This book is AMAZINGLY entertaining. The facts they choose to enlighten you with are both mind boggeling and silly. An easy to read and understand book for children from 8 to 108.

This book is AMAZINGLY entertaining. The facts they choose to enlighten you with are both mind boggeling and silly. An easy to read and understand book for children from 8 to 108.

This book provides basic information about the Gilded Age. Although not in as much detail as some other books on the topic (e.g. America in the Gilded Age, The New Commonwealth), it covers all of the major events. It is very easy to read and contains photographs. At the end of each chapter (divided by years) are primary source documents, which are a nice addition not found in the other books I mentioned.

Edmondson was one of the few artists ever to be led into his work by pure inner vision and his work shows the extraordinary power of genuine and uninfected inspiration so rare to us these days. A wonderful gift for anyone interested in the power of stone.

I have started reading a lot of historical fiction and nonfiction, and have found Haywood's Altas to be very useful. It works well as an introduction, being quite readable and succinct. In addition, it is an excellent reference to use when reading nonfiction tombs that presume we all know where all the Hittites came from, or how the Illyrians migrated to Italy. Just easily finding Zhou, or Thrace on a map has been a big help for me. A good atlas, well worth the reasonably price.

Not only is the inside of the book as fascinating as the beautiful cover, but the text keeps the reader from putting the book down. I could not stop turning pages and learning more about how Jewish tradition meets issues of health and illness. A great read!

A BIG HIT hit with my 8-year-old nephew. Very intersesting and more than a little scary. It doesn't shy away from blood or gore to get the facts out to the reader. I wouldn't give it to children under 8 as the scary factor is right up there with the Goosebumps movies! A definite page turner.

In her entertaining, yet warmhearted novel, A Desert of Pure Feeling, Judith Freeman moves backward and forward in time, and intertwines a series of events from her narrator's life. She explores the life of Lucy Patterson, a woman who seems to be searching for truth throughout the text. Even the setting for part of the story is in Las Vegas, Nevada, a place known for its falsehood. Lucy first encounters the truth about her father, a truth that haunts her for the rest of her life. This truth makes Lucy view the idea of adultery a whole new way and it is after this incident with her father that Lucy herself begins to stray from her husband. Soon after her son's birth, Lucy feels like something had broken in her and that something was the capacity for intimacy. She feels she is protecting herself from a "loss that seemed imminent." She was right. Throughout the text, Lucy loses many relationships with people that are important to her and she goes on searching for the truth about herself and others. One reason Dr. Cabrera is so attractive to Lucy is because she knows she cannot have him. She is fully aware of the fact that he has a wife and children that he will not leave. Yet she continues to be involved with him because it allows her to get what she wants from the relationship. Lucy can get all of her physical needs from Carlos without getting tied up emotionally. The fact that the other person she falls in love with, Joycelle, is a young hooker who has just discovered that she chronically ill also supports this claim. This young mother turns out to be just as needy and troubled as Lucy herself once was. But this is yet another person that Lucy cannot fully rely on and spend the rest of her life with. She knows Joycelle is weak and does not have much life left in her. Yet by getting involved with people whom she cannot spend the rest of her life with, she does not have to have a deep, trusting relationship. All of the characters in the text seem to be dealing with their hidden secrets from the past. We find some characters, like Carlos, are unable to handle the truth, while others, like Lucy grow from revealing and facing the truth about themselves. It is a truly enlightening part of the book when everyone is being totally honest with each other and telling of their skeletons in the closet. It is at this point in the text when we realize that we all have our own secrets and issues from the past that we do not want to face. It is at this point that all of the characters are on the same level as Lucy and dealing with the same type of insecurities from the past. The events of Lucy's past broke her trust in others and she still carries the unforgettable scars she received when she was a young teenage bride and mother. She was not prepared for the feelings she had after she gave birth to her child. She felt like her son, Justin, was taken away from her the moment he was born. Then, throughout the rest of his life, Justin was taken away from her by other things. He was taken away from her by his fatal heart condition, later by his father's influence, by the Mormon religion, and in the end by the terrorism that led to his disappearance and presumed death. She often wonders what it would have been like to have a son when she was thirty or thirty-five, instead of having a child when she was only seventeen. The maturity Lucy would have gained before having the child at this age could have significantly changed the events in her life. The hardships Lucy faced would have been difficult for anyone, especially someone who was as needy and dependent as Lucy was in her early years. Even after learning of her father's infidelity, her fallen marriage and husband's infidelity did not seem to bother her too much. But it really did, deep down. She again lost a once strong relationship with someone she loved. The breakup appears to be nobody's fault, after all who can really blame a person for wanting to leave a marriage that has been dead for a couple of years. In the text, Lucy is a woman struggling to make peace with herself as a mother, lover, artist and friend. It is after all of Lucy's heartaches from the past and discoveries of the truth that she grows as a more independent person. When she becomes acquainted with Carlos again, she does not go running back into his arms, but proceeds cautiously. Also, when she meets Joycelle, she is not looking to have a relationship with her, it just happens naturally. Along with finding a loving and passionate relationship with her, she also develops a sort of paternal relationship that she misses having with her son. It is in this relationship she is finally comfortable with herself and all of the truths of her past. The setting for the story occurred in three main places: Las Vegas, St. Paul, and on an ocean liner across the Atlantic. The main place in the text associated with the West is Las Vegas, Nevada, even though nothing about it has Western characteristics. Las Vegas is famous for its phony attractions, lights, glitter and gaudiness. It seems to be a place that is corrupt with many lies and deceptions. It is ironic that the place where Lucy finally finds the truth is in Las Vegas, among all distractions of the flashy city. It is here where she meets Joycelle and her life changes in many ways. Not only does she discover a pure and truthful love, but a different form of sexuality she has never experienced before. It is in this fake and phony atmosphere that Lucy bears all of her feelings and becomes completely truthful with herself and others. This text was extremely well-written and had a wonderful theme and storyline. The only part of the text I had any trouble believing was the manner in which many of the main characters experimented with their sexuality in the past. I had no problem with what happened, but it just seemed incredibly unbelievable that all of the main characters experimented this way. However, I can overlook that extreme and appreciate the book and the important themes that had. The idea of finding truth and becoming comfortable with one's own feelings and past is a message all readers of A Desert of Pure Feeling can benefit from.

If you are looking for a revisionist western that deals with more than gun slinging and horseback riding look no further. A Desert of Pure Feeling by Judith Freeman is an exhilarating book. Freeman opens the book from a seedy Las Vegas motel where the main character of the book, Lucy Patterson, has returned to write her memoirs. During the book the reader learns about the many hardships Lucy has faced during her life, and how she deals with these conflicts. As one can see this is obviously not your run of the mill John Wayne shoot 'em up novel. This novel deals with the stuggles many adults in America experience: Death, love, dispair, and infidelity. Throughout the book the reader is confronted with dilemmas in Lucy's life that she must resolve. The first major problem Lucy faces is when her new born son develops heart problems. The reader feels for this young mother who has so much to lose. this first mafor conflict in Lucy's life may arguably be one of her best experiences. while lucy's son is in the hospital Lucy meets a young cardiac surgeon, Carlos Cabrera. Lucy and Dr. Cabrera stike up a love affair that lasts for years. Finally at the end of the book we find Lucy coming to terms with the major losses in herlife and she finally finds "true love" in the most unexpected place. Many traditional westerns were written purely for entertainment, expecially the western novels released in the early half of this century. these books were simply the "televisions" of yesteryear. Judith Freeman's a desert of Pure Feeling was written as a means of challenging traditional concepts such as religion, fidelity, and the denial of homosexual urges. Freeman offers fresh ideas about these subjects. On the topic of adultery she writes, "Adultery. Something all adults did, or wished they did, or feared they might do, as if it were the inevitable--the normal state of being adult--the natural condition of adultness, this act of voluntary, and perhaps inexorable, infidelity." Now, could you ever imagine John Wayne starring at a sunset repeating those words? Tis is exactly what is so interesting about this book, it offers new alternative ways of looking at life. The only major problem there is with this book is that it seems to go overboard when dealing with the topic of homosexuality. I won't get too in depth, because I don't want to ruen it for any potential readers, but almost everyone in the book is either gay, used to be gay, has had some sort of homosexual experience, or wishes he or she was gay. This aspect of the book seemed to be totally politically motivated. The really sad thing is this overly pro-gay style of writing only took away from the book. a very believable plot went right out the window in about two pages. Of course there are gay people in the world and they deserve some sort of literary recognition, but to over do it only mocks the homosexual community. Overall this book is well written with good plot, setting, and character development. It offers, for the most part, a refreshing new view of the west. If you are looking for a traditional cowboy and Indian western don't buy this book. If you are willing to approach this book with an open mind and an open heart you will find A Desert of Pure Feeling a refreshing new twist on the often mundane world of westerns.

Judith Freeman's "A Desert of Pure Feeling" is a contemporary love story that portrays a western woman with depth and dimension in her most intimate roles--as a daughter, wife, mother, friend, and lover. This compelling novel looks at the ways one extraordinary woman faces the task of gathering the evidence of the past into a meaningful awareness of the present. With honesty and courage, this woman searches her relationships and comes to know the secrets of her own heart. This is a western story, with a ranch in Idaho, the desert spaces of Utah, and the lure of Las Vegas. But the geography is not limited to the west. The sotry's primary setting is Las Vegas, in a motel called the Tally Ho, where Lucy, the main character and a writer, is speaking at a conference. Las Vegas was a familiar place to Lucy not only throughout her childhood vacations traveling through this city but because it was originally settled by her people and is symbolic to her of her Mormon upbringing. Lucy has traveled to Las Vegas from her home on an isolated ranch in the mountains of Idaho. At this conference she agrees to travel across the Atlantic on a ship in exchange for giving a reading during the voyage. "What I could not have known was how this decision would lead me back along the path of my own life, how it would open up old wounds and lay them bare and create new ones I hadn't expected" (13). On board she is shocked when she encounters Dr. Carlos Cabrera, the surgeon who many years ago had saved her son's life, the man to whom she had given her heart, and with whom she had hoped to share her life. The shipboard journey takes Lucy across the Atlantic Ocean and to London, filling in the crucial gaps in her relationship with Cabrera, helping her to understand the forces that have shaped this man. The ship encounters a violent storm at sea, and the motion is reflected in dangerous waves of another form. Traveling on to Cornwall, Lucy wrestles the demons from her past that threaten her hold on life. This is not a one-time reckoning, but as Lucy discovers, a process requiring both a yielding and a resistance. Judith Freeman has given us a novel that speaks to the challenge women face today in coming to terms with their own identities as revealed in their most intimate relationships. The author looks unflinchingly at the contradictions and complexity of human relationships as the character faces her role as a mother, a wife, a lover, a writer, and a human being struggling with loss. Once Lucy made choices that protected her heart; now life offers her the chance to risk loving with all her heart. To embrace love is to embrace loss, and Freeman traces Lucy's path to self-knowledge with strokes that resonate with the human yearning for meaning within ourselves and with others.

The comments from the third reviewer are exactly what I had feared... I have known about and studied my grandparents most of my life and I have seen NO evidence of incest, lesbianism, threesomes or molestation in my family.
I realize the writer states that this book is fiction but too many readers will read this stuff and think it is fact.
John and Rachel are my family and while I was born after their deaths they are very REAL to me, I LOVE these people, I feel I have a real sense of who they are and do not like to see them defamed in this manner. My grandfather has already paid for his sins (and the sins of countless others.)
I'm not a praticing Mormon either, but I can certainly recognize Mormon bashing when I see it. (And if anybody wanted to bash the church, it should be me -as I do believe John Lee was betrayed by the church.)
As I stated in my previous review, the book is well-written and often very enjoyable - BUT it should NOT be seen as the TRUTH.
I have recently finished another FICTIONAL account of the MMM, called "The Wine-Dark Sea of Grass" and while it it not necessarily as well-written, I feel it is much better at capturing the kind of man my Grandfather was and what happened that fateful day.

Judith Freeman's book is obviously fictitious and she makes sure readers are aware the book is fiction. Recent news reports indicate the LDS church is now examining Ms. Freeman apparently as a precursor to excommunication. What I find extremely interesting in most reviews of LDS-related works, fiction and nonfiction, is the tendency of many reviewers to state that the doctrine described in the work being reviewed is no longer practiced by the "modern day" LDS church. You will find one reviewer who makes this statement in her review of Ms. Freeman's book. I often wonder what force causes people to react defensively and compels them to offer disclaimers. Why can't a book be read and enjoyed without readers having to be reminded by reviewers that what happened long ago could never happen now? Ms. Freeman's book is about basic human values and emotions that are as real today as they were then. Frankly, I am tired of Mormon reviewers who constantly have to remind us their church is different now...they have missed the point of an excellent book.

This is great writing. I was completely taken in by just about everything about this book. I found the characters complex, the scenery beautiful, the language believable. The women were all interesting to me, and I didn't find anywhere that my interest lagged. I even found myself seeing John D. Lee as human for the first time, something even his memoirs were unable to accomplish. I don't know much about the theology or morality of the 19th century Mormon church, so I can't really say whether it was accurate in that regard or not, although I found it believable. I do, however, know a great deal about Mountain Meadows, having read just about everything published about it, including much of the apologist garbage that passes for history written by defenders. I can tell you that I found nothing she wrote about the massacre with which I disagreed, right down to "putting the saddle on the right horse." Brigham Young was directly responsible for ordering the massacre, and John D. Lee was just following orders, although that makes him no less a murderer in my eyes. It is no better defense here than it was at Nuremberg or Mai Lai.

I do confess a bias, however, although different from that of others. I first "met" Captain Alexander Fancher, leader of the Fancher party murdered at the meadows, as I was researching his brother, my great grandfather John Fancher. I found them and their families side by side in the 1850 census of San Diego, California. They had apparently come out together to try their hand at cattle raising and were headed for Tulare county in central California. There I saw a listing of Captain Fancher and his entire family, wife Eliza (whose blood stained dress Emma was wearing in the scene of her great humiliation), age 28, son Hampton, age 12, William age 10, Mary, age 9, Thomas, age 7, Martha, age 4, and lastly the twins, both 1 and a half, Sarah and Margaret, for whom my mother was named. All of these people would be murdered at Mountain Meadows by John D. Lee and those he led and followed. Even the twins, a mere 8 years old at the time of the massacre, did not survive. Only Kit Carson Fancher and Traphina (Emma's apparent accusor in the dress scene) survived, both born after 1850. Alexander and family had returned to Arkansas to collect family and friends to bring out to the California paradise and were headed to meet his brother when they met their fate. His brother John, with whom Captain Fancher was very close, didn't know of his brother's fate for some time after the massacre, and didn't know the truth until many years later.

So you see, it takes quite a gifted writer to humanize someone like John Doyle Lee in my eyes. I even found him sympathetic at times. Freeman has found a way to zero in on one of the great mysteries of the Mountain Meadows Massacre: how otherwise decent men, who love and are loved, could find it in their hearts to commit such a slaughter of innocents. This is by far the best fictional account of the massacre and its aftermath that I have ever read.

For those who are interested in finding out more about the massacre, I highly recommend The Mountain Meadows Massacre, by Juanita Brooks, and even more highly, Blood of the Prophets:Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by Will Bagley.

If you enjoy a slower read this book might be for you. I read "Red Waters" and was fascinated, so I decided to give this a try. For me it was not the same, as I enjoyed the other book very much.

The subject deals with a woman who was Mormon, but her and husband are not practicing. They fall away from religion and get a divorce, and she leaves to try and find herself as she roams over California and Mexico. If this subject matter sounds interesting to you then you could very well enjoy it more then I did. The pace was a bit slow and many situations void of the emotional thunder I usually enjoy in a book.

However, not everyone likes what I do, so thus the suggestion of interest.

If you are anxious to try this author, or interested in unorthodox Mormon fiction, then I suggest "Red Water" which Freeman takes an unapologetic and sacreligious look at polygomy, the churches early practice of plural marraige.

Reading this book is like taking a long drive down a lonely road with the main character, Verna at the wheel. On the way, you meet interesting and quirky characters as well as live her memories of the past. As the road stretches out ahead of you, sometimes the rear view mirror image blends in with the present.
I was intrigued by an insider's view of Mormons and their customs, as Verna physically and spiritually distances herself from her roots.
I'm glad to know this one is going back into print. It's a winner.

Judith Freeman's "The Chinchilla Farm" is a wonderful first novel and a delightful story. Like William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways", which also focused on new beginnings, she has a strong storyteller's voice. ("Blue Highways" was his first novel too.) I consider both these books as "must read" and have given them as gifts to many people.