The first three quarters of this book are excellent, if a bit difficult to follow due to time changes and information that is left out for later. But overall I liked it. The last 1/4 is a bore. The same emotions repeated and the same family interactions with no one really growing or changing. Everyone resigned to the status quo. The mother is particularly unlikable. No way for me to know if the WWII stuff is accurate. I wasn't alive.

This is the kind of novel that may challenge a reader's investment. It is a book worthy of reading, but one that may take deeper reflection and patience for the story line and time period to assimilate. For some one that lived in this time, I imagine it could be an entirely different experience. O'Nan has obviously researched the era; the references to war events, the battles in Alaska, the names of songs and radio stations could bring back potent memories to the right persons. Even though it is not a time period I am intimately familiar to, I did feel caught up in much of the storyline.

The novel is subtle. Unlike many war stories, it concentrates on the family left at home. The war did not stop people from living their lives, making mistakes, having affairs and coping with the usual events any family must deal with. The investment the reader must make is to be patient enough to allow the characters to reveal themselves and for the gentle ambience so well presented by the author to enhance the story.

The story may not be as gripping as is the feel of the book, the emotional and crystal reminisces of the characters and the incredibly unique years of WWII.

The young men go away to war but family and life still goes on.
The story shifts from one era to another to give the reader an idea of how a veteran feels while at war and again when they are back at home, many years later.
This is a story of the effects and the memory of war and the lost innocense of young men. The sadness that stays with a war veteran during his daydreaming of fighting and fear.
A very worthwhile book to read.
A lot of different emotions and outcomes are entwined through this story of family, love, and war.

This book does not show much of Native art Only has One design and it is not very good

Although the activites in this series are geared to elementary students, they can be adapted and used effectively with any age group. What better way to learn than through hands-on activities? I have used these activites successfully with students in grades 6-8, but must admit that I have enjoyed them every bit as much as my students! If you want your students to have a deeper understanding of and appreciation for Northwest Coast Indian art, then these books are for you. Instead of merely observing art, students will relish the opportunity to create it themselves.

This is a wonderful book for children to learn about Native American traditions and crafts. I first read it in fourth grade, and in ninth grade used the pattern for a button blanket of my own for a Washington State History project!

This book was very well written. It includes cute notes about the author's dog, and amusing ancedotes about life with dogs. I used the cookie recepies, and my dog loved them. They are very easy to make, and don't take up alot of time. I had hoped for more treat recipies rather than meal recipies.

I really enjoyed No Barking at the Table ,the recipes were fun and easy to follow . Yes, some dogs are sensitive to onions according to my veterinarian,so I omitted that ingredient and Roxy didn't seem to notice and begged for more! I highly recommend the chicken broth cookies.

My daughter recieved this book as a gift. It's a fun and friendly book with easy to follow instructions. My daughter and her friends wasted no time getting me to supervise in the kitchen! As a single father, I think that books like this are a great way to get more involved and interact with your children. The biggest plus to my surprise is that they even cleaned the kitchen afterwards! We have tried several recipe's from this book and Daisey & Gnasher (our poodle & minature dobie) loved them! Have fun with your family with this one. Highly recommended!

I'm glad I didn't buy this book, now that I've seen it. Although the reproduction quality of the photographs is very good, the photographs themselves aren't interesting to me and are even a bit distressing.

I haven't seen the film(s) or exhibitions about Nan's work though. There is some information about her work on the web - take a look at Yahoo.

this is one of the best collections of color photography i have seen. nan and her friends are beautiful and scary and strong and fun and sad. i have seen the slide show and bought the book when it was reprinted. go out and buy it! END

This book is an unadulterated piece of CR--!! The author made no attempt to cross-check the material he put into it, and re-printed a large number of Vietnam War Myths, - the girl in the napalm strike, the 19 year old casualty, and many others, - as facts. If he is really teaching our youth the "history" of the Vietnam War using this tripe he should be called up before an academic review board and disciplined for sloppy research and distortion of the Nation's real effort in Southeast Asia.

Do yourself a favor and read a "real" book about the Vietnam War, one such as Geunter Lewy's "America in Vietnam", or Andrew Krepinevich's "The Army and Vietnam", if you are stuck with this one, read Burkett and Whitley's "Stolen Valor" in order to sort out the real from the fanciful.

I knew as soon as I got to page 2 of the intro that this would be a re-hash compilation of old B.S. war stories and half-baked myths masquerading as "Vietnam war history". And O'Nan is apparently still teaching this nonsense to unsuspecting college students! Take the oft-disproved LIES like "the average age of the combat soldier in Vietnam was 19". This doesn't square with the reality that the average age of those whose names are listed on The Wall and whose MOS is 11B (combat infantry) is 22.6 years of age. The average age of all Vietnam war fatalities was 23.1 years. Where does he come up with 19? Later we see those two famous (infamous) Vietnam photos with their DECEPTIVE captions. On page 439 "A South Vietnamese girl flees a U.S. napalm strike by Highway 1." Had O'Nan bothered to check his facts he'd discover that NO AMERICAN had any role whatsoever in this incident. South Vietnamese pilots flying South Vietnamese jets under the orders of South Vietnamese air controllers dropped the napalm on North Vietnamese Army positions in the village of Trang Bang when this picture was taken, June 8, 1972. Phan Thi Kim Phuc's injuries WERE NOT caused by any U.S. soldier. Later on page 691, we learn that "As Saigon falls, helicopters evacuate the U.S. embassy." More crap. The rooftop evacuation in the photo is from THE PITTMAN APARTMENTS in Saigon. Many of the works and authors cited in The Vietnam Reader were also critiqued in the book STOLEN VALOR. In Stolen Valor you will learn that many of the "Vets" writing these exciting stories of combat derring-do WEREN'T EVEN IN VIETNAM (if they were indeed in the service at all!) Do yourself a favor. If you want an honest, authoritative, objective, and well-documented expose' of thirty years of Vietnam war mis-information, read Stolen Valor instead.

... O'Nan has put together some of the best literature written by Americans about the Vietnam War since the late '60s. A quick look at the table of contents should put anyone's doubts to rest--especially since O'Nan has included a generous amount of space to Tim O'Brien, certainly the finest American writer about the Vietnam War. I had two problems with this book, besides the fact that this should be available in hardback. 1) O'Nan has failed to include anything from Thom Jones's book "The Pugilist at Rest"--an excellent writer, close on O'Brien's tail in terms of sheer storytelling. 2) This book includes nothing by Vietnamese writers--which I find a huge oversight...
This book does not pretend to be history...

I am a long time fan of Nan Ryan's. However, her new book The Scandelous Miss Howard, falls short of her usual caliber. The story line is an interesting one, but she fails to put much depth into her characters, or into their interaction. I am just disappointed at how similar this story parallels that of "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexander Dumas. Right down to the map to the stolen conferderate money. Not very original.

Long, unnecessary first half, with too many chartacters and point of views. The first part of the story is a step by (unecessary) step of the first half of Ladd's & Laurette's lives. The setting could have been portrayed in half the time, and the author should have delved into the guts of the plot much earlier on. The character development (after all that) still seemed vague. But when the story really did start to "kick", with a bitter Ladd (Sutton) returned home, it became interesting, but the ending was aprupt and sudden and very anticlimactic. It had such potential! A very difficult read and no gratification. The author should have done a little more editing to perfect this story.

This book had alot of potential, both in the plot and the chracters. But I felt that Ms.Ryan failed to fully explore the deeper levels of both points, which left this book sorely lacking in warmth and feeling. I read through this book in a day and a half, and never felt a close connection to either Laurette, or Ladd. Surprisingly, Ms. Ryan seemed to put more color into her secondary characters, such as Jimmy Tigart and Bones, then she did with her two main ones. Throughout the book, frank sexuality is used in place of having to write about more subtle and deeper actions, that even the most branded "Sex novels" actually use. No doubt most of the scenes were very sensual, but the sheer number of them could have been limited, and more emotional actions put in their place. Also, I felt that Ms.Ryan really did not understand the era in which she placed her story, and many of the scenes had a contemperary feeling to them, and that the dates held no meaning to the plot, other then throwing in the civil war to split up the hero and heroine. I guess from all this I can say the book wasn't the worst I've read, but definatly not one to go on my favorites list.

As a previous reviewer has mentioned, this book, and others of its ilk, such as works by authors like Barry Fell, is based on the premise that only white people have invented anything complex. I don't think Childress is genuinely racist in motivation, he's just not the brightest of bulbs. The idea that cultures can develop in similar ways without being in contact with one another is a concept too subtle for the likes of Childress, but it doesn't stop him coming up with his usual ill considered opinions.
These books do a great disservice to the people of the Pacific, to scholarship, the past, and just plain honesty. If you want a genuine examination of Pacific prehistory you'd be far better off reading Pat Kirch or Peter Bellwood than wasting your time on Childress' childish scribblings.

Indeed, as other reviewers have also observed, some of the contents of this book come from uncertain sources. Some of its parts are more serious, some less so. But all in all, this book does provide a great insight into the culture and life of ancient Micronesia - and it's one of very few books that accomplish this. It is written in a vivid style, easy to read, serving also as a guidebook to some extent for those visiting the region. For armchair travellers, real travellers, scholars of Micronesia, and others, this is a book I recommend ! Just take it with some caution if you are looking for academic rigour.

It is difficult to find books that include an indepth look at diffusionist theory in Micronesia, or other Pacific Islands, for that matter. Thor Heyerdahl, Barry Fell, and others have proposed that the settlement of the Pacific started in early Egypt. Indeed, did the same people who built the Egyptian pyramids and megaliths build the incredible city of Nan Madol? Childress says that Nan Madol and other megalithic remains in the Pacific were built by the ancient Egyptians. A great theory, and Childress provides a great deal of evidence in the form of photos, maps, and well referenced "facts." Highly recommended for diffusionists and those who study the megalith builders of thousands of years ago.

My boyfriend and I were in a long distance relationship for a few months and I thought this book would make a nice gift for him. Big mistake, It's nothing like I expected. The whole thing is drawn in cartoons. It's just a joke book for a gag gift. It had nonsensical scenes with puppets and Jell-O, and lame jokes.... I thought it would have new tricks and positions for men but in the end I was too embarrassed by its immaturity to even give it to him as a joke.

Why do you need a partner when you can do it yourself ? Once I got this book and a good old pot of KY Jelly, I left my wife and Bob's my uncle now. Why go through the pain of relationships if there is good books like this out there. A must by for loners, or men that lost interest in relationships. The good thing about using your hand is it doesn't need the half-an hour talk afterwards.

This book is still really nice because of the cover...my son loves to squish it and feel the decals of the fire engine, dog, and people. However, the story just is not that exciting, and my son tires of it before it is over. Don't get me wrong, these books by Nan are the greatest, but this one just is not as good as "ribbit ribbit" or any of the other ones.

I was very disappointed by Extraordinary Vessels, but
this one is a-OK. However, the Style of writing is again all
too confusing. Does not really explain
the fundamental of acupuncture
concisely way. Lack of translations of each Chinese/
Japanese characters would not really help.
I do not recommend for students of acupuncture.

Somewhat a better book than Extraordinary Vessels, but
still failed in explaining the basic acupuncture philosophy.
Too many quotes from too many different classics. Failure to
provide Chinese and Japanese characters and the lack of clear translation of each of the words do not really help readers
to understand the essence and fundamental. It could have been
a better book, but it is not.

This is a great book for people who want to know more about 5 phase acupuncture. I have owned this book for about 3 years, and have gone back to it over and over. Each time I pick it up, I find something new. While some "cookie-cutter" approaches to 5 phase styles are presented, there is also enough theoretical meat to keep the reader interested. Great book to have in your collection!