5 comments about Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend.

1. Doc Holliday books always suffer from the well-known fact that Doc left absolutely no written record of his own. He is, as has been noted, known only through the eyes of others. Some of his contemporaries, like Bat Masterson, are probably accurate in their appraisals. However we can never know much more about Doc himself unless something that he wrote shows up. And, it probably never will. The letters from him to his cousin are probably all gone. So we are left with a bunch of facts that we can rearrange and interpret all we want, without any guarantee that we are any closer to the truth. The author of this latest book does a good job of arranging and stacking what is known about Doc, and does a nice job of interpretation. I liked his ideas about Doc's gravesite, but wonder about the pictures...a couple of them don't seem to be of Doc (are they generally accepted to be, or not?). The author also does a nice job of questioning, appropriately, some truths that have been more or less accepted with little proof over the years (like Doc riding alone across the High Plains). A final comment: this book is dry, but is written in such a way that readers can make their own interpretations about Doc and his motivations, character, etc. Overall, a good, worthy addition to the Doc library; unless something new is discovered, this book will give you everything there is to know about Doc Holliday.



2. This is a truly masterful work. I bought it as I was interested in Holliday and the development of the West. What I found was an historical book with much about the society, economics and culture of the mid-19th Century South, as well as the rapid migration to the central and Southwest. Facinating and exceedingly entertaining and informative.



3. I was given this book as a gift. I enjoyed the movie Tombstone back when I was in college, and Doc Holliday certainly is a colorful Western outlaw. So I was really looking forward to reading this book to get the facts behind the legend. While I think the author did an admirable job researching the book, I felt his text was too dry much of the time. I couldn't understand how an author could take an exciting outlaw who interacted with so many famous characters and write out the story in a way that made me picture a monotone college professor speaking. Back in the 1990s I read John Myers Myers biography of Doc Holliday and I remember enjoying it much more. Maybe it wasn't as well researched or documented, but it was definitely more lively.



4. This book arrived on time, and was in as good of condtion as promised..if not better.



5. Excellent research by the author , considering the lack of documented historical records.He certainly captured the spirit of lawlessness that prevailed at the time.

5 comments about The Heart of the World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place.

1. 
   I just started to read this book but found that this guy is getting involved in smuglling rare animals in Nepal. Read all the follwing news about this writer. And lets boycot his book!!
   
   1) Police recover illegal treasure trove from house of National Geographic writer
   
   KATHMANDU, May 23 - The Metropolitan Police Crime Division Hanumandhoka Friday said that a police investigation unearthed a large number of wildlife items and artefacts of archaeological significance at a house rented by an American national at Baluwatar in the capital.
   Working on a special tip-off, a police team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Sher Bahadur Basnet on May 17 raided the house of Rajesh Maharjan which was rented by US citizen Ian Baker and recovered the items from the house.
   
   A police statement released during a press conference in the capital today said that the police team recovered the illegal items from Maharjan's house at Kathmandu Metropolitan-4 in Baluwatar.
   
   The statement added that after the recovery Maharjan informed the police that Baker had also stored more items at a rented house owned by one Khewang Norbu in Naxal.
   
   The police have also sealed off Norbu's house.
   
   Police informed that Baker, who has been living in Nepal for the last 24 years, had stored statues of archaeological importance, vestiges of various wild animals including skin, skeleton and statues in the Baluwater residence.
   
   The police have arrested Maharjan, while Baker is still at large.
   
   Reportedly, Baker was a features writer for the National Geographic and News Week magazines.
   
   2)
   Illegal items hoarded by American seized
   
   KATHMANDU, May 23 - Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Hanumandhoka confiscated dozens of illegally possessed artifacts, idols, wood craft and huge materials of endangered wildlife from the rented apartments of US citizen and legendary writer Ian Baker, who is also a contributor to National Geographic and several other magazines.
   Ian Baker, who has been reportedly staying in the country for over 24 years, was found to illegally possess a huge collection of archeologically important materials, including skeletons, statues and skins of wildlife in his two rented apartments located at Naxal and Baluwatar in the capital.
   
   Acting on a special tip-off, a police team raided a house of Rajesh Maharjan at Baluwatar where police recovered a huge cache of such materials.
   
   Police said they arrested house owner Maharjan, who told them that Baker also possessed illegal materials in another rented house at Naxal.
   
   Following the information from Maharjan, who is said to be an aide of Baker, police sealed the house. With the help of experts from Department of Archaeology and Kathmandu District Forest office, it was revealed that those materials were archeologically important, some even dated back to prehistoric times.
   
   On Thursday, police also seized dozens of artifacts, statues, skeletons, skins of wildlife, among other things. Senior Superintendent of Police Upendra Kant Aryal, chief of Metropolitan Police Crime Division, said the recovered materials were one of the largest collections ever confiscated by the police in the country.
   
   However, police said they were yet to ascertain the intention behind collecting those materials. During interrogation, Maharjan told that Baker had gone to Thailand after storing those materials in the house. Police said Baker has been absconding since police raided his two apartments.
   
   The country's law has banned people from possessing, buying and selling archeologically important materials. On the other hand, the CITES (Convention on international trade in endangered species of wild flora and fauna), to which Nepal is a signatory, also terms buying and selling wildlife body parts illegal.



2. Ian Baker, explorer and Buddhist scholar, narrates a sequence of incredible journeys to the Tsango Gorge in Tibet, the hidden and inaccessible Beyul Pemako.
   
   The book can be read on many levels: as an engrossing adventure; the depiction of a man's passion, determination and endurance to achieve a goal in the face of incredible hardships; rarely described Tibetan customs; and the contrast between the spirituality of the Tibetans and the materialism of the Chinese who were penetrating the area at the same time as the author.
   
   The thread that weaves the narrative together is the inner journey that unfolds as Baker traverses the sacred geography of the area as revealed by Buddhist texts, Tibetan lamas and the experiences of the author and his team. Backed by historical textural references and oral traditions, the author encounters the living, pulsing presence of this landscape in the form of the body of the dakini goddess Dorje Pagmo and her energy centers or chakras. He and his team successfully access the throat of the goddess, the hidden gorge with its long-sought waterfall.
   
   After his arrival at the waterfall, his journey culminates in a visit to the sacred site of Gompe Ne on the banks of the Tsampo River where he enacted, as countless pilgrims before him have, a birth-death-resurrection using the sacred geography of the site.
   
   I was constantly reminded of experiences in the Andes, especially Peru and the Andean Path, where the exchange of energies between man and the natural world and its sacred landscapes create spiritual alchemy and inner spiritual transformation.



3. A fantastic book for readers who are interested in learning about Tibetan Buddhism, the Tibetan culture and the Tibetan way of living, and readers who enjoy visiting and / or reading about exotic places on earth.
   
   I picked up this book right after a trip to Tibet with my 4-year old son and truly enjoyed reading it. It took me deeper into the land that I had just visited by illuminating a bit about its history, its incredible natural beauty, its people's belief system and, most importantly, the interconnectedness of all. It is a well written book and Ian Baker has done an outstanding job of getting the reader very close to the actual experience.
   
   Connecting with nature is certainly a powerful way to get connected in life and, once connected, the ultimate discoveries are often of the hidden secrets in one's soul.
   
   If you are not convinced about reading this book, I highly recommend viewing the related photos on hollot's site (find the site by doing a search on "hollot + sardar" since amazon does not allow posting URL's).



4. The Heart of the World: A Journey to Tibet's Lost Paradise takes you on a journey into canyons when no one as recorded before...breath taking..



5. The Tsangpo river cuts the eastern Himalayas to join Brahmaputra in the jungles of Assam. Intrepid British explorers have chartered most of its course during the glorious days of the Raj - leaving unexplored ~10 mile stretch of an inaccessible 'Tsangpo gorge'. Because the altitude difference between Tibet and India cannot be accounted for by the known flow of Tsangpo, the Brits hypothesized that this stretch of the river contains a large waterfall (or a series of them). This book describes several expeditions undertaken 1990-2000 by Baker and his colleague Hamid Sardar to solve this geogrpahical enigma.
   
   Both adventurers speak Tibetan and have a working knowledge of Tibetan tantra, both completed silent meditation retreats in isolated caves and both practiced with 'tantric consorts', Tibetan & Indian women placed on special diets (consisting of rose leaves and gold) trained to help men achieve a 'union of male and female principles in order to recognize the ultimate Emptiness of all phenomena." While Baker tittilates the reader here, he never delivers real information.
   
   Baler obtained a number of esoteric texts from lamas familiar with the Tsangpo territory - the texts detailed magical places throughout the gorge, incantation 'keys' necessary to 'open' those places, the nature of 'deities' residing in them and the value of their help to realization of the fact that 'nothing inherently exists on its own'. Heh. These texts, as well as subsequent Baker's narrative, reveal that the valley has ALWAYS been known to and lived in by Tibetans and local Monpa & Lopa tribes; it was never unknown, never had to be discovered and the rivalries driving American and Chinese expeditions to chart the river portrayed in the book seem pointless and even slightly comical. As well as poignant: expeditions (including Baker's own) were quite content leaving ailing and weak members behind to fend for themselves. Personally, I found the obsession with 'discovering' and 'exploring' a bit disconcerting. Why do we have to document, photograph, chart etc. every nook and cranny on this planet? Why can't we let it be? let local people be? What is the confusticated point?
   
   Baker insists on describing every single leech-infested forest and swamp on their way, every impassable boulder, pass, rivulet, stone or log which, with 500 pages, merge into a general picture of hardship, malaise, effort, hunger, leaking tents and, above all, sheer survival luck. There were so many cases where the 'pilgrims' appeared to wander aimlessly, in the dark or fog, having lost their native guides only to find them at the end of the day, against all odds huddling around a fire, that one is forced to contemplate the possibility of divine guidance.
   
   I would mention the fascinating account of 'poison cults' in local villages, and of small Tibetan monasteries and hermitages, scattered throughout the most inaccesible parts of the valley..., the gift of psychedelic mushrooms to a Tibetan hermit monk, and the touching relationship that developed between the Chinese liason officer, 'Mr. Gunn', and Occidental adventurers. Between the lines we can also read about havoc that local Monpas wreak upon local fauna (with mass-killing of rare animals such as the takin buffalo and tigers) and the much more serious Chinese depredation consisting of systematic mechanized exploitation of Tibetan natural resources and destruction of the environment (not to mention cutural genocide). Perhaps understandably, Baker wants to preserve his future access to Tibet.
   
   The greatest weakness of the book is that we learn little about Baker's own practices and realizations. We learn a lot about leeches and orchids, but what was going on with the lama's daughter mentioned early in the book? what about the tantric consorts? what (if any) spiritual realizations and benefits did Baker and Sardar derive from obsessive backpacking along the Tsangpo...? We also don't learn who financed these expensive yearly expeditions. Why are there no photo's of the supposedly discovered waterfall? Why can't the waterfall be seen from sallites or googleEarth? The apparent fear of personal disclosure detracts from the value of the book.
   
   Nevertheless, the book is well written and I enjoyed reading it. One cannot escape the notion that Baker and Sardar exemplify some of the best traits of 'man' - courage, resourcefulnes, commitment to spiritual growth and to having a good time.

5 comments about The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580.

1. Hats off to Samuel Bawlf (gotta love the name) for this riveting account of the life and exploits of explorer cum pirate Sir Francis Drake. Bawlf concentrates on the voyage that made Drake world famous (and the secrets about the trip that Queen Elizabeth suppressed), but does a marvelous job of providing an overview of the political and economic climate in which that voyage was made. And save for a slight drag about three-quarters of the way through, Bawlf keeps the pace fast and full of suspense, without once sacrificing intelligence and clarity. For anyone interested in world history and the extraordinary men and women who made it, this is a wonderful, highly entertaining read.



2. Good, accurate history of the round his world voyage attempt.
   
   Reading along with Google Earth's studies.
   
   Plan to pass it along to 11 year old as soon as i finish it.
   
   Great for adults, and fun for the kids, since they can follow along with Google Earth.



3. Samuel Bawlf is more than just an historian writing about an episode in the exploration of North America's northwest coast, he has taken a mystery and turned it into an interesting and entertaining book. Unlike an academic, Bawlf didn't write this book under pressure to 'publish or perish' or to solidify his appointment to a 'Chair'; he wrote this volume out of love for the subject and an interest in finding out the truth. All of which makes this an enjoyable read.
   
   On returning from his historic voyage, Drake had his crew sequestered in Plymouth while he went to London to report to Queen Elizabeth. In addition to over half a million pounds of plunder (much of it belonging to King Philip II of Spain) he also brought her a report of new lands on the North American continent, plus the possibility that he had found the strait that lead from the Pacific to the Northwest Passage (of which Frobisher has already found the Atlantic side). The Northwest Passage would reduce the sailing distance to the western Pacific coast from 20,000 miles to 3,000.
   
   For reasons of state, the six months Drake spent exploring what became the Canadian and American Pacific Northwest, were never acknowledged to have happened. Times spent in other parts of the voyage were extended to 'erase' this time period. Drake's discoveries were never acknowledged and to this day there are few geographical namings that honor him in this area. The 'secret' was kept so well, that few first or even second-hand accounts have survived, and many of those that do, were 'doctored' to protect the secret.
   
   Bawlf does a masterful job in laying out the clues and making his conclusions.



4. Overall I enjoyed this book. I read it right after a biography of Magellan which made it especially poignant. Drake in many cases landed at places Magellan had previously been to and had to deal with the side or after-effects of Magellan's actions. The book is an easy read and gives a good overview of certain background elements such as Elizabeth and her political considerations. The adventures of Drake and his crew as they circled the world are an exciting read and I learned much.
   
   I have three negative comments on the book: 1) It spent too little time on the Spanish Armada, which may not be the prime topic of the book, but is important to the story. 2) The weird organization at the end with Drake dieing and then the concluding chapters showing where Drake probably visited in the Pacific Northwest. Maybe it works, but it seemed disjointed. and 3) Most important- get a map. Yes lots of old maps are reproduced but not real readable in the paperback and nowhere is there a modern map showing Drake's route. Many latitudes and a few longitudes are given, but without a good memory for the latitude/longitude of say San Francisco, I was a bit lost.
   
   I would recommend this book, but only with accompanying maps.



5. What a remarkable history and well written book. When you read the first pages you realize that Drake was a great human being and an excellent explorer, navigator(the best of all times) and survivor. In the time when spaniards were around beheading everything, Drake treated the prisoners or natives with dignity.
   
   I was interested in the passing of Magellan's strait and the navigation through America heading north, specially Chile. This is an excellent book to enjoy and I recommend it to everyone.

5 comments about Adventures in the Ditch: A Memoir of Family, Navigation, and Discovery on the Intracoastal Waterway.

1. I thoroughly enjoyed Adventures in the Ditch. Crisp writing and well-drawn characters make Jon Coile's memoir a must-read for anyone with even a hint of familial dysfunction. I bought this as a gift and kept it for myself. Bravo!



2. Adventures in the Ditch is a compelling story of family relationships tested to the limit on a journey on the Intracoastal Waterway. Written in an engaging, self-deprecating style by an experienced naval officer, the book chronicles a trip, alternately nail-biting and hilarious, on the "Ditch," and introduces a roster of fascinating characters, from the author's aging father, to a brash co-worker with dreams of adventure, to an old salt whose expert advice saves the day at a critical moment. Along with the fun and family insights, the author provides technical asides, so well constructed and beautifully explained that he thrilled this non-technical, non-boating reviewer. This book launches readers on a terrific journey with a skilled captain; step aboard!



3. In today's hectic world most of us will not take the time to chart an adventure, plan extended time with our closest relatives let alone write about it to memorialize the event. So for the rest of us we can sit back and enjoy the keen writing and touching discovery of this extremely moving book!It makes you want to re-live parts of your life, ask questions and push boundaries. The author finds out about who he can trust, where he came from and to expect the un-expected. Challenges against Mother Nature and human nature make this book wonderful!



4. I really enjoyed Adventures in the Ditch and heartily recommend it to all mariners, lovers of sea stories, and anyone who appreciates tales of fathers and sons coming together while facing adversity.
   
   Coming from a long line of watermen myself, and growing up on the water, I've always loved a good sea story, and this book really delivers in spades. As a short-range sailor, the detailed, firsthand accounting of the trip really helped me experience the amazing Intracoastal Waterway vicariously, and has inspired me to follow in Coile's wake.
   
   Jon Coile also does a wonderful job of conveying all of the excitement, frustrations, fears, joys, and humor everyone encountered on board Griffin, and tells a great story for those not experienced on the water as well. Some of the colorful people they encounter along the way reminded me that there is a whole other America out there, just begging to be explored by anyone willing to take on the challenge.
   
   Adventures in the Ditch is a fun and easy read, and I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did.



5. I don't always have the resources nor the gumption to do the things I dream about. Consequently, I live vicariously. Jon Coile allowed me to go on a motorboat voyage down a stretch of waterway I'd heard about and seen only in bits and pieces. The Intracoastal Waterway looks straightforward on the maps, but Jon's yarn spinning reveals that adventures are never as simple as they look. It's only 1250 miles along the Chesapeake bay to Miami, but it's not the mileage, but the quality of the mileage that keeps you engrossed. I rode the Griffin, a seven ton, 31 foot motorboat on a six month journey. Each leg took less than two weeks, but it seemed many times that she would not make it at all. The Griffin had to winter in Florida before Jon could make the return trip.
   Adventures in the Ditch is not just a story about boating, but more about human interactions. The southward trip was a family adventure. Jon's octogenarian father, Russell, was the center of attention until his brother, Andrew, slipped and required so many stitches on his head, they resembled the lacings on a football. Wendy, Jon's wife came to the recue and provided the "crew power" required to take the boat the rest of the way to Florida.
   The return trip was a two-man adventure. Jon's buddy, Tom, an ex-special forces "nothing is going to stop me" type of guy, joined him to bring the Griffin back, despite a broken propeller.
   The author is a compelling story teller and keeps you engrossed. You wonder what unexpected disaster occurs next and how you're going to surmount the challenge. Vicarious living or not, boating is not an armchair experience.
   The book is for the boater and the boater-wanna-be, like me. Adventures in the Ditch is a book you can't put down until you complete the journey.

3 comments about By His Own Hand?: The Mysterious Death of Meriwether Lewis.

1. By His Own Hand? is a valuable addition to the Lewis and Clark literature. The centerpieces of this slim volume are two extended essays, one by James Holmberg of the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, the other by John D.W. Guice, professor of history emeritus at the University of Southern Mississippi.
   
   In "The Case for Suicide," Jim Holmberg does an excellent job of setting out the evidence that Meriwether Lewis committed suicide in the early morning hours of October 11, 1809. The strength of Holmberg's essay is the overwhelming support of documentary evidence that the people closest to Lewis, including William Clark and Thomas Jefferson, believed he was in a suicidal frame of mind. Holmberg also points out that the supposed tradition of murder did not begin until the 1840s, many decades after Lewis died, when the residents of the area formed Lewis County and began to embrace the legacy of their most famous, if deceased, resident. William Clark's son, Meriwether Lewis Clark, may have also played a role in attempting to rescue his namesake from the stigma of suicide.
   
   By contrast, those who believe Lewis was murdered have never been able to muster much evidence against any of the many suspects and rely heavily on the dubious supposition that Lewis simply wasn't the type to commit suicide. There are big holes in all the murder theories. Fictional accounts such as Frances Hunter's "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis and Clark" can fill in such gaps, but no documentary evidence exists that can do so in real life.
   
   Yet Guice's essay, "Why Not Murder?" is more valuable than the confused tales of murder in the night might suggest. Guice points out that, starting with Thomas Jefferson, there has been a long history of retrofitting Lewis's life and actions to point to a suicidal nature. Scholars often point to Lewis's 31st birthday journal entry. Written literally as the Expedition was poised to become the first Americans to cross the Continental Divide, Lewis seems to lament the fact that he's never accomplished a doggone thing in his life. But is this really evidence that Lewis was self-destructive or a raging depressive? And how about the missing journals, or Lewis's failures in politics after the Expedition? Might there be explanations other than mental illness?
   
   Guice does a good job of showing that when interpreted through the assumption of suicide, Lewis's foibles seem much more ominous than they would otherwise. He also points out that the suicide tradition is based largely on hearsay, and calls for an exhumation of Lewis's body to search for forensic evidence that might settle the question once and for all. He notes that over 200 Lewis relatives signed a petition asking the National Park Service for permission to examine the remains, but the NPS denied the request.
   
   I also appreciated Guice's defense of Vardis Fisher, whose Suicide or Murder? (1962) doesn't always get the respect it deserves. Fisher did yeoman's work in compiling the stories about Lewis's death, and his work on the subject remains the most complete on the subject.
   
   There are some good primary source documents included in By His Own Hand?, and an excellent round-up of the arguments by Jay Buckley of Brigham Young University. This anthology is highly readable and well-edited and will be enjoyed with anyone with an interest in Lewis's sad fate.



2. You talk about true crime, this puts them all to shame. Or was it a crime? For almost two centuries scholars, criminologists, medical professionals and a host of other sleuths have tried to determine what caused the death of Meriwether Lewis of the famed Lewis and Clark Expedition. Was it a suicide, a homicide, or an accident? The shooting on October 11, 1809, in an Inn along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee has created much controversy, speculation, legends, and myths and yet the mystery has not been solved. Or has it? This book is the first to analyze the evidence and, within the full historical context, consider the murder-versus-suicide debate. Four historians outline the facts and present the evidentiary problems; make a case for suicide...and murder; assess the strengths and weaknesses of both arguments; and present a document section from which the reader can examine the available key evidence. What ultimately caused the death of Meriwether Lewis? YOU decide.



3. BY HIS OWN HAND? THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF MERIWETHER LEWIS surveys the evidence in the strange death of explorer Lewis, who was found dead from two gunshot wounds while staying at an inn in Tennessee. Who fired these shots may never be fully known, but BY HIS OWN HAND takes a healthy stab at a case with no eyewitnesses. Contributors here are all historians of the West and conduct investigations making the case for different results, with editor Guice dissecting the suicide argument and outlining inconsistencies in the theory.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

5 comments about Rocketman: Astronaut Pete Conrad's Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond.

1. I have read a lot of material on the Mecury, Gemini, and Apollo missions and found this book to be a nice easy read. There were a couple of items that were mis-quoted, but other than that, I enjoyed reading it. I would suggest for readers of this type of material to be sure to read "Failure is not an option" by Gene Krantz, he was the flight director who was envolved with Mecury all the way to Apollo 17. With the knowledge of his book, it helps to understand a lot of what's going on. I did however, seem to notice a lack of writting about Pete Conrad's family. I have done business with Pete Conrad Jr. and he's a great guy. I was suprised to see so little mention of his family in the book. There was just a small part about them in the book. I guess perhaps written by is present wife would explalin it. But I enjoyed reading the book. Long may you rise above the earth Pete Conrad.
   
   KLD



2. Pete Conrad had a fairly colorful style about him, part cowboy - part engineer - full time iconoclast. However, these traits do not come thru in this book. The writing does not convey the dynamics of the man, so ultimately it becomes little more than a 'just the facts' biography.
   
   While I doubt any astronaut book came come close to capturing the human story of space Michael Collins' "Carrying The Fire", this book had a chance since it focused upon one of the truly unique characters in the space program. So am immensely dissapointed at the final product.



3. I enjoy reading about this time in American History and consider myself a student of the early space program. In that regard, in a brief perusal of the book, I have already noticed some factual errors that should have been caught by the editor or by Mr. Klausner. First, in the picture section, it shows a picture of Pete on the ladder about to board an F4 Phantom, yet the label says that he is posing in front of a T-38. Another error is related to the issue with "Max Peck". Max Peck was the Mgr of the Rice Hotel in 1962. After the 2nd group of astronauts was chosen, including, Frank Borman, Pete Conrad, Jim Lovell, Ed White and Neil Armstrong they were asked to check in under the Mgr's name to avoid their names reaching the press prior to their formal introduction. However, this book states that this happened back in 1959 when the first 32 candidates for the Mercury program checked into a a non-disclosed hotel in Washington. Not only is that fact wrong, but they didn't check into a hotel in 1959 for that first meeting but the Dolly Madison house in Washington.



4. The book arrived within the scheduled delivery time in excellent condition.
   
   Thank you,
   
   Mark & Francine Keehnel



5. I've read way too many space books, so I love the subject matter, but the style of this one was too breezy, lacking in important detail. Each chapter is about 12 words long, so you get the impression this was either rushed through or intended for young adults. I learned little about the man, whom I wholly admire. Did he alienate anybody? Were there any character flaws? Also, I was looking to learn more of an insider's view of Gemini and Apollo, but it was all very superficial, heard-it-before material. I'd read a bit about Conrad, like his attempt to smuggle onto the moon a huge cowboy hat to fit over his space helmet, or his attempt at trick photography on the lunar surface, hoping to befuddle the photo analysts later. Neither of these gems were in the book. He's a great guy, a pilot's pilot, a problem-solving magician with a live-for-the-moment spirit. But the book is really junk food, even for a space nut like myself. Sorry, Pete. They done ya wrong.

1 comments about Teachings Around the Sacred Wheel: Finding the Soul of the Dreamtime.

1. From the first book I've read of Lynn V. Andrews works, starting from Woman of Wyrrd and not in order, Medicine Woman, Crystal Woman, Star Woman, Jaguar Woman, and all the others, I find that I could not put any of her books down until I got to absorb every detail and experience. She has brought me enlightenment by awakening my eyes to significant events and similar situations that equate to mine. In this book, this teaches us about our animal spirit, the south, west, east and north wheel where she had described from Star Woman that east represents the rational thinking while the west is the emotional, the south; physical and the north, the spiritual and enlightenment. There is so much to learn from each of her books and this one is no exception. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for the truth within us.

5 comments about Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who RIsked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II.

1. Even though most people seem to know the outcome. (I didn't) it was a great summer read. There is still some question as to how the sub got there but who cares? This book is not about the US Navy doing an archeology study, it's about a couple of guys who love to dive who get a hold of a story and go have a look. Then spend several years figuring out what it is that they are looking at. Plus people die in this tale, so obviously what they are doing gives them enough of an adrenaline rush to make it worth doing. For the rest of us, it's a page burner summer read.
   
   And heck if you want, you can hire a boat and a dive master and go look yourself. I'll be running a submersible with a camera from the boat though.



2. This is a wonderfully written tale that not only brings you face to face with deep sea diving and exploration and the dangers that go with it but also the perils faced by WW2 submariners.
   
   If you like a good adventure then give Shadow Divers a read, after a few pages you won't be able to put it down until you finally know who U-Who really is.



3. Yes they identified the U-Who. But they so embellished the rest of the story that another author needed to come out and expose it.



4. Short on air, I'll be brief. I took this book to Blackbird Caye Resort, Belize, on a SCUBA vacation. Once started, it hooked me in, to the point I only put it down for meals and to prep for my next dive. There are 248 other reviews to inform you of the story content. Let me just add, if you buy this book, read this book, and don't like this book, you have my permission to flame this review and spit in my dive mask.



5. Lots of history and excitement! Amazing true story. You will not be disappointed with this book.

No comments about Park Ranger Sequel.

2 comments about Toward the Setting Sun: Columbus, Cabot, Vespucci, and the Race for America.

1. I've read a number of books on the exploration of the New World over the years. This is one of the stranger books I've read on the subject. The author has an odd view of the exploration of the New World, a different aspect of things, a very different point of view. This means has he has produced a truly different book, written from a unique perspective and with very unusual facts included.
   
   The author apparently intends to do two things. First, he wishes to put forward the idea that Columbus, Cabot, and Vespucci all knew one another, and in fact (he thinks) actually intended to work together on the project of discovering and exploiting the New World. Second, he believes that just recounting the stories of the various voyages of exploration, by themselves, without any context as to what was happening in Europe at the time, performs a disservice. As a result, the author starts the narrative recounting the fall of Constantinople in 1453. This event led indirectly to the voyages of exploration, because the Byzantine Empire had been the conduit through which European nations traded with the East. When the Empire fell, there was ample motive for European merchants and monarchs to find an alternative route to the Eastern markets. This led to Columbus and Vespucci, at the very least, and Cabot probably, going West to wind up in the East. The result, of course, was the discovery of the Western Hemisphere, which Columbus didn't know existed and wound up dying without ever recognizing.
   
   I thought this book was interesting, and the context into which the author puts the events recounted in the book makes the narrative very interesting. On the other hand, the idea that Cabot, Columbus, and Vespucci worked together as recounted in the book is rather thin, to say the least. While Columbus and Vespucci definitely knew one another, the idea that Cabot knew Columbus is tantalizing, but there's no real evidence to support the conclusion. The author acknowledges the lack of direct evidence, and then lays out what he thinks pretty conclusive circumstantial evidence. I found what he put forward to be suggestive, but not as convincing as he makes it out to be.
   
   I generally enjoyed this book, though I found some of the author's contentions pretty questionable. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject of exploration of the New World.



2. Every American should read this book! David Boyle puts together an amazing story woven with facts and written with elegant style.There is so much to learn in this book from this time period. David has a unique way of plunking you right in the thick of things. Just wonderful writing.
   Debby deMoulpied