From her descriptions of the wind, to the grasses, to the hardships, Ann Daum captured South Dakota's reality on paper. Every chapter lends truths to the prairie and our lives here. Thanks, Ann.

My life has many parallels to Ann Daum's; my life could have been hers. I grew up on a farm/ranch in central North Dakota, went out of state for college, came home to try to make a living, enjoy traveling and the wonders of the rest of the world, but am always drawn back to the northern Great Plains. Nowhere is the phrase "Hope springs eternal" better personified than in the lives of farmers and ranchers on the northern Great Plains. Daum captures this. Despite devastating losses of livestock, hail storms, floods and grasshopper plagues, farmers and ranchers believe next spring will be better, there might be a bumper crop and the next winter can't be so harsh. This hope strains marriages, finances and families. Daum also wonderfully and painfully captures the contradictions between the love of pets and baby calves and the war against predators and ultimate demise of all farm animals. I, fortunately, did not have some of the negative experiences that Daum did, but I saw them in others, heard of them and empathize. Walt Whitman wrote, "The Plains, while less stunning at first sight, last longer, fill the esthetic sense fuller, precede all the rest and make North America's characteristic landscape." Daum supports this statement. Anybody who enjoyed this book might want to read "Dakota: A Spiritual Geography," by Kathleen Norris. Also, for a different, more fact based, perspective of the Great Plains, "Where The Buffalo Roam: The Storm Over the Revolutionary Plan to Restore America's Great Plains," by Anne Matthews.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune Regional Round-up, June 24, 2001: "Daum's writing is lyrical, haunted by mortality, and so detailed you can almost feel the dust and heat. With great feeling, she captures a place where 'loneliness is just another disease.'"

Forward Magazine, July Issue: "This land, the prairie is not just in her eyes-it's in her soul in this slender but weighty first book."

Latza's "Back on the Farm" is a terrific piece of work! Whether you grew up on a farm or just admire the lifestyle, this is a book you won't want to miss. Beautiful, thought provoking photos, combined with creative and informative captions and a fantastic foreword by Terry Woster, this book has it all.

I would like to thank Greg for taking me back to the farm. I grew up about 10 miles from Greg's farm. Having lived on the farm as a young child and then selling the farm as the prices dropped in the '80's, was not uncommon. Living in Mitchell was still not close enough to the country. I worked at my uncles Dairy farm whenever I got time. It did not matter if he paid me or not. I just enjoyed viewing God's Country. I am now living in Houston, TX and miss the smell of fresh cut alfalfa in the morning or a calf's first wobbly step. This book took me back for a moment in time. I want to thank Greg once again for the beautiful book. The pictures do justice to our beautiful state and people. You can put a man in TEXAS but you can't take the South Dakotan out of him.....

This book not only rivals most of the Day in the Life books but could be compared to anything that you see in National Geographic. Mr. Latza has an eye and a heart for his state. Bravo Greg, when is the next book coming out.

This is an awesome book that is well written and an excellent guidebook for the outdoorsman. The photographs are outstanding. The trail maps are very helpful.

This book is one of the best books ever written. It is very easy to read and there are many illustrations to help understand. I really enjoyed this book then I'm planning to give a present to my nephew. If you think you are a biker, Hiram's book is a must. Thanks.

Great reference for someone new to BH. Includes topo maps and clear directions on how to get to the trails. Also has good writeups on each area, with details on the specific trail to follow. When checking ratings, keep in mind these are experienced hikers... you may have a hard time if you're new or out of shape. I take it with me every time I head out.

We took a South Dakota vacation and found this book to be great reading in our preparation and planning. It covers everything from lodging to attractions to activities to history and on and on.

This book, in combination with "Exploring the Black Hills and Badlands: A Guide for..." helped us have a better vacation than I ever expected.

This is a GREAT book if you are visiting this area. It gives all sorts of information to make your trip more complete. It also gives background information and little insiders tips here and there. The only thing I would look elsewhere for is accomodations. It has good camping and B&B info but not nearly enough hotel and resort listings but you can get that anywhere. This book is worth it just for the INFORMATION included.

If you are going to the Badlands or the Black Hills, this book is a must have. On our recent trip, this book was an invaluable guide to getting around and I would highly recommend it. It saved us tons of time that would have been wasted just driving around.

I normally don't write reviews on books. But this on is worth the exception. I first read this book back in the mid to late 80's., when I first started to become interested in caving. I found this book to be both informative as well as entertaining. I've done cave exploration in Minnesota Wisconsin Iowa and South Dakota. In 1988 I attended the annual convention of the National Speleological Society. It took place that Black Hills of South Dakota that year. I then had a chance to do some spelunking in Jewel Cave. This is by far on of the most exciting caves I have ever explored. While in the cave our group crossed paths with Dwight Deal. He caved with the Conn's during the time period written about in this book. He regaled us with some amusing stories about Jewel Cave.(Quite a interesting person.) As one of the evenings line up for the convention we had a presentation from Herb and Jan. They talk about there adventures in Jewel Cave. And pulled out there personal map from their exploration over the years. Then Jan gave a demonstration on filling and lighting a carbide lamp blindfolded. Herb and Jan are truly amazing. If your interested in caves, this is one you'll not want to put down. This one lives up to its name. It's quite an adventure.

Herb and Jan Conn were amateur climbers in the 1930s who fell in love with the Black Hills of South Dakota. At a friend's suggestion, the Conns began moonlighting as spelunkers in winter. When they first visited Jewel Cave, it was a tiny cavern with an intriguing unexplored passage. Luckily for the Conns, that passage led to a mile of unexplored cave passages, then two miles... and exploring Jewel Cave became the Conns' life's work. They describe the exciting exploration (which is still ongoing, with more than 100 miles of passages mapped) with just the right balance of action/adventure, science, and humor. This book is a pioneer of the outdoor/geography genre and is readable, fun and fascinating.

-Review by David Bezanson

Almost fifty years ago, two rock climbers entered a 'nice little cave' to survey it. They had never gone caving before, and wanted to try it out. Because of their efforts, that cave, Jewel Cave, is today the second longest cave in the US. This book tells the tale in a fluent, easy style that is sure to delight and enjoy. Next to 'The Longest Cave' it is possibly the most enjoyable exploration story about caving around. you will be amazed at the amount of work a small group of people was able to do, from the sometimes tortuous mapping of the cave, to the hard backbreaking labor involved in making a portion of their discovery open for public viewing, as part of Jewel Cave Natl. Monument. A large map comes with the book so you can follow them as they explore the ever expanding labyrynth. The 'Jewel Cave Adventure' is a great book for everyone, whether you are seriously interested in the undergorund or just looking for a darn good read.

It's a good time for Harold Adams, whose novels about itinerent sign painter ex-cop Carl Wilcox had been languishing, garnering critical raves but little in the way of sales. Walker & Company, a publishing house becoming known for literate, sometimes off-beat mysteries, has released four books so far in trade paperback and published new ones in hardback. This is a series well worth investigating.

Wilcox reminds me of every boy's favorite uncle, the one who's a black sheep to the women of the family for not settling down, who stops by when he needs a bed and a few square meals, bringing with him a whiff of sin and a few great stories. He travels the small towns of the Dakotas and Minnesota during the Depression, taking on sign-painting jobs for grocery stores and law offices when they're available, and camping by the side of the road in his modified Model T. When the jobs are few on the ground, he'll take on a murder investigation.

In "A Way with Widows," his sister asks him to come to Red Ford, North Dakota, to help clear a neighbor of killing her husband, who was found on the stairs of another woman's house. In "No Badge, No Gun," a minister who has heard of Wilcox's reputation as an investigator asks him to solve the murder of his niece, found dead in the basement of a church. Wilcox's investigating style consists of wandering around town, talking to people, gathering threads of facts and weaving them into a plausible story. He's suspicious, but not cynical. Told about the perfect character of a churchgoing man, he observes, "Nothing in this world raises more doubts in my mind than apparently perfect young men."

Yet Wilcox is also a flawed man. He makes mistakes and is perfectly capable of being turned by a pretty widow with something to hide. His attempts at seduction sometimes succeed, but more often fail, which makes sense at a time when a woman's reputation could be affected by who she's seen with.

One hopes for better things for Adams and Wilcox, but if it doesn't happen, it won't be the fault of the publisher. Like most of Walker's books, these are beautiful to look at -- details from Edward Hopper's paintings appear on most of them, which is a nice change from the usual blood and skulls that passes for art on most mystery covers -- and the $8.95 price tag is more than reasonable for these absorbing tales of small-town crimes of passion.

For some of us too young to know better, the world of the Depression can seem as foreign a place as Moscow or Outer Mongolia. It was, after all, a half-century ago, before computers, television, the Interstate Highway system and couple of major wars.

Which is why following Carl Wilcox, part-time bum, former convict and itinerant sign painter as he travels from town to town in the Dakotas so fascinating. In addition to painting signs and doing what he can to bring body and soul a little closer together, he sometimes investigate cases in small towns like Hope, Jonesville and Greenhill.

For the most part, these are pretty quiet stories about small towns where there's not much to do, and where murders are few and far between. Adams's books describe a Depression-era Dakotas of quiet small towns where private reputations and public behavior mattered. His Wilcox is a quiet man, willing to work when he needs money and loaf when he doesn't. His constant pursuit of any semi-willing women would be off-putting were it not realistically depicted (i.e., he doesn't succeed very often).

One added bonus can be found in the design of the books, whose covers sport art by Edward Hopper and Thomas Hart Benton. Not your usual mystery book design.

During the Depression, sign painter Carl Wilcox has earned a reputation throughout the Dakotas for solving murder mysteries, which is why Pastor Bjorn Bjornsen invites him to lunch. Bjorn and his nephew Sven offer Carl $100 to discover who raped and murdered the pastor's niece Gwendolyn in their church basement.

Carl begins his inquiries by talking to the cop on the case, Officer Driscoll, who has unofficially given up on the case, but does provide Carl the needed information. Carl follows up with discussions about the victim with her teachers, friends, and family. As he continues to look into the brutal death of a child with no seeming enemies or anyone with a motive to hurt her, Carl begins to wonder if even he can solve this mystery.

The fifteenth Wilcox depression era who-done-it keeps the freshness that has constantly made this series one of the best historical mysteries on the market. The story line fits the period, making it seem much more alive than fiction normally produces. However, it is the talent of Harold Adams to brilliantly describe a host of characters as seen through their varying relationships with succinct and abrupt Carl that makes NO BADGE, NO GUN and , for that matter all the Wilcox books, must reading for sub-genre fans.

Harriet Klausner

This book is about the relationship between the United States and the Sioux Nation from the signing of the 1851 Ft. Laramie treaty up to the present. The book centers around the efforts of the Wounded Knee Survivors Assoc. and their attorney Mario Gonzalez to obtain a formal apology from the U.S. government for the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre and the establishment of a National Tribal park at the massacre site. This book includes:

*Gonzalez' diary entries from 1989-1992--an excellent window to see firsthand how contemporary tribal governments work and how Native Americans on reservations interact with each other on a daily basis.

*Commentary (called chronicles)by Elizabeth Cooke-Lynn explaining events described in the diary entries including Gonzalez' efforts in stopping the payment of $100 million claims commission for the Black Hills in 1980, and his efforst in Europe from 1981 to 1984 to get the World Court to issue an advisory opinion on the illegal confiscation of the Black Hills.

*Appendices that include a complete chronology of Sioux land claims from the signing of the 1851 treaty up to the present--a must for anyone interested in Indian land claims.

*Excellent footnotes with valuable information found no where else including information about Chief Crazy Horse's family members contained in the probate records of Chief Crazy Horse's father.

This book is FASCINATING and should appeal to everyone! IT SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING IN EVERY NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES CLASS!

what elizabeth and mario have done is to create a work that will stand for the test of time! my favorite part of the whole book was when Elizabeth proudly states THAT NATIVE AMERICAN, ABORGIONAL, AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ARE NOT CITIZENS OF THE WHITE MAN'S NATION ! FOR EXAMPLE A PERSON WHO LIVES IN THE DINE NATION IS NOT A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES BECAUSE THEY NEVER ASKED FOR NOR DID WANT TO BE CITZENS OF THIS PATHETIC NATION! THEY ARE CITIZENS IN THEIR TRIBE AND NATION NOT OF THE PATHETIC UNITED STATES OF AMERICA OR THE WORLD FOR THAT MATTER! READ THIS BOOK TO LEARN THE REAL HISTORY OF WOUNDED KNEE AND ABOUT A PEOPLE WHO ARE CHANGING HISTORY EVERY SINGLE DAY!

Wonderful workings of writing the whole truth. A must have, must read, must distribute widely!

'These Happy Golden Years' is an excellent book. One of the best in the Little House series. Laura is growing up and life for her is getting very interesting.

The book starts off rough for Laura. In order to make money for Mary's schooling, Laura is going away from home for the first time to teach school. She is staying with a family that has a very bitter wife who is not exactly friendly!

When Laura finally returns home she is happy to go back to school, but she is eager to earn more money. So, she helps the town dressmaker on Saturdays.

Mary is coming home for summer and Laura is so excited! The only problem is that she is staying with the dressmaker and her daughter out on their claim. Will Laura be able to go home and see Mary!?

As the book progresses Almonzo Wilder becomes even more a part of Laura's life. It is so sweet to read these two getting closer and more interested. Laura even helps Almonzo break some horses!

This book is interesting and sweet and the ending is wonderful! Pick it up today!

This book tells of 3 years of Laura's life between ages of 15, when she first goes out to teach school - to 18, when she gets married.

We witness Laura's growing up and realization that life is changing all around her. Mary is in college, and is independent enough to want to stay with a friend for the summer instead of coming home. It's obvious that Laura's relationship with her sisters and friends in school are changing - in 'Little Town on the Prairie' her school life for example, and her after school or weekend social activities with her friends are a large part of the book, but now we only hear of a few remote incidents, and we hardly hear anything about the going ons there, for instance we don't really get to know Florence, the new 'big girl'. This is partly due to the increasing role of Almanzo Wilder's part in Laura's life, but I think that is also partly due to the fact Laura isn't attending school full time anymore, but rather teaches school herself for a term or two a year.Except for Ida's small part in Laura's wedding, we don't hear of them any more for the rest of the series.

We also see Laura herself change: part of it is what I just mentioned about the change in what she describes in her social life. Another one would be her very detailed description of her clothes and fashions - even though we do hear about her dresses in previous books, she seems much more occupied with them this time, like any teenage girl... In betwen the lines, we do see that the Ingles family is doing better financially - they are improving their house, and can often afford luxuries such as a sewing machine and an organ for Mary.

I did find a few points I didn't like in this book, compared to the previous books in the series:

1) Instead of giving an account of a relatively short period (a year or 2, like in the previous books), we are now covering 3 years, and we usually get an 'in depth coverage' of a relatively short period, or a few remote incidents, then run through a long period which is skipped. Laura only described her first school with as much details as I was used to in her previous books, but the next 2 schools are hardly mentioned... It isn't as bad as her descriptions in 'The First Four Years', but it's still noticeable.

2) We get a lot more of Almanzo, while we get less of the pioneer life of that era... This is an autobiography of Laura's life, not a history book, I admit, but I think that the historical and cultural element of these books has been a major attraction for readers, especially the older ones.

This book tells about Laura Ingalls Wilder's teenage life. She goes from care free child to grown school teaching adult. The book shows what it was like to be a teenager in the late 1800's. What kind of parties they had, for instance sleigh rides and birthday. Plus, what it was like falling in love and courting!This book is a lot of fun and a wonderful conclusion to the "Little House" books. If you have any time at all I would really recommend reading this delightful book!

Sue is probably the most famous dinosaur ever to be dug up. She is famous for two reasons -- the quality of her bones and the story of what happened to her after she was exhumed.

This book tries to discuss dinosaur and T-rex science at the same time as it tells the story of Peter Larson -- who dug up Sue, spent months cleaning her off, lost her in court, then went to jail for two years on charges that never would have been pressed if not for the Sue dispute.

Unfortunately, this approach didn't work quite as well as the authors hoped it would.

The story about Larson's legal problems is horrific. In a nutshell, the government invalidated his purchase of Sue (for $5000 when she was still in the earth) on the grounds that the rancher whose land she was on did not have the right to sell her. Then they used the National Guard to take Sue (and all the business records of Larson's company). Then they searched the business records until they found something to charge him with -- incorrectly filling out his customs forms when he visited Peru. Then they threw him in jail for two years. It seems clear that they wanted to find him guilty of something to justify what they had done by stealing his dinosaur. Oh, and after all that they eventually let the rancher sell her again, this time for $8,000,000. Larson didn't even get his $5000 back.

But the obviously partisan story about the legal hassles distracts from the discussions of dinosaur science. And vice versa. Just when you start getting into the T-rex science, he stops talking about it and switches back to the legal problems. Then he interrupts that to talk about T-rexes again.

The format just didn't work for me. I ended up skimming past stuff I ordinarily would have read because I was trying to piece together the separate sections of the book. It was too irritating to read linearly.

Nevertheless, both the legal story and the dinosaur science are engrossing. I stayed up late at night reading it. It's not the content of the book I didn't like, it's the format.

This is not just another dinosaur book. It is not just another dinosaur book with some fascinating facts about T-rex. This is THE book about T-rex by one of the foremost authorities on this bad boy of the Cretaceous.

Peter Larson's intimate knowledge of this beast comes from excruciatingly hard-earned experience. While it is a recounting of the nightmare saga surrounding the Sue specimen, it is also a manifest of the current thinking regarding T-rex, its lifestyle, and place in prehistory. Despite his own grievous experiences with the legal system, there is no self-pity in Mr. Larson's book. He simply states the facts as he knows them to be, as any researcher worth his salt should.

An A+ all the way.

I concur completely with eloquent words of Niles Eldredge, distinguished invertebrate paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History - and with his late friend Stephen Jay Gould, created the theory of punctuated equilibria - who notes that not only is this book a riveting saga, but also, "...a gripping account of a horrific episode in American paleontology that should never be allowed to happen again." This is simply one of the finest books on field paleontology that I've come across, told through the graceful - and at times - eloquent prose of Kristin Donnan, Pete Larson's ex-wife. Indeed, her splendid writing is occasionally as mesmerizing as Frank McCourt's lyrical prose in "Angela's Ashes", describing the legal affairs of Peter Larson and his firm, Black Hills Institue of Geological Research; legal affairs that seem as dismal as the tragic childhood which Frank endured.

Pete does an elegant job surveying what is known about Tyrannosaurus rex and its nearest relatives, drawing in part on his own ground-breaking research, which includes determining dinosaur sex. He also successfully conveys what is - and isn't romantic - about life as a field paleontologist. Yet the reader may find more compelling his descriptions of academic political fighting in vertebrate paleontology and the unjust seizure of "Sue" by the FBI which ultimately led to a U. S. government-orchestrated show trial against Pete and his colleagues at Black Hills Institute.

I was fortunate to meet Pete, his brother Neal and their Black Hills Institute colleagues years ago during the annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show when I was a brash graduate student of paleontology, highly skeptical of his motives. I was soon won over by Pete's sincerity and devotion to paleontology. Both his sincerity and love of paleontology are demonstrated repeatedly throughout this terse, yet still riveting, tome.

It's a pity that no major publisher is promoting "Rex Appeal". It's truly a splendid book worthy of such promotion. In light of the trials and tribulations which Pete, his family, friends and colleagues endured over "Sue's" legal battles, it seems appropriate to refer to this book as a paleontological "Angela's Ashes".

This (and Happy Golden Years) is my favorite book of the Little House series. The Ingalls family is doing well; the town has recovered from the Hard Winter; and Laura is changing from a girl into a woman. The descriptions of the characters and the surroundings are vivid and real. I don't care if Rose Wilder Lane wrote most of the books or not - the Little House series is a gift to all readers, not just young readers! I'm in my 30's and I still love to read them periodically, but this is one of my very favorites.

Little Town on the Prairie is my favourite book out of all the "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I enjoyed this book more than the other books because it was happier, for there were not so many depressing times the Ingalls family had to endure.
The title is self-explanatory, a little town on the prairie, which is in Dakota, USA. The story is set during the 1880's. The Ingalls family, consisting of six people, was always moving from place to place. When they came to Dakota, they were very happy with it. Their little "shanty" that they stayed in during the summer was built into a new, improved house. Mary, the oldest sister, is accepted into the college of the blind, and Laura continues school and has a summer job. Things are going very well at the Ingalls household. There is enough food for everyone, and there wasn't another hard winter, like everyone expected. Most problems have solutions like when there were gophers eating their corn, they got a cat to kill them. The only problem is school, because of the new teacher, Eliza Jane Wilder. She is Almanzo Wilder's sister. She turns out to be horribly mean to Laura and her younger sister, Carrie, because Nellie Oleson (Laura's enemy mentioned before in "The Banks of Plum Creek") told the teacher negative remarks about Laura. Soon, a new teacher replaces her. All of the problems work themselves out somehow, which is what I like about this book.
In my opinion, Laura Ingalls Wilder does an exquisite job captivating all her readers with her refined choice of words, meticulous detail, and up-beat plot. This is absolutely the best piece she's written. She does an admirable job of describing the setting so it makes you feel like you're right there, witnessing the whole scene. The book also has a good balance of good times and bad times, because if it was all bad times the book would seem depressing, and if it was all good times, the book would seem hard to believe. I would recommend this book for those who enjoy realistic fiction or historical fiction. I think a possible theme for this story would be hold on, things will get better. This theme is displayed throughout all the "Little House" series. This is my all time favourite book, and I hope you enjoy it, too.

Since I've first read this book when I was a little younger than Laura, so I was really excited to read what life was like 'back then' for kids my age.

The hard winter is finally over, and the Ingalls family finally moves out to their claim, where Laura enjoys the outside work and the sunshine. But then she is offered a job as a seamstress in town, and takes it even though she misses the outdoors. The work is hard, and the environment is unpleasant, but Laura sticks it out.

Ma=ry finally has a chance to go to the blind college in Iowa, and while Ma and Pa take her there, Laura, Carrie and Grace clean the house.

School finally begins again, and an unpleasant surprise comes along on the first day - Nellie Oleson from Plum Creek, who schemes and causes trouble. The high point of this situation is the troble between Laura and Ms. Wilder, the teacher, who only hears unpleasant things about Laura from Nellie, and Laura's short temper, especially where Carrie is concerned, does not help the situation... But Ida, the new girl, is nice enough to make up for Nellie's unpleasantness.

Laura is grown up enough to want fashionable cloths and all other fashionable things other girls her age in school have, such as name cards. She is invited to parties and attends her first evening sociable.

We start seeing the relationship between Laura and Almanzo Wilder start developing (even though I think her relationship with his sister, her unpleasant ex - school teacher, might give things an interesting twist).