If you love the Great Plains and have a heart for the prairie, this book will delight you. The photography in here is outstanding. After working with buffalo earlier this year, this was a book I had to get. Some of the photos, including the cover photo, bring not only the sights but also the smells and sounds of the giant herds to mind. These photos are worth more than 1,000 words... because they speak to my prairie heart.

I 'm a partner in specialized conifer nursery, always we are asking for the second volume for this extraordinary book. May be one of the best conifers manual.

Toward the end of his life, Montana poet Richard Hugo wrote a detective/mystery novel that features a detective who is the antithesis of the tough, clipped speaking, hard drinking, noir detective so common in the American detective story. Al "Mush Heart" Barnes is a loveable, poetic, common man, a man with an eye for a good looking woman and a skill for solving murders. Barnes has moved to Plains, Montana in his retirement from the Seattle Police Department, and works as a Deputy Sheriff. Suddenly, two men are murdered by axe and Barnes' detective work takes him to Kooskia, Kamiah, and Orofino on Idaho's Clearwater River and then to the Portland metropolitan area, where he uncovers truths about an old murder, new murders, and some of his close friends. If you happen to enjoy Richard Hugo's poetry, his unmistakeable voice drives this novel and his lyrical writing and philosophical observations make this book an aesthetic delight.

Mildred Walker's depth of characters is incredible. She should be recognized as a leading writer of the mid 20th century.

"Lion" is the tale of a young minister (Mark) and his wife Harriet who go into the "Wilderness" (capital W) of Montana in the mid 1800's to Christianize the savages. The book opens as they are returning to New England, frustrated and failed, after only a few months. They both felt "alive" in the Wilderness and were rather shocked by its "lure" and both seem bewitched by one incident and person: an Indian woman, wife of the trader, who lives in both worlds (Indian and White) but will not speak English to Mark or Harriet. Mark hopes she will become his interpreter, and a believer, and tries to comfort her when her son dies. She will not speak to him, but is the source of a vision to him. This becomes a fixation, a frustration and a stamp of failure. Using Harriet's pregnancy as an excuse, they leave Montana.

Walker's elegant prose floats through the compelling story - I was held tight anticipating what would happen next to this couple who love and hate each other - each having become obsessed with the incident in Montana and the manner in which they see it. Everyone's lives become affected by the Indian Eenisskim: the righteous congregation, the self absorbed Mark, and calm, enduring, way-ahead-of-her-time Harriet. Mark says at one point "it seems I always need interpreters".

Beautifully written, full of rich characters, and a most interesting, surprising end.

Cliched reviewers say, "you can't put this book down." In the case of poet Richard Hugo's autobiography, I found I needed to put it down occasionally. The book is so intense, so brutally truthful, that the reader has to take a break and walk away from it periodically, just a prize-fighter needs that break between rounds. Growing up on West Marginal Way with his grandparents in Seattle, going through his tour as a bombardier, his early life and eventual emergence as one of the top nation's best poets - and certainly one of the top poetry teachers - Hugo spares neither himself nor the reader. Although modern-day Americans are accustomed to seeing blood and gore on the TV screen, few are prepared for the concussive effects of Hugo's unflinching reminiscences. When the book finally is put down at the end, it stays with the reader, as does an admiration for the extreme courage Hugo took in putting all this down on paper.

Simon Flexner portrays William Henry Welch as probably the biggest contributor in helping establish the backbone for medicine / pathology as we know it today. Simon Flexner was a very good friend of Welch's, and this source is one of the best secondary sources available to explore what is basically a patriotic American who helped his country in every single way (including the war) but did not get the fame or credit he deserved because to achieve all that this man had, he could not afford to concentrate on any one topic. This is a book which has enabled me to access what his most intermediate friends described him as, and not only was it a good source, but also an excellent read. If you want to know why American medicine really reached its pinnacle, this book is the answer.

Mildred Walker must have lived on a farm. Surely she could write about the unpainted house, the yard light, the wind breaks and snow without living on a farm, but her descriptions of winter wheat, the elevator, driving a truck and harvesting wheat are too real to just be observations or a result of research.

I grew up on a dry land farm in eastern Montana and reading WINTER WHEAT was a thoroughly enjoyable trek back to my childhood sans hayfever or sloppy mud. The main character, a young girl becomes stronger as she loses her nearly perfect man and learns to see the best of all places, even the depths of tragedy and despair. Her assumptions colored her relationship with her parents, a familiar yet somewhat unexplored topic in books set in the west. I found the combination delightful and easy to relate to my quiet Danish father and mother I thought was always old.

This is a definite read if you've lived through life-threatening snow storms, driven a combine or sat on a tractor working far into the night just to finish a field. I could feel the crust of the snow and the warmth of the wood stove. Remember the smell of wet mittens drying and floors slippery with thawing snow and ice?
I don't expect city folk to grab this book as a must-read, but the country ones of us - or those who long to be farmers - will delight in Mildred Walker's setting and character study. It tells the hard and the soft of farming and makes the wheat report on the radio come back - clear and holding the future of the crop in a few words.

Read it? Yes, but you may want to wait for a sunny day so you can sit at the edge of a field in the shadow of the tall windbreak and grab a handful of dirt now and again.

What can I say? This is quite possibly one of the best books I have ever read. Mildred Walker wove a story that stole my heart away. Ellen Webb, Gilbert, Leslie, Anna, Ben, and Warren were so alive in this story. It's as if it really happened. I was transported in time to their lives and I did not want to leave it. Splendid literary talent like this comes rarely. I felt like I was there with them. I could not stop reading this book.
I highly recommend this book to all and I have already purchased several copies to distribute to my family and friends. I am going to read it again and again... Thankyou, Mildred Walker, for your depth of understanding of the human heart.

I initially picked this book up at the local library, liking the title itself. When I started reading it, I had a hard time putting it down. Mildred Walker does a fantastic job of getting the human heart onto paper and I highly recommend reading this book. My wife and two daughters also read this book, largely based on my recommendation. One of my daughters also had the same reaction I did, and she is only 9 years old. This book only spans the period of less than two years of a girl's life, but oh what a two years! Please read this great book.

Ýt is a compeling novel with unique descrpýtýons of a modern Native American who is caught between his past and present.Jim ,a half- breed with a blurry past, is struggling with self-identification.While trying to reinvent his lost identity, Jim is offered help from people who love him.However,neither social relations nor cheap wines help him get over his identity crisis.As he gets more involved with his subconcious thoughts and dreams, he starts to become a non-person in the small town of Montana.As he refuses to get help from people who try to bring order to his life, he realizes the liveliness of the land and as a result identifies with it for a regeneration of his soul. Even though,the plot is quite simple, the intriguing descriptions make the novel an extraordinary one.Inarguably,everyone can find certain points or characters to identify with himself.

Reading this, I could not help making comparisons with the play, "Death of a Salesman." While James Welch may not appreciate his story of a half-breed American Indian being compared to a play about a very white, middle-class male, I found my reaction to both very similar. Despite the sense of doom, from the very beginning, I found myself foolishly hoping, as I did with Willy Loman, that Jim would latch on to one of the opportunities offered him, and change his fate. At the same time I knew that Jim, like Willy, was a finished product by the time I'd met him, and that simply changing locations (or jobs) would not make any real difference. Of course, Willy was more a product of his own choices, while Loney is more a product of other peoples'disregard. This is where the story of the white man and the Indian diverge.

Welch is an excellant writer. This book is concise and neat. Very little is extraneous or superfluous to the story. There are a couple of small flaws, however. While he does an excellent job of portraying the feelings and emotions of Loney's sister, I thought he did not do as good a job with his white girl friend. To me she came off just a bit one-dimensional, but then, it is often difficult for a male writer to explain the female side of a relationship. I also thought he could have done away with some of the explanations at the end regarding Indian alienation from the white culture, and Officer Painter's sudden realization of Loney's "plan." Perhaps Welch didn't trust in his own abilities to bring this out within the story, but he had already done an admirable job, and it didn't require repetition.

All in all, I would recommend this book very highly. You will probably end up, like I did, reading it in one night, and then wishing that you hadn't finished it so quickly, so that you would still have it to look forward to.

Having read Fools Crow I was aware that James Welch has a wonderful way with words. However, I was unprepared for this book - it was like sitting in the head of the principal character, Jim Loney. I found myself so involved that I was willing Jim to come out of his predicament in one piece before I reached the back cover of the book. I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but I went through a roller-coaster of emotions reading this book. It brought to mind some people I knew, but I think that it was most poignant because I thought, 'a flame extinguished even before it had enough time to burn bright... at last he seems to have found some happiness.... why didn't they try harder to save him....why did he give up so easily, etc. etc.'It's a stark and wonderful story....read it!!!

Fools Crow allowed me a historical view of the disintegration of the Native Americans in a unique and realistic way that I have never seen before. It convincincly recreates the Native American way of life and brings the reader into the culture using original and translated words such as "Napikiwan" for the white man and "Night-Red-Light" for moon. Also, Fools Crow is a coming-of-age story. It follows the young and unlucky White Man's Dog on his journey into manhood. His rebellious and angry foil, Fast Horse, adds another viewpoint to the novel. As a whole I enjoyed this book, but I disliked a few important parts. James Welch uses an unusual narration style that is not always successful. He is unable to pull off some characters, such as Raven; however, the shifting narration does add to the book as a whole in an effort to create a more complete and accurate portrayal. In addition, dreams are a key part of this book, but some dream sequences are completely confusing, leaving the reader to question their reality. I liked Welch's clear and precise writing style and his interesting characters. I found the names of the his characters to be especially fascinating because they describe the character in some way, an aspect of culture no longer found today. This book was definently worthwile to read. It entirely changed my perspective on the expansion into the West and I highly recommend it.

This fictional book introduces many customs, traditions, and beliefs of Native Americans while providing a story line that keeps the reader interested. Fools Crow explores the life of an awkward teenager of the Lone Eaters tribe as he grows into a brave warrior, earns the respect of his tribe, is named Fools Crow, and is eventually entrusted with the fate of his people. Welch explores the Native American lifestyle during early American expansion into the west through the themes of revenge, faithfulness, and racial controversies, through the trials that Fools Crow undergoes, and many other characters that he interacts with. The non-distinct line between the real world and the dream world illustrates the depth and beliefs of the Native American culture; however, while this style is intriguing, it can lead to confusion at times in the novel. For example, at several points in the story, Fools Crow speaks with animals and it was hard for me to determine whether I was supposed to believe that he was literally speaking with an animal, or whether he was dreaming. Although it was confusing, it did serve a purpose of making the story stronger by providing a possible reason for Fools Crow and other characters take their dreams and mystical experiences so seriously. Perhaps the character is similarly unsure of whether the experience was fantasy or reality, and therefore treats it as being real. While this story is mainly portrayed through the point of view of Fools Crow, it also briefly explores the lives of white settlers and soldiers. The similarities shown in these different characters expresses a great truth in that neither of these races are truly savage, and neither are completely good.

James Welch's Fools Crow does an excellent job of bringing the reader into a Native American way of life. From the very start, this novel takes things that we see every day (like animals, people, dreams, and places) and looks at them from a new point of view. A major part of this new point of view is the vocabulary which Welch utilizes in describing everything in the Native American world. He does not refer to people, animals, and other things in the traditional, white American way, but instead, uses a Native American dialect and vocabulary. Fools Crow is not only a five star book because of its language, but also because it is an outstanding bildungsroman. It does a fascinating job of telling the story of a young man growing up in an ever-changing (and ever-diminishing) society where the decisions of himself and his peers will determine the future of his people. Another strong aspect of this novel is its use of dreams and visions to aid in foreshadowing and understanding of the Native American way of life. The novel helps to bring the reader into a world where the events which occur in someone's dreams contain deep meaning and play an important role in that persons life. Overall, Fools Crow is a great book to read for pleasure, for fun, and especially for a greater understanding and respect of Native American life. This is a book from which the reader walks away having learned and felt something that he or she has never experienced before.

By the second page, I was drawn into this strange world of prisons, Indian Reservations and Helena, Montana (circa 1990).

The story is about two men, Sylvester Yellow Calf--Native-American-ex-high-school-basketball-star-turned-lawyer and Jack Harwood--college-educated accountant with a penchant for felony crimes and doing hard time. Caught inbetween them is Jack's wife, Patti Ann Harwood. Sylvester is an up-and-coming trial lawyer with his sites set on the traditionally Democratic congressional seat in western Montana. He also sits on the parole board that is reviewing Harwood's case. Harwood manages to convince his wife, Patti Ann, into orchestrating an accidental 'meeting' with Yellow Calf. He wants her to get close to Yellow Calf so that he can blackmail him to use his position on the Parole Board to get Harwood released early.

Things take a turn for the worst, when Patti ends up fulfilling her husband's wishes too well. Suddenly, she is caught between the man she is married to and the man she is falling in love with. Harwood and Yellow Calf, too, are caught in a deadly dance of blackmail and power plays.

All in all, an excellent book. The only downside is that you know it eventually ends and the windows on these characters that are so well-fleshed out will be closed. Small price to pay, though, for such a compelling story.

This book was a very gratifying read.The misconception of tradition against contemprary society shows through loud and clear.Welch depicts the Indian Lawyer as someone that we all know in our every day lives.The predjudice and shame that "Yellow Calf' faces is very apparent.

I couldn't put the book down once I started reading. The novel painted an intricate web of characterization between prison life, growing up on a reservation raised by grandparents, the contrast between native and white cultures, politics, and confused romances. The plot was provoking, the story well written and cast fully human. I put the book down feeling exhilerated, wanting to explore Mr. Welch's other works.