This is a collection of wonderful stories told by a master story teller in the old tradition. Unlike most other collections of stories these live in your ear. Most others live on the page. And these are truly American stories, but unlike anything you'll find in popular anthologies of contemporary North American short stories, because they reach far back into our immigrant consciousness in an elastic, unpretentious way. I choose Alistair MacLeod over John Updike any day to describe what it means to me to be American.

On the surface 'The Lost Salt Gift of Blood' appears preoccupied with tragedy and death. However, read a little deeper and one finds it to be very life affirming. The themes of family, traditions, relationships, death, isolation and endurance echo throughout the short stories. The thematic parallels are skillfully woven into the fabric of the novel, highlighting that indeed, no one story can stand alone. It is worth reading!

Written with great care, precision and meaning. You must read between the lines to get the most out of the book. Although all the stories revolve around death, grief, and pain, the focus on the life of the characters, rites of passage, and relationships is truly inspiring. I really enjoyed this book.

I've been to Mackinac Island many many times before purchasing this book. I'd always felt as if I was missing so much of the Island - I WAS RIGHT! After I purchased this book - I was amazed at how much the Island has to offer that'd I'd been missing!

I worked on Mackinac Island for two summers- it is such a special place and a must to visit! This book is excellent-it gives you all the info you need on how to get there, what do do, where to stay, and all the little details you need to know ahead of time. For instance, she lists prices of all the places to stay, bike rental costs, ferry costs, ect. I havent been back to Mackinac Island in 6 years and Im so glad I got this book to help me plan my trip. I cant beleive I stayed away so long!

I've been to THE island twice now and am preparing for my third trip. But I wish I'd read this book before the first trip, for I'd have had a better time.

The book is short, yet chock-full of interesting and useful information concerning almost everything and anything a person would want to know about the magical place called Mackinac Island.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough! Keep up the good work in future editions, Ms. McVeigh.

This book was actually published by IllumiNet Press, not Last Gasp of San Francisco, as Amazon.com's page indicates. Amazon.com's correction form does not include a category to correct publisher information, so I am communicating this information this way. Ron Bonds, who ran IllumiNet Press, died last April under very strange circumstances. I think it's important that he be given credit for getting this book out, along with the many other books he published, particularly those written by my friend and writing partner Jim Keith, who also died under strange circumstances.

Kenn has carefully researched previous "facts" about the Maury Island UFO incident and has, in some areas, corrected the historical mis-record; he has shed new light on the mysterious main characters, especially the chameleon-like Fred Lee Crisman. What emerges is a fascinating retro look at one of ufology's earliest jump-starters, with numerous sidetracks into the murky world of government security agencies, the mafia, and Jim Garrison's (in) famous JFK assassination probe. Backing up his investigation, Kenn has provided a generous, detailed appendix documenting much of the seemingly incredible aspects of both the story and the intriguing main players. Although the author appears to lean in the direction of UFO's possibly being highly advanced secret aircraft, ET proponents would be foolish to overlook the ramifications suggested here. What emerges is a chilling dissection of the complex, phantom machinations of the human hierarchy and, particularly, the psyche of those "soldiers" sent into the field to carry them out against the "enemy" -- the masses. This is not just another UFO book, drearily recounting tread-worn sighting reports, or screaming that space aliens are inter-breeding with us. We don't need to be alien hybrids to be a weird, darkly dangerous species; a few chapters of Kenn's work is proof enough for virtually anyone. I loved it!

I was picking through this book, one of Kenn Thomas' typically pithy works (his hallmark is extensive citations of primary materials), getting typically perturbed at many of the covert shenanigans performed by various government (and other) entities. I put the book down, and an hour later came back to find my eight year old son had picked it up and was totally engrossed in it. His eyes were big when he looked up and said in a very serious voice, "Dad, this book is GREAT!" I said, "yes, it is son, yes it is ..."

In her previous novel, "The Climate of the Countrty," the talented and wise Marnie Mueller treats the issue of conscientious people struggling to remain intact amdist social cruelty and isolative prejudice. "My Mother's Island" brilliantly continues Mueller's honorable efforts to understand how pain, rejection and loss influence good people who find themselves placed in intolerable circumstances. Unlike "Climate," which deals with social oppression, "Island" treats the most intimate and personal of circumstances: an adult daughter called to comfort a mother stricken with inoperable cancer.

As if that were not torment enough, the adult daughter, Sara Ellis, introspectively relives her troubled childhood, and those recollections and memories trigger anger, guilt and betrayal. The brilliance of this absorbing, painful and absolutely believable novel lies in the interplay between Sara and her mother Reba -- between the past and present, between pain and possibility.

"My Mother's Island" flows between a twin series of cross-cutting vignettes, one which treats Sara's witnessing and attempting to mnediate they symptoms of her mother's cancer, while the other series focuses on the childhood traumas Sara experienced. Now an expatriate living in Puerto Rico, Sara's mother Reba unknowingly triggers a warring set of emotions in her daughter. We observe Sara weaving between compassion and icy anger, between the conflicting needs of a child yearning for a parent's acceptance and an adult child striving for authentic independence. Mueller provides no easy answers to the profound questions Sara ponders; indeed, it is the compressed and frightening nature of her visit that forces Sara to relive a lifetime of emotional turmoil. The author provides an impressive resolution to this profound quandry.

Marnie Mueller not only skillfully dissects the themes of terminal illness, personal transcendence and interpresonal conflict, she does so with a set of characters who provoke our identification and sympathy. The two protagonists, Sara and Reba, are an emotional dichotomy. Both must confront identical issues of anger, disappointment, betrayal and rejection. How the two become alive to one another while answering their own private questions is another exceptionally strong aspect of the writing. The community which surrounds Sara and Reba in Puerto Rico is lovingly etched; Sara's compaion Lydia is especially impressive.

Readers should not anticipate a "feel-good" novel when approaching "My Mother's Island." This raw, painful and moving work is a testament to the impact of realistic writing and the power of two strong chracters squeezing truth from pain and undersanding from hurt. Marnie Mueller, whose own life itself reflects a deep respect for political idealism, has much to teach us. Her redemptive novel is inspiring, compelling and necessary.

Coming to terms with the death of a parent is difficult enough, but when that parent--Sarah's mother, in this case--is the source of profound psychological trauma and pain, the road to understanding must be both rocky and rewarding for a daughter.
The story that unfolds here is rich with secrets that are revealed in a fascinating mix of present-day events in Puerto Rico (the island of the title, where Sarah goes to care for her dying mother) and flashbacks to Sarah's complicated childhood with her unconventional parents. The combination is riveting, and we come to admire and love this young woman for her courage and insight. Even her deep fears and anger don't keep her from doing what she ultimately decides is the right thing to do. Sarah's journey of reconciliation and healing is the reader's journey, too, and we're with her every step of the way.

I have just finished reading My Mother's Island, by Marnie Mueller, and I am still rocked by the experience. The mother-daughter relationship is, as we all know, layered with emotions of all kinds, feelings that persist throughout our lives whether or not we feel we were well-mothered, indeed, even if we had no mother growing up, as I did not. As a mother (and recent grandmother) myself, who has written books about being a mother, I was brought back in this beautifully written and profoundly felt novel to my own daughterhood. It is a novel about two women and their love/hate relationship, about a mother dying and a daughter surviving,about an abusive mother whose daughter nevertheless attends her dying with dedication, friendship if never a sentimental kind of love. But this is not a depressing or upsetting novel - except in the sense that we are upset in our ordinary vision of things by stories that part the veil of what Virginia Woolf called "the cotton wool of daily life," enabling us to experience "moments of being," when we become conscious of the reality of things behind appearances. Reading Mueller's story of a mother's dying, a daughter's need to relive and once again reconcile with her past, and in the end experience a kind of rebirth - I was jolted and riveted, turning pages to find out how it would all end, yet at the same time wanting to go slowly in order to savor the language and the insights. The descriptions of the present - a small house in Puerto Rico - and the past - the narrator's childhood - (a chilling scene remains in my mind of the daughter as a little girl hiding from her mother in a haystack) - as well as the daughter's home in New York City, a kind of beacon of peace and sanity in her mind from where her psychoanalyst husband talks to her by phone, - all are lush, detailed and vivid. I have already had two dreams about the novel as it opens up my own memories. It is one of those books that sinks down into you. I have always loved Marnie Mueller's work, but this novel brings her capacities for observation of the human soul to an even deeper level than in part work.

This book is a book that you should read if you didnt get to yet. If you didn't I will tell you only a little bit of it because I don't want to give the whole story away. This book is kinda about a girl named Nim she lives on a island with her Dad she dosen't live with her Mom because she died when Nim was little. Also Nim lives with animlas on the island but I can name them all. If u haven't read this book and you want to all I'm going to say is you will love this book. If you like to.

This was an outstanding book. I enjoyed reading it greatly. I would deffinately read it again and recommend others to read it. I was very unique and interesting, a book filled with adventure, excitement and love. It's very descriptive and well written. It's about a girl whose father goes away at sea, leaving her alone on the tropical island where she lives. She takes on a lot of responsibility but also enjoys spending time with her friends. I loved the book and the next time I go to the library I am going to look for another book by Wendy Orr, the same author who created this wonderful story.

This book is so great -- sweet, fanciful, imaginative. A great book for the summer. Super great book for people who like oceans and heroines, and adventure stories. Fabulous.

Cat and Noah were passengers on a cruise to the Galapagos Islands. Noah is suffereing from his parents being divorced, while Cat has been babied by her parents. I thought that this was an exciting book and amusing to the reader. Good adventure type mystery with good color illustrations. I would recommend it to students fromt the 5th grade through the 7th grade.

Wow, Ellen Wittlinger is a fantastic writer and I absolutely LOVED this book. The Romance between Cat and Noah was so cute. They were so different but yet so alike. I was sad for 2 days after I finished this book, just because it was over!

I read this book at the library about a year ago, and I loved it! Then I returned it, and I forgot the name. Its a really good book, with some romance but not too much, and it has some adventure in it too.

This thoroughly researched and documented book chronicles one of the most underreported stories of our nuclear past. Utilizing declassified records and wide assortment of sources, Weisgall offers unique insights into the crude mentality of the post-war period, where our own sailors and soldiers became victims of the burgeoning nuclear hysteria. And just as revealing is the callous attitudes toward the native people of Bikini, whose basic human rights were thrashed in the process. If reading this book doesn't leave you with a profound sense of distrust of the military and convinced of the need for more civilian controls, it will at least cause you to doubt the processes and laws that permit such activities and decisions to be made without even lip service to democratic principles. This book is a must read for every thoughtful American.

Jonathan Weisgall has done an incredible job of not only documenting the politics and in-fighting leading up to the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, but doing so in a very readable and compelling style. With the kind of factual back-up and verbal acuity possessed by only the most effective of attorneys (which Weisgall must be, given his success as counsel for the Bikini islanders), Weisgall takes the reader from the hallways of the Pentagon to the decks of the target ships swinging at anchor at Bikini Atoll. His narrative manages to touch on a wide variety of diverse topics -- cold war politics, in-fighting within the military bureaucracy, slipshod planning for radiation emergencies, and the popularization of atomic weaponry -- in a manner that is both entertaining and competent.

Weisgall is also adept at humanizing the Bikini islanders and conveying their plight to the reader. What emerges from his book is how, in the arrogance of its emergence as the world's first nuclear super-power, the United States managed to steal away this little corner of paradise and lay waste to it in a cynical exercise of military politics. I read Weisgall's book shortly before spending a week diving the shipwrecks of Bikini Atoll, and cannot adequately convey just how well he captures the tragedy of this haunted island.

Imagine witnessing two young boys outside fighting over a toy, each grabbing the opposite ends and finally breaking it as they pulled too hard. This analogy can also be used between the Army Air Force and Navy over the peacetime use of atomic weapons at the conclusion of the second world war. Jonathan Weisgall's book on Operation Crossroads demonstrates the blistering competition for tax dollars between the Army and Navy in 1946 and beyond.

Crossroads not only was a basis for continuing scientific research with nuclear energy, but also served as an excuse by the United States government to play with this new "toy" and how the civilian and military branches fought over controlling it. It also goes into great depth on describing how the government deceived the Marshalleise inhabitants. This book reveals this and shows the folly of the tests, as well as the long term health and ecological ramifications of atomic testing on both the Marshalleise as well as the rest of the world.

Crossroads was a nuclear catastrophe, probably equaled to that of Chernobyl. Weisgall's detailed information about the first two tests (Abel and Baker) cannot be equaled. He also writes about test Charlie, the aborted attempt to blow up an atom bomb about a thousand feet below the surface of the ocean. Even back then, scientists fought the Army and Navy tooth and nail to cancel this test knowing that it would have caused a greater ecological disaster than the first two detonations.

Operation Crossroads was not only the beginning of postwar atomic testing, but it also signaled things to come in the atomic age. Jonathan Weisgall does a careful analysis of the documentation that came out of the first atomic tests at Bikini Atoll. A must-read for anyone who wants to delve deeper into this unfortunate period of history.

A great book. Uplifting and also funny.
I want to go to Refuge Island.

This book is a "must read" for both children and adults alike. Savannah Raines has managed to put into words a picture of what most people everywhere only dream about. Her writing ability and style make her words come alive throughout the entire novel. I shall enjoy reading this book, again and again.

Hello, My mom wrote this book. It is the best, and I am not just saying that because she is my mom. It is a book anyone would want to read, kids and adults, as well. It's really funny! She's an editor too . . . as you may notice from my last review. I'll try not to be in such a hurry the next time! Thanks, Megan

I admire Rod writing the truth about his life in the sixties and seventies--something I had to fictionalize in my book, "Forever Retro Blues." He holds no punches about his relationships with his parents, his friends and even drugs. He exposes the raw underbelly when it came to his sister and her last days. They were kids and siblings, of course they weren't always as nice as they could be to each other. So Rod lets us in on the pain he experiences in remembering the last time he saw his sister at home. His writing is engaging and the book cover design is amazing at drawing the reader to the book.

A fascinating and gripping page-turner I could not put down. Alternately hilarious and haunting, the author immerses us in his childhood in 1960s Rhode Island. He then fearlessly shows us the sad deterioration of his youth and his family whilst the social fabric of the nation unravels simultaneously around them. This is a "60's" book like none other! I highly recommend it.In summary: A rivetingly honest first work by a refreshingly courageous talent.I eagerly await Rod Haynes' next book.

Rod Haynes' Rogues Island Memoir is a fascinating and engaging autobiographical "coming of age" story set in the farm village of Limerock, Rhode Island back in the 1960s. Seemingly insulated from the social unrest, urban chaos, and unpopular war bedeviling the rest of the country, the death of Hayne's fourteen-year old sister in September 1968 left his family in a shambles. Meanwhile, the angry forces of a world gone mad drew closer and closer to home. Rogues Island Memoir will appeal to readers who enjoy candid, insightful, well written memoirs of ordinary people in extraordinary times.

Having spent a lot of time looking for information on imaginative & fun (and sometimes luxury) travel with kids, I can tell you that this is a really unique book. It is comprehensive, carefully researched and well written with loads of practical tips. Some 'travel with kids' books might as well just be bland advertising copy, this one really provides good editorial content, with positive and critical comments. It is a pleasure to read and we will use it for a long time. Fodor's should publish more of these for other parts of the US/world.

I loved this book and would recommend it to any family wanting to travel in the northeastern United States. The writers offer tips and reviews on places of interest, resorts, and campgrounds in a wide range of prices. In fact, we have visited some of those places and found a brand new vacation prospect in Lake George which we will be trying out this summer! Definitely one of the most informative travel books on the market today -- entertaining even if you do not go to these places.

I've been searching for a book like this for several years and haven't found one that fit the bill until now! I had a great time reading it - so well written - and got more useful information than I'll ever be able to use in one lifetime! Thanks so much to the writers and publishers!