A fascinating book about one of the most dangerous avalanche areas in the U.S.. With plenty of amazing photographs and interesting interviews, the authors provide a look at the incredible beauty of the area, and the awesome destructive force of avalanches in the San Juan Mountains in Southwest Colorado. A great book for anyone interested in experiencing mountain back country, or in the history of how the people of this area have learned to live with these incredible forces of nature.

I consider is serious historic study about the role of woman in the nineteen century. I specially like the information about the position of urban black woman in the hispanic society. Because the role of the black woman in the Puerto Rican history is misjugde. I recomend books by the author.

As a descendant of one of the heroes of 65th Infantry, I was intrigued on how one of their former Commanding Officers would portray them. General Harris (then Colonel) did not wish to command this outfit and he resented his appointment, then unfairly known as a laid back, disorganized, backwater posting. He tells us how these men changed his outlook from day one of assuming command. These brave men, although barely two platoons strong when he assumed command, held off the best Division that the U.S. Army had to offer on training maneuvers, and the best the North Koreans and the Chinese had during the Korean War. When asked point blank if the puertorricans would fight when the time came, Colonel Harris' answer was just as direct: "My puertorricans will fight anyone, anywhere." They did not dissapoint their CO, becoming the most decorated Batallion of the Korean War. One can only wonder why this Batallion was rarely ever used during World War II.

The book has a few historical errors, all of them regarding Puerto Rico and its culture, and the narrative is sometimes repetitive. That is why I did not rate it as a 5 star book. But overall, it is an excellent military history narrative on one of the most decorated fighting units in the U.S. Army and the only Batallion to be transferred from the U.S. Army onto a National Guard when the time came to deactivate it. These men, along with every other war time hero, deserve our eternal thanks and our admiration for sacrificing their youth in order to preserve Freedom and Democracy.

This is a great book about an outstanding unit. As a "Boricua" i am proud of the deeds of the 65th, they demonstrated what they were made off and never let us down.
On another note the 65th was not a battalion but a Regiment composed of serveral battalions(just a correction to a previous review).

This book exemplifies the spirit of the Puerto Rican soldier. Always willing to give their biggest effort in order to get the job done. It showed the valor and courage of this men. Is a book that every Puerto Rican serving in the Armed Forces should read and feel proud of the men before them.

Dave's lyrical writing style engages the reader throughout this 275 page book, which thoroughly chronicles the fate of the grizzly bear in Colorado. One is left with a sense of wanting to know what's next, what's happened since the ink of this book dried in 1994?

Personally, I felt compelled to action, to do my part to help keep the San Juans as wild as possible for those Ghost Grizzlies to have a chance to someday rematerialize.

David Petersen captured my attention early in the book and kept me glued to the pages all the way through. He presents the reader with the grizzly bear, its natural history, and its possible existence in the Colorado wilderness. Along the way, he involves you in exciting adventures and a thrilling search for bruins. This is a must have book for the library of anyone interested in grizzlies, wilderness, the rockies, and the general outdoors. This is definitely the best book I've read in a long time.

this is a wonderful book for 4th graders who are working on their Mission report. Thanks.

Excellent resource geared for a childs level of reading and research. We have several of these books (as I believe it is a series with all of the missions) and they are written in depth, but perfect for our children.

The book gives you roughly 100 pages of hiking trail descriptions, 50 pages of bike trails and 50 pages on snowtrails. The writing is smooth and competent- a real book rather than just a list of a few facts about traihead location, distance, major route turns, and elevation change. However- I expected more and better photos & maps based on the nice cover photo, the other evaluation of this book, and the backcover proclaiming this to be a book from "a professional cartographer and award-winning photographer". There are about 20 black & white photos and a small insert of 10 color photos that are somewhat generic and dont really give you a full sense of the special flavor of the San Juans. And the "maps" are worthless- they are small hand-drawn sketches of the region and only show major roads! No trail lines or topographic details.

Jeff La Frenierre's San Juan Adventure Guide is a complete outdoor recreation guide to hiking, biking, and skiing in southwestern Colorado's San Juan Mountain range. Of special note is an "Adventure Locator" which is divided into four sections with maps and tables. This quick and handy reference for planning activities will admirable serve any excursion from a day trip to an extended weekend to a major vacation outing. Ideal for the armchair traveler and the on-site thrill-seeker, San Juan Adventure Guide is enhanced with b/w and color photography and a "must" for anyone heading out for the San Juan country.

Lost Grizzlies is a superb read! Rick Bass is fast becoming (may already be) our premier writer of the american wilderness. Bass' descriptions of the books characters and the wilds of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado are vivid. I enjoyed Bass' descriptions of Doug Peacock's brilliance and brutishness. I enjoyed reading ABOUT Peacock almost as much as I enjoyed reading Peacock's book (Grizzly Years).

As Rick Bass and Doug Peacock go high and deep into Colorado's San Juan Mountains, on the chance there might still be grizzlies somehow surviving there, we are treated to glimpses of unspeakable beauty and wonder. It's as though Bass were able to blend his own Ninemile Wolves with Peacock's Grizzly Years. Their journey is both exhilerating and meditative. Reading this book was a pleasure.

Rick Bass does it again! This book, as much a character desription of grizzly expert Doug Peacock as it is a search for supposedly extinct grizzly bears in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, is a great triumph. The story is compelling, the language is beautiful, and the search itself is important. Truly, our attitude toward grizzly bears must be a direct reflection of our attitude toward ourselves. Although sometimes Bass gets a little heavy-handed with his metaphors--we probably could figure out that Doug Peacock has many grizzly-like traits without his coming out and telling us--his plea for the protection and defense of grizzlies is compelling, believeable, and genuine. A wonderful read.

Here is the message of "Dark Night Of The Soul": God wants our will more than anything else. To get it, he may allow us to stumble on without any sense of his presence or obtaining any pleasure from our spiritual exercises or even our life. All that will be left us is our decision to continue doing our duty despite not receiving any apparent gain from doing so. According to St. John, this is what pleases God more than anything for then we will serve God solely for Himself and not for any good feelings, sensations, or rewards we might experience by doing so. Whatever the validity of this spiritual approach (and I wonder about the value/point of sanctifying depression in this age of anti-depressants), St. John wrote this detailed book to explore it and did it better than anyone else has ever done. That makes it an important contribution to the literature on spirituality. But it also makes it something that most people will not be able to fathom or have any use for. The hours of daily prayer required by the school of thought that produced this book seem to me excessive and to miss the whole point of the Christian life. Most of us would be driven mad by such intensity-and I don't doubt that some have been. I tend to think that doing our duty is sometimes just work (true) but also sometimes will give a great sense of fulfillment and satisfaction because there are intrinsic rewards that come with being a good worker, spouse, parent, friend, etc. There is little point in getting this book unless you live in a cloister or are planning to do so and only if God is calling you to the depths of contemplative prayer. That leaves out 98% of the human race, including me. This is a dry treatise; admirable without being in the least bit inspiring. It is best left to graduate courses in spirituality or medieval Spanish literature (the poem is reportedly excellent Spanish poetry).

I read this book thinking (and probably pretentiously so) that I myself was passing through a 'dark night' of sorts. This, however, is dangerous. Reader beware - this book is written by a saint who is also a Doctor of the Church. It tells of the "aridity" and consolations the soul experiences when approaching God. To be honest, I found it quite frighting. I recommend it, but I advise mature handling of St. John of the Cross' words.

St. John of the Cross is truly a superb Saint and Mystic. Through his writings You can see how your own spiritual journey may not always be easy. If you are looking for a book that will not only inform you of the dark night, but also give you a self evaluation of your own life, then this is the book for you. In parts it may seem that St. John is peering into your soul and speaking directly to you. The wonderful thing about this book is that no one will have the same experence of it. Everyone who reads it will read it in light of where they are in their own lives. the reflection and thoughts of this Holy man will force you to look inside yourself to find what you need to do to reach the Ultimate union with God. St John of the Cross...Pray For Us!

This is a great book for an island-by-island survey of what you can see and do in the San Juans. The authors point out in the intro that it is geared towards sail boaters. I was interested in paddling info and, despite the paddler on the front cover, I didn't find much specific info for this audience. It seems like a great guide for sail boating though, with specific tips like how to avoid various submerged rocks in quiet coves and inlets, and where to find dinghys and anchors.

This is a surprisingly good book. Full of details and information second (maybe) to that of a long time resident. Excellent historical points of interest and very good maps.

We use this book extensively whenever asail or on a bike in the San Juan Islands. It gives the level of knowledge that a local resident would have and gets you into interesting spots (like False Bay on San Juan Island) that many locals may not know. The diagrams in the book are very helpful.

It also has a number of references to guidebooks on local flora and fauna.

Laurie King continues to deliver quality in her most recent Folly. Rae Newborn escapes to the San Juan Islands in the Pacific northwest after a family tragedy that culminates in mental collapse. In a last ditch attempt to rebuild her spirit Rae Newborn takes on the monumental task of rebuilding a burned-out house she inherits from a mysterious relative. The theme of tension necessary to build a house is mirrored in the tension of this story. Is Rae Newborn's paranoia wholly a result of her mental instability, or is there real danger lurking on the island of Folly? This woman's tragedy and her heroic confrontation of depression, nature, the monumental task of house building strike a deep resonance. Through her we meet the quirky residents of the San Juan Islands, we explore her murky family history, and we share her innermost paranoia. The twist at the end, although not unexpected and not as effective as it could be, nonetheless works to give a satisfactory ending to this good story. As always Laurie King doesn't stint her readers, but instead presents them with a provocactive story thinly disguised as a mystery. A good read.

Having read and loved both the Mary Russell and Kate Martinelli series' by King, I expected a similar read with Folly, but I was surprised and pleased to see her go in an entirely different direction with this astonishing, heartbreaking and ultimately victorious work of fiction. While King's series work plots complex mysteries with strong characters, Folly is more a character study, with a 50-ish woman in the unlikely role of heroine.

Rae Newborn has endured tragedies and loss that would destroy a weaker woman, and while she has faltered, she has not fallen. Instead she finds redemption in a house-building project that she tackles alone, on a desolate northwest Washington State island. King uses the metaphor of house construction to underline Rae's rebuilding of her shattered psyche, one layer at a time; she gives older women readers insight and hope as she slowly tears down the old, then begins constructing the new, developing Rae's muscles and physical stamina to parallel her slowly evolving mental and emotional health.

I loved the character of Rae Newborn for her own life's "folly" of attempting the incredible task of building a house. I cried for her tragedies and losses and suicide attempts. I was angry at her family members (like I would be at my own) if they could not, or would not, see the person beneath the title of Mother or Daughter, Aunt or Niece, etc. I cheered at the characters who fought to befriend the frightened, desperate Rae when she tried so hard to stand in isolation rather than chance loss once more.

Mostly I hated the last pages of this book, because they WERE the last pages and I would have to leave Rae Newborn, when I wanted to stay with her on that island, or wherever life took her, forever. She became my sister, my friend, my hero.

While Folly contains mysterious pieces of a soon-to-be-solved puzzle and some edge of the seat suspense, it can't be pigeonholed as just another Mystery or Thriller. It is so much more! Don't let the words of those who believe themselves critics deny you this unforgettable story - if you truly love good fiction you will enjoy this novel while you read it, and for years to come as you recall its lessons, its hope and its beauty.

An absorbing, well written novel for readers who enjoy Mary Higgins Clark. Rae Newborn is a strong central character with a history of depression. Like Anna Pidgeon in the Nevada Barr mysteries this woman chooses a life in the wilderness. The setting is the San Juan Islands near Vancouver where Rae, a prize winning wood worker decides to restore the island home of her Uncle that burned over seventy years earlier. There are several subplots that have to do with Rae's family, her isolated childhood, a mental illness that has estranged her grown daughter and a husband and child killed in an auto accident. Highly recommended.