Pacific Books

This book provides descriptions of all the parks in the area it covers, with maps that show nearly all hiking trails and advice on when is the best time of year for each. I wish the equivalent books for other parts of the bay area were this complete.

For over a year this book has been my bible for selecting hikes in the south bay area. The authors' trail descriptions are vivid, and their routes are planned well. I have two major grievances: first, their loquacious style can make it hard to determine exactly what turns you're supposed to take and when. Secondly, finding a hike is too cumbersome: you go to page 18 to search the map for the park you want, then back to the table of contents to find the page number for the park, then forward to the actual content. The map should be in the very front or back of the book and should include page numbers. Despite those annoyances, I still bring this book with me every weekend, and can recommend it as a good guide.

This is a wonderful book that goes into great deatil about the many trails in and around the South Bay. It breaks down the area by specific parks and then suggested hikes, including mileage, elevation loss or gain, and time. It even has a neat little appendix outlining hikes by category (ie., short hikes, hikes to see spring flowers, etc.) The text is detailed, explaining what you will find around every bend, and the historical information on the parks is very interesting. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to get out and away from the hustle and bustle of Silicon Valley.

I just replaced my battered copy of the first edition with the latest, third one, and it's a real winner! These authors' books are always educational, interesting and complete. And best of all they lead one into many fine hiking adventures around the bay. I've spent many a fine summer day following their instructions. It's about time they put out a new edition, because of all the new parks and trails they had to cover. Recommended!

Carey McWilliams has been called "the single finest nonfiction writer on California--ever." This book, along with *California: The Great Exception* (1949), helped establish that reputation. Drawing on McWilliams's deep insight and remarkable versatility--he moved easily between the worlds of politics, law, literature, and journalism--this book, even after six decades, still captures the spirit and energy of a region that seems to remake itself continuously. *Southern California* has influenced not only journalists and academics, but also artists. One of its chapters, for example, inspired Robert Towne's Oscar-winning original screenplay for *Chinatown* (1974).

Unlike most historians, McWilliams also made history by serving in state government, arguing against the Japanese internment during World War II, and defending the rights of workers, minorities, and the unjustly accused--frequently in high-profile cases such as the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial and the Hollywood 10. In one critical area after another, McWilliams mapped the social and political territory, raised the main issues, distilled the key facts, and proposed the most practical remedies. He's probably the most versatile American public intellectual of the 20th century, and *Southern California* is one of his masterpieces. Highly recommended.

Originally published in 1946, McWilliams describes the socio-historical and economic formations of Southern California from the "bottom up" in a way uncharacteristic for his time period. He unveils the racist, eurocentric, environmentally devastating, materialistic and otherwise ruthless basis for the area's hegemonic culture, economy, and social relations. Moreover, he adds great insight into the incorporation of California into the world capitalist system. He covers the use, abuse, and devastation of various peoples in the area including Native Americans, Californios, Chinese, Japanese, Oklahomans and Mexicans. He also offers insight into the materialism or 'fake' culture which has emerged from the area only to exploit the cultures it has destroyed. The book is a bit long winded at times, but overall is a must read for anyone intersted in the topics I've described. It would be of interest to anyone who appreciates Almaguer's Racial Faultlines, Pitt's The Californios, or even Montejano's Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas.

For all residents of Southern California past, present, or potential, there can be no better book about this unmatchable part of the world. Past residents (like myself) will sigh with fond remembrance, current residents will be amused, and potential future residents will be astonished. All will be entertained. The land, the geography, the history, and the weather. They're all discussed. The social outcasts, the wierd misfits, the kooks, the characters, and their schemes and dreams. It's all here, along with so very much more. Written by a longtime resident in a very entertaining style that combines dinner conversation with classroom lecture, this book will be a joy to anyone who has a love for the irreplacable experience of Living In Southern California. You will truly FEEL as though you are there. This book is one for the heart as well as the mind. Oh Los Angeles, how I miss you. Carey McWilliams, thanks for taking me back.

....California historian known to me, with his pithy style, his endlessly fascinating observations, and his anecdotes, rich in history and amusing in detail, which unlike the rivers of my state flow one after the other without any damming. I'm a native of Southern California, and I have yet to find a better book on this territory even though this one was originally penned in the late 40's.

The colonizers, the boosters, the flamboyant pillars of society who bamboozled, bulldozed, and boutiqued their way into California: they and other characters appear on the McWilliams stage in a fascinating--and at times disturbing--progression in which the land itself, that most neglected of characters, puts in appearances too. For we Southern Californians live in a land of constant paradoxes; to quote the author ("The Land of Upside Down"):

"To their amazement"--he means tourists--"they discovered that umbrellas were useless against the drenching rains of Southern California but that they made good shade in the summer; that many of the beautifully colored flowers had no scent; that fruit ripened earlier in the northern than in the southern part of the state; that it was hot in the morning and cool at noon...here, in this paradoxical land, rats lived in the trees and squirrels had their homes in the ground." No wonder we're all a bit topsy-turvy out here.

My one objection: I disagree with the author's description of the early Missions as "concentration camps." That through disease and, later, a mis-education that left the Native converts vulnerable to ranchero exploitation and settler genocide is beyond question; but however misguided their efforts, those early padres had no conscious agenda of wiping out a people. Nevertheless, McWilliams's detailed accounts of Mission life provide a much-needed antidote to the idealization and denial and Eurocentric bias that saturate most Mission histories.

If you want to know Southern California better, then of course you must stand on her soil and listen to her voices; but you could do much worse for an intro-at-a-distance than this fine book, which fellow natives will find confirming and eye-opening.

I was excited when I bought this book, since it is the School of Cooking. It is a very good book, but I was expecting traditional meals from the Santa Fe area. In fact, the food items are from a more modern perspective instead of traditional. The book itself is excellent. It is just that I was fooled about the content as far as what type of foods to expect.

If I was looking for the more modern type of cooking that is featured in this book, I would have given it five stars. As far as that goes, the book covers everything anyone would need to know.

If you are looking for traditional New Mexican cooking, I give it four stars, since most of the recipes are ultra-modern with new taste combinations. The background information is very interesting to read and also very informative.

Excellent recipes! You'll thoroughly enjoy this as well if not better than the first cookbook by the Santa Fe School of Cooking.

After experiencing authentic southwest cuisine in wonderful old west locations like Durango, Colorado, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, I had to have some more of it back here in northeastern Pennsylvania. This book does it all, with a terrific range of tasty recipes - literally from soup to nuts - and its text is fully complimented by tasteful color photography and artwork.
It makes a great gift for your favorite cook - trust me, I know !

We have always been fascinated by the cuisine of Santa Fe, a new age culinary vortex that attracts the most creative spirits in the food world. Like Cuban food, the Santa Fe style blends cooking modes and techniques from several cultures -- Spanish, Native American, Mexican, and Anglo -- to create a rich new cuisine. We enjoy the fresh new tastes and the vitality of the Santa Fe School of Cooking.

Of course, Santa Fe cuisine is unlike Cuban cuisine in its celebration of the pepper in all of its varieties. Where Cuban food sticks to the mild side of the pepper world, cooking Santa Fe style allows us to really take a walk on the wild side with hot and spicy peppers. When we want to really spice things up in the kitchen, we really enjoy these recipes with their use of a dozen or more chiles that define Santa Fe cuisine.

Somehow the authors of Southwest Cuisine have managed to create a style of "Haute Cuisine" without being pretentious, and that is an amazing accomplishment. No matter how sophisticated the dish, this is food that remains true to its more humble roots and never loses the earthiness and sincerity of its food origins.

We enjoy rice and we have been making rice pudding for ages. The authors include a savory version of rice pudding that is a real treat! Other favorites include the orange cilantro salsa, cream cheese pie with pineapple coconut sauce, and a unique "lasagna" laced with smoky chipotle and a poblano pesto that is very original. The roasted pineapple salsa has also proved very popular at our house. We've tried it with the fiery turkey as suggested in the book, but it also works well with several of our own dishes -- at least for the more adventurous eaters in our circle.

Southwest Flavors is an ideal book for people who enjoy entertaining with food. If you have a creative flair in the kitchen, this book will inspire you to think outside the box and will open up whole new pathways for your own creations. If you have been stuck in a less-than-creative food rut, this book will take you places you've never been before. With a clean look and excellent food photography, this book is a joy to cook with.

Also recommended: Three Guys From Miami Cook Cuban, and Three Guys From Miami Celebrate Cuban.

This book is an interesting combination of both quality games and history. It traces the development of the soviet chess shool right from the times of petrov down to the big k`s. Has very interesting games from all the big soviet players like petrov,chigorin,botvinnik,tal,kasparov,karpov to mention a few. Makes an interesting commentary on their styles of play, tries to analyze their weakpoints and gives some excellent games with detailed analysis. Back in the 80`S when i first learnt chess, i found it one of the most intersting books which made me delve deeper into chess. Believe me, buy this book and i assure you that you wouldnt want to part with it for a fortune. One of the gems of the Mir publishers

For four decades - barring the brief intervention of Bobby Fischer - the Soviet Union dominated world chess and Russian grandmasters continue to lead the world even after the demise of the country they once represented. This is an account of the hegemony of the most powerful state-supported chess juggernaut ever created, written at the apex of Soviet success. The book outlines the triumphs achieved by the Stalin-inspired drive to establish the USSR as the planet's leading chess dynamo. This is a hymn to the socialist utopia in which the goal of sporting success in general and chess victory in particular replace religion as the opium of the masses. The Soviet School of Chess is the Bible which recounts this movement, written by two experts who were positioned at the very heart of this grandiose initiative. Alexander Kotov represented the USSR in two World Championship Candidates Tournaments and went on to become a senior official of the Soviet Chess Federation. Mikhail Yudovich was a chess journalist and Correspondence Chess Grandmaster.

the authors were at the very centre of the soviet chess programme and here they give thumbnail sketches of all the top russian champions and grandmasters as well as useful insights into the broader chess movement supported by the state which backed them up. the book is also valuable as an insight into soviet society and the type of conformism it demanded-for example petrosian is criticised for lack of fighting spirit-actually he had his own way of fighting and later became world chess champion.this edition is published by hardinge simpole press.

I would reccomend this book to anyone who is interested in studying and improving their chess. It gives a wonderfully interesting history of the soviet masters, with plenty of illustrative games. Then it also opens your eyes to the way that the top soviets increased their strength. I personally got more from this book than I did from the Think Like a Grandmaster series. afterwards i took a new look at the board in familiar opennings and thought of new ideas, and when I later did alittle research on them, I found that they were used by many of the top grandmasters of the 60's but have since gone out of fashion. the only reason that I didn't give it 5 stars, is cause comrad Kotov's voice gets on my nerves a little too much. I little bit too pro communism for my taste.

Stonesifer is a voice we really have to heed. He seems so much your average disappointed middle-aged guy at first. But after being in his head awhile I really started to get very tense. This might have been what Ted Bundy would have sounded like if he had ever told his own true story. The thing is Stonesifer makes such a powerful case for why he's become what he has. Thankfully this isn't a true story, but you certainly get the feeling it could be.

I have to admit I get suspicious when I read so many great reviews online about a book I've never heard of or seen reviewed in major publications. But in this case the reader reviewers are really right. Stonesifer is a wonderful book of its type. I guess I wouldn't really call it a mystery, but it certainly is a mystery why it doesn't have tons of readers. I would think this author would have a huge audience if people just knew about his book. It really has some amazing insights about the present state of affairs in the battle between the sexes. Plus, a lot of fascinating takes on San Francisco and the New York publishing scene.

I happened to buy this book in San Francisco while I was there this July. Whee!!! Does it ever capture what it's like to be in SF in the summer. It also captures what it feels like a lot of the time now if you're a man approaching middle age without nearly as much as you'd hoped for to show for your years. This author really knows San Francisco and his character. I actually read part of this book on Ocean Beach on a day so cold it was nearly empty. Just about every day while I was there was like that, but I hardly noticed what it was like around me while I was reading. The author really pulls you right inside his character from the get-go and keeps you there the whole way. A great read.

One of the things that makes this book very unique is how the author puts the reader inside of the mind of a very intelligent, even sensitive killer. We are able to view not only Stonesifer's sordid actions, but all the intimate thought processes...the motivations, rationale, and even the self-criticism with which he flogs himself. This is a thriller for the thinking reader. We are able to look at murder from the standpoint of the perpetrator and understand--if not condone--the act. This is the best introspective story I've ever read on this subject. I believe it is a must-read for anyone interested in the psychology of violent crime.

We had to make a cover for the book and write a little thing on the back for school before we read the book. And none of us got to see the real cover except for the teachers pet. Then we read it. The only problem was that we could only read two chapters a week and them we had to write a journal entry. But I liked the book all the same.

An excellent story about a group of families traveling for new opportunities in San Bernardino, California. Told through the eyes of 14 year old Luann, it gives a detailed description of the hardships encountered by just about all pioneers, from famine, greedy travelers, sickness and the long hard winters. An excellent story for ages 8-?. I also recommend the sequel, "The Valley in between" which continues the family saga, as seen through Luann's sister, Ellie.

I read straight along a crooked road in 8th grade, it was the best book i ever read. I also went out and read the sequal. I'm a little upset that they have stopped publishing this book, cuz that means that you can not buy it anywhere.

This book is excellent. I've been reading it to my fourth graders since Marilyn Cram Donohue came to speak at our school during Children's Book Week. It is based on real events, and gives students a real feel for what it was like to make the difficult journey across America. We always enjoy the fact that they settle in San Bernardino, which is next to where my students live. This book has so many authentic details as well as romance, heartbreak, and a sense of adventure. It is always a favorite with my students!

Tours of Shanghai's former Jewish Ghettoes are popular, and the fact they are offered gives you a sense of the importance of the Jews' contributions to the city's past. For those who want to delve deeper and who want the stories behind the stories told and the buildings seen on the tours, there is Rena Krasno's Strangers Always.

Krasno was born in Shanghai in 1923 to stateless Russian Jewish parents. Krasno lived there her entire life until expats were forced out of China in 1945. The author includes detailed, yet concise, background information--including newspaper articles and some Japanese propaganda pieces--about issues that affected her daily life during this era and her reactions to the world around her. She tries to puzzle out the truth behind the propaganda and figure out what is the real status of the war, for example. She also attempts to illustrate how the lives of the various groups of people in Shanghai intersected and how the ways in which people interacted changed.

Although the book focuses on the war years of 1942 to 1945, she provides other interesting information as well. One of the worthwhile tangents Krasno provides is the story of her parents' emigration. Her father, David Rabinovich, left Russian for Siberia, and then went on to Harbin. As the Russian Jews picked up their lives again in Harbin, they began to suffer hardships at the hands of White Russian Fascists and the Japanese. Eventually, Rabinovich and many other Jews left Harbin to try their luck in the more tolerant city of Shanghai. There, Rabinovich met and married his wife and became the editor of a Russian Jewish newspaper called Our Life. He also served as the honorary secretary of the Shanghai Ashkenazi Jewish community. Krasno's mother owned a children's dress and toy shop called Peter Pan. Luckily, during Ghettoization this little shop kept the family fed. One of the fun anecdotes about the store involves writer and personality Emily Hahn, who shopped there for clothing for her pet gibbon.

Other notable side stories include the history of the Opium trade, the background of the Bund, and the story of Jewish immigrant Silas Hardoon and his impact on the city.

Although the book deals with a difficult time in Shanghai's history, Krasno's account maintains a lighthearted, youthful exuberance. Despite the air raid sirens and bombs going off around her, food shortages, and other hardships of wartime, young Rena remains determined to pursue her education and insists on having as much fun as is humanly possible under these unusual conditions. Fortunately, she wrote down all of these elements of her life in Shanghai for us to contemplate in the 21st Century.

Strangers Always is a quick and satisfying read. I found it better than some of the other war time memoirs for its style, tone, and level of details. The book will appeal, of course, to readers interested in the history of Jews in Shanghai, but also to readers interested in WWII era Shanghai or immigrant life during the boom years in general.

This book is the memoir of a young woman from a Russian Jewish family growing up in Shanghai during World War II. The setting is multicultural, multilingual and multiracial, and the author provides fascinating details from the history of a city that no longer exists. Shanghai had Chinese, White Russian, French, British, American, German, Iraqi and many other citizens. The author lived there under the Japanese occupation, but this is not a Holocaust story. Some people were interned and imprisoned, and there was some anti-Semitism, but there were no mass deportations to death camps or a "final solution" as was taking place in Europe. The city was full of refugees from many governments, including Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, Fascist Italy and Franco's Spain, as well as "stateless" people, many of whom had escaped to China following the Russian Revolution. The author documents publications of the day, Japanese propaganda, and news from the U.S. and its allies. She also explains well what happened to various people later, what rumors turned out to be true or false, and gives her sources. First-rate research, good writing, and an interesting story add up to a great read. I add that I read this after becoming interested in pre-Communist Shanghai after reading Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans. If you liked that book, try a real-life version!

This book is the memoir of a young woman from a Russian Jewish family growing up in Shanghai during World War II. The setting is multicultural, multilingual and multiracial, and the author provides fascinating details from the history of a city that no longer exists. Shanghai had Chinese, White Russian, French, British, American, German, Iraqi and many other citizens. The author lived there under the Japanese occupation, but this is not a Holocaust story. Some people were interned and imprisoned, and there was some anti-Semitism, but there were no mass deportations to death camps or a "final solution" as was taking place in Europe. The city was full of refugees from many governments, including Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, Fascist Italy and Franco's Spain, as well as "stateless" people, many of whom had escaped to China following the Russian Revolution. The author documents publications of the day, Japanese propaganda, and news from the U.S. and its allies. She also explains well what happened to various people later, what rumors turned out to be true or false, and gives her sources. First-rate research, good writing, and an interesting story add up to a great read. I add that I read this after becoming interested in pre-Communist Shanghai after reading Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans. If you liked that book, try a real-life version!

I wanted to share my personal experiences in Shanghai both before World War II and during the Japanese occupation (1923-1949). I base my book on my private diaries, notes taken during radio broadcasts, and years of research. My father, who at the time was the Editor of the best known Jewish weekly in Shanghai and Honorable Secretary of the Russian Jewish community, put all his personal papers at my disposal. This book describes the end of imperialism in Shanghai and, I believe, is of interest to the general public, Jews and non-Jews alike. Rena Krasno, author.

I was particularly interested in reading this book in that my father served in the same Division as Mr. Wilson, the author. I was surprised to discover 1/2 way through that Mr. Wilson and my Dad were likely in the same section (messages), headquaters company, 3rd batallion of the 41st Division. While I have read several books and accounts of the 41st Division's WWII history, this is the first that gave me a sense of what day to day life was actually like for the soldiers that fought in jungles of New Guinea. Mr. Wilson - thank you for writing this account. I would love to get the chance to talk with you some day.

Written from the authors experiences in the south pacific durring WW2. As the author tells his war adventure he throws in little painless history lessons. well written, quick easy read. I would love to see more war veterans document their experiences.

From an old Navy veteran: The book is rather short and in some cases repetitive, but from my studies of WWII in the Pacific this is an authentic, first-person account of this soldier's memory of the war against a sadistic, evil, brutal, suicidal enemy. I especially agree with his opinion that the U.S. Army was often overlooked when someone wrote about the war in the Pacific with so much press given to the bloody battles of the U.S. Marines. Don't misunderstand, the Marines were in some miserable, bloody, awful campaigns, but so were soldiers and sailors and they seldom get the recognition due them. This book gives some of that recognition to the soldiers.

This is a great story of the GIs who served in the 41st "Sunset" Divsion and fought their way from New Guinea to the Philippines. A great personal memoir of a young soldier who, due to his vast resourcefulness, made the most of his overseas experience. My Dad served in the 163rd "Montana" Regiment of the 41st Division, and though the author was in the 162nd Regiment, his telling of what it was like over there must have been similar to what Dad went through. Dad would only occasionally mention in a sentence or two something about the War and New Guinea. Thanks, Paul Wilson, for giving us a detailed account of the experience. This book should appeal greatly to anyone interested in Pacific War, it was a quick read and hard to put down!

Reviewer Will Murphy: "First of all, this work was not written by Jean Meslier, and the real title is not 'Superstition In All Ages.' In reality, this work is Baron d'Holbach's masterpiece, 'Good' or 'Common Sense.' Due to the severe restrictions on the press in the 18th century, d'Holbach published virtually all of his work under the names of famous dead people. Amazingly, the only edition of this fine work that is still in print does not even credit the real author of the work! Nevertheless, the substance of the book is the same. To be honest, this is one of the best atheist tracts ever written. It is a more cogent presentation of the ideas that Holbach set forth in his famous 'System of Nature.' He completely destroys any rationale for 'God,' or anything else of the supernatural bent. He relentlessly attacks Christian dogma, revealing just how truly absurd it is. Moreover, he also demonstrates how harmful religion has been to individuals and to societies, and why it is a highly immoral force. Overall, this is still a devastating and profound exposition of atheist ideas. Although I agree with most of his ideas, I must admit that I am not inclined to follow his materialism or determinism/fatalism. Beyond this, I would recommend this work to both atheists and theists alike. The former will be exposed to some refreshing ideas, and the latter will surely be in for quite the shock, as their superstitions will be thoroughly undermined, if of course, they make use of their rational faculites."

Reviewer Will Murphy: "First of all, this work was not written by Jean Meslier, and the real title is not 'Superstition In All Ages.' In reality, this work is Baron d'Holbach's masterpiece, 'Good' or 'Common Sense.' Due to the severe restrictions on the press in the 18th century, d'Holbach published virtually all of his work under the names of famous dead people. Amazingly, the only edition of this fine work that is still in print does not even credit the real author of the work! Nevertheless, the substance of the book is the same. To be honest, this is one of the best atheist tracts ever written. It is a more cogent presentation of the ideas that Holbach set forth in his famous 'System of Nature.' He completely destroys any rationale for 'God,' or anything else of the supernatural bent. He relentlessly attacks Christian dogma, revealing just how truly absurd it is. Moreover, he also demonstrates how harmful religion has been to individuals and to societies, and why it is a highly immoral force. Overall, this is still a devastating and profound exposition of atheist ideas. Although I agree with most of his ideas, I must admit that I am not inclined to follow his materialism or determinism/fatalism. Beyond this, I would recommend this work to both atheists and theists alike. The former will be exposed to some refreshing ideas, and the latter will surely be in for quite the shock, as their superstitions will be thoroughly undermined, if of course, they make use of their rational faculites."

First of all, this work was not written by Jean Meslier, and the real title is not "Superstition In All Ages." In reality, this work is Baron d'Holbach's masterpiece, "Good" or "Common Sense." Due to the severe restrictions on the press in the 18th century, d'Holbach published virtually all of his work under the names of famous dead people. Amazingly, the only edition of this fine work that is still in print does not even credit the real author of the work! Nevertheless, the substance of the book is the same. To be honest, this is one of the best atheist tracts ever written. It is a more cogent presentation of the ideas that Holbach set forth in his famous "System of Nature." He completely destroys any rationale for "God," or anything else of the supernatural bent. He relentlessly attacks Christian dogma, revealing just how truly absurd it is. Moreover, he also demonstrates how harmful religion has been to individuals and to societies, and why it is a highly immoral force. Overall, this is still a devastating and profound exposition of atheist ideas. Although I agree with most of his ideas, I must admit that I am not inclined to follow his materialism or determinism/fatalism. Beyond this, I would recommend this work to both atheists and theists alike. The former will be exposed to some refreshing ideas, and the latter will surely be in for quite the shock, as their superstitions will be thoroughly undermined, if of course, they make use of their rational faculites.

Tough and going right for the kneecaps, this book is a masterpiece. Many of these arguments still have religious types scratching their heads.

When you read this book you can see a lot of research went into it. Makes all the difference. I really injoyed reading this book. Thanks Sus

The fact that Weldon Willis Rau is a geologist who has turned his talents to the writing of history lends a special flavor to his book, Surviving the Oregon Trail, 1852. Basing much of his work on the notes left by his great grandparents, Willis and Mary Ann Boatman, Rau gives us a gripping and factual story of the wagon trip west from Illinois to Oregon Territory in that pioneer time nearly a century and a half ago. The recounting begins with the sorrows of leaving home and parting from loved ones. The sad picture of an old grandfather, waving a tearful goodbye, knowing that he will never see his beloved young ones again, moves the reader to compassion. Children as well as adults are disturbed by the upheaval of unprecedented departure. The trek to the Missouri River was not easy, but was yet a rather civilized journey compared to what was to lie ahead. Crossing at about the site of present-day Omaha the Boatmans followed the Platte and the North Platte westward toward Wyoming. Sickness was the great affliction along the those river banks. Many of the westward travellers died, particularly of cholera. Along the way. Mary Ann Boatman's young brother was among those lost to disease. Wyoming and Idaho offered many hills to climb, streams to ford or ferry, steep slopes to descend, and scenic wonders new and remarkable to folks from Illinois. Water for all and grazing for the cows and draft oxen were often hard to find. Dust whirled up by the wheels of the wagons and the hooves of the animals choked all the travelers in various places. In Oregon the great gorge of the Columbia was a traverse not equalled elsewhere on earth. During the gorge trek Willis Boatman's brother, John, died, leaving Willis and a pregnant Mary Ann the only family members left in the trip. The two arrived in Portland exhausted and nearly broke. Weldon Rau tells this story with great feeling and understanding. His respect for his pioneeer ancestors is manifest. Clearly he has explored nearly the whole route his great grandparents travelled. And his explanations of the geology that formed these Oregon Trail lands adds greatly to the reader's undertanding. This book is a welcome addition to any library.

I have known the author for more than 30 years, so I have been aware of his 15-year effort to research, write, and publish this book as it unfolded. It is with pleasure, therefore, that I can attest to how well crafted it is. Rau tells the story of his great-grandparents' journey by employing extensive quotes from their written accounts and from the accounts of other 1852 Oregon Trail travelers. These quotes are woven together and amplified by Rau's observations of the physical, cultural, and social settings they experienced, including how the geology along the way influenced the development of the terrain. The book is also very well edited. I found but one typographical error and two place names missing from one map.

Besides being very well crafted, the book has left me with several strong impressions. The travelers, especially the men, approached the trip with a sense of romanticism. It was going to be a grand adventure with a pot of gold waiting at the end. A very different reality forced its way into their consciousness as the trip unfolded. The trip brought out all the best and worst traits of the travelers and those who sought to serve and usually profit from them along the way. They experienced disease, death, and discomfort. They and others suffered from cholera, scurvy, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Mary Ann and Willis' brothers both died on the trip, as did many others they met along the way. Mary Ann was pregnant for the whole trip and had to walk much of the way, in addition to performing the cooking and other housekeeping chores that fell to her. In addition there were extremes of weather, loneliness, homesickness, sorrow, grief, resignation, thievery, greed, and hardheadedness. These were balanced by bravery, resoluteness, kindness, compassion, neighborliness, concern, and assistance, sometimes from people they didn't even know. The journey had but three possible outcomes; they had to turn back and reach their former homes, get to the Willamette Valley, or die before winter hit. In some ways their journey can be compared with what the first interplanetary travelers will experience. Indeed, even after Willis and mary Ann reached the relative safety of the Willamette Valley and then the Puget Sound country, for years they felt as isolated and separated from their families as if they were on another planet.

If you have had no real appreciation for the magnitude of the feat that Oregon Trail travelers accomplished, you will have when you finish this book.

The amount of determination, courage and fortitude to travel the continent as an overlander in 1852 must have been unimaginable. This is a remarkable first hand account of the Boatman's journey from Illinois to the Oregon Territory, along with quotes from other overlanders' diaries during the same year. Suffering from the heat, thirst, food shortages for both emigrants and livestock, the cold, rain, mud, river crossings, cholera epidemics and other illnesses, exhaustion and death to many who attempted such an endeavor, this book has it all. The author, a decendent of the Boatmans, has put forth a most wonderful book depicting the hardships and misfortunes of the early day pioneers. A+