In Trace of TR: A Montana Hunter's Journey Review

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(More customer reviews)"In Trace of TR" chronicles the legacy of one of our greatest Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, while simultaneously interweaving a memoir of Aadland's life in the American West. This is a genuine story, written with a great deal of heart, that relates the shared admiration that both the author and TR have for the West.
Aadland brings you along on foot for rugged hunting expeditions, campfire visits, or riding on horseback through the mountains and forests of western Montana and northern Wyoming. It's obvious that Aadland did an exceptional amount of research into TR's character, life, and values. Interspersed throughout the book are quotes, letters written by TR, and stories of the President's own experiences of the West, many in the very same setting as the author. Aadland creatively relates his own experiences while on the trail, and also with his family and friends, to those which Roosevelt witnessed more than a century ago.
I see quality books as transporting the reader to experience the same setting and plot that is unfolding before him in the novel. Aadland's style does just that, keeping me entertained and interested in his experiences, and those of TR, while pursuing the outdoors of the American West. I would be happy to recommend this book, without reservation, and to give it a solid five stars.

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As a student of American history, as a hunter, horseman, and former Marine, and as someone passionate about the West, Dan Aadland had long felt a kinship with Theodore Roosevelt. One day, on a single-footing horse, lever-action rifle under his knee, Aadland set out to become acquainted with TR as only those who shared his experiences could. In Trace of TR documents that quest, inviting readers to ride along and get to know Theodore Roosevelt through the western environment that so profoundly influenced him.

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A Sacred Place: Memoirs of a Female Hunter Review

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(More customer reviews)It is a facinating life time of stories for anyone who understands the allure of family tradition, hunting, and outdoor adventure! Sherrie Gant does a great job describing each family moment with the sights, sounds, and emotion, so that your senses actually believe you're there! Very well done! An intriguing read in which any enthusiatic hunter or outdoor lover won't be able put down!

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In A Sacred Place, author Sherrie Gant shares personal stories of how her family hunting camp of over 50 years in Oregon's high desert has become much more than a just a place to harvest meat.It's a story of a landscape where generations of women have found comfort in the land and each other.It's a place of growth and personal development where valuable life lessons were learned, love was found and love was lost, but faith flourishes.

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Chemical and Electrical Hypersensitivity: A Sufferer's Memoir Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is an extraordinary account of one man's frightening journey into the morass of extreme chemical and electrical sensitivity, told with compassion, humor and courage.
This is not an informational book in the strict sense, but reads like a novel as you follow his almost unbelievable journey from productive, healthy, hard working, tax-paying computer consultant, to being reduced to living in what was essentially a refugee camp, unable to interact with any form of technology, the rest of the world and at times even some of those in the camp.
The experiences which Mr. Evans retails would easily break the spirit of most people (and the accounts of the suicides he has witnessed amongst others in the same situation are tragic), yet the acceptance and detached amusement he brings to his absurdly difficult situation makes the book a delight to read. Science fiction could never be this good!
While there are now a number of excellent books on the biological and medical aspects of chemical sensitivity (such as Pamela Reed Gibson's "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity"), which include basic instructions on how to clean up your life to avoid becoming chemically sensitive yourself, very few have addressed what actually happens to the daily life of a person who becomes so sensitized they can no longer function in mainstream society. This book helps fill that gap, and portrays in excruciating detail exactly how a person's life can unravel so totally when they become severely chemically and electrically sensitive through absolutely no fault of their own. I think people are afraid to look at or hear about this in too much detail and the amount of denial around this situation is huge.
Thank you Mr. Evans for giving us a true insider's look at these misunderstood and stigmatized conditions. There needs to be so much more government regulation of chemical and electrical exposures for the general public, or more and more people will find themselves in this exact same situation -- no one is immune. Let this be a wake-up call to those in government and anyone else who thinks this is not a problem of growing and ominous proportions. It CAN (and just might) happen to you or someone you love.


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Electrical and multiple chemical sensitivities are disabling illnesses, yet many doctors know little of these conditions, or worse, dismiss them. This timely memoir recounts one man's affliction. The onset of the diseases is explored, as is his struggle with the medical establishment, largely hostile to his diagnosis. When the symptoms became unbearable, he was forced to leave home and seek a more healthful environment where he could begin his recovery. This is an inspirational text for those living with electrical or multiple chemical sensitivity and an educational one for those first learning about these conditions.

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Nine Months at Ground Zero: The Story of the Brotherhood of Workers Who Took on a Job Like No Other Review

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(More customer reviews)Wonderful book that captures what really went on to clear out Ground Zero and how recoveries were handled.. Charlie Vitchers is an amazing man and is so modest for all that he accomplished. He brought compassion to recovery. Without his direction and authority recovery and clear up would have been chaotic. I highly recommend this book if you want to know what really happened at Ground Zero on Sept 11, 2001

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Road Song Review

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(More customer reviews)I picked this book up in the Alaskana section of Title Wave, a used bookstore in Anchorage, thinking it was going to be an Alaskan story, but happily it's much more universal than that. Natalie Kusz's book delivers two parents who are beautiful misfits bearing difficult baggage--her mother's mother is mentally ill; her father's wartime experience is horrific. That they stay together is enough of a feat, but the love they instill in their children and the family they create with so little material goods is truly amazing. On one hand, it's a story of overcoming hardship, and Natalie's ordeals, while more than any child deserves, are not her father's fault, as one reader's comments seem to imply. That they shape her life and choices, ultimately leading her to life as a writer, is the larger story. One facet of this book no one has commented on is the language and style with which this book is written. It's luminous, courageous, and deserving of continuous reprint. Here's hoping Natalie is hard at work on another book. I for one would be first in line to buy it.

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In the Sun's House: My Year Teaching on the Navajo Reservation Review

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(More customer reviews)Kurt Caswell takes a job teaching language arts to middle school students on a Navajo reservation at the Borrego Pass School. The New Mexico high country is filled with natural beauty but the lives of poor people in tiny villages seem ugly to Caswell. His students have few options; nothing encourages them to aspire to a life beyond the reservation. Borrego kids insult other Navajos as bilagáanas (whites) if their English is better than their Navajo and particularly if they have spent time in cities.
"This was a violent world, one that stole energy and hope from its people, beat them down, and then kept them down, possibly forever. There must have been something else here too, something soft and caring, something safe and loving, something good that held this community together. If so, I could not, as yet, see it.... But why, I had to ask, did I so readily witness the cruel and violent face of Borrego, and nothing of the other side? Why would a community like this one show me, a stranger, this dark part of itself, and hide its best qualities?"
Caswell makes small inroads into the better qualities -- Renee, a bright, hard working student takes pleasure in his praise for an essay and adopts some of his suggestions for improvements. Earlier she had told him "I hate you." The words hurt so much that Caswell "knew then that I didn't want to teach at all."
Caswell's books is filled with similar hard hitting reflections on his life with his students, with his friend Mary, and with another teacher. He brings a clear, compelling prose to these reflections, and a deep honesty, very impressive in an author only 26 years old. He describes roads so bad that he is almost washed over the edge, a student taking aim at him with a shotgun, and throwing out his lesson plans in despair at teaching "Romeo and Juliet" to his charges.
Some of the best passages describe his enjoyment of the wonderful scenery:
"Such soft asylum is the sun, and that day in late October, that cool, happy day in fall, I needed sanctuary like I needed nothing else, sanctuary from my classroom, from my trailer home, from Borrego Pass School. I had just seen Caleb Benally ride away in a police car after he threatened somebody with a knife at lunch. He likely always carried that knife in his pocket, but somehow on that day, he'd decided the situation demanded he use it. He was a scary kid, and he didn't like me at all. I wondered how long it would be before he decided to use that knife against me."
Caswell is a traveller at heart; he leaves his job after the first year and moves on to other adventures, well described on his travel log (link in first Comment). His list of favorite travel books is inspiring:
(in order of adoration)
The Snow Leopard | Peter Matthiessen
Arctic Dreams | Barry Lopez
Arabian Sands | Wilfred Thesiger
The Long Walk| Slavomir Rawicz
The Songlines | Bruce Chatwin
West with the Night | Beryl Markham
The Lost World of the Kalahari |
Laurens van der Post
Desert Solitaire | Edward Abbey
The Narrow Road to the Deep North |
Basho
In Trouble Again | Redmond O'Hanlon
If Caswell continues to write so well about his travels, he will join that exalted company on my own list.
Robert C. Ross 2010

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In the year he spent teaching at Borrego Pass, a remote Navajo community in northwest New Mexico, Kurt Caswell found himself shunned as persona non grata. His cultural missteps, status as an interloper, and white skin earned him no respect in the classroom or the community-those on the reservation assumed he would come and go like so many teachers had before. But as Caswell attempts to bridge the gap between himself and those who surround him, he finds his calling as a teacher and develops a love for the rich landscape of New Mexico, and manages a hard-won truce between his failings and successes.

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Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son: A Memoir of Growing Up, Coming Out, and Changing America's Schools Review

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(More customer reviews)Very few books I've read have touched me as deeply as Kevin Jenning's book "Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son." The author does an excellent job hooking the reader in with descriptions of life growing up in the South, with feelings of not being "normal."
From the depths of despair in a childhood gone wrong, Kevin managed to form an idea of how to change the climate in schools, and make them a better place for kids to learn. The things he went through as a student trying to get an education and putting up with bullying and harassment are amazing, and incredibly sad. This book should be required reading for teachers entering the field, so they understand why bullying and harassment isn't just "kids being kids" and can cause significant and lasting damage to the victims.

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Favorite Wife: Escape from Polygamy Review

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(More customer reviews)I would consider this book "part 2". The first polygamist book I ever read was "Shattered Dreams", by Irene Spencer. She was the second wife in a polygamist marriage. When I found out that this book was written by Irene's husband's "favorite wife", I got it as quick as I could! Both are excellent books, well worth the read. This is a lifestyle that you can hear about, but will never start to understand until you can put yourself in their shoes. This book will be hard to put down!

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A riveting memoir of life inside one of North America's most notorious polygamous cults.

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