North America Books

This is a book about dreaming. In native north american culture folks "dreamed" their lives. this is an excellent portrayal of this in (basically) present time case. This book conveys examples to some of the plights current youths face, having split up and mixed backrounds in native american heritage. But also the fading way of dreamers, people who IMAGINED life before letting it happen. Highly recommended if you have read anything about dreaming, also recommended if you know nothing about it but are open to the idea that reality is what you make it. A wonderful story stand-alone as well.

William Penn's novel Killing Time with Strangers, winner of an American Book Award for 2000, is not just exceptional literary craft, it's great fun. Penn seems to be saying some wonderful, optimistic things about the human condition, while poking fun at our preoccupation with the trivial and forcing us to consider basic questions, such as, what are we really doing here? Is life really just a matter of `this, then that?' Such questions are gently woven into a highly imaginative and extremely funny story. The novel shows us the LaRue family, and in particular, son Palimony Blue, whose tale is narrated by a weyekin, or Indian spirit guide, dreamed by his mother Mary. The story works on many different levels. Its structure is highly sophisticated yet unless you are examining it from the perspective of literary criticism (which you can -- this work has already received one prestigious award, and will no doubt be examined in college classrooms, if it isn't already) -- you just appreciate the ease with which it joins the stories of Pal's family, his mixblood Indian father, Indian mother, generations of native American ancestors, the story of Pal himself from infant to man, the women in Pal's life, the loves of his life (including his one true love, Amanda), ending with hope and promise in the birth of his own children. The book shows you, in splendid real-life color, the connections between all things. Before Pal is able to dream his true love, Amanda, he seeks, finds or thinks he finds, Love in a series of humorous and often lustful encounters along the way with many colorful 'strangers'. These characters make for a very entertaining story. And, unlike so many books thrown at us today by popular writers, where the characters are `born, drink coffee and die', and whose messages (if any) don't matter one whit to life or literature, this book offers in a new and imaginative way some reassuring messages: that love really makes a difference; and we can (and need to try) to hope and dream a better world. Along the way, Dreaming is an engine that propels us, and a vehicle to create our path and vision. And laughter is, still, wonderful medicine for what ails us.

Also recommended (same author): This is the World (short stories): The Absence of Angels (novel); Feathering Custer (essays); All My Sins Are Relatives; As We Are Now (Editor, essays); The Telling of the World (Native American folk tales)

William Penn's novel "Killing Time with Strangers", winner of the American Book Award for 2000, is not just exceptional literary craft, it's great fun. Penn seems to be saying some wonderful, optimistic things about the human condition, while poking fun at our preoccupation with the trivial, and forcing us to consider basic questions, such as, what are we really doing here? Is life really just a matter of `this, then that?'

Such questions are gently threaded into a highly imaginative and extremely funny story. The novel shows us the LaRue family, and in particular, son Palimony Blue, whose tale is narrated by a weyekin, or Indian spirit guide, dreamed by his mother Mary. The story works on many different levels. Its structure is highly sophisticated yet unless you are examining it from the perspective of literary criticism (which you can -- this work has won one prestigious award already and will likely be examined in college classrooms, it's that good!) -- you just appreciate the ease with which it joins the stories of Pal's family, his mixblood Indian father, Indian mother, generations of native American ancestors, the story of Pal himself from infant to man, the women in Pal's life, the loves of his life (including his one true love, Amanda) and finally, the hope and promise of the future, the birth of Pal's children. The book shows you, in splendid real-life color, the connections between them all.

Before Pal is able to dream his true love, Amanda, he seeks, finds or thinks he finds, Love in a series of humorous and often lustful encounters along the way with many colorful "strangers". These characters make for a very entertaining story. And, unlike so many books thrown at us today by popular writers, where the characters are `born, drink coffee and die', and whose messages (if any) are momentous in the sense only of, 'of the moment', and don't really matter a whit to life or literature, this book offers in a new and imaginative way some enduring and reassuring messages: that love may really make, not just 'a' difference, but 'the' difference; and we can (and need to try) to hope and dream a better way in this world. Along the way, Dreaming is both an engine that propels us, and a powerful vehicle to create our path and vision. And laughter is, still, wonderful medicine for what ails us.

I was impressed by W.S. Penn's Killing Time with Strangers. I thought the author was witty, intellegent, and understanding. The characters in the book were well developed, as was the plot of the story. I would be forced to disagree with anyone who rated this book less than a 5, for I have not only bought this book for myself, but also for my friends and family as gifts. This book has everything, romance, adventure, and a part of all of us that connot be left out. The author has a unique understanding of humanity, and therefore, his story telling is enhanced. This book can be enjoyed by everyone, no matter what their character. I was so happy that this book won last year's American Book Award, (obviously this proves my point about this being a good book). After reading this book, I know you will rush out to buy all of W.S. Penn's books.I reccomend this book over all other books on this website. Thank you all for your time.

After reading this book, I think that Magical Realism, Native American style, may catch on as a distinct genre. The author, an "urban mixblood Nex Perce" is an English professor and it shows through in echoes from classical literature, but Penn also includes the classics of the Americas (such as the Popul Vuh) which makes this work unique and why I think that Penn may have opened up a whole new genre (if anybody can follow this act).

"Without storytelling, human beings don't exist" says Penn's narrator (a "Wyekin" or spirit guide, who, in his comic incopetence reminds me of Ed's Indian spirit guide in TV's "Northern Exposure").

This is the story of Palimony Blue Larue, son of Mary Blue and La Vent Larue, misnamed in the hospital becuase a nurse couldn't imagine anybody naming thier kid "Palomino" after a horse! So Pal goes through life trying to please and be liked as his father before him did, while his mother and her Weyekin spirit guide try to prevent him from making his father's mistakes and teach him how to dream his way out of the white world. His mother didn't want him in their world. Says Mary Blue, "I want him to envision and make a world of his own in which they are not foolish but all their knowledge and instinct don't matter because they don't have any effect."

This must have been the spirit that prompted the famous Ghost Dance.

Pal's mother, Mary Blue, is the spider woman on the set, goddess of wisdom and time, endlessly beading and feeding strangers and friends the way Penelope did - or one of the Fates. She has "...years of her Dreamer's practice at harmony, at the balance that comes from not judging until it's time and even when it became time, ususally not judging the person but maybe the results, and not harshly, which came full circle from the balance achieved by not judging, but putting the thing itself in perspective, by connecting it to five hundred years of human activity and thought, by seeing that very little about real human beings really changes. Once you realize that, once you learn to dream, which helps to create that realization, you gain humor - sometimes, outright laughter - but always the humor that is the resilience of survival."

How much of this is like the Australian aboriginal dreamtime, I wonder?

Pal gradually catches on, but with his own spin. His yellow butterflies become post-it notes by which he dreams his ideal woman, Amanda, into existence. But Amanda does declare towards the end of the book that "I'm real." Not something Pal dreamed. "Dreaming is an imaginative act. But it's very real," he says. "Like telling stories. The Navajo beleive that by articulating something, putting it into words, you actually make it exist. You bring it into being. Dreaming's like that. It makes things exist by imagining them with power. It makes them exist by imagining a world in which they mean a lot."

Pal's epiphany comes when he burns his post-it notes and says they're "dead lectures...names and dates and questions that have to mean what people have already decided they have to mean. Not a single hidden meaning in one of them. Nothing that lets you glimpse the other side of things or look for what's behind or between the words, like stories."

Besides the classical references, there are echoes of other authors in this work - Erdrich and Silko, Anaya and even Alexie - but Penn still has his own voice. He could have used a better editor who would have weeded out sentences such as, "Odd how they don't want their listeners to take part in how their stories make the world, though, isn't it?" which is simplistic at best and patronizing at worst. And you have to connect the dots and pay attention or else you have to go back and check the author's definition of terms. But it's worth it for the world view.

I'm making this work sound like a literary exercise - which it isn't. It's an entertaining story, but you have to pay attention or miss the point. You have to read it to the end to get to the beginning. So it's not light reading. But again, it's worth it.

pamhan99@aol.com

great book! buy it!! Everything is wakan. find out why!

Lakota Belief and Ritual is a book rich in oral history. It was recorded at the a time when there were First Nations members who had the personal experiences of a lifetime and whose tradition was an oral tradition. Dr. Walker (a physician and anthropologist) collected and preserved this oral history in the face of the destruction of most First Nation's cultures through the intervention of the European cultures.

The narratives are all excellent and there are 90 + documents containing those first-person narratives along with several photographs.

The Bison Books edition has an extensive (and very valuable) series of appendices, including an extensive (modern) bibliography.

The original Walker papers (or the majority, at any rate) are now part of the Colorado Historical Society collection.

A first rate piece of work by the editors, DeMallie & Jahner, working from the primary materials created and preserved by Dr. Walker and his family.

An invaluable work. This book -or at least excerpts- should be part of any text on U.S. History. The inclusion of First Nations culture in our textbooks is rare, indeed.

James Walker went to the Pine Ridge reservation in 1896 (as a Christian) to serve the indians as a Medical Doctor.

18 years later when he left the reservation; he had adopted the Sioux form of Spirituality, and had become a wicasa wakan (holy man). He was trained by George Sword, and other medicine and holy people.

Some of this material is very dry, and dificult reading because a large part of the book (expecially the rituals and myths) were translated into English from the Language of the Sioux. But if you have a sincere wish to understand this form of Spirituality; this book is well worth reading.

I do wish to confirm one statement in this book by wicasa wakan (George Sword). "Any pipe can be used in a sacred manner" I could NOT agree more! I have used a meerschaum pipe, a pipestone (catlinite) pipe, and a briar pipe. The condition of the heart and mind is far more important than the kind of pipe one uses.

I encourage questions and comments about my reviews; Two Bears.

Wah doh Ogedoda (We give thanks Great Spirit)

This book is the litmus test for subsequent interpretations of the Lakota religion. Since the true authors felt that their culture was disappearing, they were extremely forthcoming with their information to Dr. Walker. All Lakota expressions of religion that follow this revelation of the Lakota medicine men are in fact derivative of it. Some have questioned the qualifications of the "informants" within Lakota society, but I have seen no contemporary Lakota belief or ritual that deviates from the broad strokes of this book. If you truly want to learn about traditional Lakota religion, start here, and then move on to Raymond J. DeMallie's edited texts under the title The Sixth Grandfather.

I think that the author of this book that I have just started to read is very good at give the outlook of the Lakota and the way of live that thye live and i think that if you have the change to buy or cheak it out from the library in your area that you should

A great book for showing girls as heroines and teaching about giving to others. A Native American folktale told by Native Americans adds to the richness of the story. Lends itself to several classroom studies including northern lights, heroes, folktales & legends, ladyslipper flowers and Native American culture.

This beautifully illustrated edition of the Ojibway legend lends itself easily to reading outloud to groups of children in the classroom or anywhere else. The colorful pictures help the flow of the story, both of which help hold the youngsters spellbound. Young children identify with the characters in the story and having one of their own age group in a situation of bravery and steadfast love empowers them. Excellent book.

I read this book as part of an assingment for a class (Children Resources for Children and Young Adults). I loved it. I am also currently taken Ojibwe and enjoyed how the authors incorportated Ojibwe words. The illustrations are simple, yes, but add charm to the well told (or rather retelling) of the origin of the lady slipper.
I recommend this to any teacher. Please, incorporate it in your class (high school teachers, too!). On a latter note, after reviewing it for class, I realized that this book was written by my teacher. Margi is the nicest person and an excellent teacher. And her book reflects her spirit.

This book is excellent for all ages. It contains beautiful illustrations to compliment the story of a little girl's courage. A good one for use in a classroom.

This is such a pretty book that tells the tale of the Ojibwe legend of the laddy slipper or moccasin flower. The illustrations are simple and colorful and greatly add to the folk atmosphere of the book. A little girl must go on a heroic journey through a freezing wintry night to find healing herbs when her whole village is stricken with terrible disease. She is encouraged along her route by the spirits of the stormy environment who speak to her in the Ojibwe tongue. This is an exciting and satisfying story and makes an excellent conversation starter to teach little ones about communing with the elements of Nature.

"The Lesser Blessed is a coming of age tale told in photo-booth snapshots and raunchy one-liners. It is poetry and prose and locker-room boasts and puking-your-guts-out shame. It's sex that transcends tragedy. It is loud and rude and high. It's a shaker."
--John Burns for the Georgia Straight (Nov. 28, 1996)

"[Van Camp] does not stumble over nostalgia or romanticism or careless diction. He loves words-his own, his Nation's, rock and roll's-and slips perfect ones into atrociously profane and perfect sentences..."
--Lorna Jackson for The Malahat Review (Summer, 1997)

The Lesser Blessed. Richard Van Camp. Douglas & McIntyre, 1996. Reviewed by Dr. Geary Hobson.

In virtually every generation, in the realm of literary activity, there comes along a
book that, by the very nature of its subject matter and place and the sheer exuberance
of its utterances reverberant of the place and people depicted, introduces not only a
little-known terra firma and people, but sometimes becomes the definer of that era in
which it is produced. Not surprisingly, these books are usually the products of younger
writers. Wordsworth's and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads, Jane Austin's novels, the
work of the Brontes, Stephen Crane's stories, Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises
ushering in the Lost Generation, Kerouac's Beat Generation introduced in On The
Road, Salinger's Holden Caulfield wandering through Catcher in the Rye, the jaded
"me"-obsessed teens in Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero, Native American
sensibilities in Momaday's House Made of Dawn, and a generation later, Alexie's The
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven-all these books and writers burst forth
in such dynamic ways that not only defined their respective eras, shook the accepted
literary standards of their day, but expanded and extended the English lan-{78}guage,
while at the same time occasioning the debut of sometimes extraordinary new literary
talents.
In my view, Richard Van Camp, a Dogrib Nation writer born in Fort Smith,
Northwest Territories, Canada, in 1971, is accomplishing virtually the same thing in his
first novel, The Lesser Blessed, as Hemingway, Kerouac, et al. did in their times.
Given the smaller spectrum of Native American literature within (or without, as many
Native writers would have it) the larger context of American, British, and Canadian
literatures, Van Camp's novel introduces a new terrain and language that nonetheless
has roots in the fiction of Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, and James Welch, while
simultaneously exploring the same subject matter as the contemporary stories of
Sherman Alexie, Adrian Louis, and Lorne Simon.
In The Lesser Blessed, a Dogrib Indian teenager named Larry Sole narrates his
story and thus invites the reader into the little-examined world of contemporary Dogrib
(a part of the Dene, or Athabaskan-based, tribal people of the Northwest Territories
of Canada). More specifically, Larry embodies a modern Indian teenager's view of his
particular tribal culture and of the Indian world in general, acknowledging them and
appreciating them along with his fondness for Iron Maiden, Bruce Springsteen, Ozzy
Osbourne, occasional pot-smoking, getting "hamburgered" ("Raven" talk--Larry's own
take on his tribe's trickster figure's language for "drunk," Larry tells us), and trying to
get closer to his own particular Juliet (and, incidentally, the girl's actual name in the
novel) whom Larry remembers as "the first girl in grade school to swear at a teacher."
A North of 60 Romeo, Larry is in love with Juliet while she throws her sexual favors
to Johnny Beck, Larry's best friend, who is scornfully casual to her attentions.
Van Camp's method of characterization is strikingly vivid. At seventeen, and tall
and skinny, Larry describes himself as having "spaghetti arms and daddy longlegs,"
and at one point he visualizes himself as a Dogrib hunter of an earlier time as he
watches Juliet, "seen in his sights as a white caribou, pure, but (whom) he let go out of
respect and awe." Larry and his mother, a night school student at Arctic College, live
in Fort Simmer, a north-of-the-60th parallel town near the border of Alberta. Jed, his
mother's on-again, off-again boy friend, is a traditional Slavey Indian trapper whom
Larry identifies as a father-figure, and who promises to take Larry out "on the land" for
a season of trapping. Larry is amenable to this, but he is still comfortable in his
high-school world of hanging out with Johnny, lusting after Juliet from afar, {79} trying
his best to avoid the numerous school-ground fist-fights, and playing his tape deck
"cranked up" with AC/DC, Judas priest, and Iron Maiden.
Slowly, through a number of finely crafted, fragmented flashbacks, the reader
learns of Larry's past, in which his biological father physically and sexually abused him
and later died in a cabin fire that Larry himself may have started. Like Welch's
emotionally frozen nameless narrator of Winter in the Blood, Larry gradually awakens
to love and affection--after he surprisingly (to himself most of all) consummates his
sexual desire for Juliet in a brief relationship--and learns to retrust his mother and to
give himself fully in a father-son relationship with Jed. The Lesser Blessed, incredibly
funny and wise-cracking in many places, is nonetheless filled with the genuine
ingredients of a well-wrought tragi-comedy.
The Lesser Blessed is also the harbinger of a sophisticated Arctic literature, and
of a bold new direction for contemporary Native literature. And while it is perhaps not
the first novel to come out of the Canadian Northwest Territories, it is certainly the first
work of fiction by a Native writer from that vast region. By all accounts, it is a
masterful achievement.

Dr. Geary Hobson

Richard Van Camp¡¦s novel "The Lesser Blessed" is rooted firmly in the tradition of the coming-of-age, Bildungsroman genre that appeals to all who have survived the teen years and lived to tell about it. Or in this case, lived to read about it.

Writing from the sensibility of a Canadian aboriginal artist, a First Nation author speaking from within the experience of life as a member of the Dogrib nation, Van Camp imbues his novel with a definite sense of the indigenous culture situated within the history of Canadian social colonization. His 16-year-old narrator and primary protagonist, Larry, is comfortable with the First Nation culture passed down to him by his family. However, Larry truly finds himself coming alive in the stories told by his mother¡¦s firefighter boyfriend, Jed.

As the novel progresses and we discover the dark ¡§devil¡¦s kiss¡¨ secret that weighs so heavily upon Larry¡¦s heart, it becomes increasingly clear that Jed the firefighter is there to save Larry from burning in the flames of guilt and shame. The quenching waters that he offers the tormented teen are his stories, histories and mythologies. Indeed, the chilling influence of Adrian C. Louis and Leslie Marmon Silko is recognizable in this novel at its darkest moments. This is certainly not a childhood story of nostalgia and happiness, but neither is it a tale overwhelmed by sadness and self-destruction.

The sharing of stories helps Larry survive the challenges thrown at him as a North American teenager: experimenting with drugs; dealing with bullies; controlling sexual urges; getting into fights; and making friends. Scattered across the pages of almost every chapter is the music of the period, as Larry also draws strength from his favorite band, Iron Maiden. Band names and song titles are peppered throughout the novel. Most post-teenaged readers will probably smile as they remember how very important music was to them as teens.

Especially satisfying is Van Camp¡¦s playfulness with language and his creation of a jargon that is both pleasant and jarring, such as the hyper-speech that Larry calls ¡§Raven talk.¡¨ The dialogue is often fast and funny, although the humor tends toward the darker edges of comedy. Most intriguing are the flashes of memory offered up in dreamlike and psychedelic patterns. Watch out for those blue monkeys.

If the novel has any failing, it is the brevity of the work. The story takes place in the space of a few weeks, and though ¡§manhood¡¨ or ¡§adulthood¡¨ remain far from Larry¡¦s grasp, he revels in his life experiences and fancies himself lucky to be alive. For the cynical adult reader, Larry's joy represents his naivety; his faith in love seems misplaced. Poor Larry just doesn¡¦t know what kind of mud the world still has in store for him, for us all. But maybe, just maybe, he¡¦ll survive better than the rest of us because he¡¦s got stories, Jed¡¦s stories and his own, to keep him going.

Timothy R. Fox
Kui Xing: The Journal of Asian/Diasporic and Aboriginal Literature
http://www.kuixing.panopticonasia.com
Join the Kui Xing Discussion Group

"THE LESSER BLESSED is easily one of the most truthful, painful, powerful novels I've ever read."

-Joseph Bruchac

A great look into a very interesting life. If you are interested in life in the west or in shooting western firearms or just long range shooting in general, this book is a must read. I highly recommend it.

Few books capture the spirit of the American West so well. Billy Dixon participated in both the battle of Adobe Walls and the Buffalo Wallow fight. His accounts of these battles and experiences of life on the frontier have been plagiarized by screen writers for decades.

Mr. Dixon was a humble man with determination, ability, and grit the likes of which are seldom seen. This combination of humility and awesome ability make him a real-life hero and legend, deserving a place in the American consciousness on the level of Daniel Boone.

If you have read "On the Border With Crook", you will also love this book.

Having grown up on the remote ranch lands in the Texas Panhandle, just a stone's throw from the site of the Battle of Adobe Walls, I grew up hearing from the old timers who knew him, stories of the great plainsman, Billy Dixon. Since my early childhood, Dixon has been one of my heroes. In 1913, Dixon was approached by an Oklahoma newspaperman with an idea that he should write his autobiography. With the encouragement of his wife, Olive, Dixon decided some folks just might enjoy hearing his stories. Sadly, his passing precluded the finish of the book, necessitating the change from autobiography to biography, with the finishing touches by his wife, Olive. The book was originally published in 1914, only months after Billy's death. It was reprinted in 1927.

Those original copies are near impossible to find. I spent many years trying to locate a copy. Then in 1987, a limited edition leather-bound reprinting was done. I have number 34 of 50. I always thought it was such a shame that so many people would never have the opportunity to know of Dixon's story. So of course, I was thrilled to learn that in recent months, THE LIFE OF BILLY DIXON, by Olive K. Dixon, was once again reprinted, this time with enough copies of this wonderful book for everyone.

When we think of Plainsmen, buffalo hunters, Indian fighters and the like, many people come to mind such as Buffalo Bill Cody or Wild Bill Hickock but these folks have nothing over Billy Dixon. The only difference being, Dixon never sought fame. Had he succumbed to the dime novelists of the time, his name would be a household word today, for his adventures and accomplishments hold full measure to anyone of that era.

As this book was originally intended an autobiography, the story is told in the first person account, which makes the reader feel as though you are sitting at a campfire, listening to Dixon tell of his adventures and hardships. This book truly and avidly brings to life, a true life adventure story that anyone who appreciates that era or that lifestyle, will not want to miss.

Anyone who has ever earned the Congressional Medal of Honor, as Dixon did at the Buffalo Wallow fight, deserves to have their story told in vivid detail, but Dixon's life is presented here in such fascinating detail as is rarely achieved. Surely Miss Olive's, as she was affectionately known throughout the area, background as a school teacher contributed greatly to the telling of this story by adding literary prose equal to the most accomplished of writers.

If you appreciate true life adventures, the kind told without the need for embellishment for the sake of sensationalism, this is a must read. From the loss of his family very early in life, his early days as a young bullwhacker, the transition to a buffalo hunter, Indian scout, postmaster and rancher, it's all covered in explicit page turning detail. My only regret to this magnificent story is that it should have been another thousand pages. I absolutely hated seeing this book come to an end. This is a real life story that deserves to be heard and one that you will not soon forget.

Monty Rainey
www.juntosociety.com

This book reminded me of the axiom of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography that a good life comes to a person who is thrifty, kind, honest and modest. This is the perfect description of Billy Dixon.
I will not give away any of the life of Mr. Dixon as it is a wonderful treasure to explore, but I will state you will regret like I did in his modesty at times does not allow him to explore in detail his life. "The Shot" at Adobe Walls is barely a mention, but he makes up for it in detailed memories of the battle which Hollywood and authors would never dream of. This is the key to the Life of Billy Dixon in that his attention is in the little things which he gives to history. Everyone knows of the herds of buffalo as far as they eye can see, but Mr. Dixon will tell you about the buffalo as only one man who knew them.
I will offer one warning though and that is do not read the forward by the historian as all he does is steal parts of the book in 20 pages of droaning on and it will be better for the reader to let Mr. Dixon introduce himself in this book and then read the forward last if you feel the need.
As a witness to Mr. Dixon, I read Buffalo Bill's autobiography and to show the difference in these 2 boys without detracting from Mr. Cody, when Bill Cody was a boy among the hard bitten men of the plains the worst would hit him. Billy Dixon though in the same period with the same men was befriended by them and they took him under their wing. That is the kind of good soul Billy Dixon was.
The adept reader will soon enough recognize how much of the book is Mr. Dixon's own words, the few times his wonderful wife explains things for him as he had passed on and the fortunate few times an editor weighs in with a few lines. Billy Dixon in his modesty is the most powerful force in the book and that is the way it should be.
In finishing the book, I could only think what an honor it must be for the living relatives of Mr. Dixon to know they are related to a man of such character. America has been blessed in having his story and having so many thousands of people who built our nation.
Bill Dixon was awarded the Medal of Honor and we are honored to have him. He was the kind of friend everyone hoped they would have as he always was a friend. He learned the lesson of life in having all his family to die when he was a child, so Billy Dixon was a friend forever when he was yours.
5 stars for Mr. Dixon.

For the last year or so I've been reading books about the Buffalo Hunters on the Plains and had heard of this one several times. When I saw that Amazon finally had an affordable version I put in my order for a copy.
The book was dictated by Mr. Dixon to his wife in 1913, published afer his death in 1914 (he never got the chance to do much more than dictate notes)then revised in 1927 and reprinted in 1987 and 2005. It is written as if he wrote the book although his wife and her publisher actually did the work. I'm guessing that Mr. Dixon was not quite so literate as the writing gives you the impression (very little formal schooling) and some of the descriptive terms must've been inserted by the orginal publisher.
You get a biography of Mr. Dixon starting from about age 14 (some sketchy details before that) when he left his Uncle's home to head west to fight Indians and hunt the Buffalo in 1864. There's a lot of detail about his adventures and travels, first meetings with Indians, his first buffalo kill, the countryside and animal life. The detail on the buffalo hunting parts is actually pretty vague, all of the books by the old timers I've read are, but still very interesting. Mr. Dixon is famous for his shooting during a battle with Indians at the Adobe Walls trading post in 1874, including one lucky shot at about 7/8 of a mile- there are several detailed pages about that battle and the subsequent Buffalo Wallow fight, also in 1874. For the first Dixon was still a Buffalo Hunter, he'd quit the business to become an Indian scout at the time of the second battle. I found it interesting in that while I wouldn't term Mr. Dixon an "Indian Lover" he did have a lot of repsect for the variuos tribes.
The last couple of chapters kind of round up some interesting scraps from that point until the current (1913) day- they're rushed but still of interest for historical and hunting details.
I've also read "The Border and The Buffalo" by John R. Cook and "Buffalo Days": stories from J. Wright Mooar as told to James Winford Hunt, this book is the best of the three and well worth owning.

My 3 yo granddaughter loves the moon and loves this book. Although the prose is spare, it captures the essence of each month's full moon. The illustrations are soft, subtle and like Rylant's writing, full of wondrous detail.

This is a fabulous pairing of writer and illustrator. They compliment each other perfectly. I enjoy this one as much as my granddaughter.

This book is a remarkable achievement. Rylant's simple yet moving and profound poems capture the magic and wonder of the night-time, and they have been further brought to life - and to light, amazingly so, in a rich diversity of luminous grays, blues, purples - by the illustrator.

Reading it with my five-year-old niece, who has often been afraid alone at night, was truly delightful: Long Night Moon brings out the richness, softness and intimacy of the nocturnal environment, in a way that a child finds reassuring.

The journey of the seasons is shown in snapshots, panning along a 360° view of the same landscape, bringing us back, at December's Long Night Moon, to the homey scene of the beginning. It gives a feeling of completeness and harmony, one more of the very successful uses of symbolism and imagery by this author/illustrator pair who were very fortunate to find one another.

I've recommended this book to several friends, who told me it also gave them very pleasant reading experiences with the children in their life.

From BOOKPAGE, December 2004:

Once in a blue moon

Inspired by the Native American custom of naming full moons, veteran Newbery Medal-winning author Cynthia Rylant teams up with newcomer Mark Siegel in a lovely new book showcasing the 12 full moons of the year.

As artist Mark Siegel shares in a note, although he was immediately captivated by Rylant's words, he wasn't quite sure of the best medium to use for his artwork. After trying acrylics and oils, he finally chose charcoal, pencil and pastels.

Perhaps more importantly, he took "many long walks by moonlight in the beautiful Rockefeller Farms, near Sleepy Hollow, New York," realizing that he'd never given so much attention to moonlight before. This careful attention paid off in Siegel's stunning illustrations exploring all 360 degrees of one spot in the countryside. The dark yet silvery images seem perfectly in tune with Rylant's words, which evoke the moons, the natural world and seasons, and the meanings they hold for us. The book begins:

"In January
the Stormy Moon shines in mist, in ice, on a wild wolf's back.
Find it and find your way home."

Each month is lovingly evoked, from the Sprouting Grass Moon of April, to June's Strawberry Moon, to the Acorn Moon of October. December's moon is the Long Night Moon, which waits, and waits, and waits for morning. This, Rylant tells us, is the faithful moon.

Long Night Moon is a perfect way to introduce young children to the seasons. Share it with your family after a moonlit walk, and you will create indelible memories.

i read this book late at night in the winter time during the full moon, and was so taken with the artwork, i stayed awake to reread and reread it. the landscape really caught me, i could feel it and smell it, it felt like i was walking through this panorama. i loved looking at each page to see how it connected to the page before, how the road got closer, then further away as i kept walking. when i read the book to my kindergartners, they were awed and silent. they loved finding some of the hidden art in the drawings, looking for the wolf in the sky was their favorite. this is a magical book, which leaves you feeling hushed, peaceful, happy.

Grear book to inspire young writers to take off an re write thie own versions

Is there anything Nora Roberts can't write?
She creates such wonderful family dynamics; no wonder since she's the only girl and has four brothers. I think that may be why she writes such believable sibling relationships. The MacKades, the O'Hurley's, the McGregors and so on. Like you'll read in a future book, "Convincing Alex," there's a studly Ukranian who turns out to be the perfect match of a poor little rich girl. In "Luring," the "lady" is Sydney and she has money but a barricuda for a mother who would like nothing better than to set her daughter up with another trust fund kid. Thankfully, Mikhail comes along and Thurston Howell III is not only not necessary he's an embarrassment when compared with the hot-blooded, hot-tempered Mik.
You can have your doctors and lawyers, gimme a man wearing a tool belt any day of the week. When Mik and his Dad decide to fix up the apartments that Sydney's ailing grandfather never got around to refurbishing, you can almost visualize the beeds of sweat dripping down Mik's torso. When she arrives for their date and he answers the door in a towel, ay, ay, ay! Somebody get out the ice water.
But Mik's not just a tough-talkin' handy man, he is a true artist and carves the most beautiful sculptures from wood. Sydney's snooty Mom knows Mik's artistic reputation, and he'd be okay for a fling but NOT to marry. What a loser! With the death of her beloved grandpa, Sydney needed Mik's down-to-earth family almost as much as she needed his hunky self :)
Do yourself a favor and get ALL these books, even the "Waiting for Nick" book is great. It's a sequel and features Nick, brother of Zach who is married to Rachel Stanislaski or however they spell it; who falls for the step-daughter of Natasha Stanislaski. Maybe this is where the new movie "Music and Lyrics," starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, got their premise.
"Luring a Lady" features so many nice facets. There's the hot yet realistic romance, the tension between this couple as well as Sydney and one of her executives who'd like to push her out of the CEO office, and the lovable family dynamics.Mik takes Sydney away for a weekend to visit at Spence and Natasha's so we get to revisit this couple from "Taming Natasha" and you get to see Alex tease Mik that Sydney should go for HIM!
Frankly, I just don't know how someone could NOT love any of these books. It would be like trying to narrow down my favorite flavor of ice cream or my favorite relative: gotta love 'em all!

Nora Roberts did it again. This book is from the series about the Stanislaski family. Luring a lady focuses on Rachel. A young Assistant District Attorney who meets her match when she meets Zach, the step-brother of one of her clients! This book is highly recommended for anyone but it is a can't miss for any Nora Roberts fan.

This book is #2 in the Stanislaski Family series!

This is the book about Mikhail...Here you will meet Sydney Hayward who just recently took over her grandfather's company after his death...She is prim and proper and nobody thinks she can do the job...not her family or her friends....they think she should go back to doing what they feel she does best...giving parties, shopping...getting her nails done....But Sydney wants more for herself and wants to make this job work....

Mikhail is an artist living in a very run down apartment building which is owned by Hayward....He has finally had it after months and months of letters trying to get something done about the building that is falling apart....He storms into Sydney's office and the sparks fly....She hires him to fix the building after seeing it with her own eyes....And she begins to see more with her eyes like Mikhail!

I really enjoyed this one...maybe even more than Falling for Rachel...I just love the Stanislaski series!

Well this is a story about Mikhail Stanislaski and the lady he falls in love with Sydney Hayward. This book is the best romance book that I have ever read. It makes me wish that I was Sydney Hayward. Well I will tell you a little bit about the book without spoiling it for you. It starts out that Mikhail meets Sydney when he goes into her office to complain that the apartments she owns are falling apart and that they aren't safe and he wants them fixed. She hires him to fix the apartments, soon they go out on a date and you have to read rest of the book to find out what happens.

A really good Nora Roberts book. This story focuses on Mikhail Stanislaski and the woman he falls for: Sydney Hayward. Sydney is the new owner of the building Mikhail lives in. They set off sparks when he confronts her with problems in the building....the rest you should read for yourself. Not to be missed by Nora Roberts fans.

Overall I was pleased with Roszak's book. Most of the pieces i've read about the sixties and the "hippie" era focus only on the sex, the drugs, and the music. While Roszak did dicuss this, his book was quite different because it focused mainly on the politcal and social issues of the time. Roszak include everything from the Vietnam War to how the counter culture has affected the lifestyles of the typical American family. Although Roszk is clearly on the far left side of the political spectrum, it is obvious that he tries his best to be objective and is sure to back up most of his points and information with credible sources. What I admire most about Roszak's book is the tone he takes. In my experience, many adult pieces concerning this era in history and the taboo, radical things that went on are often full of criticism towards that particular generation. Roszak did not criticize the protestors or the acid droppers, like most do. In his book, he carefully explained and supported the motives for these people, suggestng his approval and admiration for those who weren't afraid to stand up for what they believed in, no matter how much society frowned upon it.

This book offers a highly detailed examination of the relationship of the late 1960's counterculture to cutting-edge intellectual ideas of the same era; Roszak discusses Herbert Marcuse and Norman Brown, among others, in great detail and shows very lucidly how their ideas influenced intellectual and political movements on college campuses in both America and Europe. Roszak's prescience here is amazing, considering that he wrote this book in 1967-68, while the phonemena he discusses were still unfolding! It would be interesting if Roszak were to write a response to his own book today, considering how the counterculture of the early 1990's has been so rapidly devoured by the mainstream--Roszak foresaw the possibility of this happening to the 1960's counterculture, but it took far longer then than it has now. Roszak's ruminations on the absurdity of the Alternative Nation would be welcome with this reader!

Roszak's "Making of a Counter Culture" defined an era and the youth society that composed it. A thrilling expose' of Counter Culture Philosophy and oreintation, this is where the discussion all began. His bent on analysis of cultural differences and tendency to omit much of the political implications necessitated the need for a library of text thereafter.
Timothy Fitzgerald

read this still inspiring report on the counterculture and own its potential for self-transformation in your own life and the life of our global society.

I read this book in 1979 and it helped me to make sense of the 60s landslide in my own life. Re-reading it many times over the years, together with Roszak's other very insightful work (Unfinished Animal, 1975) is always an inspiring reminder of the counterculture's deep potential for cultural renewal. Forty years after the Summer of Love, Roszak's insights are still right on.

This book is by far the most seminal book one can read in attempting to get an accurate and unvarnished understanding of the sixties counterculture; the social and historical reasons for its rise, its intellectual underpinnings, and the way in which its actions were informed and indeed propelled by its unique constellation of integrating values into a cultural ethos.

Recently the counterculture has been viciously attacked, intellectually trashed and intentionally trivialized by a series of books and articles by mainstream neoconservatives who wish to discredit the counterculture once and for all by blaming it and the "permissiveness" it spawned for the manifest ills the mainstream society has actually engendered through the evolution of its own corrupted, nonrepresentative, and nondemocratic political process. Many ignorant youthful authors have succumbed to attributing fallacious ideas and notions of this ethos in a way that is not only inaccurate and disingenuous, but which serves to trivialize the quite serious cultural critique it comprised.

All that is set aside here. Remember, this book was written more than 30 years ago, even as the counterculture was rising, so it is very much a observational history, one done at ground zero of the demonstrations, sit-ins, when the tumult and strident calls for radical new solutions rang clear, and the heady air of nascent social and intellectual revolution was in the air.

Here one finds the counterculture placed in its proper context, and not just discussed 'en passant' as the demonized triage of sex, drugs, and rock and roll'. One can hardly understand the sixties in such simplistic terms, and Roszak helps one to understand the complex welter of social, economic, and political factors that led to its emergence. In its essence the counterculture was a social and political reaction to the hypocrisy of the mainstream materialistic culture from which it sprang, and as sociologist Philp Slater has commented elsewhere, most of the individual elements of the value system of the counterculture stem from values the mainstream culture in fact claims to hold but actually does not practice and employ.

This, then, is book with remarkable insight, perspective, and historical verve. Rosazak nails quite accurately the tensions, problems and contradictions associated with the rise of the counterculture and the innate problems its continued existence eventually portended for the materialistic mainstream culture. Of course, as history shows us, the sixties ethos was flattened by the overwhelming onslaught of the establishment and the Ohio National Guard, and the political and social ethos of the counterculture melded into the domain of increasingly isolated private and personal philosphies of hippies being assimilated into the mainstream.

The fact that its ethos is now blamed for much of the discontent and confusion of contemporary America is a likely result of what happens when one tries to merge antagonistic ideas and notions into a cultural system that is inconsistent with its own. This is a wonderful book, and one needs to read before the victors of those fractious times so revise the official version of the history of the 1960s that those of us who were there will no longer recognize it.

An outstanding book covering the founding and development of one of the great ski and resort areas in the country. .

The photographs alone are worthy of buying this book. There are plenty of rare b&w shots of mammoth from the turn of the 20th century on up and prime photos of the Mccoy legend. One of my favorite shots is Dave's Harley with skis strapped to it--circa late '30's! In addition, the text is nicely written giving you a sense of the key players in the development of mammoth as a ski town, mammoth in the world of ski racing, and nice vignettes on some unique things to the eastern sierra--from Schat's Bakkery to big horn sheep.

This book is awesome! The pictures are excelent and the information is great. Nice to know what Mammoth used to look like before it became the famous place that it is today.

Anyone who likes skiing will love this book. Forstenzer's familiarity with the Sierra makes it one that won't just sit around on the coffee table. He writes engagingly and tells great stories about the early days of skiing in Mammoth and its culture, how the ski area was built and some of the people involved. The photographs are astonishing and well worth the price alone, but in combination with the writing Forstenzer lets us glimpse what made Mammoth Mountain the great ski resort it has become. This is a terrific book about past and present skiing days at Mammoth. Like most any ski item associated with Warren Miller - breathtaking!

Absolutely the most beautiful collection of photos of Mammoth and the surrounding area can be found in this book! It provides a wonderful history and insight into the creation and life of this skiing Mecca. This is a must have for any Mammoth lover!

This is a great book- but it has nothing to do with a Native American boy living in the east! Mindy is a Hopi girl living in Arizona!

Susan has a lovely writing style and a deep understanding of her Hopi culture. I recommend this book for those wanting to learn more about the Hopi culture from the Hopi viewpoint.

This is a timely book, especially with the typical flurry of Native American activities that start in November in schools around the nation. One of the best qualities of this book is that it shows that Naiche is like any other American boy: has a family, lives in a house, eats pizza, plays soccer, and wears cargo pants. Native Americans are still the subject of stereotypes fueled by many aspects of society. For example, sports team mascots that reinforce people's ignorance. This book goes a long way toward showing that Native children have the same dreams and needs as all of our children.

This is a beautifully written and photographed book that should be on every teacher's reading list, public library, and family bookshelves.

Having seen an advance copy of this extremely informative and enjoyable book, I can urge teachers and parents looking for entertaining material on how Native Americans in the East live today to buy this book. It tells the story of a multi-tribal boy and his daily life. Dr. Tayac has an engaging writing style and the history and culture are presented in a very accessible manner.

Naiche is described so stirringly in this book by Dr. Tayac that any native or non-native American would want to know him. Many American children in 2002 grow up multi-culturally and this wonderfully written children's book clearly evokes a compelling portrait of Naiche's world. The richness of Naiche's Indian culture will expand the horizons of any child who reads this page turner.

This book will inform and entertain youngsters from second to sixth grade. Youngsters from about third to sixth grade can read this book independently while first and second graders can have it read to them. It demonstrates the daily life of a real native child and shows how many American Indian children live in the eastern region of the U.S. today. It also corrects common beliefs that many youngsters between ages 6 and 11 or 12 hold, that native children live in teepees and wear deerskin clothes etc. The author, Dr. Gabrielle Tayac, a Piscataway Indian and Naiche's cousin writes clearly and is obviously familiar with her reader and subject. She knows Naiche and his family well and communicates this to her audience in a interesting manner. The photography and the text mesh beautifully to tell the true life story of a contemporary native family through the eyes of a child.