Filled with rich, colorful photographs and accompanied by clear text, this book is perfect as an introduction to the artistry and history of southwestern, native American weaving. The text starts with a section titled "It Begins With Water", and follows the spiritual path of weaving with visits to different artisans and styles of weaving, and ends up at the trading posts. The text is written in the very friendly tone you'd expect from a skilled and experienced tour guide, complete with background information and anecdotes, to provide a well rounded understanding of this topic...I bought the book for my children to use with their middle-school studies, but I learned so much reading the book myself that now I'm reluctant to give it back to them!

A terrific book on the meaning of writing & how some writers' go about it. Joy Harjo, Barbara Kingsolver, Edward Abbey, Alberto Rios -- these are writers with depth and some remarkable things to say. Part bio, part political, part inspiration, it's one of those books I've read way more than once.

This story of Wyatt Earp's life covers life to death and all of the important events therein. This is a great book that schools can use to supplement reading for students.

Yudonsi blends ancient and modern cultural issues. A modern teen living in the Arizona canyonlands does not understand or appreciate his village traditions. He tags others' possessions and even the canyon walls in order to get attention. When the canyon spirits show their power, his village is threatened with a flood. Only then does he see the strength and importance of his Native village traditions. This is an excellent book to read aloud to upper elementary students then discuss the issues involved.

This is a magnificent book, written with skill, sensitivity, insight and the gentle teasing humor that is characteristic of Zuni. After reading it, anyone will easily understand why Tony Hillerman is still an "outsider" to many Native Americans.

My dealings with the Zunis began in 1967, when I began writing stories about some aspects of life in Zuni and was honored enough to be the recipient of some of their teasing. It's a good place to start: British humor centers on clever word plays, American humor is blunt slapstick, while the essence of Zuni humor is kindly and gentle teasing.

After all, they've lived and prospered in the Southwest for as far back as science can trace. In Zuni terms, they've been here since the beginning of the world. They learned to live in one of the harshest climates of the United States without depending on outsiders. It's only since the coming of the Anglos, which Wyaco portrays as oddball outsiders who vary from insensitivity cruelty to bumbling kindness, that many Zunis have become dependent upon a sometimes crazy American world.

His experiences in World War II, which included winning the Bronze Star, are an example. The all-Anglo draft board in Gallup, which easily filled its quotas by drafting Indians, shipped him off to Santa Fe for his medical. He wanted to join the Navy to get out of walking, but was rejected because he'd once suffered three broken ribs when he was kicked by a horse. So, the draft board tried again and sent him off to the Army where he was accepted, even though he'd have to march every day.

"It didn't make any sense then. It doesn't now," he writes. The book is filled with such examples of non-Zuni illogic. As a combat rifleman, he killed his share of Germans. He was among the troops who liberated Dachau, and was horrified at how the SS guards had treated the dead. He writes the dead "looked like juniper firewood just unloaded from a pickup truck, no more human than that, all naked and skinny.

"The Zunis don't even kill birds without asking permission," he states. "To the Zuni, death is a transition time that must be handled with love and respect by one's closest family. A person's body and hair must be washed, rubbed with corn meal, and pointed to the west toward Kothluwalawa, with prayers to guide the departed spirit on the way."

Wyaco was one of a dozen GIs who summarily executed 60 or so Dachau guards, who had surrendered without firing a shot. He says, "I've never felt any remorse for my part in that execution. Those SS guards were more like witches than like men. They'd already lived too long." When he went home, a medicine man brushed him with a wing feather from an eagle and blessed him with corn meal to wipe away such bad spirits from the war.

It's the only incident in the book that made him really angry. The rest is an insight into traditional Zuni life. It was written by J. A. Jones, a novelist and anthropologist who became a friend of Wyaco after the war. Jones did a superior job, retaining the gentle teasing humor and manner of speaking that is characteristic of Zuni. It is an art Hillerman never mastered, his books present acculturated Navajos dealing with traditional customs, but little of the "soul" of the People.

Obviously, Wyaco doesn't reveal everything about Zuni life. But then, as Wyaco points out, neither do any of the many anthropologists. He offers something they cannot; he explains the spirit, the meaning and the gentle humor of Zuni culture. It's something no outsider can do.

It is amusing that some of the most interesting and veridical commentantary on the cultural and political anarchy that is India should come from a non-Indian raconteur. Beautifully illustrated by Olivia Fraser, The Age of Kali offers a compassionate view of a nation struggling against forces both modern and ancient. William Dalrymple has written a book that is required reading for anyone interested in India's emerging role in world affairs.

Hindu cosmology divides time into four great epochs, or yugs, which represent the movement from perfection toward moral and social disintegration. Many Indians today believe that they live in the Kali Yug, or Age of Kali, a period of rapidly advancing darkness marked by chaos, corruption, and decay. Not until the world is cleansed by fire will the cycle repeat itself, restoring balance. "In the Age of Kali," writes Dalrymple, "the great gods Vishnu and Shiva are asleep and do not hear the prayers of their devotees. In such an age, normal conventions fall apart: anything is possible." Despite being at the vanguard of the computer software industry and having recently joined the ranks of world superpowers with the successful test of an atomic bomb--an ominous development when one considers the state of relations with neighboring Pakistan--India remains a country firmly entrenched in the past. In much the same way that the Luddites rebelled against the first wave of industrialization, so too have many Indians, especially the more conservative followers of the Hindu religion, resorted to violence to express their dissatisfaction with encroaching Western influence. Xenophobia and intense nationalism maintain in defiance of the fast food restaurants, beauty pageants, and satellite TV stations that threaten traditional Indian values.

Dalrymple's essays succeed in presenting the many disparate facets of Indian society as a whole, from the glitterati of Bombay's movie scene (otherwise known as "Bollywood") to the dispossessed women of Vrindavan who roam the streets begging alms, to the conflicts between Hindu and Muslim factions that continue to escalate in number and intensity (including the recent horrendous Gujarat massacres), to the blood feuds and political turf wars waged in Bihari, which, like Lahore and parts of Uttar Pradesh, has succumbed to the rule of drug lords and corrupt government officials, or surprisingly even to the risilient malaises such as caste system and sati -- the research is right on target.

This is an amusing book, laden with factual insights about India, and is a breeze to identify with -- perhaps it takes an "outsider" to look at a kaleidoscopic country under such a prying lens. Highly, highly recommended!

William Dalrymple is one of the best travel writers about. His book "THE AGE OF KALI" is a collection of essays written during his many travels over the years through India. Don't be deceived by the title, although Dalrymple talks about the ancient Goddess Kali, this book is not about her; it is in fact about the transition that India is going through, "the age of Kali" a time when change takes place, often not for the best. In this book he shows a side of India that perhaps many would like to avoid discussing. He talks about India's dark side, the violence, religious intolerance, the abject poverty of many people, a stronger than ever caste system along with the pain of a country struggling to find its feet in the 20th century. This is not a depressing book, far from it, Dalrymple shows the reader, that despite all the problems India has to contend with, she is a country of great beauty, great compassion and many wonders, admid all the tragedy, corruption, and heartbreak. This is not a book for the squeamish and if you want a read that romanticizes India, then this isn't for you. However, if you are looking for a book that you won't be able to put down, then this is certainly something you will want to read again and again.

Dalrymple's work is a real surprise. To be honest, I hadn't even heard of the author until I read (on this site) a rather poisonous reader's review of Jason Elliot's excellent book about Afghanistan (An Unexpected Light) that included a statement like, "He's no Dalrymple..."

Dalrymple's travels in India are masterfully recorded. He manages to meet and talk with major figures in India's fast-changing society, including a variety of notorious and violent characters. Dalrymple investigates the slow erosion of the caste system, the increased awareness of women's rights (and the fissure that the issue has opened between urban and rural populations), the corruption and the squalor, and India's newly emerged wealth and power in a way that is both direct and sympathetic.

In the earlier sections of the book (which is really a loose collection of long journalistic essays) Dalrymple investigates the subcontinent's increasingly corrupt political system and the resulting rise of the ultra-nationalist BJP, whose members often use language eerily similar to that of the Nazis in the 1930s, inciting violence and murder while attacking the Muslim minority. Given that India now has a domestic nuclear weapons program the emergence of the BJP is downright scary, and important to understand in terms of its origins.

India has an increasingly powerful role to play in world affairs, and a growing middle class of technology-literate citizens. But if Dalrymple is right, it seems also to be collapsing under the weight of its own history. This book provides important insight into a culture that is otherwise too easy to ignore.

Having grown up in the South, I know all about high school football. After all, no one wants to be a social outcast. I have talked to players, I have felt the excitement, I have let the feelings of comraderie engulf me. H.G. Bissinger's book "Friday Night Lights" is the most accurate description of high school football I have ever read. As he follows the life of a teamful of high school students, Bissinger doesn't only tell us about the game, he puts us in the shoes of the players. Bissinger has a talent for relating his characters to someone in our lives. Everyone knows an Ivory Christian, the kid who thinks maybe there is more to life than football. As I read this book, I started to compare its characters to people that I know, people that go to my school. I started to compare the school, Permian High School of Odessa,Texas, to my school, St. Thomas More of Lafayette, Louisiana. Sadly, I was also able to compare the racial tension of Odessa to that of Lafayette as well.

This is another aspect that Bissinger dwells on. Race relations have always been very important in the South, and often come up in the world of football. Odessa appears, at least to me, to be a town of great wealth fiscally, but not quite so socially. Many of the townfolk, particularly the elderly, are opposed to the African American students of Permian six days a week, but on Friday night, none of that matters. This is a great hypocrisy that is prevailent in the Southern United States, and one I have witnessed too many times.

Over all, Bissinger's account of a year of football is very well written. It is extremely engrossing, and I highly reccomend it to anyone who has ever even been to a high school football game and witnessed the magic that happens under the Friday Night Lights.

I finally got around to reading this book just recently; I wish I had read it when it came out in 1990. "Buzz" Bissinger pulls no punches in telling it like it is, how a high school football team can be the main rallying point of an otherwise isolated community, several hundred miles from the nearest large metropolitan area; a community whose residents are deeply religious, God-fearing, and shamelessly prejudiced and intolerant of non-whites.

I remember the controversy this book caused shortly after its release. Having read it, I now understand why: In a community where there's otherwise "nothing to do," a local high school football team can unite people of all races, incomes, cultures, etc. I should know: I used to live in Lubbock, not too far from Odessa; the townfolks share the same conservative beliefs and euphoric passion for football. Bissinger's metaphor-rich style of writing really made me feel as if I was back in West Texas. The similarity of the two cities was uncanny. I began to read in search of something startling and controversial; instead it brought back a lot of memories. As I learned, the people of Odessa and Lubbock are strikingly similar (except Lubbock also has collegiate football, from Texas Tech University, to root for, as well as a few local high schools). I found Bissinger's descriptions totally accurate, if not downright eerie.

In the end, I couldn't help but feel for the 17- and 18-year-olds who had to endure the pressure to produce one victory after another, and the supporters' shameless win-or-else attitude. Bissinger's ability to empathize with America's appetite and obsession for winning really drove home the point. When I finished reading it, I cried. This book was THAT soul-stirring.

To Stephanie, a Permian High School grad who wrote a review of this book in May 1998: I'd advise you to read "Turning The Page - '88 Permian team still can't escape glare of 'Friday Night Lights,'" by Dave Caldwell (The Dallas Morning News, November 24, 1999). You called Bissinger "a liar," but Jerrod McDougal, whose loud Bon Jovi music was mentioned in the introduction, said "The Book [as it's known in Odessa] painted a pretty ugly portrait of the town, but there's not a lie in it." And Randy Ham, a Permian grad who works at a bookstore in Odessa, mentioned, "It is a bitingly accurate portrayal of the town. It really is."

Mike Wallace, the "60 Minutes" correspondent, said that "'Friday Night Lights' reads like fiction; unhappily, it is fact." I feel that's all one needs to know to prepare for this truly incredible read.

Odessa is a West Texas town that had a huge oil boom in its past. Now the oil is gone, and the only thing that the people living there really have left to get excited about is their high school football team. School sports play a pretty big part in the everyday lives of some people in my hometown, but I had no idea that there are people out there who take it as seriously as the citizens of Odessa. There are people that camp outside for many hours just to get a ticket to Friday's game. This book not only provides information about football, but also information about many other aspects of West Texan life. There are plenty of other important subjects to talk about when the story takes place in a town like Odessa. Here segregation between blacks and whites still remains very strong, and a school can provide the money for their football team to charter a flight to another town, but cannot afford new text books.
I gave this book five stars. It would have gotten old very quickly if the focus was only on football, but it branched off into very detailed descriptions of other subjects. This is what kept me from putting the book down. Not only did I red about football, but also about many other subjects ranging from former presidential candidate George Bush to racism in the South. That is part of the reason why I rated this book the way that I did. Another, which was my personal favorite thing about the book, was how well it described the players and the games. It went into much detail about the players on and off the field. It was like getting to know the players. I felt sympathy for Boobie Miles, who was a hometown hero one day, and instantly forgotten the next. Inside, I cheered for the team as the games grew close. The game descriptions were just like the high school football games that I have been to, but taken to another level. There are very few books that I would give the five star rating to. I would normally have at least one complaint, but honestly, I cannot think of a single one for this book. It is easily the best sports book that I have ever read. If this is a book that you have not read yet, I would highly recommend reading it.

"The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp" When I purchased this book two years ago I was not sure that I really wanted to read another Earp book... Casey Tefertiller obviously spent days in research libraries, reading over old newspapers and seldom-seen manuscripts. Many of these documents had not been quoted and referenced within a major work on Wyatt Earp. The author tried to remain neutral and objective and present the facts he uncovered so the readers could draw their own conclusions. For the most part, I feel, Tefertiller was successful in keeping his personal opinions to a minimum. I was a little disappointed that the author did not spend more time on Wyatt's early life and upbringing. How did a young man working on the family farm, while his older siblings were off to the Civil War, develop the traits that would bring us the man who became the legendary 'Frontier Marshal'. Much of book centers around the Tombstone years, the shoot-out and the vendetta ride of Waytt Earp. Of course, this is the portion of Wyatt's life that most people are concerned with. The book is very attractively packaged loaded with photos and notes. However, I wish the publisher has just printed this 500 page book on 500 pages rather the 344. My middle-aged eyes were really put to the test. I recommend this book to Wyatt Earp and fans of the old west. Enjoy.. Jim Groom

The best and most satisfying aspect of this book is that Tefertiller, unlike almost every other author to date, has no axe to grind. For once the Earp legend -- so long the arena of the rabid pro-Earp and anti-Earp factions -- is treated by a professional historian with care, caution and the deliberate intention of setting the record straight regarding the controversial life of Wyatt Earp. What emerges, however, is not dry, dense or academically lifeless. On the contrary, the settling of highly debated issues, the unraveling of mythology and the clarity Tefertiller brings to the true story of "The Fighting Earps" makes for a great and insightful read. The story of the American west has too long been the province of the well-intentioned but not necessarily historically skilled amateur. Tefertiller showcases how much more fascinating characters and situations can be when legitiamtely and carefully showcased. In all, a highly commendable and most satisfying read.

Casey Tefertiller has written a very well researched, totally fair, and engrossing book about the most famous person of the old west.

He approaches Earp's life with an open mind and captures the essence of the man without nominating him for sainthood or branding him as the next satan.

He provides the detail from Earp's early years which help shape his adult personality and actions in Dodge City and Tombstone. He does not attempt to hide the seedy side of Earp's life during those years or the fact that Earp was not above using people or events to advance his cause or personal gain.

The most important part of the book is the detailed discussion that explains the reasons for the gunfight with the Clantons and his revenge against the cowboys,for the murder of his brother, that showed Earp to be more ruthless than any outlaw of his time.

It has always amazed me that movie makers during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, dreamed up total fiction about Earp instead of using the truth. I have to credit the makers of "Wyatt Earp" and "Tombstone" for correcting this error. Both movies capture the soul of Earp in different ways.

If you are going to read one book about Wyatt Earp, this is the one to read because it is the best. If you want to read another, try "Inventing Wyatt Earp". It was written about the same time as this book and is very good.

Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor and her brother, H. Alan Day, tell the story of growing up in the harsh yet beautiful land of the Lazy B Ranch in Arizona. The book is organized as a series of vignettes ranging from character sketches of the cowboys who spent their lives on the ranch to rain to the BLM.

I loved this book. I first became aware of it during a trip to southern Arizona. The authors describe a way of life -- on an isolated cattle ranch -- that is almost extinct. I knew that water was important in such a land, but I didn't know that the majority of the time of the owners and employees of the ranch was spent in maintaining the wells, windmills and pumps that provided that water.

I also enjoyed comparing the book to Jimmy Carter's An Hour Before Daybreak, his memoir of his childhood in rural south Georgia during a similar time period.

I loved reading this beautiful, gritty account of the remote Arizona cattle ranch where O'Connor and her brother grew up. The book is a portrait of the Lazy B ranch and the family and cowboys who created and sustained it for over a century. O'Connor's account is unromantized and yet touching, and it succeeds in vividly revealing a bygone way of life from the old West.

We see the the daily rhythms and activities of ranch life, the ongoing struggles of the Day family to keep the ranch afloat, and portraits of the colorful, rugged cowboys who worked at the Lazy B for most of their lives. And we hear the perspectives and fond recollections of the young girl (O'Connor) and her brother who grew up there.

If you are drawn to the West, you'll enjoy this book as much as I did.

Despite her status as the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and her background as a Stanford graduate and prominent lawyer, Sandra Day O'Connor was not--repeat NOT--a child of privilege. Granted her Daddy ran a cattle ranch spanning two states and she never really wanted for anything, but the childhood which she relates (with her co-author, brother Alan) in "Lazy B" was a most challenging, liberating, independence-building one indeed.

Her grandparents started this life and her parents took over--running a huge cattle ranch, raising three children and instilling traditional values of frugality, self-reliance and hard work. We learn about her dad, DA; her mom, MO; and several interesting, independent cowboys, among them Rastus, Jim Brister, Bug Quinn and Claude Tipets. Just names in a review, these lonely, uneducated, but remarkable men take on real life--real cowboys in the twentieth century! Here's an example: Brister, to tame an unruly horse, wrestles it to the ground in a display of awesome strength--while sitting on its back!!

Sandra accompanies her dad on his treks around the huge ranch fixing windmills, rounding up cattle, fixing fences, and, in general, doing the work of the ranch. She is an important part in the running of the ranch. Her father barely acknwledges her when she is late delivering lunch to the men working far from the homestead--despte the fact that she has had to change a flat tire on the ancient truck with its frozen lugnuts all by herself.

The book stays focused on her childhood, her family and the ranch. We learn about her adult life, including her appointment to the Supreme Court in just a few pages. At first I was surprised at such a cursory treatment of such an important career. But in learning about her childhood upbringing on the Lazy B we really learn all about the adult Sandra Day O'Connor. This is an interesting read both as biography and as the evocation of a vanished time and place. I recommend it highly.