Complete is the best way to describe this guidebook. I wasn't planning on visiting the Marin side but was forced to when the fog in San Francisco made it too cold and wet to enjoy the parks and trails. Marin was in complete sunshine everyday.

This book stands apart from all the rest because it was written by hometown authors who definitely know their turf and didn't mince on destinations, more than any other book on the subject. It mades a good companion with the Lonely Planet San Francisco book. If you like to explore the outdoors on your vacation buy this book. It will keep you entertained as well as busy.

We mountain biked in Marin and along the coast line of San Francisco using this book as our guide. We began our morning ride with misty views of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Presidio, then crossed the span and discovered all sorts of cool trails that connected to sunny Mount Tamalpais. This book has very good access information to all the open space area trails and even includes a two page list of places to take my retriever. Packing alot of sports into one volume makes this book very valuable to me.

I have reviewed lots of travel-related guidebooks over the years, so I can say with some authority that the Golden Gate Trailblazer--the third title in the popular Trailblazer series--is a real find. Although I lived for a number of years in the San Francisco/Marin area, I was simply overwhelmed by the amount of new information I learned about this most wonderful place. The choices of hikes, walks, jogs, and off-road (and sometimes on-road) cycling options are simply overwhelming. The "Best of San Francisco and Marin" section thankfully helps to break down all these choices into dozens of useful categories to help you get to where you want to go faster (for example: Short Walks to High Places; Wildflowers; and Raptors and Woodland Birds; Family Rides; Beach Runs; etc.). The "Free Advise and Opinion" section near the back, while only three pages in length, is nothing short of fabulous in dispensing loads of cryptically written, helpful information and side-splitting humor in equal proportions. And the black-and-white photography throughout the book are stunning in creating a visual sense of place (In my view, the quality of the photos sometimes reaches award-winning status--I would certainly love to see enlargements of some of my favorites!). Including hundreds of trail descriptions, jogging paths, and so forth in a book less than 300 pages long is no mean trick. The Sprouts accomplish this by using a consistent, well-organized, yet compact format, well-selected abbreviations, and carefully crafted yet succinct directions. One important note: This is one book where reading the "How to Use This Book" section will be time well spent. The organization of the book works and works well. But the reader will benefit by taking a moment to orient him or herself. And buying a good street map of the area is another essential, as the authors themselves so indicate. Map drawing, especially in the backcountry of Marin County, is a major challenge and the authors were wise to leave that job to the cartographers. With a copy of the Golden Gate Trailblazer and a good street map in hand you will be ready to explore places you may have never even heard of in a lifetime of living in the Bay Area. And if you are first-time visitors you will be thrilled to have so much well-informed guidance in selecting the activity that is just right for you. And, oh yes, a final tip of the hat to the authors for taking the time to include dozens of good ideas for outdoor exploration for those in wheelchairs and parents who opt to push the little one(s) in a baby stroller.

Thank-you Ivan Doig. This book is wonderful. I had started the book and then put it down realizing that I wanted to savor this book. I picked this book up again after reading Close Range by Annie Proulx. What a relief House of Sky was. Great way to see Montana, the writing takes you there.

This is Ivan Doig's story of growing up in Montana. It was not an easy life. His widowed father kept Ivan close, made sacrifices, taught him everything he knew. The father even made a truce with his mother-in-law for Ivan's sake. Ivan was raised by two strong characters! Which made Ivan a strong character.

I would highly recommend this book. It touches all the parts of your heart.

Ivan Doig's "This House of Sky" is an American masterpiece. It's easy to see the influence this book has had, both directly and indirectly, on other notable Western writers such as Gretel Ehrlich, Pam Houston and Ron Franscell. It is pure poetry in prose form, and we begin to see how the Western mind is formed by the forever landscape.

Doig is clearly an underappreciated American writer, particularly outside of the West. I would suggest this book to anyone who likes to read beautiful language about heartfelt subjects. I would further recommend "The Solace of Open Spaces" by Gretel Ehrlich and "Angel Fire" by Ron Franscell, both cut from the same lyrical, evocative Western cloth.

This House of Sky chronicles the early years of a boy growing up in Montana under circumstances that to others might appear difficult - his mother died young, his father and grandmother bring him up, poverty is never far. The author is a remarkable man whose tale that describes a way of life gone by and people whose spirit and determination are hard to find. This is one of the few books that I have read more than once - even after four or five reads it remains fresh. This is also great book to give as a gift, and the recent hardcover version has a special forward by the author

I love this book more than any others, and those thousands of others include: Anna Karenina, War and Peace, all of Michener (sorry James!), Faulkner, Hemingway, and Steinbeck. Even more than I loved Moby Dick. I believe that Raintree County is the greatest American Novel, and it would be hard to dissuade me. But you also have to read Shade of a Raintree when done, to keep the saga going

When averring that Raintree County is such a "Good" book, I find myself searching for words to accurately convey my meaning. The lyrical gift of Mr. Lockridge is "good," though not great as is the case with the brilliant Thomas Wolfe, the American novelist his writing most resembles. The story, complete with flashbacks, is engaging through all its over 1,000 pages. The philosophical sections are good as well, and the "Perfesser" Stiles is one of the most comically and wittily astute Menckenesque characters in all of American fiction.

One thing that I certainly do NOT mean by "good" is that the book is some sort of sentimental whitewash of American history and archetypal American characters. They are presented here in all their selfishness, avarice and mean-spiritedness. Yet, the novel ultimately has such a Whitmanesque all-embracing quality that these human traits dissolve into the rich tapestry of the story, which I found a page-turner despite its length.

Ultimately, the novel of which this book most reminds me is not an American, or even English, one at all. It is Tolstoy's War And Peace. These books both narrate the human capacity for evil and good, for love and hate, the chaos caused by the greatest war either of the two countries had fought at the time, the enduring value of friendship, all spread out over a vast panorama of intricate relations. In short, Raintree County is America's most epic novel: Not the greatest perhaps, but the most epic.

But there's something more: At one point in the book (p. 934 in my edition) Shawnessy reflects that, "A human life had a dimension that wasn't perfectly understood." Through reading this book, one somehow comes away with the feeling that one has at least brushed against the boundaries of this mysterious dimension.---No small feat, this.

On November 11, 1998 I wrote a review of Ross Lockridge's son's book: "In The Shade of the Raintree," that said much that could be added to advantage to my review of "Raintree County" itself.

Accordingly, I am doing a second review of "Raintree County." It is relevant in that it is also written in the light of several other reviews that followed mine and a couple that preceded it that had not been posted for some reason when I wrote my initial review. (I would love to think I was the catalyst for getting this remarkable book at least a little of the attention it deserves.) I am happy to see a near consensus in the reviews now appearing here about a couple of things: (1) that this book should be covered in Lit. Courses and (2) that it is indeed recognized by at least an elite, as that fabled literary phenomenon: "The Great American Novel."

I was and am immensely impressed by a writer like Ross Lockridge, Jr., who could craft a thousand plus page novel that is more of a lyric poem. Yet, at the time of its publication, some reviewers lightly passed it over as prolix or superficial, notably competing author Hamilton Basso, whose review, one suspects, might reveal that he'd have cut his arm off to be able to achieve Lockridge's pinnacle of word-use that sweeps our minds away like a Pied Piper demanding we follow him.

I followed this Pied Piper gladly, into a nostalgic tour of magical long gone years and fascinating people departed forever. Moreover, we were never far from the realization that those during the Civil War were raised to "give their last full measure of devotion," to the highest cause, preservation of "The Last Best Hope of Earth." We need to be rededicated to that cause today.

At some places in Lockridge's monumental tribute to America, in the hands of this genius, the cumulative effect transcended words, as only music can do. He tugged me into a wonderful, tragi-comic trance-like dream of pure thought where still lived a world of America's heritage. Ross Lockridge undoubtedly fathered that elusive thing: - The Great American Novel.

I thought as I read a son's account of his father and his work on this remarkable book that its history of creation should remind us it's time to take a second look and face the truth that we were granted a short stay among us of a literary angel, who bequeathed us a treasury of jewel-like words and images beyond price.

I wrote in my review of Larry Lockridge's remembrance that I would review its inspiration, the book Raintree Country itself, when I had time. I added: "In any case, I want to record my discovery of the conundrum of the book, Raintree Country, a mysterious message buried in its maps that no one I have ever encountered had noticed." I did that. Contrary to Ross Lockridge's deliberately (?) misleading words, we could look for Raintree Country on the Map and it 'would' be there.

Finally, I must say that the movie, like most, was - in my opinion - the usual uncomprehending travesty of story mangling and miscasting. Only Flash Perkins was properly cast, in my opinion. I don't think the producers had any more idea of what they had grandly muffed than a baby has of the consequence of throwing its bottle out of the crib. Maybe someday an English production company of the caliber that gave us "I Claudius," and "Lily" and "The First Churchills," will redo this classic.

Where Blue Highways sprawled across the continental United States in a macro-view of America, William Least Heat-Moon reverses the lens and concentrates on (mostly) walking and (sometimes) driving a tiny subsection of the USA: Chase County, in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas. The people he meets--the old timers who've seen the river rise and fall and mined the quarries, the feminist restauranteur, the female ranchers determined to succeed in the face of declining small-farm agriculture and chauvinism--are people who might make unlikely subjects for straight fiction, but Least Heat-Moon's gift is to make us care about their personal stories and worries anyway. The ecological, social, and political sides of Chase--and the personal issues and flights of fancy of the author's psyche--come into sharp focus under Least Heat-Moon's eye, which misses little; and his writing is clear enough to make you forget that you're reading something fascinating about something commonplace. The kind of book to make you wish the author was just a little more prolific

Having read BLUE HIGHWAYS several years ago I was excited when PRAIRYERTH came out and couldn't wait to read it. Even though itwas a huge book of about a thousand pages, my admiration for William Least Heat Moon was such that I knew I wanted to read this book.

When I began to realize we were never going to leave one county in Kansas I was already near the end of the book and wished that it wouldn't end.

I don't recommend this book to casual readers, for I think they will miss the beauty and fascination contained in these pages. But for those who love poetry and the sheer beauty of words mixed in with simplicity of spirit in story telling, there are few books that can come close to this one. I also have read RIVER HORSE and am hoping that William Least Heat Moon is writing his fourth book as I write these words!

I first picked up this book when a job change brought us into the Tallgrass Prairie region of Kansas. As it turns out, we settled in Cottonwood Falls, Chase County, Kansas! It was extraordinary to read PrairyErth, knowing that we would soon be experiencing this place first-hand.

There is truly nothing like living in this community and experiencing the sights, places and people described so richly in PrairyErth. William Least Heat-Moon knows this place well, and paints a picture that is as vivid and timeless as Chase County itself. As a "local", I've returned to this book time and time again.

Unfortunately, my job is now taking us away from here. If you've read the passage about Spring Street in Cottonwood Falls, then you know our home. This is truly a beautiful and extraordinary place; unique in the world. If you would like to experience the sense of community that my family and I have been so blessed with, give me a call.

I am never dissappointed in a Thoene novel. This Irish series is best of all in my opinion! I love the on going story of Kate and Josheph and all the characters of Ballynockanor. The stories my grandmother told about her childhood in Ireland have really come to life. It is amazing how similar the stories in the Galway Chronicles are to the real life history of many of us Irish Americans! The injustice of l800 Ireland under English rule make me value America all the more in spite of our problems here. Anyway, this is a great read for ANYONE!

This is book number 3 of the Galway Chronicles Series. I did not realize this book was part of a series and read it out of order. However, I went back and read the first two books and the last. I could not put them down. The history that is a backdrop for the novels is fascinating and gives one an understanding of the animosity between the English and the Irish. The characters are so real and the story keeps you on the edge wondering what will happen next. I loved all four of the books.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the Galway Chronicles- I'm anxiously awaiting my copy of the next book. I really enjoy historical fiction, and I love anything about Ireland's past, so these books have been such a treat for me. I'm even recommending them to my dad, who strictly reads non-fiction, because I think he would enjoy them immensely. Through all the tragedies and horrors that these characters have experienced, one common theme is evident- God is always there, always protecting, loving, and comforting, even while the world is crashing all around. A sincere thank you to the authors, for conveying such a wonderful message and a terrific story.

This book was a great read. It focused as much on people who own(and sometimes abuse) animals as the animals themself. It delves into the everyday workings of an animal shelter in detail (which is not all fun and games). I think this book should be read by anyone considering adopting an animal because it is also a resource on how to find the one for you. I will definately adopt all my future pets from shelters rather than purchasing them from a pet store after reading this book. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because I was hoping for a little bit more James Herriot type stories with happy endings.

Ms. Hess does a wonderful job in portraying the true life aspects of the life and work in an animal shelter. As was previously expressed, it is a book that everyone should read since it is not only about animals but about the people who take them into their lives as well. We need to take a serious look at our motivations in becoming pet owners. I have passed the book on to my friends to read. It was a wonderful experience and I could not put it down.

For everyone who has ever adopted an animal, surrendered an animal, loved an animal or simply wants to know how we who work at a shelter manage to hang in there, this is the book. Elizabeth Hess has done a marvelous job recording her insights into the very stressful, often frustrating, often heartwarming aspect of this very difficult job. It is not a depressing book, but, rather, a realistic one. I could have written every single word she has put on paper, even though my shelter is many hundreds of miles away from hers and deals with a different population. What most people do not realize, and which this book points out, is that it is a humane shelter's job to protect the animals, most of which are abused and neglected, and get them into stable, non-abusive homes. This can be source of stress, as the average person thinks of a shelter as a pet store. We are far more than that, as Ms. Hess points it. She covers the horrors of puppy mills, the frustrations of working with an abusive public and non-caring judicial system, and the marvelous families who adopt and care for the unwanted and suffering. The most wonderful animals are found in shelters, and often some of the most wonderful people. Thank you, Ms. Hess, for letting everyone see this.

This was a sweet book and I encourage women of all ages to read it. Our protagonist, Dr. Meggie O'Connor moves back to the family farm from New York City after her many year-old marriage fails and she is fast approaching her fortieth birthday. She is a psychologist and restarts her practice in northern Michigan. One of her early clients/patients is Winona Pathfinder, a Native American "healer" whose daughter has pushed her to therapy because she insists she will be dying soon, thank you very much. As this relationship grows it becomes more quickly evident to the reader than to Meggie that it is she who is being healed. Meggie learns a good deal about Winona's life, her decisions, and her reasons for the calm prediction of death and is drawn into the validity of the pipe-smoking, and the Native American 'medicine' ways. In a very subtle way, Winona draws Meggie into a real change of view about who she is and what her value is. Finally, there is a love interest that, in a surprise in the end, makes the story wonderfully complete.

This is a very special book, the best I've read this year. I couldn't wait for Winona's next visit with Meggie to see what lessons she would teach. I especially liked the porcupine hunting scene where Slade gave thanks to the porcupine for giving up its life and the way he made use of the body parts instead of discarding them. The porcupine earrings which Meggie received as a present from Slade were a delicious surprise!

This was a wonderful book which I could not stop reading. I didn't want it to end. Be sure to read the sequel "Compass of the Heart" if you want to follow these characters further.

I heard about Winona's Web from my neighbor Gail Korhonen whose book club thoroughly enjoyed it and so I thank Gail for lending me her copy. Suttons Bay,Michigan is a beautiful & familiar place, so I felt right at home with the characters. The story is about a psychologist who has an elderly patient by the name of Winona Pathfinder who is Lakota. Winona is not very interested in being psychoanalyzed and she becomes the therapist & no matter how much the psychologist tries to be scientific & business-like, Winona always has the patience to be both teacher & guide. The story is about death & life. The plot thoughtfully & successfully pits American Indian spirituality & tradition against science. Everything about this story is respectful to the American Indian people & our culture. It is the first book of fiction I have ever read by an Anglo that did not romanticize or dramatize or trivialize Indian people & our heritage and traditions. I was pleasantly surprised by the clever ways that Phyllis Cogan addressed important social & political issues that American Indian people deal with & frequently found myself rereading specific passages with appreciation for the sensitivity and knowledge. I like the people in this book & recognize them among my own friends. These characters are well developed. When I reached the last sentence in the book I was both satisfied & sad because I wanted to continue to travel with them on their journeys. All I could think about was a sequal.

I finishd the Shunning yesterday and today I am going out to buy the next 2 books, The Confession and The Reckoning. The details of the stories are great and so understanding. I live near Lancaster, Pa and so many times I have wondered what life was like to live the Amish ways. I always thought it would be nice to live the simple ways not realizing what those ways really were. I admire the families that can live so strictly and feel so happy. I feel for Katie and the dilema she is going through and I also feel for her parents. They are almost like my friends or family. Thank you Mrs. Lewis.

I am an avid reader and lover of Amish history. These 2 passions drew me to a display containing "The Shunning" when we were traveling and stopped to eat at a little restaurant-gift shop. I just had to get up from my meal and take a look at the book. I was so interested I had to read it. The characters were exciting people, individual in spite of being identical! Katie especially intrigued me! She was so fiesty, so different, opinionated, yet family oriented. How could she expect to be happy at any one place when the whole world called to her? I felt empathy for Katie's Amish parents because having a daughter like her surely was a test in their community! Yet, I felt Katie's pain...her uncertainty...her desires...what part in her longterm future would Mary play? How could Katie endure without Dan, her soul mate? How could she marry a man she did not love? Why must she be forced to live without the beautiful, soothing music she adored? Was it sin, or simply protocol? It was easy to keep switching my loyalty from one group to the other...they all had some good ideas. I thought I understood Katie and her inquisitive nature, yet I wanted to scold her for being ungrateful and even spiteful to her parents at times. I seemed to have love-hate for one person, then another! I think this author, Bev Lewis, surely must have an interesting life....how else could she think of so many wonderfully surprising events? For a book that led one to think it was going to be about a fairly dull family, living in a fairly dull town, with fairly dull ideals, there certainly was a trememdous amount of excitement nontheless! People DID have feelings, they DID experience emotions, and Katie Lapp was determined to live them in addition to just feeling them! There are issues here that are presented so well, love and marriage, family life, faith, obedience to parents, loyalty, adoption, trust, life and death, grief and mourning, traditions, ways of life...and all of these are wrapped around one tiny, pink satin baby gown! When I saw I was on the last page, I was stricken....NO, THIS CANNOT BE ENDING...there is so much I do not know yet! What will happen to..what if...when will...why didn't....maybe they...if only.... I did not rest a moment until book number 2 was in my hands! I so fully appreciate the author's portrayal of the love of God, His plan of salvation and especially the individuality of each person in spite of their surroundings! Thanks, Bev!

I really just enjoyed this book.My heart really went out to Katie as well as her family and close friends.I have learned so much about the"Amish"way of life through reading this book.I checked this book out from my local, public libary and have already purchased "The Confession and The Reckoning."The Shunning" is a fabulous read and I highly recommend it to anyone.Can't wait to read the other 2 books.

Please, please do not pass over the other fine stories in GO DOWN, MOSES and go straight to "The Bear." This gem means much more when illuminated by the other parts of the text, and only by reading the entire book can you fully understand the meaning of Ike's repudiation of the McCaslin land. I recently completed a Faulkner course, and of all of his "genius" novels--"As I Lay Dying," "Light in August," "Go Down, Moses," "The Sound and the Fury," and "Absalom! Absalom!"--I believe that this one has the strongest emotional core. Read the whole thing; your experience will be much richer.

I read Go Down Moses in 1996 before taking a trip to Mississippi. I had never read Faulkner before and had only one criterion for picking a book of his: it had to take place in the mythical Yoknapatawpha County. I picked this one off the library shelf.

For any non-southern American whose sole exposure to what happened there was from history books, this should forever shatter the pat preconceptions and simplistic black and white (no pun intended!) formulas they were taught.

The book plunges you into a vast panorama of ambiguities and contradictions. It was clear to me from the first paragraph that Faulkner was a genius. In the whole history of literature, he surely stands among a select few at the very pinnacle of greatness.

Go Down Moses is a tremendous struggle to get through. Some parts are straightforward and easy, but there are others that you can't hope to make literal sense of. You're bombarded by its twisted grammar. Its frantic confusion. Its endlessly unresolved sentences. But through these, Faulkner ultimately conveys the pain of history -- past and present. The emotion of that pain seems more real to him than the specific incidents it sprang from. Why else would a book begun in pre-Civil War Mississippi -- entirely skip it -- picking up again a generation later?

This book is about the South. Having read it, Faulkner walked beside me every step of the way I took through his state. But this book also has a sub-theme that should not be overlooked. Faulkner was a profound environmentalist, although sharply contrasted with how we usually think of that term. Hunters don't much fit the mold of environmentalism -- and Faulkner was an avid one of that lot. So, in that sense, along with all the sociological, he can shake you up pretty good! Go Down Moses contains some of the most wrenching descriptions you could hope to find on the loss of wilderness. There is nothing ambiguous in his portrayal of that loss. Faulkner may confound everything you thought you believed of Southern sociology, but in an environmental sense, he leaves no room for confusion. Leave those trees standing!

This book will grip you; I can't imagine it having a lesser effect. Like all truly great art, it should change you forever.

It becomes quite clear after reading Go Down Moses why many critics call this William Falkner's most mature book dealing with race. In Go Down Moses, the black characters are not only as well represented as may be possible from a white author, they are believable and easy to relate to. The main character "Uncle Ike", the grandson of an influential plantation owner, comes to represent everyone who struggles with identity in the miserable face of racism. The style of the book itself was confusing for readers and critics when first published, as it makes use of a series of chapters, each with its own title and numbered sections. Faulkner resisted having the book called a collection of short stories and most modern readers should have little problem with its nonsequential chapters and its sometimes, seemingly, unrelated characters. If you have read some Faulkner, especially A Light in August or Absalom, Absalom or if you enjoy authors such as Toni Morrison and Richard Wright you must read this book to get an idea of just how far Faulkner came toward wrestling with race in his time.

Bodie Thoene convinced me fifteen years ago that there was hope for Christian fiction. The Zion Chronicles and Covenant are some of the most memorable books I've read--and I've read numerous volumes, secular and Christian. Unfortunately, I've found something missing in her last few novels. Where's that loving feeling, that passion that overwhelmed her stories in the past? She has not lost the desire to communicate the hope of God for the hopeless--whether Jews, African-Americans, Irish, etc--but the method has become formulaic. Please, don't be put off by my remarks, reader or author...The Thoenes are exceptional writers. But I believe it's time to stretch, to put new wine in new wineskins, and pour out the intoxicating possibilities so evident within the artful writing. The Galway Chronicles are heartfelt, if not harder to get into, and I'll read them all; I'm waiting, though, for that loving feeling to return. I know it's there. The Thoenes are some of the best going.

I have read most of the Zion Covenent Series also written by the Thoene's and greatly enjoyed it. When I came across this book I expected to enjoy it very much. I must say I was slightly disappointed because I found the book hard to get into. For me a five star book is one I just can't put down and read quickly. As for Only the River Runs Free, it took me forever to get very interested in the story. I still have to give the book four stars though because it left me wondering what will happen to all the people in the story, and I can't wait to read the next book in the series

I eagerly devoured all four of the Galway Chronicles novels! I have to say this story is touched my heart deeper than any other. Each book gave me fresh new insight into the hearts and lives of my Irish ancestors. The series defined Irish history and 'The Troubles' like nothing I have ever read. The writing is emotionally powerful, incredibly skilled and intelligent in presentation. It is brim full of their evident passion for the people and the times they portray. Brock and Bodie Thoene are authors for our time! Fifty years from now people will still be reading and marveling over their work. They are the best historical novelists of their generation. Compared to the Galway Chronicles and their Zion and Shiloh books all else pales.