North America Books

Tarot Says Beware was one of the best books I've read in a long time. Herculeah is the new Nancy Drew. She brings mystery to the new age with her curiosity. This book is suspenseful and exciting. The answer lies with a bird and the simple word "BEWARE". I think that this book is great and you should read it

Tarot says Beware is about a girl named Herculeah and meat Herculeah's best friend.Herculeah finds out that Tarot is outside so then Herculeah calls Meat and tells him to come over and go to the house with her.When Meat arived at Mandom Rosa's house they went to find Madom Rosa but Herculeah found Mandom Rosa dead underneath the table. So Herculeh called Meat to the table and Herculeh showed Meat the dead body.Then the night that Madom Rosa got killed a person called Herculeah's house and said "bring Tarot over to my houses so then Herculeh did and found out that it was the puppeter that killed Madom Rosa.

When Herculeah checks over at Madem Rosas home she sees that Tarot [the bird] is out of its cage which is very rare. She walks into the house and... 'IT WILL KEEP YOU TURNING THE PAGE FOR MORE' 'A MIX OF NANCY DREW AND GOOSBUMPS'For ages 10 and 13

Tarot Says Beware is a really great book for kids 10-14. it is about this girl herculeah who looks out her window one day and sees madame rosa's parrot outside, and she knows that madame rosa would never let tarot out because how much she loves the bird, so she goes to madame rosa's and no one is there and the bird is saying beware beware! you will have to read it to see what all happens!

I found this book at the dusty museum at Buffalo Gap, Texas,

and was enthralled!

Somebody has written the DIFINITIVE history of my early stompin'

grounds,

(the area whose back roads I traversed in my early 20's,

shooting .22 rimfire bullets into every road sign I encountered,

(statute of limitations HAS expired)

and as I read it,

I detected nary a false note.

Ty Cushion is a righteous dude,

(for a Baptist).

Forget the things you think you know about the history of this area. Dr. Cashion spent enormous amounts of time and effort tracking down the truth about events which have become part of Texas folklore--and has debunked a lot of what we "thought" we knew in the process. His books are as fascinating as his University lectures...hang on for a great read!

Well written! enjoyable to read. I had Dr. Cashion at Sam Houston State this fall. His class is great, it was a great learning expirience. The book is wonderful. Although I missed a couple of points about the book but that's ok.

While researching the town of Griffin for my own work, I was referred to Dr. Cashion's book by the curators of the Old Jail Art Center in Albany, TX. Not only is this book indispensible in any serious study of the town of Griffin, which was a hub of the cattle and buffalo trade in the mid-1800's (through which many notable western personas passed, such as John Selman -the killer of John Wesley Hardin, and the fabled poker queen Lottie Deno), it is also a fascinating account of the birth, life and eventual demise of a classic frontier boom town. Dr. Cashion's book, while also covering the whole of the Clear Fork Country (and also happily, its overlooked minority inhabitants), could almost be considered a biography of Ft. Griffin, if we can imagine the town itself as a personality. The book gives a fine description of the natural land as it was seen by its first inhabitants (and first European explorers), and goes on to describe the various elements (political, natural, social etc.) which led to the settling of the area. Griffin is treated with special interest, from its early beginnings as a military outpost, to its heyday as an outfitting and entertainment capital for buffalo hunters and later cattle outfits, to its oil days, and on through to its eventual decline. There are a great many interesting photographs, both of the land, of old surveying maps, and of the people who populated the area, white, black, and Indian. Of particular interest is the chapter `Just Plain Old Folks,' which records many of the daily doings, trials, and tribulations of the everyday citizens. Dr. Cashion writes with equal and obvious passion of the rawboned hunters and cattlemen, the violent sometimes gunmen like John Larn and Selman, who used both sides of the law to their own ends, the retired buffalo soldiers, just trying to make their living somewhere between the harsh trials of the land and the distrust of their white neighbors, and the women and children who found themselves living and working in lonely cabins far from the company of friends and neighbors. For this alone the book is worth it, but also worthy are the revisionist-minded attempts of the author to debunk the many stereotypes and outright falsehoods about the area which have passed as history for so long. Griffin the town is no more the blood-soaked, bullet-riddled Sodom of the west that it has sometimes been portrayed as in fiction and some history (an old biography of Doc Holliday comes to mind, and is once referred to by the author) than is any other myriad of western towns which has ever romantically laid claim to that misnomer. The stories of its people however, are no less interesting, and Dr. Cashion's book proves that. Highly recommended!

I want to thank Hans L Tredousse for a remarkable job on the unfolding of the character of one of the most complex individuals I have ever studied. Trefousse does a great job of showing us as much of what is humanly possible to know about Thaddeus Stevens.

By far, Stevens comes alive in the preface of Trefousse'account. The reader is pulled gently into the life of this individal because of the hardships he experienced as a child and because of his determination to see justice prevailed.

As I progressed into the book, I marvelled at both the strengths and weaknesses of this complex man called Thaddeus Stevens. Personally, I think he was a man before his times. It is unfortunate that he considered himself a failure. We have had many presidents in recent years who could not or would not acknowledge that they had achieved anything of "real tangible worth". Stevens comes to the end of life feeling that he had achieved very little of lasting value. It is truly worth lamenting! If Stevens could come back to this century, I think he would be astonished to see what legacy he left the United States and particular minorities who have benefitted much from his efforts to support emancipation and a true Reconstruction for those who had suffered because of slavery.

I was first introduced to Thaddeus Stevens in Lerone Bennett's BEFORE THE MAYFLOWER. I found Stevens to be the underdog, but an all powerful hero for the rights of equality. I think the second best thing to having enjoyed Trefousse' outling the work of Stevens would be to see the book made into historical fiction. Somewhere out there in "fantasy land" is an actor who could bring more to "life" this complex man called Thaddeus Stevens

Hans Trefousse has done a magnificent job in portraying the "Great Commoner" and his effect on the United States. In fact, the book inspired myself and some other people in Gettysburg to start the Thaddeus Stevens Society to promote his memory. For information about the society, write The Thaddeus Stevens Society, 65 W. Middle Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325 or email me at rhetrick@gettysburg.edu.

Hans L. Trefousse wrote a definitive biography on this great Republican that helped initiated the Reconstruction period after the post-Civil War period. The sub-titled: 19th Century Egalitarian proves to be an aptly named since Stevens proves to be one of the foremost egalitarians of his century. The book clears up the myths and misconceptions that Stevens were often regarded in and set the records straight. Well written, nicely researched and with superbly insights, I can only wished that the book went even deeper into Stevens' life.

The book also goes into Stevens' strengths, weaknesses and his troubles. I thought it was a honest effort on the part of the author to showed the reader the complete man and the account of Stevens' life proves to be balance and fair.

One of the more interesting aspects of this book lies within the struggled between Stevens and Andrew Johnson. The fight between "reconstruction of the south" to the "restoration of the south". This struggle had far reaching consequences in our nation's politics as well as racial relationship. Although product of his time and era, Stevens proves to be far ahead of himself in terms of race relations. It was interesting to learned that his concerns lies not only with the blacks but also toward Indians and Orientals. The book reflects accurately in the end that Stevens was a true egalitarian in the truest form.

Thaddeus Stevens casts a long shadow in American History; a shadow that continues to bedevil the likes of Robert Bork, Anton Scalia and the so-called "original intent" crowd.

Stevens, the tactical leader of the "radical Republicans" through the Civil War and Reconstruction era stands probably second to only James Madison in Constitutional history.

Considering his historical role a thorough biography has been long overdue. Trefousse has gone a long way toward supplying a fresh biography of the man. In its pages he has applied the extensive depth of modern scholarship now available on the reconstruction era.

Only Fawne Brodie has attempted a biography in recent times and that book, Thaddeus Stevens: Scourge of the South has slid thankfully out of print.

The Trefousse biography will likely be the standard source on the life of "the old Commoner" for some decades to come.

I first read this book in a gift shop at the San Diego Zoo. The message is even more potent because the story is true. This book is the well-done, beautifully illustrated story of bringing the American Buffalo back from the brink of extinction. The story is engaging without being "preachy." There's a lesson for the future here, too. As a third grade teacher, I'm planning on using this book in the classroom to reinforce the idea that human beings share the planet with other living creatures.

I have been reading this to our reading buddy class of third graders now for a few years... I first read it at our local library and choked up. It is good for lots of academic reasons but is also engaging and has an unusual style and amazing illustrations.

No other animal represents the American frontier like the American Bison. To Native Americans he was a spirit messenger, sacred to their very existence. To them and frontiersmen alike the thundering, shaggy beasts represented food, clothing, shelter and fuel. And in a larger sense the massive herds represented the spirit of freedom in a new and untouched land.

In They Came from the Bronx, Neil Waldman recounts the fascinating tale of how this quintessential American animal was brought back from extinction.

Waldman speaks of the Bronx Zoo's "Mother Herd," and his curiosity as a child with the name. How could a captive herd of bison in the largest American metropolis, so far from the wide-open spaces of the Great Plains, claim such a title?

Waldman's story weaves an eloquent account beginning in Oklahoma, stepping back to New York City in the early Nineteen hundreds, offers historical facts about the bison's prairie reign and then it's back to Oklahoma where a Comanche grandmother and her grandson await a most improbable reunion.

They Came from the Bronx is technically a children's book but will appeal to children of all ages, from one to ninety-three, if you will. Beautifully illustrated and written, the book speaks volumes about the tragedy of man's irresponsible exploitation of wildlife but also offers a ray of hope that once mistakes are made and recognized, if we are careful and responsible, they can and should be rectified.

Douglas McAllister

I loved the poignant conversation between the old woman and her grandson. Her explanation of the disappearance of the buffalo builds to a very dramatic climax, that make us realize the seriousness of our country's past decisions. I reccommend this highly to anyone who cares about our past and future!

I bought this book for my husband, and swiped it from him one night when I had nothing to read. To my surprise, I couldn't put it down. Chapter by chapter, the author paints a colorful and enchanting portrait of grand, sometimes deadly lakes, fascinating places, and even more captivating people. As a 16-year resident of Michigan, I found I had been to many of the places McClelland describes, yet with his keenly observed eye for detail and story, he uncovered these places in wonderful ways and made me want to go back!
I loved the quirky people along the way; indeed, this is a book of travel essays that reads like a novel.
McClelland is a writer's writer, a droll and witty wordsmith whose writing isn't pretentious but is very good. I would call this book a true find, and would recommend this to anyone who likes to curl up in a chair and get lost in a story (or 20 stories!). Especially, "The Third Coast" will stir pride in anyone who lives on or near the great, Great Lakes.

The author takes you on a fascinating tour of the Great Lakes, discovering people and places that make this part of the Midwest so unique. As a lifelong Michigan resident and frequent visitor to Canada, Mr. McClelland's portrayal of the residents of the Great Lakes was spot on, and I often found myself laughing out loud at the quirkiness of their behavior. This book is essential for anyone looking to travel this section of the world, or at least learn about the culture and its origin. I couldn't put it down!

I'm sorry to say that Mr. McClellan's Latvian sailor may have been from Riga, Latvia but he did not speak Latvian but rather Russian. Did the author forget about the Soviet Union? There are Latvians in Latvia who speak the language but many who were born and educated after 1945 grew up Russian. Since the early 1990's, Latvia has been once again independent. Smaczna is pretty much the same in Polish and Russian. I was sorry that the author thinks that he had communicated to Yuri (Latvian = Juri) the sailor in Latvian.
All in all, The Third Coast was fun to read. Having grown up in Michigan, much of it had an endearing familiarity.

I enjoyed this book immensely. McClelland circles all of the Great Lakes, finding interesting people and places and putting them into cultural and historical context. The book is beautifully written, funny, and insightful. I am a native of the Great Lakes region, but I don't think you have to be to appreciate the book. I actually found it to be a page-turner, wondering what the author was going to discover next.

I have been to the author's website many times, and liked it. The book has lots more information than the website, which is massive. It is interesting to read about so many of these events. Most of the descriptions are short, but considering there must be over 5,000 events, that is understandable.

There are quite a mix of illustrations that match an event on their page.

The sections on the tribal name meanings and the Indian "moons" was both fascinating, and fun.

The index is one of the most comprehensive I have ever seen.

This Day In North American Indian History: Important Dates In The History Of North America's Native Peoples For Every Calendar Day by Phil Konstantin (freelance writer and member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) is a unique and original historical reference. For each day of the calendar year, a momentous or significant occasion in Native American history is listed which occurred on that same day. Spanning over 500 years of recorded Native American culture, war, law, and societal change, This Day In North American Indian History is enhanced with a handful of black-and-white photographs, an extensive index, a bibliography, and three extended appendices (Tribal Names; Alternative Tribal Names; North American Indian Calendars). A meticulously compiled and "reader friendly" reference, This Day In North American Indian History is enthusiastically recommended as an informed and informative addition to any personal, academic, and community library Native American Studies collection.

I have been to the author's website many times. Having all of this information in one place is great. Yes, yes, yes, there is information on events in Canada. There are about 100 photos and they are matched to an event on the page where they appear. I really like the sections in the back which list tribal name meanings (Erie = cat people) and the "moon" names. If you are interested in North American Indian history, this is a great book.

This Day in American Indian History by Phil Konstantin is a fascinating resource for everyone interested in North American Indians. I think it would be especially useful for educators who want to include American Indian History in the classroom, but fear they have neither the time nor the resources to do it. Taking five minutes to select and read one event a day the class is a good way to raise awareness, open minds, and start discussions.

As the co-author of a reference book, American Indian Contributions to the World, I've learned to be very selective about the books I keep in my library. Phil has come up with an accurate and interesting volume that is filled with teachable moments. I couldn't put it down. This one is definitely a keeper.

I would read this book even if I wasn't required to, it's just interesting to know these things. It came in excellent condition and fast shipping.

This book takes the reader through many Native American groups and explains the cultures, ritual, religion, and current issues that face each group today. This text focuses on how the "white man" changed the lives of these Native American groups and how it still changes them today.

It is unfortunate that many Americans don't know about the struggle of the First Nations in this country, and this book will help open everyone's eyes. The book reads easily and quickly. The information is interesting and is nowhere boring. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about these amazing people and the struggles they have faced for over 200 years. This book is a great tool for any cultural anthropologist and student.

Had to buy this as an anthropology textbook and I really did enjoy reading it. Informative but read-able to even non-anthro majors.

From the history of specific indigenous tribes, to current issues and religious traditions every chapter in this book provides a lot of information and stresses the differences and similarities between various groups. This was a required book for one of my college classes and it has helped me gain an appreciation for North American Indians in termes of their struggles for federal recognition and their assimilation into mainstream society while maintaing their interesting traditions and practices. This is a must read for anyone interested in cultural anthropology and/or Native Studies.

I highly recommend this book. It has opened a door for me. I need to read more about native people and their relationships to Africans. The story of the Shoeboot family is very interesting.

I use to be annoyed with obviously African looking folks proclaiming to have "some Indian in me", though these same people never claim such pride in being of AFrican descent. They still annoy me. I do think it has it basic in self hatred. However, this is my humble opinion.

This book provides excellent insight into a little known part of American history. Few people realize that some American Indian tribes (particularly the "Five Civilized Tribes") practiced slavery and this text delves into the complex relationships resulting from it. The impact of the practice has repercussions still felt today. Most importantly, it reveals the rarely addressed interaction between African-Americans and Native Americans dating back to the earliest history of the United States.

I recently finished reading Tiya Miles' book. Several things impressed me regarding this work; the first one is the topic. I was surprised to learn that at one time Native Americans owned slaves! I am a college educated retired teacher and I believe this is something I should have learned somewhere in my education. I was also impressed with the research that was used as a basis for Ms. Miles' writing. A reader of her work has more than ample supply of resources to use for further reading. I also believe this book should be required reading for any American history curriculum at the college level.

First, let me say how much I enjoyed this book. It is a work of tremendous research informed by a mature mind which deeply understands the roles of history and story in creating self-identity.

I was alerted to its existence by Ilene Shepard Smiddy, author of DAUGHTER OF SHILOH, also a splendid narrative/adventure retelling a part of the Shoeboots story, but centering on Clarinda Allington and her children.

Dr. Miles provides us with a helpful family tree in the front of the book, and inside there are maps that help orient the story. The historical asides and reflections using Toni Morrison's BELOVED are treasures. Inside too are several illustrations and pictures, including one of a Shoeboots descendant. The text is divided into logical chapters. The notes are easy to follow and delicious to read, and they are followed by a full bibliography and a comprehensive index.

I would like to see the notes expanded to include the family of Napoleon Bonaparte, perhaps a grandson of Shoeboots, or of one of the Shoeboots, and who entered the mainstream population in Kentucky as a free black.

As Dr. Miles points out, there was more than one individual who was referred to as the Boot or Shoeboots (and other nicknames, in both English and Cherokee), and I suspect that this was a concept name involving the crow or the rooster--the hero of a Cherokee parable. It is fascinating to read about here, and her arguments are engaging. Highly recommended reading!

David M. Lubin's "Titanic" offers valuable and interesting insights into James Cameron's 1997 Academy Award-winning film by the same title. Lubin, a professor of art at Wake Forest University, brilliantly positions the film within its artistic, historic and cultural context, relating it to art (Frederic Church's "The Icebergs" and "Heart of the Andes," George Caleb Bingham, Jacques-Louis David, among others), literature (Crane, London, Twain, Whitman, et al.), music (Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld," Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde," etc.), theatre (the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, etc.), and even to still photography (Lewis Hines' "Young Russian Jewess at Ellis Island," Alfred Stieglitz's "The Steerage"). Lubin also connects "Titanic" to numerous other films, especially "It Happened One Night" and "A Night to Remember," and filmmakers, including Hitchcock, Welles, Ford and Kubrick. Lubin says "Titanic" is "not by any means an intellectual film," yet his book seems to belie this statement. How could a film that poses "questions about society's divide between rich and poor, the nature of love, the meaning of sacrifice, and modernity's faith in...technological prowess and mastery over nature" be anything but an intellectual film?

For a movie that was almost universally loathed by "high-brow" critics, "Titanic" gets a very lovingly detailed and in-depth analysis courtesy of Mr. Lubin. His analysis is interesting and well-researched without going too overboard or reaching too far for metaphors and artsy-fartsy obscure parallels, as some BFI contributing authors have.

This book afforded me a fascinating 12th look at a film I've already seen 11 times, and I feel enriched for having read it. It is scholarly without being boorishly so, and resists the chance to take gratuitous potshots at the flimsiest part of the film -- the dialogue. Lubin rightfully defends writer/director James Cameron's film even at its weakest points, probably because to single out the flimsy and shallow dialogue is to overlook the mastery that went into every other single detail of getting this epic film made. Visually, it is so rich in detail and craft that to malign it for "teen-speak" dialogue is just to be petty. But make no mistake --- Lubin is not playing the cheerleader for the sake of doing so. He is carefully examining the film for its comments on class distinctions, its parallels to art and opera, its classic story structure, and how the timing of the making and release of the film is nearly as significant as the timing of the actual sinking from the perspective of changing cultural and social mores. Or something like that -- Lubin phrases it so much better than I ever could.

To those who would chastise Cameron for the dialogue, let's see how well YOU do writing dialogue while simultaneously juggling the 40 thousand details, large and small, of a project this massive!

Lubin acknowledges the film's flaws but also pays due heed to the elements that work well, and the film is full of them.

Just read the damn book, folks.

Any movie as large (in every respect) as James Cameron's TITANIC, deserves to be understood, not only in the contemporary consumer context in which it was created, but also through the complex philosophical, cultural, and artistic history which served as its genesis. David Lubin's splendid, captivating, and handsomely packaged little book is a rare jewel for any reader interested in popular culture as subject for serious analysis. We come to understand Cameron's film, although cloaked in melodrama and crude dialogue, as a fully realized "synaesthesia," striving (not entirely unsuccessfully) to consume and re-imagine everything that came before it. Lubin, without a hint of pedantry, goes a long way towards revealing the mysterious zeitgeist at the heart of a global blockbuster. This is a marvelous book, and it deserves to be read.

You think you understood this simple (if expensive) movie? Think again. David Lubin demonstrates why Titanic can really be seen as an allegory--about race and class, humanity and technology, and much more--with amazing depth and sophistication. He's an academic but he writes like a journalist, and you'll be amazed at all the fascinating tidbits he comes up with. Plus the book is beautifully produced with dozens of photos from the film to illustrate (literally) the points he's making. Just a great read.

It's a great handbook on how to organize a campaign to fight unscrupulous big tobacco, using the California experience as the training manual. So, it's a mixture of history and object lesson, written by someone who know how to teach. A different kind of book from the usual history of tobacco, and there's nothing else like it. Highly recommended.

I could hardly put this book down. The battle being fought is truly a life and death matter, alliances and strategies evolve on both sides, and the Tobacco Industry uses their multi-million war chests to mislead the public over and over and over again. Even when you think you can relax after a victory by the anti-tobacco forces, in the next chapter the Tobacco Industry is lurking behind yet another door with a butcher's cleaver, which ends up being wielded by tobacco funded politicians and the California Medical Association to cut tobacco education funds and to weaken the anti-tobacco media campaign. Really this book is about much more than California and its battle with the tobacco industry. It is the best book I've ever read about why we need campaign finance reform and effective sunshine laws. You are shown all the nitty-gritty details, the back room deals, the closed-door bargaining. You'll emerge from this book well-prepared to detect lies in future wars, and to read between-the-lines in daily newspaper coverage.

The tobacco industry is one of the most evil industries allowed to operate in America. From child labor to seductive advertising to distribution of a deadly product and ending in mountains of money in political bribes, The US Tobacco Industry has just about every imaginable negative attribute of corporate America, all rolled into one, neat package.

Tobacco War puts a face on a faceless industry, and it is not a very pretty face. From exposing the hidden truths of the seductive advertising schemes and the green blood that flows through the veins of America's political system in every level, Tobacco War doesn't simply archive news stories, lawsuits and events, but connects the dots and presents the reader with a realistic picture of how big tobacco operates.

Likewise, tomorrows activist are reading this book today to gain the edge in a climate of misinformation. Provides grass-roots information for activists to develop and deploy campaigns.

Think your cigarette maker cares about you? They have you hooked, and you are the least of their worries. They are working to reel the next generation of smokers in for the kill.

And so far, the catch is coming in... wallet and all.

"The Tobacco War" is part social and political history, part "how-to" manual. Not a dry catalogue of events, but written with a sense of the human drama surrounding each twist and turn of the tale. Co-author Stan Glantz, involved so deeply in the movement, offers the most incisive, comprehensive, and definitive perspective on the California anti-tobacco effort available. I was astounded to read of the intrigue and jaw-dropping audacity of the Tobacco Industry and its allies in the State government on one hand, and the incredible courage and tenacity of those fighting it in the most aggressive and effective way in history on the other. The growth in political savvy and will of the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society is catalogued in detail, as are the machinations of the State legislature, the governor's office, and lobbyists and pressure groups when money comes up for grabs. This is an outstanding text for the social or political scientist, activists of any type, and anyone in state local politics. It is a remarkable and practical instruction manual for anyone in tobacco use prevention today. These heroes have not left the field. Their enemy, the Tobacco Industry, is immortal.