In Search Of Kinship is an achingly luminous epiphany to read. A series of essays by an award winning Western author who honors her sacred connections to the earth through life and literature, In Search of Kinship draws on Native American sacred writings and traditions as well as others. It becomes a rich rainbow fusion seen through a filtering prism of light.

Unself-conscious in form and style, vivid in natural, daily detail, it is a series of testaments to a deeply felt faith in the land and creatures, human and non-human, who people the land set in Wyoming on the visionary back doorstep of the Black Hills near Sundance Mountain, Lambert draws upon numerous rich traditional literary sources, including Black Elk Speaks by John Niehardt, Buffalo Woman Comes Singing, by Brooke Medicine Eagle, and Lame Deer: Seeker of Visions by John Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes, to name a few. She weaves a rich blanket of hope, addressed to the land itself. In the epilogue,'Song of Songs Which is Wyoming's,' she writes of her aging horse, Romie: "Memories cloak and comfort. Time has, for each of us, a different measure. Your decline in many ways frees me to become a new woman whose past is just beginning to catch up with the future.

Actually, it is you , Wyoming, and not Redy, who has taken over Romie's role in my life. Our affair began despite my grudging nature, despite my loyalty to Colorado - land of my youth. At first, these gentle black hills hid their power from me. I compared your eastern edges to the Rockies of my childhood and thought them not worthy of my devotion.

I recoiled from your red-slashed buttes, scoffed at those who called them mountains; these mere places where your face wrinkled with age. I was, at first, deaf to the ancient whispers of those who had found shelter within your arms. I trod the ancient paths but saw only my own footsteps(pp.239-240)."

She goes on to describe the land as an ancestor, even a jealous lover.

"It was not fair of you to tease me with your elusive antelope, to flaunt your whitetail deer before my modern human eyes. You seduced me with the perfume of your summer sage, kindled memories of other women, dark-skinned and light.

But then, when I dreamt of home, of innocent days unburdened by painful truths, of running like the wind upon Romie's back in pursuit of the mythical buffalo, you pulled tight your sovereign rein and let loose the fury of your winter. You taught me that the true mythology of the buffalo, like the words of the Bible, must not be taken lightly. 'Ask the beasts,' it is written in Job. 'Speak to the earth, and let it teach you.'

Your storm raged around me, the vibration of your anger reaching deep chords. When I dared to open my eyes, you offered me a crystalline world, frosted brilliance glittering from every branch, a chance to start anew.

Like a reprimanded child, I pushed thoughts of former places from my consciousness and let you stake your claim on my no-longer-innocent soul.

It would have been easier had I not sifted your red earth through my fingers - had I not breathed in the musky odor of your mountain asters. I should have turned away from your hideless tipi rings, from your bouquets of dried weeds turned to silver sage, and from the shadows of your buffalo bones before it was too late. But I did not.

And now you will not let me go. You demand an enlightened future - whose very hope lies in the lessons of the past - a past that all our ancestors bequeath to all of us (.pp.240-41)."

It is a rare privilege to read such writing. In Search Of Kinship is to be kept, treasured, and returned to, for the glints and patina reflected in it are soul-enlightening.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

This beautiful book of reflections about rural life, family values, and Wyoming, is a gem. Page Lambert brings grace and wisdom to her pages, as well as an understanding of what it means to live in the rural West. This is a book about love and courage. Both men and women will treasure this book and this author.

This book is wonderful! Mrs. Lambert artfully weaves the fabrications of her willful imagination and vivid life into a stunning masterpiece. I would reccomend it to any reader who likes to feel the emotional pulling of heartstrings. Read it!

This immaculate collection is a must-read for all. Featuring intricately crafted tales from today's most gifted writers, including Utah's Kate Boyes ('I Hold To Those Who Favor Fire'), this intelligently written mélange is, refreshing, enlightening, and entertaining.

I got the book as a Christmas gift and found myself transported to warm memories of pets, past, present and future. I found the book to be like looking in someone's emotional diary; sharing their most intimate, special moments of sharing their lives fully with a beloved pet. I bought ten copies of the book and gave it as a new millennium gift to all the pet lover's in my life and I'm prould to report that the praises, thank you's and high-fives keep coming my way. If you love your pets like family, and are tired of fiction or stories of gloom and doom, add this book to your shopping cart!

I loved this book, the stories truly captured the special bond and joy that animals bring to peope's life.I laughed,cried and will never look at my cats the same way again.For those people who ae owned by their pets we are truly blessed and this book contain stories that will remind us of this. For the many people without a four-legged friend in their life they should read this book and find out what they ar missing.

If you love your pet, you'll love this book. The stories capture how important pets are in our lives. My whole family has read it. I'm writing stories about my own pet with the help of a journaling book, THE BOOK OF MY PET. It's helping me capture my endearing animal's life in the way the Chicken Soup authors did.

There are so many Inspiring and touching tales that fills our hearts with emotion. One wonders 'why' things happen as they shouldn't or 'How' do miracles change the course of our lives. There are moments in everybody's life where at a point you encounter obstacles, where your self esteem gets low, attitude differences opine or whatever be, awe-inspiring stories of this book glues you to stir your heart to be more wiser. It rekindles the spirits undoubtedly when we read the emotional narrations of others and wonder - We too come across lot of experiences in life. Should we not pen it down? Easy it may seem, needs inspirations like these stories to share alike tales. This book sure is a great 'light up spirits' book for woman, self inspirations you can say. Topics on Love, Attitude & self esteem, Special moments, Dreams, Truth & wisdom n more are widely covered which makes it a special read. I cherish this book and read n re-read at times. Good pick

The stories are short but all are wonderful; the book has no beginning, no end. You can open the book to any page and read that story. The stories make you glad, sad, joyful, give you hope, make you laugh, make you mad, make you want to read them all. They uplift you, bring you down to earth, or make you think about yourself and wonder how you would have acted or reacted? What is amazing is that these women are not so different from you or your family or friends after all. We are all important, just like the patches in a patchwork quilt. It takes all kinds to make one beautiful world (quilt, too)

This Chicken soup book was delightful reading for me. I'm not very easily touched by a book, but these storied related to me in inspiring ways. They made me realize that other people relate in some of the same situations that I have experienced and the solutions were very simular. I can't wait to read more of the Chicken Soup series.

It got a bit repetitive though - I mean, ALL those stories of calving were a bit excessive. I bought this book during my first visit to the High Plains last week on my spring break in South Dakota. I enjoyed most of the stories - I didn't think they were all particularly and equally wonderful, but with so many writings you will have likes and dislikes. I did wish, however, that I could talk to some of these women and let them know that not all vegetarians and animal-rights activists hate ranchers. We're not all hippy-dippy airheads who don't know the real story of animal farming - the hard work and even love that goes into the raising of animals. It's just a difference of opinion regarding the sanctity of _all_ life. I felt attacked, quite a few times, while reading this book. Overall though, there were very inspiring stories and quotable quotes - "Pay a holy kind of attention" !!! Loved that one.

To start this book is to start a trip into one's own past. Whether we now live in the country or in a city, many of the stories told here are within our own familys' histories; I can feel my own German immigrant grandparents, farming on the plains of Eastern Colorado, within these pages.

The sheer eloquence of these plains women - their poetry and tales - tells much of the strength of the human spirit. I wept with them as they tell of the rigors of drought and the Depression; laughed with them as they tell of childish pranks; and prayed with them as they lived through weather we can only imagine today, snugged, cocooned, and protected as we are from the elements.

I would wish every high school American history teacher would include this in their curriculum. To have history not only educate, but entertain, is a rare treat. It is our roots that make us strong - just as the wheat that grows upon these same high plains.

The format is outstanding for its message: short essays and poems. One can chew off just as much as is right at any one time, without feeling that the tale has been interrupted. The eloquence of these prairie women, the beauty of their imagery, was a constant delight - even when their eloquence was manifested purely by sheer simplicity.

As a ranch woman who lived many years in South Dakota, the anthology truly amazes me for its capacity to speak clearly about the heart and souls of plainswomen. The women wrote their stories with passion that credits the authenticity of their varied subjects. The authors exposed the west in black and white, yet showed the gray complexities. The land, as one writer said, holds you in a way nothing else can. The reader learns that an appreciation and respect for the land is paramount if one is to cope with extreme weather, cyclical income--often below the cost of doing business, relationships made uneasy by common community knowledge of generations living in the same place. Individuality, as shown by the diverseness of the authors' experiences, is the key to holding one's own in an oftimes hostle environment. Truly the weak don't survive. "Leaning..." shows the strength and fortitude necessary for life on the high plains and also the compassion brought on by the witnessing of a prairie in bloom, an astonishing star lit sky or the newborn's arrival. One sees clearly the growth that can come from intimate association with life and death. The honesty of life is on every page.

this book was confusing and very not meaningfull i thought that page lambert did a bad job.

Very good reading, with excellent comments on the Grand Canyon, the experiences of rafting the river and essays on how the canyon touches people in different ways. I have just completed an 8 day trip of over 280 miles in the canyon and experienced every emotion and awe-inspiring moment described in the book. The photographs are worth the purchase price alone. A must read before and after taking a trip down the wonderous Colorado in the Grand Canyon

Writing Down the River grabs your heart and broadens your understanding of the power of the western landscape. The photographs are amazing in themselves; the essays stunning.

Sybil Downing, award winning author of Ladies of the Goldfield Stock Exchange

I don't know why I didn't like this book. It was too wordy, too perdictable, too much something. Why is it that white's are always being protrayed as saving the Native American. I've read many novels about Native Americans and this one reminds me of some new age person who has the facts and language down, but it's really boring and drons on and on. The characters are cardboard cutouts and easly fit in a 1950's western movie. I only wish I could return the book. If you want a good read try Scarlet Plume, Hanta Yo, or any book by a true Native American like Sherman Alixe.

I, on the other hand, thought that this was a good book. It was NOT too wordy or predictable, either. The begining was not neccessarily slow, but just not as interesting as the last half of the book, but once I got to last half, I couldn't put it down. It was just like listening to an old myth. I would recomend this book to anybody who is a fan of story telling and the powers behind it.