Very informative, balanced, and wide in scope. I learned a lot from the book about Kit Carson, Manifest Destiny, and several Native American tribes. However, I didn't really enjoy reading the book that much. I think I remember feeling the same way after reading Ghost Soldiers -- the span is so great that you lose the sense of tension.

Short story of the author's trip to LOW and Rainy Lake, visiting important landmarks to Ojibwe culture. I really, really liked her tie-in b/t books & islands - they both give her (and me) a sense of peace. She has a bookstore in Mpls I want to check out, and I'm excited to read more of her work.

Pretty interesting to read after Blood & Thunder, which focused intently on the SW. This book took a much wider span and talked about each tribe as it was basically wiped out by American expanionists. Some great looks at the chiefs/warriors of each of those tribes, and how several of them sought peace if they could stay on their ancestral lands.

Love Erdrich's writing, so went back to her 1st book. Structure, as well as large # of characters, made it a little difficult to keep track of everything, but it was a great sketch of several different characters. Kind of a family portrait of Ojibwes living on a ND reservation. Plenty of tragic characters, but not easy to put into "good" or "evil" buckets (which makes it great).

Shelved this after a few stories, but will probably come back to it. I really liked the titular story - exactly what I expected, which is a bleak tale of survival. Kind of hard to get into each of these different stories though, which are only about 20 pgs each. The next couple are not very similar. Will report more if I come back to it.

Loved it. Saw lots of reviews in the inside cover comparing to Erdrich, which is fortunate for me. This is actually laid out somewhat similarly to Love Medicine, which is mentioned as a book one of the character reads. Very good character development and analysis of families, relationships, religion, and what happens to us when we die, basically.

Beach book 1 - probably can't do this book justice w/a little blurb. Extremely well written, very poignant, very sad. Like Steinbeck, Marquez makes me realize emotions or think about motivations in a new light. To boil the book down, devotion to love can be a defining and driving force to a life, and that is powerful.

Beach book 3 - Wow. I read this very fast, and then actually re-read it the next day going backwards from the end. I love this author. Same concept as Dead School in that it describes from a first person perspective how a normal person unravels into insanity. You just have to pay really close attention to catch what's real and what isn't, and you also get clues to future events throughout.

Beach book 5 - started this on the last day of the trip. So far it's terrible. >OK, ended up being a page-turner, if not great writing. Any story about a big scary monster is bound to have its shortcomings, but this redeemed itself somewhat as the story went on.

This was one of the most addictive, can't-set-this-down-until I finish it books that I've picked up in a long time. In retrospect, the story itself is kind of stupid (I think), but the characters are drawn so well and the pace is so fast that you don't really notice it until all of the mysteries have been solved.

Not quite as gripping as Pillars of the Earth, but I did end up not wanting to put this down. Kind of the same formula in that there was a strong female lead who went against convention of the time, as well as a man who was purely reviling in his sense of violence and abuse of others. Some parts are ridiculous, but get forgiven in the fast-moving plot.

Another good one from Louise. Some of the same characters from Love Medicine -- more female perspective, but they're richly drawn & you really get to know them well. Mary was hard as nails. Sita was vain. Celestine was practical, kind of the "superglue" role as we say at Caribou. Also really got to know the place of Argus - which smells familiar to anyone from a small midwestern town.

Same style as her other novels - an interwoven story told from the several different characters’ perspectives. I really liked the section on Marn Wolde, whose husband became a cult leader. A little tiring changing perspective so many times – almost felt like a short story collection at times, but a fun “whodunit” weaves throughout Pluto’s history that affects the central handful of families.

Another wife-mandated read from Stephenie. It was less gushy than Twilight, but fell short of my wife’s passionate “recommendation”. Alien souls inhabit human life, but humans resist. Whoopdeedo. The thing is, what is the "stuff" left in humans if not souls? And why are all these other planets inhabited by beings that already exist on earth (spiders, bears, flowers...) Not exactly Tolkien.

Not my favorite of his works. His usual narcissism is amplified because the whole book is about his relationships, but there are some laugh-out-loud moments. I love when he really drills into a rather inane thought & fleshes it out like some scientific expository. Good cross-over w/Brain on Music talking about Zeppelin's place in every young man's life.

I'm still digesting this a couple weeks after reading it, and have been telling lots of people about it. The main point is that our brain can change the way it processes, meaning that serious injuries/diseases need not be as scary as we thought. But also great info on how we can continue to develop our brains throughout our lives. Use it or lose it.

Pretty cheesy - I guess I should have expected that. I skimmed a lot of the book that you can pick up by just reading the paragraph headings. Most of the stuff is common sense, but have an action plan and make sure to secure early wins. Most business books seem to claim they have some fresh new perspective, but end up being obvious and regurgitative like this one.

LOVED this. The story within a story was great, and the pacing was perfect for me, because I grew more & more interested in each storyline, and towards the end she focused on the "real" story, which is what I wanted. Stupid me did not realize until outright told that Iris was the author & not Laura.

This was a really moving story of the relationship b/t father & son, and the complexity of getting to know your father outside the scope of the parent/child relationship. I felt very angry with the father for leaving, and very sad for Trond as he kept waiting for him. His perspective as an older man illustrated how this impacted his life. Really beautiful descriptions of the Norwegian forests.

I think I'd only give this three stars, even though it had me laughing out loud several times. The characters and situations are absurd & funny, but it just didn't flow well as a story for me, and I never really go into it. Quinn & Stanton are both crazy (esp. Stanton) in a way that many people are in their early 20's, including me - they just happen to be rich, so there are fewer consequences.