This is another one of the American Girls Short Stories series about Josefina Montoya, a nine-year-old girl living in the New Mexico of 1824. Josefina always loved watching her aunt Dolores playing the piano, and when she agrees to teach her how to play Josefina is overjoyed. However, very quickly, her piano lessons turn into drudgery, and Josefina begins to get discouraged. But, through the joy she brings to one listener, Josefina learns about trying again.

The final chapter of this book is a look at life on a New Mexican rancho, plus a quick lesson on a Mexican dance, la vaquerita. As with the other books in this wonderful series, Jean-Paul Tibbles' illustrations are excellently done, complimenting the story throughout.

This is another wonderful addition to the Josefina library. My daughter and I both enjoyed the story for itself, and I like the lesson it taught. My daughter and I both highly recommend this book!

"Again, Josefina" is the second book published in the series of Josefina short stories. The setting of the story takes place shortly after the book "Josefina Learns a Lesson". Josefina is fascinated with Tia Dolores's piano and the wonderful music that Tia Dolores can make with it. Tia Dolores is willing to teach Josefina how to play, but Papa wonders if Josefina will be able to manage it with her chores and school lessons. Josefina persuades him to let her learn how to play the piano, but is quickly a disenchanted learner when she realizes that she must start from the beginning and practice more then she has time to do. When Josefina feels that she is not making progress, she asks Papa if she can quit. Instead of allowing her to quit, Josefina is challenged to find a way to practice. She is a clever child, and she finds a way to practice even when she is not sitting at the piano. Then, she finds her joy in playing the piano and acceptance for herself as a learner when her toddler nephew happily "dances" to her imperfect piano playing. This short story is an excellent tale of the frustration of learning something new, and the value of doing something for pleasure instead of perfection.

"Again, Josefina!" is one of the "American Girls Short Stories" series of books for younger readers. Written by Valerie Tripp and illustrated by Jean-Paul Tibbles, this volume tells a tale about Josefina, who lives with her family on a New Mexico rancho in 1824. Josefina decides to learn to play the piano, but discovers that playing a musical instrument is harder than she expected.

An enjoyable story is nicely complemented by the warm, nicely detailed illustrations. The story is accompanied by a number of enjoyable supplemental features. There is a "Meet the Author" page. Also, "A Peek into the Past" takes a historical look at life in New Mexico in Josefina's time; this supplement is illustrated with reproductions of art and artifacts. "An American Girls Pastime" gives instructions on how to dance la Vaquerita, a traditional dance of New Mexico. Finally, there is a glossary of Spanish words used throughout the book: "cuentos," "rancho," etc. The whole book is about 50 pages long, making it perfect for readers who may not be ready to tackle a full-length novel. Overall, a well-done entry in the series.

Wow. This is the definitive book on the Maya. Whether youre a student or a scholar, its got almost everything. Very readable prose, good organization, and excellent photographs. In fact, they are almost the best part. The organization is excellent providing first an overview, chapter by chapter of major events in Maya history, and then a dissection of every major aspect of Maya life. If the Maya are your thing, dont miss this book. Great value for money.

This book has had many re-printings, and for good reason. It is THE english language book that covers the anicient Maya in one volume. This book was used as a text in a class I took in Mesoamerican archaeology. I found it easy to read and very interesting. Great for a travel companion. I used it extensively while traveling through Yucatán and Chiapas.

This book is well researched and very informative.

This is THE novel for people to read if they want to know how it really is on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations--I can't understand how the author knows the voices and the feelings of these Indian people so well. This is a great book . . . believe it!

I read Bad Medicine immediately after finishing Tony Hillerman's "Last Eagle"...it was a wonderful week of reading and becoming immersed in Southwestern Indian culture. I can't help but want to compare the two novels, but that would be unfair: they are two entirely different fictional types, and they each must stand alone. Together, though, they are complementary experiences. Of the two, Ron Querry has a more lyric, almost poetic style. The plot is thinner than Hillerman's, and perhaps doesn't even do very well at bringing superstition, medicine, and folk healing together. That criticism (if it is one) is irrelevant to the impact of the book, with it's beautiful prose and sharp characterization. Of particular note is the chapter "Hashke", which takes place in the Short Mountain Cafe, populated by the smoking, vacant eyed waitress and the gum popping cashier in her tight plum-colored jeans and decorated fingernails. Like the rest of the book, it's great prose--evocative, precise, and moving.

A powerful book about a terrible time on the Navajo Reservation when an unknown disease was killing Indian people. Querry clearly knows that country well and makes the reader feel she's right there, too. A MUST READ for anyone who loves or wants to know more about the Four Corners region.

Lots of great recipes. I've tried several and they are absolutely delicious. I was suprised how small the book was though.

...........I purchased this cookbook a few weeks back and I've been cooking from it like crazy. I've already made a quarter or so of its forty six recipes. All of them so far have been marvelous and authentic! Each has filled my kitchen with the incredible scents of Mexican cooking like never before!

The pictures alone in this cookbook will captivate you and make you dream of visiting Oaxaca, Tula, Mexico City, Copper Canyon, and the rest of Mexico. Almost every dish sounds enticing to me and the majority of them also contain lovely photos that will make you want to start cooking even more!

Some of the recipes I've tried and would recommend: Spiced Coffee, Huevos Rancheros (topped with the Chili Tomato Sauce recipe), Pork Ribs in Green Sauce, Red Snapper with Tomatoes, Onions and Olives, Arroz Mexicana (with the Chicken Stock recipe), Refried Beans, Fried Plantains with Honey and Cream, and Tacos with Shredded Pork and Chipotles.

Some I can't wait to try: Margaritas, Salsa Verde, Empanadas with Mushrooms, Tamales with Pork and Red Chili, Chilaquiles, Flautas with Sausage, Potatoes and Chilies, Red Enchiladas with Cheese, Turkey in Chili-Chocolate Sauce, Shrimp with Garlic, Onions and Chilies, and Flan. Needless to say, I'm eager to make MOST of the recipes in this cookbook!

Righter rounds off her presentation of these wonderful Mexican dishes with an introduction that enlightens the reader on the rich history of Mexican cooking, making this a cookbook no Mexican food lover can live without!

I have spent 40 years in Mexico and this book contains recipes which are authentic. I have used the book and look it! I think Diana Kennedy would too!

I found a copy of this book at my local library and my son fell in love with it after reading it only once. There is a pronunciation guide in the front, so the parent can be assured they are pronouncing everything correctly. My son has been talking about "Borreguita" non-stop and this is a book that I'm for sure going to add to his collection.

What fun I had reading this book out loud to my daycare kids and watching them giggle and howl each time the borreguita tricked the coyote.

This book is a classic to read aloud and share with all kids.

This is a delightful Mexican Tale that my children and I continue to enjoy. The glossary in the front of the book adds to the delight of the story by helping the parent read with a wonderful Spanish accent. We have read this book more than any other book we have at home. I highly recommend it.

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

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

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

I read The Woman Who Rode to the Moon last week, and am about 1/2-way through the sequel. I'm enjoying the characters, but the writing and story are a bit uneven. The author keeps shifting voices, detailing the story as observed from different points of view. This works better at some points than at others.

I'm not averse to the style. In fact, one of my all-time favorite books, Patience and Sarah (Isabel Miller) does the same thing. But I don't feel it's especially well handled here. The voice shifts are abrupt and the story, when told from Cord's point of view, often becomes confusing.

It also seems like the book can't decide if it wants to be a heterosexual feminist story or a lesbian story. There are allusions to lesbian attraction, but all of the overt sexuality in the book is straight. It seems like it's trying to attract a lesbian audience, but afraid of offending the heterosexual buying public.

Mixed feelings from me. I enjoyed it very much in parts, and was put off a bit in others. Overall, a positive 4 star review, and I felt it was worth reading the sequel. But it never quite felt like it delivered on the promise I initially felt.

A note I sent to the Authoress:

Bett,
I meant to tell you a few weeks ago that I had completed "Woman Who Knew Too Much." I have "Moon" on order now.

I'm not qualified to write a book review but just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed this book. One of the few I've read from cover to cover. I am familiar with the Pecos river down here in our part of the country and your description fit so perfectly. I could see, hear and smell it vividly in my mind as I read. I really enjoyed the charactors. Loved Kit, and naturally, Cord. Sheriff Juan (Sam Elliott) was great, as well as, Metz and Marguerite. I could just visualize how sorry Jaz was and why no one could really miss him. The cats flying in all directions when startled brought a verbal laugh. My wife just looked over at me and wondered "what in the world........". I felt like I was on the back of the horse with you when we went to Jaz's shack. I saw and smelled all that stuff too. I was sad about Jones. (Old Yeller?)

My norm is getting up between 3:30 and 4 am each morning, pouring a cup of coffee and go to the computer to tend to emails. Well when I got the book, I would have the coffee, read about an hour or so, then go to the computer. Toward the end, I couldn't wait to get the computer stuff done and go back to the book. It would make a great movie.

Looking forward to "Moon".

Kenn

Great Mystery! Lots of fun. One step beyond the traditional woman sleuth; mystery novel. A new great character and a unique storyline. I enjoyed the mystery of the woman working behind the scene; lurking in the shadowds. And a woman who knows and enjoys all her electronic toys and gadgets. Do not miss"THE WOMAN WHO RODE TO THE MOON" A thinking woman book. Enjoy

A most excellent book for the unlearned of this subject and the learned. In depth and precise. It is illustrated to inform. It is objective but it is biased towards the mainstream thinking of of what we are all taught in school of how civilisations 'must' have started. Albeit a thoroughly engrossing book.

I'm an engineer, not a historian or archeologist, yet I very much enjoyed this book. It didn't get boring, and made learning about the life of the Aztecs interesting. It was scholarly yet accessible.

This Book is well organized, illustrated and written. The various aspects of Aztec Civilization and History are organized into seperate Chapters, making this Book both, a good Introduction and Reference Book. A look at the Bibliography reaveals all the right sources. Scholarly, yet accessible.

First off, the authors are from the liberal establishment, so there view is the U.S.A. was wrong to bring down the government
of Guatemala in 1953-1954. Even though I believe most of the story, they did not write an objective analysis.

The U.S. Government viewed the Arbenz government as tolerating
Communists in the McCarthy era, along with nationalizing certain
land held by the United Fruit company based in Boston. These two conflicts resulted in the U.S. government authorizing the overthrow of the Arbenz government and the installation of the
Castillo Armas government. Bitter fruit is a play on words due to the involvement of the United Fruit government.

As stated, I think what the U.S. government did was wrong, but I
view this book as not being completely objective. Communists were involved in the government, and Guatemala was like a magnet
to Communists in the 1950s. See Anderson's book on Che Guevarra to note that there were not just a few here. I think the authors overlook this, and view Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers as too concerned for United Fruit.

The book was well written and short enough to read in one or two
days. The book did a good job portraying the actors in this drama, along with the environment in which they operated in.

A brilliantly written account of just one of the CIA/US govt crimes in the world (this one was called Operation Success), this book was so compelling that I couldn't put it down. The US paranoia against the communist threat led to some not very intelligent people, including Eisenhower, to assist in ridding the Western Hemisphere of anything that vaguely resembled a left wing movement, and installing the usual Latin American style, U.S. sponsored despotic dictatorship (also, see Nicaragua, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, etc). When Arbenz reasoned about the Comunists in his goverment by saying "it's better to have them visible then to have them underground", no one, of course took notice. According to one set of research figures published in the book, the years which followed Arbenz's downfall have seen the death or dissapearance of up to 200,000 people. The authors of this book have done a fantastic job of revealing this part of American history in a very clear and concise manner, and all I can say is that it's a shame that Allen Dulles, the CIA director at the time, and his stoolies never got to be tried in court for the atrocities they were responsible for committing.

Well, OK, Watergate actually triggered the erosion of my faith in the US government. But I was barely a teenager as that story broke. I was in my early 20's when I read Bitter Fruit, prior to meeting Stephen Schlesinger at a university function.

This is the story of how the United States Government plotted against and overthrew the first democratically elected government in Guatemala. It clearly demonstrates how our government became an instrument, not of Democracy, but of oppression for the benefit of the wealthy. The right-wing coup, planned and supported by the CIA, led to other covert operations, many of which succeeded in enriching American corporations at the expense of Democracy.

Jacobo Arbenz, elected to the presidency of Guatemala was faced with a crisis of poverty. Most of the nation's land belonged to a very few rich, and to United Fruit Company. Much of that land lay fallow. Arbenz instituted a land reform package which called for turning over fallow land to the country's impoverished campesinos. Land would be purchased by the government from the owners at the value THE OWNERS had declared for property tax purposes. Sounds fair enough, right? Honest landowners would receive fair recompense for unused land. Dishonest landowners would get their just desserts.

Nevertheless, United Fruit Company, using its pull with John Foster & Allen Dulles, Secretary of State & CIA Director, respectively, managed to have their own revolution created and funded by the US Government, wrapped in a shroud of anti-communism. The dictator they instated continued the tradition of repression that Guatemala had known for decades before.

The only real winners of in this story were the stockholders of United Fruit. Today, in the "New World Order," we're more subtle, using international development loans and free trade agreements to undermine Democracy in third world nations. The tools may have changed, but the goal remains the same: Corporate wealth continues to supersede and destroy Democracy worldwide.

A good book for nearly anyone. There is plenty of excitement and it is full of sea knowledge. My only complaint is that there are dreary sections filled with the author's life philosophy that I found quite boring, and ended up skipping over.

Books should have a central theme, and the philosophy blurred whatever the theme was supposed to be. A good editor would have removed most of it.

I absolutely loved this book, and am looking forward to reading it again. Carlos' narrations combined with his twist on words paints a picture even the most land locked reader can imagine. As a marine enthusiast and student, it is wonderful to read works from hunters who also appreciate the undersea world and respect its power and importance.

The Blue Edge is Carlos Eyles latest book. It is a pseudo-diary of the authors sixty-five day journey aboard the Nirvana with his friends Jack and Pam. He journeys through the Sea of Cortez to the San Benedicto islands. The journey is on one level a journey from the once bountiful Sea of Cortez to near pristine San Benedicto islands. On another level it is a journey through man's impact on the ocean in the infinitesimal slice of geographic time that man has populated the planet. On an introspective level it is a journey through one man's search for balance and his link to the ocean, and to himself.

The word "mystical" has been used to describe the writing of the book. "Mystical" implies something apart from the human experience. The Blue Edge is experiential. It is about experiences that we all face. It is apropos that the boat is named Nirvana, which is the Buddhist term for "enlightenment." Some of the things that the Buddha realized on the road to enlightenment were, that the world is suffering, all things are impermanent, and that there is no Self. The Blue Edge takes us through part of that journey. It shows us the pain, and the joy, as one man struggles with finding his place in the world. As he tries to balance his love for the ocean, his love for his family, and his love for himself.

Carlos leads the reader through the fragile, and thus transitory, illusion of the permanence of job, family, possessions, and our natural resources. He describes how man's greed, and ego, has affected the balance of the once pristine waters of the Sea of Cortez, and how it also is taking its toll on the San Benedicto islands.

For the spearfishmen this is the journey that some of us go through in our diving careers. Our pictures of full stringers of fish on our desks and walls. Our attempts to give permanence to a moment in time. Our attempts to catch the "most" fish. As our diving careers progress we find we take fewer and fewer shots looking for the "right" fish. The contrast Carlos paints with Jack, who is struggling to find his place in his relationship with Pam and with the ocean, and the spearfishermen aboard the Ambar III that are dumping the carcasses of the filleted fish into the water, to Brian Yoshikawa not taking any shots waiting for the 200 pound tuna.

The Blue Edge may be difficult reading for people who have no ties to the ocean, since the sixty-five day journey is aboard a boat. It, however, is must reading for anyone who spends any time with the ocean. The book encapsulates our life journey in those sixty-five days. It gives us glimpses of Nirvana (enlightenment) through Carlos's eyes. It is this poignant glimpse which is what wraps us up page after page, because we feel from the very beginning of the book that Nirvana is not to be attained for Carlos at this time. The struggles through the grinding teeth of sharks, and lawnmowers, is something the ocean takes us through. The longing to play in the ocean, the longing for wealth, the longing for pleasure, the longing for the kill. The experiences Carlos goes through in The Blue Edge shows us that "Nirvana", on one level, or more simply the struggle to find balance with the ocean, on a lower level, is unattainable as long as we long to possess it.