Robert

I stumbled across this book earlier this year and the write-up was interesting. The book contains a history and biographies of various Native American Prophets and their ideas about the survival of their ways and what we (non-indians) can learn from them. There are parts that are very interesting but other parts really drag and the author gets very preachy. I will not reread this particular book again

The author Elisabeth Tova Bailey had contracted a rehabilitating disease and she was bed ridden for a number of years. She missed the outdoors and have living things around her, than a snail enters her life As one reviewer wrote "An exquisite mediation on the restorative connection between nature and humans..." Beauty is all around, one only needs to look for it, in this case a snail. Over the period of time that this book covers the author carefully observes the snail and its activities. This process helps with her healing mentally. The lesson one learns is that connectons to nature are importnt.

I had read that this book had won some type of award. I had read one of Ann's earlier books in the series and found it to be mildly interesting. I should say that I am biased as as a general rule I have found few mysteries that I have really liked. This is not one of them. On the plus side it was a quick break from the literature that I was reading. It has received a number of good reviews and if one enjoys this type of mystery then read by all means/

The book tells the story of six astronauts on the International Space station It covers a range of topics including the feeling of detachment from each other and their detachment/attachment to their families and of earth itself. Extremely well written and the boredom of the daily routines are brought to life without boring the reader. It is easy to see why this book was short listed for the Booker Prize and why it won the prize.

The second of the Earthsea trilogy and possibly the weakest of the three books. Still a good book to read and it sets up nicely the third book in the searies

The third book of the Earthsea Trilogy. Another fantasy; however, reads the book more closely it is a story about one mortality and legacy. Sometime legacy lays too heavily an individual. It is also a coming of age story. Though often considered as a young adult tale the adult reader can enjoy and learn from the book.

A short story, with interesting characters. It is a coming of age story of a young Japanese. Her family is not a traditional Japanese family and we learn about this family through the eyes of the young girl. It is charming, interesting and I found it very interesting to see the world and the advents taken place around the family through this girls eyes.

A good biography of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkinand her work in Astronomy. I found that the fact she suffered because she was a woman in Astronomy. I think that The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel does a better job of discussing this issue. Otherwise an excellent biography and a good study in how to succeed in a field dominated by men, though that is rapidly changing

Terry Tempest Williams, student of Wallace Stegner, friend of Cactus Jack (Edward Abbey), Mormon (though her religious views seldom appear in here writings) and is from Utah. With that pedigree one is not surprised that she is a prominent western nature writer. She writes about the hardships she faced with the changing environment i Utah (Utah was undergoing a drought) and medical issue that arise from the atomic bomb testing in Arizona. In the epilogue of the book (titled The Clan of One Breasted Women) she writes "I belong to a Clan of One Breasted Women. My mother, my grandmother and six aunts have all had mastectomies. Seven of them are dead."

Despite all her problems she finds solace in her family and in the rugged nature that is Utah. It is a life reaffirming book and it lays out the need that we have for the natural world.

This is a fictional account of the developments of mathematics and physics that allow forte formulation of quantum theory. The explanation of the mathematics and physics is fairly simplistic as the average reader does not have the necessary background to delve very deeply into the subject matter (calculus,non-linear algebra, matrix algebra, etc.). Having said that I think that some of the science has been over simplified. I only regret is that quantum theory has advanced even more and there is a group of scientists that think that the theory is incomplete or completely wrong. As Lee Smolin (author of The Trouble with Physics) is quoted saying "I am convinced that quantum mechanics is not a final theory. I believe this because I have never encountered an interpretation of the present formulation of quantum mechanics that makes sense to me. I have studied most of them in depth and thought hard about them, and in the end I still can't make real sense of quantum theory as it stands."

A slim volume which revolves around the colour white. To the Koreans white signifies mourning and death as well as purity, thus the wedding garments as well as mourning garments are white. This book discusses death and mourning in symbolic language. The text is sparse, yet the author uses the words to weave her story. The Author received the Nobel Prize in Literature this which was the driving force for me to read this book.

I am not really a fan of Alexander McCall Smith; however, this book was recommended to me so I gave it a shot. All that I knew about Alden was that he was a poet and that I did not study any of his in High School nor college. I lean towards beat poetry or similar genres. This was not my cup of tea and I found the discussions of his poetry rather dreary and Mr Smith's writing was labourious. I know that their are those who might be interested in this book, but I am not one of them.

Set in northern Minnesota, The Road Back to Sweetgrass follows Dale Ann, Theresa, and Margie, a trio of American Indian women, from the 1970s to the present, observing their coming of age and the intersection of their lives as they navigate love, economic hardship, loss, and changing family dynamics on the fictional Mozhay Point reservation. As young women, all three leave their homes. Margie and Theresa go to Duluth for college and work; there Theresa gets to know a handsome Indian boy, Michael Washington, who invites her home to the Sweetgrass land allotment to meet his father, Zho Wash, who lives in the original allotment cabin. When Margie accompanies her, complicated relationships are set into motion, and tensions over “real Indian-ness” emerge.

Dale Ann, Margie, and Theresa find themselves pulled back again and again to the Sweetgrass allotment, a silent but ever-present entity in the book; sweetgrass itself is a plant used in the Ojibwe ceremonial odissimaa bag, containing a newborn baby’s umbilical cord. In a powerful final chapter, Zho Wash tells the story of the first days of the allotment, when the Wazhushkag, or Muskrat, family became transformed into the Washingtons by the pen of a federal Indian agent. This sense of place and home is both tangible and spiritual, and Linda LeGarde Grover skillfully connects it with the experience of Native women who came of age during the days of the federal termination policy and the struggle for tribal self-determination.

The Road Back to Sweetgrass is a novel that that moves between past and present, the Native and the non-Native, history and myth, and tradition and survival, as the people of Mozhay Point navigate traumatic historical events and federal Indian policies while looking ahead to future generations and the continuation of the Anishinaabe people.

Avery interesting book as it was one of the books that influenced JRR Tolkien's Lord of the rings. Lord Dumsany was a prolfic writer in the early 20th century, unfortunately the books contained many flaws including this one. Poor character development, a rambing plot etc. Pretty amateurish, but there are a few good high points. Interestingly enough two members of Steeleye Span (Bob Johnson and Pete Knight) wrote and produced a 1977 concept album The King of Elfland's Daughter, inspired by the book.

The book would er of interest to those that like early fanatasy books. I thought that is was interesting enough to give this book 3 stars, though maybe I should have given it 2 1/2 stars.

Ursula K Le Guin has left a large body of work, both fiction and non fiction, behind after her death. This book contains her earliest pieces of writing along with her commentary. It is a fascinating look into her development as a writer and her though process in writing. Many of her later themes had their beginnings in these early writings. A good companion piece to this book is her collection of essays, etc -Dancing at the Edge of the World