I have read the reviews about how this book is "mushy." I think maybe because they can't believe that a company this good really exists. I am a brand-new employee to SWA, and this book is given to every new employee at the day-long welcome class. After participating in the class, reading this book, and experiencing the SWA culture first-hand, I can safely say that the book does NOT exaggerate! The feel-good style emphasized over and over in the book is a reality. People care about each other. Everyday (as shown in the book) everyone is made to feel valuable--and it makes you want to work harder, work smarter, and spread the LUV. Others may "say" that's what they are doing, but somehow it always comes back to "the rules." Herb Kelleher and crew are breaking the rules--and showing the others how to make a profit while caring about the dignity and welfare of the SWA family. Great and easily read book. Highly recommended.

If you've wondered how this small Texas airline outsmarted the larger giant airlines, read it all here. After reading this book, I was left with many ideas about how to incorporate more fun into my own work life, while increasing productivity. The corporate culture of Southwest is so ingrained into the employees! Fly with them, and notice how different their people are, and how they each seem to enjoy their job! I can't recommend this book highly enough.

In the forward of this book Tom Peters says, "If you take time to read only one business book this year, I strongly encourage you to read NUTS!" We wholeheartedly agree! Between the covers of this entertaining book Kevin and Jackie Freiberg have captured the essence of the "Southwest Spirit" that has made Southwest Airlines one of the top companies in America. Although Southwest served over 90 million bags of peanuts in 1999, there is nothing "nuts" about the way they run their company. Southwest topped the list of Fortune magazine's Best Companies To Work For in 1998, and since then has been in one of the top four slots every year.

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to see how the concepts of servant leadership are actually put into practice in a real company of over 30,000 employees. You will learn about a company that practices the golden rule as corporate policy-and has paid quarterly dividends for 97 consecutive quarters doing it! The "Southwest culture" described at length in the book gives this company its strategic advantage. This culture genuinely cares about the welfare of the Southwest employees-which are approximately 82% unionized. Southwest Airlines has turned a profit every year since 1973, yet it maintains the lowest fares in a highly competitive industry. It is one of the most admired airlines in the world, regularly ranks best in customer service, and has a consistently high safety record. Southwest was the first airline to establish a home page on the Internet, and was named by BusinessWeek as a "Web Smart 50" company.

Some of the book's statistics about the airline are now out of date due to incredible growth. More recent statistics are readily available at Southwest's web site . However, the principles discussed in this book that are used to guide this most admired airline are timeless.

Review by Dr. J. Howard Baker

Odd book - a kind of oil and water mix of anti-human politics and natural history of a small portion of the American southwest.

Lots of the book concerns nuclear test sites and vague ruminations. However, the author rarely lets any chance to disparage humans pass. In typical socialist enviro-speak she sees humans and any human sign as an evil scar upon the land - of course with the exception of the house, well, out-buildings and cars on her piece of purchased wilderness in a place where before "there was no one". (Reminds me of the definition of an eco-freak as someone who already has his cabin in the woods.) A typical sentiment would be "In Utah, God wants you to have a lawn". Mildly entertaining when you first read it 50 years ago in Abbey's writings but about as fun as hearing Uncle Morty give you the 800th telling of his hemorrhoid operation - time to move on.

On page 145 she finds a piece of asphalt and yellow paint in her yard (which she thinks is nuclear waste of some kind)and spends until page 194 and lots of dead tree (paper) figuring out that it is harmless and not evidence of the end of life as we know it. This kind of makes the 200 pages of anti-nuclear sentiments impotent. In her defense, she at least tells the truth - unlike many anti-humans who openly state that any means justify the end.

A better question is why do I keep reading these "nature" writings that usually turn into political rants? I think it's because I love these areas and have spent time in them and once in a while - although much too rarely - I find a gem like David James Duncan's "The River Why" or Norman Macleans "A River Runs Through It", and hope to find another. Sadly, what passes for nature writing these days is usually an offensive slur to people I've known and loved in my years of rambling through Western North America with my itinerant geologist father.

In the end, maybe I'm the dumb one because I paid 15.95 for this book. I recommend that whoever reads this not.

I enjoy a book that surprises me, and this one did that. At first glance you expect it to be a book of nature writing about the Southwest deserts. However, the quirky title should be a give away. Meloy's subject is the relationship between the arid regions of the American Southwest and the birth of the nuclear age. Not a duck-and-cover memoir of someone growing up in the 1950s, this book is a thoughtful inquiry into what is for the author a great irony: that nuclear weaponry emerged from uranium deposits mined from near where she lives in southern Utah and then processed and assembled into the first atomic bombs in the deserts of New Mexico.

The contrast between the awesome, quiet beauty of the desert and its use to develop weapons of mass destruction is a supreme contradiction that drives Meloy on a journey that takes her to ground zero at White Sands Missile Range, Los Alamos, and a natural gas field bounded by Navajo, Ute, and Apache reservations. The book closes on a walkabout across the mesas and through canyons near her home in the San Juan River valley, which cuts across the Southwest's Four Corners.

Also a surprise is the ironic humor she brings to the subject. While never forgetting the threat to survival of humanity that nuclear weapons represent, Meloy also marvels at the incongruities in the details of a story that encompasses the worlds of physicists, environmentalists, biologists, geologists, naturalists, anthropologists, Native Americans, tourists, and the ordinary working people and residents of present-day small towns and rural areas. On a parallel course with the story she tells are the incongruities of her own story, which starts with the accidental scalding death of a lizard in a coffee cup and ends on a high bluff in a tumultuous electrical storm.

I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the American Southwest, its history and geology, and a kind of nature writing that engages subjects beyond itself and attempts to reconcile them. Instead of using wilderness to escape from the realities of the modern world, Meloy attempts to embrace the two, with a wry smile, even while experiencing a shudder that sometimes shakes her to the core.

I try to teach my American lit students the tools of objective analysis - for example, that a book is not necessarily "bad" solely because the reader disagrees with the author's views. I try to push them farther than criticism that serves their own prejudices. Meloy's book is a good example of the rewards of going farther.

Here is a book that keeps people inside natural history where they belong, with all of our gifts and our hubris. In the author's search to understand the role of the Southwest in the nuclear age, she touches a universal humanism beyond the usual confines of nature writing. (What could be more anti-human than an atomic bomb?)

Meloy's tongue-in-cheek phrases, wit and sense of irony may elude the more literal-minded and politically rigid who expect but won't get a polemic. In a few instances this playfulness weakens her serious conclusions about the bomb era in American history (although humor may be used as a catharsis for so horrific a scenario as nuclear war). Best are her fair-handed and lyrical images of the physical world and of places like Los Alamos, the Trinity bomb site in New Mexico, the Utah canyons and her own home acreage, which as a cattle pasture next to town and a graveyard is hardly a wilderness. The weeds and the Pennzoil bottles play starring roles in this funny chapter.

This book inspired me to pay attention, to look harder at our past, present and future. It's well worth reading.

Some kid in my history class read "Man Corn" and now I think he wants to eat me. What should I do?

This brain is tender, juicy, and full of all the neurotransmitters a young, growing, bloodthirsty zombie needs. The Frontal and Occipital lobes are particularly tender, making for an excellent roast, or diced for a quick snack. The cortical mantle is highly convoluted; the crest of a single convolution is known as a gyrus, while the fissure between two gyri is known as a sulcus. And you know how good that sulcus can be... Isn't your mouth watering already? The frontal lobe, largest of all the lobes of the brain (and great for when you have guests over for dinner), lies rostral to the central sulcus (that is, toward the nose from the sulcus). The precentral gyrus, located rostral to the central sulcus, constitutes the primary motor region of the brain, which, as we all know, makes for a great party dip when blended with a superior parietal lobule.

Some of the recipes may be helpful in my attempts to cook a fellow student in my history class. Thank you Man Corn!

I do NOT find this book limiting; when searching for decorating style of the SW; there is so FEW out there, it is refreshing to find one that covers such a broad area of the SW. I LOVE THIS book...Normal decorating books have so LITTLE of this area and for those of us who LOVE IT, the book is wonderful. REFRESHING and NOT CUTESY! At present I live in the Midwest of America and it is so limiting to NEW ideas so often. Our local library had this book, and I was searching to see how many others were out there, not many... so I MAY end having to OWN this book.

Thank you for carrying this as well as several others pertaining to this area of the USA.

This book is filled with history and ideas for living. It's about regular houses inhabited by regular people, but the flowing writing style and beautiful photos make you feel rich.

MY HOME IS FILLED WITH SOUTHWEST DECORATING. THIS BOOK NOT ONLY GAVE ME ENJOYMENT, BUT HEPLED ME CONFIRM WHY THIS STYLE IS SO WARM AND ENVITING. IT ALSO GAVE ME NUMEROUS REFRESHING IDEAS IN ADDITION MY OWN DECORATING FLARE BOTH INSIDE AND OUT!

Does this book say that Karabagh is an essential part of Azerbaijan and its occupied by Armenian armed forces?

This is a delightful little book. I just couldn't put it down when I first got it! My husband and I had been quite anxious about making our first trip to Armenia and Karabagh this year, and the advice in the book really eased our minds by letting us know what to expect when we got there. Just KNOWING what to expect was such a help especially for someplace so far-off like Armenia. The advice about getting around and just getting by on a daily basis was very practical. And it's an easy read. As pertains history and facts about ancient churches and so-forth, it only skimmed the surface but we didn't really expect a scholarly treatise about religious history and architecture, so we weren't disappointed. Still, a bit more "trivia" would have been welcome. We were thrilled to see so such thorough coverage of Karabagh, but would have liked to have seen more information about Echmiadzin (the "Vatican of Armenia"!) and Gyumri. I suggest reading parts of the history book "Looking Toward Ararat," (by Suny) and another one called "Rediscovering Armenia" (authored by Kiesling), which was sort of an encyclopedia of historical monuments and quite detailed (although a bit of a mish-mash and difficult to read). We also had the Lonely Planet book which we thought was just dreadful.

I used this book when I went to Armenia in August. It's a very good book to read before you go because there is a lot of background information in addition to all the usual hotel and restaurant listings and etc. The pictures were really good so I saved the book after my trip. I would say the best part was on Karabagh. This is the only book I have ever found that has any good travel information on Karabagh. I carried it around everywhere and I would definitely recommend it to buy.

I was perhaps a little too harsh in my initial review.
This book does have substantial merit as a review of
the many movies about Wyatt Earp. It certainly reveals
the Legend if not the complete Life of its subject.
The definitive book about Wyatt Earp in Tombstone has
not yet been written. The Kansas period has recently been
adequately covered by Lee Silva's Wyatt Earp, The Cowtown
Years. Kudos to Casey Tefertiller and Allen Barra for some
new insights. There is a new generation of writers who offer
promise to finally nail this subject down. In the meanwhile
we will have to make do with what we have - the movies and
fantasies nothwithstanding. The truth is out there somewhere.
It will not be found in short magazine articles of opinions.
This book comes closer than most.

"Inventing Wyatt Earp" is a major contribution to the literature of Old West. It is not, nor is it intended to be a biography based on groundbreaking research, and those who come to the book with that expectation are certain to be disappointed. It is, rather, a book of first-rate analysis and assessment whose main virtue is the clear-eyed, even-handed, critically probing intelligence the author applies to the appraisal of his material. Mr. Barra is possessed of a formidable analytical mind, and the questions he poses and answers he assays, however provocative at times, are reasonably well-considered. Wyatt Earp has over the years become a figure of debate and controversy. He is likely to remain one into the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, much of that debate has more recently betrayed a tone of strident and petty hysteria--much heat, little light--a tone that Mr. Barra's book serves effectively to counter. One needn't agree with the author's every assertion to appreciate the value of his book. "Inventing Wyatt Earp" may not be the Last Word on its subject, but I suspect that Allen Barra would not want, nor did he intend it to be. Forgive the many typos. Attend to the meat of the book. There is much there to be thoughtfully digested.

I was relucant to read this book. I had recently read Casey Tefertiller book on Earp and felt that it was a well written and well documented book. I didn't want to cover the same ground again. A recent review in the paper and the reviews in Amazon convinced me to give it a try and I'm glad I did. Although I would not describe this as a "complete biography", Barra does a convincing job of separating the wheat from the chaff concerning Earp's years in law enforcement. Little attention was paid to Earp as a child or as a senior which allowed Barra to focus on the part of Earp's life that has been written and rewritten,lied about and distorted. This is a great and interesting book to read that allows Barra and the reader to examine the various stories and distortions told about different events and to then choose the story that fits the known facts. For someone that wants a highly documented, detailed book this is not the one for you. I suggest that readers take advantage of both books, Barra's and Tefertiller's. The combination of both give a very complete picture of this much maligned lawman. For an exciting and highly interesting book about Earp, Holliday, and Tombstone, Barra's fits the bill. My compliments to the author for a job well done. Read this book. "You're a huckleberry" if you don't.

Silko has written the most disturbing work of fiction I have ever read -- brutal, violent, vulgar, obscene, horrific, ugly, terrifying.....and unfortunately true. With a cast of characters as degenerate as they come, Silko strips away the facade of "manners" and "civilization" to expose the ugliest of the ugly in man, an ugly too near the surface of many people. Blinded by their own self-centeredness, each character stumbles toward personal armageddon from which there is no escape. The novel presents none of the hopeful aspects which are generally associated with contemporary Native American literature (but one, Sterling's return to Laguna) -- there are no living children to continue the family and no characters in relationships that offer this hope, no communities with strong emotional ties, no returns (except for Sterling's), and no healing. Morally and emotionally scarred, the characters move through the novels like the decaying creatures in a horror movie. No book has ever made me physically ill until this one -- headaches, nausea, nightmares, general disgust. If you have a weak constitution, skip this one. Also, watch out for extreme prejudice -- are Europeans the only ones not allowed to live on in the promised land? Are Europeans the only group that is not tribal, and therefore not deserving of a place in the Americas (a trick question, for if you believe in evolution, all groups were tribal at one point or another)

In much the same way that her brilliant and beautiful 1st novel Ceremony is intended to function as a ceremony for its readers, Almanac is intended to function as a a prophetic document. Silko's text is inspired by, and meant to serve as an extension of, ancient Mayan codices--books which keep exact and detailed record of Time and attempt to prophesy based on this knowledge. Time is as much a character in this "novel" as the Land is.

Of course, Silko doesn't lay all this out for her reader, but the clues are there. The ancient notebooks that old Yoeme leaves in the hands of the twins Lecha & Zeta are directly inspired by & directly refer to the codices. Twins themselves are of mythological significance in Mayan (and many other Southwestern) cosmologies. Almost every Native American character in this novel can be read as a mythological being in disguise. They all have dual functions, especially the female characters.
Silko has said that the anger which can be so overwhelming in her text does not come from her. She sees herself as more of a conduit for a much more ancient and dangerous rage. What began as a project about the seedy underbelly of Modern Tucson quickly transphormed itself to a work of mythological scope and political indictment.

This novel is demanding, complex, and mind-blowing in scope. It is by no means a casual read, nor is it sympathetic towards its reader. It requires things of you that typical novels don't. It even demands you abandon your theory of what a novel is and does. But if you are willing to follow Silko's narrative & thematic trails, the vision she reveals for you is truly astounding.

Silko's next novel, Gardens in the Dunes, was written, she says, to reward all of us who braved and withstood the onslaught that is Almanac of the Dead. It is true that those who make it through this book develop a bit of an obsession with it. Approach this text with this in mind, and you might make it to the end. But be prepared to return immediately to the beginning--you'll never get the scope of Silko's vision in one read.

Not nearly as complex as some would like to make it. The "land" interacts with people to manifest its spirits. Those who are "cut off" from the land, become alienated and "alien." 500 years is not so long in the grand scheme of things. What is yet to come is what has been before, a people who are shaped by the spirits of the Americas.

Her novel might not make some people "happy." It certainly isn't your romantic "Indian story" (that so many people seem to want). The lives it depicts in fiction aren't far from the convoluted inner workings of some of the indigenous movements here in the Americas (the Zapatista, AIM, etc.) nor from the "cultural elite" who rot in their penthouses in the monuments of Western civilization.

It might not be an "easy" read, but it is certainly an engaging one, and a well-crafted one. Highly recommended.

It took quite a while for me to get into this book. I just finished reading Texasville prior to starting Leaving Cheyenne. I was expecting more after reading Texasville. The book was written in the manner that an uneducated early Texas settler might speak, thus making it hard at times to understand. The story is told in three intervals with each character contributing his/her point of view. Too much emphasis was put on Gid (the main character) to leave so abruptly and shift to the thoughts of the other characters. And their parts were too short in comparison to Gid's. The characters have potential and the book worked off of a similar plot, I thought, to The Man Who Rode Midnight by Elmer Kelton. I suggest reading Elmer Kelton's book before this one.

Perhaps there is more to life, other than sex, especially as one grows older. What about enduring friendship? Three different characters, three different viewpoints. Thought-provoking narrative for the reader to ponder and consider as the country western song tells us: "time changes everything". Worthwhile read!
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/children's author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Books One - Three

I read this book some years ago and I was very impressed. I enjoyed just about all of Larry McMurtry's early (pre-Lonesome Dove) works. Indeed, I felt that his three greatest works were "The Last Picture Show", "Lonesome Dove", and "Leaving Cheyenne". After "Lonesome Dove", I think McMurtry lost a lot of his sense of reality as a writer. In "Leaving Cheyenne", McMurtry tells a common enough love triangle story but in a most unique method. The three characters tell their story from their perspective which, I'm sure, has been done before and probably with greater effect. However, what makes this book special and all the more enjoyable is that each perspective is given from a different point in time. Thus we have the serious young man's perspective, the pragmatic middle aged woman's perspective, and, finally, the fun-loving old geeser's perspective. Bear in mind that these three characters are all essentially the same age but looking at their lives together from a different point of maturity. It works, too. With the serious young man we sense the cold, calculated mistakes of a driven youth. With the pragmatic middle aged woman we see the acceptance that not everything works out the way you would want them to. With the fun-loving old geeser, we see that life is not judged by past mistakes; it's judged by how much fun you're having right now.

I noted some very negative reviews on this book. To each his own. However, it is a short read and I think you may get the same impression I did. It's worth a try.

I finished reading this book over a week ago, and the novel still haunts me. As several other reveiws have mentioned, the characters could be better developed, but the overall result is entrancing. Isabelle is the most interesting character; I had to force myself not to jump ahead (the chapters alternate the stories of the two women)and see what happened to her next. The story simply pulls the reader along to an ending that I found disturbing - although it was pretty obvious what was coming, I kept wishing somehow it would end another way.

The questions the ending raised were huge - I would have liked more insight into the characters of Isabelle's in-laws - mainly her husband Etienne, whose cruelty appeared to stem from the influence of his "evil" mother (what else do you call a woman who hates her grandchild to the extent she did)? But Chevalier never really explains why her in-laws did what they did or what made them capable of such an atrocity. Thus, I found that the ending left me with a lot of unanswered questions which I have been turning around in my mind for days...I suppose that was probably Chevalier's intention.

In Tracy Chevalier's first novel (previously unpublished in the US), she has created a beautiful mystery that seems an intersection of the historical, the romantic, the mysterious, and the artistic. Ella and Isabel are are wonderfully complex characters. It is the similarities and dissimilarities in their charactrization (and in their stories...) that drive the novel to it's mysterious and wonderful conclusion. This is a book that you will want to read again just to see what you missed the first time. The only shortfall in the book is my own lack of skill with the French language. Chevalier often translates through her characters, but there are points in the novel that need clarification.

Tracy Chevalier's The Virgin Blue portrays the story of Ella Turner (turned Tournier) and Isabelle du Moulin - two women with similar paths. Chevalier uses the backdrop of quaint French villages to support the evolving mystery behind the women's journeys. The plot is wonderful, as well as the developed characters. I recommend this book to anyone who likes France, feminist topics, or genealogy. Or to anyone looking for a good thoughtful read.

It's hard to look at these beautiful photographs and not read the captions, since the captions take up a whole page opposite the photo. I like both Don and Fred, think they're amusing fellows. I can't imagine why they didn't make the captions more entertaining or enlightening, instead of sophomoric or irrelevant. Who cares that Don went back to the truck for a pack of cigarettes while Fred took a photo? Does this enhance your enjoyment one iota? Bless the Wee One, this is a major disappointment. Almost but not quite worth it for the pictures, you won't want to leave this lying around on the coffee table when your in-laws or children are around. (Or anyone with an ounce of intelligence.) All the shilling in the world won't make this a memorable experience. Pick up another photographer's book and enjoy it more

Let me start out by saying I am an Imus fan and have been listening to his program since the 70's. That being said this book was a mild disappointment. The beautiful pictures of the American Southwest are definitely worth the price of admission. But the comments often get in the way. How many times does the phrase "fat tourists" need to be said in order to make a point?(At least three in this book along with other derogatory mentions.)The text seems to be an afterthought and probably could have been omitted all together. But the picture on page 12 alone makes the rest of it worthwhile.

A co-worker left this in our kitchenette, and I find myself retreating there for a page or two of desert photography and wonderfully bitter and cynical captioning at least a couple times a day. I've never heard Don Imus in his role as a radio personality, but from what I know of him, the captions are distinctly his style (he's got a real "thing" about fat tourists), so maybe not everyone will appreciate or enjoy his style of self expression. But for me, it was great. The best caption I've seen so far is the simple, "We found Madonna's baby in here." You'll have to see the picture to understand. It's unfortunate that this book is out of print; track it down if you can. But in the spirit of Don Imus, don't pay an outlandish amount; he would only mock you for doing so.