Book Description
The first Navajo woman surgeon combines western medicine and traditional healing.
A spellbinding journey between two worlds, this remarkable book describes surgeon Lori Arviso Alvord's struggles to bring modern medicine to the Navajo reservation in Gallup, New Mexico--and to bring the values of her people to a medical care system in danger of losing its heart.
Dr. Alvord left a dusty reservation in New Mexico for Stanford University Medical School, becoming the first Navajo woman surgeon. Rising above the odds presented by her own culture and the male-dominated world of surgeons, she returned to the reservation to find a new challenge. In dramatic encounters, Dr. Alvord witnessed the power of belief to influence health, for good or for ill. She came to merge the latest breakthroughs of medical science with the ancient tribal paths to recovery and wellness, following the Navajo philosophy of a balanced and harmonious life, called Walking in Beauty. And now, in bringing these principles to the world of medicine,
The Scalpel and the Silver Bear joins those few rare works, such as
Healing and the Mind, whose ideas have changed medical practices-and our understanding of the world.
Customer Reviews:
A thoughtful exploration of Indian culture and medicine.......2007-07-26
Daughter of a full-blooded Navajo father and white mother, Lori Arviso Alvord grew up on a New Mexico reservation in a family that took pride in its native heritage, but followed few of the traditional ways. She attended Navajo schools but never learned the language; she knew her clan relationships and enjoyed the security of tribal connections but seldom attended ceremonies or understood the depth of meaning in the Navajo concept "Walk In Beauty."
Such a person might expect to shed the remnants of tribal culture on leaving the reservation to become a high-powered surgeon, a career that by its very nature flies in the face of Navajo precepts like privacy and self-effacement.
Indeed, throughout her memoir, co-authored by Elizabeth Cohen Van Pelt, Alvord seems to straddle two worlds separated by an uncomfortable gulf. She first looked upon the deepness of that gulf at Dartmouth.
"For a girl who had never been far from Crownpoint, New Mexico, the green felt incredibly juicy, lush, beautiful and threatening." Unable to see the horizon, she felt claustrophobic. But the culture shock was worse. "I thought people talked too much, laughed too loud, asked too many personal questions, and had no respect for privacy." Navajos do not put themselves forward and cooperation is valued over competition. Not a good prescription for success at an Ivy League school.
At Dartmouth she began to feel her tribal identity more strongly and wonder if a kinaalda ceremony (a celebration of womanhood) would have helped empower her in such alien surroundings. But not until after medical school at Stanford, where she was forced to break numerous taboos (Navajo never touch the dead, for instance) and joined a profession where it is essential to ask prying, intimate questions and invade another's personal space at will, did Alvord really begin to explore the philosophical grounding of Navajo culture.
Becoming a surgeon at the Gallup Indian Medical Center, close to the reservation, Alvord notices that her patients do better when they are calm and relaxed, that harmony - even in the operating room when the patient is unconscious - is important for recovery.
She grows more interested in the Navajo philosophy that "everything in life is connected and influences everything else." To "Walk in Beauty" a person strives to live in balance, symmetry and harmony with everything and everyone else.
While this is an ancient precept, held in common with many other cultures and enjoying something of a renaissance in American medicine today, Alvord comes up with a particularly striking example. One of her surgery patients, a young woman, was the first to die of a strange illness that swept through the Navajo nation, killing 11.
A doctor working for the Centers for Disease Control, Ben Muneta, visited a medicine man, a hataalii, who told him "the illness was caused by an excess of rainfall, which had caused the pinon trees to bear too much fruit." There was "a significant deviation from the natural harmony of the world."
The medicine man showed a sand painting of a mouse and said that twice before in years of excess rainfall a similar disease had struck. " `Look to the mouse,' " he said. Weeks later the CDC determined that the Hantavirus was contracted from the droppings of infected deer mice. The deer mouse population had surged due to an excess of pinon nuts. "It was the rain."
Alvord's tone is quiet, reserved. It does not seem easy for her to describe the alcoholism of her charming father or the difficulties and generosity of her (married at 16) mother. Though she takes us to a nightlong ceremony for the sick and celebrates the strength her patients draw from medicine-man visits, she never explains why it takes her so long to visit a hitaalii during her own pregnancy. Or why she never approaches a medicine man to discuss cross-cultural treatments despite her growing conviction of the efficacy of the "whole body" approach.
While most of the book concentrates on her work and her struggle to reconcile cultures, she provides a wide, sad look at reservation life, beset by poverty and "white mans'" diseases. The long grief of history resides in the alcoholism and the self-loathing of so many - a balance that can never be put right.
At last Alvord leaves. Seeing it as the next natural step in her own "life trail", she returns to Dartmouth as a surgeon and a dean of minority and student affairs. At Dartmouth, she hopes, she can teach the Navajo "Walk In Beauty" principles to new doctors as well as working within the established system to bring better care to her own people.
The First Navajo Woman Surgeon........2007-04-09
I am full-blooded Navajo, I was taught to believe in my traditonal ways and it disappoints me that she has talked about very scared ceremonies.
Solid credentials but too abstract.......2003-12-04
--Dr Alvord writes about her journeys as a Native American student and physician. The book seems clearly designed for non-technical readers rather than the professional medical community, and there's little medical jargon. She uses her own difficult pregnancy and the death of a beloved grandmother as case studies in integrating Western medicine and Navajo ideas.
--On the one hand, it's worth reading this book just to hear such an inspirational story from such a role model. Dr Alvord tells her story with dignity and courage and she has many good ideas about listening to patients and integrating Balance and Harmony in our profession (although these ideas don't seem as radical or as rare within the medical community as she seems to imply, and I don't think she does anyone a great service by implying they are).
--On the other hand, the authors remained disappointingly abstract, even given the limitations of confidentiality and space. The stories of Navajo healing barely scratched the surface and the book was pretty scanty with practical advice that would help non-Native healers understand Native American patients. I'd love to have heard her perspectives on the magnitude of Native American health problems, how she handled the constant pressures of time and funding, or how she successfully used traditional Native American methods to help manage serious medical-social problems (i.e. alcohol use, diabetogenic diets, family pressures, basic compliance and responsibility issues, etc). In short, I'd like to have heard more about her successes.
--The book's perspective gives a good counterpoint to those who criticize Western medicine as too impersonal/sterile/uncaring/whatever, while they fail to demonstrate how to predictably improve things and still efficiently deliver technically competent health care to people with different levels of motivation and understanding. Western medicine works beautifully in its own niche, but it will be made to work less efficiently if we mess around with the wrong things. Perhaps medicine will improve if we balance the responsibilities of patients to live a healthy lifestyle with the responsibilities of healers to carefully listen to patients and then help them heal.
--This book did not practically help me to do this, so I cannot give it five stars despite my respect for her credentials. I do look forward to a sequel.
--Other books which may be of interest include Blessings (by Dr. A. Organick), The Dancing Healers, and Primary Care of Native American Patients.
READ THIS BOOK.......2003-05-10
I picked up this book and I could NOT put it down. What a wonderful journey described here....how she interlocks traditional medicine with Navajo, how harmony and positive spirit is such a process in the healing world. You will not be disappointed with this read. I have shared this with all those close to me. Make it part of your list
What We All Want in a Doctor.......2002-03-18
This book was recommended by a friend, and after I read it, I chose it as my selection for my book club. Living in the Southwest, the insight into Native American culture was especially educational. Alvord seems to confirm what so many of us as patients have been saying for years: give us a doctor who will take the time to get to know us on a personal level and treat the whole person. I would recommend this to men and women, young and old alike! What an amazing woman.
Book Description
For her acclaimed collection of stories, Red Ant House, Joyce Carol Oates hailed Ann Cummins as "a master storyteller." The San Francisco Chronicle called her "startlingly original." Now, in her debut novel, Cummins stakes claim to rich new literary territory with a story of straddling cultures and cheating fate in the American Southwest. Yellowcake introduces us to two unforgettable families"one Navajo, one Anglo"some thirty years after the closing of the uranium mill near where they once made their collective home. When little Becky Atcitty shows up on the Mahoneys' doorstep all grown up, the past comes crashing in on Ryland and his lively brood. Becky, the daughter of one of the Navajo mill workers Ryland had supervised, is now involved in a group seeking damages for those harmed by the radioactive dust that contaminated their world. But Ryland wants no part of dredging up their past - or acknowledging his future. When his wife joins the cause, the messy, modern lives of this eclectic cast of characters collide once again, testing their mettle, stretching their faith, and reconnecting past and present in unexpected new ways. Finely crafted, deeply felt, and bursting with heartache and hilarity, "Yellowcake" is a moving story of how everyday people sort their way through life, with all its hidden hazards.
Customer Reviews:
Free At Last.......2007-09-20
"Yellowcake" called to me from the library shelf because of the Native American theme. Perhaps I didn't read closely enough, but I didn't realize I was a reading a book with a main element of cancer death. Ann Cummins does an interesting job of focusing on a group of characters all affected by radioactivity in the uranium mines. The term "yellowcake" apparently comes from the radioactive residue that coated machinery and was frequently handled by Native American workers. However, all that is background for the story.
It is in the narrative that the novel bogs down. There are so many characters that it becomes hard to keep them separate. After reading, I'm still a bit confused as to who belongs to whom. In a novel where there are several races as well as mixed blood, I was frequently confused about each character's heritage. It seemed to be an important issue; so it needed to be made more clear.
For a substantial portion of the book, we follow Ryland Mahoney who is in failing in health and walks with an oxygen tank. The story goes into Ryland's dream life punctuated by consciousness. Ryland was the foreman at the mine. Others blame him for the deaths of their loved ones. One of the most effective chapters is where Ryland takes a bath and falls asleep in the tub, becoming unable to move due to hypothermia. This leads into a series of chapters about a funeral. For quite a while, I thought the funeral was for Ryland. Instead, Cummins clumsily makes the funeral about a very minor character named Woody that appeared for about three pages. There doesn't seem to be any intentional misleading. We're supposed to recall the huge cast of characters and determine who has died by the family members involved. This was one of the most ineffective parts of the book.
Cummins also seems to explore many relationships in the book, leaving them open-ended. We have the reappearance of Sam who apparently is still married. Delmar is Sam's half-Native American, half-White son. Sam's wife Lily has failed to file divorce papers for something like 17 years (can't recall exactly) because she apparently still loves Sam. However, she then gets very frightened after giving Sam $5,000 and then claiming that he stole the money. No one addresses the fact that she's lying. Meanwhile she becomes totally paranoid about Sam attacking her and deteriorates mentally. Sam goes swimming in a stream and that's the last we hear of him. Cummins takes a major plot line and then drops it like a hot cake at the church pancake social.
Other love relationships are also unclear. Cummins spends less time developing the characters Becky and Harrison. Political issues about the reopening of the mine come into play, but the relationship is left hanging and unresolved. All of this leads to the experience of having dropped in on the life of these characters. Unfortunately, we exit the book not sure of what has happened. "Yellowcake" seems muddy and unresolved. The book's pacing bogs down as Cummins spends huge amounts of verbiage describing things that add no particular value to the unfocused plot.
In the end, this book was depressing. Segments were well written. But it was a story that I waded through to be able to joyfully exclaim as I turned the last page, "Free at last! Free at last! Great God Almighty, I'm free at last!" Maybe the best way to be free of this book is to not start it. Taxi!
wise and deep novel.......2007-04-01
I flat-out love this novel. The review in the Washington Post, which described the "marvels of insight and sympathy" in Ann Cummins's perceptions and character depiction, seems to get at what makes it so great -- that the book should have such a gripping set of intertwined plots, all beautifully balanced, along with wonderful writing, urgent human questions, and believable characters.
It's a wonder to have so many vivid people in this novel, all completely distinct and all seen with a mixture of clarity and compassion. Ann Cummins seems to understand people of all different ages, genders, backgrounds, celebrating their quirks and strengths without excusing any of their faults.
This is a novel that you experience as if you were living it rather than reading it. The book provides an education in how it feels to inhabit different lives. How are people caught in their circumstances, what kinds of choices do they have to make, and what do their choices cost them and the people around them? What are the specific human results of bottom-line decisions? At what point does peace of mind or duty to the family feel more important then doing the "right" thing? What is the right thing, and how do we know?
As a reader, I have a weakness for literary page turners, writers like Iris Murdoch or Toni Morrison who can keep you up all night with great plots and beautiful language, writers who can create characters you seem to know better than most of the people in your life. Yellowcake is that kind of literary page turner. It is a pleasure to read, and at the same time it makes demands: its intelligence asks for intelligence on the part of its readers. It leaves you bigger afterward, if you're able to face the questions it raises.
Ordinary Family Relationships--Extraordinary Book.......2007-03-28
Knowing nothing about the southwest, Navaho culture, uranium mining, or the illnesses that come from it, I entered a whole new world when I read Yellowcake. But not entirely new: Families seem to be the same everywhere, and the author has been able to capture the rich functions and dysfuctions of daily life in families and extended families when everything is going on: wedding preparations, terminal illness, new relationships blossoming, old relationships exploding. The inter- and intracultural, inter- and intragenerational relationships bring light to the external circumstances in the novel, just as the external circumstances push and pull the characters to their best and worst behavior. I've learned some about the southwest, Navaho culture, uranium mining, and Yellowcake, but mostly, I've entered a world of some very real people, and watched them as they've made difficult decisions under difficult circumstances. I loved the book, and didn't want my relationship with these people to end.
A great Southwestern read.......2007-03-27
Having lived for many years in New Mexico and being an enthusiastic consumer of fiction set in the area, I grabbed Ann Cummins' novel off the shelf as soon as it was published.
I expected a muck-raking story of oppression and exploitation in the notorious open-pit uranium mines. But what I found instead was a complex interweaving of several distinct stories, all centering on the difficult choices--and compromises-- we all must make in life. The characters were well developed and richly diverse, especially the half Navajo hero who holds the story together. I finished the book in a single evening, staying up far later than I should have on a work night. I was wiped out the next morning. It was well worth it.
I've read a lot of other "southwestern" novelists---Udall, LaFarge, Anaya, Hillerman, and even Willa Cather. Ann Cummins is right up there with them.
Over-baked Cake.......2007-03-23
The author's first novel (after a highly-praised book of short stories) bogs down in too much detail, and too little dialogue and action. The reviews told me this book was worth reading, so I was hopeful. It opened with a good scene, then fell flat. Little tension. Slow pace. I kept trying to move forward, but the narrator kept holding me back. Long sections, page after page, of big block paragraphs where the author is telling more than showing. Heavy-handed authorial (narrator) intrusion makes the reader feel too distanced from the characters to care enough about them.
Feels like pieced together vignettes. Or a short story stretched too thin and then overly padded into a novel. Where's the plot? There is a story in there somewhere. But the narrator keeps interrupting with details that overwhelm and frustrate the reader. I felt like every time I started to get close or warm up to the characters, the author/narrator pulled me aside to tell me about them.
The author needs to get out of the way and let the reader interact directly with the characters. Cummins may be trying too hard to prove her worthiness as a novelist. She needs to see from the reader's perspective. Less is more. And this felt more like a docu-drama than a novel. It's a worthy subject, and a valid effort at character study, but as a story it grows tedious. Obviously a capable writer who needs to smooth out the lumps and mix her ingredients better.
Book Description
What did the dead man know?
Jimmy Blacksheep, a Navajo member of the New Mexico National Guard recently returned from Iraq, is killed in what appears to be a carjacking gone wrong. But when Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah receives a mysterious package in the mail, she begins to suspect that Jimmy’s death is part of something larger.
Ella finds she must use Navajo lore, not FBI cryptography, to decode Jimmy’s message. Tantalizing clues link Jimmy’s death to his military service—but what could the medic have seen in Iraq that would make him a target for murder back home?
Ella’s personal life seems just as complicated as her case. Her mother, Rose Destea, marries her long-time beau, Herman Cloud. Then the father of Ella’s daughter, Dawn, asks for a change in custody arrangements that will reduce Ella to a weekend mother—a much easier fit with her workload but something that will take a terrible toll on her heart.
Customer Reviews:
Navajo culture.......2007-05-14
Well paced mystery as usual with the Thurlos. I like that they sprinkle in bits & pieces of Navajo culture into the story. The end of the mystery of the death of the soldier did not turn out as I thought it would. What happens with Ella's romance? I guess I will have to purchase the next book to find out.
Mourning Dove.......2007-04-10
This is another great mystery in the Ella Clah Series. I've read all the books in the series and enjoyed every one of them. I can hardly wait to get my hands on the next installment, (Turquoise Girl). I would recommend these books to all mystery lovers!
Change of pace.......2006-09-23
I've read most of the Ella Clah books by Aimee Thurlo. They're nice to read, different from the usual Raymond Chandler type detective. This gives a lot of details about Native American life. You could find that in a history book, but I'd rather read a novel, than a text book. I also like/read the Tony Hillerman books.
Please, Once is Enough.......2006-08-29
I found the book repetitive and boring. We were told many things over and over again. And the set up for the romance with the Reverand is nothing if not ridiculous. Not interested in reading any more of these for sure.
Mourning Dove.......2006-07-24
Another great book by Aimee Thurlo. Can't wait for her next Ella Clah mystery.
Average customer rating:
- Great Book!!
- Terrific book
- Fantastic book to read aloud
- The Code Talker Review
- A Good Book All Around!
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Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two
Joseph Bruchac
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ASIN: 0142405965 |
Book Description
The United States is at war, and sixteen-year-old Ned Begay wants to join the cause—especially when he hears that Navajos are being specifically recruited by the Marine Corps. So he claims he's old enough to enlist, breezes his way through boot camp, and suddenly finds himself involved in a top-secret task, one that's exclusively performed by Navajos. He has become a code talker. Now Ned must brave some of the heaviest fighting of the war, and with his native Navajo language as code, send crucial messages back and forth to aid in the conflict against Japan. His experiences in the Pacific—from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima and beyond—will leave him forever changed.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book!!.......2007-10-10
This is a great book. Not much else to say. 5 stars!! especially if you are into fictional stories based on real historical events!
Terrific book.......2007-09-28
Bruchac has created a terrific historic novel that has enough action for young male adults and enough history and research to appeal to an adult audience. Bruchac does a wonderful job of giving a sense of the complexities of growing up on a Navajo reservation in the first half of the book. The irony of a nation trying to wipe out the Navajo language but using it as a crucial means of communication during 20th century wars should not be lost on the reader while reading the second half of the book. Bruchac's narrator tells this tale in an even-keeled, even-tempered manner. The reader is allowed to gain his own sense of injustice our nation has inflicted upon its Native American population. Bruchac's description of the progression of America's involvement in World War II's Pacific campaign is well laid-out and dramatically presented. Highly recommended.
Fantastic book to read aloud.......2007-09-25
We read this book aloud while on a driving vacation through Navajo country in New Mexico and Arizona. My children (girl 10, boy 8 and girl 5) were completely enthralled with both the story and the insight into the Navajo people. Although a work of fiction, the book reads very convincingly as a memoir. The author succeeds admirably in relating the cultural challenges faced by patriotic Native Americans serving in the military as well a giving a non-romanticized portrayal of the realities faced by the soldiers who waged battle in the Pacific. We particularly appreciated the lighter moments -- one tale of boot-camp swimming "lessons" had the kids screaming with laughter. A great read pure and simple, but also one with good lessons to be learned.
The Code Talker Review.......2007-04-06
This book is a great part of history that makes you want to read more and more after every chapter. It teaches you about the Navajo marines of World War 2. Two words; spontaneous and action packed. I loved it when it was talking about the Kamikaze airplanes, atomic bomb, and the Pearl Harbor attack. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.
A Good Book All Around!.......2007-03-08
I suggest reading this book if you are interested in the Navajo Code Talkers. I would rate it as 4 out of 5. The book has somewhat of a language conflict, because of the different languages spoken. To completely understand the book, you will want to read it twice.
The book tells of a Navajo who was forced to learn English as a young child. He was assigned an English name and was never aloud to speak Navajo. As he aged and went through High School the Japanese were starting a war with the United States. Because the Japanese would intercept all of the Americans messages there was no way to communicate. The U.S. started to recruit Navajo's because of the language they spoke: Navajo.
The author tells us of his journey through WWII and his heroic story of courage and bravery while fighting to communicate with the "Main land". As the story progresses the author meets new friends and finds buddies from home. He describes war very thoroughly. He also describes the loss of a friend and how devastating it can be, especially during war.
There is a long introduction to the book (about 70 pages) in which reads very slowly. After you get past the beginning it is a page turner. I have recommended this book to my whole class because of the authors stunning ability to compel thoughts and emotions during war and hard times.
This is a short read with lots of interesting facts that have never been aloud to be spoken. The book would be considered Historical-Fiction because of its small amount of fictional content. I liked this book a lot and think that you would too. If you like anything to do with history, I would suggest that you read this book.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent - as most Hillerman books are
- Shoot out at the Wash-O-Mat
- Great book!
- Jim Chee -- between White and Indian
- Pretty good book - easy read
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The Ghostway
Tony Hillerman
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
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ASIN: 006100345X |
Book Description
Old Joseph Joe sees it all. Two strangers spill blood at the Shiprock Wash-O-Mat. One dies. The other drives off into the dry lands of the Big Reservation, but not before he shows the old Navajo a photo of the man he seeks.
This is all Tribal Policeman Jim Chee needs to set him off on an odyssey that moves from a trapped ghost in an Indian hogan to the seedy underbelly of L.A. to an ancient healing ceremony where death is the cure, and into the dark heart of murder and revenge.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent - as most Hillerman books are.......2004-09-01
I've read all of the Hillerman mysteries, but its been several years so now I'm listening to a few on tape as I drive to work. The "on tape" version is quite excellent. It is read (really it would be better to say 'performed') by Gil Silverbird, a Navajo actor and singer. He does an excellent job - the differences between Chee's conversations and interviews with Whites and Navajos become very obvious as Silverbird performs them. It adds yet another layer of cultural experience to the Hillerman books.
Shoot out at the Wash-O-Mat.......2004-05-30
A Shoot out at the Shiprock Wash-O-Mat leads to a puzzle that only Jim Chee with his knolage of the Gostway and of death rituals can try to peace together. Related is a disappearance of a school girl (Margaret Sosi) will lead Jim from the New Mexico landscape to the Los Angeles area. There with Hillerman's gift for description we also get a contrasting look of the different worlds. Will He find the girl and what does the puzzle spell out, or will it ever become clear?
This is a close continuation of "People of Darkness" so many of the descriptions and people were previously defined in that book. The reason people read Hillerman is mostly for the descriptions of the places and people his characters encounter. As seen in previous books, in the description of Margaret and other characters, he incorporates his real life experience with World War II and it's aftermath.
Great book!.......2004-02-11
This is one of the better books in Hillerman's series. We learn more about Jim Chee's life progress in the context of a murder mystery, which is neither too complex, nor too simplistic. Hillerman throws in the Navajo history, lore and lifestyle without preaching, or assuming knowledge on the part of the reader. In a neat touch, we learn an awful lot about Mary Landon without her actually appearing here as character: she's there in Jim's memory, in phone calls, and in a letter she sends Jim.
Well worth reading!
Jim Chee -- between White and Indian.......2002-12-20
This is the sixth of Hillerman's "Navajo Detective" series and the third in which Jim Chee is the main character. In "Ghostway" Hillerman explores the conflict of a Navajo drawn to the White world. Jim Chee is in love with a White school teacher, Mary Landon, and he contemplates marrying her and leaving the reservation to take a job as an FBI agent. But he is also pulled in the opposite direction to become a "singer" and preserve the Navajo ceremonies that are being forgotten as the old timers die off. Chee's preoccupation with the personal choices he must make are always near the surface of this mystery novel.
Hillerman, as always, celebrates the magnificience of the Navajo land and the Navajo's sensitivity to their natural surroundings. And, as always, the knowledge of their land and people give Hillerman's detectives the insight they need to solve the mystery.
"Ghostway" begins with a shootout in the parking lot of a laundromat in Shiprock, New Mexico that leaves two men dead. The story is not one of Hillerman's best or most credible but the character of Margaret Sosi, an entrancing, 15-year old girl wearing a black pea coat makes up for plot deficiencies. We want this girl to live -- but Hillerman readers know he has cruelly killed off children in other novels in the series.
Hillerman novels contain no sex whatsoever, but "Ghostway" comes closer than about any other to intimating that Jim Chee and Mary Landon might have engaged in something more than romantic conversation.
Pretty good book - easy read.......2001-08-30
Not my favorite Hillerman book, but still pretty interesting and entertaining. Won't hurt anyone to read something like this just for fun!
Book Description
In People of Darkness, Hillerman's first novel to introduce Officer Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police, Chee is forced to use all of his powers of deduction and insight to extricated himself from a deadly series of incidences involving a mysterious millionaire, a sinister, peyote-eating Indian cult, and what the New York Times called "an ingenious long-acting way of murder." In The Dark Wind, a seemingly routine stakeout at a vandalized windmill thrusts Chee into the center of a dangerous web of drugs, witchcraft, and betrayal. And in The Ghostways, a felon relocated under the Federal Witness Relocation Program sets off a chain of treachery and killings, and only Chee has the knowledge of the people and the landscape to understand the clues.
Customer Reviews:
Jim Chee Mysteries.......2007-08-03
I am a great fan of Tony Hillerman. I love his books. When he writes he makes the reader feel as tho you are there watching the story unfold. I am a retired Police Offier and I would love to work with Jim Chee if he was a real person. I am a book-a-holic. This is a club my 2 Sisters and I have formed. Great Book and writer !!!!!!!!!Elsie
Three Jim Chee Mysteries.......2004-11-02
Three Jim Chee Mysteries
---"People of Darkness"---
"The mole, his hunting place is darkness."
"The mole, his hunting song is silence."
Sgt Jim Chee of the Navaho tribal police is asked by the wife of Benjamin J. Vines to retrieve a mysterious box stolen from her husband's safe while he was away. When mister vines returns he tells Chee that it was all a mistake and hands Chee a check. We all know Chee can not let this lay still so the mystery leads him to people that use a mole for their talisman "The people of Darkness" and it appears that something (or someone) is killing them all off.
The mystery is fair and Tony Hillerman does not hide clues or surprise suspects to the last minute so it is not too hard to guess most of the plot or who the good guys and bad guys are. We are introduced to the Navaho concept of witches and Mary Landon who will play parts (if she survives) in future novels. In the process we get a vivid description of the four corners and other areas near buy. In People of darkness he picks up a Lota Burger and I have eaten a few of them my self. In future books we will be introduced to the Navaho Taco. For the anthropologist in us he describes many sings and ways.
-----------------------------------------------
---"The Dark Wind"---
"A dark wind has entered his soul"
"Enemies unseen... Fears unspoken...... A dark wind has entered his soul"
Navajo Tribal Police Sgt. Jim Chee seems to be batting zero; so far he has not been able to solve a series of seemingly unrelated crimes. In an area that was joint use land between the Navaho and the Hopi (now Hopi) Sgt Jim Chee is given the task of finding the vandal that keeps destroying a windmill placed there to make Hopi life easer. He hears an airplane landing in the dark of night with no lights. The plane crashes and leaves a dying pilot. Also a dead man sitting up against a rock with a note in his hand saying if you want it back contact...
Sgt Chee is told that it is probably drugs and federal jurisdiction. Chee is not supposed to go anywhere near or have anything to do with the case. He has his own problems with the mill, a missing thief, and a mysterious ritual death. Naturally he listens, and can not help it if they overlap.
One of the reasons for reading Hillerman's books maybe more important than the overlying mystery is the descriptions of the area and the Ways of the Navaho and Hopi. Hillerman suggests you also read "The Book of the Hopi" by Frank Waters.
Not as intricate as the book but still fun is the movie "Dark Wind" (Lou Diamond Phillips as Officer Jim Chee, Fred Ward as Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn)
-------------------------------------
---"The Ghost Way"---
Shoot out at the Wash-O-Mat
A Shoot out at the Shiprock Wash-O-Mat leads to a puzzle that only Jim Chee with his knowledge of the Ghostway and of death rituals can try to peace together. Related is a disappearance of a school girl (Margaret Sosi) will lead Jim from the New Mexico landscape to the Los Angeles area. There with Hillerman's gift for description we also get a contrasting look of the different worlds. Will He find the girl and what does the puzzle spell out, or will it ever become clear?
This is a close continuation of "People of Darkness" so many of the descriptions and people were previously defined in that book. The reason people read Hillerman is mostly for the descriptions of the places and people his characters encounter. As seen in previous books, in the description of Margaret and other characters, he incorporates his real life experience with World War II and its aftermath.
Jim Chee is not the Slim Man!.......2000-09-23
Jim Chee takes himself seriously, but Tony Hillerman only wants to tell you a great story while inclucating in you some respect for a culture you may not know. If you've read Hillerman, I don't need to tell you much. The first Chee books are wonderful because they are the development of the character. If you started with later novels, go back and read the early ones! This collection is a great place to start! Ah, but then you'll be hooked, and you'll have to buy all of Hillerman's work! DO IT!! Your reading will tell you much more than my enthusiams will do here!
ASM
Average customer rating:
- Pretty good
- NOW, THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!
- Excellent. Just Excellent.
- "A dark wind has entered his soul"
- good book
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The Dark Wind (Jim Chee Novels)
Tony Hillerman
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
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Listening Woman (Joe Leaphorn Novels)
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The Blessing Way (Joe Leaphorn Novels)
ASIN: 0061000035
Release Date: 2004-10-05 |
Book Description
A corpse whose palms and soles have been "scalped" is only the first in a series of disturbing clues: an airplane's mysterious crash in the nighttime desert, a bizarre attack on a windmill, a vanishing shipment of cocaine. Sgt. Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police is trapped in the deadly web of a cunningly spun plot driven by Navajo sorcery and white man's greed.
Customer Reviews:
Pretty good.......2007-05-22
well this gook was really good.it was about an indain man named Jim Chee who was walking on a trail in the middle of the desert and found a boot lying in the middle of the trail and a few steps later he saw a dead man with his hands and feet skined.and one late night at a little little air strip Jim heard a plane flying realy low but could not see any lights from the plane that had crashed but a "white" man told him not to get into it.and this is a start of a religos peroid.but other bad thigs happen withch i dont want to spoil it for you.
NOW, THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!.......2007-01-03
Recently I read THE SHAPE SHIFTER by Tony Hillerman and was disappointed by the overall shoddiness of the writing and story. It just wasn't what I had come to expect from, arguably, one of the best writers to come along in recent years. So I went back and read THE DARK WIND. I suppose I wanted to see whether my expectations had become unfairly high or if there really was an appreciable difference between one of Hillerman's early novels and his latest.
What I discovered was absolutely striking. Here in THE DARK WIND was the detail, the thought, the word-smithing excellence and the professionalism that made Hillerman a sensation. Here were the various single threads of plotline that seem, at first, to be so disconnected and unrelated but that, in the hands of the master, are then woven into the fabric of a splendid story. I rediscovered that THE DARK WIND is what I have come to expect from a Hillerman tale and its characteristics are to be found in many of Hillerman's most esteemed works. Here are the allusions to Navajo culture, with its simplicity, charm and mysticism, interspersed with the trappings of the modern world as Jim Chee comes face to face with mystery, murder and witchery. Here were the colors, scenery and the splendor that Hillerman invariably sets as the backdrop to his stories. Here was the literary integrity that I have missed in Hillerman's more recent offerings.
If you've just read THE SHAPE SHIFTER and have determined to take an indefinite break from Tony Hillerman, think again and pick up one of his earlier stories. You might want to do what I did and reread THE DARK WIND!
THE HORSEMAN
Excellent. Just Excellent........2005-02-02
I have read every one of Hillerman's books and now I am working my way through them as books on tape. Gil Silverbird read this book and he did a fantastic job.
"The Dark Wind" is one of Hillerman's best. He gives you a good solid bit of Native culture with a murder and a drug deal gone bad and it makes an unbeatable combination. Excellent.
"A dark wind has entered his soul" .......2004-09-22
"Enemies unseen... Fears unspoken...... A dark wind has entered his soul"
Navajo Tribal Police Sgt. Jim Chee seems to be batting zero; so far he has not been able to solve a series of seemingly unrelated crimes. In an area that was joint use land between the Navaho and the Hopi (now Hopi) Sgt Jim Chee is given the task of finding the vandal that keeps destroying a windmill placed there to make Hopi life easer. He hears an airplane landing in the dark of night with no lights. The plane crashes and leaves a dying pilot. Also a dead man sitting up against a rock with a note in his hand saying if you want it back contact...
Sgt Chee is told that it is probably drugs and federal jurisdiction. Chee is not supposed to go anywhere near or have anything to do with the case. He has his own problems with the mill, a missing thief, and a mysterious ritual death. Naturally he listens, and can not help it if they overlap.
One of the reasons for reading Hillerman's books maybe more important than the overlying mystery is the descriptions of the area and the Ways of the Navaho and Hopi. Hillerman suggests you also read "The Book of the Hopi" by Frank Waters.
Not as intricate as the book but still fun is the movie "Dark Wind" (Lou Diamond Phillips as Officer Jim Chee, Fred Ward as Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn)
good book.......2003-10-16
"The Dark Wind" is a very interesting book. It has a lot of suspense and Hillerman takes you into the book with his descriptions. This book is a murder mystery that keeps you thinking. It also keeps getting weirder as you read.
The book starts with three Hopi Indians walking up a trail and discovering a boot lying in the middle of it. They walk up the trail a little ways more and discover a dead body. The body was reported and picked up some time after the three Hopis discovered it. by the time it was recovered it couldn't be identified. Later in the book Jim Chee (the main character) is told to watch a windmill that has been vandalized two times before. in the middle of the night Chee hears a plane flying low, but cant see any lights from it. a short while later he hears a crash and goes to investigate. When he gets there he finds two people dead and one that is almost dead. He trys to find out what happened form the one that is alive, but he dies before he can say anything.
The book keeps going like this getting Chee mixed up in all of it. Chee knows he didn't do anything wrong, but he is the only one that thinks that he is innocent. Over all I would recommend this book to any body that likes mysteries or that just wants a book that makes you think and makes you feel like your right there with the characters
Average customer rating:
- Not the best by the Thurlo team
- Disappointed
- Disappointing
- Shooting Chant
- Ella returns
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Shooting Chant: An Ella Clah Novel
Aimee Thurlo , and
David Thurlo
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ASIN: 0312870612 |
Amazon.com
Former FBI agent, now special investigator with the Navajo Police, Ella Clah knows it's her police training, not the special gift of sensing she's supposed to have inherited from her clan ancestors, that accounts for her unease when troubling things begin happening on the reservation. Lab reports on pregnant women have been stolen from the health clinic, a Navajo guard at the LabKote factory has been murdered, and two native leaders have been kidnapped. The evidence points toward an activist Indian group known as the Fierce Ones, who have been protesting the deal that leaders made with the medical supply company that's on their land. Tensions are running high between the traditionalists and the moderns, the natives who want a return to the old ways and those who embrace the white man's technology to increase their crop yields and improve their brood animals. Not only is Ella stunned to learn that among the masked Fierce Ones is her beloved brother, a healer, but she's just discovered she's pregnant, by a tribal lawyer whose clan has been at odds with her own since the days of their ancestors.
This latest in the increasingly popular Ella Clah series (Death Walker, Bad Medicine, Enemy Way) packs enough action into one slim novel to satisfy readers used to the more cerebral novels of Tony Hillerman and others writing crime fiction featuring Native American heroes. Like them, the Thurlos put a lot of Indian lore into their books and focus on characters who struggle to live in two cultures but are never fully embraced by either. Ella Clah is a thoroughly modern career woman, but her loyalty to her heritage runs strong and deep, making for a richly explicated interior life that is more fully realized by the Thurlos than many of their peers in the genre. If you haven't met Ella before, her newest adventure will have you scrambling for her previous ones. This deft, fast-paced read pulses with danger and excitement on every page. --Jane Adams
Book Description
Once and FBI agent, Ella Clah is now a Special Investigator with the Navajo Police. She walks a tightrope between the Navajo and white worlds, fully accepted by neither but needed by both. Ella's brother, Clifford, a hataali or medicine man, says that her investigative skills are a gift from the spirits who guard and guide the Dineh, but Ella insists it's her FBI training that has honed her instincts.Ella's life is about to change in ways she can barely begin to imagine--she is newly pregnant, and though she knows who the father is, she will not marry him. In Navajo society, her child will be of her clan, and will be accepted by her family, no matter what--but how can she stay a police officer, exposing herself and her unborn child to terrible danger day after day?Given her current caseload, it's hard for Ella to put off making a final decision about her career. There's a near-riot at LabKote, a factory on the Reservation that produces high-quality vessels for medical labs. The Fierce Ones, an activist group of Navajo, are insisting that more native workers be hired by the firm--including a Navajo replacement for a manager recently found dead in his car, an apparent suicide. A sniper shoots at Ella as she drives to another crime scene--the home of State Senator James Yellowhair, who has been kidnapped.Feuding between traditionalist and modernist elements in the Navajo nation heats up with sabotage, vandalism, and murder, spurred by a rise in birth defects among the Dineh's livestock and rustling of sheep and cattle. Ella's personal concerns mount when officers investigating a break-in at the health clinic discover that the records of several pregnant women--including Ella--are missing. Then one of the pregnant women is murdered......
Customer Reviews:
Not the best by the Thurlo team.......2004-01-21
Too much pregnancy.............
I have read most of the Ella Clah series, including some that come after this one. All have been excellent and read by both my husband and myself. I am only halfway through, but am thoroughly put off by the baby this, baby that, ad nauseum. I do not think I will suggest that my husband bother with this one. The Thurlo team are very good at providing lots of insight into the Navaho culture, but this is not one of their better efforts.
Disappointed.......2001-07-04
I enjoyed the first novels by the Thurlos but I have been very disappointed in the last two Ella Clah novels. I could not understand why they bothered me until I realized the Ella seems to get getting more Anglo in each novel. For as long as she has been back on the Rez and the types of cases she has been dealing with, i.e. skin walkers, I expected her to be more accepting of her heritage but she totally denies it even though her fetish seems to warn her when there is danger. A disappointing read. I doubt if I will buy Red Mesa.
Disappointing.......2001-04-23
As a big fan of Tony Hillerman, I was extremely excited about new mysteries from the Four Corners region. I was extremely disappointed by this effort. The dialogue is poorly written, the storyline tedious, and, unlike Hillerman, many of the numerous subplots have no bearing on the conclusion. The ending lacks credulity, and the characters are thin and stereotypical. Buy this book only in paperback or as a special from a Mystery book club.
Shooting Chant.......2000-10-03
This is the best book in the Ella series. It is sure nice to read a book set in the southwest that shows the real southwest. Some authors do not have a clue about New Mexico. The Thurlos have done excellent research. The book is an excellent example of this and is a great read.
Ella returns.......2000-07-07
I've been a fan of the Ella Clah novels from the beginning, and they just keep getting better and better. This one combines a complex mystery and Ella's personal problems. Even having a baby isn't entirely a personal matter when you factor in the relationships among the Navajo clans and the legendary past of Ella's family. The Thurlos do a terrific job of showing us the problems and conflicts of modern Navajo life. Lots of familiar characters return with Ella: her colleagues Justine, Big Ed and Doctor Roanhorse, her family Rose, Clifford and Lorretta, and her friends Kevin and Wilson. I'm already looking forward to the next adventure, to find out how the realities of motherhood affect Ella's life and career.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent escapism
- Hillerman spins another great mystery with native legends...
- A Great Mystery
- Anthropological Masterpiece
- Don't Wait To Read This One!
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Coyote Waits (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels)
Tony Hillerman
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
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The Ghostway
ASIN: 0061099325
Release Date: 2005-06-28 |
Book Description
The car fire didn't kill Navajo Tribal Policeman Delbert Nez, a bullet did. Officer Jim Chee's good friend Del lies dead, and a whiskey-soaked Navajo shaman is found with the murder weapon. The old man is Ashie Pinto. He's quickly arrested for homicide and defended by a woman Chee could either love or loathe. But when Pinto won't utter a word of confession or denial, Lt. Joe Leaphorn begins an investigation. Soon, Leaphorn and Chee unravel a complex plot of death involving an historical find, a lost fortune...and the mythical Coyote, who is always waiting, and always hungry.
Download Description
Loaded with e-book extras (not available in the print edition), including Tony Hillerman's running commentary on his work and his series heroes Leaphorn and Chee; plus a special profile of the Navajo nation.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent escapism.......2006-07-08
Picked this up at Albuquerque airport after five days home in the Four Corners and devoured it in one sitting on the plane ride home. Hillerman captures the Southwestern USA as a character like Randy Wayne White captures Southwest Florida, Robert Goddard captures Southwest England or Jim Thompson captured Texas.
The pacing and economical emptiness of writing of Hillerman's books goes perfectly with the climate and geography where they are set. Spend some time on Native American lands and you'll get the point. Hillerman has the New Mexico/Southwest/reservation/Four Corners nailed -- at least, one big aspect of it. His books also are unique -- no one else has carved out the same niche.
I liked the realism of the law enforcement officers jumping to a quick conclusion about how the killing went down that might not stand up to scrutiny. There are cases like the one in the book where it's just very easy not to look a whole lot further, and candid cops will tell you that.
I also like Chee and Leaphorn and how Hillerman gives us two complementary characters, the one older and wiser but perhaps a tad closed to originality, the other younger and more impulsive but also more able to look outside the lines, think outside the box.
Thoroughly entertaining, quick read.
Hillerman spins another great mystery with native legends..........2005-11-12
Hillerman is such a dignified author. That probably sounds strange but his books are well written, well researched, and he makes it obvious that he loves the Four Corners area and the people who live there. He bestows great respect on the religions and beliefs of the Native Americans from that area, and it is interesting to see how they differ from one another, and how they are the same.
As in so many real life murders, people die for the dumbest reasons. In this case, it was over a possible finding of Butch Cassidy in the area, who had robbed a train. The skelatonized remains of the men with the money lay deep in an area considered taboo by the Navajos, yet one member of the tribe who has the ability to use crystals to find things is bribed with liquor to find something within this area which is considered evil. A tribal policeman gets shot along with other innocents who just happened to be in the area, and all of this leads Chee and Leaphorn to do some research of their own.
I guess this is far enough into the series that Leaphorn is starting to learn respect for Chee, who has a tendency to go off on his own, and doesn't always obey the rules.
The tidbits given about Coyote and the importance of making choices between good and evil in the Navajo religion are of great interest to me, and I will continue to enjoy Hillerman's novels. It helps that he is so prolific...
Karen Sadler
A Great Mystery.......2005-09-28
Coyote Waits is one of Hillerman's best. I have read most of Hillerman's Navajo Mysteries and found this one to be near the top, the prose is simple and elegant, (no wasted words here) the landscapes descriptive and vivid (but not romantic). Coyote Waits is an excellent mystery, not overly complex or mind-numbingly predictable. This is Hillerman at top form and there are few like him.
Anthropological Masterpiece.......2005-08-04
I had to read this book for a college class in Cultural Anthropology a few years ago. I must say that it was a really fascinating read, if not the most well laid out detective novel. Things do look random from one perspective, as Leaphorn said he used to think, just like the paint on the rocks looked random until seen from the right perspective (another Navajo principle of metaphysics). This book is loaded with Navajo metaphysics and cultural insights. I think the story of Ashie Pinto's alcoholism is quite sad, actually, and I don't entirely understand the concept of the coyote in Navajo culture, but this is still a great read. I wouldn't at all pass it up.
Don't Wait To Read This One!.......2005-04-30
A friend suggested that I try one of Tony Hillerman's books and COYOTE WAITS is the one that I picked up. After finishing it, I was really glad that I had listened!
This is the story of murder and mystery on a Navajo reservation located in Arizona and New Mexico (it crosses the border into both states). A Tribal Police Officer is murdered and an old shaman (medicine man) is charged with the murder. Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn (both Tribal officers) go their own ways to try and solve this case and end up crossing paths several times. Hillerman then throws in the family of the shaman who is trying to get someone to believe in his innocence. Next in the story is a young, female public defender that has just returned from Washington back to the place where she grew up and her first assignment is this case. A missing history professor in search of Butch Cassidy and a few other asundery characters are added to the mix for good measure. They all total a wide variety of personalities and ideas, which is part of the intrigue of COYOTE WAITS.
This story was very interesting and at times suspenseful. It's more of a mystery type story than a tale filled with suspense, but it is very well done. The characters are vivid and seem to be mimicked from real-life people. The reservation, customs, and Indian myths are accurate and well described. These are interwoven into a book that wets your appetite for more and Tony Hillerman has a long list from which to choose.
This book was the beginning of my journey with Hillerman, and if the others are as enjoyable, I will be very pleased.
Average customer rating:
- Review of Sing Down
- Native Americans Fell to European Invaders
- My first book review and it's a good one!
- The Navaho Trail of Tears
- A review for Sing down the Moon
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Sing Down the Moon
Scott O'Dell
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The Sign of the Beaver
ASIN: 0440979757
Release Date: 1997-03-26 |
Book Description
The Spanish Slavers were an ever-present threat to the Navaho way of life. One lovely spring day, fourteen-year-old Bright Morning and her friend Running Bird took their sheep to pasture. The sky was clear blue against the red buttes of the Canyon de Chelly, and the fields and orchards of the Navahos promised a rich harvest. Bright Morning was happy as she gazed across the beautiful valley that was the home of her tribe. She turned when Black Dog barked, and it was then that she saw the Spanish slavers riding straight toward her.
Customer Reviews:
Review of Sing Down.......2007-04-15
Sing down the moon is a book for ages about 11-13.
The main character is a girl named Bright morning, and she's a Navajo Indian. She gets kid-napped by the Spaniards.
When she gets back, she has this ceremony of becoming a woman.
After her tribe has a march, in the march they walked a lot and a lot of people got sick and died. Some people had hope and some people thought it was going to be the end.
During the march Bright Morning and Tall Boy got married.
It's a historical fiction story, and if you like historical fiction... I suggest you read it.
There were parts in the book which I think were not so good and I didn't really like it, but there were parts that were fine and pretty interesting.
Native Americans Fell to European Invaders.......2007-03-04
Before Columbus, the only encounter Americans had with a European was in 888 A.D. when the Maya were visited by Kash-Kash of Qurtabah (Cordoba). The Iberian Muslim was well treated by his American hosts and returned to Iberia with a ship full of gold - a famous legend well familiar to Columbus 500 years later. Unfortunately, Kash-Kash had unwittingly left behind smallpox and the Mayans had to flee their infected city, which remained deserted for 200 years.
When Columbus arrived 500 years after Kash-Kash, he too brought smallpox along with steel bayonets and firearms. Small pox aside, even the most advanced American communities were no match for the technology of the boat people, who came from Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and England. The boat people fought amongst themselves for the privilege of waging war on the indigenous communites of America. Into the peaceful world of America came the murderous Europeans - the worst being the genocidal Protestant Anglos who, unlike the Catholics, did not consider Americans to be people and therefore seldom took them for spouses.
This short story about the fictional character Bright Morning and her eventual husband Tall Boy covers two years in the actual history of the Navaho Americans from 1863 to 1865. This was also the time of War Between the Yankee States, when the Yanks of the North fought against the Yanks of the South (the Yanks of the South called themselves Confederates). While the Yankee boat people fought between themselves, the Northern Yanks sent some of their army to remove Americans from their land - something they have always done but began in earnest during the 1820s with their leader Andy Jackson who forced the Cherokee Americans to walk to Oklahoma. Now, in 1864, Kit Carson was forcing Americans to leave their property and walk to Fort Sumter. The Americans, who have been doing Homeland Security since 1492 with little success, were unable to resist the Yanks save Geronimo and his cadre of 100 Homeland Security officers for a period of ten years (during that time they killed 7,000 invaders, which is 70 each).
In this tale, the two major characters manage to escape and return to their property, hiding in a canyon with their sheep. A tragic and emotionally unsettling story based on true events, what happened to the Americans at the hands of the Yanks is no different than what happened to the Indians in the 1940s at the hands of the Brits during the partition of India, or to the Palestinians at the hands of the boat people from Europe - it continues to echo today in Iraq, where 3,000 civilians flee each day.
My first book review and it's a good one!.......2006-09-15
The character that I like the most was Bright Morning. She is the main character. Her job is to take the flock of sheep to the aspen grove so they can eat. I think she was really brave because she did something nobody else in her tribe ever did before.
I think this is an excellent book to read and I think my friends will enjoy reading it because there are lots of surprises and it is never boring! I don't have a favorite part because I enjoyed reading the whole entire book. My name is Tori and I am 9 years old.
The Navaho Trail of Tears.......2006-05-14
One morning, while Navaho fourteen year old Bright Morning and her friend Running Bird are out in the fields of their home, Canyon de Chelly, tending sheep, they see strange men approaching. Before they can stop it, Bright Morning is kidnapped by the men, who turn out to be Spanish Slave-holders, and take her to a South-Western town, dominantly Mexican. She is sold as a slave to a Spanish speaking family, where she meets another slave, who can speak her language. Bright Morning tries desperately to find a way to get back to her people. The other slave imprisoned with her tells her the way, and Bright Morning is able to make a narrow escape back to her people. But when she returns, she finds her village under occupation of the "Long Knives", or American soldiers. After she is forsed into an arranged marriage with another Indian, Tall Boy, the Long Knives push the Navaho out of their land- and onto one of the most memorable events in American history- the Trail of Tears. Many all around her suffer and eventually die as they continue to walk on.
A very well written story, and very informative.
A review for Sing down the Moon.......2006-01-18
Sing down the moon was not such a bad book.
I mean Sing down the Moon is like a rollercoaster
some times it's good and some times it's not.
but it does take a good Auther to write a rollercoaster
book. I admire Scott O'dell the person who wrote this. Ok back to the book.
The good parts are when theres alot of action. the bad parts are
when it's dull.
I would want to tell you the bad parts and the good parts
but i don't want to spoil a really good book. So you read it and tel me if I'm correct. So until i see you by by.
Books:
- The Shi'is of Iraq
- The Story of the World Volume 2: History for the Classical Child (Story of the World: History for the Classical Child (Audio))
- The Things They Carried
- The Twilight of the Intellectuals: Culture and Politics in the Era of the Cold War
- The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
- The Wall (Reading Rainbow Book)
- The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West
- The Western Heritage, Vol. 2: Since 1648, Eighth Edition
- Trail of Tears
- Unburnable: A Novel
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