Our in-laws have been using the 1989 copy of this book. We have enjoyed most of the recipes. Decided to buy our own copy. Flaverful, but not overly spicey.

I find I need yet another new copy of this recipe book. I've worn out two (so far) through frequent use. The recipes are sophisticated yet are written in a manner that's easy to understand. I bought my first copy when I was first learning to cook; and I still reach for it now that I am much more accomplished. I always receive compliments when I use any of these recipes for entertaining.

I've been searching for this book for two years after having borrowed it from my neighbor so many times that she had begun to believe it was my book rather than hers. I've looked in used book stores and am delighted to learn it is still in print. Of the many recipes I have tried, I have found no losers, none. All recipes strike that delicate balance between lack of complication and elegance of taste and presentation that most cookbooks miss, especially in dealing with this particular cuisine. These are the dishes you see strangers-in-the-know eating in restaurants, the dishes you wish you had ordered rather than the tame fare that is generally served (because you ordered it). Some might sneer at dear old 'Betty Crocker' in the title, but this volume contains is, without a doubt, the best tasting, most refined Southwestern food you can prepare at home short of hiring your own illegal alien to cook for you.

Having lived in the Caprock area of Texas for a few years I never knew what history and hidden geography were just beyond the flat, flat plain across the highway! After reading this book I must return to the Caprock to discover these things on my own! There is much beyond the state parks that Texans should claim as a part of their heritage and strive to better understand. Get this book and see if you don't agree!

it might not be fair to comment, but i haven't read this book. nevertheless i was flying to san francisco from miami the other day and as the pilot mentioned that we just passed over texico, nm i noticed one of the most arresting sights i have ever seen from a plane.

seemingly endless plains, farmed into a quilted patchwork of green squares and circles, abruptly dissolved into a brownish red fractal universe.

at 34.946 north 103.438 west is one of the most striking features. you can check it out online at the terraserver or on any map program. of course they could never do justice to what it really looks like. i've been obsessing over this area for a few days now, although i hope it'll pass before i crank out bucks for yet another book i don't really need.

I paid over-due fines on this book twice at the Austin library...I wouldn't return it until I was finished. It was worth it though. Flores writes in simple terms and speaks from the heart. This book educated me while causing me to reflect on my life...Imprinted DNA from old relatives...I've believed this for years.

This is a pretty good book, all in all. Of course, it's not too hard to produce something good when one has such a powerful story, but Wick is able to maintain both stories -- that of the support team (their tense dealings with the natives, their desperate race to find Doug Gordon's body, and later their difficult trek back to civilization) and that of the paddlers (especially through Jamie McEwan's journal entries). My favorite parts are actually these entries, actually, vivid and powerful.

The power of the Tsangpo River is hard to imagine. These were some of the best paddlers in the world. Roger Zbel ("King of the Portages" on the Tsangpo . . .) was locally famous back in the States for his still-unmatched descents of massive, flood-swollen rivers. Tom McEwan (and Wick Walker, at that) were the first to run Great Falls, back in 1976, and that run is still perhaps the most famous extreme run in the East. Since then he has spent his life charging down dangerous rivers, leading trips for his paddling school. Jamie McEwan is a two-time Olympian, a bronze medalist, and Doug Gordon was apparently the best of them all . . .

Why buy this book over Balf's "The Last River", also about this trip? I asked Jamie, and he said, "Well, Wick's book has pictures . . ." I've never read Balf's book, but I do know that the paddlers themselves had much more imput into Wick's book. I don't even think Balf's was authorized. This book was written by a team member, and it shows. There are details, anecdotes, lots of quotes. All in all, it's a fascinating story of four men -- not the type of crazy adrenaline-junkies one might imagine, but middle-aged Ivy League types, who left their domestic lives for a while to take on "The Everest of Whitewater."

This story expands on the notion that an expedition does not necessarily revolve completely around kayaking on a dangerous river. Instead, it reveals that the arduous trek, diverse people, personal challenges, and team dynamics are what define an expedition. Overcoming that, the challenge of the Tsang Po presents itself as a reward.

There's much to ponder about the challenges that contain the certain risk of death. Wick Walker's recount of this expedition helps us remember just what to consider.

If you like truly wild places and adventures, this is the book to read. This book was one of those gems that you do not want to put down until you finish. The goal of kayaking the forbidden river hooked me. The stories used in the book about the history and culture of Tibet and the people, put the magnitude of the expedition in perfect focus. The story that the author, Wick Walker tells is one that will interest you and keep you in awe of the power and grandeur of nature and mans place in this world.

In _Nine Years in the Saddle_, James V. Lee has told an important story. More than just the life of his father, it is the tale of an American hero. "Dud" Lee was a hero, not because he was some glossy rendition of a Hollywood ideal, but because he was an average, real person who survived and thrived in rough times. Thankfully, James Lee has written about those times. As editor of Doing It Write!, an e-newsletter for writers, I've seen my share of historical books. With _Nine Years in the Saddle_, you'll feel as though you're sitting by the fireplace, listening to Dud himself talk.

Dud's life, although only one or two generations ago, is foreign to modern teenagers. Bootlegging, lion hunting, working from ranch to ranch ... it all feels like something from an adventure book or a history tome. Knowing that this was a real person, the author's father no less, brings the story into reality. Few books have been written about the real people who lived and worked, and survived, this era of American history. By writing it down, and backing it up with pictures, Lee has preserved this slice of a time past. Helen Ginger

NINE YEARS IN THE SADDLE is a story about the life and times of Dud Lee, how he survived during the depression, bootlegging and hunting mountain lions in Chiricahua Mountains in Southeast New Mexico, and his time punching cows. It's the authors way of telling a story of a man he'd longed to know, and did so after their airport meeting when his father was eighty-one years old. A truly enjoyable read -- a story that will make you laugh and at the same time tug at your heart strings.

Mr. Lee,

Your book, which I purchased last Friday from Hastings in Bryan, is as we speak, history...you were right, it was as great a read as you warned, I wasn't able to put it down for long...

I feel sad that I will never have the oppurtunity to meet such a rounder as your father...

I visualize many of the scenes described in our book and I personally think that a good screen play is waiting to be discovered in your writtings!

I have the "signed" copy of your book in my library in it's place right in there with my printings of "Lonesome Dove" and "Texas"...

I look forward to reading your next book when it "arrives".

See ya in the movies............:)

Respectfully,

Ken "earl" Havel

I agree with the editorial (Kirkus) reviewer; which you ought to read and pay attention to before buying. This is strictly one man's impressions of what the Colorado Plateau means to him. It is not authoritative as to the ruin's archeology or anthropology. It could better be classed as poetry.

One of my favorite books about one of my favorite destinations. This is a collection of brief essays that is the perfect companion for a trip to the Four Corners area and the abounding ruins and sites of the Anazasi. Its not a book detailing where to go and how to get the most for your tourist dollar. Rather its a musing reflection on what its like to visit these places from the perspective of a 21st century traveler. These writings draw our attention to the feelings evoked by the experience of wandering among the reminders of another people, another culture, another cosmology and way of understanding what life is about. I have been to Keet Seel. Its a demanding walk. I appreciated having the opportunity to travel back there with someone who provided words to some of the feelings I experienced at the time. A subtext of these writings is the idea of the sacred in a postmodern world that has chased that concept into small corners of carefully bounded scholarship. The author discovers it abounding all around us and that we are desperate to recover some sense of it for ourselves. The trip to Keet Seel and the other destinations is a rediscovery of its significance and meaning for human existence.

I beg to differ with the reviewer from Kirkus associates. The guy's a pompous windbag and if he actually read the whole book, I doubt seriously if he understands what he read. The book is not and does not profess to be a work of anthropological science. It is a look into one man's reactions to historical places which cannot be described, but have to be experienced to feel their effects. Again and again, Reg Saner captured these effects, along with his "show me" quest, poetically with a mastery of language seldom seen anywhere. The reviewer claimed that the writing style hurt his teeth. I suggest he sees a dentist, for the writing is great. Like the places they describe, the essays need be experienced for their full effect. I won't do them the dishonor of inadequate description here. The book is an informative, thought-provoking read. As one who has been researching the Anasazi, Pueblo, and Hopi for some time, I place this book near the top of my favorites list of the last 25 books I've read on the subject. The essay, "Spirit Root" should win an award of some sort. It's fabulous. To anyone reading my review, I say get the book. To the reviewer who was so shallow, wishy-washy and unkind, I say get a life.

Shooshie

Strayer mastered the art of distilling complex topics into readable extended essays. His book, On The Medieval Origins of the Modern State, is generally regarded as a minor classic and should be read by everyone with a serious interest in European history. The Albigensian Crusades is organized well, insightful, and written well. In this brief book, Strayer provides the appropriate theological, social, and political background, delivers a concise narrative of the Albigensian Crusades, describes the primary actors very well, and summarizes the remarkably significant consequences of what appears to be an obscure episode in Medieval history. The Albigensian Crusades were motivated primarily by the desire of the Papacy to extinguish heresy in what we now call the South of France. Drawing on the Crusading tradition, and greed, of the northern French nobility, the papacy set in train a process that destroyed the political independence of the indigenous nobility and did eliminate eventually the Cather heretics of the region. The unintended consequences were remarkable. The Albigensian Crusade became the conquest of the south by the Kings of France, whose real authority had been limited to the north. The result was the foundation for the modern boundaries of France and made the French monarchs the most powerful kings in Europe. The Albigensian Crusade and its aftermath largely destroyed the distinctive culture of the south. More urbanized than the north, tolerant of both Christian heretics and Jews, possessing distinctive legal codes and literary traditions, the south more resembled the nascent city-states of Italy than the feudal north. Strayer summarizes these differences nicely by giving the region a distinctive name, Occitania, and makes the astute comment that the region was a country without a state. To combat the heretics, the Papacy came to rely on a vigorous and ruthless Inquisition, with terrible future consequences. Papal reliance on Crusades to accomplish European political ends became a common feature of Papal policy over the next century, creating chaos in Italy and Germany, severely undermining the prestige of the Holy See, and contributing to the disorder and uncertainty that would generate the Reformation.
I read an earlier edition of this book without the afterword by Carol Lansing and can't comment on it.

THE ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADES by Joseph R. Strayer is really two books inside one jacket. The first book, by Strayer consists of a 174-page overview of the two crusades, one led by Simon de Montfort and the second under the auspices of the French Royals in Paris. The second "book" is an Epilogue by Carol Lansing, that examines heresy versus orthodoxy.

Strayer's book is about 30 years old, and while his writing seems mostly accurate, he is inclined to make generalizations some contemporary historians might not. For example, he says a necessary condition for the growth of "heresy" is a set of fluid economic and social circumstances that lead to uncertainty about personal well-being as well as exposure to people with different ways of thinking. In other words, material conditions go a long way toward explaining a diversity of faiths.

Strayer says the feudalism of the north (France) was virtually nonexistent in Languedoc (Strayer calls it Occitania) and primogeniture was not the hereditary rule. At the death of the father, properties were split up amongst the sons, and the wealth and power of successive generations diluted. Often, the loss of noble wealth and power was augmented. One means was to become a member of the Roman Catholic clergy and the other was commerce. The redistribution of wealth and power led to a new social order where the cities became dominant.

Languedoc, lay at the end of a main trade route that ran through Italy and into the East, and by 1200, the area was more like Italy with it's independent cities based on commercial wealth, than the feudal north with it's huge rural estates owned by landed nobility. New ideas and new people settled in Occitania, bringing diverse religious practices. In addition to the Cathars, the area was home to Jews, Mohammadens, and Waldensians. Roman Catholic clergy soon found their limited authority challenged, and one thing led to another until the Pope launched two crusades to eliminate "heretical faiths" that infested Occitania. Most of Strayers's account is about the subsequent Albigensian crusades (Albi was one of the "heretical" cities).

While Strayer does not address the issue of heresy, Carol Lansing's Epilogue (59 pages) is an essay on heresy. She says the orthodox Catholics were unclear about their own orthodoxy, so determining someone else was herertical was quite a task. She concludes that for the most part, heretics were condemned by their actions, not their beliefs.

She says the Waldensians were orthodox and should not be confused with the Cathers who really had a completely different religion. Waldo, the leader of the Waldensians would have been thought another St. Francis of Assisi had he been born during Innocent's reign as Pope. He had the misfortune to be born 100 years to soon and thus perceived as a threat. Although they were persecuted, Waldensians still exist today, and were probably the first real Protestants.

The Cathers believed in a dualist God and Lansing describes several versions of their theology in her Epilogue. Her account makes their tenets seem very confused. She says, "people wove together their beliefs, drawing on the teachings and practices of the Roman clergy, the Cather perfects, their own families, and their communities, as well as their own speculation and experince."

I found both of these "essays" raised and addressed interesting points and recommend the book for anyone with a serious interest in this topic.

An amazing book detailing the situation in 13th Century Languedoc / Southern France and the major players involved. It paints a great picture of the French monarchy in relation to southern France. This sets the table for most feared instrument in the history of the Roman Church - The Inquisition. A must for any one interested in Church history and the Crusades.

As the contributing editor for "Oregon" on Suite101,com, I'm always on the lookout for great books about Oregon. Best Places to Kiss in the Northwest is great for what it includes and should probably be broken into three separate books so that more places in Oregon, Wasington, and British Columcia can be featured.

I agree wholeheartedly with the picks included. There are just so many great restaurants and B abd B's that are missing.

An entry in Bend, Oregon states that Bend is known better for outdoors kissing spots than cozy restaurants, yet I can name Kayo's Dinner House, Le Bistro, and McGrath's Fish House right off the bat that are left out.

In addition, I don't know if this would be considered a best place to kiss in other people's books, but growing up in Bend, the two best kissing spots were on top of Pilot Butte (might be closed to cars now) and Pioneer Park. Neither were included.

In Washington, Centralia's got a very cozy B and B I'd love to go back to visit (no Centralis entries) and Ocean Shores isn't even mentioned.

That said, the most annoying factor of the book is its organization. Within each section, (e.g., Vancouver and environs) towns are listed all higgledy piggledy! Ladner comes after West/North Vancouver, which is followed by Tsawwassen, then Point Roberts. It took me longer than it should have to find what I was looking for.

The write-ups are fair and show little bias. It is very journalistic, without any real personal stories. I really wanted to know why each spot was chosen.

What's there is good and even great for some areas. It's too bad there are gaps.

This is a terrific travel guide for true romantics. I have used it on many trips and have never been disappointed. A great companion book to take along is The Romantic's Guide: Hundreds of Creative Tips for a Lifetime of Love.

From the Oregon Coast to the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, my wife and I have relied on previous versions of this book. In every case, the B&B's have been accurately reviewed and the restaurant choices top notch. You can trust this book.

As a member of the Miwok tribe, I probably viewed this book somewhat differently than most others. Family remembers the histories and characters from Jack Burrow's book somewhat differently than depicted. Burrows adds a bit too much color to real characters already filled with color, in order to make entertaining tall tales ala western novellas. This book demonstrates how tales of Miwoks, as told from a slanted, white outsider's viewpoint,(no matter how well intentioned), combined with local gossip, can be retold as history. Views towards the Miwok is more clearly understood, as well as the Miwoks' defensive attitudes. Albeit somber and depressing, entertaining tall tales of Indians in the Gold country.

I grew up romanticizing the people who settled California and of the Native Americans who were forced to give up control of their own lives with the westward migration. This wonderful book turns most of my old beliefs to dust. This is a very personal and unvarnished memoir of a young boy who found himself drawn to the Miwok people living around him. He learned much from them. He learned about what survived of their culture and language, about their subdued dignity and sorrows. He shows us, in a very visual style, how they coped each day in that harsh and hostile environment of "white" Murphys. These violent, sad and poignant tales give the reader a brand new perspective on this time and place and, indeed, on the people both native and white who inhabited the Sierra foothills in the 20's, 30's and 40's.

Jack Burrows, previously known for his groundbreaking study, "John Ringo, the Gunfighter Who Never Was," the first book to use modern historical methodology to separate legend from fact in examining the Tombstone story, has used a different approach in this small but wonderful book. Burrows has taken it upon himself to preserve the memory of the virtually extinct Miwok Indians, possessors of a unique culture largely destroyed by disease and environmental degradation, a people with whom he grew up in northern California. But this time historian Burrows has, properly, chosen to tell his story by approximating oral tradition. He writes about his memories of a handful of surviving Miwok recalled from his own pre-World War II childhood, memories he feels the responsibility and the destiny to pass along to history.

Burrows writes beautifully about the humanity of individual Miwok, a humanity that runs the gamut of human behavior, oft-times loving, sometimes glorious, occasionally comic, and still at other times violent and self-destructive. He narrates the ultimately tragic stories of these mostly gentle Miwok colorfully and effectively, yet without sentimentality, and for this his story is all the more poignant. As Burrows preserves their memory, individual Miwok, despite alienation, depression, and degradation on a daily basis both random and systematic, have an inner dignity that will be hard for the reader to forget.

Few today will have ever heard of Cohokia, the vast urban center once located on the banks of the Mississippi River. Cahokia is not only the largest archaeological site in North American, but one of the least well preserved or analyzed ancient civilizations in the world. Located in a present urban area near St. Louis, the failure to study and catalog this site until the past few years is a stunning example of modern ignorance and mismanagment. This study is the best single volume work on the subject of Cahokia.

That being said, the limitations of this volume are many. It is apparent that Professor Fowler's research is essentially presented by Young, a non-specialist writer. Unfortunately, the writing is uneven and not particularly memorable. There is also a dearth of photographs and diagrams. Finally, I was dissatisfied with the lack of discussion of the context of the Cahokia culture with the other prehistorical peoples of North and Central America.

Over the past decade or so, Cahokia (located in Illinois just east of St. Louis) has emerged as the most extraordinary archaeological site in North America. In the 500 years between roughly 900 and 1400, Native Americans (no one can yet identify the group) built a great settlement, carefully planned, with temples, palaces, stockades, and other accoutrements that one would identify with a city, marked by tremendous earthen constructions -- the mounds that dominate the site today. The Cahokians' influence spread up and down the Mississippi valley, and the magnetism of their achievement drew people and wealth into their sphere of control.

The tale of the discovery, preservation, excavation, and interpretation of this magnificent site is told with verve and excitement in this collaboration between Biloine Whiting Young, a professional writer, and Melvin Fowler, one of the leading lights of Cahokian archaeology. They write in an accessible style but without sacrificing any of the complexities of the history and interpretation of Cahokia, and an abundant bibliography allows easy access to the technical literature on which the book rests. My advice: read this book, then hop in the easiest mode of transportation and get yourself to Collinsville, Illinois. You will come away from both with a new admiration for the achievements of our predecessors on this continent.

This book provides a wealth of detail about the great prehistoric city which we now call Cahokia. Written in layman's terms, the authors cover every aspect of the archeological investigations of the city. It is hard to believe that a large metropolis existed in mid-America a thousand years ago. In this book, Ms. Young and Dr. Fowler document the many studies made over the years that prove it did exist. And they do so in an easy to understand manner. This book is very easy to read.

This book is based around prints of 31 glass-plate photographs made primarily by Alice Snearly in and around Cache, OK, at the turn of the 20th century. The collection was acquired by Larry McMurtry, who donated the plates to the University of Texas Press, the publisher of the book.
Noyes, who wrote Los Comanches, provides some interesting but mainly inessential notes that at times border on the annoying, particularly when he noodles off into pointless speculation about how the subjects were thinking or feeling when their photo was taken based on the expressions on their faces.
There is a brief historical survey of the treaties that landed the Comanche on the reservation and the work of various Anglo religious, social, and political factions that gerrymandered their fate afterwards. Noyes also provides information on the Comanches' reservation life and their association with the Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache who shared their reservation. Commentary on the dress of the subjects is informative with respect to the assimilation of the Comanches into Anglo cultural and dress patterns during this transitional period in the tribe's history, but numerous notations on tribal dress also indicate how important the peyote ceremony had become for the tribe in captivity.
The photos are generally soft-focus and relatively low contrast, making it difficult to pick out detail, and there are no magnified views. The notes, however, do well at identifying individuals and pointing out notable objects in the prints. Also, Noyes delivers some interesting anecdotal material on Quanah Parker and some of the other tribal leaders during the reservation years.

Excellent job by the authors with both the text and the selection of photographs. This is a very desirable book for readers interested in Comanches, the development of North Texas, early photography, or the process of Texas transitioning from frontier cultures into society as we have it today.

The historical introduction in this book has filled a huge gap by detailing the events of the lives of Commanches after they were placed on the reservation up to about 1915. Most of the happenings are the same for other reservation peoples and yet few nonIndians are familiar with the sequence of events after various native groups of people were put on reservations.

The photographs are unique and ones not previously seen before. Larry McMurty has provided a valuable service by making these images available through the University of Texas archives.