Columbia Reviews

Growing up in Oregon's Willamette Valley, basalt cliffs have watched over my life. More flood basalt and Rocky mountain gravels and mud are under my feet, and for most of my life I've lived within the shores of glacial lake Allison. When I go the rugged Pacific coast I look at beautiful haystack rocks and headlands where the same lava streams flowed, or I climb volcanic peaks just inland. Flood-wrenched lavas greet me in my travels up the Columbia and Snake Rivers, through the gorge, coulees and hills and through the valley of the Grande Ronde to overlook the Snake River canyon, over a mile deep. Fossils lie beneath similar formations in John Day country.

Fire, Faults & Floods bring the processes that created this to life. It would be useful and handy enough as a guidebook for traveling to various places and interpreting them with short hikes and drives. However, it goes way beyond this, interesting enough to hold your attention as you turn each page, filling in more and more details and drawing them into a cohesive whole.

If you have money and interest left after this book, for a more historically-oriented story of Harlan Bretz, and additional local details, pick up a companion book "Cataclysms on the Columbia" by Allen, Burns, Sargent, and Sargent.

This book tells of events so implausible that even your imagination will have difficulty comprehending them. If I have any complaint about the book it is that it fails to sufficiently emphasize how amazing it is, for example, that molten lava once upon a time ran nearly 400 miles before coming to its stopping place. The authors seem to almost be afraid that if they point up the apparent absurdity of it all, the reader would decide the whole book was a well written hoax! It was not a hoax, though, and the story of what happened in the Pacific Northwest once upon a time is well told. It is of greatest interest, obviously, to those of us who live here in the midst of the results of fire, fault and flood, but, for those elsewhere with vivid imaginations, it is a cracking good book. This is one time when what actually happened is more exciting than anything one's imgination can possibly conjure up!

I really enjoyed this book. But I may be different that you. I like rocks, massive basalt cliffs, immense coulees, and the beauty of arid lands. These and much more can be found in this wonderful book by Marge and Ted Mueller. If you're excited about these things then this may be a book you'd enjoy also, especially if you live in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. This book is really more than just a basic, easy-to-read geological primer of the Columbia River Basin. It is a trip-planner with detailed instructions on how to go and see the stuff for yourself. I've already been to a couple of the locations and have another short trip planned for this fall. This book is exactly what I hoped it would be when I bought it from Amazon.com. I've never found another book quite like it. Enjoy!

What can i say. I have numerous books on the subject and this one, like all the others books written by Turner, are top ranking. With detaild information on how the plants were used by indiginous people.

This book is really impressive. It has a lot more information than a standard "pocket guide" book. There are numerous food sources in this book that i have never seen in other similiar books. an example: this book explains in detail how native americans harvested the inner bark (cambium) of the western hemlock to make a flour like substance. I have never read this in any other plant books. The book also includes information on how to prepare the food in traditional ways, as well as stories related to particular plants. All in all, this is probably the best book I know of concerning edible wild plants in the pacific northwest.

This richly illustrated book details over 150 plant species used by First Peoples/Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest Interior.

Revised and redesigned for easier use, this handbook includes detailed botanical descriptions and notes on habitat and distribution.

Groups covered are the Stl'atl'imx (Lillooet), Secwepemc (Sushwap), Nlaka'pamux (Thompson), Okanagan, Ktunaxa (Kootenay), Tsimshian and Athapaskan groups in the north, and others in northwestern U.S.A.

Nancy Turner explains how aboriginal peoples harvested, prepared and preserved the roots, leaves, fruits and other parts of wild plants. She also describes some non-native food plants used by interior peoples and several species they considered poisonous or inedible. Color pictures enhance descriptions and make identification easier.

My brother Jeffrey has worked in the planting world of western Canada for several years, and this book has finally given me a real insight into what his days are like for four or six or eights months a year. I ask myself, at once, why he would choose to do something so horrible to himself, and why I have not given up the mundane and trivial things that fill my own life to confront something so challenging and rewarding, so filled with sights and experiences which, if Cyr's pictures and the accompanying text are any indication, border on the sublime. Of course, it is all made the more powerful when we consider the gigantic favor these laborers are doing for us and the people who will come after us. I am envious of all those whose capacity for physical and mental anguish allows them to reap this kind of reward. Whenever we think we cannot possibly deal with the real world, we would do well to consider the surreal world presented in these pages.

I think every treeplanter can relate to how difficult it is to share their experiences with one who has never gone planting. Words do not suffice. Yet there is a universal understanding among those who have been out there. Helene has captured the experience perfectly with her photographs. Handmade Forests is a beautiful, truthful, nessesary book, and I thank her for sharing it with us.

Helene Cyr is right on about treeplanting - she knows the heaven and hell of that life. This is a book I wish my treeplanting buddies and I had put together, so thank you Helene for doing what we'd always talked about. So wonderful to see treeplanting honoured in such an excellent way.

If you buy only one book before venturing to Alaska, buy the Milepost. For the budget traveller who is driving the Alaska highway or sailing on the Alaska Marine Highway, the book is absolutely essential. It gives detailed information about lodgings, ferry schedules, attractions, history and any other information the traveller needs including the location of gas stations on remote highways (very important if the nearest station is 90 miles away). It is updated yearly so the information is always current. The only problem with the Milepost is that it is phone book sized so it is not very portable. In fact, when I backpacked on the marine highway, I bought two copies of the milepost -- one to disassemble so I could take the relevant pages with me and one that I used to plan the trip and to enjoy reading when I returned home. If I travel to Alaska again, this is the only book I will buy.

This was our first trip on the Alaska Highway and the Milepost was a great help, not only did it give a complete description of road conditions, but it helped pass the time as we drove. Reading about the historicial happenings was great. I would recommend to anyone taking this trip to purchase the Milepost and enjoy a wonderful trip.

Wow! This book does it all, mile by mile up the Alcan Highway not to mention even on the ferry system. At first the advertising bothered us, but after awhile we found that fun and valuable as well. This is a real good travel book. Wish they had something like this in other remote places, like the Baja.

I really enjoy the book.I'm a Nine year old girl and I will be visiting WAshington D. C. with my family this summer. I thought the book was very interesting because it told me everything you can see in the city. It has really good pictures of things you can find. It has great maps, pockets for stamps and envelopes, and other lose items.It had very good background information. It has made me excited about my trip.

What a great book! Very informative and enjoyable for kids as well as for adults. Our children loved the different exercises, the interesting facts and the photos throughout the book. It made our vacation a lot more interesting and educational, which is exactly what we wanted. The kids are taking the book to school to show their classmates and teachers. We highly recommend this great book!

Hope to see one on U.S. National Parks soon!

Ed & Colleen Garcia

My seven year old had a great time iwth this book. It helped her get excited about our trip to Washington, made the tirp more meaningful to her, and has her looking forward to our next visit. Definitely a keeper!

Great color photos and and discriptions of the carvings and artwork. I would definatly recommend this to anyone that is interested in Northwest Coast art.

Profusely illustrated with brilliant, full color photography, Gary Wyatt's Mythic Beings: Spirit Art Of The Northwest Coast is a superb introduction to aboriginal art including totems, wood sculpture, masks, stone carvings and more. Wyatt's informative text is an outstanding survey placing each art piece within their cultural context, enhanced with the artist's own descriptions and commentaries. Mythic Beings is a very welcome addition to personal, academic, and professional Native American art and cultural reference collections.

Mythic Beings is an unassuming but impressive book. The major organizing theme is that spirit art captures the rich cultural and aesthetic traditions that permeate regional artistic expression. Northwest Coast art can be intimidating because it has a complex cosmology and iconography. Wyatt, however, makes this complexity accessible by using two underlying principles. The universe consists of separate but interrelated realms (e.g., sky, underwater), and each realm has its characteristic real and mythical creatures. Mythical creatures have distinctive physical representations used in both sacred and secular representations.

Mythic Beings features 75 beautifully reproduced photographs of masks, robes, and rattles representing the work of 34 artists. Each artist provides a commentary about his/her piece. This provides an opportunity to become familiar with the physical depiction and mythological roles of the creatures depicted by the artists.

Mythic Beings is a gem. It is a wonderful gift book for anyone interested in indigenous art and First Nations peoples.

The New Harp of Columbia is a repository of Odes, Anthems, Fuging pieces, Marching Tunes, Sea Chanteys, Dirges, Folk Tunes, Calvary Tunes put to meter and matched to the prime sermons of the day and written by the tune smiths into hymns.
(The Hymn "Amazing Grace," was mixed and matched to a tune New Britain or Middleton is contained therein but not to J. Cowper's Hymn of John Newton's sermon.) This singing school manual breaks the music into separate parts for easy reading and written into character notes or shapes to help distinguish the notes for a people in a time who could not read let a lone read music.
It is part of a two hundred year plus ongoing American social community and spiritual tradition. More information can be found www.oldharp.org or www.fasola.org.

Larry Olszewski- Old Harp Singer

The New Harp of Columbia is the seven-note "old harp" tune book for shape note singers in and around Knoxville in east Tennessee. The 1975 University of Tennessee Press reprinting is probably out of print (though we have a few extra copies) as of March 2001. A new edition, scheduled for publication by the University of Tennessee Press in July 2001, will include the present (1867) New Harp of Columbia, with about 40 additional tunes from the earlier (1848) Harp of Columbia which M.L. Swan omitted from the new book in 1867. Meanwhile, come sing with us! - Bob Richmond (RSRICHMOND@aol.com)

I have gotten many hour of enjoyment for this book.

This is one of the most heart-warming books I've ever read. Similar to R.D. Lawrence, I owned a wolf/dog hybrid in the wilderness of Alaska. We had many great adventures together. I eventually had to leave Alaska, and my best friend. This is one of my favorite books. I highly recommend reading it.

R.D.Lawrence's book "The North Runner" is quite simply magnificent. It tells the true story of one man's friendship with a savage dog/wolf hybrid that sees man as his natural enemy, especially as he has been ill-treated since puppyhood. When Lawrence takes the Hybrid into his home he finds that he has true savage on his hands, and that it will take all his skills as a naturalist to tame an animal that was more wolf than it was dog. This is not a sentimental book though Lawrence and the hybrid he names Yukon do become friends, rather it is a story about two creatures getting to know one another, in an unforgiving world. Yukon is testament to man's inability to understand the mind and soul of a wolf. Lawrence eventually realizes that Yukon will never be a "people" dog and that the remainder of his life must be spent in the wild with wolves. And so Lawrence makes the ultimate sacrifice, he lets Yukon go, giving him the freedom that should have been his from birth. This a poignant, funny, humorous and often sad book about a man and a hybrid and how they learnt to respect and love one another, yet never loose sight of which side of the fence that each belonged. For all nature lovers, especially those with a passion for dogs, wolves and hybrids, then this book is worth trying to get hold off. It's just a shame it has not been reprinted recently.

AS ALWAYS AS I AM A FAVORITE READER OF R.D. LAWRENCE HE BEFRIENDS A WILD WOLF DOG AND FALLS IN LOVE WITH THIS ANIMAL WHO RELATES SO MUCH TO HIM. MR. LAWRENCE IN HIS MOST DISCRIPTIVE WAYS AS ALWAYS TELLS THE STORY OF HOW HE TAKES THIS WILD ANIMAL FROM AN NATIVE INDIAN WHO BEATS THIS ANIMAL SHORT OF DEATH AND SHOWS HIM PASSION AND IN TURN IN TIME THIS DOG RETURNS THE FAVOR IN SAVING HIS LIFE. A TRUE BOOK AND A MUST TO READ A DOG LOVERS AND A NATURE LOVERS BEST STORY EVER

Inspiring, honest, and sincere this is a touching and intimate peek into the pilgrimage of Sylvia Helman. Initiated after spending only six months with her guru, she becomes Swami Sivananda Radha, one of the foremost spiritual teachers of the west! The courage and savy exhibited in her search for truth makes me glad right down to my toes. After reading this book I began my own pilgrimage which has lasted now for six years- and is the foundation for the rest of my life! A heart warming gem, truly.

Beautiful archival photos interspersed with the warm-hearted stories draw me into this riveting diary. The detailed quality of the narration transports me into the daily physical experiences of a privileged western woman on a spiritual search in India in the mids 1950s. The author's stories serve as an example for the reader who can feel encouraged that in spite of her struggles and doubts in her search for spiritual enlightenment she was able to access her own spiritual wisdom through her commitment to her guru. Her guru's method of teaching took her to her limits and in meeting those challenges she serves as an inspiration to the reader. It is fascinating to read about her unexplained familiarity with the ashram, her guru and the complex sacred dances, even though this was her first visit to India.

Swami Radha shares with the reader her diary of the trip to India that changed her life and by extension the lives of all those who have been fortunate enough to know the Teachings of the ancient wisdom. There is Light, there is joy, there is wondering and there is delight in the reading of this story. She explains what it takes to truly undergo a profound transformation and what is required to listen to the messages that lead to knowing the purpose of our lives. I could not put the book down and have felt since I read it the power of truly knowing my own inner wisdom. The work is very articulate and very moving. She brings a sense of what it was like to journey to a land little known from the point of view of those who truly know.

This collection of the late Richard Salant's letters and memoirs shows that the former CBS News president -- with his strong sense of justice, fairness and intelligence -- deserves to be just as much a legend to the public as the men and women who worked for him.

Throughout the Vietnam and Watergate era of the 60s and 70s, the lawyer-turned-news executive was credited with standing up for his news people in conflicts with the government and business interests. In this volume of memoirs, organized very well by Susan and Bill Buzenberg, readers also see that he was just as tough with his own staff when it came to issues of balance and accuracy.

Readers will also be intrigued by Salant's explanation of why he approved "60 Minutes" several years after it was proposed; his written battle of wits with Charles Crutchfield, the conservative chief executive of a CBS Television affiliate;
why he didn't like music on CBS news shows; and why he felt himself a stranger in strange lands during his post-CBS years at NBC and the National News Council.

This book will be enjoyed by those interested in the issues behind newsgathering. And even though the business has changed markedly (to many, for the worse) since Salant's days, the Salant memoirs show the intelligence, thought and love of humanity he brought to his work -- qualities that are always needed in the exercise of news judgement.

It's been a quarter century after Dick Salant's left the stage of broadcast journalism. But thanks to this excellent book, his wisdom and intellect can benefit generations of young journalists.

I had to read this book for a Media Ethics class and I must say that it was one of my favourite books! Salant teaches readers about the workings of a newsroom and the struggle to do what is right with the news through funny annecdotes and interesting stories. Any aspiring journalist MUST read this, and anyone just looking for a good biography would do well to read this. (Actually, EVERYONE should read this as journalism and the media are a strong presence in all our lives, and this is a fun way to learn more about it.)

The Buzenbergs have captured the essence of a unique man of principle. Using Salant's voluminous archives, this book is a fascinating trip through an era that established high standards in broadcast journalism. The book raises issues and questions which are at the heart of today's journalism. Household names Cronkite, Rather, Brokaw, Jennings, Sevareid are the characters in the tale of how the premiere broadcast news organization came to be - what and who held it together - and the inside view of a corporation struggling with its identity. The players were giants in a land that has more recently turned into a universe of pygmies. You don't have to be a news junkie to enjoy and learn from this book - you just have to ask yourself: "if I see one more Monica Lewinsky story"...I won't take it anymore! Good reading.

Peter Herford