A great book and a wonderful gift for anyone who loves Yosemite. Rowell's photographs are wonderful, and are set to John Muir's observations and memories of the Valley.

This book combines an engaging narrative story style in the tradition of Will James with philosophical musings a la Thoreau, and caps it with a stirring call to action reminiscient of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring". Dayton Hyde's observations on the plight of our endangered native species are still so fresh and relevant that it's hard to believe the book is over 30 years old! Don't mistake this book for some boring, preachy diatribe, though. It is more than anything else a charming love story about Hyde's passion for Sandhill Cranes and his adventures with them over twenty years while ranching in Oregon and raising a family of five human children and assorted other wildlife.

What a marvelous book! I laughed out loud when I saw the photographs of the author showing the cranes how to fly. A book for all nature lovers by a most gifted story teller. A book to read and savored and then read aloud. And to to think it is nonfiction!

Mr. Redford has adapted the plot of the novel into an entertaining and meaningful film. The essentials of the story -- serious tragedy, tenuous hope, realistic recovery, and responsible love -- play against a beautiful landscape, a delicate soundtrack, and an overall philosophy of simple heroism and intelligence. When you join an audience in a packed movie theatre for over 2 1/2 hours and hear absolute silence from everyone (including the children), you tend to get the impression that this is an involving, engaging, and splendid film. When the audience leaves the theatre commenting such things as "excellent" or "incredible" or "wonderful", you have to agree.

After having an opportunity to see the film, this companion book serves as an excellent memento. It expounds on the ideas and philosophies of the film. Further, its pages are crowded with high quality photos of the production, the movie, and the dramatic natural landscape. Gretel Erlich has written a charming and spritely text, easy to read from about age 14 upwards. This is not a book that describes the mechanics of making this film but one that presents the ideas behind the plot, both of the book and the screenplay, and the interrelationships between horse and human. As a learning experience, it describes the history of ranching and the evolution of the horse. Probably the only lack is that the author hasn't referred us to sources for additional reading. And there is the occasional obscure word more appropriate to academic publications than popular, particularly if one is aiming towards a young audience.

I haven't read the book "The Horse Whisperer",but I'm sure it's a wonderfully romantic book. I would like to read the book, but can a person rent it at a local Library? I saw the movie and thought that was an excellent show. I've heard that the novel is even better because it goes into more detail about each character and that the mom has an affair with expert horseman, and has an off spring from that relationship. After all is said and done she goes back to her husband. I also heard that the ending was very sad. I suppose in real life that's probably how it really is. As soon as I can I'm going to read "that book to find out for sure" Robert Redford is such an awesome actor with still a wonderful smile to melt ones heart, if your a girl of course! I think the show "The Horse Whisperer" was great. Mr Redford is such a creative person with a different view. Keep up the excellent entertainment Mr. Robert Redford!I'll be looking out for your next movie!

The Horse Whisperer is a great book and so is the movie. I think that if you read this review, then you should be tempted to see the movie and the book. If you do want to read this or see the movie, then I recomend that you read this book first. Seeing the movie gives you a better picture aboth the book. I hope that you enjoy the book or the movie. Sincerly, Heather

My fellow Wyo resident Gretel Ehrlich has never been a personal favorite of mine - I have found her writing a bit bloodless and strident. This Cold Heaven is no exception. Fortunately in this case, bloodless not only works, it is preferable. The native residents of Greenland are a hardcore bunch of seal-eating, dog whipping, communal living Last Best Men and their stories rival any on the planet for sheer toughness. Ehrlich packs her book with tales of ice explorers like Peter Freuschen and Knud Rasmussen, who make the cowboys, Marines and murderous I have known seem as simpering as Boy George and Anne Heche off their Wellbutrin. The author weaves their tales cleverly among her own personal accounts of more modest contemporary adventures, although we never really get to see what drives Ehrlich to this place. Maybe that doesn't matter. Ignore the Luddite whining that stains books like these and you're in for a treat.

There are books and then there are "fulcrum" books. "This Cold
Heaven" is one of those that tips the reader into a place and
people that changes the light with which the world is seen.
The Greenland that Gretel Ehrlich describes will never
be experienced by the vast number of us
(thankfully so, for its own sake), but no reader will ever
doubt the impact of the beauty and harshness of the
Arctic environment on those who live there. To convey
to us a sense of that remote place and its animals and
the Inuit people is Ehrlich's passion and her genius.
Unlike some writers who spend a few months in research
and then write with mock authority, her voice has been
Greenland-seasoned seven times since 1993. Her view is
subtle and encompassing, yet leavened with the humility
of one who comes from the outside looking in.

Ehrlich's writing style is richly poetic, strong in metaphor
and allusion. By interrupting her own lyric voice
with the deliberate descriptions of early Arctic
explorers, she creates a blend of the fanciful and the
matter-of-fact that broadly reflects the Inuit
view of life, past and present. In the end, however,
and inspite of her admiration for the subsitence hunter,
she squarely questions the viability of the traditional lifestyle
in the face of modern consumerism. The answer, Ehrlich suggests,
is the one we've come to expect and, tragically, to accept.

Lest the reader fancies that traveling to Greenland to sample
a subsistence life is a good idea, hold on to this: you
don't belong there. Let this book be your window and your
mirror. Use it to visit a wisdom that, with any luck, may
affect you at your very core.

This woman truly loves the high north, with all its paradox and ambivalence . . . Erlich paints the beauty and complexity of northern Greenland (before reading this book it never occurred to me to think of Greenland as HAVING a "north" and "south"!) and the struggle a tiny minority are having to maintain their ancient -- and sustainable -- ways of life. I'd classify this first of all as a love story between woman and land, but it is a love story in which the sentient observer is aware of the problems with the beloved, and yet still remains committed.
This is not a "been there, seen that, got the T-shirt" travel book -- Erlich is drawn to Greenland no fewer than seven times, in various seasons, and she lives with the people in traditional housing (including tents on the ice). She encounters the brutality of bureaucracy as well as the incredible hospitality of the Inuit -- and at the same time she does not shrink from the pervasive alcoholism and domestic violence that are a sad feature of northern life, nor does she neglect to mention the impact even in Greenland of the growing pollution in "the south" (i.e. North America). Her thesis is essentially Romantic in a philosophic sense . . . subsistence living was/is hard but authentic. The coming of modernity, with its internet connection, TV, store-bought goods, etc., has removed both the means and the incentive for a life of integrity. She leaves it to the reader to see the Greenlandic experience as paradigmatic of the wider world.
Read this book - it will lift your heart and trouble your mind, and leave you wanting more.