New Mexico Books

Mr. Bennett has penned a work of spiritual fiction that follows the Native American Shamanic revelations to guide the main character from the rational world to the invisible realty of the dream world.
The story is full of intrigue, tension, and characters that hold your interest from the first page to the last.
"Spirit Circle" is a well-written, thoughtful, informative book of ideas and information on how you can find peace, strength, or power through dreaming. It teaches you how to see beyond our own conflicts and passion to find universal wisdom that helps transcent self-involvement. "The shaman's stories remind us to look and listen through the eyes and ears of other people."
This is a beautiful bookk that lingers with you long after you finish reading it. It allows you to open your mind and heart to the people and world beyond us. Spirit Circle is a book that you will read many times to find more nuggest of information that will help you enrich your life.

Spirit Circle demonstrates the power of storytelling to weave a tale that both teaches and entertains. Ancient and modern shamans dare to journey into the vastness of the unseen realms and come back to the world of five senses to report on that which they have seen. The shaman is the messenger but the truth is for all of us. Spirit Circle is a shaman's tale written by one who knows the path. At once fun and believable. A great read.

Ancient ruin -- ragged rock wall, wide window into the shamans' realm. Step through the window -- they're waiting. Waiting to show you luminous landscapes, ephemeral as adobe. Waiting to suspend your book-learned sense of space and time in ceremonial smoke. Waiting to introduce you to someone -- your self.

All the voices ring true, the surroundings are painted with a knowing and loving brush, and a shaman likely breathed the life into each character.

The story and the teller move me deeply. I read of the gateway to the shamans' gathering ground and I'm swiftly swept out to the ruin on the western ridge at Chaco Canyon, to a wide window filled with brilliant December morning light. I could have stepped through...

A few months ago and quite by chance, I ran onto this author/writing instructor in the strangest way. I was surfing the Internet and happened to find this website for writers. It's a very informative website with a little bit of everything for everyone in the literary world. I clicked on the discussion board to see what was happening. I'm not one to join a discussion group because I don't have the time, but like I said, the website is full of writing information. The discussion group actually has comments posted by published authors, giving helpful information to the fledgling writers. In so doing, these published authors not only have my respect, they have my attention. After reading some of the informative posts by Hal Bennett, I was impressed with what he had to say. I sent him an e-mail conveying my compliments. Being a man of intelligence and good manners, Bennett thanked me via an e-mail, thus allowing me access to his website by his reply. I think I would have eventually found it anyway, but it saved me a lot of time. Bennett's book on "Write From The Heart" took my attention first and I ordered it. Very impressive. I concluded the man knew how to write a non-fiction book on the subject of writing. I rated him as being in the caliber of Brande, another great one. So, figuring he knew how to write non-fiction and hold my interest, I'd find out if he could write fiction and still hold my interest. I'm a romantic by nature, always have been, but I'll read anything that's well written, whether it's mystery, suspense, self-help, non-fiction, etc. For a long time, I've stuck with the really big name authors, but eventually I think we all live and learn. I'm pretty gutsy and I'll venture spending the price of a book by any author who has my attention and interest. I don't know if you'd call it cheating when you open a book to the center or the end and read a few excerpts to determine whether it's a good book or not, but I'm famous for doing this. I DIDN'T DO THIS WITH "SPIRIT CIRCLE". I started on page one and read through to the end. I hardly put the book down until I finished reading it. The story was very different and touched me deeply. Bennett writes a book like I would venture to say he teaches writing, straight from his heart. The story plot, the characters, the vivid description of beautiful setting, his vast knowledge of Native American culture and last, but not least, the superb editing of this book, makes it an excellent read. Bennett is very gifted and well-educated, and quite obviously in good standing with his Muse. I do highly recommend this book to anyone.

Dr. Tara Fairfield, a young anthropologist, is on a quest to find her father, renegade tabloid journalist, Drew Fairfield, who has missed most of her life, but most notably has been missing for the last two years. Tara has received a letter from Drew containing photos and artifacts which she believes might be proof of the existence of a secret society of shamans hidden deep in the New Mexico desert. Either this, or it is an elaborate hoax, perpetuated by her father, who is not above foregoing integrity for a good story. To uncover the truth, she leaves her young daughter and travels to New Mexico, where her search leads her through a shamnic journey to find her own soul. She meets spirit guides who shape-shift and take her to places beyond the tangible world she knows. An old friend of her father's who has returned to his Zuni childhood origins, teaches her the way of the Medicine Wheel. She is at once the teacher and the taught as she takes the reader on a magical voyage between worlds, all the while tripping over her own skepticism. With an old shaman, she journeys to meet the crone, Mongwa, who tells her "You are a messenger. You have no choice." Tara's mission is to bring back to her world the teachings of the "fifth world," where understanding the Spiritual Source eliminates all appearance of separation between time, place, and physical identity. Bennett's writing is visually stunning, taking the reader into the quiet beauty of the desert mesa and deep into the caves hidden high on the cliffs. A masterful storyteller, he weaves spell-binding adventure and spiritual revelation. This book begs for a sequel.

Good lesson for children with vibrant, moving illustrations. It's nice to show that boys can have girl-friends at a young age.

This book was read to elementary students grades k-6, every one of the students loved this book and requested it be read again the very next week. We discussed the pictures (first gray and then color when playing and at the end), the connections with siblings and finally friendships. I highly recommend this book.

19 Girls and Me is a story of a kindergartener named John Hercules Po who finds himself in a class of nineteen girls. He is the only boy. His brother worries that he will become "sissified" from playing with all of those girls. In the end, everybody realizes that playing together can be a lot of fun.

19 Girls and Me is a delightful story that shows kids that it is okay for girls and boys to play together. Girls won't become tomboys just because they are playing with boys, and boys won't become sissies just because they are playing with girls. Everyone can get along and have a good time.

My five-year-old daughter likes this story. She also enjoys looking at all of the details in Steven Salerno's playful illustrations.

19 Girls and Me is a story for both girls and boys. Kids will enjoy reading about the wonderful adventures John Hercules Po and his new friends have at recess each day. In addition to a great story, there are glimpses into places around the world that may teach kids a thing or two. This is a book that kids will enjoy again and again.

I love this book for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that my daughter, in first grade, totally digs the story of John Hercules Po and his adventures with his 19 friends in Mrs. Ray's Kindergarten--19 friends who just happen to be GIRLS! The repetition is fun, and the imaginative adventures that the kids think up delight both of us! I've already taken the book to school twice and read it in a few different classes, and the kids eyes are big--and their smiles are bigger--as I regale them with the developing friendship between John Hercules Po and his 19 new friends! The book imparts an excellent message without clobbering the reader over the head with it--nicely done! Salerno's illustrations add to the fun!

This book is fascinating--it says it's a detective story, and it is, but with a twist--it's a detective story about people, and why they do what they do. It's a mystery where the writer tries to unravel how choices and fate and relationships and everything else all twist together to make and change lives, sometimes in sad ways. To me, it is the most interesting sort of mystery ever.

Which is why reading this book was such a total delight. It's like spending time with a really intelligent, engaging person dissecting events and following shreds of evidence, and there's this sense of loss when it's all over--you kind of want to stay engaged. A most excellent read!!

In the late 1960s the author's father and mother joined a countercultural enclave in New Mexico, where their marriage floundered and Anna's father committed suicide. Anna was five years old at the time. Twenty years later the discovery of some old photos sends her on a journey to learn more about her father: her reconstruction of her past is charted in ASSEMBLING MY FATHER: A MEMOIR and provides a moving personal history which will also inspire any conducting their own family history search.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I often randomly choose books to read, without reading reviews or recommendations. Sometimes that method backfires and I'm stuck with a stinker, but not in this case - I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. Perhaps it was the writing, perhaps it was the loss of my own father when I was very young (probably a combination of both) - this book touched me in a personal way that no other book has for some time.

Prior to reading "Assembling My Father" I was lucky enough to attend a writer's workshop with Anna Oliver in Boise, Idaho, and I must say she is an incredible woman. She is not only intelligent and insightful, but also extremely well read- all of which show up in her writing. In "Assembling My Father," she experiments with style and form, including extensive primary records such as pictures, news articles and writings from her father's journal which add to the overall theme of a "detective story." The inclusion of Anna's own tale of personal growth alongside her discoveries of her father's untimely demise create a depth of emotion and a unique poignancy. This is a must-read for anyone interested in writing memoir, especially family history, or for anyone who is interested in the counterculture of the 60's and 70's. I cannot reccommend it enough.

I can see I'm in the minority of reviewers of this book here. I had high hopes for this memoir that haven't panned out.

The story is simple on it's surface- a woman grows up in an off kilter family and realises as a young adult that she is adrift because she doesn't "know" her father. Of course, she can't because he committed suicide, but what she doesn't have are his stories. Slowly- and it felt slooow- she sets out to discover what she can about him.

She talks to whomever she can locate who knew him, including his childhood friends, and she gets what she can out of her mother who often refuses to talk about any part of her past. She collects what photographs she can- a task made more difficult because her father was usually the photographer. She reads his journal and tries to obtain copies of college work, including his undergraduate thesis and tapes of a "college bowl" contest which "put Rennsalaer Polytechnic Institute" on the map as a better school than people had previously thought.

She experiments with different formats in her writing- including some lists of things he would never know about her, and how she feels that he will always be a man who died at the age of 35.

Be forewarned though- it's not an easy book. It's boggy and uncomfortable. It very well may be intended to be that way- after all, the subject is a young father and the events leading up to his suicide. I kept returning to the photo montage in the front, contemplating this beautiful man and wondering what could have caused him to pull the trigger. of course, only he really knows, no matter what anyone else can say about him.

Here's my confession- I haven't finished it. At 2/3 through, I feel like I know what he did, but his daughter, like all of us, will never really know why. And he'll stay dead for her- sad as it is. If I do finish, I wonder if my feelings about the memoir will change.

Not being a real fan of the shoot em up variety of westerns I found this book to be everything I wanted it to be. Mr Hyson is obviously a "real" cowboy and it is my guess he is putting a lot of his own life experiences into this novel.The book gives a taste of what real "cowboying" was ( and in many cases ) still is all about. It mixes fact and fiction in just the right doses, to make this an interesting and informative read.

Hyson's novel is a curious mixture of tell-it-like-it-is cowboy life and melodramatic fiction. The setting is ranch country in the far northeast corner of New Mexico, and the time is the 1950s. The story is told by Frank Dalton, a half-breed from Oklahoma, with the name of a famous outlaw. There are numerous plot threads, most of which can be found in other cowboy novels - including the saving of a ranch, a bitter father-son relationship, and the education of a young cowboy into the ways of "the calling," or cowboying. There's also some Southwest history, dating back to Spanish colonial settlement. There are mysteries to solve. And there is not one but two love stories.

The romance of Frank and Roberta is an unusual storyline for cowboy fiction, where women rarely intrude into the all-male world of working cattle. The two characters fall in love and into bed without much complication, and Hyson describes the intensity of their love affair without embarrassment. For once, an author has written about a cowboy who doesn't reserve all his affection for his horse.

While the various threads of plot hold the story together over the length of its many pages, what may interest readers more are the factual descriptions of ranch work, like the process of feeding cattle in the winter, the breaking of a horse, working a deal with a cattle buyer, and the way a team of men goes about branding calves. A section describing how a rodeo comes to town, the lives of rodeo cowboys, and the author's inside tips on bull riding make the novel come to life with a vividness and immediacy that do not come so easily on other pages. Also contributing to the realism is a surprising candor in the cowboy talk, often bawdy and humorously coarse.

I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in cowboys, ranching, and the Southwest. Readers will also enjoy MacKey Hedges' novel, "The Last Buckaroo."

The books starts well and continues telling the every day life of a cowboy in New Mexico and the people he associates with. It is a history, a love story, a geography study of New Mexico. It is not a real fast read - it just stay interesting throughout.

I loved this book. Hyson really gives a tenderfoot like me the taste for the cowboy life. In it he also gave me a mystery, romance, and a number of really hard laughs! (RC really cracks me up!) I really enjoyed the book and recommend it. It is a really good read.

Even though it is a fictional story, I suspect there is a lot of truth in "the way things were" in this novel. Hyson, having lived the life of a rancher/cowboy, allows much of his own experience to influence his writing. I believe this book to be an authentic depiction of ranch and community life in Northern New Mexico during a particular time period. "The Calling" has it all: romance, adventure, mystery, and binding human relationships. This story would make a great movie along the lines of "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Horse Whisperer."

My parents attended the same church as Dr. Hsi but this book came to me through my fiance's mother, a retired nurse in CO, who is passing this book around as a must read after receiving a copy from my parents. Through the years, she was horrified to experience the reduction in her & her peers ability to provide proper care as a result of "managed care" & opted to move into insurance rather than continuing her successful career as a nurse.
This isn't a typical reading choice for me but was eye-opening & a quick, absorbing read. I'm sure my seatmates on two different plane rides were wondering what was wrong as I dabbed at my eyes in vain to stem the flow of tears.
Decent doctoring is something we take for granted & we don't always know how or are made to feel guilty or inadequate when we press for answers or explanations from an authority figure such as an esteemed specialist or doctor. We need to push for change & I only hope that books like this become mandatory in the medical study curriculum!

To say that this is a profoundly moving work is understatement. It should be mandatory reading for any patient or care giver, but more especially for any who would be called "Healer". Simply stated ... closing the chart is a magnificient work. It will no doubt become highly acclaimed and will be appreciated by any care giver or patient in the modern world of medicine. It is rich in texture and flavor, providing a remarkable insight into the progression of change that occurs when a family is faced with a profound illness,and must come face to face with the methdologies of modern medicine. This work will provide the next level of understanding in the process of illness, such as that initiated by Norman Cousins in Anatomy of An Illness.

He describes so well what family members go through when a loved one is terminally ill. Doctors do need to look at the whole person, their family and their spiritual side and treat people holistically.
He spoke quite well of the pain that is often inflicted on those who are the most helpless by those in the position to be most helpful. This definetly is a gift to be given to those in the medical field or those who are thinking of entering it.
Steve was my doctor when I was growing up and we went to the same church. I remember praying for him when the calls would go out that he needed surgery while praying for my aunt who was terminally ill at the same time...what he describes about being a patient is not far off from what my Aunt experienced while she was hospitalized in Arizona.

As a brief patient of Dr. Hsi's and a memeber of the healthcare industry for 25 years, this book struck at the core of my very being. I not only see what he experienced everyday in my line of work but also expierienced it on a different level for myself. Anyone thinking of pursueing a career in medicine, should let this book open your eyes and your heart. It would make sense to have this be required reading for every nurse, pre-med student, intern, resident or seasoned physician. I know with some it would fall on deaf ears, however if it only made a difference in a few, what a difference it could make in so many lives.
Many thanks to Beth Corbin-Hsi, Jim Belshaw and of course Steven D. Hsi, M.D who gives us wisdom and courage through his words even now.

I am a nursing student. I happened to notice this title on amazon. I have to tell you, that I know that I will be a better nurse because I read this book. I think that it should be a mandatory part of the curriculum in the every program for all of the health care professions. It is very difficult sometimes, to know what it is like for the patient. This book made that realization abunduntly clear. Dr. Hsi's story is an inspiration. Definitely read this book, whether you are a health care worker, a patient, or just looking for a good book to read!

If you¡¯re interested in pre-Hispanic America this book is a must read. Maurice Collis tells it in a way that makes you see the real thinking of both Montezuma and Cortez. And if you aren¡¯t already interested in ancient Mexico this book is still a great read. It reads like a novel rather than a history.

There are things that are hard to imagine until you compile the Cortez letters, the friar¡¯s notes, and previous historical documents as Mr. Collis has expertly done. For example there¡¯s a section about how the Spanish soldiers were wearing chain-mail so they were burning up under the desert sun during day and then (when the temperature dived down as desert weather is apt to do) froze at night.

This book is filled with the harsh realities that both sides faced. This gives a reader a greater understanding of the rationales for decisions. Also, Mr. Collis has a great cultural- or anthropological-sensitivity so we see how Aztec cosmology, predictions, and religion influenced Montezuma¡¯s standpoint. At the time of invasion, the Aztec army could have quickly destroyed the Spanish soldiers. The forces that prevented this outcome are beyond common Western thinking.

This book shares the complexities that both of these great men faced. And it treats Moctezuma deservedly as one of the world¡¯s great men. Often books have a pro-Spanish feel to them. This book is as close to fair as I have seen.

Also, consider Broken Spears by Miguel Leon-Portilla.

The incredible chain of events that led to the conquest of Mexico by a small group of Spaniards is wonderfull told by Maurice Collis in this fascinating book. Well organised and stylishly written, the book includes many quotations from contemporary sources, as well as some very vivid descriptions of the places and persons involved. Collis's understanding of the events and his clear and involving style make Cortes and Montezuma an extraordinary piece of historical writing.

The complex characters and motivations of both central figures are explained in detail. According to Collis, Montezuma was a generous, devout and able ruler, but at the same time he was a tyrannical monster who indulged in endless orgies of ritual murder; Cortes was a civilized and enterprising explorer who brought enlightenment to a oppressed land but he was also the bringer of death and destruction to a complex and fascinating civilization. The author also explains the amazing astrological-magical religion of the Mexicans and how it made the conquest possible.

This is probably the best book on the subjet, a veritable page turner that will help you understand one of the most incredible events in history.

The story of the conquest of the remarkable Aztec civilization by Cortes' handful of Spaniards is an incredible drama. The accounts of Bernal Diaz and Prescott tell it well, but at considerable length, and with only a superficial comprehension of what motivated the Mexicans' responses to Cortes' invasion. What makes Corliss's succinct and compelling account so insightful and remarkable, to me, is his sympathetic understanding of the Mexicans' and Montezuma's complex astrological-magical religion, and how it decisively shaped their actions. He understands a pre-modern time when religious beliefs were the predominant context for social and individual actions, as well as the importance of Cortes' religious faith, and he notes the fascinating paradoxes and ironies that resulted from the primary actors' actions based on their respective religious convictions.

But regardless of that, this is simply a wonderful read. My one regret is that the book wasn't accompanied by illustrations to convey the extraordinary richness (and horror) of the Aztec civilization, as well as the difficult and stunning terrain where the action took place.

As a footnote, it is fascinating to contrast the ethos of the Conquistadores with that of the North American settlers so well described in Albion's Seed.

My best friend's wife was in the hospital, and I was put in charge of their son for a few hours. I decided to tell him the story from memory of how Hernan de Cortez, with a handful of men, brought down an entire world. I had just finished reading Collis's book, and also Bernal Diaz's first-hand account of the same story and Prescott's able retelling in THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO, so it was still fresh in my mind. The boy was entranced.

Maurice Collis's is by far the best telling of the story as such. (Prescott and Diaz are both worth reading if you have the chance.) I collect Collis and love everything I have ever read by him.

There are, of course, two sides to every story. Cortez's gain was Montezuma's loss: And it was the Aztecs' loss. According to J. Eric S. Thompson in MAYA HISTORY AND RELIGION, approximately 80% of the population of what is now Mexico died of measles, smallpox, malaria and other diseases brought by the Spanish within a very short time. The Aztecs' sacred books were burned as heresy; their language (Nahuatl) is dying out; and the name and image of Montezuma are absent in the Mexico of today. Only Cuauhtemoc, who resisted Cortez and his lieutenants, is honored.

Read this book and marvel at how tenuous a civilzation can be. It took Rome over a thousand years to fall: Tenochtitlan fell in a year.

I have read other accounts of the Mixica, most notably by Michael D. Coe, but none of them hit upon the complexity involving the meeting of Cortes and Montecuzoma as this book did. Drawing on dialog from Bernal Diaz (The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico-also another great read), Collis has stripped away the dryness of other books, on this subject, that were written primarily for academia, leaving the intimate human perspective to the greatness of both of these men and the circumstances that caused each to react as he did. As did Diaz's book, this book made me feel as though I were sitting beside Cortes and Montecuzoma as the drama of their meeting unfolded. For those who are students, as a vocation or avocation, of the ancient cultures that inhabited this continent this is a must book to read and have on hand to reread over and again because you won't want it to end.

This book is very educational in a family style for all who love anything that is culinary. Tex-mex and mexican foods and methods are not the same in true new mexico's food history. I love learning and unlearning. This book will do both for the home chefs that love new and exciting changes in their menus.

I'm a native New Mexican and when I lived in Albuquerque back in 1998, I found "Las Recetas de Nuestra Abuela - Our Grandmother's Recipes" in a small
resale shop. It was 23 pages thick and I thought it was a charming book! The stories about Grandma Flora reminded me so much of my own grandmother - I had to buy this recipe book! I have used her method of making red chile pod chile sauce so much so that I have abandoned my old method of using red chile powder. If this new recipe book has 127 pages, well then I know I will truly experience heaven on earth!
Muchisimas Gracias y Feliz Navidad Regina!!!

Being from Mannhattan NY. I am unfamiliar with south western style cooking as it is really supposed to be. I was recently given this book by a friend as a CHRISTMAS GIFT. I was'nt sure if I could achieve success in the kitchen with this book as I am adept at making matzaballs and corned beef and potatoes being of New York Jewish descent and all. After trying some of the recipies like Chile Colorado and Tortillas I felt like a pro. A regular Latina Kitchen sensation. The recipies are easy to follow and well written. The south western familiy history told by the author actually makes me feel like I am part of the culture as I read the tales that Mrs. Romero weaves about her heritage. Excellent book you'll love it.

I am a native of New Mexico and have loved the cooking of this region all my life. Having moved to Arizona as a young child, it was hard to find mexican food that tastes like "New Mexican" food. There is a difference and reading this book and using the recipes have allowed me to taste the original flavors in my own home. Not only are the recipes original and delicious, but the story of this family is especially interesting and in itself "flavorfull". Great book!

What a great book! Ms. Romero has included some fantastic, authentic dishes that are tasty and easy to prepare. I'm a guy and not all that gifted in the kitchen, but her book makes me look like a hero with all of my family and friends. I told my wife that my recipes are family recipes--I just didn't tell her whose family.

The family history in the book is extremely interesting, too.

You should buy this book and get cooking.

Regardless who you are or what you read, you can't be anything but 100 percent into this Native American story. I wish I had a "ghost in the rainbow." We should all be so blessed by our "ancestors".

I am neither a Native American nor anyone who has suffered from substance abuse but I am an animal lover and I LOVED this book. I loved the characters, the story, and the way it was written. I had a hard time putting this book down. I think this story would make a good made-for-TV movie.

This is a thrilling story of one woman's determination to learn the truth behind the murder of a young child. Her search for truth plunges her not only into the world of a psychotic killer but into her own inner world where she must confront personal relationships, alcoholism and her desperate search for spiritual peace. This is also a story of the bond between a woman and her dog that transcends both time and bounderies of this physical world. Myra Whitehawk is one of the most compelling characters in my reading experience, and Ghost In The Rainbow is a book you won't want to miss. I'm glad I didn't!

Ghost in the Rainbow is a compulsive read. I couldn't put it down. Because of my own battles with alcoholism and substance abuse, the path the heroine takes touched me deeply and even helped me to confront some of my own demons. That I should be so spiritually and psychologically helped by a book of crime fiction illiustrates how deeply real is Ms. Woodruff's understanding of life. After the vapid musings of many of the current bestsellers, Ghost in the Rainbow explores the extremes of human emotion with courage, humor and the rare sensibility of a Native American worldview. Without a doubt, one of the best novels of the year.

What a fabulous read! Woodruff deftly intertwines her thrilling search for a serial killer with the internal journey of Native American writer Myra Whitehawk as her life disintegrates around her. The book never loses momentum and provides us with moments of genuine feeling and insight. I highly recommend it!

The Grady, Oklahoma, of 1961 was like hundreds of small towns dotting the Bible Belt. Into this setting Lisa Polisar brings a vivid reality in descibing the outwardly bland lives of her characters, until we feel we live next door to people we either pity, fear or hope will move away. Felt by superb narration, and seen through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Jake Leeds, Polisar's keen observations range from the mundane look of hand-crocheted oven mitts to a fetid basement jail cell where sadistic lawman Blackie Savage orders Jake locked up for snooping too much. The summer starts with an initiation ritual by Jake's best friend, Mikey: sleeping alone in "an empty field of coarse reeds and vile secrets" finds Jake terrorized by the moans and shrieks of a young woman. He runs from a bloody apparition of the murdered victim, sensing that if he does not get away he will end up dead like Mary Prairie. Yet, obsessed with tracking down her killer, Jake gradually uncovers a tangle of unlikely relationships that include his family and even himself. Polisar's genius at characterization and regional dialogue breathes life into the colorful residents whom Jake encounters in his search -- unaware that his dogged persistence begins to endanger his own safety.
By novel's end we are taking more discriminating looks at our own neighbors and acquaintences: what stillborn secrets might we pry out of their intimate worlds?
Albert Noyer / The Getorius and Arcadia Mysteries

Lisa Polisar's style of writing moves the reader through the story of Jake and his adventures so effortlessly that you feel that you are Jake. You will be frightened, confused, humiliated, determined and hurt as he is as he moves through this mystery to fruition.

This is a journey you will never regret taking and may want to return to from time to time for the complete escape and pleasure of the experience.

To say this is simply a mystery novel is not enough. Yes, there is a dynamic and dark plot that spreads out and thickens in a way Arthur Conan Doyle would be proud of. There is a cast of diverse characters that create a web of entertaining combinations that keep the story on the road to the inevitable. There is a foreboding sense of what is to come at every juncture. But the unique thing about this story are the brilliantly woven underlying darker elements of the typical American family.
The central character, Jake, takes this story to shocking depths and his demeanor serves to inspire us all. Jake is a classic specimen of the heartland. He knows his surroundings as well as his people. But like so many searchers, fictional or non, yearns for something fierce, and he finds it. Jake's obssession with solving the mystery Sherlock Holmes style is as much a rite of passage is it is a matter of course. The author brilliantly places Jake's deepening distress with his dysfunctional family as a springboard for his ever developing sleuth skills.
Fascinating characters add to the brilliant and efficient pace of this story, which seems to shift emphasis at various points to take in the all-encompassing supernatural nature of the tale. Much like old horror films, deliberately hiding the monster makes it all the more frightening, and the darkness in this story looms just outside the circus of Jake's life. It calls, and he answers. The author takes you on that journey and you read much about what it is to be alive, through Jake. And you thank him at the end of the story, and Lisa Polisar welcomes you.

One might describe The Ghost of Mary Prairie as a coming-of-age story, but it's much more than that.

The protagonist, Jake Leeds, faces up to the terrifying circumstances of his fifteenth summer. Virtually abandoned by his family and goaded on by friends, he sets off on a night of initiation on the wild Oklahoma prairie. The vision he experiences triggers a chain of events that forces the young man to confront his worst fears and struggle against seemingly overwhelming odds.

Polisar weaves the tale in the first-person narrative voice of a male teenager. Maintaining authenticity of voice while transposing gender from author to character is no mean task, a task that Polisar executes expertly in this tense and captivating tale. As the story unfolds, characters and scenes appear vivid and surreal, and the reader is swept up in tides of rushing adrenaline and adolescent hormones, and, along with Jake, the reader is held hostage till the end.

The suggestion of evil is always more powerful than the dissection of it. So, if you're looking for pulpy, graphic description, look elsewhere. This book overflows with implied metaphors and the powerful insinuation of poetic imagery, rendering it literary.

"It was strange being able to sense the formation of the funnel without actually seeing it. The train was moving about fifty miles per hour, and I kept changing my mind about whether our speed was helping or not....From the aisle seat, I watched a sand flurry fill the air...just like someone had yanked up a giant tablecloth. Then the howl started. The rain pounded onto the east windows with fist-sized hailstones on the other side....The train car shook like an old washing machine now. I couldn't imagine it staying on the track. Women shrieked, babies were crying, and the men all had stone-white faces....The funnel thinned out, branched apart, and then braided itself together again, spraying the empty landscape with a destructive fury of grass, rain, hail, mud, steel, and wood, catching and releasing at the same time, using anything in its path to snowball its size."

As for the "suggestion of evil," our leaders and the press broadcast daily messages of fear and future-fear, with no end in sight. This obsession with fear could well be balanced with a message about personal sacrifice, hope, and courage. For an exploration of these virtues, read The Ghost of Mary Prairie, a novel for our time.

"The Ghost of Mary Prairie" is a mystery that's being solved by 15-year-old Jake Leeds. Jakes spends a night outside as an initiation and meets the ghost of a young girl whose murder was never solved. The encounter devastates Jake and he sets out to solve the murder as a way of coping with the encounter. This comes at a time when his family's disfunctions have broken through the surface and rendered his mom, dad and unmarried, teenage sister -- who has just had a baby -- incapable of support or even kindness. His connection to his best friend Mikey is getting frayed as Jake outgrows his immature childhood pal. And Jake has just met his first almost-girlfriend who provides more confusion than comfort.

So Jake's journey toward solving Mary Prairie's murder is a combination of a search for his soul as his life crumbles -- and an escape from his ambiguous and impossible-to-fulfill responsibilities to his family and Mikey.

This is quite the burden on young Jake. But Jake is smart, inquisitive and self-reliant. Desperation has given him strength, so he's up to the task. We eagerly follow him as he unearths clues amid his broken world.

The magic in this book is Jake's voice. Polisar uses first person to put us right in the heart of Jake's ragged spirit. It's a wonderfully rich voice that tells the truth without flinching. That voice carries us well as Jake moves through painful confusion to understanding and acceptance of his family's rotten secrets as he solves Mary's murder.

I am a former fifth grade instructor, a National Board Certified Teacher, and a college professor in Teacher Preparation. I highly recommend the Grandmother Stories series to elementary and early childhood instructors and parents who are homeschooling their children. The books have appropriate vocabulary and tell stories that explain nature in a creative manner. I learned several things I did not know about nature and its interactions from these books. Children love to have the books read to them and to read them to themselves. Duvall and Jacobs are a wonderful creative force as they merge their talents to produce books that will be enjoyed for generations to come.

This review by Melanie Tait appeared in the Spring, 2005 issue of the Journal of the Association for Childhood Education International: This is a delightful retelling of a Cherokee legend explaining how the rabbit lost his long, luxurious tail and how the otter learned to love swimming. It also teaches valuable lessons about pride, deceit and justice. The story is told in language simple enough for young independent readers, but would make an entertaining read aloud as well. The beautifully detailed black-and-white illustrations capture the essence of the story and set the scene for the traditional tale. Even the cover background and endpapers are intriguing. This book would be of particular interest to young people learning about or celebrating Native American cultures. Ages 6-12.

Stories abound in the Native culture about how the rabbit lost its tail, but few are so elegantly presented as this one. The dialogue and the story line keep a child's interest piqued, page after page, and the illustrations are a feast for the eyes. And of course, there is a happy ending for Ji-Stu the Rabbit. Now he can run through the woods much faster "without that troublesome tail!"

Deborah Duvall and Murv Jacob have brought the old Cherokee animal tales back to life with their How Rabbit Lost His Tail and their other titles in this series from the University of New Mexico Press. The old tales, recorded previously in mostly pedantic prose for dusty scholars to peruse, have been rewritten by Duvall in lively and very readable English for young readers and old alike, and they are lavishly illustrated by Jacob. The tales involve Ji-Stu, Rabbit, the Cherokee Trickster, who embodies all the characteristics of man: pride, arrogance, greed, deceit ("The path to the dance grounds followed the river that ran through the Cherokee lands. In some places where the river curved, the water formed deep pools that reflected the river bank above. Each time he passed such a pool, Ji-Stu stopped just long enough to look at his reflection, for he was very proud.") He even occasionally shows courage.
You can't go wrong in picking up How Rabbit Lost His Tail or any of the other beautifully illustrated books in this series, for you will enjoy them, your children will marvel at them, and you may even learn something about Cherokee culture or about human behavior from reading them. (...)

The Grandmother Stories are eloquent, beautifully illustrated tales that recapture the imagination of Native America. Debbie Duvall and Murv Jacob have done a brilliant job of revisiting the mythic world of Rabbit, Bear and Otter, and introducing them to a contemporary audience. These characters are timeless, as are their stories, and readers of all ages will delight in their antics and unique insights. - Teresa Miller, Center for Writers and Poets, OSU Tulsa