Indian Books

Sara Littlecrow Russell's debut book dishes out the horrors of bigotry with humor and a matter of fact tone that can only arrive in the company of truth. If you're looking for the feather and the flute, you've come to the wrong place. This is the fire and the blade. Nothing rings false. The poems feel as if they could have been written on paper bags while shopping yet with the surgical precision of finely honed craft. Honest, real and fleshy. So what are you waiting for? It belongs on the shelf of anyone who likes the direct gaze, the strong handshake, the wild dance. These poems do not waste your time, they ignite it.

Magdalena Gomez, Poet
www.myspace.com/magdalenagomez

A unique and thought-provoking book. Littlecrow writes with the voice of a strong survivor weaving the threads of tradition, belief and harsh reality in modern day America. Her writing is sharply clever and savagely witty yet shines with integrity. The images are vivid and accessible and will resonate with the reader struggling to hold their sanity in a world gone mad. A book to be savoured.

I tried to read it one poem at a time, tried to take my time, to let it all soak in. But I stayed up very late reading it, until my eyes wouldn't stay open any longer, and when I woke, I was unable to get out of bed until I completed it. Now I keep my copy at work, so I can lend it out to folks. This collection of poetry is vivid, fierce, powerfull, deep. Poetry for the people.

...it would be more appropriate in the backpack, car, bedside table, work place, public library, etc. Sara's poems are awesome - like swallowing little razors and every cut gets you closer to the truth. Kind of like Sharon Olds only more dazzling and gutsy. I don't read too many poets but I bought seven of these and gave them all to people I care about. Buy two - one for you and one to leave at a bus stop somewhere.

My 3rd Graders LOVED this book. They espicially loved how the book included the Cherokee language. They all tried to copy it and write like Sequoyah. A perfect book on Sequoyah and the Cherokee language.

This a picture book biography of Sequoyah. I learned that he was the creator of the Cherokee alphabet. His friends teased him but he kept working anyway. He was a very smart man.
The book has beautiful illustrations. I never knew about Sequoyah before reding this book. It was a nice introduction to his life.
I would recommend this book to kids who are teased for one reason or another. Sequoyah followed his dreams when he was teased. He is a good role model for kids today.

This book just won a Sibert Honor Award, given at the American Library Association meeting where they give out the Caldecott and Newberry awards and others, for its contribution to children's literature. This is a Big Deal! It's a FANTASTIC book. You won't regret getting this book. It's what I'm giving all the kids on my list this year.

Well, it had to happen sometime. I knew it was just a matter of time before I found that I could no longer distinguish between amazingly well-written non-fiction picture books and adult non-fiction works of literature. It all came to a head when I sat down to read James Rumford's remarkable, "Sequoyah". A winner of the Sibert Honor, the book is a intelligent examination of the Cherokee metalworker who gave his people their own written language. Reading it, I found myself intensely interested in the book's subject and his amazing accomplishment of creating an entirely new written form. But I became depressed when I reached the end. Suddenly I wanted more information. More! I wanted to know what became of the Cherokee writing and what its state is today. It took an embarrassingly long time before I stopped blaming Rumford for being so paltry with his facts and remembered that I was not, in fact, reading an in-depth history but a remarkably interesting picture book. So ladies and gentlemen of the vast Internet universe, I can think of no higher praise to give this book than this: It makes grown adults forget what they're reading, so interesting is the material.

Rumford begins on a personal note. One year, as a child, his father brought him and his family to visit the great sequoia trees of California. And the man for whom these magnificent trees are named? A leader of his people though, as Rumford's father would say, "but not as you may think?". Thus begins the history of Sequoyah. The son of a Cherokee woman and a white father he worked as a metalworker and, at the age of fifty, decided to capture his people's voices before they were wiped out by the whites. This intention was not initially appreciated by the Cherokees who may have feared that he was adopting a European trait. After some initial mishaps, Sequoyah decided to produce a syllabary based writing system. Utilizing eighty-four letters he taught his six-year-old daughter Ayoka to read. Slowly, his new system caught on until in 1824 the Cherokee Nation gave Sequoyah a silver metal. The book ends with a full syllabary accompanied with some background information for those who would like to know more about the live and history of the Cherokee language and its creator.

James Rumford gave the world the incredibly intricate and fascinating Chadian picture book, "The Calabash Cat", containing a story written in both English and Arabic. Rumford does something similar in "Sequoyah" by printing the text both in English and, this time, in the Cherokee language. It's a remarkably beautiful language visually, and here it is translated by Anna Sixkiller Huckaby who is the training coordinator at the Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center. The illustrations in the book are immensely beautiful, especially within the context of the story. Rarely are dedications of picture books illustrated. Here, they are. And it improves the story. The illustrations here are inspired by the Navajo works of Quincy Tahoma, the Chinese artist He Jiaying, and the Japanese woodcut master Hiroshige. As a result, they look like woodcuts but feel more personal than anything so rough-cut. I especially loved looking at the sequoia trees at the beginning, with the tiny family silhouetted below. The people are just tiny black figures, poised against a magnificent majestic work of nature. Then you come to the story and become fully enmeshed in a single man's dream and success.

Stories of true heroes are difficult to come by. Too often the people we were supposed to praise in our youth (Columbus, Andrew Jackson, Reagan, etc.) turn out, in the light of history, to have been truly awful guys. Not men like Sequoyah, though. A true hero who accomplished a single remarkably difficult act for a noble cause, he is a hero we should all know and love. And "Sequoyah" by James Rumford, is the perfect vehicle to do so. I cannot praise this book highly enough.

Imagine for a moment you are a young warrior captured by an enemy tribe. You are enslaved, tortured and humiliated by your captors, then offered an opportunity to escape; which would mean personal freedom, but could also lead to the annihilation of your people and the desecration of the earth. What would you choose? This is the dilemma faced by Sequannah, the youthful protagonist of this action-packed fantasy/adventure Shadow of the Serpent A Coyote Moon Story. James Joseph weaves together a poignant coming-of-age story with the earth-centered teachings of Native American spirituality into an engaging and entertaining first novel. --Patricia A. Burke, editor, The Hungry Soul: An Online Literary Magazine

If someone asked me to review this book with just one word, I think "great" wouldn't be enough. It was an enthralling experience to learn more about the Native American ways and wisdom through such a fantastic story. Also, the narrative is quite elegant and detailed and the story never loses its pace. In the story, we are introduced to the Mineccou clan, a peaceful, yet strong tribe that are pushed into war when a powerful enemy nearly wipes out all the other clans in the area and enslaves the survivors. Sequannah, a young Mineccou warrior is also captured and enslaved, but soon he finds that he will play a very important role in his tribe's struggle. For he will have to fight not only for his own freedom, but also for the freedom of his clan's ways. A story full of wisdom that makes us think about our own ways.

I spent hours reading the book,absorbed by the writing technique of James Joseph. The book starts in early and keeps dragging you in deeper after every chapter. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel by James Joseph. He is a promising author

SHADOW OF THE SERPENT is a thrill-packed and emotionally-charged epic adventure which beckons those of us on the "war path" to follow a better Way. I had a sense of being irresistably drawn through misty woods into mysterious caverns, only to hear the whisperings of shamans sharing the wonders of ancient Truth: Go back and live in the Light. Henceforth, whenever I see patterns of yellow and black, I will be unable to ignore the metaphorical warning. Read this important mystical work. --Dan Gallagher

This is another exciting romp through a world that's not so different from the one we know, but enough so that we can't help but eagerly demand, "What next?"

This novel continues the saga of George Custer Jr., estranged son of the President of the United States, in a slightly different late nineteenth century America. See reviews of earlier books in this series for more details. In this new story, we gain much more insight into what makes father and son tick, but not at the expense of sweeping adventure. This is still very much a thrill ride that will keep you turning pages long after a sensible person would have turned out the lights.

I eagerly anticipate Giambastiani's next tale of adventure set in the wonderful world he has created.

It is flattering when your ideas are incorporated in future literary work, even if the author has never actually read them. It generally shows that your evaluations and thoughts are on the right track. Personal feelings aside, there are many reasons why this Book 3 of the series should be considered the best of the three written so far.

One: More detailed character development. My main complaint about "The Spirit of Thunder" was that the plot was moving too quickly, which took away from painting a deeper psychological picture of the main characters. In "Shadow of the Storm," the progress of time slows down considerably, and details such slowdown allows to incorporate make the book a vivid read.

Two: Improved writing depth. While previous installments were perfectly readable, "Shadow" goes one step further. It reads like a Hollywood epic, with characters and events flashed out to such a degree the readers can actually see them in their mind's eye. For example, the scene of Indian cavalry maneuvers in a San Francisco corrida arena is nothing less than "The Gladiator" transferred in all its glory from the movie screen to paper.

Three: Stronger emphasis on human drama. While the first two books touched on George Custer Jr.'s emotional struggle with conflicting allegiances, "Shadow" brings it to a climax, but not on the inaccessible level of national politics, but rather on a very close, and thus painfully real, personal level. The tone for the most important question of the book - what constitutes family and what role blood connection plays in it - is set from Chapter 1 and is brought to a heartrending climax with the novel's final scene.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. While I will await the next installment with impatience, a certain degree of trepidation will also be there. Mr. Giambastiani has set the bar of my expectations pretty high with "Shadow." Will he be able to reach it with Book 4? Only time will tell...

I really enjoy the books in this series, particularly because I love the opportunity to spend time with the Cheyenne characters that the author has developed so well - both individual personalities as well as insights into the culture. However, this third book in the series moves the saga forward in very dramatic ways with lots of new thought-provoking ideas and adventures. And the dinosaurs are back. I thought they were a bit of an afterthought in the second book, but Mr. Giambastiani brings them back as key characters in the story. The author also demonstrates a growing talent in his writing as he narration shifts effortlessly between the different characters perspectives on the action. I eagerly await book 4.

Shadow of the Storm is the third novel in the Fallen Cloud series, following The Spirit of Thunder. In the previous volume, George has lost a great deal of gold to a French trader, but finds another way to obtain weapons. He is severely wounded during the attack on Fort Assurance and Storm Arriving is also wounded while setting demolition charges on the railroad bridge over the Missouri. News of the bridge's destruction reaches Washington before the election, but is suppressed.

In this novel, George Armstrong Custer, Senior, wins re-election to his second term as President of the United States. Not everybody is pleased, to say the least, and trouble is brewing between the labor unionists and the industrialists. The common people, however, are mostly pleased at the prospect of free land made available with the Homestead Act, property in the lands of the Cheyenne Alliance.

In Little Italy, Cesare Uccido tries to protect his twin sister, Fortuna, from the hustlers and pimps, but is unsuccesful. In despair for the hard life of her family, Fortuna agrees to couple with a rich man for a golden coin, yet Cesare finds her with the man and tries to take her away, but the man attacks him and Cesare fights back, finally taking out all his rage on the man, killing him thoroughly. Afterward they flee, to find themselves with the man's clothes containing a large amount of cash and coin. With this money, the Uccido family flees to the frontier to stake out a homestead.

Back in New York, the new Ambassador from New Spain takes on his duties after the degraded death of his predecessor in a house of ill-repute. On his introductory visit to the White House, he overhears the President disparaging the Spanish government and leaves angrily. Since the Ambassador has a prior hatred for Custer, he looks for a way to pay back the President for his misdeeds.

Among the Cheyenne, George Armstong Custer, Junior, called One Who Flies by his Cheyenne family, is still trying to stop the slaughter of his adopted people. He is still weak from his wounds, but agrees to leave early with Mouse Roads and Picking Bones Woman to join Storm Arriving and Speaks While Leaving for the birth of their baby. One Who Flies is happy to travel early since he wants to ask Storm Arriving for permission to court Mouse Roads. Before he can be answered, the death of Picking Bones Woman causes the family to leave for the deathgrounds on the shore of the Big Salty, the Nebraska Sea.

All these elements converge on Washington for a major confrontation between the US and the Cheyenne.

This novel is well written and enjoyable, not only for the plot, but for the details on the lives of the Cheyenne people. The twists and turns of the plot are frustrating to the reader as well as the main character, but are necessary to sustain the story. After all, a peaceful life is boring to most readers, yet most of the really good sections were just everyday life among the Cheyenne.

Recommended for Giambastiani fans and anyone who enjoys tales of exotic people and international intrigue in a fantasy setting.

I've always been a fan of the Western Novel but all too often I've faced poorly written material. Not so with Shadow Warrior!
This is a great western in the old tradition and one can only hope that J. C. Gotcher will visit the keyboard again!

J.C. Gotcher has captured the true spirit of the Western novel. He introduces us to characters and in turn lets us truly get to know them - so well, that we're not always sure who to cheer for and in the end we miss them all. I especially appreciate that Gotcher doesn't force a relationship between reader and character, but allows it to develop on its own. This is a fabulous read and one I will enjoy again.

A great story with non-stop action. You won't be able to put this one down. A unique blend of great story telling with a lot of historical accuracy. You are captivated by the wit and grit of the characters in a clash of cultures. It captures the spirit and realism of the old west.

This book, gripping with non- stop action, reminds me of a story your grandfather might have shared with you on a long road trip.It truly feels and speaks of another time. There are three main characters locked in a three-way struggle.This is not your typical good guy- bad guy western.I liked the freshness the author brings to this genre(and this is from a dyed in the wool Louis L'Amour fan!).This book is picturesque,exciting,and thought-provoking.If you love a great story this book is for you.

An insightful novel that shows family relationships across generations. Jhabvala also does a superb job of portraying the extreme and at times ridiculous subservience of some of the family members to the words of a so-called spiritual "Master." The resemblance of the "Master" to Gurdjieff is quite striking, in my opinion.

This book was amazing I enjoyed it emensly I am 16 and Female I got the book on my birth day in september I read it and some things I could relate back to my life I enjoyed the book and would like to thank Ruth for her skills I recomend that all who shall come across to read it its amazing seriously I enjoyed it!

This is a really lovely book. Ruth writes very lightly and speaks eloquently through her character. As with all memories, you feel the story is imperfect. Sections are missed and then recalled in a very beautiful manner which imitates our own flawed memories. More than anything else, the book shows the unity of the generations and expresses the passions within families.

I've read a number of Jhabvala's novels and short stories and this is by far my favorite. It's the story of a family's relationship with an Indian guru. Whether this spiritual advisor is a charlatan or a true holy man is never completely clear, but his impact on the family reverberates over four generations.

My only complaint about the book is that it suddenly shifts narrative tone about a third of the way through, from the grandmother's first-person account to a third-person tale focussing primarily on her grandson. Other than that, a wonderful, engrossing story about family, spirituality and memory.

up your spine with this mystery evocative of Garcia Marquez and Hillerman rolled into one. Choctaw/Cherokee/Irish Vietnam vet Attis McCurtain is murdered; his friend Mundo Morales and his great uncle Luther know it immediately through vision and dreams. His brother Cole and father Hoey must find the body which authorities believe is still a living psycho on the lam.

As with his other novels, Owens tightly weaves many cultures to achieve a beautiful, funny and suspenseful story. If you're familiar with the mythological alter egos of Attis McCurtain and Diana Nemi it will take your breath away in its intricacy. A quick trip to read up on these two in Frazer's The Golden Bough will bring the story full circle, as many Native American stories tend to be presented. This book has the sexiest octogenarian couple readers are ever likely to encounter along with surprise players from across cultures and times

up your spine with this mystery evocative of Garcia Marquez and Hillerman rolled into one. Choctaw/Cherokee/Irish Vietnam vet Attis McCurtain is murdered; his friend Mundo Morales and his great uncle Luther know it immediately through vision and dreams. His brother Cole and father Hoey must find the body which authorities believe is still a living psycho on the lam.

As with his other novels, Owens tightly weaves many cultures to achieve a beautiful, funny and suspenseful story. If you're familiar with the mythological alter egos of Attis McCurtain and Diana Nemi it will take your breath away in its intricacy. A quick trip to read up on these two in Frazer's The Golden Bough will bring the story full circle, as manyNative American stories tend to be presented. This book has the sexiest octogenarian couple readers are ever likely to encounter along with surprise players from across cultures and times

The Sharpest Sight by Louis Owens is a mystery, a police procedural, a thriller, an exploration of identity, and magical realism all rolled up into one excellent novel. Sharpest Sight takes place in a [lightly fictionalized] Salinas Valley, California sometime near the end of the Vietnam War. Attis McCurtain, Vietnam vet and insane killer, has escaped from the state hospital and may or may not be dead. Mundo Morales, who is Mexican-American, Catholic, a Vietnam vet, a sheriff's deputy, and an old friend of Attis', and Cole McCurtain, who is Choctaw-Irish-American, and Attis' younger brother, must each try and unravel the mystery of Attis' disappearance. Mundo is aided by his duty to his buddy, his duty to his position in law enforcement, his love of his wife and child, and the ghost of his grandfather. Cole gets help from his dad Hoey, his Uncle Luther, a Choctaw elder and shaman, Old Lady Blue Wood, another elder and shaman, and his duty to his brother. The local crazed bartender, a twitchy Vietnam vet FBI agent, and the family of the girl Attis killed also play a major role. As the flooded river recedes towards dry river bed, all the characters converge towards a solution to the mystery and in some cases, a greater understanding of self. Potential readers unable to suspend disbelief in order to deal with ghostly grandfathers and magical Choctaw dirty tricks shouldn't even try to wade into this novel. For all others, I recommend that you dive into The Sharpest Sight and see where the flow takes you.

"The Sharpest Sight" reads a little like a murder mystery and a little like a road trip book, though both descriptions fall woefully short of doing this book justice. This is a complex tale of self-discovery and psychic healing set amid a backdrop of Native American and Hispanic culture and history, with Viet Nam flashbacks, fumbling feds and some mildly graphic sex scenes to help keep the action moving forward. While the main characters are vividly drawn, and completely believable and sympathetic, for my money it was some of the secondary characters who made this book worthwhile. The bar owner, Jessard Deal, is particularly entertaining, especially as he disintegrates late in the book. Some of his dialogue is priceless. The same goes for some of the FBI agents, which take on absurd cariciature-like qualities late in the book. Louis Owens has a deft hand with subtle intrigue and the surreal qualities of truth and discovery, and is expert at creating an authentic sense of place and character.

What I like best about this collection is that the author (or editor, really) tells you a little bit about the people who tell the stories. He also includes the original Quechua, which is an interesting touch even if I can't read it. At any rate, if you enjoy fairy tales, and are interested in hearing them from other cultures (there are a few parallels to the traditional Brothers Grimm in this book), this is a good book to buy. If you aren't interested in fairy tales, this is a good book to change your mind.

An excellent collection of stories -- not merely in the presentation of a different set of stories than those which reach the common awareness, but also in the insights it gives to the shape of the Quechua culture and people. It is not presented as an explication of the way these people live, the way the thoughts go, but the stories show that shape, show that means, bring the world alive in a way both subtle and profound.

The stories are presented both in the Quechua language and in English translation, and it is possible to see the shape and patterns of the language with careful text comparison; it makes it worth considering learning the Quechua tongue to pick out the nuances which are inevitably lost in translation.

An enchanting book! Here is a unique opportunity to read stories never before written down, much less translated. The author was told them in the original language in the high Andes by Quecua storytellers. Now he has translated them into English, and in She-Calf and Other Quechua Folk Tales we find, opposite each translated page, a page printed in the original Quechuan language. Fascinating! Johnny Payne further enriches our experience by sharing the similarities that he observed between these stories and stories with which we are already familiar. Included as well are wonderful background stories of experiences and people he encountered in the story-gathering process. For those interested in stories, folk tales, oral tradition, antropology, history, language, travel... This is not only a must-read, but a must-own. It's a keeper!

This is a marvelous collection of Quechua folktales, told by various Quechua speakers to anthropologist Johnny Payne. These are short and "catchy" tales printed in English with the Quechua version on the facing page. This gives you a chance to get acquainted with the sentence structure of the Quechua language which I found very helpful. The author also shares interesting insights into the people who tell the tales. I love to travel in Peru and I am going to pass this book on to a Quechua friend who will surely enjoy it as much as I did. If you're interested in the cultures of the Andes, or if you plan to travel there, don't miss this book! .

I thought this book was really great, it is one of my favorite's in the whole So Weird book series. Fi gets lost in the woods while on a camping trip with her family and finds Bigfoot, who tries to save her. Fi finds out that a Civil War hero died just so he could protect Bigfoot, now Fi has to do the same.

This is a great book for those who are fans of the "So Weird" T.V. show.

...The story follows the main plot of the episode"Sacrifice" almost verbatim. It doesn't leave anything out,but it does have things that weren't in the show. It spices up the paranormal aspect and gives a much more extensive backstory for the Civil War soldier who encounters "Bigfoot" (middle name: Fuzzy) so many years before Fiona. It's a cute book and even if you haven't seen the show the story is easy to follow and the characters are given quite a bit of background. You won't be lost at all.

Do you think you could maybe put this series on dvd format. I would love to see The whole series again on dvd format. I would even buy the ones with Annie I just loved that show. Please concider putting this on dvd. I would buy this a.s.a.p. Thanks. I love this show. I give it 100 stars if provided.

The book Simple Living was in excellent condition and it was received in a timely manner. Thank you for your prompt service. Lois Ocenosak

This is a gem of a book, focusing on the most essential issues of true simplicity. This is a series of philosophical reflections for those who wish to live what they believe. The author is a Native American nun; she's practical about integrating inner and external simplicity. A great companion-piece to Joe Dominguez's Your Money or Your Life (for a really thorough process of growth towards simplicity). Or to Amy Dacy...'s Tightwad Gazette(which has more of the nitty-gritty on saving money no matter what your lifestyle.) It could also be used for meditation or a series of small group discussions.

This is a simple but great book that will inspire you to change your life for the better. Jose Hobday preaches that less is more: She suggests taking the clutter and rush out of your life and giving yourself more space and time, thereby opening you to other people, beauty and spirituality.
It is not about deprivation. But forces you to look at what you really need, use and what's important to you. It asks you to look at the quality of material things in your life, not just the quantity. After reading this book, I was inspired to do two seemingly different things. First, I went through my home and office, giving things away to people who could use them. Second, I ordered a very expensive hand made bamboo fly rod-because fly fishing is important to me and the rod represents a simple useful tool made by skilled human hands from natural materials. Clearly, the first activity was the most important, but clearing away things left me with breathing space to focus on something important to me.

I recently was priviledged enough to hear Jose Hobday speak. She is the most amazing woman I've ever read, heard, or met. Her joyful simplicity is summarized in the book Simple Living. If you care about changing your life, she will give you the hope, joy and tools you need to do it. It will be a blessing and gift that will not only change your life for the better but those around you. Her honest, heartfelt ways can only spread - they are too good to keep to yourself!