book has a weakness, it is that even though Ruth is complex and multifaceted, some of the other characters are rather flat - her Indian lover Jim, for example, is unbelievably flawless. But in the context of this compelling story, I wasn't bothered much by that. I was much more impressed by Lang's tackling of reality themes I seldom see novelists deal with: a woman struggling with the paybacks of unrestrained lust, for example.

True "literary" writing expresses the universal through the particular, and in my view this book may well become a classic parable of what we pay, men as well as women, for defying cultural norms, and what we must do to come to terms with those norms without losing our truest Selves in the process.

Susan Lang does the impossible in her book, Small Rocks Rising. The story is as big, bulky, and unwieldy as the boulder her main character, Ruth Farely, encounters in Chapter One, while the writing is frequently as polished as any gemstone.
Amid fast action and female lust, there is the slow revealing of Ruth's background. The complex composition of Ruth's character comes from her half-breed mother, a strong-willed aunt, two years of finishing school, training to be a nurse---and the will to be free of it all.
This novel rings with the authenticity of place, and of a woman's unambiguous sexual longings. In Ruth's insightful self-talk and dreaming, there hangs the reality of a woman alone. She is impatient with life and all the people she encounters in her struggle to forge a place for herself in the wilderness. Ruth is an unconventional woman whose thoughts and actions are well ahead of her time. Her courage is matched only by her desires.
As the novel reveals Ruth's story, it also reveals a parallel to the male myth of passage, initiation into adulthood. Ruth experiences the trials of being alone in the extremes of nature, life-sapping heat to freezing snowstorms. She also encounters the extremes of the nature of men---violent to tender. She loses her way in the wilderness of the mountains and her own desires to discover she has the resources not only to survive, but to overcome all that nature, and man, has to throw at her.
Overall, the novel is a great read. Let's hope there is more.

One of the most poetic and moving stories I've ever read. Great portrayal of characters and of a people and life style probably gone forever.

This book, the story of a Basque immigrant seen through the eyes of his journalist and politician sons, would have been compelling reading when it was first penned in 1957.

What makes it even more interesting fifty-five years later is the combination of the universal (the immigrant experience) with specific, the Basque sheepherder who came to Nevada in the early twentieth century and returned to his homeland for a visit mid-century. The world described here, at least in Nevada and I suspect, the Basque part of France, is rapidly fading.

A luminous tribute to a father.

This is an absolutely outstanding book about the true story of an immigrant. It conveys the various emotions and experiences of one who left his native country for a new land. Anyone who's a first-generation immigrant or knows a family member that was will be especially able to relate with the people profiled in this book.

As a aside, this book reminds me somewhat of the underlying theme in many of William Saroyan's books, namely his struggle with his dual identity - "am I an American or an Armenian".

Wonderful look at a Basque sheepherder's life in Nevada and his return to the family homeland after nearly 50 years away. Laxalt doesn't pile on the sentiment but makes this a clear-eyed, sharp look at a life that is unimaginable today, and sadly so.

"This was the way it was with him. In this first moment of homecoming, all the years in between meant nothing. The day he had left, he was a young man and his sisters were young and his brothers alive, and this was the next day, and he and his sisters were old, and all his brothers were dead, and the forty-seven years in between had not happened. He had left home one day, yesterday, and come home today, and the change was too much for him to bear."

This was a moving story of a Nevada sheepherder returning to his home in the Pyrenees of France after 47 years.

Easy to read and full of descriptive prose, Robert Laxalt combines in this story the poetry of place with the passion of lost family and friends.

Adrian Louis kicks butt! Ceremonies of the Damned is the best poetry book I've read in years. He's sad and funny at the same time. He sees right through this pile of crap we call "America." I really loved this book. Check out his hilarious "Copulation" poem. Yeah!

Adrian Louis's Ceremonies of the Damned seems to have been written over a relatively short period of time. Louis writes in direct, aggressive and emotional voice, making extensive use of line breaks to emphasize words or phrases. He incorporates slang and profanity into his work and, while this is sometimes excessive, generally he chooses specific words or phrases because they communicate exactly the idea or emotion he wishes to communicate -- not for their shock value. His writing appears to be well-disciplined and well-focused. Louis demonstrates an ironic sense of humor. This humor, while enjoyable, is clearly used to make a point. For example, in "Dead Rez Land Dream" (47-48), Louis lays a scenario of an Indian man surrounded by cavalry who are shooting at him from all sides. He gleefully relates, "I only have a bow, but then a miracle happens./ I whip out a Thompson submachine gun/ with a huge wheel clip and start to/ mow the bluecoats down." This boyish wish to beat impossible odds is related in a humorous way, but it communicates the despair that would be felt by the Indian trapped by cavalry without a machine gun. Ceremonies of the Damned is a tightly-focused, well-constructed poetic work. The writing style is well-disciplined, coherent and easily understood. His manner is aggressive and emotional. His writing is rich in meaning and rewards careful reading.

Ceremonies of the Damned literally knocked the air from my lungs. One of the harshest and most beautiful poetry books I have ever read. Get it!

Ceremonies of the Damned by Adrian Louis is truly a collection of poems that is wrought with moral destruction. Louis leaves a lot to the imagination. Did he really sleep with his student Serena? He never really answers this. He lets the reader's imagination run. And what about his wife's Alzheimer's? How do you blame a man for being unfaithful to a woman who is just a shell of the woman he once loved(?). This collection of poetry is some of the best poetry that I have ever read. Louis paints a horrifying picture of reservation life that is decorated ever so slightly with a love for his wife that keeps his guilt alive and strong. I read this book beginning to end several times. Spellbinding!

Adrian Louis's Ceremonies of the Damned is a book wrought from love so rare that it destroys down to the last particle the image of the emotionless Indian man. It is the personal tragic journey of dealing with the tragedy of losing one's life partner to a debilitating disease, Altzheimers, and is a pain-filled love story. Ceremonies is the best book of poetry written by a Native American man in the whole history of native literature. It begins with the human contradicitions in character in a poem entitled "Petroglyphs of Serena," in which Louis documents an affair. The stage is set for what comes later. We have to question if the disease that afflicts his wife is a direct result of infidelity? Maybe. Without this preface, though, I believe, we would elevate Louis to sainthood. In the end, without this poem, we as readers would not be privey to the real human contradictions at work in Ceremonies. There are implications to our own lives. The last poem, too, is a remarkable testimony of human resiliency wherein Louis, despite his pain, is still able to ask if there is still the possibility of love. Between the two ends of this spectrum are: beauty, pain, tragedy, and anger. Louis is a fine-tuned poet that pulls you from laughter to tears in a few lines. I read this book from front to back in one sitting; I could not put it down. When I finished reading it, I wept.

Having already taken my kids backpacking once and camping via canoe a second time, I thought it might be a good idea to get someone else's perspective on "roughing it" with kids in tow.

I learned a few new things to make it more manageable for the kids (and myself). Overall I liked the book quite a bit. If you haven't tried taking your own kids backpacking because you are worried of what it might be like (whining, screaming, crying ... sometimes by the kids) ... fear not. This book will show you that it can be done and the kids will love it (and you will too).

The title should immediately tip you off to the fact that Tim Hauserman uses humor to make reading "Monsters in the Woods," and backpacking with
children, lots of fun. Hauserman combines solid advice and stories of his considerable backpacking experience with his own kids to make outdoor adventures safe and rewarding. He provides such information as how far to hike and how much weight children can carry depending on the child's age.

I'm a backpacker. I'm also a grandmother who wants to be certain that my youngest grandkids (aged 2 and 4) don't suffer from "nature deficit." Right now, I'm sticking with car camping with them, but I'm looking forward to the day when we can venture further afield and get away from crowded and dusty campgrounds.

I will definitely reread "Monsters in the Wilderness" before we go. I'm impressed by the fact that Hauserman doesn't gloss over the challenges, but gives lots of great ideas for keeping everyone upbeat. And I'll keep in mind his advice to let your child take a friend, because there'd be a lot less whining!)

Tim Hauserman, who wrote the guidebook for the Tahoe Rim Trail (Wilderness Press, 2002), now tells parents how they can take their little ones along on that and other trails, safely and happily. The beauty of "Monsters in the Woods" isn't necessarily that he tells adults exactly what to do to ensure a good trip; his book is packed with advice, but readers can take only what they need from it. (In fact, there are a few points on which I disagree.) Rather, its great value is in its down-to-earth approach to including kids on outdoor adventures. Tim doesn't discount the effort involved or the discomforts and dangers of outdoor expeditions. But he shows how proper preparation and an adventurous attitude result in wonderful experiences for ordinary families. With "Monsters" as a stepping-off point, adult backpackers with any level of experience can move confidently toward taking their children into the wilderness at the age and level of intensity they're all comfortable with. When my husband and I began backpacking with our infant daughter, there were no books of this sort, so we had to learn everything the hard way. Tim interviewed us for the book (we're on page 6) so I can say with certainty that the author did his homework before publishing this well-written family guide to the outdoors.

Professional wilderness guide and outdoors writer Tim Hauserman presents Monsters in the Woods: Backpacking With Children, a straightforward guide to backpacking and outdoors activities written especially for parents who want to bring their children along - whether the children are infants, toddlers, preteens, or teens. Chapters cover how to prepare for the trip (including what to take and what not to take), safety precautions, how to take care of necessary bodily functions, protecting oneself from bear attacks (since bears are guided by smell, two of the best defenses are to camp a fair distance from where you cook and to use a "bear canister" to guard one's food at night) and much more. Written in plain terms for parents and readers of all backgrounds, Monsters in the Woods is enthusiastically recommended as a "must-have" for outdoor-loving families with children everywhere.

Monsters in the Woods: Backpacking With Children is a wonderful book. Not only does it contain concrete, useful insider information (such as how far children of different ages are generally willing to go, what supplies to bring -- and, more importantly, what things not to bring), it also contains fun insider information (such as eleven things to do with a bandanna, and ten things to do with duct tape). Hauserman's credentials as a hiker (he's a professional wilderness guide) give him expertise in all things hiking, and he includes sections on much of what you'd expect from this experience: bear safety, dehydration, first aid, and even outdoor etiquette. But it is his friendly voice that makes the book a joy to read even if you never intend to leave your front yard. His sense of humor makes him the perfect guide into the challenges of bringing little monsters into the woods. The entire, short book (135 pages) is packed full of useful information, but my favorite part was Chapter 6, where Hauserman simply and beautifully tells about some of his own trips with his two daughters. Monsters in the Woods is filled with great advice, but it's also simply a great read.

Finally, a book that captures the unique beauty and solitude of the Great Basin. This is the ultimate book for any naturalist who wants to know more about this large and little visited corner of the world.

This book is a must-read for anyone who loves the smell of Sagebrush after a rain and the austere wildness of the Great Basin. It is apparent that Stephen Trimble loves this land and makes it clear that the country between the Wasatch and the Sierra is brimming with life. Trimble evokes the Great Basin like no other. If you respect writers like Edward Abbey, 'The Sagebrush Ocean' is a great factual resource to back up any conservationist leaning.

If you were to only have one book on the Great Basin - this should be it. It covers the flora & fauna of this least know section of the lower 48 in a comprehesive, yet not belabored fashion. Plenty of salient details with a minimum - though adequate - smattering of scientific jargon. Even though I have worked for a public land management agency in the "Basin" for over 2 decades, I learned much and enhanced my understanding of things I did know. The photography by Trimble captures the inescapable beauty of the area that is unknown to the typical drive-through-as-fast-as-you-can tourist. There is no finer book - verbiage or photographic - on this largely unpopulated jewell of complex arid ecosystems.

This book was GREAT! Between the pictures and maps I found an author who shows a great deal of expression, passion and dedication to his work. Using common names for plants and animals except when specific subspecies are mentioned made the book much more readable for a layperson such as myself.

My next trip to the Great Basin in Oregon will be more fulfilling and educational as much of my ignorance about this special area has been dispelled.

To date this is the best money I have spent on a book about the Great Basin.

(Originally wrote this in 1999 and feel even stronger about this book in 2004!)

If I were to recommend a single "must have" book about the Great Basin Desert, this would be the one! It is the single best one-volume introduction to the natural history of the Great Basin that I know of, and is well illustrated with his own photography. He was writing on behalf of the Desert Research Institute, and spent six years on this particular project. Stephan Trimble exemplifies the best traditions in writing about Natural History. He combines the scientific reason and clarity of a Voltaire, with the poetic sensitivity of Rousseau. My copy is so bedraggled from being packed all over the Basin, I've got to get a new one soon!

I'm pleased to see that academia is now starting to look to subcultural doings as they happen, instead of invoking the fond nostalgia that the Beatniks inspired. The ability to digest and deconstruct the events that take place in this otherworldly space is much to be commended, and I think that by doing so the authors of these various articles may be tapping in to something most of their colleagues shy away from. The articles themselves are intriguing and scholarly, but never lose sight of their subject. I would love to see more editions of this book as the event (and the world around it - the context) changes and grows!

in these pages? Read this book and you will. Tho the author comments that this book was a composite of many different burning an festivals, te undercurrent feels strangely like one which puts you there in the middle of things.

There are a few details which, if you've been there, are a little flaky, and the book gets off to kind of a slow start (ergo the 4 stars) but as you bury yourself in this read (and it's one read that, if you're at all a burner, you will end up burying yourself in) you will be amazed... engrossed... wind blown... with a lot of little surprises thrown in that you don't expect, even all the way at the end.

There is another thing, tho... if you've never been to Black Rock City, and wonder what all the hubbub is about, ad you want to know if that ticket's worth it... and what it's getting you into... this book will give you a fairly good idea. Of course, your experience is your own... but, like I said in the beginning... read this, and you can almost smell the playa dust in these pages...

Critical writing up to any academic standards fused with a joy in language and topic. Wonderful! It will make your mind spin with ideas, and what could be better than that!

Prior to reading this excellent sophisticated introduction to Burning Man, I had dismissed this event as shamanism and tantra for amateurs. However, these well written, knowledgeable, and at times quite learned articles, have convinced me that Burning Man allows for the creation of authentic rituals that are rife with both transformative and aesthetic epiphanies. Moreover, it appears that Burning Man has largely not yet been" recouped" (to the use Guy Debord's term) by bourgeois capitualist society, and thereby succeeds where its predecessors, the Surrealists and Situationists, left off. Next year, instead of visiting the Himalayas or Mongolia for my taste of the (w)holy other, I will just go to Burning Man.

This book is really good and powerful and I would recommend it to any poetry fan.

Having Gary Short's previous book, Theory of Twilight, I would have bought this book anyway, but I had no idea how much it would teach me about writing. This book is astounding. I love the open style of this book. While you can immediately tell that the subject matter is highly personal, each poem is accessable and seems to invite the reader to see Mr. Short's point of view. It is also important to note that this book is not just good poetry, it is well crafted poetry. Anyone wanting a truly marvelous experience with a book of poems should get this book.

Gary Short covers a lot of ground in each line, carefully choosing the perfect words. This book is the first I have ever marked with exclamation points, emphasizing lines I want to return to again and again, lines that haunt. His descriptions of nature go beyond mere settings, and delicately tie in with the mood or message behind the poems. Some verbs shock you with their originality and clarity. From a flame that is a "fluttering goldfish tail" to aspen leaves "spinning to coin in the wind's hand", readers are guaranteed to have their perceptions twisted into something astounding.

Gary Short is a fine poet who manages to visit places warily avoided by most. His poems vary in subject matter, but his best poems find expression of loss, of grief, of finding solace in the vast prairie that is his living space.

At his brother's funeral Short reflects on his brother's dying: 'It is his last day./ I watch him sleep. A death-drowse./ His thin fingers touch/ his penis, belly, chest,/ & his face, as if/ he is trying to memorize/ himself.'

In an Elegy For My Mother: 'The sunflower/ all day long follows/ the light/ (heaven's eye)/ & even after its star has set,/ continues to look out/ until loss/ is realized. Then/ it can only stare into the ground.'

Words such as these fine poetry make and Gary Short has found a direct line to our moments of vulnerability for which we can only be grateful. This is fine poet. Grady Harp, April 05

"Folding Paper Cranes" is almost guaranteed to arouse anger and depression in the reader. However, it is also a book of hope and inspiration. Leonard Bird's book moved me to tears at times, a deeply affecting read.

It is maddening that our Federal government chose to put men such as Bird at such great risk, using them as laboratory rats. The hope that resides in this engaging little book is how the Japanese people rose out of the nuclear ash and their dedication to peace.

When you read of Bird's encounter with Mr. Tanaka and little Meiko and her family make sure the tissue box is nearby. Leonard Bird knows redemption. He has met it face-to-face, redemption with flesh on it.

This is a very poetically written book about the author's experiences with United States atomic bomb testing and his coming to peace with the dropping of the bomb on Japan.

This incredible book feels like an intimate recollection between you and the author. The descriptive prose will shake you to your foundation as Mr. Bird describes with amazing clarity his encounters with nuclear horror. Although small in stature (its only 150 pages) it walks tall and you will emerge from the experience changed.

I have had the pleasure of traveling and spending time with Red and amazingly I knew nothing of this book. When it was given to me a sat and read it instantly. The tears flowed down my cheeks as I read it cover to cover.

I hope it will inspire you to think about our nuclear legacy, act to eliminate nuclear warheads from planet earth, and fold some paper cranes for good luck.

This memoir chronicles the author's experience as a test subject for one of the hundreds of US Government nuclear bomb trials which took place in the desert of Nevada, and the aftermath of its effects on the author both physically and psychologically. As a young soldier, Bird was ordered to crouch in a trench with his squad a mere 4,000 yards from the detonation of the largest nuclear bomb explosion in North America, wearing only a WWII gas mask for protection. The memoir is framed by the author's three trips to Hiroshima which ultimately aid in his attempt to come to terms with both the terror and hope he shares with the victims and survivors of nuclear war in Hiroshima. His account brings to life the horror of Hiroshima that is only understood abstractly by many Americans. Additionally, it is very informative about the hundreds of nuclear explosions the government sponsors in our own country for the purpose of experimentation and the devastating effects of radiation disease caused by radioactive fallout. Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir, is frank, sensitive, and searingly honest. It is sprinkled with poetry and though poignant with despair, ultimately brings a message of peace and hope.