Since I personally know the author who is a fellow dispatcher at another agency and am good friends with the real-life "George," I already knew some of the trip that inspired the book. As a writer myself, I must say that this book is extremely well written. Although I don't fancy romance novels, I did like this, although the steamy scenes were too explicit for me and I didn't like the adulterous theme. But over all, it was a good book. Good debut, Claudia! I also must add that Claudia Thomas is a wonderful woman. She recently served as a critical incident debriefer at the site of the WTC attacks, counselling emergency workers. She took an entire month off from her job to do this. What an awesome lady!

In Irish Hearts the reader is treated to a tour of Colleen Keating's personal world as she sojourns towards new beginnings and refuses to allow her neglectful husband to hold her back from life's adventures. Colleen is a pioneer styled woman living in contemporary American who travels throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in search of her ancestral roots -- and finding more than she expected. Entangled within a loveless marriage, we empathize with her temptations when she encounters Ciaran Kelly, a handsome Irishman. Both of these star-crossed lovers are bound by commitments and experience the tug of hearts and distress of souls as the irrevocably find their mutual affections requited, yet forbidden. Irish Hearts is a superbly crafted novel of romance and responsibility, of unexpected opportunity and socially required sacrifice.

Well done. Haven,t read a romance in years. So glad I chose this one. The characters were so real Ifelt as though I was part of the story. I hope there is more to come from this author. She has a true feeling of life. As they say on Broadway,"author,author."

Terry Johnston's "Lay the Mountains Low" is a must for the avid fan of western history. Part of the Plainsmen series, we are not gifted with the rugged Irishman Sheamus Donnegan, as he is on duty miles away trying to quell a different Indian uprising (this makes Johnston's writing less fictionalized)instead we fall in love with numerous characters both Native American and European. This is the second part to a trilogy about the Nez Perce War of 1877, focusing on the drama which occurred after the Battle of White Bird Canyon and culminating with the tragic Big Hole Battle. Johnston takes you to the campsite, the fort, the trail ride, the battle ridge, and makes you consider how you would stand up against the elements, enemy and morality. Without a doubt, this is Johnston's best piece of work and is a must read for all fans of the Great American West. Make special note to read the afterword as Johnston provides information on his fact-finding trips thoroughout the West. Johnston provides valuable information and insight to battle sites, cemeteries, forts and historical road-side stops...again, Johnston gives the reader a seat on the fifty yard line to some of our nation's most famous locations.

Terry Johnston writes like a man who was there as events unfolded. He leaves no doubt that he was there--not during the events, but at the locations. Weaving contemporary newspaper articles and original letters throughout the text firmly roots this novel in time and space. This, plus occasional historical footnotes quenches a historian's thirst for authenticity. It made me want to go and visit these places for myself, equipped with Johnton's literary visual aids.

As always with Terry, a great book, an excellent way to learn about the history of the American West. If you are looking for a typical shootem up western this is not the book for you. This book is not for the faint hearted, there are few heros here, just a people fighting for their freedom and their lives against impossible odds. There is a lot of pain and and heart break here for both the Nez Perce and the whites, but mostly for the Nez Perce. This book really got to me, it was heart breaking reading what happened to the innocents on both sides. My family,s history goes back over 150 years in the west, so Terry,s books have special meaning for me. Read this book and you will never forget it.

Told partly in the form of letters, this is Jack Wade's painful journey from boy to man.
Jack has lived his life as a nomad since he left the wagon train where his father and sister died, existing from card game to card game. He runs from his emotions and from anything smacking of ties. His only bond is with his sister Callie, the recipient of his letters. He is on the run now because he is in trouble with the law. The man he used to ride with neglected to tell Jack that he was a wanted man, and when the law caught up with them last, Jack was lucky to escape with his life.
When he arrives in Virginia City at the Pair O' Dice, he meets Lillie and doesn't want to run any more. Jack and Lillie fall in love, but they have no time to do much at all about their feelings because trouble has caught up with Jack. He leaves Virginia City, intending to come back when things calm down, but then he is shot. When he comes to, he is in a Blackfoot village. As he heals from his wounds, his heart and soul heal as well. And helping in the healing process is a young Blackfoot widow named Raven....
There is joy and agony still awaiting Jack in this sometimes wrenching, sometimes glorious tale. Jack is not your typical hero--he has to learn lessons along the way, and sometimes he falls flat on his face. The reader suffers along with Jack but is also there for the triumphs and will laugh as well as cry with him.

If there's even one sentimental bone in your body, you'll love this writer's stories. Ms. Miller writes from her heart, and each and every paragraph will touch yours. As wonderful as "The Journal of Callie Wade" is, I think "Letters to Callie" is even better. A novel which is beautifully descriptive without being 'wordy', and with characters that will touch you deeply. I'm already itching to read the next installment in the saga of the Wade family!

When baby Rose died on the trek west, Jack Wade could not cope with the loss of his little sibling. Needing to mourn by himself and rethink his values, Jack leaves his family and the wagon train in Utah to head north.

However, a new guilt wracks Jack and he feels despondent that he abandoned his beloved sibling Callie. Still, he knew he could no longer remain with the wagon train because he was one of the prime supporters that persuaded the Wade family to go on the journey in the first place. To ameliorate his depression, Jack begins to write letters to Callie that describe what he has seen, how he feels, the nightmares he suffer over his losses including the women he loves, and his dismal hopes for his future.

LETTERS TO CALLIE: JACK WADE'S STORY is more of a historical journal that tells the adventures and misadventures of the hero. Jack's life is exciting as he becomes a gambler, deals with dangerous enemies, and falls in love. The companion piece to the powerfully descriptive THE JOURNAL OF CALLIE WADE is a stand-alone story that continues to portray the often-harsh life of settlers and pioneers. This is Americana historical fiction at its realistic best. It will dawn on genre fans that Ms. Miller is quite an artist painting the landscape of mid nineteenth century western America.

Harriet Klausner

I've reviewed Carsten Stroud in the past. I've always stressed his atmosphere and characters. In my opinion he excells in his books at being able to take you into the story and make you genuinely care for his chatracters. the same is true of Lizardskin, but here his dialouge is also very finely done. Yes the conclusion is a little weak but it's such a pleasure getting there that I will readily forgive Mr. Stroud and his Robin Cook ending. Actually I found myself enjoying the story so much that I really wasn't in all that much of a rush to see it end. I have read this novel several times over the years and every time I enjoy it immensely. Read this novel if you enjoy storytelling at its finest.

This was Stroud's first novel, after two works of non-fiction. And unlike most journalists who have great difficulty making the transition from fact-based writing to fiction, Stroud has no problem at all. This is an outstanding book: characters so real you can practically touch them, humor so outrageous that sections provoke out-loud laughter, a complex completely viable plot-line, and sections of writing lyrically simple and beautifully constructed. Stroud is one wonderful writer.

Aside from all the above assets, the author's feel for place is so powerful that Montana comes alive in its vistas, its climate and its denizens. There's also a lot of native American history, integral to the plot, that isn't sentimentalized but made to come alive--via hero Beau McAllister's sensibilities.

A good author always, always leaves the reader wanting more. Lizardskin is a signal accomplishment in that it practically begs for a sequel. Stroud has gone on to write other, equally fine books, resisting the temptation to overwork a winning hand. Smart fellow, first-class writer.
My highest recommendation.

Carsten Stroud's Lizardskin is one of the best books I have ever read. If you had the chance for revenge--would you take it? It's your choice. You decide. In an instant. That is partly what this book is all about. Set in the area of Montana and the Little Big Horn, this book opens with an incident at a gas station. There is a shootout between the owners and someone shooting at him with bows and arrows. Carsten Stroud's character is called in to investigate. He does not like what he finds

I absolutely loved this book.
The son of the renowned raconteur of the Northeast Kingdom, Howard Mosher and his wife Phyllis, first time novelist Jake Mosher has planted his boot heels high in the wilds of Mantana and stomped himself a foothold. The Last Buffalo Hunter tells the sory of 14 year-old Kyle Richards and his wild and wooly coming of age during a summer spent with his proud and profane grandfather, Cole, in the Big Sky country of Montana. Cole is a rugged logger and former broncobuster, as quick to throw a punch, as he is to pull a gun. Womanizing, whiskey drinking, Kyle's grandpa is a profane throwback to an era that has all but faded away, but ruggedly holds on like the last traces of ice along a high mountain trail in summer.
A wonderful cast of characters ramble through the book, including a cute young Indian girl who has cast her eye on a bewildered Kyle. Hucksters, dudes, unreformed Indians, and a barroom of hard drinking, hard loving men and women, hoisting shots together in drunken, fight filled nights. In the background lurks the long running fued with millionaire developer Bruce Tipton and his herd of buffalo that surround Cole Richards home. Encroaching daily, smothering him, and his stubborn view of what's really right and wrong, building to a showdown that seems as inevitable as so-called progress and development.
A journal Kyle finds of his great-grandfather's arduous journey from Kansas City to Montana in 1862 flows like a winding mountain stream through this book occasionally. The dusty journal brings to life the terrible ordeal of moving west, and gives this marvelous book a mystical quality at times. A mystical quality as ominous as the howling of the ghostly black wolf that seems to know every step Kyle takes high in the mountains at night, and the yellow hate-filled stare of the fenced-in buffallo bull, Splinter Horn. Jake Mosher wites about the West, it's history, it's people, and it's scenery with a skill well beyond his young years. The Mosher genes are truly flowering.
As I reluctantly turned the last page of this book, I sighed contentedly, but sad that it was over. I had been in the hands of a master stryteller, a craftsman of words. I knew that Kyle's summer in Montan would remain fondly in my memory as much as it would by the young grandson of Cole Richards.

The Last Buffalo Hunter is the first book I've read in many, many years that is set in a "real" Montana. There isn't any of the glossed-over Hollywood imagery that so often accompanies anything to do with Montana these days. This novel is about the raw, hard sides of life not just in the west but everywhere else. It's sharp, compelling, and through a set of well-developed, unique characters tells a gripping story of love, loss, adventure and understanding. It weaves legend into contemporary life, using touches of magic realism without becoming a fantasy. It left me feeling haunted and at the same time satisfied. There is no doubt that The Last Buffalo Hunter is a remarkable accomplishment, more so because it is the writer's first novel. I am anxiously awaiting a second book from Jake Mosher and a third, fourth, fifth, ect. This is one read you won't regret!

Jake Mosher is the best young fiction writer in the country. He will go far with his writing.

This was my first, but will not be my last, novel by Thomas McGuane. Frank Copenhaver, the central character, has hit a rough patch in his life. His anchors have left him. In the opening scene he is taking his wife to the airport. She is leaving him. After some brief background info, McGuane lays before us a man who's life is torn out from underhim and who doesn't really seem to know how to get back on track. Ultimately it is a story of betrayal, love and relationships. Husband and wife and daughter. In between there are great descriptions of Montana flyfishing. Although not as good as The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, this book does come pretty close.

Thomas McGuane is a remarkably gifted writer and here he is at the top of his form. This book captures the beauty and the tragedy of the west, is full of characters who are real and pathetic and loveable and maddening. The territory of Western pathos and failed relationships covered briliantly by Richard Ford, but McGuane in this book brings a consistent over the top humor and sense of the ridiculous which distinguishes him sharply from Ford. Picaresque bar fights alternate with lyrical descriptions of the fishing streams of Montana, the protagonist's series of soulless affairs constrasts sharply with his desperate love for the wife who has left him. The book is fascinating, and beautiful, and terribly funny.

McGuane is easily among our most talented contemporary authors. There were times that I caught myself laughing out-loud as well as smiling at truly remarkable descriptions written with such skill that I felt as if I were standing in a river somewhere in Montana. He is able to pull the reader into his world of complex and entertaining characters that operate in an equally wonderful backdrop of Montana's ranches, rivers, and small towns. If you are a fan of other McGuane titles such as "Nobody's Angel" and "Keep the Change" you will not be disappointed with "Nothing but Blue Skies." I can't think of higher praise than to be truly sad to turn the last page and realize that such a beautifully and skillfully written story is over.

Mr. Coffman has done a good job of transporting his readers back to a time of adventure for young men that would be hard to find today. The book is informative and at times amusing. I enjoyed it.

Having grown up during this era, I can relate to the way things were done in this generation. It should be considered a remarkable event when the author has the commitment and opportunity to revisit places and events which were a part of his life almost 60 years ago. It is obvious that his Forest Service experiences left a lasting impression on the author as a young man. The reader is brought into those experiences with considerable detail.

This is the story of the way life was in the Clearwater National Forest and elsewhere for the folks who lived and worked for the Forest Service about 60 years ago. The author's vivid memories are etched in details that make great reading. Some of his recounts are quite amusing and others testify to the danger and tough mindset required to live in the conditions common to those days and the area. The book let me relive similar experiences from long ago. I especially enjoyed the photos showing lookouts, scenery and people of the US Forest Service.

I found this a wonderful book that relates well to so many things in life, both past and present. You can identify with the characters as to the times you may have done similiar things yourself. Very entertaining, one minute you may be laughing yourself silly and then two pages later crying tears of sadness.

I should preface this by saying the I come from a line of fly-fisherman - my father with whom I have fly fished many times, my grandfather with whom I was never given the opportunity to fly fish, and so on down the line.
I received this book from my father two years ago as a Christmas present. He had read only months previously and I had heard him speak only a few hushed words about it. If you know my father that means that the subject of those words is something worthy of respect and reverence.
I was then not long out of college and trying to find my way in the world - success, fame, and all the trappings. Something had been lost to be while I was in school desperately studying to be the next whomever. Anyhow, I remember very distinctly opening the book and reading those first few words. Forgive the unintended pun, but I was hooked.
There were times when Mr. Waldie's simple descriptions of the landscape and the riverscape brought chills to my body. I have been to such places only in my dreams, but now I felt I was somehow closer. And then came the difficult stories, told with such a delicate and tender touch that a lesser author would have utterly failed to grasp. Like a fine cast upriver and into the crook of a teetering sycamore, there's a certain nuance that can't be taught and can't be learned just done. I am not afraid to say that I can think of a few times that I sat alone in my apartment and carefully laid the book down after a story and stood up for a mug of tea. And it was the dust in the apartment that made my eyes water, I'm sure. And that tightness in my throat - the kind that makes your chest ache - that had to be a cold coming on, of course. And other times, my laughing not only made my cat bounce recklessly from wall to wall, but I am pretty sure the newborn in the apartment beneath me woke up. The point being is this: Mr. Waldie had looked me in the eye and asked me a very pointed and loaded question just six words long: When's the last time you fished?
Things started looking up the next weekend when I was in the mountains of North Carolina, rod in hand.
I just laid the book down, finished, for the fifth time and felt that others should be shown this amazing wonder of comfortable honest stories from a small town. I don't know how else to persuade a reader to pick this collection of stories up other than to quote what my father inscribed on the title page:

"Rob- I think that this book will always serve as a gentle reminder that good and decent do count."

One enjoyable walk through a small Montana town. Fly fisher or not you will find, as we have, that you keep returning again and again.

Jud (one of the main characters), his friends and neighbors have come to feel like personal friends. We are anxiously waiting for the next collection of stories to get to know them better!

Be sure you get the 1995 revised edition of this book. I received the original 1984 edition, and it is heavy on text and light on route maps and photos. Many of the peaks and routes have no supporting photos. I suspect the 1995 revision has corrected this. Climbing guidebooks need to be visual.

As the previous reviewer notes, the 1995 edition is most useful. Unless you buy used from Amazon, you WILL get the 1995 edition. It contains many crucial updates and additions.

Route descriptions are surprisingly detailed for a guidebook. Most important peaks have multiple routes described. Seeing as how there is effectively zero route information on the internet, you're stuck with it. Luckily, the book is very good!

This guide covers most of the peaks in the park. Many of the mountains not covered here are at least mentioned and Edwards proclaims the apparent ease of these climbs. My experience agrees with this surmission. I have been on the mountains of the park with, and without the guide. When the guide was in possession, the climb was greatly simplified. Well done and a must for those interested in climbing mountains in Glacier National Park!

By the second page, I was drawn into this strange world of prisons, Indian Reservations and Helena, Montana (circa 1990).

The story is about two men, Sylvester Yellow Calf--Native-American-ex-high-school-basketball-star-turned-lawyer and Jack Harwood--college-educated accountant with a penchant for felony crimes and doing hard time. Caught inbetween them is Jack's wife, Patti Ann Harwood. Sylvester is an up-and-coming trial lawyer with his sites set on the traditionally Democratic congressional seat in western Montana. He also sits on the parole board that is reviewing Harwood's case. Harwood manages to convince his wife, Patti Ann, into orchestrating an accidental 'meeting' with Yellow Calf. He wants her to get close to Yellow Calf so that he can blackmail him to use his position on the Parole Board to get Harwood released early.

Things take a turn for the worst, when Patti ends up fulfilling her husband's wishes too well. Suddenly, she is caught between the man she is married to and the man she is falling in love with. Harwood and Yellow Calf, too, are caught in a deadly dance of blackmail and power plays.

All in all, an excellent book. The only downside is that you know it eventually ends and the windows on these characters that are so well-fleshed out will be closed. Small price to pay, though, for such a compelling story.

This book was a very gratifying read.The misconception of tradition against contemprary society shows through loud and clear.Welch depicts the Indian Lawyer as someone that we all know in our every day lives.The predjudice and shame that "Yellow Calf' faces is very apparent.

I couldn't put the book down once I started reading. The novel painted an intricate web of characterization between prison life, growing up on a reservation raised by grandparents, the contrast between native and white cultures, politics, and confused romances. The plot was provoking, the story well written and cast fully human. I put the book down feeling exhilerated, wanting to explore Mr. Welch's other works.