A beautiful book to add to your collection. The pictures are wonderful and to read the book is a joy. A great buy to learn more about lighthouses on the coast.

This book written by Leffingwell and Welty is visually appealing and sets down historical facts in an engaging style. The beautiful photographs taken by Leffingwell are augmented by stories of the politics and history behind the lighthouses and their keepers. They include information about women lighthouse keepers, how the lighthouses were constructed, which have been de-activated, and most important - how to get to the various lighthouses for a visit in person.

The most interesting story was that of a construction crew and Coast Guard team working nearly around the clock for five days to restore the Cape Flattery lighthouse near Neah Bay in Tatoosh, Washington. Also worth noting were the descriptions of life as a lighthouse keeper, the artisanship of making the Fresnel lights, and the automation that replaced the need for human presence in these remote outposts.

As the Oregon Contributing editor at Suite101.com, I am always on the lookout for books my visitors will enjoy and will help them plan their next trip to Oregon. This one is a winner!

This pictorial coffee table guide highlights lighthouse history and lighthouses of the Pacific Coast, revealing the development of lighthouses in three states. From the technological evolution of the lighthouse to how they were maintained and are today restored and preserved, Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast provides very beautiful photos spiced with descriptions and information accessible to both destination-bound and at-home enthusiasts.

This is one of the very few really good books on Cuba available right now, mostly because it's much much, more than just a travel book. Unlike many so-called experiences of the island, Bran's book doesn't sentimentalise but gives the real experience of someone visiting Cuba with a clear, unbiased eye. There's history here and personal experience and a whole lot of great description of people and places. Bran's range of knowledge is considerable and I particularly liked her Graham Greene-style meetings with the foreign correspondent who got thrown out of the country because he upset Castro by constantly referring to his age! I'd definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to know more about Cuba and what's it's really like in the dying days of a communist state.

I agree with ginnymurphy that this is one of the very best books about Cuba and how the state is now that I've ever read. There's no propaganda (at least, that I could discern) here. Zoe Bran uses her investigative skills (in figuring out & explaining the lack of toilet seats, for example) and also her intense yet sensitive journalistic skills in interviewing (in Spanish) so many average Cubans, as well as several diplomats and Cuban officials, to get an all-around perspective of the situation there. She's very good at what she does, and she also sounds like the kind of person I'd like to be with on a visit to Cuba, a place that fascinates us norteamericanos, whether we admit it or not.

Ms. Bran's book so closely mirrors my own impressions and experiences in visiting Cuba with a natural history tour group in early 2001 that it is spellbinding. Her objectivity and the breadth of her experiences provide a reader with a more than reasonable facsimile for an actual visit to the island. The many small details that she notes are particularly noteworthy for a past traveler to Cuba: the lack of toilet seats, the rationing of soap and toilet paper, the constant search for food by the populace,the CDR painted on the cement residential buildings, the Chocolate Factory outside Baracoa, the intimate social activities along the Malecon, the political slogans, the presence of Che Guevara today, the furtive conversations, the marvellous music, the wonderful hopeful spirit of the population. If you read just one book about the current social experience in Cuba today, run to enjoy Enduring Cuba. I couldn't put it down!

J. Frank Dobie spent his life documenting the grassroots history of Texas and this book is probably his finest examples. I've read all of his books and found this one to be the most informative. There's also a wonderful collection of photographs of many of the different variations of horn and hide at the rear of this book. You'll learn how the cattle came north from Mexico in the beginning and how early settlers rooted them out of the thickets of East Texas to start their herds. You'll learn about many of the principal cattlemen of early Texas including their drives north to the Kansas railhead.

If you enjoy Texas history you'll really enjoy this book.

Frank Dobie, a University of Texas professor, spent years collecting stories of the old southwest. Many are tales that he wrote down of 19th Century life. Several are collected into volumes about important parts of life at the time, including "Longhorns" and "The Mustangs".

They provide great insight into the origin of those animals and their importance to people who lived in those times.

Another excellent Dobie book is "I'll Tell You a Tale," with excerpts from these two books and others. The anthology includes tales of gold, stories of irony, Old West characters, and saddle stories.

This book is classic Dobie in style and is "the" book on Texas Longhorns. Dobie takes us through the history of the breed, through the animal, through the men and women that loved, used and abused them, and through the many tales that surround them, both fiction and fact. The animal stands large in this work, but the flavor of the old days, of the hardships, of the ranch life, of the love for the land of the people who lived and died there is a part of it too. For anyone with an interest in this breed, this book is a must read. For anyone else with a feel for the Southwestern United States, Texas, cowboys, or the land, it's time well spent.

Jesse Earle Bowden's novel, LOOK AND TREMBLE, presents a vivid account of life in Ring Jaw, a gritty crossroads town in Northwest Florida, during the l940s and l950s. I was struck by the poetic rhythm of his writing, much like the ebb and flow of the river currents he portrays so graphically.

One comes away with the satisfying feeling of watching a boy, Chance Cahoon, grow to manhood in the bosom of a loving family; where he learns about loyalty and love, racism, hate, bullies and cowardice. The town of Ring Jaw is well portrayed, and the characters come alive with all their sterling qualities and damning flaws. One gets to know their kindness and generosity; their cruelty. He brings to mind the gossiping harpeis who hate their lives and are stuck in the quagmire of sameness unending, yet are the first to rally when misfortune strikes their neighbors. There are the good churchgoing grannies who organize the cemetery workings and rain disapproval on those who don't attend the yearly ritual. Also, the church dinners on the ground and all day gospel singing under the hand-held fans provided by the funeral parlor.

Chance Cahoon's playmates, Will Buck, Ben Henry Swinnard and RC Hickey, form a tight bond of friendship and share the secrets and ghosts of the river. There is Rattler Ransom, who is rumored to be Chance's father. A rawhide of a man, he is a law unto himself. He keeps his own counsel and is quick to defend that right. The tension builds to near disaster when town bullies, Rooster Reddoake and Hunky Hogan, discover the boys boiling peanuts on the river bank one night and drunkenly attempt to settle grudges against Chance's grandfather, Solomon Chance Cahoon. The low key scene on the river is classic, in the vein of Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD; no heroics, only frightened children who stand their ground against their tormentors, and their strength prevails.

Bowden evokes feelings, memories, of growing up in a long ago age, in a town called Ring Jaw, that still maintains the old values of sharing and caring for their neighbors. His love for the river is an integral part of who he is, and he writes from the heart with the nostalgia and love of a native son who learned all he needed to know at his grandfather's knee

LOOK AND TREMBLE is a book you will want to re-read.

Spellbound. That's what happened to my mind after reading the first chapter of this novel by a country Florida boy, now grown to manhood, and putting words on paper that facinate readers across the world.
Bowden takes actual events from his boyhood memories and fictionalizes them into an overpowering story of murder, terror and ghosts that shadowed his own life, as well as recollections of tales told around the cracker barrel of an isolated country store on rainy days.
The book is a haunting novel of a young man who grew up fatherless in Ring Jaw, and now returns after the death of the man he never knew as his biological father. He encounters spirits from the past that cause him to wonder about his own life.
Bowden has the ability to put words on paper that come alive and take you to the place where he sets the scenes for his story. You see, smell, hear, taste and feel the things he felt when he wrote the novel.
If you like adventure, mystery and a life-changing experience, I highly recommend Look and Tremble.

Set in the Panhandle of Florida several decades ago, this novel gives a gripping account of violence, race and coming of age in a small town. Jesse Earle Bowden, who was editor of the Pensacola News Journal for 31 years, writes with the authority reserved for someone who was there. The story revolves around the secrets of a nearby river that offers up boyhood memories, a headless man, ghosts and, eventually, a modern-day murder. The book is a flashback in time that will appeal to West Floridians as well as just about anyone who wonders how things once were.

This book is a great book! I think that all Hank the Cowdog books are good! Hank saves the day by taking the medicine to Little Molly. When he runs into a couple friends that try to eat him Madam Moonshine helps him.

Little Molly is sick, and Hank, Drover, and Slim try to bring her medicine.But they get lost in a blizzard!Will they ever make it back home?Will they get the medicine to the baby?Find out in this exciting adventure of hank the cowdog!!!!!!!

Comic drama at its best. Wonderful voice acting, writing and wording of scramble (scrambling of words, written in the tapes own dialect). A joy for the whole family.

This book is a must have if you're unfamiliar with the Louisiana area. The book allowed us to better plan our trip and make the most of our time to get in all the site we read about.

We used several guidebooks to plan a long weekend in southern Louisiana in connection with a family wedding in Lafayette. This was one of the most useful of the books.

The author gives a short 1 or 2-page pithy description of each excursion along with good directions.

Slightly more useful (to us) as a guidebook was Cajun Country Guide by Macon Fry and Julie Posner. I say this because that book also covers lodging (we were traveling overnight).

Two final notes: Neither guidebook covers the city of New Orleans itself; and every guidebook we read had the wrong area codes for many telephone numbers (Louisiana has 2 brand-new area codes -- 225 and 337)

I was able to use the information to customize an entire 1 week vacation for my family. If you like "out of the way" places and "different" things to see and do, this is the book for you. There should be a book like this for each major city in the United States.

What a wonderful gift this book has made! I have been trying the recipies and they just get more delicious each time!The stories really give the reader a sense of being part of Mangoes and the fun they must have! The design of the book is so handy and makes trying a recipe all the more enjoyable. Can't wait for the next edition!!!

Love the recipes. also the style of the book makes it so easy to use. can't wait for the next one

An excellent cookbook that's fun to read, too! Chef Paul lets you peak inside his world, giving you insight to his creativity through the origins of some of his favorite recipes. The stories about some of his creations are really funny. The recipes are easy to follow, and the dishes are amazing. Great way to impress your dinner guests! There's even a Key West section including the best Key Lime Pie recipe I've ever tried. (The secret is in the sauce!) The spiral-bound top and cardboard bottom let the book stand up so the recipe is easy to follow as you cook. Excellent Key West souvenier--who wants another t-shirt?! Overall, a charming collection of stories, original pen-and-ink sketches by the restaurant owner, and inspiring recipes for delicious dishes that look impressive, yet are easy to prepare.

This book was a real find for me. Having visited 7 of the eastern Shaker villages, I wanted to know more about the remaining Shaker sites in the "West". There are more than 20 such sites set out in this excellent book. Each has a written explanation and sufficient maps to find and explore all of them. Both the maps and the text are accurate, having been carefully prepared and researched by the 3 authors.

The book inspired me to visit Ohio and Kentucky to see the sites. My wife and I were taken around Union Village by Mary Lou Warner, the historian for the Otterbein-Lebanon Community. Martha Boice showed us Whitewater village with her friend Julie Schlesselman. We went to Watervliet, Ohio, then down into Kentucky to the Cane Ridge Meeting House where a camp meeting took place in 1801 as part of the Kentucky Revival. We stayed at Pleasant Hill and then went to South Union. All in all a wonderful experience which would not have happened without this book. I hope to return to the area soon to see the sites I didn't have time to visit.

Most of the interest in the Shakers centres on the well preserved eastern villages such as Hancock, Canterbury and the still active village of Sabbathday Lake. However, this misses the western villages which have a charm and interest of their own. There is much to see in Ohio and Kentucky, and for anyone interested in the Shaker experience as a whole visiting the western sites will expand your knowledge and understanding of why the Shakers have lasted for so long. This book will appeal to anyone who is seriously interested in the Shakers - add it to your bookshelf now.

I have just purchased a copy of Maps of the Shaker West: A Journey of Discovery and have been reading it over the past few days. It is nothing short of brilliant. Martha Boice, Dale Covington and Richard Spence should all be very proud. First of all, it is the best introduction to the Shaker history of "the West" (or what Mother Ann called "the Southwest") that I have seen. Secondly, the three of them have provided an invaluable service to the field by uncovering and/or compiling research on the histories of "lost out-families" such as Eagle and Straight Creeks and Shaker-owned properties such as Berrien Springs, Michigan. The prose is clear, accessible, and veritably sparkles. The illustrations are excellent and the maps are a first-rate aid to anyone who wants to pinpoint the people and places that are written about. The book is a pleasure to scholar and layman alike.

There is at least 150 years of direct experience of the Shakers and an additional 50 years of Shaker influence to be discovered, studied and savored in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan. Maps of the Shaker West lifts the veil of nostalgia which often surrounds the Shaker experience and we can see the pioneer Shakers of the west as they were with all their strengths and weaknesses; their struggles, failures and successes.

In chapter 8 of the book the extent and the depth of the Cane Ridge Revival in Kentucky comes alive. For those of us with roots in southern Ohio, this chapter can touch home directly. The spiritual choices of Barton Stone, John Dunlevy and Richard McNemar at the turn of the 19th century are still influencing us today as we quickly approach the 21st century. The Restoration Movement (The Christian Church) is still strong and active in southern Ohio and the Society of Shakers continues and their many friends are influenced by their faith and story.

Another intriguing line of research is suggested in the book. Some of the land acquisitions made by the Shakers may have been due to their participation in the Underground Railroad. In this endeavor, old religious adversaries joined in common cause: Quakers, Presbyterians, the Christian Church and the Shakers. More study needs to be directed to this line of research.

The maps of Dale Covington and the drawings of Richard Spence help bring alive the old Shaker sites, especially those which have been altered beyond recognition. We can feel again the presence of Union Village (Lebanon, Ohio) the seat of the Shaker bishopric of the west, as it nurtured many other villages: Watervliet (Dayton, Ohio), White Water (New Haven, Ohio), North Union (Cleveland, Ohio), Busro (Oaktown, Indiana), Pleasant Hill (Harrodsburg, Kentucky) and South Union, Kentucky. Other lesser known Shaker sites are also discussed in the book.

Reading Maps of the Shaker West helps a person to experience the furor of the New Light Revival, the excitement of committing to a radical and tranforming faith, the personal and the financial sacrifices made to become a Shaker, and the excitement of participating in a socially important communal project that would so influence the world. Maps of the Shaker West is a welcomed and insightful resource in the ongoing study of the Shakers.

As a student of Taoism, I have searched for a book that embodies the awareness of the need to address the human body as a whole entity; mind, body, intellect, and emotions , as well as the scientific approach to nutritional evidence that food is medicine. This is such a book. Dr. Mincolla's book transcends a mere integration of Eastern and Western healing, by illuminating the importance of achieving harmony through unity of body, emotions, intellect, and spirit, all in balance with one another. And the best part of this process is that he does this easily, with brilliant understanding of how food, your specific body type, and your "Chi" must all flow together in balance. This is true health. This book if truly a healing tool. A must-read!

After searching for help all these years I finally found some help with my nutrition problems. Thank You Mark Mincolla

trying to reach the author to discuss old times.........

Little Wolf, a white born Cheyenne raised as a brave has spent his life fighting against the white man. But after the battle of the Little Big Horn, June 25th.,1876 White Wolf tries to make a life for his wife and self. They pick a beautiful place in the Bitter Root Mts. However not far away is a small settlement of whites. When most of the braves go off hunting the people of Medicine Creek attack the village and kill most of the villagers all except White Wolf's wife. They take her to Ft. Lapwai to use her as bait so they can kill Little Wolf.

This is the third and last book in this series. I think I liked it best of the three. All were good but I could just feel the thoughs and actions of the characters more in this one. Little Wolf is trying to stay away from the white people and live a life of peace. While he is out hunting a group of white men from Medicine Creek come to his valley and kill all of his people except for one and his wife who they take back with them. The story is really about how he gets her back and then she is taken again. The big scout the army sends after them is a good part. I really enjoyed the book. Anyone who likes stories of the old west and indians will enjoy this series. I kept wanting to cheer Little Wolf on. I so wanted him get his wife back and to take care of the ones responsible.

The peaceful cheyenne warrior, Littlewolf, has retired to his secluded valley in the Bitterrot country. His hopes of peace and forgetting his past are shattered by the citizens of the local settlement, when his wife is taken hostage, and his home burned down. Now the proud Cheyenne warrior is back on the warpath to reclaim his bride, against an unreformed, cruel renegade army scout. in a battle of skill and witts the Littlewolf saga rolls on...