This book is amazing, I am 15 and I read it, my mother at 39 read it, my grandma read it and my younger sister at 13 read it. Everyone takes away some different, but something wonderful from this book. It is absolutely indescribable, you have to read it; right now, order it, read it, it will change your outlook on life.

This is a beautiful book on so many levels. The author's voice, the author's spirit, the author's technique of storytelling are awe inspiring. If you have been led to this page, take it as a sign and order this book, reading it is an experience and I can't wait to read it again. If you are looking for a gift to give someone else then this is it, but read it first yourself so that you can trully share it.

My husband gave this book to me and I am truly enjoying it! Katharine sees things from a rare perspective. Her life transformed her into someone that could see deep into even the most mundane subjects. I feel a new appreciation for even the sounds of crickets! She was certainly a person who's cup was always half full! This book is like welcome raindrops, enveloping you and staying with you long after the drops have evaporated!

This is undoubtedly an interesting conglomeration of easy-to-read info on mythology (with the most attention going to the Greek pantheon). It's even a degree or two more intelligent than its cover and title would suggest. The quotes from modern day writers and poets are well-chosen. The lay-out of the text is fun and easy. There are illustrations and separate boxes for quick rundowns of info on various subjects inserted into the main text. Yet for what it is (a servicable rundown of mythology presented in a manner to please short attention spans in a hardcover format.... I still give the book five stars because it really is very well done for what it's supposed to be. As mentioned above it's a few degrees above the usual level of intelligence these basic rundowns of Greek myth are usually at; yet it's also got a tinge of political correctness, but only a tinge. Instances of political correctness are few and easily passed over and it definitely doesn't suffuse the style or approach of the entire book.....just a few disappointing instances of cowardice (or intellectual 'dips in the road', however you want to read it...) by the author. Other than that she is engaging in her writing, and her enthusiasm for her subject comes through. I would actually say that this is a unique, easy-to-read book to get a basic, entertaining, overall view of mythology in general and Greek mythology in particular. A much better book if it leads the reader in the direction of Homer and Ovid...

I picked this one up on the strength of the previous "Friendly Guide" (The Friendly Guide to Shakespeare), and was not disappointed. While Hathaway's book is ostensibly about the universe, and does contain quite a bit of information about the subject, a better description might be "Lives of the Astronomers." From Copernicus to Hawking, Hathaway tours the universe by taking a time trip through the many advances of astronomy. Like the guide to Shakespeare, the chapters are short, and sidebars abound. I spent about three months working my way through the book, reading a section or two a night. While it isn't a substitute for Astronomy 301 (the math quotient was thankfully low), this is a nice book for those of us who like to know a little about a lot.

What a great book for anyone that has even the slightest interest in space, physics, or just how in the heck everything got here! She takes difficult subjects and breaks them down into interesting "fun facts" that anyone can appreciate and understand. It's simply impossible to not share something out of this book if someone else is in the room while you're reading it!

A Friendly Guide is fabulous! I have read it several times in the several years that I've owned it (and I rarely read anything I don't have to!). Nancy Hathaway devides and subdevides astronomy into small enough bits and mixes enough wit to make it easier to understand for those who don't know much astronomy. The small subsections also make it possible to read for us who do know something about astronomy but are pressed for time.

The book details unicorn lore from all over the world, from India's karkadann to the Japanese kirin. It is full of pictures, from the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters to a Sunkist orange label from the 1930s. It made me look at unicorns in a new way. If you are a hard-core unicorn lover, I recommend it!

The books by Nancy Hartaway are wonderful. My favorite book is The Unicorn. I love unicorns and by reading this it made me feel that they really do exsist. I want to write screen plays and I am starting one right now. It is about unicons and I got the idea for writing the story about unicorns fron all the wonderful pitcures in the book. It was exsiting to read.

Ashley=)

My father died earlier this month, and in my quest to learn more about the grieving process I bought this book. I learned that everything my family did was wrong.

We should have had a funeral, we should have had an open casket, we should be prostrate with grief for weeks on end, etc. It took me a while, and some discussion, to realize that these ideas are principally American, and are foreign even to those of us in Canada. The very idea of an open casket gives me the shudders, yet she says it's important. Go figure.

I thought Lightner was right on in her acceptance of the grief of adult children, friends, siblings, other relatives, pet owners, etc. I appreciated her validation of my feelings that even though I was an independent adult I still felt abandoned, in a way. She also made me feel better about the way I was grieving, pointing out that the 'rules' of grieving aren't cut and dried, and that everyone handles grief in his or her own way. I appreciated that.

I started reading this book about 2 months after the death of my spouse at the age of 53 and after almost 6 years of marriage and a horrific death from a nerve disease. I never really knew what grief was until his death. Nothing seemed to help until I read Candy's book. I never realized how cathartic such as death could be. Candy provides such an insight into how I needed to not only pass through the sorrow and pain but into a totally changed life. She helped me understand how many more facets there were to what I was feeling. This is a wonderful compassionate work. I know Her daughter must be smiling down from heaven in pride on her mother today.

Candy Lightner's book was the most helpful guide through grief that I read after my own loss of a 14 year-old daughter in 1988. Here I am, 13 years later, still remembering passages from the book. A few months after my child's death, and feeling mired in a depression I had no idea how to lift, I bought or borrowed every book on grief I could get my hands on. This one stands out for its honesty and focuses on the fact that there are disparate ways of grieving, none of them wrong, and that those left to deal with the death of a loved one never "recover" as from an illness, but rather incorporate the experience into his or her life. The loss becomes, as one father described it (paraphrased) not a turbulent river, but a meandering stream that ebbs and flows through the remainder of one's life. I completely recommend this book, and in fact bought many copies which I have given away over the years. There are many interesting facts brought out in the book, for example that 80% of all marriages end in divorce after the death of a child. Although perhaps most helpful to those who have lost a child, the book has much to offer anyone learning to cope after the death of a spouse, relative, or dear friend.

I was so angry at just reading the front flap that I didn't purchase the book. These descriptions of Native culture "captured" by the camera just before it "dissappeared forever" and culture on a 'precipitous decline' are dangerously innaccurate and paint us as a vanished people with no past or present effect on society. The author should have been more careful in constructing this summary, or in relegating the duty to someone else so dramatic and ignorant.

I loved Native American Portraits. Hathaway captured beautifully the turbulence and tragedy of the time and the photographs are truly distinctive.

I found this book wandering through B-Daltons about a year ago. It is by far a work of a master. The pictures featured in this book are ones that I have not been able to find anywhere else. Nancy Hathaway has put together a great tribute book. I love the pictures within the pages of this book, it's a great gift for yourself or a friend interested in Anthropology, Native American Studies, or just for the coffee table. I LOVE THIS BOOK. I look at it everyday and truly have some favorite pictures!