This is absolutely essential for anyone going to British Columbia or Alaska. It gives a brief description and explanation of almost all the important outdoor totem poles you'll come across, taking you through the poles figure by figure. I found it invaluable when in Victoria's Thunderbird Park and Vancouver's Stanley Park and Museum of Anthropology. A real gem you'll read over and glance through again once you're back home.

No frills, no gimmicks, just an excellent written and graphic profile of totem poles as a symbol of a North American people. Allows you to enter a community where beliefs in the earth, sky, oceans, mountains and animals continue to be spiritual.

I am a family counselor and find this book extremely helpful with my female clients. The most important questions it seems to address is: "What did I get/or didn't get from my father in my growing up years that now impacts my life positively or negatively? And where do I go from here? What is the role of a father in shaping a daughter's view of whom to marry, her overall self-esteem, her feelings about her physical attributes, and her desire to succeed in life?" I read this book after I had worked out many of my less than positive issues with my own father. It helped me to see what I did miss out on in that relationship. But equally important, it helped me to see my worth in spite of a less than perfect relationship with dad. A must read at any age!

I first got this book and read it in 89, when I couldn't stand my parents, especially my father and was playing out the rebellious teenager that needed independence role. I read it, but didn't read it. I got from it that it was daddy's fault that I failed this or that, or so and so dumped me, or that I couldn't do this or that.
I found this book years later, shortly after my father died and I was going through some of my old belongings stashed at his house. It was the perfect time for it to re-surface, and for the first time I actually read the book.
The only complaint I have regarding this book is emphasis on the "bad" father figures. The ones that aren't home or are drunks or abusive etc. But then again, many are, so perhaps it is fitting.
At either rate, if you have ever had problems with your father figure, this book is a must have for not only putting the past where it belongs, but also resolving any issues left in the open.

This book came at a time when I really needed it. My life was very stressed, personally, and then on top of it my parents were having major marital problems. The book was a real blessing. It was so insightful I couldn't put it down! Thank you, Mr. Wright for putting together such a wonderful book!

I had vaguely heard of Bethune as a Canadian who was a hero in China but underappreciated in Canada. Since things relating to the history of China are a current interest, I thought I'd give the book a chance. To say that Norman Bethune was extraordinary would be putting it mildly. This man was a well-respected doctor, inventor, lecturer, and lover. He possessed many eccentricities, spending (and never saving) every penny he received, on both himself and the underprivilidged. He would always challenge people's views, even if he agreed with them personally. I enjoyed this biography for one major reason. It was meticulously researched, as the author conducted an immesurable number of interviews, and where interviews weren't enough to get inside the mind of Norman Bethune, Stewart relied on diary entries and (most interesting of all) his letters to his wife, whom he married and divorced twice. The lengthiest portion of the book is spent on his sojourn in China during Mao Zedong's ruthless tenure as omnipotent ruler of China, wearing peasant sandles while operating on the Communist guerellas fighting both Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Army and invaders from Japan. An avowed communist, he is a hero to Marxists in China, if relatively unknown outside the country.

I purchased this book hoping to further understand the reign of James IV of Scotland and the events that led up to Flodden Field. Norman MacDougall certainly provides this information in, what is often, excruciating detail. Mainly focusing on government operation, political in-fighting, and clan rivalries of late 15th and early 16th centuries, MacDougall throws a plethora of Scottish earls, bishops, and burghers into the mix and the reader is highly challenged to keep it all straight. If one is looking for a leisurely read of James IV and his reign, I suggest looking elsewhere. However, if one requires an intensely detailed political account of this patricidal, fiscally obsessed, ruler who, himself, was doomed to destruction, you need look no further.