This is not a great book in and of itself, but it is Morrison's first entry into what have become some great waterfall guides. This book took a large area and tried to tell a lot about it. His later waterfall guides basically superseded this book, and limit themselves in geographic area. "Waterfall Walks and Drives in the Great Smoky Mountains and the Western Carolinas" and "Waterfall Walks and Drives in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee" are the two latest versions of his guides, and both are excellent. ...

The authors do two things in the book. First they give a brief overview of canoeing techniques, cautions and safety, and then a number of trips that can be taken in the Wisconsin, Upper Michigan, and Minnisota areas. Included are maps and sites, as well as cautions for rapids, barb wire, and other hazards which may need care or avoidance.

The area that was somewhat lacking was the way to piece the shorter trips together for a longer trip, since there was less camping information in the river descriptions. The inclusion of both whitewater sections as well as a number of sections of quiet water was helpful.

Beautiful line drawings of species native to the region compelment culture and propagation requirements of many great native plants of our region. Sorted by habitat. A very good resource.

This is a great resource if you are unfamiliar with the area in which you will be going. In the beginning of the book, they explain the rating system very thouroughly. Once you understand the rating system, it becomes easier to read the descriptions of the camp grounds.

Also a bonus (to me) are the literally thousands of ads on nearly every page. It's kind of like the yellow pages of the camping world.

They don't give a lot of detail about the campgrounds. Just the pertinent information as it pertains to the ratings. However, there is always a way to contact the campground, usually via email (which works fine for me).

We are planning a trip to Cherokee, NC this summer. This guide helped us narrow down the field to around five campgrounds out of over 25.

Not the definitive resource, but definitely the starting place for most camping adventures.

George Orwell was credited with first saying that "history is written by the winners." This statement has certainly held true when trying to gain an understanding of what life was like for Native Americans during the first 200 years of their cultural clash with the newly arrived and always arriving Europeans. As one whose previous knowledge of Indians was limited to biographies of men like Tecumseh, the Prophet, and Sitting Bull (books written using, at best, the regimental histories of the "winners" as the primary source of material), Writing Indians truly opened my eyes to what many Native Americans really experienced during the early years of cohabitation when they were introduced to Christianity.

The author was extremely creative in bringing the individual stories out one-by-one using the scattered writings left by the Native Americans and allowing the reader to combine the many distant voices into one chorus which, when coupled with the more familiar writings of the "winners", spoke for several generations. In my past studies of Native Americans, I seldom could picture the people outside the boundaries of either the battlefield or the front yard of some Territorial Governor (signing a meaningless treaty). This book is wonderful in that it patches together the writings of a surprising number of individuals who were in the process of developing a unique identity grounded in two cultures. It reveals the intelligence of the Natives as they sought to keep what they viewed as the better elements of their culture by appealing to thier visitors in the familair words and ideas contained in Christian thought. Wyss could only succeed in this by drawing on a great deal of reseach.

Anyone who wishes to understand and study the history of these Native Americans on the East Coast and how they actually interacted with the European population, or hopes to broaden their general knowledge of the natie Amercians should read this book.

The quality of memory is brilliantly conveyed in this novel: the details, the dreaminess, the layers of knowing - knowing what you knew as a child and what you learned later and what happened after that. The book is a quantity of detail that never becomes claustrophobic. In the opening pages, we have a minute description of the mother, her three children, and their bus ride from Long Island to the city to visit relatives. Without boring the reader, McDermott renders exquisitely how excrutiatingly boring such visits can be for children, who don't understand exactly what's going on among the adults but understand perfectly the tension. Out of this wealth of detail emerges the story of a family, and though thoroughly Irish and Catholic, these are characters recognizable in any family - the beautiful, disappointed one, the one determined to be happy, the adored alcoholic, the smart, embittered one. We see the way family stories take on a life of their own and family problems are more like the air one breathes than explicitly defined events and situations that can be rationally addressed. "Aren't you glad that you only have to see your relatives at weddings and wakes?" says a teenager to her younger cousins. They all agree, but the reader knows the truth - each one of them is a unique product of their common family, as is each one of us.

Alice McDermott is obviously not for everyone. Her language is dense, at times difficult, but it's also hauntingly beautiful. Her writing in AW&W is just a pitch-perfect rendering of a child's memory of the complex life of an extended family. For some of us, the revelations in this novel resonate strongly with our own lives and experience: growing up Catholic in post-war America in a suburban family with urban roots. Ev en those lacking these personal connections might come to appreciate McDermott's artistry. (Just so you'll know where I'm coming from: this book, Possession by A.S. Byatt, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov are my favorite fiction of those I've read in the last year or so.)

In "At Weddings and Wakes," Alice McDermott brilliantly brings to life a tragically flawed Irish Catholic family from Brooklyn. Told through the eyes of the three children, each character in this deeply moving piece resonants with their own indivduality. By jumping between different time periods, McDermott entices the reader to follow without ever giving up the suspense. I could not put this book down. But as much as I wanted to see what happened, I didn't want it to end. Alice McDermott is, quite simply, a master storyteller.

The book portrays a little focused on time & place: the frontier in the early 1800s (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois). The author depicts William Henry Harrison as a manipulative, greedy & sometimes untruthful individual. Most people are aware of the native American treaties that the government negotiated & broke with the Plains Indians later in the century; the book details the interactions between the government & Indians in an earlier time period. The author reveals the impact of Tecumseh on Canadian history & portrays him as a complex & charismatic individual.

As a history student whose interests are in the Colonial period to the Civil War I was intrigued with this book on Tecumseh. It was well written and very informative of the Shawnee Chief's career. Not only was this a wonderful resource guide but most importantly it was an easy read, which is essential for college students. True, Tecumseh spread a lot of blood on the plains of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky but his teachings along with his brother Tenskawatawa are the important keys to understanding the will of Tecumseh.

John Sugden's "Tecumseh" is more than a well researched biography of the great Indian chief; it is also a moving story of the clash of cultures in the Old Northwest in the late 18th and early 19th century. At no time are the Indians portrayed as the "gentle children of nature" oppressed by the wicked white man...a portrayal that has become all too common in our era where history is too often written from the viewpoint of the underclass. Instead, the Indians are portrayed as human beings ( at times noble and at times savage ) struggling to survive the whirlwind of the white world that was destroying their way of life.

Tecumseh's life and character are well documented and his dream of an Indian confederacy, united to resist the American seizure of Indian land, is the centerpiece of the book. Other Indian leaders, as well as Tecumseh's brother The Prophet, figure in the narative, as do the different approaches the various tribes took in dealing with the Big Knives. An understanding of Tecumseh's life is not the only reward derived from a reading of this book. One also comes away with a much deeper understanding of the divisions within the Indian world and the various problems they faced within a way of life on the road to extinction. At the end, one senses the true depth of the tragedy, and gains an admiration for a man of great character and nobility, who gave of all his energy, in an attempt to save his people and their way of life.

I am planning a trip to Boston soon and I thought this book would help. But all the snide political comments annoyned me so much I gave up on trying to get touring information out of the book. The author should have stuck to scenery and not shoved his politics down our throat.

When I moved to Rhode Island, I was looking for a good travel book for MA. and my sister bought me this book. I use it on my excursions throughout MA. and have found it to be extremely informative and interesting. Jeff writes not only about the major tourist draws but also some hidden attractions that have proved to be worth the visit. So far I have explored Cape Cod, Plymouth and Gloucester and used this book to find good restaurants and accomodations. After using mostly AAA travel guides for my vacations, I was glad to use this book to get a fresh and honest opinion of the different areas and attractions. I also very much relied on Jeff's knowledge of the towns I visited to educate myself and whomever accompanied me on my travels the history and trivia of these towns. It is a fun and comprehensive book about MA. to own!

I think this is a SUPER guide.... Though I am originally from the area,I now live out of state and was glad to receive the book as a gift on a trip home. Having now done a visit home with the book, I can't imagine I ever thought I really knew *anything* about the area! Perk's writing is beautiful and interesting -- filled with great history and context.

As somebody who lives on the Vineyard part time, I have to say this book was a big disappointment. Not everything in it is off base, but in general it makes it clear that the author doesn't know the Vineyard very well at all. The island is a great place, but it does have its flaws. Unfortunately neither its greatness nor its flaws were captured in this book. From reading the reviews it would appear the book is more relevant to Wisconsin than the Vineyard.

As someone who is intimately familiar with the Vineyard, I can't begin to describe how superficial, idiotic, and just plain awful this book is. In addition to being poorly written and uninformed, it reads as if the author just wanted to make some money and thought this would be a good way to do it. If you really want to learn about the vineyard, read the MV Times (MVTimes.com)

The few disgruntled reviews from MV'ers are understandable - no one likes to have their hometown (or island) knocked. The Vineyard is similar to many small towns in America - perpetually populated by the same families and their descendants, everyone knows his neighbors' business, and there exists some classism and gossip. But this beautiful place also boasts some very amiable hosts. Ambivalence toward day trippers can be attributed to human nature. There is something annoying about yuppie sightseers and their young families who swell the island's population and clog the scenic streets and restaurants, somehow disturbing the serenity of the place. Simultaneously, residents appreciate the economic feasibility of tourism. So there is a catch-22 with the year-rounds thinking "if only we could get rid of these pesky tourists, but keep their money flowing in..." This book provides a different take on everyday life and attitudes on Martha's Vineyard; it is unlike any tourist book you've every read. I love Massachusetts and enjoy all the historic sites and beauty unique to the northeast. And the residents of Martha's Vineyard are, in the end, just like the rest of us with the same human foibles, no better, no worse.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I just couldn't put it down. It has no dragons, yet it still captured my heart. I am a big fan of Anne McCaffery, and I loved reading this and all her books.

I wish this book had been a full length novel -- with sequels!!! The book "Coelura" was so good,I couldn't put it down.I only wish that there had been more of it and that Anne McCaffrey had decided to make it into a series!

Written as a novella (a cross between a novel and a short-story) the biggest problem with this book is that it's too short. The Coelura is well written with a great plot, but I want to see more. Perhaps someday Anne will continue this story. Anne did eventually write more about this particular "universe" in "Nimisha's Ship", but set far into the future.