In This Mountain (The Mitford Years #7)

Amazon.com

Father Tim Kavanagh and his wife, Cynthia, return from Whitecap Island to "the little town with the big heart" in Jan Karon's seventh novel in the bestselling Mitford series, In This Mountain. Retirement holds challenges Father Tim hasn't anticipated, and even as Cynthia's career as a children's book author and illustrator brings her new accolades, he finds himself dogged by health troubles and dissatisfaction with the way his life is turning out. However, the beloved villagers of Mitford are on hand to offer support and humor through every crisis, and a few new characters are introduced to keep interest in the series fresh. Throughout the tale, Karon folds in themes of grace and forgiveness, and offers hope for even the most difficult situations. Fans will be delighted to find that this installment of the series is full of the engaging descriptions and charming depiction of life in Mitford that first won Karon the loyalty of legions of readers. --Cindy Crosby

Book Description

Moving. Soul searching. Timely.
In This Mountain is Jan Karon's newest and best.

Father Tim and Cynthia have been at home in Mitford for three years since returning from Whitecap Island.

In the little town that's home-away-from-home to millions of readers, life hums along as usual. Dooley looks toward his career as a vet; Joe Ivey and Fancy Skinner fight a haircut price war that takes no prisoners; and Percey steps out on a limb with a risky new menu item at the Main Street Grill.

Though Father Tim dislikes change, he dislikes retirement even more. As he and Cynthia gear up for a year-long ministry across the state line, a series of events send shock waves through his faith - and the whole town of Mitford.

In her seventh novel in the bestselling Mitford Years series, Jan Karon delivers surprises of every kind, including the return of the man in the attic and an ending that no one in Mitford will ever forget.

Customer Reviews:

As expected.......2007-09-24

This is a great "next chapter" to the series. If you've read the others you'll love this too.

Uplifting.......2007-08-31

I have read all of the Mitford Years books, and have found this one
just as entertaining and uplifting as all the rest. It is spiritual
without being "preachy", with a strength and gentleness that renews
ones faith in her fellow man.

In This Mountain Audio CD.......2007-07-23

I obviously didn't read the product info well enough - this is an ABRIDGED audio book, which I don't enjoy; I like to hear every word the author wrote, and feel frustrated when the action doesn't flow smoothly as originally written, but hops and skips all over the place.

In This MOuntain.......2007-06-09

Like all the other Mitford Series I loved this one and looked forward to the next one!!

Dwindling ever dwindling.......2007-05-26

I very much enjoyed the first few books in this series, but it seems that the author had written herself out, alas, and had nothing much more worthwhile to say. This seventh offering in the lot is just not worth reading, when there are so many other books out there waiting.

For one thing, the author waxes more and more religious with each book. In this volume people are throwing prayers at each other on virtually every page, over the smallest of trifles. It gets a little annoying after a time, annoying and ludicrous. For example, when the bishop has chest pains, his secretary calls Father Tim and asks him to pray for the bishop. The call might have been spent to greater good in finding a competent cardiologist first. Jesus himself admonished his disciples to pray in private without fanfare or show, for those who pray loudest in public "have their reward." At various times Tim does remind himself to pray the prayer that always is answered: Thy will be done. Asking God to change his laws or abrogate the laws of nature feels wrong to me. Prayer and dogma get in the way of the story and weaken this novel to a great extent. That the prayers are answered in fiction is a matter of the writer stacking the cards that way.

Secondly, while I'm sure some readers are much taken with Dooley, I've found him unpleasant and occasionally obnoxious (for lack of better words) since book one. He is no better in book seven. Why Father Tim takes such pleasure from seeing him is beyond me. Dooley is self-centered and thoughtless.

My advice to a reader who has not read any of this series would be to stop after book four. There is nothing after that worth one's time.

On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family

Average customer rating:

Made a nice gift
Incredible Book
generational story
Engaging and educational...
Fascinating

On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family
Lisa See
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Chinese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Dragon Bones: A Red Princess Mystery (Red Princess Mysteries)
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Flower Net

ASIN: 0679768521
Release Date: 1996-08-27

Book Description

Out of the stories heard in her childhood in Los Angeles's Chinatown and years of research, See has constructed this sweeping chronicle of her Chinese-American family, a work that takes in stories of racism and romance, entrepreneurial genius and domestic heartache, secret marriages and sibling rivalries, in a powerful history of two cultures meeting in a new world. 82 photos.

Customer Reviews:

Made a nice gift.......2007-09-21

The person I gave this to thought it was a very nice read and recommends it.

Incredible Book.......2007-07-31

I am a new fan of Lisa See and I have to say that this is one of the best books I have ever read. It is a fascinating story. There were times I had to remind myself that this was a work of non-fiction. I only wish there were more photographs. A great read and hard to put down.

generational story.......2006-11-10

I like Lisa See's books and this is another example of her fine writing. This time, however, her focus is the story of her own family and their impact on their new country.

Engaging and educational..........2006-11-07

Lisa See is one of those rare authors that can draw you into and keep you engaged in a story weaved with historial significance as well as personal emotions. A must read for any first or second generation immigrant who has always been curious about the lives and struggles of our ancestors who first settled into this new "free" land called America.

Fascinating.......2006-08-27

This is a most interesting book. I am 75 years old and grew up in Los Angeles, visiting Chinatown many times, and knew nothing of the people who lived there, so it was particularly interesting to me. I have read other books by Lisa See and find her to be an excellent writer. I highly recommend this book, especially to people interested in the history of California.

On Gold Mountain: The 100-Year Odyssey of a Chinese-American Family

Average customer rating:

A new family
An odyssey of a read
The author carries you along on her odyssey!

On Gold Mountain: The 100-Year Odyssey of a Chinese-American Family
Lisa See
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Chinese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Dragon Bones: A Red Princess Mystery (Red Princess Mysteries)
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Flower Net
On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family

ASIN: 0312119976

Amazon.com

Lisa See, daughter of novelist Carolyn See, brings a novelist's skill to this sprawling ancestral history. Books tracing the roots of overseas Chinese writers are not uncommon these days, but See uncovered in her family tree a capsule history of the Sino-American diaspora: her great-grandfather, Fong See, founded a California business, married a Caucasian woman and fathered many offspring, and returned periodically to China to redistribute some of his wealth and launch another family. See, a Publishers Weekly writer, has conducted extensive interviews and drawn on family lore for an enthralling saga of ambition, prejudice, love, loyalty, and sorrow--social history at its best.

Customer Reviews:

A new family.......1998-04-19

I wish I had read this book first. I read Lisa's Flower Net and enjoyed it so much that I looked to see what else she had written. Finding On Gold Mountain (thanks, Amazon) I became immersed in the life of the author and her family. I have read so many stories of Chinese families in Mainland China and Taiwan, but this is the first I have read of the Chinese American experience. It is doubly interesting because of the marriages between Chinese and Caucasians, and how they resolved their cultural differences during a time when China itself was undergoing so many cultural changes. I highly recomend the book for its content and for its excellent narrative style.

An odyssey of a read.......1997-07-29

Lisa See, in describing the journey of her family over one hundred years, also takes the reader on a literary journey. I have read many auto-biographical and semi-auto-biographical accounts of the Chinese diaspora and Lisa's book is amongst the best. We can read her book as an adventure and also as a history. A history about which she must be proud. This book has inspired me to write about my own family, who made a similar journey, over a hundred years ago, but in Australia

The author carries you along on her odyssey!.......1996-08-02

Lisa See's path to discover where and how she fits in in this gifted, and far from ordinary immigrant American family is as much your story as it is hers. Her writing is fresh and alive enough to hold your interest and make you want to hear more from and about this author. Her mother is Carolyn See, who has written a little about Lisa's history in her own book, Dreaming: Good Luck and Hard Times in America. Look over both books and be prepared to hunker down for a while.

Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography

Average customer rating:

Not what I thought
The finest Grand Canyon book at the lowest price....
off the charts superb stunning startling good heavens
Review by Jennifer Owings Dewey, author/illustrator
A superb choice as a Memorial Fund acquisition for any library system

Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography
Stephen Trimble
Manufacturer: Northland Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Grand: The Colorado River in the Grand Canyon a Photo Journey
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Our National Parks

ASIN: 0873588940

Book Description

One of the most photographed subjects on earth, Grand Canyon continues to inspire awe, admiration, and frustration for those who attempt to capture its majesty with a camera. Reaching back 125 years into the photographic record of the Canyon, this book artfully explores the experiences of the earliest photographers and today's most exceptional artists.

Accomplished writer and Ansel Adams Award-winning photographer Stephen Trimble deftly navigates the stories of the Canyon's photographic history and takes us down the river and along the rim with the next generation of photographers and their photographs. Also included are twenty-one essays by the finest contemporary photographers recounting their experiences at Grand Canyon, along with fascinating details of changing equipment and a timeline of important moments in the Canyon's photographic record.

Customer Reviews:

Not what I thought.......2007-09-13

I bought this as a present for my wife. We had just returned from a trip that included a visit to the Grand Canyon, and I wanted to get her a memento of the visit. This book sounded good, but was not the one that included the beautiful vistas that we wanted. There are some photos too dark to really discern why they are included. There are some photos of a boat on the bank of the river. That could be from anywhere.
Although I suppose others may find it interesting, we didn't want a book of prose, we just wanted amazing photos. This was not that book.

The finest Grand Canyon book at the lowest price...........2007-02-15

This book is so awesome, and of such high quality, that its Amazon price seems surreal...I have two copies and am ordering a third, for posterity or whatever.

Intensely beautiful photographic prints, at the very leading edge of Canyon photos....almost beyond description!

If you buy one copy of this book, you'll then want another for a gift, and another for your own collection.....etc.

off the charts superb stunning startling good heavens.......2006-11-03

Yes, you would expect truly astounding photography here, and you get exactly that, in lots of different flavors too, but the stories are deft and revealing -- far more than in a book of photos alone of a place that you couldn't take a bad photo if you tried. Trimble himself is a master craftsman with the camera, but his service here is to gather some really remarkable work and voices into a tome that anyone who has gaped and prayed there will want to paw through before you get major brownie points for giving it to someone else. Terrific work.

Review by Jennifer Owings Dewey, author/illustrator.......2006-09-28

Lasting Light is a treasure, a compilation of photographs taken of the Crand Ganyon over a broad stretch of time. The viewer/reader may gain a sense of history, passing from the old to the new. The book is an experience in images of the vast wonder of the Canyon and the smallest, most discreet detail. Because the text is direct and not-technical, anyone interested in what is grand and lit by extraordinary light, the Grand Canyon itself, will find this work a delight.

A superb choice as a Memorial Fund acquisition for any library system.......2006-07-10

Lasting Light: 125 Years Of Grand Canyon Photography by award-winning author and photographer Stephen Trimble is a visual celebration and documentation of the beauty and grandeur of one of the most photographed subjects on earth -- the Grand Canyon. Comprised of the best of 125 years of great photographs beginning with the pioneering glass plate negatives of the 19th century to the digital images of the 21st century, Lasting Light produces spectacular visuals enhanced with an accompanying text of fascinating details regarding the advances of photography, stories of various individual photographers, and the relationship between the photographers and the unique American icon that is the Grand Canyon. As a coffetable art book, Lasting Light is a simply wonderful contribution to any personal, academic, or community library photography reference collection and would make a superb choice as a Memorial Fund acquisition for any library system.

Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness Radical Strip Mining and the Devastation ofAppalachia

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Lost Mountain
What is the Real Cost of "Cheap" Energy?
A search for truth in the mountains of Appalachia
Thinking Like a Dead Mountain
A compelling account

Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness Radical Strip Mining and the Devastation ofAppalachia
Erik Reece
Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Missing Mountains: We went to the mountaintop but it wasn't there
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ASIN: 1594482365

Book Description

A new form of strip mining has caused a state of emergency for the Appalachian wilderness and the communities that depend on it-a crisis compounded by issues of government neglect, corporate hubris, and class conflict. In this powerful call to arms, Erik Reece chronicles the year he spent witnessing the systematic decimation of a single mountain and offers a landmark defense of a national treasure threatened with extinction.

Customer Reviews:

Lost Mountain.......2006-08-06

This book is critical for understanding the history and ecology of mountaintop renewal; it brings the devastation home in a way that immediately touches you. I'd highly recommend this to anyone interested in environmental issues; my only complaint is that the book should have been longer - no amount of writing can make up for the horrors Reece exposes.

Alan Sondheim

What is the Real Cost of "Cheap" Energy?.......2006-08-01

Point Google Earth® to the area around Harlan, KY and you will see a landscape of verdant slopes dotted with scab-like wounds that were mountains once stood. Strip mining is alive and well and is savagely destroying the mountains of eastern Kentucky. In Lost Mountain, Fist-time author Erik Reece has penned an account of this ecological savagery that goes on under reported and therefore unnoticed by most people who don't live in the immediate area. This fact is brought home by Reece's report of a toxic spill 30 times the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This spill occurred near Coldwater Creek, KY only six years ago. While Exxon Valdez has become household word, few have heard of Coldwater Creek
Eric Reece Chronicles the demise of one peak, Lost Mountain, so-called because of the lush vegetation that clung to its slopes, causing visitors to become disoriented, often losing their way. Those slopes are gone now, replaced with a tableland of gravel and dust, as the mountaintop was blown apart and shoved into the adjacent hollow for the sake of the coal that lay below. He uses this episode as a jumping-off point to explore the larger question of how much ecological and economic destruction are we willing to endure for the sake of cheap energy.
Cataloging the endangered wildlife; the human suffering; and the damage to the mountain ecosystem by aggressive strip mining, he paints a grim picture of the "extraction economy" of the Appalachian coal fields. The mining companies, in what must be the most Orwellian statement of the young century, claim that by destroying the mountain, they are actually improving the terrain, prompting one resident to contemplate putting a sign in his yard saying, "God was wrong. Support mountaintop removal."
This is yet another installment a chicken-little anthology of environmental activism. It's not light reading, and is often quite depressing, especially when most of the solutions Reece comes up with, such as building a bunch of furniture factories where the coal used to be, fall way short of anything feasible. It seems the biggest obstacle to change is the local populace, most of whom, dependent on coal jobs, are reluctant to take action against, or even criticize the activity.
Yet the story needs to be told. For those of us who thought that strip mining was a thing of the past, to find out that this most aggressive form of the activity is running roughshod over the once verdant peaks of some of the oldest mountains on earth, is shocking to say the least.

A search for truth in the mountains of Appalachia.......2006-06-21

LOST MOUNTAIN: A YEAR IN THE VANISHING WILDERNESS isn't a travelogue or adventure story so much as a search for truth in the mountains of Appalachia, home to one of the last great forests in the world - and also threatened by the mother lode of strip mining which has been the backbone of living for so many Appalachian families. Author Reece spent a year witnessing the decimation of a single mountain - Lost Mountain - and surveys strip mining as not just a local concern but as a icon for a mainstream crisis involving businesses, government and the environment alike. At once literary, reflective, personal and observation, LOST MOUNTAIN reflects on all that is lost.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Thinking Like a Dead Mountain.......2006-05-21

The Appalachians have long been abused by the rest of America as a veritable internal colony, as coal and other resources are extracted ruthlessly and the money ends up elsewhere, leaving the resource-rich people mired in every other possible type of poverty. In a business that has been brutal for generations, the extractive industries have now introduced their most insidious practice yet – mountaintop removal mining. Instead of utilizing mineshafts, or even terribly destructive strip mining, the companies are now forcibly removing entire mountaintops to get at relatively scant quantities of coal. Forested peaks become flat rocky mesas, while rivers and valleys are buried under the resulting slagheaps. In addition to the obvious environmental devastation, this cataclysmic new process continues to inflict terrible human costs on local residents. In this book, Erik Reece reports on his multi-year observations at the tragically named Lost Mountain in Eastern Kentucky, which suffered the ugly fate of mountaintop removal mining.

Reece made monthly visits to Lost Mountain, and offers a melancholy journal of the death of this once vibrant forested hill, as coal operators transformed a lush environment into a literal rubble heap. Reece also investigated the travails of the region's people. Coal companies are still harassing citizens who complain about their operations, while pocketed politicians turn a blind eye and give perennial false arguments about job creation and economic development. Meanwhile, the companies cut and run after their destruction is complete, taking their profits elsewhere while the locals suffer from toxic illnesses, flooding, mudslides, contaminated water, and the deepest poverty in America. The human hardship uncovered by Reece is both heartbreaking and maddening, and this book is a powerhouse look into issues of social justice, environmental protection, economics, and the exploitation of all of the above by unscrupulous operators for quick profits. The only problem with this book is the disappointingly weak conclusion, in which Reece attempts a general environmentalist philosophy that not only has been done a billion times, but is also far too diffuse to apply to the very specific Appalachian issues he covers in the rest of the book. But otherwise, this is one of the most important conservationist books of the year. [~doomsdayer520~]

A compelling account.......2006-05-03

If you read this book and don't feel compelled to make a difference than Reece's point has been lost on you. I am a student at Western Kentucky University and recently traveled to Eastern Kentucky and fell in love with the people, the culture and the mountains of Appalachia. The more I learn about mountain top removal the more it angers me that nothing is being done. Reece really puts the corruption of the coal industry into perspective. The people he spoke to and the research he did makes you think about the actual cost of cheap coal.

Montana Century: 100 Years in Pictures and Words

Average customer rating:

A True Montana Treasure
Big Book on the Big Sky

Montana Century: 100 Years in Pictures and Words

Manufacturer: Two Dot
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Montana
Montana Trivia
The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology
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The Montana Cowboy, 2nd

ASIN: 156044827X

Book Description

Chronicles the coming of age of the Treasure State in the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

A True Montana Treasure.......2001-07-10

While working as a Costco employee, we received a shipment of these books and arranged for the late Mr. Malone to come in to our Bozeman store and sign copies for the customers.

Early the next morning, while stocking the books and getting everything organized, I was approached by my manager who notified me that the signing would not be taking place because Mr. Malone had died of, what appeared to be, a heart attack.

This is a true Montana book, filled with gorgeous pictures of what truly is - "The Last Best Place." I found the writing to be very informative, yet easy to lose myself in.

For those of you who already own this book, you know how great it is. You realize how lucky you are to live in one of the most beautiful areas in the world. And you understand the history Montana holds. If you don't have this book and you are from Montana, pick it up...you won't be disappointed.

Lets not forget Mr. Michael Malone. Although his life was cut tragically short, he was able to share with us his lifelong work. And it is amazing.

Big Book on the Big Sky.......2000-03-31

I am usually allergic to coffee table books. This one is different: edited by historian and president of Montana State University, Bozeman (died December, 1999)Michael Malone, this book includes essays by David Quammen and Mary Clearman Blew on the wildlife and the arts respectively. The other essays, covering a wide range of subjects are written by other knowledgable professionals.

The photographs and captions are equally enticing and informative. The full page photograph of artist, Bob DeWeese, and his Gangster Tie is almost worth the price of the book to me.

I found one minor mistake: the 1937 flood in Billings was the result of a break in an irrigation ditch, not the overflow of the Yellowstone River. I know of no better book for getting a feel for this part of the world, nor is that Chamber of Commerce puffery: in 1910 there were about 2,000 African Americans in all of Montana. In 1999 there were about the same number (from the essay on ethnic groups). The reasons for that are clear, and shameful.

Book Description

When her thirty-year marriage broke up, Sue Hubbell found herself alone and broke on a small Ozarks farm. Keeping bees, she found solace in the natural world. She began to write, challenging herself to tell the absolute truth about her life and the things that she cared about. The result is one of the best-loved books ever written about life on the land, about a woman finding her way in middle age.

Customer Reviews:

What a beautiful book ..........2007-09-22

Sue Hubbell's voice is true. She shares great sadness so matter-of-factly that whole years are communicated in short paragraphs. 'Lyrical' almost applies, but does not, which in this case is a beautiful thing.

I came upon this book belated, more than 20 years after it was published, in the discard bin at my library. That is a shame, because this book is a gift, both in the pleasure it provides the reader and the way it so effortlessly connects us to the natural world.

Half way through, I googled Sue Hubbell to see if some lucky man had found her, and sure enough, he had. I hope he deserves her and has made her blissfully happy.

Then I googled 'farms for sale' and 'dogs for adoption'. I will probably continue my urban life, but when I surrender to sweet dreams of farm and country, Sue Hubbell's voice will be telling the story.

Everyone should read this book. It's lovely, and at the end, you will know some Latin names for plants and animals you did not know before. (You may interrupt your spouse to ask if he knew that some snakes are so evolutionarily advanced they do not lay eggs but give live birth to their young.)

A relaxing and enjoyable read...3.5 stars.......2007-09-19

Sue Hubbell writes in a very easy to read fashion. I enjoyed this book. I thought it read like a diary, as it details the authors life in the Ozarks in Missouri on a daily basis. I grew up on 500 acres in the Ozark mountains and I found myself relating to many of her experiences.

In 'Living the Questions' the author literally takes time out to smell the roses and journals what she observes. She takes time to watch nature around her & notices how God made everything to work in conjunction with everything else. Usually, I find scientific talk dull, but Ms. Hubbell made it interesting. The drawings made it feel like a well-read personal nature journal. This is a book you will enjoy it's an easy take on life and nature.

The REAL Secret Life of Bees ... and Beekeepers.........2007-09-05

"A Country Year" is an absorbing bucolic, understated tale of life as a rural beekeeper in the Ozarks. Sue Hubbell offers naturalist lessons without a whiff of pedantic as a shrewd observer of animal and plant life. Her story of the hard work needed to farm undercuts any idyllic fantasies of rural life, though there are compensations. "Green Acres" this aint!!

Hers is a tale of plucky self-reliance as an (aging) but still spry single woman. Sweet honey in the rock, indeed.

Hubbell's description of nature at times is so lyrical that it soars to the threshold of poetry.

Worth reading and savoring for its understated charms.

Just enjoy.......2007-02-12

This is solely for the pedantic review by "Urban Naturalist". This book is simply a look at a person who is making observations of the world around her. It does not need an over analyses or pretentious display of book learned education. It is a book written by an individual about simple things that make up her life and the feelings she receives from this experience. It is a nice read. You do not have to memorize the scientific name (genus species) of a critter for it to give you a unique memory. I write this as a field biologist working in Alaska who sees daily the awe in recent college grad eyes when they witness nature in person. There is nothing analytical about it, just visceral. This is what Sue writes about. For those interested in nature, I would recommend a search for the book "The Abstract Wild". Urban is Urban and this recommendation may give insight to that. Enjoy your reading time.

an untrimmed state...........2005-03-17

Sue Hubbell's A Country Year: Living the Questions is a classic nature/autobiography.

Written by a remarkable woman - a fifty-year-old ex-librarian and survivor of an unsettling divorce, a beekeeper and self-taught naturalist living alone in the Missouri Ozarks - this magical book is elegant and lovely. In essays as fresh and entrancing as the wilderness they describe, Hubbell testifies to the wholeness and serenity available to those who live 'in an untrimmed state.'

Bryson City Tales: Stories of a Doctor's First Year of Practice in the Smoky Mountains

Average customer rating:

Tired of sex and violence?
Good for future doctors...
A bit of a confusing mix of medicine, religion, sports and memoir
Delightful memoir
Excellent - entertaining, captivating, and heart touching

Bryson City Tales: Stories of a Doctor's First Year of Practice in the Smoky Mountains
Walt Larimore M.D.
Manufacturer: Zondervan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Bryson City Seasons: More Tales of a Doctors Practice in the Smoky Mountains
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God's Design for the Highly Healthy Person

ASIN: 0310256704

Book Description

A true story with the heart, the humor, and the humility of a raw young doctor in his very first days as a new family doctor in a little town in the Appalachian Mountains.

Customer Reviews:

Tired of sex and violence?.......2007-03-09

Nice, homey story.....I have the series nice change from the crazy world of today. No "bad" word, no sex no violence just nornal home towm life. A young man graduates med school and starts his practice in a small town where he make adjustments, not always easy but worthwhile........

Good for future doctors..........2007-01-16

As someone from a small town who is in medical school and wants to do family practice, I found this book inspiring. It was reccommended to me by a friend. Some of the stories seem a little exaggerated for good storytelling (hence the 4 stars instead of 5), but overall it's an easy and fun read. I read the whole thing in two short afternoons. Definately a must have for anyone considering family practice or anyone considering a medical career in a small town.

A bit of a confusing mix of medicine, religion, sports and memoir.......2006-06-04

Although there are certainly interesting elements here, this book has some of the most jarring transitions from one element to another I've ever read. Parts of it are strictly medical, including a tale at the beginning that would make any seasoned viewer of CSI troubled. Then there are long sports sections---high school football and fishing especially. Then the author has a religious revelation, and we read about that for a while. After that, it's straight memoir for a bit, and we learn about his family and past, but in disjointed, someone confusing pieces. None of the writing is bad, but I just couldn't settle in and really get much out of it.

Also, the backwoods people the good doctor encounters are often way too stereotyped to strike me as real. This book is not set in the distant past, but the folks we meet seem straight out of the Beverly Hillbillies, with dialet and folk remedies galore. I can't say that wasn't really the case, but it seems a bit contrived to me.

The background story of new doctor not being accepted is a bit confusing to me---we aren't really told enough about WHY the older doctors had it in for him quite so badly.

I think the author might do well to seperate this book out and REALLY tell the stories. I'd love to read more about his daughter and her struggle with CP, something we are in the process of figuring out in our family. His medical stories are interesting also, and I would be interested to hear about his journey to faith. But it can't all be in one book!

Delightful memoir.......2006-04-05

Dr. Walt Larimore received excellent medical training at Duke University. Armed with a new medical degree, his wife, and 3-year-old daughter, he journeyed to the small town of Bryson City, North Carolina, to begin his practice. What he learned is that there were many things which had not been taught at the Duke Medical School. Doctors and nurses who had been in practice for many years taught him that sometimes the old, simple procedures worked just as well as the up-to-date techniques which he favored early in his practice. He also learned that appeals to the Great Physician were much appreciated by his patients and served to calm him in a crisis. He was surprised to discover that a country doctor does not only deal with human patients, but animal ones as well. All was not easy, as both of his children faced medical crises, and some of the older doctors opposed his presence in their town. Dr. Larimore's self-effacing manner and gentle humor make this a delightful read. I am looking forward to reading the next two books in the series.

Excellent - entertaining, captivating, and heart touching.......2005-02-21

Larimore captivated both my wife and I with his writing and tales of his experience as a new doctor starting out in a new town in North Carolina. Unlike one reader, I never got the impression that the local people were anymore "backwards" than you would find anywheres else. Indeed, it becomes quite clear as Larimore continues to develop as a complete doctor that he has a number of things to learn from the people that were around him. It is fascinating to watch him grow in his practice and expertise, in his faith, and in his relationships with the local people. His love for his patients come through quite clearly.

His tales range from soul touching and heart touching to downright hilarious...the theological exposition that Christ was most definitely a fly fisherman and NOT a lake fisherman was particularly entertaining...and his experience with the couple that had just suffered a miscarriage deeply touches the soul.

For those that enjoyed Herriot, these tales will fit right in - except that the subjects are people (well, most of the time!). I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.

Month-by-Month Gardening in the Rocky Mountains: What to Do Each Month to Have a Beautiful Garden All Year (Month-By-Month Gardening in the Rocky Mountains)

Average customer rating:

Great color photos, detailed explanations of plants. Great buy!
Very specialized info

Month-by-Month Gardening in the Rocky Mountains: What to Do Each Month to Have a Beautiful Garden All Year (Month-By-Month Gardening in the Rocky Mountains)
John Cretti
Manufacturer: Cool Springs Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Best Perennials for the Rocky Mountains and High Plains
Colorado Month-to-Month Gardening (2nd Edition)
Xeriscape Colorado: The Complete Guide
The Xeriscape Flower Gardener: A Waterwise Guide for the Rocky Mountain Region
The Zen of Gardening in the High and Arid West: Tips, Tools, and Techniques

ASIN: 1591860377

Book Description

Written by John Cretti, a leading gardening expert in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain area, this proven monthly format will help gardeners experience more success and enjoyment from their gardens.

Includes the major gardening categories, from annuals and perennials to trees and shrubs, including lawns and vegetables.

The trend in gardening books is toward regional titles, and book retailers are well aware of this. The Month-by-Month series provides credible information on maintaining plants throughout the year in a specific region. These books contain monthly advice on what to do in the garden and when to do it, and contain several plant categories ranging from annuals to vines.

Gardening is now the favorite leisure pastime in America. Homeowners are realizing the health benefits derived from gardening, and the resulting increase in their home's property value.

Customer Reviews:

Great color photos, detailed explanations of plants. Great buy!.......2007-03-18

When I received this book, I read it cover to cover! The book highlights various perrenials, trees, shrubs, and even annuals with a color photo and complete description of the area of the garden in which the plant will perform best. The author details the problems with each plant, including pests, mold, deer resistance, etc. This book touches on xeriscaping (most of the plants that perform well in the Rocky Mountains are drought-friendly). The book also has a fair amount of detail on lawns, taking care of gardening problems, etc., but the reason to buy the book is for the wonderful explanations on plants to put in your Rocky Mountain garden.

Very specialized info.......2007-01-21

The growing climate is harsh in the Rockies, so I appreciated the detailed advice for all kinds of plants and trees. Very practical and for year-round use.

Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire

Average customer rating:

Similarities to Stories of Bigger Peaks
Not without Peril
The Dangerous Presidentials
Death on Mt. Washington
An Enjoyable Read

Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire
Nicholas Howe
Manufacturer: Appalachian Mountain Club Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

History of Sports | Miscellaneous | Sports | Subjects | Books

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Mountain Climbing | Mountaineering | Sports | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Forest and Crag, A History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and
AMC White Mountain Guide, 27th: Hiking Trails in the White Mountain National Forest
Mount Washington and the Presidential Range Trail Guide (AMC Hiking Guide Series)
Tales Told in the Shadows of the White Mountains
High Peaks of the Northeast: A Peakbagger's Directory and Resource Guide to the Highest Summits in the Northeastern United States

ASIN: 1929173067

Amazon.com

Like a piece of granite chipped off a Presidential peak, veteran journalist Nicholas Howe's assessment of misadventure in New Hampshire's rugged mountains has a crisp, puritanical feel that fairly rasps New England. Take his description of the near-vertical (and now well-skied) slope that nearly killed Max Engelhart in 1926: "Tuckerman Ravine is a sort of twin to Huntington Ravine, a left-hand punch into the side of Mount Washington by the same primordial giant that made Huntington with his right." Underlying Not Without Peril is the not-so-subtle message that the Presidential Range, topping out at just over 6,000 feet, is as uncompromising as any other mountain range. After all, these mountains--named for Washington, Lincoln, Madison--are home to some of the most vicious weather recorded on the planet. Howe makes no judgment about those whose misfortunes he chronicles; there are tender moments that manage to stay faithful to a crusty Yankee sensibility, as in the tale of Lizzie Bourne, who died in a snowstorm while huddled in a makeshift lean-to. Howe quotes her uncle George: "She was dead--had uttered no complaint, expressed no regret or fear, but passed silently away." Such sober tales, scrupulously researched, tell the history of a mountain range and its climbers, some of whom are immortalized for their ill-fated treks. It's a gritty read, a touch morbid, but more than compensated for by sharp writing and compelling drama. --Tipton Blish

Book Description

These compelling profiles of 22 adventurous¿yet unlucky¿climbers chronicle more than a century of exploration, recreation, and tragedy in New Hampshire¿s Presidential Range.

Customer Reviews:

Similarities to Stories of Bigger Peaks.......2007-08-04

Those who say "If you know the area, you'll love this book" have a point. I answered "yes" to all of the questions in another review. In fact, I bought the book while in New Hampshire to receive my award for climbing all of the 4000-foot peaks, including Mt. Washington and its neighbors. I started it on the way back to Illinois, where I presently live, and my attention drifted a bit in the early chapters. But lately I've been reading it more intently, and the story near the end about Don Carr was worth the cost of the book. It bears a striking similarity to the tone of "Into Thin Air," John Krakauer's narrative of the 1996 tragedy on Everest. So many bad decisions by the hiker (and so many chances to change course)! The college-age crew and other rescue workers had to make hard decisions in short order, and acquitted themselves admirably.

The annotated maps are an asset, as another reviewer mentions.

If you're not interested in hiking or the White Mountains, and if you've never pushed on when perhaps you shouldn't have, you won't be interested in this book. And yes, there are run-on sentences and comma splices. But if you are at all interested in the subject matter, you've probably had to decide whether to continue a hike as conditions deteriorated. Most of us, most of the time, either make the right call or are lucky. The exceptions make for high drama, and that trumps perfect prose for me.

Not without Peril.......2007-03-16

Great book, full of history and mountaineering stories on one of the world's most dangerous mountain!

The Dangerous Presidentials.......2007-02-19

Nicholas Howe's "Not Without Peril" is a unique sort of travel book, in that his focus is on the hazards of travel instead of the benefits. Howe has done some extensive and fascinating research dating back to the 1840's, when people first started to travel voluntarily and for pleasure around Mount Washington in the magnificent Presidental Range in the heart of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This unique alpine landscape has been tempting travelors for over 150 years, but is also home to some of the most variable and sometimes dangerous weather conditions in New England.

Howe's narative details a stream of visitors who often exercised poor judgement in traveling too high, with too little equipment, under less than favorable weather conditions, and with insufficient knowledge of the terrain. The stories are a reminder that man is still a visitor to this mountain realm, only hours walking time from more civilized streets. Some of the stories end well, thanks to the efforts of rescuers; others end badly. The effect of the whole is to place what may seem like casual travel in proper context as an adventure "not without peril". Howe also manages to convey a sense of history about travel around the Presidentials, from the first travelors to the region on foot and horseback to more modern visitors who take advantage of the Mount Washington Auto Road or Cog Railroad.

This book is highly recommended as a set of cautionary tales for those who would explore the Presidential Range, and for those interested in mountaineering in New England.

Death on Mt. Washington.......2006-09-23

Not Without Peril details the deaths and mishaps that have claimed over a hundred lives of hikers on Mt. Washington and the surrounding Presidential Range Mountains.

I bought this book in the Mt. Washington Observatory bookstore at the top of the mountain - fresh from the thrilling views observed on the way up to the 4,000 foot level and the cold enveloping mist of the ever present fog at the peak (one wonders why so many flock to a mountain top whose view is obscured 300 out of 360 days a year on average - but the views on the lower levels are spectacular). And I have to agree with one reviewer who stated that this book will primarily be of interest to those who know the Presidential Range. I would add avid outdoors types to this list, also.

The author writes an interesting book about death and mayhem on the mountain. The chapters cover a hapless (nearly always) hiker or hiking party who met usually with death at the place billed as having the world's worst weather (and the highest ever recorded wind speed of 231 miles per hour). Mt. Washington is the convergence point for three jet streams and its altitude combined with location produces wild, cold, and snowy weather with high winds very consistently.

Most of those who died did so because they ignored warnings or were foolish in estimating their ability to survive in extreme weather or took very bad risks. That central theme runs through nearly all the stories. This book is in some ways a warning to those who would take risks in the outdoors - don't; and even if the weather reports are fine, be prepared with shelter and food and most importantly let others know your route. The writing is fine, though some of the stories picked are very short. The author also fills in the stories with the history of exploration of the mountain, its weather station and important personalities who have figured in rescue operations over the last century. There is one very interesting and contemporary case where a man was left to die near a shelter based on the judgment of the shelter manager and the perceived risk to rescuers with a night time rescue attempt. Although the author is sympathetic to the judgment of the shelter manager, I'm sure lots of people will continue to debate whether or not she made the correct call.

If you enjoy this book, I'd recommend another one just like it called "Death in the Grand Canyon." This is an enjoyable book that highlights the dangers of taking Mother Nature for granted on Mt. Washington.

An Enjoyable Read.......2005-12-14

I read this book while flying for business this fall. I found that about 80% of the stories interested me. Some of them seemed to be the same story repeated about people wandering in the snow. Other stories were much easier for me to visualize and to really become involved with.

I have hiked Mt. Washington from Pinkham Notch to the summit twice in the summer and I have skied Tuckerman Ravine twice. I would reccomend this book to anyone who has considered going on the mountain during the winter but has only spent similar low-risk time on the mountain like myself. It definitely makes you think twice about preparation if you are heading up into the whites, even in the late spring and early fall.

I took two major thoughts away from this book.

1. The danger of hiking in the Whites if you are not prepared. The White Mountains are a beautiful place that anyone who enjoys the outdoors would enjoy. You just need to be adequately prepared with the right equipment and sound judgement.

2. The history of the White Mountains, the AMC, and Joe Dodge. The focus of the book was clearly more on the dangers of hiking in the Whites; however, it was interesting to get a short history lesson about the first people to make the area more accessible for recreation.

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