Howdy folks, I'm James Drury, of television's the Virginian. These days I'm reading books onto audio tape, so I get the chance to read a lot of books. I must say, if you like gritty realism, you will like this Johnstone book. I liked it, but because of the amount of violence I probably would not let a younger reader pick it up. I have heard Johnstone compared to Kirby Jonas, and I guess my best way to review this book is to say, if you enjoy realism with a lot of violence, go with Johnstone, and if you enjoy your realism with the violence slightly toned down, go with Jonas. He is my personal favorite. But both are great writers and will surely live on forever with well deserved notoriety!

Johnstone writes good books, esp westerns, and mountain man books. Hope he keeps them coming.

This book I believed to be wonderful. The love between Rusty and Chase could have been more indepth, yet for those young romantics, I find this is the perfect book. It has a pretty good ending, being the last in a series. The negative I have to
say about this book would be it is not romantic enough for me. The positive is... inumerable.

From a younger readers point of view I adored the book. Rusty had an award winning personality and Lori played her out wonderfully. I have heard many a good word about this book from my family and friends and here I am to pass it on. Another of Lori Wick's finest.

Promise Me Tomorrow was the only book i read out of the Rocky Mountain Series. This book for me took a while to read, because of all the foreshadowing that was difficult to notice without reading it thoroughly. I enjoyed the emotional dynamo that revolved around Quintin, but i thought that the relationship between Rusty and Chase was sort of dry...it had enough potential, but Lori Wick decided not to take advantage of the love aspect. The majority of the novel was very interesting, but the most dissapointing part of it was the ending and the epiglogue. It just didn't have as much depth as was possible, and the fact that a hyperactive young woman like Rusty and a serious man like Chase would have 8 children was a little bit too far-fetched. Overall, however, this was an intimate and worthwhile read for the intermediate reader.

What in the world, pray tell, does this have to do with West Point?

This is a great reference guide to have when you are planning to visit or actually exploring Puerto Penasco. Though I can't say its chapters are particularly well organized you will still enjoy perusing this book - and with some chapters really studying it. The author has a good sense of humor and covers most subjects at an appropriate introductory level. Mary Weil's book is, as far as I know, the only serious guide to this very fun and friendly resort town. In almost 300 pages she covers the important subjects of getting there, shopping, sports, rentals, eating, lodging, safety, customs, history and getting back to the U.S. Many other topics are covered as well including the infamous Crystal Palace (our entire RV party of 14 got a real kick out of her dead pan description). The bottom line is that this book can add some depth to your trip to Puerto Penasco (english: Rocky Point). That will probably translate to more fun and a more productive stay.

I used this book as a guide for a trip in March 2001. It contains a great amount of useful information for Puerto Penasco. This book should be considered essential for a first-time visitor, but even a traveler familiar with the area should find much here that they weren't aware of. An added bonus is the great info on driving into Mexico from the U.S. It was my first time driving across the border and a quick read through the appropriate section in the book made the crossing a lot less stressful. I highly recommend this guide.

I never read the same book twice: I have read this one at least 5 times! (The first time without ever putting it down). Family, love, happy times and tragedy, adventure, suspense and mystery, all with a happy ending. True to life in an historical setting; it's a good read and a keeper. Suitable for teens and adults. Good Christian writing at its best.

I couldn't put Mountain Shadows down. It reminds me of my favorite novel, A Lantern in Her Hand, by Bess Streeter Aldrich. I read many different types of books.

Mountain Shadows is aptly named because the couple lives in the mountains of Colorado and have tragedies and problems in their lives that cause shadows. But they never give up their dream through it all. I really enjoyed it! It was difficult to put down. It is an exciting story and setting, family and romance and still a wonderful message underlying it all. The cover is so beautiful.

The Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association is above all a fascinating period piece that takes you into an unfamiliar world before refrigerators, modern film technology, reliable cars, and honest law enforcement. It's a time of silent movies featuring printed cards to help relate the story, and made more exciting by a piano player in the movie theater. And the price of admission is one nickel. Vignettes set at a later date are inserted to give you a sense of what's to come: how the pioneers fared; the rise of the studio system for making stars; and the effect of stars on society.

The basic story line is about the wild and woolly efforts involved in establishing the motion picture industry. Entrepreneurs started filming and worried about the payroll later. The technology was dangerous. Indoor Klieg lights could easily start a fire, and made the actors' eyes very sore so that they could not shoot indoors every day. The film was highly combustible and had a short life if it didn't catch on fire. Thomas Edison led an effort to extract patent royalties on the motion picture technology, and Pinkerton "detectives" used violent tactics much like they did with labor union strikers. The technology was hard to use. You had to hand crank the camera at the right speed (singing She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain When She Comes or Dixie at the proper tempo as you do) or the images convey nonsense. Few have any experience, and you just do your best.

The book opens near Mount Shasta in northern California where people of Russian immigrant parentage operate an ice business by cutting up blocks of a lake in the middle of winter. Dmitri Andreivitch Pulski, the owner's son, dreams of being a writer. He's supposed to be supervising the work teams, but he sneaks off to a shed to write in the quiet solitude. Unexpectedly, the company gets an order for their entire inventory of ice for delivery in two weeks to Los Angeles. Why would anyone need so much ice? Can they pay? Dmitri is sent to find out, taking along all of the family's money. The usually gentle giant, Yuri, a Russian immigrant who has a violent history, accompanies him. Their long drive to Los Angeles will change your view of what driving can be all about, as they constantly repair tires and replace the brake linings.

Once in Los Angeles, they discover the magic of the motion picture business. Instead of focusing on the ice sale, Dmitri renames himself as Tom Boston and gets a job as a scenario writer (even though he's never seen one). Yuri is encouraged to shave his beard and starts appearing in the company's westerns. In the meantime, Dmitri puts off telling his father what's going on. Even though the motion picture company is on the brink of financial ruin, Dmitri tells his father that the bill will be paid in advance.

What happens from there is an excitement-filled cliffhanger that will remind you a lot of the old silent films . . . interspaced with film noire detective stories from the 1930s. It's great fun though, and I highly recommend this book.

I rated the book down one star because the future vignettes, although interesting, don't really integrate with the plot all that well. If the vignettes had fit in better, this would have been a tremendous book. I kept comparing the book in my mind to Ragtime, and found this element to be an important flaw.

After you finish this book, consider where in your life taking action would be more important than necessarily taking the time to find out what you are doing first. Life saving of a small child in a pool might be such an example.

Get moving with your life!

I learned so much about Hollywood in the 1900s and I actually cared about the characters. This is a fun quirky story and now I am a fan of Loren Estleman.

The historical implications of why the movies went to L.A., and what the days of silent moving pictures were like, is enough to pick up this book. Plus it's a darn good yarn.

The key to "Classic Hikes in the Canadian Rockies, Binder Edition" is the word Binder. Choose a hike, remove the page and insert it in the protective plastic envelope provided. Leave the book at home! Each hike outlines trail location, distance, and elevation. A knowledgeable description follows. Tastefully integrated are photographs and highlighted vignettes. For example, read the words of explorer Walter Wilcox upon his discovery of Paradise Valley in 1894! One is delighted by Graeme Pole's keen attention to detail: turn a page and see animal tracks padding across it, another page reveals a silouette of a mountain flower. The only way to improve Classic Hikes is to personalize it with your notes in the margins.

This is a really good guidebook if the hike you want is covered. The pictures really whet your appetite and are generally fairly high quality. The descriptions are good but sometimes only focus solely on the suggested hike. This can be a problem in some areas (like Lake O'Hara for example) have a lot of options and other trails that are not covered (on the bright side the suggested hikeis wonderful). If you want to focus on the highlights of the Canadian Rockies, this guidebook is a great choice. If you want a more complete guide of all the options available, you may need a different guidebook. Personally, I would buy both this and a more complete guidebook like "Canadian Rockies Trail Guide."

My husband forgot to tell me he was a hunter before I married him. Unfortunately for me, he's a good hunter and we've had at least one elk in our freezer every season for years. I'm a city girl and this cookbook has been a lifesaver. The sections on the care and cooking of elk are really useful. The recipes even taste good (considering it's elk). The Ragin' Cajun stew has become a mainstay of my winter cooking rotation.

The rest of the cookbook tends towards hearty midwestern fare -- not exactly Cooking Light, but good on those days when comfort food is a priority.

Great book very well written, and easy to locate recipes.

In the second book of the "Rocky Mountain Memories" series, Lori Wick has crafted a romance with a few different twists than "Where The Wild Rose Blooms" (the first book in her series). "Whispers of Moonlight" is the story of Rebecca, a 19-year-old who goes out West in 1870 to live with her father after being separated from him for most of her childhood. When she arrives at her father's ranch, she meets his foreman, Travis, who she quickly falls in love with. When Rebecca's father Andrew is on his deathbed, he asks Travis to marry Rebecca, since he wants to know that Rebecca is protected and loved. After their less-than-normal marriage, Rebecca runs away since she mistakenly believes that Travis married her just to gain her father's ranch. Years later, under dramatically different circumstances, Rebecca returns. Travis still loves her, but Rebecca must decide whether or not her hesitance to be loved and her disagreement with Travis' newfound faith in Christ will stand in the way of his love. If you like Lori Wick you will probably like this story. There were definitely some good things about it. First, I really liked how it wasn't a perfect, predictable romance. The obstacles that were faced throughout the book made the hopeful (but not perfect) ending all the better. I guess you could say this is one of Lori's more realistic romances. It was also neat to see the changes in Travis when he accepted Christ, and I enjoyed "meeting up" with characters from the previous book in this series. Two stars were deducted for two reasons. First, Lori's writing and descriptions need some work since they sound unnatural and "hokey" sometimes. Second, the story had some "slow" parts when Rebecca wasn't living with Travis and focused on some romances that really didn't interest the reader during that time as well. Still, anyone who enjoys a sweet, cutesy Christian romance will enjoy "Whispers of Moonlight."

I absolutely loved this book even though there was one part I really didn't care for. That shows how much I enjoyed it. I believe Lori overdid it in the middle when Rebecca was raising the twins and was still apart from Travis, although I did feel it was quite cleverly written. I truly enjoyed reading and seeing how Rebecca changed and grew as a person after she returned home to Travis. I do highly recommend this. It is truly one of a kind.

Wispers of Moonlight was excellent. Lori Wick certainly knows how to portray God, they way she sees Him. The way that the characters in this book were so filled with the Holy Spirit was wonderful to see. The plot was good, although quite exhausting when the main characters never really met head on with their problems and openly discussed them. I think it was really wrong for Rebecca to leave the way she did, and I liked the way Travis searched for her. They should have talked before such big mistakes were made, but I think the time away from each other did them good. It gave Rebecca room to grow and Travis had time to change before having Rebecca back. I think this book is really wonderful, and I recommend it to any one who really wants to see God's love and the way it works in our lives.

While this book can be informative at times, it lacks organization, and is inconsistent.

If you're used to other Falcon Guide Trail books, you expect a section on each trail...how to get to the trailhead, difficulty rankings, miles each way, elevation gain, etc, all laid out at the beginning of each trails description. Not in this book. If you're interested in Longs Peak, for example, it gives no details of how to arrive at the trailhead at all. No details on getting there from ANY of the parks campgrounds, of which there are few. It goes into the climb in the style of a travelogue, NOT a trail guide. I was disappointed, and this book will now simply collect dust on my shelf. I want a guide for specific trails, with specific instructions on how to get to the trailhead, with suggestions and tips for each. Maybe I'll write my own, after spending a few weeks there this summer.

Save yourself some cash, and pass up this book.

For anyone hiking in RMNP, this is a good book to have along, but I'd prefer to have a second option, like Malitz's RMNP Dayhiker's Guide. Malitz's book has altiude gain, elevation at destination, distance one way, and which trailhead to use at the beginning of the description of each trail. This book just has a chart in the back. It also is just a little more like a story book than a guide book. Not what I need in the middle of the wilderness. The only pictures are sketches, where Malitz's Dayhiker's Guide has lots of nice color photos, which can take a little of the surprise out of what you're about to see, but do help in location recognition. Dannen's guide is full of info, you just have to read a little more to find it. Both are good companions to have along and to use for preparation, but if I could only carry one I'm afraid this one would stay behind in favor of Malitz's Dayhiker's Guide or the soon-to-be-released Frommer's RMNP 3rd Edition.

This book is a must-have for anyone planning a trip to RMNP. It is by far the most comprehensive trail-guide available, and includes more than adequate reference materials. This book is perfect for the first-timer, the seasoned dayhiker, and the experienced backcountry hiker...I very highly reccomend it.

John should take this back and work on it some more. The Kaleidoscope Century ideas are very meme-like in themselves and hypnotically lure this reader, but loose ends, confusing motivations and behavior,abrupt shifts in tone, and way-too-long folksy expositions abound here and should have been corrected. And far too much time is spent on two middle-aged guys digging holes and playing in the snow. I buy and read every John Barnes book, but the last three (including Finity and Earth Made of Glass)have not been up to the standards he previously set. Maybe authors should test-"screen" their new novels before a sample audience before release, as many film directors do.

This is the first book I've read by John Barnes and I agree with the other reviewers that it is a good place to start. Reading through the book I was impressed with the scope of the history Barnes created, but at no time did I feel I was missing anything that would force me to read previous books. Overall, I recommend Candle, but I had a couple of problems with it.

First of all, the beginning of the story is a manhunt and the reader is led to believe that Curran is the greatest tracker ever. However, he gets trapped by his prey and there is never an explanation for how that happened. I really wanted to know how he was outsmarted.

The story basically is over at this time and the rest of the book is a lengthy character history of the two men. I was very impressed, as I mentioned earlier, with the universe that has been created and loved the whole Meme War premise. However, the ending is a surprise that really doesn't make much sense and is especially dissatisfying considering the effort the two have made to harm One True (the villain).

I've read the synopsis of the other books about the Meme Wars and have decided not to read them because I feel that Candle ultimately made them unfulfilling. Also, I somehow missed what the title of the book references - I don't understand the name. If there is a new book in the series, I will read it. Feel free to email me with your comments.

From all the reviews I read of this book, I was concerned that it would be short on action and long on talk. After all, the setup is not necessarily compelling: two guys hiding out in the snow, trying not to call attention to themselves. It doesn't make for an action-packed plot.

Luckily, quite a lot of the book is given over to the two main characters telling their life stories, filling in some of the history of the Meme Wars. Most of the philosophical exposition happens inside this panoramic and engaging context, so it works better than the high school debate-style discussion I feared and expected.

Once again, John Barnes has managed to make reading about abstract, high minded concepts be fun.