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Book reviews for "Fields,_Julia" sorted by average review score:

Quiknotes the Books of the Bible
Published in Paperback by Tyndale House Pub (01 April, 1999)
Authors: James K. Hoffmeier, C. Hassell Bullock, Alfred J. Hoerth, David P. Barrett, and Philip Wesley Comfort
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The only guide for processing acorn!
As a friend of Julia Parker, I know her gentle spirit to be true to the Old Ways. She grew up in the last days of the government-sponsered "Indian Schools" which basically stripped native children of their heritage and turned them into little white kids. So on the surface this book is a guide to processing acorn in the ancient ways of the native California Indians, but it's also testimony to Julia's spirit and the rediscovery of the life skills and spirituality of her people.

Acorn is central to The People -- it is the primary staple food of the Indians of California and sustained them through the winter. A bad crop of acorn meant possible starvation, so the food is treated with respect and tradition throughout the process of turning it from a bitter nut to a sweet flour for making soup or bread.

The book is beautifully photographed and gives detailed instructions for how to make acorn both the traditional way with a granite mortar and sand pit and the modern way with a blender and kitchen sink. I have watched the Indians of Yosemite Valley make acorn many times and have made acorn myself, so I can assure you that the instructions will help even beginners make acorn for themselves.

The absolute best guide to acorn processing
I spent years learning how to properly process acorns, so that they were yummy to eat. I tried all the recipes in the wild edible books, and my own experiments. Reading this book gave me the simple but crucial details I was missing to turn out good acorn every time. Its not hard, you just got to do it right. This book is the only one I know of that will show you all you need to know. Otherwise its a fairly bland book, with a little too much heroine worship by the author.

Food for bodies and spirits in Native woman's account

California Native Americans used acorn as a staple food, and still reverence it. "One must create a relationship with the tree, one must understand the ground which cherishes the fruit so lovingly." But that understanding is not mere words, it is a vast array of knowledge -- and a special technology of place. Julia Parker, Kashia Pomo, who married into the Yosemite Mono/Paiute family headed by elder Lucy Telles, spent many years learning the lifeways that Lucy taught by example.

Julia tells anthropologist, writer, and friend Beverly Ortiz the story. of acorn preparation through a seasonal round. It is Julia's story, but it is also the story of California Native women over thousands of years. Many photos (by Raye Santos, of Julia preparing acorns; family activities and people from the Telles and Parker family albums; and from 19th and 20th century Yosemite National Park Service collections) make clear the intricate technology these women developed. The process, followed step by step from the story and photos, is shown as part of a life-and-seasonal cycle. The acorns, gathered from the ground, should be dried for a year before being shelled and pounded into meal and flour. The meal is then leached of bitter tannin in shallow sand basins, then separated and cooked with hot rocks in water-tight woven baskets.

The careful explanation of each step in the long process of food preparation is enlivened by Julia's personal recollections of traditional family life, and the cultural/spiritual/social meanings of all the activities. This is a fascinating way to understand Native lifeways, full of life and meaning. Readers will understand, from this woman's inside view, why the book's title -- It will live forever -- is true. This is not an academic account of a dead past; it is a lifeway still alive. At Native events in California today, women still take the time and trouble to prepare this traditional food and experience their closeness to the earth, and their cultural survival as a people.

There is enormous contrast between this lively account of Native women, maintaining life, and the distancing, dead accounts by male anthropologists and historians, which mount Native cultures and lifeways with a freezing academic objectivity, as if they were bagged specimens dead and long gone. This book is highly recommended for young people, as an alternative to the deadly, boring, and incorrect accounts prepared for young people that purport to present archaic Native societies. Those awful books form a minor industry among textbook publishers. This book is a delicious antidote to such multicultural poisons. -- Reviewed by Paula Giese, editor, Native American Books (http://www.fdl.cc.mn.us/~isk/books/bookmenu.html)


Making the Man: The Insider's Guide to Buying Mens Clothes
Published in Paperback by Pocket Books (1981)
Author: Alan J. Flusser
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A studious study of students.
This book is extremely well written, precise and to the point. It is not the author I have a problem with, it's the subject matter.

I've been studying anthropology students as my thesis and I must say they are a dry and humorless lot. This book does have a lot of admirable ideas for field projects though and tips on how to observe anthropology students in their natural habitat with out disturbing their foraging or mating rituals (what there are of them). Though why any one would want to study these mind numbingly monotonous creatures is beyond me. I'm thinking of changing my major to botany anyway.


X12 King of Torts Dumpbin Eire
Published in Unknown Binding by Arrow (A Division of Random House Group) (06 February, 2003)
Author: John Grisham
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Beyond the familiar shore
I have the pleasure of living near Panacea, Florida and have visited Gulf Specimens Lab, the home port for Jack Rudloe. I've been fortunate to take Ann Rudloe's Coastal Ecosystem class, so these stories present a delightful appendix to those Panhandle experiences. Presented here is a rewarding mix of adventure, science, and Jack's home spun philosophy. He starts on the shore with horseshoe crab mating and describes their birth then describes a canoe adventure down the Suwannee. Further adventures describe finding the largest toad fish, giant sea roaches, and adventures with sawfish, octopus, electric rays, and spiny lobsters. Perhaps pulling the stories together are the tails of turtles and "the turtle mother".


Nature Walks in Southern New Hampshire: An AMC Nature Walks Book
Published in Paperback by Appalachian Mountain Club Books (1994)
Authors: Julia Older and Steve Sherman
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Nature Walks in Southern New Hampshire
As a Trail guide I think it definately needs more description of the trail and put trail names on the maps. It's nice to go by a map once you are on a trail, but these maps leave out a lot of important trail markers and was very hard to follow. Usually on any given trail there are a lot of loops you can take, nothing was specified on these maps. The description on what is on the trail is pretty nice, but using the maps turned out effortless. You need to concentrate more on the trail so people don't get lost.


Teaching Pronunciation: Focus on English Rhythm and Intonation (Language in Education, 68)
Published in Paperback by Center for Applied Linguistics (1987)
Author: Rita Wong
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Insipid, childish and boring
An attempt to rip off the old "Preppie Handbook" in style, this silly little book describes "Machoman" vs. "Ths Boggle Brain" (and a whole bunch of other "species") as if they were birds in an attempt at humor. It looks like more effort was made at trying to plug different types of guys into pigeon holes (no pun intended) than at coming up with some real wit. I'll use my old copy to line our hamster cage.


Risk and Reason : Safety, Law, and the Environment
Published in Hardcover by Cambridge Univ Pr (Trd) (2002)
Author: Cass R. Sunstein
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Communication Mosaics: A New Introduction to the Field of Communication
Published in Paperback by Wadsworth Publishing (1997)
Author: Julia T. Wood
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Communication Mosaics: An Introduction to the Field of Communication Non-Infotrac Version
Published in Paperback by Wadsworth Publishing (2003)
Author: Julia T. Wood
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Leopards in the Temple: The Transformation of American Fiction, 1945-1970
Published in Paperback by Harvard Univ Pr (2002)
Author: Morris Dickstein
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Communication Mosaics: Introduction to Field Communications (Workbook)
Published in Paperback by Wadsworth Publishing (2000)
Author: Julia Wood
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