Experienced river-runner Patricia McCairen was suddenly faced with a choice when she found herself without companions for a trip through Grand Canyon. She could give up her permit and hope to get another at some point or she could go it alone. Certain she would be saved from her bravado she called the National Park Service to get special permission for a solo trip and was both surprised and terrified when permisssion was granted.

Thus did McCairen enter into a trip that would allow her to delve into the differences between solitude and loneliness and eventually come to grips with her course in life.

Canyon Solitude is more about a personal journey of the mind than a journey through Grand Canyon. Reading as she struggles with her history (with men, with her mother, with her professional goals) provides insight into how we all allow our direction to be shaped by others, only convincing ourselves that we are truly independent. As we find McCairen actually achieving independence it is easy to understand as she swings from exhileration to terror and back to exhileration, finally achieving contentment.

The book is a bit slow at times, but as with the actual river, it has periods of intense excitement that more than make up for the lulls. Perhaps without the calms between the rapids, it wouldn't be possible to really understand what has been accomplished.

This is a beautiful book, one in which the author goes beyond her river journey to do some soul-searching into her own truths. Patricia tells the story of how her adventurous side comes alive through one Grand Canyon trip, motivating her to abandon her corporate urban life in NYC for the wild rivers of the American West. The book details the pinnacle of her river experiences, a solo journey through Grand Canyon, with insight into the core of who she is and what the rivers have helped her become.

A friend gave me this book before I left for a private trip on our raft down the Grand Canyon. I did not have a chance to read it before leaving. I had been fearful of the journey ahead. Upon returning I read the book cover to cover and felt as if I was reading my own journal. Never could I have imagined going on this trip with a small group let alone attempting anything close to Patricia's solo experience. I would go back to the Colorado River in a heartbeat! By sharing her experience, Patricia's book becomes a guide book in facing your fears head on, and the empowerment that comes as a direct result of doing so. We don't all have to run rivers, but it's a fantastic way of finding ourselves. Patricia shares the journey and even though I had just been there, I felt as if I was back on my raft! Thank Patricia!

I read this book in one day i couldn't stop. It has every thing it's only flaw was the relegiousness it ruined the book for me

Another page turner from Kristen Heitzmann. I could not put this book down. I can't wait to run out and buy the sequel, since I finished this one last night and I am dying to know what happens next to the characters. I love the romance and supsence that is woven into this story. I hope that the newlyweds get together and that their romance is continued in the next book. I highly recommend this book. Ms. Heitzmann has become my favorite author since reading the Rocky Mountain Legacy series. Loved it!

I read all of Kristen Heitzmann's debut series (Rocky Mountain Legacy) and enjoyed it a lot. She drew me in amazingly, so when the main character died, it thew me into an emotional tale spin for days. You have to give her credit, though. It takes guts to kill off so many primary characters. The books remain intense and exciting, even though I missed the dead people. However, as gut-wrenching as the first series was, this new one (Diamond of the Rockies) promises to be even better. I LOVED the heroine in 'The Rose Legacy'-- a snappy Italian. The hero has equal parts chivalry and arrogance. I laughed, I cried-it moved me. :) Excellent supporting personalities, without stereotypes. The setting was wonderful-I felt as I were in Colorado, which happens to be my favorite state. I was VERY emotionally involved. The author leaves us dangling at the end, and desparate for the next book. This is a wonderful book! You will NOT regret buying it.

We used this book to plan a great spring 2000 dog vacation. The hiking rating system is excellent, as are her other suggestions on what to do. Many of the lodgings, however, had changed hands or policies. Still, we were able to find great places to stay with our dog.

My three Canines highly rated this book with the one exception that some "dog approved" places have since changed policies accepting our best friend. More travel with pooch books need to be written.

This is an excellent reference for those of you that like to go everywhere with your dog. It really does a good job of talking about the different kinds of trails in Colorado, which are good for hiking, backpacking, mtn. biking, and skiing, as well as which have lots of water for the dogs. I highly recommend it.

This is a great travel book, providing quick and easy to reference to the lay-of-the land in the four-corners region in the style of a virtual tour of the area. The author takes you along his journey, showing you what to see and do, how to get there, where to eat, sleep, shop--or simply soak up the sublime beauty.

This book give to the reader and future traveller an unique vision of the history of this country. the writer help us to understand the people that inhabited this country and the geological features of this land of enchantment. For an european like me is the first and essential step to the visit of a country.

My wife and I plannned a trip to the Four Corners area and at the last moment received Journey to the High Southwest as a gift. We read it during the plane ride and made immediate adjustments to our travel schedule. The results were so good that we continued, chapter by chapter, to use Mr. Casey's guidance and suggestions. For those uninitiated in the region, or even experienced Four Corners visitors, we strongly suggest this guide. It will provide very accurate and useful information to anyone who uses it. Read the entire book - before you go!

What a thrill to ride along with Bessie and Glen Hyde on their grand adventure down the Colorado River! In reimagining these real-life figures from the 1920s and their quest to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon, Michaels has written a suspenseful, exquisite novel. I was as swept away by Bessie and Glen's romance as by their heart-stopping--and ultimately, haunting--journey. I couldn't put the book down, and then I was sad for it to end. So I read it again.

Based on an intriguing premise, Grand Ambition is a novel I wanted to savor. But I couldn't, because once I started, I found myself turning the pages compulsively. This is a story that spawned it's own urban legends for more than 70 years. Newlyweds Glen and Bessie Hyde spend their honeymoon in 1928 shooting the rapids through the Grand Canyon on a scow designed by Glen, who has dreamed of this journey. Although Bessie has no experience, she has great enthusiasm and a willingness to take a bite out of what life has to offer her. They hope to set a record for speed, but if not that, then Bessie will be the first woman to successfully shoot the rapids. After the trip, they plan to lecture and write a book describing the adventure, using Bessie's skills as an artist to illustrate their story.

But something goes wrong. After a last sighting, the couple are never seen or heard from again. Glen's father, Hyde Sr., launches a rescue effort to discover the fate of his son and daughter-in-law, hoping to find them still alive. Mr. Hyde contacts everyone who has had contact with the young couple and religiously follows up every clue. When their scow is found floating lose with all necessary supplies still on board, the obvious becomes more and more ominous.

Michaels alternates chapters between the events as they happen to Bessie and Glen and the desperate rescue attempt by Glen's father, with a tension seesawing between hope and despair. The character of Bessie is finely tuned, her youth ultimately allowing fear to overshadow her expectations that Glen can really keep her safe on this increasingly terrifying dance over the whitecaps. Has Bessie put too much faith in Glen's strengths rather than her own? What if Glen, for all his brave posturing, is wrong?

The terrible truth is there from the beginning, but Michaels' characters, particularly Bessie and her father-in-law, are so courageous, so full of spirit, that the final pages come too soon. So little is really known about this couple and their fate that the author gives them voice and dreams, even those that shatter.

Grand Ambition is a story of fact and fiction woven together masterfully into a beautiful, honest portrayal of love and adventure. Lisa Michael's captures the awesome majesty of the Grand Canyon so completely I felt that I was with Bessie and Glen Hyde as they navigated their way down the Colorado. Despite knowing that they never achieve their "Grand Ambition," I was completely engrossed in seeing the newlyweds safely through each new hurdle. I loved this book so much I bought several more copies to give as presents and have told many others about it.

I'm a voracious reader of true crime and find that too many of them are poorly written. This book is unusually well written and well organized. I came across the book by following a cable show on NecroSearch, the volunteer forensics organization that participated in helping Richardson put Luther away.

Alert, True Crime fans! For those of us who feast on the genre and who have known too often the frustration--a kind of tawdry humiliation, really, considering the subject-matter--of spending good dollars for bad product, Steve Jackson's "Monster" is superb value both content- and price-wise. At a beefy 530 pages (Amazon's count is uncharacteristically incorrect), Jackson's book is well-researched and features a clear narrative account that is beyond mere "easy to follow"--this book enters the realm of the "could not put it down." The book's length allows its author to include a wealth of detail regarding the heinous crimes of one Thomas Luther, and allows him to do so in an unstilted manner--there's not an incident recounted here that reads awkwardly. Unlike many convoluted attempts by authorial wannabes, Jackson's prose is the real deal; it reads as true as its recounted conversations ring. The book records the pursuit of Luther by Detective Scott Richardson, and documents the twists, turns, and inner turmoil involved in a case of this nature: As Richardson struggles first to find the body of Cher Elder and then to prove the case against the sociopathic Luther, a chronic repeat offender, the reader becomes an active agent in that pursuit, rather than a passive follower of it. Those of you well-read in the genre know what I mean when I say that this is an extremely difficult task for a writer. Jackson is worth two Ann Rules and three Jack Olsens, and those are writers I much admire. Indeed, other than Capote's "In Cold Blood," the Platonic ideal for a true-crime tome, I can think of no book I've found more of an enjoyable challenge. Those of you who, like me, are opposed to the death penalty will get a real run for your money here, a real test of true principles. Jackson's vivid details--yes, much blood here, much stabbing, strangling, and shooting; neckbones snap, faces are rearranged--make the argument for the prosecution. I'm still anti-capital punishment, but I'll admit I wouldn't lose so much as a nap, let alone a good night's sleep, to hear that Luther and other members of his ilk had, at the hands of the State, shuffled off this mortal coil.

I read true crime occasionally out of a need to know what makes these people tick, though I'm not sure that anyone will ever have the answer to that question. This book details the ghastly crimes of suspected serial killer Thomas Luther. Although convicted of only one murder, Luther left a bloody trail of rapes and assaults, as well as compelling circumstantial evidence linking him to numerous unsolved murders. The one victim he was convicted of killing, Cher Elder, is brought to life in these pages by the author. One shudders to think of her last moments in the hands of evil incarnate. The woman who loved and stood by Luther, a "psychiatric nurse" named Debrah Snider, is a complete cypher. Even after she was confronted with the chilling and unmistakable evidence of what he was and what he did, she remained true to her man. This book, which I made the mistake of reading while home alone at night, spares few details of the hideous carnage committed by Luther. Although I would have liked to see a chapter on Luther's childhood and the abuse he alleges he suffered, this book nonetheless gives the reader a fairly comprehensive insight into the psyche of a monster.

This book was not entertaining. I suffered through each page. I hated the plot and most of the characters. I will never read another Doss book again.

This book was an easy read. I liked the mystery, but there was little build up of suspense. He's not as good as 'early Hillerman', but it falls in line with some of Hillermans more recent work. I think Kirk Mitchell probably does a little better job of building suspense. I do plan to read one of his other books.

A protaganist with a sense of humor, a series of incredible incidents that keep you searching for a reasonable explanation, and a happy ending. Entertaining from start to finish. I feel that comparing James Doss to Tony Hillerman is misleading. James Doss is a great storyteller who incidentally sets his story among the Utes of southern Colorado. Hillerman's stories are so intertwined with the Navajo as to be inseparable. You are not going to learn much about the Ute culture in this book, but the story is so much fun I at least didn't care.

This is a very intresting book that gives you glimpses into what Rachel Scott was thinking and feeling and how she delt with them by her faith in God.

However, it does bother me that this book is an adaptation of Rachel's journals and that the reader may not be getting the whole picture(and this only adds to my personal skepticism of some things surrounding her death and why she died) and this is why I gave the book 4 stars.

Overall, this is a very good book and I recommend it to anyone who wants to know what Rachel Scott was thinking and feeling.

This was an interesting book. I found myself many times forgetting that it was not, in fact, written by Rachel. The Journals of Rachel Scott provided a lot of insight to Rachel's world before she died. Though I may have enjoyed it more if it was the actual journal, it was definitley well written and probably could not have been done any better.

I haven't read this book, but I gave it to my niece after she read "The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernal" and she loved this book. Though the book is not actually written by this Columbine victim, it does contain excerpts from her personal diary and it was very inspiration to my neice.

I was glad to find this book, and got lots of ideas about places to go from it. It does have lots of useful information, but I found it to be lacking some very necessary details about the canyons needed to plan a hike to this area. Take a good map and call the local BLM office for details before going. I've seen people turn up on the local six o'clock news a couple of times because they got into a canyon they couldn't get out of using one of his books! Also, all distances are metric :( so be prepared to convert everything to feet and miles.

My son and I have personally hiked many of Michael Kelsey's routes as described in this book. Yes, you need to know something about hiking and route finding, Michael does not baby you along the way or remove responsibility from the hiker. But he does not overdramatize the hikes to avoid liability, and he also does not preach to his readers. What he does do extremely well is concisely give you an idea of how to get to some of the most remote, pristine, and special places in the entire world, places innaccessible merely because most people were unaware of their existence. Michael has opened the door to these places. For this I will be forever grateful.

This is the bible of Canyoneering in SE Utah. The simple maps, concise descriptions and knowledgeable tips will get you into as much trouble as you want . . . and that's why we do this, right? The park service has baned Kelsey's books from their bookstores because he "reveals too much," and they claim people "get into trouble" following his guides -- bugger to them! People can be unprepared idiots. If you read the damn book you'll realise that only trained people should be stemming up slot canyons, swimming hypothermic plunge pools and gingerly investigating delicate Anaszi ruins -- not your average hee-haws looking for a good place to swill a 12-Pack of beer. The beer swillers don't want this book, go to Lake Powell instead.

Glory, an orphan of sorts herself, flees a disagreeable home and town, only to find she really doesn't fit in much anyplace. After Poppy dies, she is sought by wicked Uncle Amos. Fleeing, she has to defend her virtue, bearing the guilt of what she left behind. If there is anything wagon master Lincoln does not need, it is another girl to have to care for and transport to his final destination. Stubborn, unlearned and unkempt, Glory is determined to make it on her own. Mystery, action and romance happen in spite of Glory, certainly not because of her.

After the wonderful story of "Hope" I tore into "Glory" like a hungry wolf tears into its prey. Glory, a sheltered mountain girl, is forced to build a life on her own after her Poppy dies. With a bagful of gold and no change of clothes, she sets out in search of a new life. Far too naive for the cold world before her, she ends up on the run from a greedy uncle who wants her gold -- and who will kill her to get it. When she manages to latch on (however unwillingly) to a wagonneer named Jackson and a group of teenaged mail order brides, things REALLY get interesting. In her travels and adventures, Glory grows into a beautiful young woman with an unshakeable faith -- but will her faith be enough to win the heart of the handsome wagonneer? Copeland's "Glory" was glorious. This one's a MUST READ.

GREAT FOR YOUNG READERS, I have read all of the Brides series. This one was wonderful. P L E A S E write more books like this.