North America Books


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North America Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

North America
Atlas of the North American Indian
Published in Paperback by Facts on File (1995-08)
Author: Carl Waldman
List price: $18.95
New price: $12.00
Used price: $0.76
Collectible price: $18.95

Average review score:

Decent reference
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-12-25
this book is farely well written. The images are good, and the quality of the data is decent.

Thoroughly written
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-21
Very well researched and written book! If you are interested in Native American past and cultures, this is a great resource.

North American Indian Research
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-06
I am using this as part of my research to aid me with the series of paintings I am doing of North American Indians from the period 1850 through 1910. I found it interesting that of the paintings I have completed thus far, I often get asked by Native Americans if I have yet done any paintings of members of their tribes. This book helps with the geographical aspects of where my subjects may have been located at the time they lived.

Good info, well organized
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-03
While I enjoy this book and its wealth of info and maps, it is a shame that the only map in color is on the cover. 4.5 stars.

A complete and useful guide
Helpful Votes: 20 out of 20 total.
Review Date: 2006-04-09
A good resource for any student entering the field of North American Indian studies, this book is carefully organised and rendered. Waldman traces the many facets that have been used to explain who the North American Indians were, how they lived and where. The text is clear and direct, well-suited to the novice in this area of study. The wealth of maps and other illustrative material well supports the narrative, although space restrictions force a certain level of clutter at times.

Waldman opens the book with a description of how humans arrived in the Western Hemisphere. The "Ancient Civilizations" of Mesoamerica, such as the Olmec and Maya are well summarised, before the author turns to the Southwest peoples - the Anasazi, Hohokan and Salado communities. He explains the often overlooked or poorly considered Moundbuilders of the Lower Midwest. The section on "Indian Lifeways" turns to areas like California, the Pacific Coast, and Subarcic regions. While these peoples didn't achieve the strongly hierarchical civilisations of Mesoamerica, their various social structures were complex and dynamic. Their economic systems allowed them to endure and they adapted well to change, something too often lacking in Mesoamerica. To a limited extent, the geography and environment hosting these people granted them the flexibility to maintain a dynamic society, even in precarious conditions.

One aspect of life they were poorly prepared for was the European intrusion. Waldman sets aside a section to introduce the problems introduced by European colonisation. The litany of wars and rebellions take up a hundred pages of the text. The accompanying maps showing battle sites sparkle with stars indicating clash sites. Some of these wars have almost disappeared from historical accounts of North American settlement. It's a good reminder of how the whites took over the hemisphere and what cost that hegemony extracted from the native population.

In time, war was replaced by "Land Cessions" and resettlement. The reservation system, never a fixed idea, is carefully explained by Waldman. The modern result of reservation communities and the ambivalent policies surrounding both the settlements and their populations gave rise to a new awareness among Indian people. The poor acknowledgement of Indian contributions in two world wars was but one of many irritants leading to "uprisings" at Wounded Knee and elsewhere. The author goes on to list major Indian government agencies and Indian organisations and facilities. Indian place names, often overlooked, are listed, with the modern "nation" structures for the US and Canada provided. In all, this book will be a firm base from which to expand a study of Indian circumstances for the future. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

North America
How to Succeed in Business Without Being White: Straight Talk on Making It in America
Published in Hardcover by HarperCollins Publishers (1997-05)
Author: Earl G. Graves
List price: $25.00
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Average review score:

www.valderbeebeshow.com
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-05
Contemporary
How to Succeed in Business Without Being White: Straight Talk on Making It in America
by Earl G. Graves - Collins; Reprint edition (1998)
As a journalist, I have spent time professionally with Mr. Earl G. Graves, and he is the embodiment of his values, principles, inspiration and ideas that are expressed in this enduring success book. Readers are guaranteed by Graves' character to be richer for reading the thoughts and actions of the author.

A bit bitter!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-11
I was surprised and disappointed with the level of bitterness that laced the pages of 'How to Succeed...,' by Earl Graves. That the U.S. remains racially divided is an unfortunate given, it has always been and will always be so. Mr. Graves pays little, if any, attention to the merits of early childhood education and the importance it holds later in life. I came across Black Enterprise magazine roughly twenty years ago and I fell in love with his concept of "delayed gratification," and the level of logic I thought the concept represents. With that in mind, I was expecting a methodical and proven strategy for success in America in spite of racism. Although this book does give the requisite good advice, (debt elimination and education) it's more a treatise of bitterness, than a self-help book of business mobility.

The Greates
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-06
Earl Graves is one of the greatest and Prominent entrepreneurs in America. His business strategies and inside information and wisdom will help advance any aspiring entrepreneur. I highly recommend this book, it should be included in every business persons library.

Adra Young: Ardannyl
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-20
A Phenomenal read! Earl G. Graves provides African Americans and all Americans effective strategies on what it takes to live the American Dream. I truly enjoyed the section titled, The Top Ten Reasons. A descendent of Barbados, The CEO of Black Enterprise Magazine explains how with determination you can have and become anything you desire in life despite of your race.

Adra Young
Author of: The Everyday Living of Children & Teens Monologues

Wise Soul in the Business World
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-07
I like Earl Graves' message with this book. He is very straightforward in principles of success in business and he is very good about giving credit where credit is due. He gives strong advice and has the track record (and magazine) to prove it.

North America
Hypersonic: The Story of the North American X-15 (Specialty Press) (Specialty Press)
Published in Paperback by Specialty Pr Pub & Wholesalers (2008-07-15)
Authors: Tony R. Landis and Dennis R. Jenkins
List price: $26.95
New price: $16.90
Used price: $19.38

Average review score:

load it in ball's 8 and launch it again¡¡
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-10-13

Since my chilhood I've been intrigued by the X-15 and all it's amazing feats, now at last we get a extensive and deep coverage of all the aspects, and persons involved in the program, book is a page turner, informartive, well made and ilustrated, a must have¡¡¡

hypersonic the story of etc
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-13
DENNIS R. JENKINS &TONY R. LANDIS are THE best AERO/SPACE historians.I have other titles by them.

Please provide list of ALL titles by them.

THANX VLC

The book thats as good as the machine!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-14
Dennis R. Jenkins and Tony Landis write wonderful books about amazing machines.. (Check out America's super bomber XB-70)

Their style of writing is pure technical eloquence. They can take a complex subject and make it compelling reading whilst not dumbing it down or glossing over it.

The story evolves at a terrific pace and is neatly framed in the events and context of the era they occurred in.

The quality of the images matches the quality of the text. This is a book you will come back to year after year!

X-15 Review
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-10
This book is an exceptional addition to anyones library on aviation. If you are a X-15 freak, it is an absolute must to have.

Hypersonic! - finally, a definitive history of the X-15
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-17
This research work was obviously a labor of love and reverence for the authors. They gave credit where it is due, from the pilot astronauts, research scientists, program managers, air force personnel, senior engineers, technicians, and even a handful of glad-handing politicians.
For the first time, the reader wil learn details of the B-52 mothership personnel.

The photo-documentation is vast; I find it hard to believe that a companion volume ("Scrapbook") was needed for photos and illustrations beyond Hypersonic!'s coverage.

For modelers, the AFFTC blueprint on page 179 is definitive data on the X-15 fuselage. Info in the text will enable accurate reproduction of wing and tailplane structures.

Hypersonic! will remain the standard reference volume on the X-15 for decades to come.

North America
Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, and Lies
Published in Hardcover by Simon & Schuster (2008-05-06)
Author: Ginger Strand
List price: $25.00
New price: $6.71
Used price: $2.25

Average review score:

The truth about Niagara Falls
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-12-30
This book is very thoroughly researched and written. I used to live in Tonawanda, NY (near Buffalo) and took classes at SUNY Buffalo and am familiar with a few spots and sites cited in the book. The book tells a dark and twisted truths about Niagara Falls and it's town yet manages to avoid sounding too cynical.

Amazing amount of information, informally given
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-12-09
As other reviewers have said, Ginger takes us down the waterfall. An odd thought in writing this --
As Michelle Shock sang, 'It don't hurt you when you fall, only when you land.'

Retired Reader
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-11-21
Just a short note to let the reader know how much I enjoyed the book about Niagara Falls. I have lived on the West coast my entire life and have always thought of Niagara Falls as nothing more than a honeymoon destination. I had no idea about its past or all of the underlying tragedies that mankind has dumped on this natural wonder. I feel that this book told the story with both disgust as well as a deep caring for this community. I especially enjoyed the final chapter and got a real sense that even with all of the problems and man made issues that are still confronting this place, the author still loves it. When she were talking about the sound and the power of the falls, I wanted to hop on a plane and experience this for myself. Warts and all, she made it come to life.

There are so many great places in this country that I have yet to see, but this will be one that I will make it a point to go listen to the water.

inventing niagara
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-22
If you are from N.F this book will bring back alot of memories. Not all of them fond. But a blast to read.

A confusing, fascinating view of Niagara
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-20
There are really two books here, an excellent history of an American/Canadian icon, and a confusing voyage of self discovery. I loved the first story, but was often irritated by the way Strand intruded with her speculations, often negated a page later, and her personal asides.

Strand's substantive portions are really superb; her overview of the toxic site histories and her discussion of honeymoon history at the falls, for example. (But what, exactly, does a Red Hat Society meeting have to do with honeymoons?)

Strand cites The Second Greatest Disappointment: Honeymooning and Tourism at Niagara Falls by by Karen Dubinsky, an excellent study of honeymooning at Niagara. She writes a superb review in the main text of Marilyn Monroe's performance in Niagara; she's especially effective on Monroe's long walk away from the camera in one scene. She calls the wonderful Falling for Marilyn by Jock Carroll "an indispensable photographic essay". On weddings and honeymoons generally, she applauds Rebecca Mead's One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. Again, I'm not sure why she wrote about the Red Hat Society meeting, but did appreciate her compliment to "Constable Allen A. Rodgers, who gave me new respect for the many talents of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. O Canada!"

Suggestion: read Strand's "Sources and Acknowledgments" pages, then visit her outstanding website, and then, if you have time to dawdle, read the book itself. She has put together a tremendous collection of excellent books and other sources in the book, and she has greatly strengthen some of the weaknesses in the book on her website. The sections on hydrotechnology are weak in the book but superb on the website. And her suggested tours of the Falls on her website are excellent, and surprisingly missing from the book itself.

This book is well worth reading for an understanding of Niagara if you can get past the biographical asides, and I urge you do so if you have any interest in Niagara.

Robert C. Ross 2008

North America
Plant Spirit Medicine: The Healing Power of Plants
Published in Paperback by Granite Publishing (1991-01-01)
Author: Eliot Cowan
List price: $13.95
New price: $8.43
Used price: $8.95
Collectible price: $13.95

Average review score:

From the Plant Spirits
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-29
This is simply a beautiful book. Much good work has been done to help connect people and plants and we delight in that. Eliot looks beyond the physical plant you see and gifts you with the feeling of connection with Plant Spirits. Thank you Eliot. Many who read this book with an open heart will come through the door you have opened. We are ready to help - ready to heal.

Plant Spirit Medicine
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-24
Well written, full of passion and honesty. Cowan takes a leap of faith with courage in hopes that others will learn the connectedness of all, and the simplicity it takes to honor our most prescious resources, "OUR FAMILY". Well worth the read, and please; share it with others!

Connection, compassion and depth
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-04-22
Plant Spirit Medicine speaks of the elements of nature, the plants, shamanism, and healing. Cowan's integrity, wisdom and humor is apparent throughout. I first read this book 7 years ago. It changed my life, opening me up to a world where healing, love and compassion are always flowing from the plants and other aspects of nature. This book speaks of one man's journey and opens the doors to allow you to make your own journey and find your own path.

Awaken your own shamanic capabilities
Helpful Votes: 19 out of 19 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-27
This book is an accessible, sincere and inspired guide for anyone who is curious about how to recover the human's innate ability to be in communication with the non-human world - which apparently just awaits our intention to do so. Eliot Cowan shares his own fascinating journey of discovery in a way that also offers to the reader ideas for how to do the same. His message is not, "look at me, I have special abilities," but "look into yourself and see what is there just waiting to be revived." The disastrous psychological, ecological and spiritual situation humans find themselves in as a result of having stopped engaging in "the great conversation" with nature, as author Thomas Berry puts it, can begin to heal if we try hard, now, to apply ourselves to the wisdom available in such books as Plant Spirit Medicine. We have a responsibility to read and utilize such information as Eliot Cowan makes available here. --Tayria Ward, Ph.D.

Simple, straightforward, and deep.
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-12
I have been reading and practicing these medicines for some time. I am also studying ethnobotany and plant medicine in relation to psychopathology. I picked up this book as a supplement to my work, and I did not expect that it would be so good. I would recommend this book to ANY person interested in this subject- whether they are totally new to it, or have been doing it for decades.
Cowan clearly and eloquently provides his take on this subject, and does a very good job explaining the basics. But he writes with a gentle tone, and makes plant spirit medicine something that everyone can do. This book isn't trying to sell anything or promote a workshop or healing modality. This really does provide some genuine insights on how to communicate with plants and use them for healing.
Eliot Cowan is right on with this book. You won't be disappointed.

North America
A Communion of the Spirits: African-American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories
Published in Hardcover by Thomas Nelson (1996-10-01)
Author: Roland L. Freeman
List price: $34.95
New price: $13.00
Used price: $11.97
Collectible price: $34.95

Average review score:

One of the best
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2002-09-24
I really enjoyed this book. You meet famous and not so famous people in this book. Some you will never forget like Hystercine Rankin, who made a quilt of her fathers killing in Mississippi, when she was only ten.She eventually won a $5000 prize for it. Or how the author talks about his family and the "healing quilt" and his lifelong affinity of quilts. The stories in here are good, and the quilts are out of this world. One of the best oral African American history books out there.

Pieces of Fine Work
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-05-25
This book thoroughly documents quilting and quilt makers from across the USA. Roland Freeman tells the story of the quilt makers largely through his spectacular photographs. He includes unknown but highly talented artists as well as celebrities who also quilt. The photographs are accompanied with stories from the artists, and these narratives provide a terrific base for understanding why this folk art retains its vibrancy in the 21st century. In many ways, Freeman's photography and writing can also be understood as part of the artistic fabric that he stitches together.

History, heritage and creativity combined in one
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2001-10-14
Influenced by his love of quilts, photographer Roland Freeman acts as anthrolopologist and quilting historian in this beautiful, comprehensive book. Featuring full color photos of African-American quilts and quilters and well-researched text, this book is a must-read even for non-quilting enthusiasts. The history and cultural heritage of a people have been preserved in this beautiful artform. I found myself moved after reading this book. You will be too.

AWESOME! Breathtakingly beautiful quilts and warm stories
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2001-07-19
This book is truly awesome. Although I have almost every quiltmaking book in print, the photos here are of the most unique and breathtakingly beautiful I've ever seen. And the accompanying stories about the quiltmakers are at once inspirational and humbling ... e.g., a quilt depicting the lynching of a woman's father, and explanation of how neighbors were afraid to attend the funeral. (Don't let that discourage you; most of the quilts are uplifting and gorgeous by any standards -- and the few sad ones are incredibly moving and meaningful.)

I can't imagine anyone not loving this book. Frankly, I was so awed by the gifted artists whose work is contained therein that my first thought was that African Americans have all the talent and creativity (and, no, I'm not an African American). Even if you're not moved by the stories/bios (although I can't imagine not being), you've *GOT* to be awed and inspired by the extraordinarily beautiful and truly unique quilting, which cannot help but enable you to improve your own designs.

I wish that there were more stars than 5 ... This book deserves the highest rating imaginable.

A Communion of The Spirits is inspiring!
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2001-01-01
African-American Quilters, Preservers and Their Stories represents the first national survey & a personal record of how this photographer & folkorist's life has intertwined with the world of quiltmaking.

The communion refers to the power of quilts to create a virtual web of connections-individual, generational, professional, physical, spiritual, cultural & historical. Some of the names of those glorious quilts are: Rainbow Block; Slave Chain; Log Cabin; Three Pigs in a Pen; Double Wedding Ring; Black Jack Scarecrow; Monsters, Dragons and Flies; African Diaspora; African-American Women; African-American Men; Memories of My Father's Death; Memories; Scripture; Martin Luther King Jr.; Hand Me Down My Mother's Work; Mother Africa's Children; The Underground Railroad; Baltimore Arabber Selling Watermelons; Harriet Tubman Quilt & Tableau.

For all those who consider quilt making one of America's finest crafts, this will be a lifetime companion & will rekindle that dramatic & endearing form of art. Very well done!

You have got to read this book! It is filled with women & men & the love of fabric & colors; of the love of design & community coming together to stitch lives together. Do visit my site for my full review & more books on quilting.

North America
Dreamways of the Iroquois: Honoring the Secret Wishes of the Soul
Published in Paperback by Destiny Books (2004-12-16)
Author: Robert Moss
List price: $16.95
New price: $10.37
Used price: $8.46
Collectible price: $16.95

Average review score:

Imperative for Dreamers
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-08-24
As life if filled with messages, both in dreamtime, and time awake Moss guides us to listen to the spirit of your destiny. Moss was called to his dream writing and workshops and this book continues his teachings in understanding your dreams and and nurturing your intuition. Recently picked up a book by Wanda Easter Burch called She Who Dreams. Come to learn Burch and Moss met in New York many years after Burch dreamt of a young boy drowning, which happened to be Moss. Do not believe in coincidence and if you are looking for a path to understand your truths in life, this book will help your realization.

The Dreamways of the Iroquois Honoring the Wishes of the Soul
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-12
This is a great author and great book. I experienced many personal connections regarding my Native American ancestors and healing practices within the pages of this book. Very easy read. This book lead me to many other books written by the same author.

Real shaman of the West is Poet of Consciousness
Helpful Votes: 16 out of 16 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-24
Robert Moss's deep experience in the dreamscape is unlike any other shaman-writer in the West. As in all his books, this one shows the mark of a real shaman. In Dreamways of the Iroquois, Moss is more revealing about himself even than in his previous books. In spite of this personal tone, the book is scholarly at times. Interspersed with a retelling of the ancient myths of the Iroquois and Huron people, the children of Aataensic, is Moss'initiation by Island Woman, an Iroquois guide who leads him into the wisdom of her ancient people. One of the book's most potent message is that dreams reveal the real desires of the soul and should be honoured. There's little instruction here on how to work with dreams (one chapter does it) as the book is more of an exposé and a manifesto for the rebuilding of a dreaming society. I recommend all Moss's books to people interested in dreamwork as they are all very deep and rewarding.

Dreams
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-13
A great book that explains the doorway to our dreams and how our dreams may help us face up to lifes challanges. A wonderful read and the author has clearly spent time in other realitys that are just as real as our own. There are many guides and messengers that can help us through our dreams if we are open to them and can remember how to communicate in this fascinating world.

Good for Writing
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2005-11-04
Dreaming is good for writing the next day. Dreams know a lot; what is dreamed must come to pass. If not, one's nature is not followed which, is the way of sickness instead of joy and good luck. I hope this book will help me along in this writing about the ancient goings-on. If you study Iroquois, you will dream vividly and feel special when looking at stars.

North America
Grand Canyon, The Complete Guide: Grand Canyon National Park
Published in Paperback by Destination Press (2007-06-01)
Author: James Kaiser
List price: $22.95
New price: $14.40
Used price: $13.87

Average review score:

helpful and informative
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-10-31
This book is more detailed than most I have found. It gave me much needed background info.

A geat guide
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-03
This author gives a comprehensive overview of everything to do here. The photos are fantastic and I love the snippets of history too. I only wish he wrote more guides for other places.

"Grand Canyon: The Complete Guide" truly lives up to its title
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-06
The Grand Canyon is universally acclaimed as one of the great natural wonders of the world. Now in a fully updated and beautifully illustrated third edition, James Kaiser's "Grand Canyon: The Complete Guide" is the ideal guide for novice visitors and a superbly informative reference for the seasoned visitor as well. A complete and 'user friendly' travel guide and planner for visiting the Grand Canyon, this ideal reference includes the Havasu Falls, topography maps, trail descriptions for both day trips and overnight hikes, mule rides, scenic flights, Colorado river trips, public campgrounds, historic lodges, the canyon's geology, native wildlife, history, and a great deal more. Compact and easily portable, "Grand Canyon: The Complete Guide" truly lives up to its title and is an invaluable addition to personal and community library travel guide collections -- as well as the supplemental reading lists of the armchair explorer!

The Perfect Guide
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-02
Out of all the Grand Canyon guides I bought, this one was my favorite.
The color photos are amazing, and the background info about the
canyon's history, geology and wildlife is fascinating. If you're going
to Grand Canyon I would definitely recommend buying this book.

Nice pictures but no real reviews of lodging or trips
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-03
This guide had beautiful pictures, detailed maps etc... It listed lodging but no reviews of lodging, just a glorified description. Had I not seeked out advice and reviews about lodging at the Grand Canyon, I would have been seriously disappointed. This book is more of a thick glossy brochure than an actual "guide" to help you plan a trip.

North America
Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals/Book and Cards
Published in Hardcover by Bear & Co (1988-09)
Authors: Jamie Sams and David Carson
List price: $32.00
New price: $37.48
Used price: $6.99

Average review score:

fabulous
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-09
these are indispensible to the person seeking out this particular path. I have learned so much and continue to share with friends and family. a must have in your personal library

Thoughtful art and nice guide to meditation
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-30
I've had these cards for several years now. Throughout that time I've used these for self-discovery as well as to enhance my study of nature and the world around me.

The artwork is welldone and there is always more in each card than what originally meets the eye.

The descriptions and guides and useful, but not in great depth. To me that's part of the joy of this deck...the necessity to put yourself INTO the process and really learn.

I recommend these if you are looking to find a focus point for your daily meditation and you are working to find your place among nature.

Great cards!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-18
I tried for years to work with tarot decks and just found them to be cold and impersonal. A friend reccomended these and they've been not only easy to work with but very relevant to my life. I would highly reccomend these to anyone.

Medicine Cards: Discovery of Power through the Ways of Anima
Helpful Votes: 22 out of 23 total.
Review Date: 2002-01-08
I love this set, I kept my cards a secret to myself for the first few weeks I had them, but the identification of the reading and the situtaion I was questioning was eerie - so I asked various people who visited if they would not mind having a "Go" with the cards, well now my friends, family and acquaintences beleive I am a Shaman Sacred Card reader, this may be so but I believe it is the book and card set that are the true hero, as long as the person giving the reading has respect for the essense of the set the truth will Out. A teriffic gift to give someone interested in the subject of Native American Wisdom, it is so much fun to see a friends face change into the "Oh my god how did you know that" look. All readings are positive (I don't mean polite I mean give positive guidance for good news or bad) but one would have to be dim not to understand the significance of every card reading. If I can make sense of the set anybody can - The cards are Beautiful and the book print size is big enough for my bad eyesight, for late night reading with a bedside lamp.

enjoyed the book very much.
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 1999-10-04
beautiful cards. Interesting book. had many dream of spirit animals after reading book.

North America
Roar of the Heavens: Surviving Hurricane Camille
Published in Hardcover by Citadel (2006-06-01)
Author: Stefan Bechtel
List price: $22.95
New price: $10.71
Used price: $8.99
Collectible price: $25.00

Average review score:

A great book about a great disaster
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-26
I remember some of the media coverage about Camille but Bechtel takes the reader inside the storm for a thrilling, if harrowing, ride. I confess I was ignorant of the damage in Virginia and I certainly did not put Woodstock and Camille together before reading this book. For disaster junkies like me, this is a MUST for your top shelf. For anyone interested in those reacting to a disaster, this book introduces you to some unforgettable people. And, for anyone living on the Gulf Coast, it should be required reading. Every week.

The Beast That Was Camille
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-25
Hurricane Camille was a beast of mythic proportions and she is still one of those extraordinary events that are engrained in the memory of all Southerners who are old enough to remember her rampage. In this book Stefan Bechtel has given us a riveting account of that once in a thousand years storm and he has done so with the voice of a great storyteller so that instead of a dry historical account of the facts he has delivered a vehicle that transports his readers into the heart of the storm where they feel as if they are right there witnessing those tragic events for themselves.

The famous or infamous hurricane party at the Richelieu apartments seems to have caused some controversy among those who have reviewed this book before me and while Bechtel does very little to dispel the myth he doesn't do anything to perpetuate it either. He does mention that Mary Ann Gerlach had planned a party but he also tells us that she took a nap and only woke up once it was almost to late to escape. The Richelieu apartments actually play only a minor part in this narrative and having read other books about this tragedy it was very refreshing to find a book that paid less attention to that one apartment building and more to the many other stories of survival and tragedy that occurred along the Gulf Coast. For a very full treatment of what was happening at the Richelieu apartments I would recommend Ernest Zebrowski and Judith Howard's "Category 5."

Many of the interviews that this author conducted were with people who's story has been told before but he also did interviews with and told the stories of many people who's story I had never come across before. Even when the stories were stories that I had heard before Bechtel told them in such a fascinating way that I still found them to be extremely gripping and moving. This author manages to convey the tragic loss that so many families suffered on both the coast and in Virginia in such a moving way that I would recommend that you keep a hanky handy just in case.

Camille and hurricanes in general have always fascinated me and this is one of the best books that I have come across on the subject. Bechtel tells his story with the deftness and skill of a David McCullough and although he did leave a strand or two up in the air he has given us a masterful narrative that not only entertains and informs but also manages to explain the meteorological events that caused the tragedy in Nelson County Virginia in a way that even I could understand.

A storytelling event of the first order
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-12-05
review posted in the American Geographical Society newsletter, "Ubique":

The past as prologue: The story of Hurricane Camille, which until recently defined the apex of tropical energy and fearsomeness, as told by Stefan Bechtel in ROAR OF THE HEAVENS.
During the summer of 1969, nature opened her Pandora's box and released Camille. She perhaps took her first steps as a tropical wave of energy out of the Ethiopian Highlands, made a lazy parabolic arc through the southern Atlantic, then hit the cauldron of warm sea air in the Caribbean.
Bechtel follows nimbly on her heels and issues moment-by-moment reports. He provides a skilful, basic understanding of hurricane science -- readers walk away with a firm grasp of orographic effects, the nature of the tropopause and the fluid mechanics of storm surges -- as well as a "disaster culture" that spurs people to take the storm head on, a culture of cataclysmic ignorance.
What drives that point home is the vivid reconstruction of what it was like to be in the storm, fashioned out of interviews with a few principle actors and dozens of bit players. The storm made landfall to the east of New Orleans with winds that at times approached 200 mph and carrying a storm surge three stories in height. Survivors talk of darkness and howling, being raked by flying glass, having their clothes stripped off. Entire communities were obliterated, while farther to the north, the Woodstock Music Festival was being pelted by rain from all the atmospheric disturbance.
Bechtel relates how then the storm started to disintegrate as it moved up the Mississippi Valley, falling off the radar, only to gather itself once more, dropping biblical rains -- perhaps thirty inches in a nightlong deluge -- on a confined area in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Once again, Bechtel's storytelling power takes on a terrifying clarity. Scores would die as towns were scoured clean away, the rain so heavy it was nearly impossible to simply breathe. A mountainside sloughed off, writes Bechtel, leaving the eerie "smell of deep time."
Camille was a meterological event of the first order. So is Bechtel's recreation.

Author perpetuates the myth of the "Hurricane Party"
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-31
The book rambles on. I suppose it's good reading at times, but as far as being well researched (as so many gush about here), it isn't well researched at all. There was no "hurricane party" at the Richelieu Apartments on the night of Camille's landfall. That is a complete myth, but one that will not die--the national media is apparently not interested in the facts; ditto for this author. Mary Ann Gerlach (who, btw, was convicted of killing her 11th!!! husband in 1979, but paroled in the early '90s) was not the only survivor of those 23 who stayed on at the Richelieu that night. Two other Richelieu survivors--Ben Duckworth and Mike Gannon--have tried to set the record straight for years, but the myth stays alive, and people eat it up like catfish. The fact is that only eight of the Richelieu 23 died. Gannon and Duckworth (and a few more) were staying in the apartment of an elderly couple, Zoe and Jack Matthews, to help take care of them during the storm. Mrs Matthews had recently had hip surgery. Another couple, Rick and Luane Keller, were also in the group. Luane perished, but Rick survived. Gerlach's husband Fritz (husband #6), also perished.

Totally absorbing
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-10-04
I was on my way to a Poetry Festival on a Friday, and
I started reading Roar of the Heavens Thursday night.
Instead of getting rested for the Festival, I was up
until 1:30 am, When I arrived, and pitched my tent, and
got to the Festival grounds, I immediately sat down and
started reading the book. Instead of strolling the village,
breaking into a discussion on Craft with a Poet, I sat
down and kept reading. Friday night was freezing cold,
and I kept reading. In the cold, I kept thinking about
the fascinating dynamics of the structure of a Hurricane,
and Warren Raines freezing as he clung to tree branches.
On Saturday, during a readings break, I climbed into my
car, and finished the book. Finally, I could stop thinking
about what happened to Mary Anne, Buzz, etc, and etc, and
starting absorbing some POETRY. Saturday night it was
raining, and I was terrified driving to the campground,
and hearing the rain on the roof of my tent, and it was
pouring Sunday morning, and I wondered if having been
isolated from Weather forecasts, something was coming of
which I was unaware. And thought of the unidentified bodies
perhaps hiking the trails as Camille roared through.
What a riveting read, and the adrenaline is still pumping!
The scientific explanation of the mechanics of a Hurricane
were so clearly described, and fascinating. And the interweaving
of what was happening in the country and world, with
the life and death dramas of those trying to survive
Camille really put things in time and place that connects
the reader intimately to the events. And the families and people
were so real; their pain and suffering, and the incredible
devastation. I know I was thinking about going to college
that summer, at that's all I remember. I remember going
to Mardi Gras in 1972 and seeing the steps going to no where
on the Coast, Biloxi. And I used to drive Rt. 29 going to
Conn. from N.C. in the seventies. Congratulations on writing
such an intense and absorbing, and well researched book.


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