Lopez is concerned with our collective understanding of nature. From studying a 3000-year-old horse intaglio to looking for Anasazi granaries he seeks our ancestral relationships. The essays work best when he mixes his reflection with keen observations. Where the essays have a heavier philosophical hand they aren't as effective. As he says "The door that leads to the cathedral is marked by a hesitancy to speak at all, rather to encourage by example, a sharpness of the senses". Lopez 's narratives sharpen many senses from the sudden assault of the sound of snow geese to "two snails small as pinheads chewing a leaf".

There are reflections on the role of biologists, from communicating between scientists and shipmates in the arctic to their role in a whale stranding. Perhaps he thinks biologists have greater insight, but he also understands the need for mystery and direct experience.

For Paul Winter fans there is a description of the raft down the Grand Canyon that produced the album "Canyon". As a current update, the snow geese written about in one essay are continuing to boom and damage their arctic breeding grounds.

"I live in a rain forest in western Oregon, on the banks of a mountain river in relatively undisturbed country, surrounded by 150-foot-tall Douglas firs, delicate deer-head orchids, and clearings where wild berries grow" (p. 148), Barry Lopez writes in this collection of his 1978 to 1986 essays. Lopez allows each essay to tell a story leaving its reader with "an inexplicable renewal of enthusiasm." "It does not matter greatly what the subject is," he writes about storytelling, "as long as the context is intimate and the story is told for its own sake" (p. 63). Subjects of these essays include a stone horse intaglio, white geese at Tule Lake, boating the Colorado River with jazz musician, Paul Winter, bull riders, beached whales, searching for Anasazi remains, and "the passing wisdom of birds."

Readers will cross open ground in these essays and enter the natural world, becoming immersed in its much larger meanings. "Wildlands preserve complex biological relationships that we are only dimly, or sometimes not at all, aware of" (p. 80). These essays are rich in wilderness wisdom, enough wisdom to please any fan of Ed Abbey or Wendell Berry. "We grasp what is beautiful in a flight of snow geese rising against an overcast sky as easily as we grasp the beauty of a cello suite," Lopez writes; "and intuit, I believe, that if we allow these things to be destroyed or degraded for economic reasons we will become deeply and strangely impoverished" (p. 38). He quietly observes, "wilderness can revitalize someone who has spent too long in the highly manipulative, perversely efficient atmosphere of modern life" (p. 82).

Whether I'm reading his stories or essays, Barry Lopez is among my favorite writers. He will bring you to the edge of your senses: "Everything found at the edge of one's senses--the high note of the winter wren, the thick perfume of propolis that drifts downwind from spring willows, the brightness of woodchips scattered by beaver . . .all this fits together" (pp. 149-50).

G. Merritt

Excellent reading for those connected with the Earth. Food for the soul. One of the best gifts I have ever recieved.

This is a compact history ... but it does just what you want - gives what history is known of Cynthia Ann Parker. This is an excellent resource if you are wanting to know about Cynthia Ann Parker from the settler's perspective - the people she left behind, the family she had come from, and the search for her that continued throughout her 'captivity'. The author seems to steer clear of any area of conjecture, such as why Cynthia Ann got shuttled between family members after her return or what may have happened to her pension, and sticks only to documentable history. She also avoided sidetracking into the history of Cynthia Ann's famous son or the other people in her life except for as far as they pertain to Cynthia Ann's life. Focus is very tight, very informative.

On May 19th, 1836 nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker, a member of a group of religious families occupying Fort Parker in Texas, witnessed the massacre of friends and relatives by combined bands of Caddos, Kiowas and Comanche warriors. Abducted by the Comanches, Cynthia was raised for the next 25 years as a tribal member and became "fully" Comanche, giving birth to Quanah Parker, the last Comanche Chief and one of the most influential intermediaries of his time, a representative of both the Native American and White cultures. Abducted a second time as an adult by a well-meaning Texas Ranger, Cynthia Ann was forced to return to White society, but mourned deeply for her Comanche family, ultimately starving herself to death out of grief.

Much lore and legend has grown around the story of Cynthia Ann Parker over the years, and it has often been difficult to separate the myth from the reality of her dramatic story. However, Margaret Schmidt Hacker has done just that. Over a period of five years, Ms. Hacker painstakingly researched the archives in Texas, Oklahoma, California and Washington, D.C. and objectively weighed all the accounts of Cynthia Ann's life. The result of her efforts is what is considered the most authoritative book on the subject. Although scholarly, it is at the same time, a gripping drama of the Texas prairies, and very readable by anyone with an interest in the Old West. Highly recommended reading.

Countless folk tales and sagas have focused on the story of Miss Parker, a captive of the Comanches for more than 15 years. Many of them deal only with her years as the mother of the famous Quanah Parker. Author Margaret Schmidt Hacker devoted five years to researching the life of the Cynthia Ann to reveal the history behind the myth. This is the tragic story of the abduction of a nine year old girl who returned reluctantly to white society when she was 24. A fascinating portrait of her life among the Comanches on the Texas frontier.

Mr. Barrett interviewed Geronimo after several years of his captivity and this is his version of what happened in the Apache Wars. Definately an interesting read and a great story. Not what you should read if interested in a complete history of the Apache Wars and the part Geronimo had, but still worthwhile as it tells it from his prespective in his old age.

Geronimo wrote this book so that others may judge if he and the Apache people were treated fairly. This is a simple quesiton that becomes quite complex -- murder, robbery and broken promises...by both the Apaches, Mexicans, and white settlers and troops. It is difficult to assign culpability in this context.

I see it more of as a tragedy of when one culture encounters another radically different and less developed than its own. You will need to read the book yourself to develop your own conclusion.

What makes the book interesting is that it is Geronimo in his own words. It is transalted, but there is no white-man slant or probing questions. It truly is Geronimo in his own words. And as such, it provides a fascinating testament to early American Indian culture, interaction with both Mexicans and Americans, and the legendaryu cowboy-and-indian wars. The early chapters on Apache creation were fascinating, as were the later chapters on the St. Louis World's Fair.

Recommended.

This was a pretty good book and a fast read. The book has an introduction with some history about the Apache conflict and then goes into the part that is Geronimos own words, translated in the early 1900's. The book does point out places in the text that are disputed as being the words of Geronimo. He talks about things that happened to him as a child and as a young man.
However some things that are discussed in detail in traditional history books are barely mentioned here. There are some good pictures in the book. It's very interesting to hear it from his point of view, but I would also recommend other sources to get the complete story from both sides. I would compare the way the text reads to the book "Black Elk Speaks".

The field of Hispanic history is entering an expanding and exciting era. A number of vibrant scholars have heeded Alex Saragoza's advice in his 1990 essay "Recent Chicano Historiography: An Interpreteative Essay" (Aztlan, Spring 1988-90, 1-77) to expand the historiography of the Hispanic experience in the United States. Jorge Iber's monograph is a successful attempt to accomplish such a goal. Iber's work explores the successes and obstacles that have confronted Mexican Americans in a state and region that has previously been neglected in the annals of the Hispanic experience. In the course of his study, he reveals the various divergent textures that constitute Utah's Hispanic population, dispelling the notions of Mexican Americans as a monolithic community of working class Catholics who all think, work, vote, and practice religion in a like manner. Iber's book is not strictly revisionist history; he does not discount or contridict the efforts of previous chroniclers of Mexican American history. Rather, he has added another layer to the expanding literature in the field. Spanish surnamed people do not exclusively reside in the Southwest or California and they are not all working class laborers. They are business owners and professionals and they are dispersed throughout the country. Iber has found that Utah's Hispanic population differs in many areas from Hispanics in other regions. They have developed unique communities, with the overarching difference due to the dominant presence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah. In order to accomplish his goal (a goal he reaches successfully), Iber begins with an exploration of the founding of Utah's Hispanic community. He examines the birth of Utah's Mexican American community in the early twentieth century and continues with the changes within the community brought about by the Great Depression, World War II, and post-war America. He is particularly successful in demonstrating how the community was changed by the experiences of the period and the formation of a different attitude among Mexican Americans within the Beehive state. The crucible of economic distress and war, combined with the emergence of the second and third generations of immigrants, led to the development of a unique Mexican American culture within Utah's Hispanics, one that combined the traditional Mexican culture with American values and attitudes. Iber's discussion of the development of a unique Mexican American community in Utah, as well as his inclusion of class differences within the community is one of the key facets of his thesis of differing textures contained with Utah's Hispanic population. While Iber also explores the increased activism and emergence of militancy within the state (somewhat muted, given the small numbers of Hispanics in Utah), it is his discussion of religion throughout the monograph that forms the central core of the work. The LDS Church is without a doubt the most dominant institution in the state. Utah's Hispanics, however, for the most part brought their Catholic faith with them as they moved into the state. Catholic liturgy and the practice of the religion was often a tool of resitence against Anglo domination and a key facet of Hispanic ethnic identity. This unique identity was challenged in Utah. Since Hispanics were a small minority and the evangelical zeal of the Mormon Church was a strong entity within Utah, many of the state's Mexican Americans converted to the LDS Church. Conversion often meant the formation of a different history and societal develoment for Mormon Hispanics, another textural difference within Utah's Mexican American community. Acceptance of the Mormon faith often meant advancement for Mexican Americans in Utah; business, political, and social openings that were in many cases closed to those who retained their Catholic ties. Iber's treatment of the state's Hispanic business community is a notable portion of the book, one that is often forgotten in some scholarly studies. Hispanics in the Mormon Zion is a welcome and vital contribution to the growing understanding of Hispanic history. Iber's study of Utah's Mexican Americans represents the maturity of the field and a positive expectation of further studies of Hispanics in regions not often associated with this ethnic group. Perhaps the only addition to the work could be a more in depth discussion of the role Hispanic's play in Utah politics, but this is a mere minor quibble with a worthwhile and well-done book.

This book is a must have for anyone seeking a better understanding of the history of Mexican Americans and their role in American history. Dr. Iber, thank you for this wonderful book about my ancestors!

My goal in this work is to present scholars and students of Mexican American history with an introduction to a neglected community. The Spanish-speaking people in Utah have both suffered and benefited from life in one of the 'whitest' states in the US. This work examines a wide range of topics such as working conditions in Utah mines and beet fields, family and religious life, the role of the LDS and Catholic churches in community life, and both the promises and problems that exist among this growing segment (now up to 120,000 or roughly 6%) of the state's inhabitants. It adds yet another piece to the mosaic which is the Hispanic/Latino history of the US.

This was my first Lonely Planet book and I could not have made the trip without this very informative and helpfull book. I highly recommend any Lonely Planet books to any one traveling abroad.

This is the best lonelyplanet guide book I've ever had. Normally, I find them OK but irritating. Miraculously, this one is different.
Firstly, it's not too big (unlike, say, the Indian one) and is not afraid to leave some good stuff OUT. Secondly, it's very well researched, which is impressive in Bangladesh because information isn't all that readily available. Nor is it patronising in tone!
Best of all, though, is that reference to women travellers isn't restricted to a nauseating passage on what women "shouldn't" do because of the dangers, and then special women's diseases. Instead, it actually suggests that there are advantages to being a woman and special places to visit (such as women's development programs) that might interest women in particular. Yay! Welcome to the 21st century LP! I don't know what this sudden change in tone is due to, but I hope it spreads throughout the LP philosophy.
Otherwise, the information is helpful and up-to-date. The maps are a bit dodgy and could do with some work. For example, Thanchi does NOT lie between Ruma and Keokradung, and nor is Keokradung the highest peak in Bangladesh. The Chittagong map, in particular, is fairly useless.
Still, a very nice job. Very impressive. Very interesting and well written.

I found this guide to be very informative and helpful. The maps are a very good basis for getting a sense of where various sections of the cities are located. Some guidebooks are sorely outdated but this book is still quite current. Many of the places mentioned are still in existence. We plan to take several of the recommended trips from this guidebook as well as cycling trips. Since moving to Dhaka I have used this book continually for a reference book. I would highly recommend reading this book before coming to visit Bangladesh!

A good guide from a good company. Not too much has changed from the previous edition though - there are some more detailed maps of Colombo.

This well-organized, chatty yet meaty guide book is all you need to assist you on a trip to Sri Lanka.

We went to Sri Lanka in the high season (February, when the place is full of Germans and other Europeans) and the only reservation we made in advance was two nights at the Galle Face Hotel (see Columbo chapter, where to stay, top end), a fabulous old relic of colonial architecture. With the help of the Lonely Planet, we "winged" everything else: train tickets to Kandy, car rental, dive trips & bungalows on the southwestern beaches. Sri Lanka is a diverse, fabulous place to explore, and the Lonely Planet made it super easy.

Great historical chapter "Facts About the Country" makes for good reading while you're waiting for your cold lassi to come to the table.

This book goes into deep detail about Sri Lanka. Being a Sri Lankan myself resideing in Australia. I found this book defintely worth taking on your trip. The best thing about the book is, that as new devolpements come, the Lonley Planet website allows you to upgrade (free of charge) the information in it, by you downloading the new revised pages. As long you keep the book updated the book will always have the latest information. This is not-only this guide book, but for all of Lonley Planets guide books. Normally I would give this book 4 stars, but for this feature alone 5 stars is worth the effort.

Nice places to go to in Arizona.

Well thought out and written. I enjoy seeking out new places to go and the book has a bunch of neat places to explore.

Please remember though that this is Arizona. I mean a nice pool of water described might be just that in Feb or March - but come May or June it might be a flowing river of green! And a nice pool described in the book ya need to take with a grain of salt!! Some places I have enjoyed the discovery of finding it and soon thought jeez this is just the same ol same ol stuff. Make an adventure out of seeking out the places and enjoying the outdoors.

This is a fun book. Water holes and waterfalls are covered from Tucson to Moab. Several are short day hikes suitable for any fit person. Owning a large selection of hiking books I was surprised to find rarely mentioned areas. Pancho Doll really did explore the state to find some rare gems. He is a very likeable guy with a great sense of humor. Topographic maps are included in the book. The book is tied together with a website. You send in your receipt to get a password. Then you can print out the maps so you don't need to carry the whole book. In all honesty though... GPS readings are not real accurate on several spots. You can find the spots without GPS so it doesn't matter. A skinny dipping symbol indicates your chances of finding a secluded spot. After each region is a "why bother" list of area's Doll doesn't recommend. Keep in mind the why bother is referring to swimming holes and waterfalls. I say that because areas I consider awesome are mentioned on his "why bother" list. Ironically some of the spots in the book carry a boom box symbol indicating large or rowdy crowds. Seems those should be put on the "why bother" list!

Overall this is a great book. Pancho worked hard on putting it together. With over seventy destinations it's a great value. I give the book a 4 because it's proved valuable over the years. It appears Poncho prints this book himself. The effort is recognized and I'm sure it will only get better in future editions.

This is definitely a book that I wish I had years ago. It has tons of different places to hike to in Arizona and Southern Utah with swimming holes. It can be somewhat challenging to find water in the Southwest, so this book is a great guide. It is filled with lots of descriptions of the places, maps and pictures of each water hole. This is an ultimate book for exploring the southwest.

Dr. Waller attempts to get past the "traditional accounts", usually assembled from the newspaper and popular accounts of the time, but falls into one error which confounds the rest of her presentation: she found a great deal of information for the Hatfield family and for the West Virginia side of the river, but not as much for the Kentucky side and she generalized about the second using what she learned from the first. While the book was exceptionally well-researched, some information was overlooked or missed. Professor Waller unfortunately accepts the claim that the Tug Valley was a Confederate stronghold. However, only the West Virginia side of the river was strongly Confederate in its sympathies. The Kentucky side of the river contained a large number of Union veterans (possibly as many as a hundred or more men from this area joined the Federal army), and, in fact, in Pike County the area bordering the river was the most loyal in the entire county (post-war voting records reveal the largest percentages of Republican voters in the two precincts which were part of the Tug Valley). Waller's initial conclusions lead her to dismiss the Civil War connections of the feud. She was apparently unaware of the high degree of Unionism in the region and how it may have contributed to what could have been a continuation of the 1861-1865 warfare on the border, despite the alleged thirteen- and five-year respites. While it is well-known that Hatfield and his kin were Confederate veterans (though there is a justifiable dispute as to whether Devil Anse was actually a member of the Logan Wildcats), and it is also known that many of the McCoys had served in gray with the Hatfields, in the later phases of the feud (aptly identified by Dr. Waller) the participation of several former Union veterans or their sons in the fighting against the Hatfields indicates a significant Civil War connection. The evidence that the feuding was a carryover from the war is substantial and cannot be dismissed.

It has long been assumed that the famous feud between the Hatfields and McCoys in the 1880's was a family affair between two clans of primitive hillbillies. In Feud: Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860-1900, Altina Waller argues that this view is nothing less than folklore, and the historical reality of the feud has been all but lost. Her work successfully explodes the myths that have surrounded the feuding Hatfields and McCoys.

In her introduction, Professor Waller discusses the previous interpretations of the feud. The first states that, "the feud and the culture from which it emerged were anachronisms in modern society" and "they represented a primitive way of life which had somehow been preserved in much the same way that prehistoric fossils are preserved." The second school of thought suggests that the feud was a result of the transformation that was occurring in the region due to the "onslaught of industrialization." Waller rejects both of these interpretations because of three aspects of the feud that she has identified as violence, family, and timing. Waller has concluded after much research that "in the 1870s and 1880s, the Tug Valley may have been boisterous and rowdy, but it was far from dangerous" and that "something unusual was happening eithin this particular community which drove a few individuals and families to resort to extreme measures." And Waller discounts the family explanation because " supportersof the Hatfields and of the Mccoys consisted of numerous individuals unrelated to those families; in fact, more than half of each group were unrelated to the feud leaders. More puzzling, there were McCoys on the Hatfield side and Hatfields on the McCoy side." Waller rejects also that the feud was caused by the Civil War. She dates the feud from 1878-1900, and identifies two phases with a five year interim. Waller offers that the feud must be examined internally and also in the light of regional and national trends.

The Tug Valley in the years following the Civil War underwent profound changes. Due to rapid growth in population and the finite agricultural resources available in the Valley, a sort of greedy desperation began to emerge in the character of some inhabitants of the Tug Valley. Also at this time outside interest in the vast resources of the Appalachias was taking the form of big money men and local agents purchasing huge tracts of land in order to exploit the mountains for their coal and timber. Gradually the mountaineer was transformed from an inependent farmer to an impoverished wage laborer. attempting to buck this trend is none other than Devil Anse Hatfield. Through hard work and some crafty legal maneuvers, Anse becomes proprieter of a sizable timber busines. And in the process incurs the wrath of Old Ranel McCoy and Perry Cline. Old Ranel through his own foolishness has not prospered, and Anse has bested Cline in a court action and removed him from his lands, which are then awarded to Anse. This is what Professor Waller has discovered to be the crux of the feud--economic power and control and its resultant societal implications. Anse has climbed the ladder while others have watched, and they are jealous.

These truths were initially lost because of the sensational handling of the feud by the newspapers of the day. Altina Waller has been successful in separating the myths from the reality. She states in conclusion that, "the feudists were struggling with the same historical forces of transformation that had been changing Americal since before the American Revolution." This is the larger picture.

Waller has a done a spectacular job of recreating this now infamous event, seperating fact from myth and rebutting many of the stereotypes that were perpetrated about the feud by the Northern press that glamorized it. As a native of Pike County, Kentucky and a distant relative of many involved in this feud, I found the text most informative. It is also accesible to anyone who is not from Appalachia or who is not versed in its history.

I picked this book up at the library because my 5 year old daughter is named Maya. I thought she might like it. Well, thankfully I read it first, because it was too much for a child of that age. It was too scarey. Having said that, one of the other reviewers said he had read it to his 7th graders. I think this book would be great for maybe 4th grade and up.

Rudolfo A. Anaya's wonderful re-telling of the familiar folktale is just in time for the begining of Hisapanic Awareness Month, and is a perfect prelude to the Halloween season.

I used this book as a "read-aloud" book for my 7th graders and they were mesmerized by the story and the beautiful illustrations. This book helped my students understand perspective, mood, setting and other literary terms. There was some discussion about the different men that helped Maya, the title character, create her children, but the fact that she was the immortal daughter of the sun god, and had her children over a span of time made Maya, "La Llorona" more plausible to them.

This book provided the impetus for genuine discussion among my students, and left them yearning to read more of Mr. Anaya's work.

I read this book when I was pregnant with my daughter, and was, in fact, considering naming her Maya before I read this book. The story offers a very mystical and beautiful stance to the legend of La Llorona, and, although somewhat haunting, the pictures really emphasized the message that the story was trying to convey.

I was disappointed in latest Wasowski book. Projects by landscape architects using Texas natives seemed more like Texas architectural guide.Pictures were small and one did not recognize xeriscape award recipient,Ron Bolton of Dripping Springs. References in back were useful.Good coffee table/novice gardener book.

For one who loves books they visit libraries and book stores to just smell the paper. Well that works for lovers of gardens also. This book contains picture of beautiful and practical gardens. I have to admit I bought it for pictures of my favorite garden that people come from neighboring states to see. That is Weston Gardens (designed by Randy Weston). Ninety percent of my plants and ideas come form walking through Weston gardens. Many of the other gardens also have practical ideas for Texas gardens.

An eye-opening look at what can be done with natives. This book probably couldn't have been done ten years ago, but clearly the native plant movement is alive and well and growing by leaps and bounds. Common sense gardening. A must for any Texas homeowner.