This is a great pioneer book. It is about a fictionist family-the Carpenters-who travels from Pennsylvania to Illinois in the mid 1800s. They encounter death, low water, marriage, and a wonderful feast. I would recommend this book for anybody interested in pioneers. This is a great tie-in book for a history unit, but also great for pleasure reading.

Alexander McKee died in 1799. A few months after his funeral, Soloman McCulloch remembered that several hundred Indians arrived at the gravsite. Assisted by McKee's son, Thomas, they began "a slow, measured, and dignified dance that celebrated the memory of their departed friend. The ritual began in the morning and continued throughout the night and well into the following day. Simon Girty confided to MuCulloch that in all his years amont the Indian tribes, he had seen the ceremony conducted only twice before. The Indianse reserved the ritual, he claimed, 'Only for men of dintinction among them'" Alexander McKee (1735-1799) is an often overlooked character in historical accounts of the Ohio Frontier, particularly because he worked for the British Crown, thus was on the "wrong" side to be glorified in American History.

McKee's father was an Irish immigrant, his mother a Shawnee, and he was a fur trader like his father. He was equally cuturally adept among the Europeans and Indians. The Indian nations were themselves very diverse and independent, having different culture, language, and interests. Present also were British, American colonists, French, Spaniards, Dutch, all looking to profit in one way or another from the resources or land in the Ohio Frontier. Alexander McKee worked his way up in the Indian Department, employed by the British Crown to oversee Indian affairs. Serving in various capacities for nearly fifty years, he was educated by experience and motivated by alleigance to the Crown, but with sympathies to Indian interests. McKee was an important contributor to the Ohio Frontier. He exploited his extensive knowledge of differences in cultures and language, and became a valuable tool in the evolution of the frontier throughout the Revolutionary War and afterward as inevitable migration by settlers to the West. At the beginning of his career, McKee's cultural identification was primarily with the Indian nations, whom he considered his people, His keen negotiating skills and knowledge of Indian customs, as well as his own economic self interests, led him to become a wealthy, respected member of both the British community and the Indian nations, but now more culturally aligned with the British. As the political climates and land boundaries were constantly evolving, McKee was instrumental and influential in those changes.

McKee's life is a micro example of the tremendous diversity of cultures that was present in the Ohio Frontier in the 1700's, and how those cultures were integrated into what Ohio would become. He was instrumental in the evolution of those changes, as he spent his life negotiating the self interests of many factions for a mutually satisfying resolution. This is an interesting, engaging book by Dr. Larry L. Nelson, rich in history and a personal look at a man who was a contributor to that history.

Effie Marquess Carmack (1885-1973) grew up in the tobacco-growing region of southern Kentucky known as the Black Patch. She married at an early age and, because of economic necessity and religious commitments, moved with her husband to Utah, back to Kentucky, then to Arizona, and finally to California. Along the way she became committed to preserving the rural, southern folkways she had experienced as a child. She became a folk poet and self-taught artist. In the 1940s she began writing her autobiography. Effie's story is a charming memoir of her spirited childhood on a poor tobacco farm. She describes a wide variety of folk practices from healing and crafts to children's games. A convert to the Mormon Church, her account of southern Mormon missions contributes to the little-known record of the Mormon church's attempts to establish a presence in the South. Out Of The Black Patch is a fascinating, engaging, candid, informative autobiography.

My children love this book!!! The beautiful pictures and old fashioned customs, take us back to the days of Laura Ingalls Wilder. This is a must for preschoolers through first grade!!!!

This is a worthwhile book for the Northwest wine tourist. I have used it successfully on a recent trip, and found its descriptions to be accurate. As is keeping with this type of book, when the author finds the wines to be outstanding, it is so stated, but when they find the wine average, they focus on some positive aspect of the visit instead. With that in mind, you can either pursue the best wines, or the most enjoyable visits, whichever you seek. The only thing that I would fault the book for is the maps, they are very general only, and sometimes it would be nice to have something specific. But, hey, that's what Mapquest is for, so if you're going to find a winery off the beaten path, print out a detailed map before you go. Or call when you're on the road, this book has all the relevant telephone numbers that you'll need.

While my husband and I were browsing at our favorite bookstore, we discussed where we should travel next. We both love wine, so we thought maybe a wine tasting tour would be next. As San Franciscans, we visit the Sonoma and Napa valleys often, but we wanted to go somewhere different. We have used the Hills' guides to Sonoma and Napa in the past so we asked the book store clerk to suggest something similar, and then we found a copy of "Northwest Wine Country:Wine's New Frontier." Immediately, we were intrigued. We had no idea how many great places there were to visit. We ended up planning a trip which took us on a road trip from San Francisco up through Oregon and into Washington state. Our favorite part of this book were the great descriptions and details regarding each winery. Not only were the directions great, but we learned so much about each winery as we drove closer. My husband and I took turns reading to each other as the other drove. We really enjoyed those in Washington state especially near and around Spokane. We had visited the Seattle area before, but had never ventured into this part of WA. My husband is a collector of wine bottle labels which he meticulously saves in a book. The Hills pointed out a winery near Spoakne, THe Worden Washington Winery, and specifically mention their "distinctive labels." That helped us decide where we should go. Everything they said was right! We loved the winery and the labels. We spent four days visiting the eight or so wineries in the area while also enjoying the local scenery. We had a wonderful time. If we had not read this book, we may have never found such a great place to spend a some time together while visiting and learning about such interesting places.

In honor of his 50th birthday, Howard Mosher decided to take a solo journey exploring his home ground. His chosen turf is the "north country," the borderlands between the United States and Canada. Mosher traveled from Maine to Washington, meandering a few miles one either side of the border.

In this account of his odyssey, Mosher intersperses short anecdotes from his life as a resident and traveler in these areas, combined with mini-sketches of the people and places he encounters. Nobody and no place merits more than three pages of Mosher's spare prose. Mosher voices himself in the taciturn manner of the hardy border people. He strives for a rough-and-ready effect, implying that his itinerary was haphazard, and that his encounters were primarily ones of chance. I suspect that a lot more planning went into the trip than Mosher suggests.

My favorite chapter was the one on "fresh starts," in which Mosher profiled people who had left one life for another. For Mosher, traveling through places both familiar and completely new was its own form of fresh start.

Howard Frank Mosher has crafted a warm, inviting story of his journey across the America via the backroads border of Canada. This book invokes the wanderlust... Read "Stranger in the Kingdom" and "Northern Borders" for superior fiction. Warm and intriguing.

Howard Frank Mosher is a gifted writer. His descriptions provoke the imagination into painting landscapes and portraits that the human eye ordinarily can't see. I found it literally impossible to put this book down, and I will definitely be reading the rest of Mosher's stories!

Osland shines at listing all the facets of an expatriate's life and evaluating the prospects of different personalities to handle extended work stays abroad. Speaking as a frequent ex-pat who did considerable time in the Balkans, I can confirm that she hits plenty of issues and their corresponding anecdotes dead on (i.e., some still bug me in a good way :-)-- successful strategies as well as failures of immersion in the target culture, adjusting on the return home with a more complex self-identity, identifying areas of personal change and growth, to name but a few.

Osland's other great strength lies in her words of caution to corporate HQ's: they should learn to treat their expat employees better, especially on return, as well as figure out better and innovative ways to incorporate their skill sets and changed personalities.

The downsides of the book are at least two: one, the metaphor of the hero myth gets downright tiring in repetition and doesn't really add much. Second, if the introduction and appendix are any indication, that metaphor was used to justify a research project, to "see whether ... [it] was important to expats..." and if it was indeed "a useful metaphor." In a word, fluff. Nobody I know in social sciences designs research and expects it to be taken seriously if its only probative value is to undergird a personal literary whim. Designing operationalizable logic and testing is hard work, after all. What Osland was really after, but doesn't say so, is a description of common characteristics/issues and categories across expats. Her sample of 35 people is too small for statistical use and carries no qualitative logic as an alternative approach for small "n" studies, so her survey conclusions are at best tentative, but nonetheless somewhat interesting.

Still, I should repeat that as a description of the issues that face prospective and current/past expats, it's a useful, crisp, motivating and nostalgic read (my copy was at the library, so I don't know offhand how much it's worth at places other than Amazon). I'd give it 3.5 stars, but that ain't an option, so I'll round it up to 4.

Thought-provoking treatment of aspects of living and working abroad from a sociological perspective. Very descriptive of styles of expatriate living with a focus on the success of those who treat the experience as an adventure in another culture rather than isolating themselves from the country's culture in an expatriate community. I'd recommend this for anyone evaluating his or her own suitability for living and working abroad.

the author and illustrator have done a very nice job showing what a young boy is looking for compared to the rest of his family as they head west in a covered wagon. This picture book would be a terrifc way to invite students into the experience of the wild wild west. I would imagine that each student might be able to relate to one of the characters in the story and continue with a story of their own.

It is so hard to bring history together to give you a feel of what is going on at a certain point in time. Bartlett bites off a hudge chunk (1776 - 1890) and does a better job than I could imagine of making you feel what the people of that time were experiencing.

A fine example of history seen through the eyes of white privelege and culture. A non-stop explanation of "wonderful" frontiersmen who were able to "conquer" the west for us all to enjoy. The few references to native peoples or non-American early sttles are nothing more than brief footnotes to a glorious re-telling of the "true heros" of the Summit area.

This is one of the better regional histories covering a single Colorado county. A wide range of topics are covered, including how Summit County was founded, how the towns evolved and what is worth seeing. Mary Ellen Gilliland, the author, has been involved in researching the history of the region for many years and is an active member of the Summit Historical Society.