Rinnah Two Feathers has always longed for adventure. But nothing ever happens in her small community on the edge of the Sioux reservation. One day, on the way to school, she sees a suspicious stranger examining the Jackson house. And the school bully won't leave her, her best friend Tommy, and their new friend Meagan alone. Then the museum in Tommy's house is robbed and mysterious guests arrive at Rinnah's family's guest house. Soon, Rinnah has more excitement then she knows what to do with. Can she figure out what is really going on?

I thoroughly enjoyed this fast moving young adult mystery. All the characters are well developed. The plot is complicated enough to keep me guessing with a couple of nice twists, but comes to a logical conclusion.

This book is a definite step ahead of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books and I'm looking forward to Rinnah's further adventures.

The Secret of Dead Man's Mine is a truly fascinating mystery. It makes sleuthing look so fun and pleasurable. It's a good work out for the mind. It is great for a school report, because it will really get the class on the edge of their seats. Kids from ages 10-15 will enjoy this book.

Do you remember the thrill of reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries growing up? The straight-forward stories kept you guessing until the last page, and they were filled with characters you liked and could identify with. If so, it's time to rejoice! "The Secret of Dead Man's Mine" brought back wonderful memories of those old-fashioned (in a very good way) mysteries, while updating the concept by making the lead character a Lakota Sioux Indian girl -- just imagine a Native American Nancy Drew. And at a time when many so-called "children's books" are nothing more than toy commercials, "The Secret of Dead Man's Mine" is a breath of fresh air.

Author Rodney Johnson takes us into a fascinating world with a plot that is simple but extremely effective -- by being naturally inquisitive, Rinnah Two Feathers finds herself in the middle of a mystery that leads to a search for the legendary Dead Man's Mine. Fortunately for us, the clever writing, the glimpse that the book provides into the Indian world and the fun illustrations (by Jill Thompson of Scary Godmother fame!) take this book to the next level.

Rinnah is the type of girl you want to know, and her best friends, Tommy and Meagen, are wonderful, fully drawn characters, similar to the kids in the Harry Potter series. In fact, all of the characters are not only interesting but also integral to the story, such as the bullies at school, the Indian family members and the numerous adults staying at the lodge run by Rinnah's mom.

I won't give away the ending, but I will say that it was both surprising and satisfying. I can't wait for the next Rinnah Two Feathers book!

I really enjoyed reading Jakarta Missing. The story focuses on the life of a girl named Dakar who grew up in East Africa and who has been transplanted to North Dakota. Her recollections of her life in Africa provide insights into what it is like for a kid to live in and be a part of several cultures at once. Third Culture Kids (those growing up in a culture different from their parents' "home" culture) will definitely identify with Dakar.

The book also reflects a lot on several significant issues. Dakar and her family struggle with finding the balance between safety and living joyfully unrestrained by fear. In other words, how much of the joy of life are you willing to give up in order to feel safe? Different members of the family strike this balance in different ways and with different results. Those who struggle with taking risks will find an empathic friend in Dakar.

Dakar's family also struggles with balancing concern and responsibility for the well-being of all of humanity with concern for the more mundane but also important issues of "being there" for those you love. Is it more important to save the world or to be there to watch your kid's basketball game? A related issue is how women and girls balance taking care of others vs taking care of themselves. This issue is played out in various family members and female friends in the book, and the various characters resolved the issue differently.

There is a lot to think about in this book, but it's so engaging and fun to read that I wasn't left feeling heavy or weighed down by it. Dakar's stories about growing up in Africa are fun to read and different from your average book about a teenager in America. As a newcomer she struggles to fit in but still be herself. Anyone who has ever been in that position will be able to relate to Dakar's feelings.

Overall a great book. It kept me turning the pages long after I should have put it down and gone off to do other chores.

Jakarta Missing is an absorbing book, with a wonderful girl, Dakar, at the center of the story. Dakar is creative and smart, but also shy and scared by all of the changes in her life. All of Dakar's family and friends, including her sister Jakarta, also seemed like very real people with interesting stories to tell. Dakar's story includes fascinating descriptions of her life in different parts of Africa. And Dakar showed me how what I think of as ordinary life in the U.S. can seem very strange and new to a girl who has grown up elsewhere. Anyone who has had to deal with the difficult times of moving and changes in a family will identify with the problems Dakar faces in this book. This is a great read that I didn't want to put down!

This book has some wonderful narratives from the very people who were caught up in the middle of the uprising in Minnesota in 1862. The author does a good job of explaining how the book is laid out. You definitely need to read the intro to understand this. While I was reading the book, I felt as though I was there in the middle of it with all those involved. I don't excuse what was done, but I have a better understanding of what horrors the indians went through that drove them to this place. I would definitely recommend this book.

Historians discovered many years ago that oral history is a vibrant cornucopia of information. Even better, integrating oral history into traditional modes of inquiry opened up more chances for earning a Ph.D., or getting that career making book contract. In the case of "Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862," oral history is the only game in town. Every selection in the book is an oral story from Indians or mixed-blood Indians about the disastrous uprising that killed hundreds of soldiers, settlers, and Indians. One of the editors of "Through Dakota Eyes" is none other than Gary Clayton Anderson, the premier scholar on Dakota history. As usual, Anderson goes above and beyond the call of duty in researching the narratives, providing background color on the people involved (and also providing information about what happened to these people after the uprising, something I greatly appreciated).

For nearly a century after the uprising, articles and books concerning the 1862 war only used white narratives as sources of information. There is definitely nothing wrong with relying on these narratives; they are invaluable sources of information on the uprising. The white narratives also reveal the tragic dimensions of the conflict, showing how innocent men, women, and children died (or persevered) in especially brutal ways. With the addition of these Indian narratives, however, historians can now go inside the camps and meeting places of the Dakotas intimately involved in the conflict.

The narratives are lumped into distinct categories dealing with different stages of the uprising. Each category then provides a succinct description of that particular phase of the war. With each narrative, the editors provide a small capsule of information on the person telling the story, allowing the reader to understand that person's place in the overall scheme of things. It is recommended to read the endnotes for each narrative, as they provide excellent information on each narrative. Excellent maps and pictures of many of the people involved also help the reader to understand the accounts.

Some of the narratives are more helpful than others. A few are difficult to understand due to poor grammar or contradictory information. Several of the narratives appeared in newspaper articles or as testimony in a case against the government in 1901, and there is a possibility that someone altered or changed them as they saw fit. That does not mean there are not any "WOW!" moments found here. In Cecelia Campbell Stay's account of the attack on the Redwood Agency (also known as the Lower Agency, where the killing began in earnest on August 18th), Cecelia describes seeing the sunlight flashing on the bayonets of Captain Marsh's patrol as they headed to their doom at the ferry crossing. Another narrative, now widely used in accounts of the uprising, comes from Wowinape, the son of Little Crow (the leader of the warring Dakota). Battle narratives allow the reader to feel as though they are at Fort Ridgely, New Ulm, or Birch Coulee as the cannons roar and the bullets fly.

As the editors point out, many of the mixed-blood Indian narratives identify a central tension of the conflict, namely the division between Indians who adopted white modes of civilization (the farmer Indians) and those who stayed true to traditional Indian values (the blanket Indians). Many of the mixed-blood Indians worked closely with whites; they feared the war parties of the traditionals just as much as whites did. As the war began to wind down, it was the mixed-bloods along with some full-blooded Indians who confronted the warring Indians, forcing these hostile forces to turn over their white captives in an effort to make peace with the military forces sweeping into the area.

This is an absolutely essential book for anyone interested in the Minnesota 1862 uprising. Actually, anyone writing a paper on this conflict without using this book as a source could find themselves in hot water. Since the editors graciously organized the narratives in chronological order, there is no reason someone unfamiliar with the conflict and its principal figures would have any difficulty understanding the book. Gary Anderson and Alan Woolworth have made an important contribution to Indian scholarship with this impressive tome.

Searching for God's plan for your life is an integral part of maturing now as it was for the teens in Lauraine Snelling's A Dream to Follow. Norwegian immigrant, Thorliff Bjorklund yearns for college and a writing career, yet his father sees a more practical future for his son. His father's dream is for Thorliff to take over the family farm.

Elizabeth Rogers has always wanted to be a doctor. But before the turn of the 20th century, woman doctors were not accepted. Elizabeth is determined and knows this is the path she is to take, but why so many obstacles?

Snelling alternates between the comfortable rural family life of Thor and Elizabeth's more sophisticated upper class atmosphere with ease. We are given many insights into Minnesota farm living and rural life as well as the life of a family in a more urban setting in the late 1800's. Snelling's writing is very simplistic and although she may not have intentionally aimed it at young adults, it would certainly appeal to teens who are searching for God's plan for their life.

This book displays how God's will for our lives may not be as clear cut as we would hope and that we must continually seek him and have faith in His plan.

--- reviewed by Robin for Christian Bookshelf

This was a very good book, a great way to continue on the Red River series. It was very easy reading. I had a hard time putting it down and wanted to know if Thorliff would ever be allowed to attend college. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

I loved this next books about all the wonderful characters of Blessing. I was so excited to be able to read more about the characters and can't wait for the next one to come out. One of the major scenes towards the end of the book was definitely a tear jerker though. I was thrilled with most of the developments, but I would have liked to at least hear from the characters from Blessing in Disguise and hear how Augusta was getting on in South Dakota.

There were no reviews at this site when I ordered the book. I wish there had been - as I thought the book would be set around the 1900s and the only story that was set in that time frame was the first. The first story WAS good. But I had purchased it more for research into the Victorian times in North Dakota and so I was disappointed. I was also disappointed in how little I got for my money. The rest of the stories were only so-so.

Ironically, I share the same name as the author, although no relation. I agree with the reviewer who said that she still thinks of the characters 4 years after reading the book.

I found myself in awe of what these homesteaders accomplished. The style of writing made for a quick read, and I have found myself going back to the book to re-read it about 2 times per year. Some details I have nearly committed to memory. I can't think of very many books that I can so enjoy when re-read- ing them.

I read this book over 4 years ago-and I still think about the characters in it. The author has done such a good job of bringing them to life that I wish I could meet them. Their stories are touching and realistic. The author's treatment of them is tender without being sappy. I cannot praise this collection enough. It should have a much wider audience.

Even though I felt book 4 was just a bit dragging at times, it kept my interest because it built on the life of Hjelmer. There is finally a blacksmith and a merchantile in town. Penny's only known relative comes to join her. Haaken contracts mumps as they spread throughout the families, and the Bjorkland matriarch arrives with 4 others for vacationing -or is it a move?

A very dramatic incident occurs when Anner, an angry farmer, has a farm accident.

During a 6 wk absence of her husband and against all advise including his, Ingeborg returns to her britches and plowing and has a freak though serious accident. Zeb MacCallister, a fugitive caring for orphans Manda and Deborah, joins the prairie families. Manda talks too much.

Blessing women are discussing the possibility of women's votes and the fact their area is about to become a state. Katy and Zeb are extremely attracted but speak completely different languages.

A bank is opening, several weddings take place, and near the end of the book Zeb sees his siter momentarily and gets a painful scare which forces him into an even more painful decision.

Despite a slight discrepancy in timeframes by the author, I am glad I already have purchased book 5 in this series.

I have read all the books in this series and all the books in the sequel series. Ms. Snelling is one of my favorite authors and this is one of my favorite books. I have rad every book numerous times and would recommend them for anyone. Ms. Snelling knows real-life situations that pertained to the late 1800s and writes about them. I personally believe "A reader from Alberta, Canada" must have only skimmed the book and I suggest that she get her facts straight.

This is a sad book at times, but it brings out the truths of life for the homesteaders. Although I wish Ingeborg would get her baby, I also know that her situation was very real for many women. Alberta, Canada hasn't read this book because she doesn't know what she is talking about at all. It's a great book in a great series, I love them all.

The main charicter seemed to be made out of stone, not flesh. She showed no feelings throughout the whole story. Even though her life brought her many challenges and sorrowes, she did not even bat an eye. She was not a believable charicter,and i was dissapointed by the novel over all.

This book was truly moving and it was full of emotion. The character was believable, because the way she was brought up was not to show emotion, but to keep it all inside. You could feel her troubled soul through the author's words. Altogether, this was a great book.

When I wish a book wouldn't end or at least have another chapter or two it's been a good book for me. Some very delicate material was handeled quite nicely and the relationships are beautiful. I recommend this book to a young teen or any adult.

At first, I was a bit disappointed by the book and then I read the epilogue. Why wasn't it more of a memoir? Why was it filled with so much analysis? Then, I realized that isn't really the point of this wonderful book. Klosterman has made me a fan for life. What wins me over his unbashed honesty. I've long held that the lowest critic life form is that of rock critic. Klosterman calls them on their pretension. He hammers away at what I have always believed is that music is important if it touches you. My MP3 collection has Sinatra and Warrant. Who cares who is better, both form the soundtrack to important parts of my life. Klosterman tells some hilarious stories and his takes on music and life is so refereshingly honest that I can't stop smiling. He isn't mean or nasty--just tells it as he sees it. DOn't agree? That's ok. I learned more than I ever imagined about '80s heavy metal (some which I finally realized I liked about 10 years too late) and I suspect I would have gotten more out of the book if I had understood all the references, but I loved what I read anyway. Except for the passage where he compares the Gospels to GNR Lies, this book really does rock. Isn't that the most important thing?

I spend about half my time thinking and writing about music and this is the best damn book I've read in several years. Nothing written about metal comes close. It deserves a place alongside Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock and Soul, Greil Marcus' Mystery Train, Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music, and Gary Giddins Visions of Jazz at the very top of the list of the best books ever written about American music. Its obvious virtues are, well, obvious: it's funny, entertaining, and true to its subject. What's not obvious until you let it simmer for a while is how smart the book is. The discussions of what irony meant in the 80s, of the not-so-useful discussions of sexism in heavy metal, and the razor sharp "sociology" of the rural midwest ought to attract the attention of a ton of people who hate (or, mostly, think they hate) Van Halen, Motley Crue, GnR. Yet and still, the best thing about this book for me is that it took me back to some music I'd half-forgotten about and reminded me of why it spoke to me in the first place. If you love metal, you gotta read this book. If you don't, you still gotta read it.

Klosterman almost....ALMOST... well, ok, not really... makes me think 80s hair metal was a worthwhile music genre. Despite my contempt for Poison and Motley Crue this book is a funny, engaging read by a creative writer and will strike home with any and all who grew up as a smalltown loser awash in pop culture crap. And doesn't that really describe us all? For rock music fans, it's an absolutely essential book that details rocks slide into triviality. Even if you hate hair metal, you'll like FARGO ROCK CITY.

Read without knowledge of the other Indian based accounts available; this is an interesting book. There are other books available also which are based on Indian accounts and seem more coherent. This book is pretty and interesting but adds very little to a serious student of the event. Some of the vignettes are interesting when compared with other indian accounts and blended with them. The story of Custer sitting around at Weir point while Reno's battalion was being routed is not well placed in time or detail. In short, the book is a quick and easy read. It is an interesting contrast to the "old" accounts of the Little Big Horn saga. In light of other recent works on the subject; it is a lightweight.

I found this book to be fascinating pictorially and in its presentation of Indian viewpoints of Little Bighorn.

Some other reviewers have criticized Herman Viola's inclusion of the accounts of Custer's Crow scouts, as if Viola is somehow doing a disservice to scholarship. However, I don't think he is necessarily presenting these accounts as gospel. Viola acknowledges the inconsistencies between witnesses' stories, but he gives the Crow a chance to speak for themselves, which seems like a good thing to me.

Perhaps by publishing these little-known testimonies, Viola will encourage other Indian sources to share their knowledge of Little Bighorn while that knowledge still exists.

In general I'm not really big on modern history (my notion of "modern" being everything after 1200 BC!), but Viola's book "Little Bighorn Remembered," featured as it was as the "untold Indian story of Custer's last stand," intrigued me. I have to admit to having had to take a second run at it before I really got into the subject. It isn't that the work is poorly written; it isn't. I think that the up front and in your face brutality of the 19th Century US government in dealing with the Native American population was just hard to deal with for me. It's not that I am myself Native American; I just have a strong sense of fairness and fairness had no part in it. When I finally did settle into the material, however, it read rapidly. In fact it probably classifies highly with some of those I-couldn't-put-it-down novels over which people burn the midnight oil. (In my case I should have been getting a quick nap between patients while I was on-call for the OR on a night shift).

The first two chapters of the book concern the antecedents leading up to the Indian confrontation with Custer and the 7th Cavalry. These included Custer's own pre-dawn attack on a sleeping Cheyenne village under the leadership of Chief Black Kettle on the Washita River in 1868 and an earlier similar attack on Plains Tribes camping at Sand Creek in 1864. In both instances dozens of men, women, and children were hunted down and shot and their bodies butchered. In the 1868 attack even the Cheyenne pony herd, some 900 animals, was also killed, severely crippling the people's ability to pursue their traditional lifestyle. The narrative of these two chapters is filled with unfulfilled promises and broken treaties with Native Americans in the furtherance of US territorial expansion during the 19th Century. Certainly anyone familiar with the attitudes of Europeans toward technologically less advanced populations world wide in areas they wished to exploit will recognize the pattern.

The remainder of the book is divided into chapters each dealing with various perspectives on the battle of the Little Bighorn. Here is where the book rises above others on the subject, for Viola makes use of very diverse sources in his effort to thoroughly and fairly cover the subject .

Included are the oral histories passed on by the Indian participants, stories from the Cheyenne and the Dakota on one side and from the Crow and Arikara scouts with Custer on the other. Probably the most interesting part of this material is the fact that not all Plains Indians felt the same about the coming of the army into the area. In fact the imperialism of the US government was actually superimposed upon on-going events among traditional enemies within the community of local people. The long standing enmity of certain groups actually facilitated the ultimate defeat of the Plains Indians. Even allies weren't necessarily of one mind and still are not. A popular saying among the modern Cheyenne is that "The Sioux got the glory, the Crows got the land, but the Cheyennes did the fighting(p. 27)."

Also among the narratives are notes left by Edward S. Curtis who undertook the mission of creating a photographic preservation of Native American Indian lifestyles before they disappeared. During the pursuit of this work Curtis took the opportunity of covering the battle site in the company of three of Custer's Crow scouts. From information about events provided by these individuals he came to the conclusion that the battle had not proceeded as recorded thirty years previously. His intent to publish his conclusions in his project was discouraged by President Theodore Roosevelt, primarily because the latter was concerned that pro-Custer factions would ruin Curtis. The information was preserved and given over to the National Museum of American History by his son Harold just prior to Harold's death at the age of 95 in 1988.

Among the "documents" preserving the Battle at Little Bighorn are the Indian drawings of the event of which Viola includes illustrations of many. Though simple line drawings they give every bit as clear an image of the violence and carnage of the battle field as do the photo images of the Civil War. Included are drawings by the Dakota, Red Horse, and some etched drawings by an unknown artists on flattened metal from trade kettles. Also presented, many for the first time, are some of the victory memorabilia collected from the battlefield and preserved by family members of the Indian participants through the generations.

A fire across the battlefield in 1983 made an archaeological examination of the site possible and almost imperative. Application of modern techniques to the charting, recovery and analysis of the material remains on the site by professionals and trained volunteers in the decade between 1985 and 1995 have allowed a reinterpretation of what occurred and an external verification of the stories of various participants. (For a more in-depth account of which see my review of "They Died With Custer : Soldiers' Bones from the Battle of the Little Bighorn.")

Among the most amazing reports of the battle and its events is that of the contribution of suicide to the death toll. Apparently the notion of torture at the hands of Indian combatants, fostered in part by the tradition of post mortem mutilation of enemy bodies (to prevent their full enjoyment of the afterlife) produced a "save the last bullet for yourself" mentality that led to a far higher mortality than might have occurred. One Indian witness reported having seen a man "murder" a compatriot and than shoot himself. Apparently he was not the only individual to have seen this puzzling behavior either.

Probably the most arresting facets of Viola's book, and certainly the ones I found most enjoyable, were the many rotogravure/tintype portraits of the various American Indian personalities involved in the drama of the Plains. The faces are filled with dignity, composure, and intelligence. It leaves the viewer with a sense of compassion and loss. One wonders what the country might have been like had the two worlds learned to coexist more peacefully and to learn from one another.

Louise Erdrich is a fine, accomplished writer. Somehow, it seemed to me that this novel exhibited signs of subject exhaustion. I believe that _Love Medicine_ is proof that Erdrich should be held in high regard as a writer, as the talent is truly there. That work also served as a template for some of her later works, a fact which I am a bit disappointed by since I feel that none of them have achieved the same level of poetic impact. _Tales of Burning Love_ is well written, but I feel that the story drags in places, and can be tedious to sit through; it helped that I read the majority of it while riding the bus. I was sorry to see her using the same characters again. They are strong, worthy, and well-developed characters, but in the context of this particular story they seemed more contrived.

Louise Erdrich is a masterful novelist, capable of writing spellbinding prose and developing complex, wonderfully human characters. In *Tales of Burning Love*, all of these talents are apparent, and the novel is, if nothing else, a "good read." If some of her past works have tended toward a plodding pace and an ethereal kind of tone, this one is different in that it finds Ehrlich creating a veritable snowstorm of action and events. In fact, there are so many bizarre twists and turns, so many eerie occurrences laden with ironies and sly twists of fate that one suspects that Erdrich may here be trying to broaden her audience so as to make her work more commercially successful. It was this shift toward the tawdry, the sensational, and the lowest common denominator in terms of target audience that I found myself resenting by the end of the book.

The male protagonist, Jack Mauser, has few or no redeeming qualities, as far as I can discern. He's cruel, moody, unstable, and neither terribly bright nor sensitive. Yet one of the principal premises of the book is that this man is veritably irresistible to a variety of women, four of whom he marries. Perhaps this makes the book a "woman's book," inasmuch as some female readers might find some point of identity with these women in the way that they just can't help loving this jerk, despite their better judgment. But I found the whole swirl of affections and passions surrounding Jack Mauser annoying and unconvincing.

Even at her worst, Louise Erdrich is a terrific novelist, and this novel is well worth reading simply for the masterful way that Erdrich tells a story, makes transitions, and creates moods and visions. But this is not her best novel.

I read this my first Erdrich novel after a writer whose opinion I respect recommended her. This is the tale of Jack Mauser and his many wives-- maybe five altogether. The plot has as many twists and turns as a blizzard in North Dakota where much of the action occurs. Watch for what Ms. Erdrich does with the title near the end of the book. She's always ahead of us.

At times I thought that Jack isn't worth all the attention he gets from his women. He is after all a drunk, a womanizer and a cheater in business, truly one of the types that George and Tammy sang about. But his women often get the upper hand, sometimes quite literally. One of them in order to show Jack that "it hurts to be a girl," ties him up and plucks out most of his facial hair in what has to be one of the funniest scenes I've read in a long time.

The story, sometimes outlandish, probably wouldn't have worked with someone with less talent. But these characters with all their warts breathe. I never doubted for a moment their humanity. Erdrich is wonderful at describing a character with few words -- or with many if the occasion calls for it.

Finally, don't you have to love a writer who says that "no blue is ordinary. Blue is the stuff of the soul"?