I have read this amazing book over and over. I can tell you this is an amazing adventure into a life that is so sensitive. I know this man, Mike Gould, and can attest to his sincere belief in what he writes here. He lives this adventure every day. I am very proud to call him my friend. I have lived the stories in this wonderful book with Mike and never tire of it contents. Do yourself a favor and read and reread this book. Mike, thanks for being in touch with all God has given us, his hand is surely on your shoulder. It is so nice to find hope,instead of doubt and despair within the pages of a book, again thanks Mike.

This book is full of insights into how our relationship with animals and the wilderness are a reflection of man's relationship with his fellow men and the larger world around them. The stories are humorous and sometimes emotional. They weave for us great insight into a man who loves people, animals and nature. Mike's love of dogs and his insight into training them can be a help to anyone who wants to know the best way to treat all living things. He is kind and considerate of both man, animal and nature. I applaud this book and the man who wrote it.

Hey everyone, I just wanted to tell you what a wonderful person my dad is. This book is proof of everything he has accomplished. I am so proud of my dad for everything he has gone through to put him where he is today. He taught me to never give up. I love you dad so much. love, rachelle l.

Retired east coast police detective, David Dean, is at it again-sleuthing, that is. This time he is accompanied by his beautiful new wife, Cynthia, together with an off-beat ensemble cast of characters led by irrepressible mystery fan, Fred O'Conner, Dean's stepfather. The Deans and O'Conner are the new proprietors of Bird Song, a bed and breakfast in the charming, Victorian town of Ouray, Colorado. When their first guest turns up murdered and the second is missing, David Dean is irrepressibly drawn into a scam that involves a wronged widow, suit-and-tied, pipsqueak attorney, tent-dwelling heir to a fortune and a net-surfing cook with a dog named Brutus. Oh, and a legacy of a hundred million bucks, give or take a million or so.

The reader is drawn into the tale, gently at first, then with increasing speed and complexity, much like riding a carnival carousel, where the painted horses whirl faster and faster. Newer, and more bizarre characters, pop out of the woods and the woodwork with increasing frequency. A crutch-toting, inebriated movie star moves into Bird Song's back bedroom. The widow's fake-French boytoy camps out nearby, waiting to start a new hustle with whichever legally recognized "daughter" gets the millions. And Bird Song fills up with lawyers, heirs and contestants to the will of a man who could not have fathered any of the daughters.

The setting is stunning. And, mystery author Ray Derouin, a part-time resident of Ouray and owner of a toy store there, presents the San Juan country well, giving it a sense of character nearly as strong as protagonist David Dean. "San Juan Solution" is fun read, with lots of action, zany characters and great scenery. It's a good book to curl up on the couch with on a snowy evening.

After fifteen years on the Parkside, Pennsylvania police force, Officer David Dean retires. Almost immediately after that, David marries Cynthia Byrne. With those two radical moves to jolt his equilibrium, David makes it a trio of lifestyle events when he, Cynthia, and his stepfather Fred O?Connor move to Ouray, Colorado where they plan to run Bird Song Bed and Breakfast.

Although the B&B is not ready yet for the public, Fred rents the room of David and Cynthia to a guest and his own room to a second guest. However, someone kills their first guest and their second guest expects to be the next victim. Though the cop can leave the police force, police work never leaves the cop and with a little nudging from Fred, David begins to investigate what happened to his guest.

The mystery of SAN JUAN SOLUTION is fun to watch as it unwinds like the mountain paths that the transplanted easterners trek. The lead trio is a hoot, especially Fred and his ability to manipulate everyone and the support cast provides either trouble or local color to the terrific tale. As with the first tale (see the delightfully wacky TIME TRIAL), R.E. Derouin?s novel pays homage to the Colorado Rockies. Readers will feel as if they are hiking the trail along side of David and Cynthia. Mr. Derouin is two for two with both of his Dean novels being outstanding and a ?tri-quel? needed for fans of the series.

Harriet Klausner

To me, trying to lay aside an unfinished David Dean mystery is like trying to eat just one homemake chocolate chip cookie. It can't be done. This is Ouray, Colorado author Ray Derouin's second mystery in what one can only hope will be another in a long series. For the reader not familiar with Derouin, suffice it to say he is no stranger to the written word. He has written twelve plays, all of which have won national awards. His first mystery, Time Trial: A Mountain Mystery, has garnered wide spread acclaim. Thus, it was with much delight and anticipation that I received San Juan Solution. I thought his first mystery was wonderful, and it was, but this latest offering is off the scale. The protagonist, ex-Pennsylvania police detective David Dean, is back with a new bride and his indispensable, unforgettable stepfather, Fred O'Connor. The setting is the incomparably beautiful Ouray, Colorado and the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado. Dean, along with his wife and stepfather, have just opened a bed and breakfast, named Bird Song, and plan to enjoy a leisurely life far away from the crime ridden east coast. Unfortunately for the trio, but fortunately for the reader, Derouin's magic and diabolic mind begins to weave a story guaranteed to please the most avid mystery fan. It seems the first guest of Bird Song ends up alone at the bottom of a mountain side ravine in his car...strapped in the passenger seat. What happened to the driver? one might ask. What driver? A good question and, well, somewhat of a mystery. This, in the hands of Derouin, is reason enough to read on. However, it seems the second guest is missing and there is reason to believe her life might also be in danger. A coincidence you say? Perhaps, but the rapid arrival of a host of characters all making inquiries into the whereabouts of the two makes for spellbinding reading. Oh, did I mention the search for an heir to a fortune, which may explain some of these coincidences? This is vintage Derouin but better, much better, than anything he had done before. Having lived in the San Juan Mountain area of Colorado I can assure the reader that the setting is authentic. In addition, the characters are believeable and the writing style is first rate. It is not until the last few pages that the mystery(s) are solved and, in his wonderful style, the loose ends are tied into a honeymoon bouquet, so to speak. If you haven't met David Dean and friends, this is your best chance. It is a delightful book.

One of the best modern American adventure stories. A relatively easy read. These guys swam more than 100 rapids on the frigid Colorado River wearing nothing but rubber shirts and wool longjohns - carrying thier sleeping bags, food and camera equipment in rubber boxes. Absolutely amazing - and their story had me with butterflys in my stomach just reading about what they did.

This was a good book!

Easy to read and captivating....These guys are Canyon legends and their story is told in this first-hand account of what happened.

Interesting to see how the Canyon has changed since Glen Canyon was created post swim....

Only took two days, but I really enjoyed the author's first hand account of his awesome journey down the river.

Interesting to compare the Canyon of the 50's to that of today and the impact that man has made on the canyon.

Illustrations/Photo's were point-of-fact and captivating also....

This is a valuabale study tool. It includes outlines of every book, a synopsis of every chapter along with notes to references that need clarification. There are also lots of illustrations, maps and other helps for anyone on any level who is reading God's word. It is easy to understand, but goes deep enough for the serious student.

The Bible Reader's Companion is a very nice concise overview of the Bible with numerous black & white drawings. The comments are interesting and the conclusions are generally conservative and traditional. If you like this book you may also enjoy THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE BOOK OF PROVERBS by Cody Jones. Numerous biblical characters are pointed out who illustrate King Solomon's witty observations on human nature.

I haven't read it all yet, but everything I have read I understand fully. You also find some pretty interesting stuff.

Children of the Storm: The True Story of the Pleasant Hill School Bus Tragedy
Ariana Harner and Clark Secrest
On a clear, sunny spring day in 1931 the bus driver, Carl Miller, made his route to bring the twenty children to the Pleasant Hill school house, a one room building located on the plains of Kiowa County, Colorado. Upon arriving, a terrible storm cloud came up from the north. Carl Miller and the teachers decided they should send the children home, instead of keeping them at the one room school house without food or water. The bus started out in what was then a blinding blizzard. It was not long before he was lost, finally ran off the road, and the bus was stranded.
Finally, Mr. Miller thought that it would be best for him to try to find help. He asked the oldest child on the bus, Bryan Untiedt, to make sure the other children do not go to sleep. Do whatever he could to keep them from freezing to death. Some of the children had very little for coats. Mr. Miller was soon lost and later found frozen to death. There were no phones and the only help was from families and friends, who were unable to find them until the second day. They found three children had already frozen to death and seventeen were still alive. They were all taken to the hospital for treatment of frostbite on their hands, feet, etc...
The Denver Post interviewed the children and families. Bryan Untiedt was promoted as a "hero" by the Post. Other newspapers were interviewing and photographing the survivors, as well.
Nineteen days after the tragedy, all the survivors and their families were invited to Denver for one week to see different sites. Mr. Bonfils, the owner of the Denver Post, presented all the survivors with some cash and a gold-plated heroism medal. Bryan Untiedt was also invited to Washington, D.C. by President Herbert Hoover.
This story was very informative about what can happen in a short time with spring storms and how dangerous they can be on the plains of Colorado. I did not like how the media made Bryan Untiedt a hero more than the other survivors. I feel that you should read this book called Children of the Storm. Ages 8 to Adult. Talli, Eads Middle School, 6th Grade

I am the author of "Rivers of Wind: A Western Boyhood Remembered," another story of life on the Colorado High Plains in an earlier time. While growing up in southeastern Colorado, even as a child I remember hearing of the Pleasant Hill school bus tragedy. Knowing that a definitive account of this historic event had never been written, when this book came out I was pleased to see what a fine job Ariana Harner and Clark Secrest had done. "Children of the Storm" is a finely-researched and well-written account of this tragedy. Along with telling the story of the unfortunate victims of a devastating High Plains blizzard which trapped them for thirty-three hours in a dilapidated school bus with pieces of cardboard lodged into the frames of its broken-out windows, the book tells of the subsequent exploitation of the survivors by a greedy media mogul and a United States President seeking reelection. "Children of the Storm" tells, at long last, the true story of the twenty children and one adult who were trapped in the school bus, the tragic deaths of six of them, and both the short-term and long-term effects the event had on the lives of the survivors.

Having grown up in Colorado, I found this book informative, poignant, and a genuinely great read. I remember people eluding to a bus tragedy in Colorado ages ago but never was able to learn the circumstances, until now. That so tragic an event could have been exploited by so many unconnected to its events speaks volumes to the age we live in. I found the details and timeline remarkable given the generations that have passed and the silence so long held by the tragic participants. Well researched!

This is a great mix of old photos, new photos, and history. It makes a great companion piece to the more popular "Colorado 1870 - 2000" and in some ways it is superior to that book. For one thing, "Colorado Yesterday and Today" costs half as much as the Jackson/Fielder book. Also, Collier takes the time to talk about each and every place that is featured in his collection of photographs, something which is sorely missing in the other book.

Collier's re-shoots are right on the money, and when they are not, he tells us (access issues pop up from time to time). The connection to his great-great-grandfather is touching. Most importantly, this is a book that you can read and enjoy. It is not a ponderous 'picture book' that won't fit in your bookcase.

Although most people who live in Colorado have a vague idea of how much the state has changed in the past century, to see it shown so starkly in beautiful photographs like this is fascinating. Grant Collier has created an amazing testimonial to the march of history and the turbulent growth of the Centennial State. Collier's love of his subject is obvious on every page and the reader can't help but be drawn into a story, not only of Colorado, but of Collier's search to understand his stoic great-grandfather, the famous pioneer photographer Joseph Collier. Buy it!

Colorado: Yesterday & Today is a truly compelling look at Colorado through the eyes of one of our state's pioneer photographers and his great-great-grandson, Grant Collier. Everything about this book is first-rate, from the then-and-now photos and the text to the very impressive leather cover. I highly recommend this book to anyone who lives in, or enjoys visiting, Colorado.

I grew up eating many meals made from this cook book! And now I use it for my own family. There are great recipes that are not difficult, not time consuming, and use all the basics you already have in your kitchen. Healthy cooking too! I like the Chicken Spagetti-great for potluck dinners!

I bought a second Colorado Cache as I have worn out the first book. Recipes are fantastic, especially the chicken salad.

This is a good basic cook book, nothing fancy. The spices used are in your rack already. Super for people like me who like to cook but do not have time or experience for fancy cooking.

This book was excellent! All four stories are linked together beautifully, and when you finish one, you'll want to start the other. The mystery element was a nice, added touch. If you enjoy Tracie Peterson's work, you should NOT miss this novella collection. It's a must-read!

I liked this as much as "Sunrise". Good read, but like 'em a little hotter like my newest favorite "Anything, my Love" by Cynthia Simmons.

Tracie Peterson takes the lives of some very interesting and prevocative people, separates them into four spell-binders, and then puts one cover on all! True to style, the author lets the reader learn all about the budding romances, the extreme disappointments, the rational and irractional fears and the final triumphs of faith!

Set in the Colorado Rockies, the love stories unfold slowly, entwined with tremendous complications of suspense, suspicion and subtle sub-stories.

The characters from story one continue over to story two and so on, just the lead changes. Tracie keeps the reader comfortable with glimpses from the previous stories as she unfolds the mysteries of the subsequent ones.

This 4-story book is not only romance, it is faith in God and faith and trust in other people at its best!

Kudos again Tracie!

This is one of the better Colorado photography books out there. While the photos are not consistently great, they are consistently good. Wunrow spent a lot of time hiking to remote areas of Colorado, which is to be commended. I do recommend 'Colorado II' by David Muench over this book, but I have ranked 'Mountains of Colorado' as the third best book on my list of 'Best Colorado Picture Books' (which can be seen by clicking on my name and looking at the Listmania lists).

I purchased several copies of this book and sent them to my friends and relatives across the country.

Everybody loved it.

Catch a glimpse of some of the more rare and overlooked vistas that this amazing state has to offer. Wunrow offers an incredible visual aesthetic in both photography and book design that takes the reader on a voyage to all corners of this wonderfully diverse state. A keen eye for composition, combined with strenuous backcountry hiking to areas unknown to even avid backpackers like myself, the images are striking and sometimes haunting. Former Governor Lamm's essays are engaging and well written, and form a wonderful complement to the photographs. Highly recommended for anyone looking to enjoy the most uniquely magnificent and previously unpublished views of America's most beautiful state.

Frederick Dellaenbaugh was a young man when John Wesley Powell tapped him to participate in Powell's second trip down the Colorado River. Powell had made the journey already a few years before, so the second voyage was less pure exploration and more science; the crew included Almon Harris Thompson (called affectionately "Prof." throughout), a professional geographer who also happened to be Powell's brother-in-law. With several boats and men of widely varying experience, the expedition sailed the Green river (thought at that time to be the upper Colorado) to its junction with the Colorado, and the Colorado itself as far as the middle of the Grand Canyon. Swirling rapids, maggotty food, blistering heat, sudden blizzards beset the adventurers, who still though it all made their geographical, geological, and ethnographical observations which resulted in (among other things) the first maps of the four corners region and the Grand Canyon (reproduced in the book).
While wild adventure, humor, and a real sense of the Old West permeate the book, there is a certain sadness, too. The Native Americans whom Dellenbaugh encounters are people clearly already defeated -- fearful, distrusting, sad. We catch glimpses of the Navaho trying to accommodate themselves to the new reality of white (especially Mormon) settlement, creating new networks of trade focused on growing frontier towns. But the seeds of the end are planted already in the irrigated fields of the Mormon settlers, and sometimes it seems as if the natives knew this too. Also, the topography through which the explorers travelled has now partly vanished behind the dams that have ruined Glen Canyon and other stretches of white water and canyon scenery. No one can now do what Dellenbaugh and his companions did; the sense of loss hovers unintentionally about every page.
Dellenbaugh was a keen observer (though perhaps a bit naive) with a talent for making even the monotony of running rapid after rapid spellbinding. One does feel that he may have veiled some of the conflicts that must have arisen in two (non-continuous) years of isolation, though if so this trait is refreshing in a world where we now expect everyone to tattle on everyone else. Every now and then just a shimmer of impatience with one of the crew seeps through. But the real hero who emerges from this book, somewhat surprisingly, is not the leader Powell -- the young Dellenbaugh seems never to have gotten close to him -- but rather the Prof., who rises to every challenge with decency and humaneness, and of whom Dellenbaugh seems to have been genuinely, and for good reason, in awe. Like Powell he is buried in Arlington Cemetery. He deserved that honor, but where he lives is in the pages of this book.

Love and respect for the Green and Colorado Rivers is greatly enhanced by Dellenbaugh's narritive of the 2nd Powell expadition. Well written, accurate history, and spell binding from start to finish. An adventure that can only be partially accomplished today is TOTALLY available in "A Canyon Voyage!"

At the time of the 2nd voyage down the Colorado, Dellenbaugh was on about 19 years old. He didn't write the book until many years later. What a wonderful/spellbinding look at the most beautiful place in North America (The Colorado Plateau). Not only that but I found it extremely hunorous as well. Great Great book!!!