Indiana Books

This book is a "must have" for any oboist. It is such a well written account of the man who had more influence on the oboe world than probably any other person in history. I am not quite all the way through the book, but I am so enjoying it and I don't want to miss anything. The book itself is of such excellent quality. Only the finest materials were used in making this book. Thank you so much Ms. Storch for your excellent work!

Marcel Tabuteau: How Do You Expect to Play the Oboe If You Can't Peel a Mushroom?

A superb glimpse into Classical music in the 1950's. Interesting autobiographical notes and an intimate look at that icon of American oboe playing, Marcel Tabuteau, by a long time student, colleague and friend.

While I'm not through reading this book, I'm amazed at it in many ways. Tabuteau was perhaps the most important orchestral musician of the 20th century in that he taught and found employment for many oboe and other woodwind players. This book covers many details of his life in a readable fashion by the great Laila Storch, a student and worker of his. As a woman, she was not readily accepted by the orchestral community, but she persevered and became an outstanding oboist and musician as a result of his teaching. His methods are not readily understood by many players and I admit to some confusion at times, perhaps because of his choice of words.

Included in the book is a CD of lessons with a Danish student after he had retired. I'm eagerly looking forward to listening to it and, perhaps, learning more.

This book is a must for oboists. It is a great bargain!

Marcel Tabuteau is a name any wind player of my age (60+) has been familiar with for many years. As a teenager, I purchased the "First Chair" album with Tabuteau and other pricipal players of the Philadelphia Symphony soloing. This is a very well written and thorough book on his life that any musician, and certainly any wind player, should read.

The book offers a much needed portrait of one of the most influential woodwind players in 20th century America. All students or teachers of music should have this in their library. The historical references and personal insights are fascinating and inspiring. Ms. Storch was lucky to have had such a great teacher, and M. Tabuteau was even more lucky to have had such a dedicated, respectful student who writes well.

Doug Crandell has written a poignant memoir that cannot fail to touch your heart and mind. Doug must have been a complete mystery to his family as a child. He was so sensitive, so intelligent, and so different from the rest of the family. The unconditional love and acceptance from all in the Crandell family shine as a steady beacon in his well written book. I became so caught up in the family story, and Doug's individual story, that I was almost holding my breath hoping that all would turn out for the best.

Mr. Crandell's memoir made me want to hold a piglet too- preferably a runt! I learned a lot about pig farming on a small farm from his story. I don't think I'll ever want to eat a ham sandwich again! His descriptive powers were so great that I could almost see the piglets long eyelashes and hear their contented breaths in the little pen.

I do wish that I knew if Doug was ever able to use his hand in any way. I kept thinking, "if only you could have seen a hand surgeon when this happened". But alas, there was never enough money and everyone did the very best they could without a lot of medical help, or really any kind of outside help.

You will love this book.

I grew up in neighboring Illinois not far from `Pig Boy'. So, in reading this lovely memoir I found myself transported back into my own childhood memories of growing up. I was tired of reading at the time and therefore hesitant to give this memoir a chance. When I finished, I found that the author had reignited my passion for reading. This memoir will make you want to read again...to write again. The author truly captured the very humorous and.... yes poignant business of growing up, families and the unique value that every person brings to this world. Get this book, you will be glad you did.

There is a distinct nostalgia in Pig Boy's Wicked Bird. The peculiar power in this depiction of an American family is relevant to anytime, place, or condition. The author uses beautiful language and rhythmical sentences to creat a compact telling of this humorous and poignant memoir. The business of living can be lonely. The reader can make profitable use of the insights illuminated throughout this story.

First of all, I really enjoyed this book. I was skeptical going in, thinking it was just another outbreak in the rash of memoirs that has erupted on the best seller lists. This one is different. On the surface, it's a coming of age story, a story about self worth, self awareness, and the impact of family (the family in question being "the seven D's" - all of Doug Crandell's brothers, sisters, and even his parents have names that start with D.) But it turns out that what the story is really about is the three D's: disability, disfigurement, and just being different.

Two of the author's fingers are essentially severed in a childhood farming accident, leaving the boy disabled, disfigured and different. This leads to an awareness and an appreciation of those three D's -- that turn out to be everywhere in young Crandell's world: his mother who is "no longer a woman" due to a hysterectomy, a man with cerebral palsy who connects with the author, the runt pigs destined to be destroyed but saved by Crandell, a grandmother with a humped back, a sister with scoliosis, even the oldest brother is left changed by a never fully explained abduction reminiscent of Mystic River. (Most everyone in the book is marked in some critical, defining, and not always obvious way. Some, like the landlord's son, are, to quote John Lennon, crippled inside.)

Sherwood Anderson and his collection of grotesqueries, Winesburg, Ohio is the influence pointed out by Doug Crandell for helping him sort out his confused world of being marked different as well as leading him on the path to becoming a writer. What I noticed were the influences of William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, and in particular Carson McCullers. For a story of the Midwest, Pig Boy's Wicked Bird has a distinct Southern Gothic feel. (One person's physical characteristics are described as "crooked," "twisted," and "warped" in the space of a single paragraph). Like The Member of the Wedding, or even Truman Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms, these disabled, disfigured, and different people will live with you forever.

Doug Crandall, former little Pig Boy of the Heartland, brings us a heart-rendering, oftentimes snorting food-out-the-nose-from-laughing memoir of friendship with farm animals and dealing with life's tragedys. Poetically written by the now grown up Mr. Crandall, even city girls like me can appreciate his love of family, roots and Jimmy Carter. If you love crusty old men, goofy dogs and little piglets, you'll love this story as I did.

This book is for people looking for the meaning of life, a meaning to be found only in the search for God. It explains the quest of Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science at the end of the 20th century, a new Christian denomination, but also a way of thinking and living. Very scholarly, very interesting for people who feel concerned by "the new paradigm".Rolling Away the Stone: Mary Baker Eddy's Challenge to Materialism (Religion in North America)

Steve Gottschalk has done another thorough job of research into the life and times of Mary Baker Eddy. His careful analysis is greatly appreciated.

Stephen Gottchalk's writing is articulate and illuminating. A fascinating book which I could hardly put down. Very inspiring and enlighening at times. He thoroughly understood his subject and brings forth his vast and detailed understanding to the reader in a way that is easy to comprehend. It clears up fallacies and inaccuracies . It is an important book for sincere readers.

For those who remember Stephen's articles for the Christian Science periodicals, this is classic Gottschalk. In other words, it is highly detailed, well researched, well thought out, and tends to be much more theologically based than the writings that come out of the Publishing Society. He also has a marked tendency to drift from his focus on occasion, and to get side-tracked onto peripheral lines of thought. In general, a candid and thorough look at the later years of a remarkable life. More analytical and less folksy, this book belongs alongside the biography by Gillian Gill - as both a supplement to it, and as an effective insider's look from someone who truly understands Christian Science theology perhaps even better than many at The Mother Church.

Very few books make me want to read to the end. This one did. Someone could actually use this to deepen and widen their faith of God as taught
through Christian Science. I could return to book and reread it. As Mrs. Eddy said to understand her was to understand Christian Science. So I
highly recommend this work. This is not light reading it more like a textbook. But I like that if its well done. Deep thinkers well enjoy this
read.

Thanks for your product - it's too much good!
It's satisfy my better expectatives...


Have a good day...

The Complete Dinosaur edited by James O. Farlow and M.K. Brett-Surman is a comprehensive book about dinosaurs. There are many contributors that have written chapter for this book, so you get different writing styles and information is duplicated at times.

This book is divided into six parts and each has chapters written by the various contributors. The parts are as follows:
Part One: The Discovery of Dinosaurs
Part Two: The Study of Dinosaurs
Part Three: The Groups of Dinosaurs
Part Four: Biology of the Dinosaurs
Part Five: Dinosaur Evolution in the Changing World of the Meszoic Era
Part Six: Dinosaurs and the Media

What I found that was very interesting was that at the end of each chapter there was extensive references. So, if you find something that piques your interest you have something else to read about, to either clarify or strengthen your viewpoint. Also, this makes the book easy to use when dealing with technical material.

This book summarizes the current knowledge about dinosaurs at the time written (1997), and currently there are only eighty professional dinosaur paleotologists in the world. This book is written like professional scientific literature, but that doesn't make it difficult to read. Reading on you will find this book is not without controversy, as vigorus disagreements among the specialists over topics of contention will be found here as they hash out these sharp divergences of opinion.

I must say, that there is some very fine artwork, with bone of skeletons, muscle structure and complete complete fleshed out dinosaurs giving the reader a full grasp of what a dinosar looks like from the inside out. Also, questions as to what dinosaurs ate, how they raised their young, and the question that was the turning point that made the movie Jurassic Park... can we isolate dinosaur DNA are just some of the many questions that have answers in this book.

All in all, the technical jargon is at a minimum and there is a glossary of terms making your reading much more fruitful. I found the narrative easy to read and the information from this book to be exceptional.

This is a great intermediate level dinosaur book. It has a lot of details, but not enough to prevent non-experts from following it. It has 43 chapters divided into six parts. The chapters were written by experts in the individual subjects. This has the nice feature of making the chapters fairly independent, however it also makes the presentation a bit disjointed at times.

The first part deals with the process and history of discovering dinosaurs. The history of science isn't my favorite topic, so I just skimmed this part and can't really comment on it.

The second part describes the tools and techniques used to study dinosaurs. This includes excavations, the study of bones, taxonomy and cladistics, morphology, biomolecular techniques and exhibiting dinosaurs. There is a lot of interesting information, this material is fairly fundamental to the study of dinosaurs. Some of it is pretty easy to follow, some (like data management techniques) is a little more difficult to follow (for me anyway). None of it is prohibitively difficult.

Part three is a collection of chapters covering archosaurs, early dinosaurs and the various dinosaur families. Given that they were written by different authors, there is no consistent format for the chapters. I would have liked to have seen more material on how the families are related to each other. On the whole, I liked the level of detail.

Part four describes dinosaur biology. It contains a fascinating set of topics. A partial list of them is: plants in the Mesozoic, dinosaur diets, dinosaur dynamics, dinosaur eggs (covered in a nice amount of detail) and dinosaur paleopathology (a topic that doesn't often seem to get covered in this level of detail). In my experience many of these topics are somewhat neglected (either covered only lightly or not at all), this, and the quality, made it my favorite part of the book.

The fifth part deals with dinosaur evolution, including the way their environment changed thru time. It concludes with a discussion of dinosaur extinction, presenting both gradualist and catastrophist arguments.

The final part is one chapter covering how dinosaurs are portrayed in the media and how they are perceived by society.

Although the book had many authors, the quality is uniformly excellent. I generally liked the selection of topics. I wouldn't consider this an entry level book, but it's definitely readable by non-experts, I enjoyed the level of detail.

This book is very dense and covers almost anything related to dinosaurs. It is clearly intended to non-pros but it does not lack scientifical value. However, because the book was written by many authors you'll find some chapters less well written than others and some information is duplicated. My advise is to not hesitate to buy this as your first dinosaur book.

Do you want to get "into" Dinosaurs? This is the place to start. The Complete Dinosaur is a comprehensive introduction to what is currently known about dinosaurs and how it is known. From the history of the earliest fossil hunters to dinosaur biology, paleogeography and even an overview of dinosaurs in the media throughout the years.
The book is organized into chapters, each of which contains a deep look at its subject and yet is perfectly readable by laymen (such as myself). Even though many contributors wrote for this book, there is a sense of cohesiveness through the entire book. At a massive 768 pages, it is a very long read but seldom does it get tedious except perhaps a few chapters on dinosaur biology that get a bit too technical.
The book contains abundant references at the end of each chapter and a huge index a the end so it serves as a very useful reference on your library.
Other books that compare to this one are "The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs" edited by Greg Paul and "Encylopedia of Dinosaurs" edited by Phil Currie, both renown paleontologists. "The Complete Dinosaur" is more comprehensive than the first one and is arranged in a more readable format than the second one which arranges its articles in alphabetic order.
The only weakness of the book is its age. Written in 1997 it is probably due to a revision given that the fiels of paleontology has been progressing by leaps and bounds in the last few decades.

Highly recommended.

James Whitcomb Riley is one of the few poets to deal with the death of youngsters and oldsters alike. His poems give comfort to any who have experienced loss. He is little known today for these poems but they appear throughout this magnificent book. In these complete works there are love poems, grief poems and humorous poems told with such lyrical expertise and wisdom from someone who has experienced every emotion he writes about. Although his style is old fashioned rhyming poetry it is truly delightful.
I applaud the publishers of this great book (I have three copies and send it to friends and family)and recommend it to ALL who love poetry whether it be contemporary or otherwise.

When I was a kid, we had a friend who would recite "Little Orphant Annie" to us before we went to bed. I'll be damned if that poem didn't scare me into being a good kid! I plan on reading it to my 3 year old tonight with the hopes of scaring her straight enough to start being nice to her baby brother! One can dream, right?.....

Folksy Hoosier James Whitcomb Riley (1849 - 1916) is America's premier poet of the sentimental. The Complete Poetical Works Of James Whitcomb Riley brings together over 1,000 touching, humorous, easy to read, and intelligent but non - intellectual poems, many filled with longing for irretrievable childhood innocence, freedom, and joy. Today's readers will find the volume a genuine time capsule into the past; these poems will evoke not only the reader's own memories of childhood, but also a simpler and perhaps more innocent and joyous America. The ambitions and expectations expressed by the speakers, narrators, and characters in the poems are humble, the horizons of their world near. One of the secrets of Riley's backward - glancing poems is that his reflections are only partially regretful; the joys of the past are equaled by the child - like joy still present in the adult poet's heart. Dozens of the pieces included here are suitable for reading to and sharing with children.

Titles 'The Swimming Hole,' 'The Noble Old Elm,' 'Company Manners,' 'When Mother Combed My Hair,' 'Us Farmers In The Country' 'My First Spectacles,' 'Blooms In May,' 'Two Sonnets To The June - Bug,' 'The Land Of Used - To - Be,' and 'Our Boyhood Haunts' offer a good indication of the book's content. There are numerous nature poems and celebrations of the seasons, summer meadows of "clover to the knee," August moons, lazy rivers, "the twitter of the bluebird and the wren," and, in one of Riley's most famous, the frost "on the punkin." There are tributes to William McKinley and Abraham Lincoln, to Tennyson, Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Joel Chandler Harris. Famous characters 'Little Orphant Annie' and 'The Raggedy Man' are here; Puck makes an appearance "under a low crescent moon" in a poem of his own, as do Pan, Santa Claus, pixies, and goblins in others. Odes to boyhood best friends abound. People lived on closer terms with death in Riley's time, and, appropriately, a number of the poems address the subject, all of which express either blissful faith in the afterlife or sadness for the living left behind.

Riley was endlessly inventive within the limited sphere of his talent, or, perhaps, within the limitations he purposefully set upon it. Oddly, there are relatively few poems celebrating romantic love and marriage. Riley, who never married, apparently held the adult world and women in particular in no little suspicion. In his poetry, eligible women are generally kept at what Riley must have felt was a safe distance, though there are numerous tributes to mothers, aunts, sisters, and little girls - even stepmothers are embraced lovingly. But when Riley wrote about single women and imagined wives, his poetic vision generally darkened.

In 'The Werewife,' the volume's 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci,' Riley portrays the speaker's "fluttering, moth - winged soul" helplessly caught and mesmerized by his wife, a white - skinned, red - cheeked seductress who is also a murderous vampire. In 'The Mad Lover,' the narrator lives in a state of grim emotional paralysis after falling in love with 'Miriam Wayne,' though whether "fate" or Miriam herself is the cause of the "evil" and the lover's madness is not made clear. In 'Oh, Her Beauty,' the poet sings the praises his beloved's transcendent loveliness, but the last lines find him on his knees in thanks to God for revealing her spiritual ugliness at the eleventh hour. The plucky woman in 'Her Choice' is asked by her lover to chose his "love or hate," and she chooses "your hate, my dear!" The cuckolded man in 'The Lovely Husband' fans his wife and cold creams her face upon command, ignores her plucky unfaithfulness, and is every way a "handy hubby" and "lovey - dovey" until he cheerfully takes a shot gun and shoots her. The lover of the imprisoned killer in 'Life Sentence' is "false, while he was true," "the mistress of all siren arts," and "the poor soulless heroine of a hundred hearts!"

Riley and Carl Sandburg were kindred souls; admirers of Sandburg will find that Sandburg's work was partially a progression of Riley's. Both poets' verse is filled with anecdotes, homey bits of wisdom, funny stories, songs, folk truisms, and legendary characters. Riley's poems are snippets of life, fireside tales, and reflections; unlike Sandburg, politics are occasionally touched upon but never the pivotal focus in Riley's work.

How readers react to John Whitcomb Riley will depend on how they respond to the overtly sentimental and the character of the times in which he wrote, for these poems effortlessly evoke it. Though warmly sentimental, Riley was also bright and witty and full of spark, a dreamy, reflective, pre - urban poet of the small town and the home, of the sun porch and the rocking chair, of back fence gossip and street corner news, and of the American dream as it was conceived in his era. Potential readers may think themselves too sophisticated, cynical, or highbrow to enjoy the happily middlebrow works of James Whitcomb Riley. But such readers may be pleasantly surprised at how completely they find themselves immersed in Riley's detailed, frequently timeless, invigorating, and ingenious work. Despite its overall simplicity, Riley's work comfortably rests within the grander tradition of American literature, and makes for visionary reading in its own unique, whimsical manner.

After mulling over volumes like the "Viking Portable Library" it is refreshing to have an entire volume of light-hearted, folksy fun. Of course, Riley's works aren't ALL in that vein, but favorites like Ragedy Man and Little Orphan Annie are, and that's why I like him. Being from California, I hardly know how to use the type of speech inflections and what-not that Riley hasn't written into these rhyming tales. But the closer I get to being able to master such speech the more it entertains my kids! Great collection, get it!

Twas struck with words as ne'r b'fore,
those gentle flowed from a poet of yore.
Each letter 'round our hearts was wrapt,
melodies of beauty lovely tapt.

Who'd er'er thunk that a pokety ole' man,
could know our thoughts and understan.
There ain't any we'd recomand as highly,
as Indyanna's James Whitcomb Riley.

A great deal has been written about the United States Army during the Civil War. But tales of the postwar army can be just as thrilling as stories from the war, though this portion of military history is, sadly, often overlooked. Robert Utley attempts to correct this oversight in this excellent book, which deals with the nature, structure, and activity of the portion of the army engaged on the frontier from immediately after the Civil War until Wounded Knee. Arranged in an order that is easy to follow and is logical if not always strictly chronological, each major military operation against the Native Americans is handled with skill and sufficient detail. The result is a fascinating look at the army as a whole.

The main value of this book lies in the fact that it provides an outstanding overview of military operations as a whole (as opposed to books that treat just one battle or campaign). The work fills in many holes that will undoubtedly exist for anyone who has studied a part of the Indian Wars, and who would like to have a more general overview available to them. Anyone who has studied the Little Bighorn, for example, will find in this book a wealth of information that will explain in great detail many of the factors that led up to that action and also many of its ramifications. This book is essential to any study of Western history, especially military history.

Robert M. Utley offers the sequel to his _Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian 1848-1865_. In this second installment, Utley attempts to eradicate the myth of the frontier Army as blazing a path of glory westward that has been portrayed in Hollywood movies. Rather, he argues the frontier regular Army was only one of several contributing factors to the subjugation of the Native Americans. Other determinants such as westward expansion by waves of immigrants, and professional buffalo hunters attributed as much, if not more, to the Indian demise as did the soldiers. In a sense, Utley offers the antithesis to Dee Brown's _Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee_. The author highlights the Army's role as a frontier police force carrying out civilian policy that lacked cohesive strategy against the Native Americans. Utley begins with a general survey of the United States Army in the post-Civil War years. The author outlines the relationship between the War Department, its near autonomous bureaus, Congress, and the Executive Branch, with brief discussions into the tenures of Generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, command-staff functions, and logistics. Chapters on weapons & equipment, and outpost life round out the first half of the book. Utley remains objective and unsympathetic at times to Blue Coat and Indian alike. For example, in his discussion of General George Armstrong Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn, Utley, a noted Custer scholar, blames the boy general for the debacle. The author cites several reasons for the defeat of the 7th Cavalry. On the surrender of Geronimo in 1886, Utley credits both Generals George Crook and General Nelson Miles equally for their improvisations in overcoming logistical hardships in the harsh Sierra Madre Mountains. Acknowledging that the elimination of the Chiricahua Apache from Arizona was the prerequisite for re-establishing peace to the area, Utley does not sympathize with Geronimo's plight. It was only after the removal of the Chiricahuas, hostile and neutral alike, argues Utley, that peace was finally brought to the Southwest. In the final episode of the Indian wars: Wounded Knee, Utley engages in mere semantics. The author depicts Wounded Knee as a "tragedy" not a "massacre," the term generally preferred by the Indians. Utley feels the idiom inappropriate because "massacre," points to "deliberate and indiscriminate slaughter" which, he feels this occurrence was not. Utley believes, the soldiers tried to restrain from firing on women and children, however, in the melee, hitting innocent non-combatants was unavoidable. In the chapter titled "The Problem of Doctrine," Utley sees the Indian wars of the late nineteenth century through lensesmirroring the war in Vietnam (this book was first published in 1973). Utley observes the U.S. Army applied conventional tactics in an unconventional war. He illustrates how hostile Indians were oftentimes indistinguishable from peaceful reservation Indians. The hostiles utilized guerrilla tactics-hit and run raids and disappeared into the night. By day, the warrior factions would easily blend back into the general Indian population. If this be the case, it can be argued that the United States military had learned nothing from its own history. Robert M.Utley, often seen on the History Channel, and preeminent military historian of the period, has once again consulted a vast array of archival material. His evidence is equally balanced between primary and secondary sources, with endnotes after every chapter. The author consults an impressive collection of Government documents including a detailed list of Congressional and Senate papers in an impressive bibliography. Generous, easy to read maps, and a peppering of period photographs make this an essential addition to any library.

If you are not a Robert Utley fan you soon will be. This second in a two volume series, Utley shows once again why he is the king of frontier US history. This is an excellent piece of scholarship and writing.

Recounting the final, massive push by the Regular Army to subdue the American Indians, this volume covers the 25 years after the Civil War when control of the Plaines was wrested from the Indians, from the first skirmishes with the Sioux over the Bozeman Trail to the final defeat and subjugation in 1880.

Proud of the Unites States Army and is accomplishments while simultaneously sympathetic toward the Indians, Utley traces the campaign directed by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman. The result is a very evenhanded account resting comfortably between the "the barbaric band of butchers depicted in the humanitarian literature of the nineteenth century and the atonement literature of the twentieth." The people we meet are simply a group of ordinary men doing the very best they could under remarkably trying circumstances that were often under equipped and ill supplied.

Utley does an excellent job of showing what post-Civil War Indian fighters faced. First was the transition from the Union Army fighting Confederates to the U.S. Army fighting Indians.

Utley documents how that work was made much harder by the cheapness of the War Department and Congress. Downsizing the Army drastically to save money wasn't enough. Congress stuck most the infantry with leftover muzzleloaders rather than repeaters, meaning that their Indian foes usually (Winchester-armed themselves) could bring superior firepower to bear.

Meanwhile, the frontier Army had to go through the twists and turns of War Department, or Interior Department, twists and turns on Indian dealings, and in different high-level officers having different approaches not just to Indian fighting but to Indian truce and treaty negotiations.

Meanwhile, the grunt work, as typical, was to be done by the infantryman, not the cavalryman.

Read the whole story of his struggle to do his job in this book.

This is a good book about the US Army, Indians and the early west after the civil war. It follows events and gives points of view that are not clouded by the normal politics or attitudes. It is a clear account with facts, the probable intentions based on facts, and the actions. It allows the reader to get a good sense of the period and actions. The book gives enough detail to back up the facts but does not go overboard. This is a good start at studying the time period and the US Army at the time. Being into history, it was highly informative. It is a great book for those who want to read about the period but not get heavily into research. It goes deeper than just a brief summary but I think it gives just enough to allow understanding. It is easy to read and flows from chapter to chapter.

Bought this at suggestion of park naturalist. Well organized so you can search by color and size. Very pleased with this compared to some other books. Delivery was timely.

good and easy to understand. sectioned to types of trees so you dont have to look thru the whole book to find your tree. lots of good pictures and info in a hand size unclunky type field guide. good author (also has "birds of indiana" which is an excellent book).

My favorite feature is the Compare section. Look up a bird, and the compare section advises you to look at other similar colored birds to ensure you have correctly identified the bird. The author took special pains to include page numbers for the birds, making it very easy to jump from page to page.

The author gives females their own page, which means you can thumb the book looking for a muted colored bird and be able to identify it.

Wonderful photos, easy to use color guides. I really love the quick info on how to tell the difference of similar birds. My 8 year old son and I checked this book out of the library first to be able to identify our backyard visitors but loved it so much and he quickly was able to use it we just had to buy our own copy. I would highly recommend it.

This is a well organized, easily accessible guide covering the most commonly encountered birds. Something like The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America might be in order as a supplement to this fine volume, but on the whole Birds of Indiana will suffice for most backyard bird watching. A great gift for the budding ornithologist, or just to learn what that bird is you see at the feeder so often.

Great book! Full of suspense and humor. If you like Laurell Hamilton or Kim Harrison, you will like this book.

Private detective Chase Dagger finds an Indianapolis cop and auniversity professor on his doorstep revealing their theory behind arecent series of homicides. The professor beliefs there is an evilthat has been passed down from generation to generation and is at itsworst during a full moon on Friday the 13th. Dagger feels theprofessor knows far to much about the murders and the killer. FullMoon-Bloody Moon is an X-Files style mystery that brings back ChaseDagger for another tautly written, reader-gripping, mysterythriller. Also highly recommended is Lee Driver's debut novelintroducing Chase Dagger and an unusual blend of horror and mystery inThe Good Die Twice (5-3,...). END

FULL MOON-BLOODY MOON is the second in the Chase Dagger series. This one combines mystery and horror in a story about a little known phenomena -- the combination of a full moon and a Friday the 13th. Dagger is confronted by an Indianapolis cop and a university professor who have a theory behind a series of murders. They believe a man has inherited an evil passed on through generations that is at its worst during a full moon on a Friday the 13th. This book pits an evil shapeshifter against Sara, Dagger's shapeshifting partner. As in THE GOOD DIE TWICE, Sara's shapeshifting is the catalyst in this series. And the existence of this evil shapeshifter becomes real when it starts communicating telepathically with Sara. This is a tightly written thriller that will have you looking at a full moon quite differently. To show you how rare the combination is, October 13, 2000, was only the thirteenth time since 1800 that it has occurred.

Author Lee Driver returns with the second in her series starring mysterious private investigstor Chase Dagger and his Native American shapeshifter associate Sara Morningsky and scarlet macaw Einstein--Full Moon Bloody Moon. This entry finds them with a more gruesome case as the bodies keep piling up, but no logical suspect can be found.

Lisa was a really good cop, a quick and accurate shooter. So, it was a real surprise when she was found dead along her regular jogging path with her gun still holstered and with the safety still on. The other surprise was that she was found twenty feet up, stuck in the V of a tree branch. Of great import to this case is the rarity of the combined occurrence of a full moon on a Friday the 13th. The story takes place during the five days leading up to Friday, October 13, 2000, when it is believed that the killer will attain his greatest level of power during the upcoming full moon.

Meanwhile, Chase and Skizzy are also working on a case involving weapons thefts from a local police station. Skizzy's invention of the "Mick," a mechanical spider-shaped surveillance camera, provides much of the intrigue in this subplot, which otherwise feels much like another day on the job.

Things really take a turn in Full Moon Bloody Moon when it is discovered that the killer can communicate with Sara through the telepathy that, until then, the reader had thought that only she and Chase could share. Is the killer a shapeshifter, too? Chase's ability to overhear their conversations causes his pragmatic worldview to begin to crumble. Able to accept Sara as a shapeshifter, because that was how he discovered her, the idea that there are more is almost too much for him. And the closer he comes to a solution, the more it seems that the killer is something that Chase is not entirely prepared to deal with.

The sexual tension between Sara and Chase continues building, with their friends invariably making comments to Chase about questionable situations. These are still some of the most intriguing characters in fiction, and any male reader is undoubtedly going to want to be Chase and want to be with Sara. Their relationship is an engaging combination of sibling and romance that succeeds because of not engendering any untoward feelings whatsoever. I'm becoming as comfortable with these people in just two books as I did Ed McBain's 87th Precinct crowd. I can only hope that Lee Driver exhibits McBain's longevity. Add to that her skill at writing epilogues that make me want to begin the next book immediately (in this case, The Unseen), and what we have is a terrific fantasy mystery series that deserves bestseller status.

FULL MOON BLOODY MOON is the second Chase Dagger mystery; the first was THE GOOD DIE TWICE.

Chase Dagger is back, but this time he will need more than luck to catch a killer that has been around for more than 200 years.... Knowing that Oct. 13th a Friday was not even here yet, the worse was yet to happen.

FULL MOON BLOODY MOON has the same unconventional and fetching characters as THE GOOD DIE TWICE. Einstein the bright red macaw that has a big mouth, Chase's right hand woman, Sara, Simon the mailman who knows everybody's business. Padre and Skizzy are also back as well as some new characters. FULL MOON BLOODY MOON is a ferocious horror-filled ride that will stick with you well after you have finished reading the book. Mixed with sex, violence and plenty of fast paced action. I hung onto every word.

Lee Driver (aka S.D. Tooley ) you have done it again, keep up the good work.

This well-written book took me back to Shelbyville IN in the 1950s, when every barber shop displayed a picture of the 1947 championship team and every patron knew all their names. No one would question the effect Bill Garrett had on his home town, but few could have predicted the impact he would have on collegiate sports for years to come.

The little town of Milan provided great sports drama for the movie "Hoosiers," but the life of Bill Garrett is more than a sports story. He did for NCAA athletics what Jackie Robinson did for Major League Baseball. Young people of today would be shocked to learn what he endured just a couple of generations ago.

Thanks to Tom and Rachel Graham Cody for this great read. As a Purdue grad, it pains me to praise a book that casts such a positive glow on Indiana University!

This is a good book and a good read. If you're from small-town Indiana (like me) and old enough to understand what single-class "Hoosier Hysteria" really meant, then you'll like this book.

However I respectfully offer that it's not a 5-star book. It may be a 5-star story in search of a 5-star telling.

I just finished the book yesterday, and I find myself wishing the authors had been less dispassionate. Or more passionate? Whatever.

So who was Bill Garrett? The book talks a lot about his life and times, and provides some ancedotes, but always left me wanting more about Bill. Sadly, Bill wasn't available to be interviewed, but his teammates, friends and wife were all sources for the book.

Here are some examples:

We learn a lot about how Bill came to enroll at IU, but we don't learn about the man himself. Bill left Tennessee State after enrolling, and took a bus to IU. No one was available to meet him there! How did he feel about this?

Bill was on the road and separated from his wife for several years while he knocked around the fringes of professional basketball. How was their relationship affected? We don't know.

Finally - the authors talk about the changes in college basketball in the 1950's (pp 169-175), Branch McCracken's sporadic recruitment of black players, yet fail to mention that IU WON the NCAA championship in 1953!

Sorry 5-star raters...it's a good book and a story worth telling, but could be a lot better. Probably a better movie than a book.

Seldom have I been so touched, entertained, and educated by a book as I was by Getting Open, which I read in two days. It is truly a masterpiece and something I will keep on my bookshelf for the rest of my life.

Although born and raised in Indiana, I didn't know much if anything about Bill Garrett before reading this book, but I was just blown away by his story. Not knowing the story, it was almost like reading a well-crafted novel and I hung on every new development the authors revealed. I also didn't know much about the racial intolerance of the times. My neighborhood and high school were all white, so I really had little if any contact with blacks before I went to Indiana University as a freshman in 1963. It hardly seems possible that such racial intolerance existed in the Midwest so recently before then.

This book exceeded all my expectations and I highly recommend it to anyone, whether you're a basketball fan or not. If you have any ties to the Hoosier State or to Indiana University, you will love it all the more.

At the pinnacle of his high school career - leading Shelbyville High to the Indiana state championship; a team that had three black starters - not one college scout in the arena attended the game to recruit Bill Garrett or his two teammates due to the color of their skin.

At the pinnacle of his collegiate career - leaving the court to a standing ovation that lasted several minutes - Bill Garrett was refused service in a restaurant days later; one that had on its marquee that it welcomed fans of Indiana Unniversity basketball.

And when Bill Garrett was ready to launch his pro career, the team in his home state did not draft him.

But Bill Garrett was stronger than those who attempted to keep those doors closed. And we are better because of him.

For author Tom Graham - with his co-author/daughter Rachel Graham Cody - the book took seven years of reseach, and certainly a lifetime of not denying the facts from the past and understanding the urgency in the present to set the record straight.

Getting Open is more than a biography on Garrett and how he integrated Big Ten basketball by playing and starring for IU. It is a history of institutionalized racial hatred in the State of Indiana - at one point in the 20th Century, the KKK essentially controlled all essential government offices - and the tireless work of person's from different sides of the tracks to fight the good fight.

Graham is a Shelbyville native who was old enough to vividly recall the times, which certainly helped as he meticulously did his research to cut through the fiction that builds from facts as the years tumble on.

It is a book from the heart that will make you realize how we must celebrate those who had the courage then by continuing to challenge those who want to forget - or rewrite - the past.

This book is an incredibly well written and well documented story that should be more widely read. It is an important history that many sports fans, and non-sports fans, will enjoy tremendously. It is an inspiration to us all, and offers many lessons and insights about overcoming racism. Thank you to the father-daughter authors for getting out this story!

LADDIE was one of my favorite books as a child, and reads just as well as an adult. Gene Stratton Porter books maintain their interest and character even in today's world. This kind of book illustrates life in an America that is, sadly, lost forever.

I was one of those who wanted to BE Little Sister, and a part of that world. Like others, I have read it a multitude of times. The writing is magical.

I bought this book at a used book sale because it was old. I did not know of the book or the author. I began to read it with interest to see what was between these pages - I was not disappointed. I loved the story as told by the young girl. What a delight she was. She almost became real in my mind and I was sorry to find the book ending. I will try to read more of this author.

I'd never heard of or read Laddie until I reached 39 yrs of age, and though it seems it was written for youth I can think of many adults that would benefit from taking in such earnest literature. The cynical part of me wants to call this book dated, but in truth I find the story's lack of modern day cynicism refreshing. Enjoy this hidden jewel.

I loved this book. What a great example of good old-fashioned character and family values. My family and I love these kind of books for family reading time. What a great way to teach character.

By far the author of Laddie (Straton-Porter) is an outstanding story teller. Its warm, entertaining, one of the best books anyone could ever read for themselves or to their young children!!! In my life, this is one book I'm VERY GLAD I READ!!!!!!!