The Last Prairie: A Sandhills Journal

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Running 100 miles from north to south and 200 miles from east to west, the Sandhills make up about a quarter of the state of Nebraska and constitute the largest grass-stabilized dune field in the Western Hemisphere. Sparsely settled, the region has inspired a fine literature, numbering books by Jim Harrison, Mari Sandoz, and Merrill Gilfillan, among other writers.

Stephen Jones's The Last Prairie is a welcome, elegant addition to that library. An inspired blend of science, natural history, ethnography, and memoir, it recounts Jones's travels along the Niobrara River and deep into the heart of dune country--once the province of buffalo, cranes, and scattered bands of Pawnee and Cheyenne Native Americans, now the site of huge ranches and, as Jones notes, an army of white-tailed deer and other former denizens of wetland forests that edged out onto the plains with the disappearance of large predators. "When it comes to ecosystem disturbances," Jones notes, "the white-tailed deer are just the tip of the iceberg," and indeed the Sandhills are threatened at every turn by industrial agriculture and other manifestations of putative progress. Jones considers some of the programs that have been advanced to save the area, including the apparently ill-advised "Buffalo Commons" preserve that residents fear would make the region an unnatural zoo; he suggests instead a more modest prairie preserve that would attract tourists and provide new revenue for the region's residents, now dependent on ecologically destructive ranching.

But Jones's book is less a program for action than a literate, attractive celebration of a place unlike any other--a book that will inspire readers to go and have a look for themselves. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

It is an area that has captivated and inspired travelers, philosophers, and artists for centuries. Long celebrated as one of the most visually stunning regions of the American landscape, it is also one of the most historically significant. And now, this vast, 25,000-square-mile expanse known as the Nebraska Sandhills is brought to life with passion, perspective, and ecological timeliness in an unforgettable collection by Stephen Jones.

The Last Prairie is an extraordinary triumph of the essayist's art. By turns graceful and penetrating, introspective and universal, ruminative and prescient, the 20 essays in The Last Prairie embodies the essence of Sandhills life. Jones delivers a series of riveting accounts of the Sandhills, flora and fauna, wildlife, and rich cultural history. Fascinating descriptions of bald eagles, trumpeter swans, and the annual migratory flight of a half-million sandhill cranes stand alongside equally vivid accounts of trailblazing homesteaders, range wars, and devastating prairie fires. Jones speaks eloquently to such timeless themes as humanity's search for community and the ties that bind man and nature.

Customer Reviews:

A lyrical book about a fragile habitat.......2001-06-26

Mr. Jone's admiration, appreciation and concern for this very special ecosystem shines through this lovely book. In it, he intertwines Native American myth, Plains history and well researched scientific data into a cohesive and readable overview of the Sandhills of Nebraska.

Through his eyes, we visit and experience a landscape of beauty, solitute, history and rich wildlife. It is, in turns, thought provoking, humourous, enlightening, yet never preachy. Steve is most respectful of the current private owners of these lands, and integrates their ongoing stewardship into well reasoned suggestions to insure the long-term integrity of this fecund habitat for posterity.

Sandhills Classic.......2000-07-13

The Last Prairie: A Sandhills Journal is an astonishing blend of nature, myth, and love of the land--richly textured with wry wit and something very close to wisdom. It's so deeply rooted in love and its own particular landscape that it transcends locality and becomes universal. In other words, it's a classic, akin to Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Writing, details, and a sensibility to treasure.

A lovesong to an alluring, little-known place.......2000-06-17

Stephen Jones notes in the book that the Sand Hills of Nebraska make up one of the few "dark spots" on those wall posters featuring a satellite view of the United States at night. It is, truly, a wide open space, and he does the landscape great justice with his evident love for the land, its wildlife, its people and history.

For those who think Nebraska is simply home to a football team and endless acres of corn, "The Last Prairie" should open some eyes.

Jones is a prose poet. He makes the Sand Hills live and breathe right there on the page. An excellent, deeply-felt homage to one of America's little-known (thankfully?)great natural treasures.

When a book makes you dream about a place you've never been........2000-05-31

As often happens in Washington, DC, I got inside information. The author (my eighth grade history teacher) tipped me off about his book, before it was available. I got to read a "galley" I think it is called, and felt even more like an insider. It's exciting when a friend publishes a book, and when that friend telegraphs, with the sound in his voice, that this one might be something special. Steve knows. I read the hardback copy as soon as I got it. Growing up in Colorado gave me some appreciation of this majestic place to the East, which I now plan to visit for the first time. Stephen Jones has woven history, geography several sciences into a literary work of art, that can provide great inspiration, even to the uninitiated. His images are vivid, whether he is describing the hard-scrabble personalities that live there or the spirit-ghosts of Native Americans that have long since perished. His treatments of the landforms and myriad species of animals that dwell in the Nebraska Sandhills, are characteristically perfect. He has written a couple of other nature books, including one with his photos, called the Shortgrass Prairie.What many do not know about Steve is that he was diagnosed with a back problem before he undertook his arduous weeks long trips, the several hundred miles East. He would not want me to mention this, Steve is a low key guy. But his courage is, well, another story. I hope everyone who loves nature, and our vanishing wild places will read this book and be inspired and dream and go there.

Sand Springs Oklahoma (OK) (Images of America)

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Sand Springs Oklahoma (OK) (Images of America)
Jamye K. Landis
Manufacturer: Arcadia Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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A Spring Bouquet: Castles in the Sand/ The Marrying Kind/ Hasten Down the Wind/ Forbidden Affections

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Only worth it for the Jo Beverley story - others are awful
three stars
A Great Jo Beverley Story

A Spring Bouquet: Castles in the Sand/ The Marrying Kind/ Hasten Down the Wind/ Forbidden Affections
Janet Dailey , Debbie Macomber , Rebecca Brandewyne , and Jo Beverley
Manufacturer: Zebra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0821753096

Customer Reviews:

Only worth it for the Jo Beverley story - others are awful.......2003-01-14

I wanted this book because I'd heard a lot about the Jo Beverley story, Forbidden Affections. Many of Beverley's fans don't like this novella because of the age gap between the hero and heroine, and so I wanted to see what I thought. But first, the other three stories.

We begin with Janet Dailey's Castles in the Sand. This is a tale about a couple who were in love as teenagers, but were separated by time, events, misunderstandings and simply growing up. They meet again at a time of trauma - the father of one, and the mentor of the other - is seriously ill. However, I didn't find myself at all emotionally engaged with Bridget and Reese's story. I think this was because Dailey skipped over long periods in time, and so we'd have a development at the end of one chapter, only to find that the next chapter jumped forward several months - the emotional impact was lost. Extremely forgettable.

Debbie Macomber's The Marrying Kind could have been good - but wasn't. Katie and Jason were married as teenagers, but Katie's parents didn't approve of Jason and they took Katie away and made her annul the marriage. Now, ten years later, Katie and Jason meet again, three days before his wedding to someone else, and find that they're still in love. Okay... a well-worn premise, but I usually like Macomber so I expected good work from her. Instead, I got a plot which has been done many times before, and a hero I didn't particularly like. The way he treats his fiancée is particularly abhorrent, and the rather convenient manner in which she turns into a selfish harridan wasn't at all convincing.

Rebecca Brandewyne's Hasten Down The Wind has been described by another reviewer here as a history lesson disguised as a romance, and I couldn't have put it better myself. Instead of focusing on Elizabeth's relationship with Chaingo, the novella gives us lots and lots of information about the outlaws - and it's all incomplete too, as if the reader is expected to know all about the period and the characters. I couldn't follow the detail of the events at all, and certainly have no interest in re-reading the novella.

However, Beverley's Forbidden Affections certainly didn't disappoint. Anna is a fan of Gothic romances, and when she discovers that her new London home has a room decorated exactly as the heroine's room in one of her favourite author's books, Forbidden Affections, she is curious. Discovering a secret doorway, she explores the house next door, owned by a mysterious nobleman who is believed to have killed his former mistress. But the Earl of Carne is nothing like she imagined, and she finds herself working secretly with him to clear his name. Along the way, she falls in love - but he is 30 to her 16, and even if her family would agree, Carne can't reconcile with his conscience the idea of marrying someone so young.

The reason some of Beverley's fans dislike this novella is precisely the notion of a 16-year-old marrying a man so much older. But, having read Forbidden Affections, that aspect doesn't bother me in the least. Anna may be 16, but she's no child. She's actually far more sensible and mature in her outlook than her older sister, who is 19. Carne does recognise this, even while he's telling her that he's too old for her and that she'll meet someone younger in time. And he doesn't rush into anything where Anna is concerned; he takes his time, which shows some degree of consideration.

I enjoyed the Beverley novella very much and for me it compensates for the remainder of the anthology. But if you're not a fan of Beverley or of Regency romance, give this one a miss!

three stars.......2001-12-12

Like the other reviewer I bought the book for the Jo Beverley story, Forbidden Affections. I liked the story so much that I hoped it would be longer.

The Marrying Kind by Debbie Macomber wasn't bad. It was a little improbable, and given the limitation of the format, a novella, there wasn't much character development.

The other two stories, Castles in the Sand by Janet Dailey and Sonja Massie, and Hasten Down the Wind by Rebecca Brandewyne, because they didn't draw me in seemed long-winded for novellas. Hasten Down the Wind was a history lesson pretending to be a romance.

Overall, three stars.

A Great Jo Beverley Story.......2000-05-09

I bought this book for the Jo Beverley story, and I was not disappointed. If the other stories had been up to the standard of this one, I would give the book five starts.

Since it is an anthology, I had hoped to discover one or two new authors to love. No such luck. The other stories did not move me, did not suck me in. The only one which started to engage me ("The Marrying Kind") lost me with its callous treatment of the soon-to-be-jilted fiancee and the totally implausible series of events leading up to the end of the story. (And this was by far the best of the other stories.)

So, a final rating of 3 stars.

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Fool's Enterprise: The Life of Charles Page
Opal B. Clark
Manufacturer: Dexter Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0962144401

Book Description

The year was 1907. The depression left many unemployed and in need. Charles Page, a Tulsa Oil Man, had an idea that would not only create jobs, but rescue widows and orphans from destitution. Many, friends and critics alike, called it "A Fool's Enterprise". “Daddy Page”, as his orphans had named him, called it a dream. This is his story.

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Another finely-crafted mystery I can't put down!
Move over P.D.James...here comes Michelle Spring!
Phyllis Whitney for the Millenium
A great mystery and family drama

In the Midnight Hour
Michelle Spring
Manufacturer: Ulverscroft Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 0753116715

Amazon.com

In this heavily atmospheric thriller by talented writer Michelle Spring, the disappearance of the 4-year-old son of polar explorer Jack Cable is still unsolved after more than a decade. Then a teenage street musician attracts the attention of Cable's wife, Olivia. Certain that the boy is their son, the Cables enlist the services of private investigator Laura Principal. Laura's brief is to discover whether Liam is really the son whose memory is still very much alive within his family, and while her efforts to authenticate Olivia's hunch are not particularly engrossing, her concern for the Cables is deep and heartfelt enough to involve the reader in her quest.

Higher praise belongs to Spring for her gifts of description. Here she shows off her well-honed talent for narrative, character development, and skill in recreating the brooding melancholy of England in midwinter. Fans of Frances Fyfield and Barbara Vine will appreciate Spring's intelligence, craft, and psychological acuity, all on view in this compulsively readable new novel. --Jane Adams

Customer Reviews:

Another finely-crafted mystery I can't put down!.......2002-09-08

Michelle Spring has created a heroine with layers and erudition. Laura Principal's already well-defined character takes on a new layer with this book. (Like a mystery itself, Laura has emerged layer by layerr in previous books.) So, too, does the plot, unfolding gradually. The author knows how to tell a story, little by little, until the reader is hooked and has forsaken everything but the book. The suspenses builds, then tapers. And when you think you've got it all figured (maybe you've cheated and read the last page) forget it: there are still more layers to peel back. Well written and not at all trite, as is the case with some mysteries that are lumped into the "cozy" category. Or maybe Spring has redefined the genre.

Move over P.D.James...here comes Michelle Spring!.......2001-12-04

Don't start this book if you don't have time to finish it in a couple days! My poor husband felt as if his wife was abducted when I started 'Midnight'. But it was so good! Definitely a woman's mystery! With all the humour and insight that only a woman can appreciate. The characters are so richly woven and developed that you will feel almost desolate when you've finished the book! Michelle Spring is a talent that not many have heard of but I'm on my band wagon singing her praises! She is awesome! Not since P.D.James has there been a more talented mystery writer that can weave a tale like Spring.

Phyllis Whitney for the Millenium.......2001-04-25

Although this could be classified as a British suspense novel, I find the comparisons to an American Grande Dame of suspense,too many to explore here. Suffice to say that those who enjoyed the work of Phyllis Whitney will also appreciate Michelle Spring. A well plotted mystery with a terrific heroine.,and a fine cast of characters make for a cozy and quick read.

A great mystery and family drama.......2001-02-16

Twelve years ago, four-year-old Timmy Cable vanished while walking alongside his father Jack on the beach. He took his eyes off his son for a few seconds and that is all it took for the kid to disappear. A happy family remained shattered as they wait for news about their missing child that never came.

Timmy's mother Olivia believes she has seen her lost son, playing guitar for cash on the streets of Cambridge, England. Not wanting his spouse hurt again, Jack hires sleuth Laura Principal of Aardvark Investigations to learn what she can about the teenager, Liam, who remains reticent about his background. However, two incidents lead the Cables to believe they have found Timmy, leaving it up to Laura to determine the truth.

IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR is a well-crafted tale filled with unexpected twists. Most of the plot revolves around whether Liam is actually Timmy, but a subplot concerning Laura and her lover-partner adds depth to the story-line. Michelle Spring proves her gift as a storyteller by keeping the audience's attention throughout the novel even while striking at one of the worse nightmares a parent can face. Do not look for cute explanations that tie a ribbon on this suspense novel. Instead, readers will feel the increasing tension as they wonder until the very end whether Liam is Timmy and, if yes or no, what really happened on the beach that day.

Book Description

This is one of the strangest true-crime stories ever written: a story of murder, reported rape, abduction and multiple personalities. It contains all of the ingredients of a chilling page-turner. Saroyan writes nonfiction as compelling as a great novel. Readers won't stop until the last page.

Customer Reviews:

Woman as Rapist.......2006-11-02

The book -is- a bit of a slog for a true crime piece, but that owes more to the writing style than the story itself. I followed the case for years, in part because my closest friend in high school tried it as a journeyman deputy DA when I was living out there... but far more (at least recently) owing to studies in forensic psychology and experience working with both "ardent" and (ostensibly) "rehabilitated" felons.

Andrea -is- typical of an unfortunate combination of early life events that drove her into what sounds like a nasty combination of Avoidant, Antisocial, Narcissistic, Histrionic, Passive-Aggressive and Borderline Personality Disorders (the entire DSM-IV-R Cluster B "aggressive" spectrum, and then some; whew).

I have seen it in other females who were 1) serial-raped into their teens, regardles of whether they can or will allow themselves to remember any of it, 2) two or more orders of magnitude above normal intelligence, 3) raised by mothers who were likely to have been serial-raped themselves, and 4) raised by mothers who were themselves highly intelligent, emotionally rigid, angry, domineering and/or perfectionistic combined with emotionally opaque or unavailable to the daughter.

The word "dominatrix" applies, but not the crusty visuals. These are ardent seducer-castrators who generally hate men but need them for financial support. Such women are very commonly call girls, lap and pole dancers, sex grifters, courtesans, actresses and other employers of sex for self-empowerment. I have found battalions of them in places like Beverly Hills, Scottsdale, Palm Beach and Palm Springs.

There are two essential types: Most do not know what they are, and will deny that they are what they are to the death, often becoming violent if (in their mind) confronted with the facts or "accused" of being "man haters." A few not only know what they are, but defend it ardently, claiming it is their right -- and even responsibility -- to "destroy" (mostly narcissistic) males. (Andrea appears to be the first type.)

Many are bi-sexual, but no more trustworthy with females than with males, as they see most significant females as projective identifications of the mother who co-conspired with dad to construct the hell of their child and teen anguish.

Most had out-of-body experiences in which they moved to a position of observing the rapes over which they were physically powerless from above rather than underneath (or pinned). Many continue to view their affectively disconnected bodies as machines to serve their manipulative purposes and have little or no sense or concern for what their sexual victims experience.

Perpetration of violence is often experienced as an almost irresistable sex-and-power thrill. These women are rageaholics. They become, in short, the very rapists who raped -them-.

Based on what I read in RM, I have to say Andrea fits the bill. Based on 18 years of observing scores of these women (not all murderers, of course) at close range, I see them as astonishingly gifted at manipulating even sophisticated people with doctorates in psychology. Which explains why these spiders can catch, entangle and keep their (mostly Dependent Personality Disordered, masochistic, submissive and/or stimulation-addicted) lovers -- and pretty much anyone else who gets too close -- in their webs.

They are the female equivalent of a "Hannibal Lector."

And why I have to at least question that Andrea has "recovered" in any meaningful way. She might not murder -- or attempt murder -- again, but any willingness to give up the defensive schemas that are formed in the serial molestees who behave as she has is easily challenged by the very accurate psychometric test intruments now in forensic use.

Before buying her -current- story, I want to see the test scores.

Isn't the full story. Seems biased, too. .......2005-05-23

There's more to the story than what is in the book. Rick Jackson (first reviewer) *was* Andrea's husband through 8 years of her imprisonment in California. He is listed in the back of the most recent edition of the book. He sounds very well-meaning, but he married her because he felt she was easily manipulated, gorgeous, and had been a "soft porn" star. He divorced her very suddenly in 2000, at a time when she needed him most, and continues to date women prisoners only and lead them on, similar to what happened to Andrea. Believe it or not, there are passive-aggressive men who date and marry women prisoners as a lifetime lifestyle. Often they have an underlying misogynistic anger toward their mothers and women in general. Female prisoners are vulnerable, easy prey to be emotionally manipulated by men on the outside who promise everything and deliver nothing. This may not contribute much to Andrea's true crime story, but it pretty much describes eight years of her life in prison. She has been denied parole many times and is still hoping to get out at the age of 64. The D.A. involved is determined to keep her in prison and they treat her like she is some kind of a serial killer. I think that this book by Aram Saroyan certainly has not helped things. Andrea has been a victim her entire life but is rehabiliated now. This book may be the impetus for Andrea to have to die in prison.

Very pooly written, does not show the human side of Andrea.......1997-03-10

My name is Rick Jackson. If you read the acknowledgements, you'll see me listed as a contributor. I am currently married to Andrea (Sand) Mims, who continutes to serve a life sentence after being falsely convicted of 1st degree murder. The Andrea depicted in "Rancho Mirage" is not the Andrea I know and love. Saroyan painted a very negative picture of her based on transcripts, police reports, and interviews with prosecution witnesses. A history of Andrea's life and a little investigation would have revealed a very different story. I would like to write a follow-up book, tentatively to be titled "Rape of an Angel." I would welcome the assistance of any writer able to help in this project

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Red Ridge
T.M. Takoda
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1412019877
Release Date: 2006-07-06

Book Description

Red Ridge is coming. The journey of Torrin, and the great Dome he has vowed to protect, has begun. May the \'Snows of True Spring\' carry seeds of compassion.

Sidetrip To Sand Springs (Avalon Western)

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Sidetrip To Sand Springs (Avalon Western)
Kent Conwell
Manufacturer: Avalon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

A Spring Bouquet : Includes: Castles in the Sand, The Marrying Kind, Hasten Down the Wind, & Forbidden Affections

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A Spring Bouquet : Includes: Castles in the Sand, The Marrying Kind, Hasten Down the Wind, & Forbidden Affections
Debbie; Brandewyne, Rebecca; Beverley, JMacomber
Manufacturer: Kensington Pub Corp
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NXUDCY

Vanishing Footprints from the Hot Desert Sand: Remembrances of a 90 Year Old Palm Springs Pioneer: Horse and Wagon Days on the Southern California Desert

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Vanishing Footprints from the Hot Desert Sand: Remembrances of a 90 Year Old Palm Springs Pioneer: Horse and Wagon Days on the Southern California Desert
Marshall (Glenn) McKinney
Manufacturer: McKinney
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VB8GIQ

Book Description

If you like your comic strip characters cute and cuddly, you'll hate Dry Shave. Dry Shave cracks open a hardboiled world of laconic lowlifes, pugnacious palookas, shiftless grifters and demented dames—with a tip of the pork-pie hat to Robert Mitchum. As featured in Vancouver's The Georgia Straight and Toronto's eye weekly magazine, Rod Filbrandt's wacky cast of noir characters is brought together in his first collected edition.

Customer Reviews:

A collection of one of the best subversive cartoons........2001-02-16

Enter the noir-world of Dry Shave's hard-boiled businessmen, profanity spewing dames, and drunken drifters. Filbrandt brings these and other characters to life with his distinctive pen-and-ink style and widly bent humour.

Running in Vancouver's "The Georgia Straight" and Toronto's "eye weekly", Dry Shave grew to become one of the best subversive cartoons available. This collection brings the entire run of Dry Shave comics to it's fans. A gritty tableau that pokes fun at societies seamy underbelly, Dry Shave titillates the darkest recesses of humour.

If you like comics such as Red Meat, Tom The Dancing Bug, and The City, Dry Shave will be right up your alley.

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