Pioneers of Soviet Architecture

Average customer rating:

WOW, what an awesome collection of work

Pioneers of Soviet Architecture
S. O Khan-Magomedov
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0847807444
Release Date: 1987-01-15

Customer Reviews:

WOW, what an awesome collection of work.......2002-03-01

This is THE book to have on the Russian Avant-Gard and the Constructivism movement. It covers all phases of the movement from prior to the October revolution to Post-Stalinism and rediscovery. It addresses all the varied schools of thought and the various architects that collectively made up the Constructivism and Suprematism Movements. This book has THE single BEST COLLECTION OF PHOTOS AND PLANS OF ANY BOOK of this subject. If you can find this book BUY IT. Do not hesitate especially if your a student and this subject interests you. This should be a must for all Art and Architecture students.

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Not Robert Jordens best work.
The best of the trilogy
A glimpse into history
Awesome, But don't make a movie
Don't insult Jordan's writing ability with a movie idea

The Fallon Legacy (Fallon)
Robert Jordan , and Reagan O'Neal
Manufacturer: Forge Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312867018

Customer Reviews:

Not Robert Jordens best work........2004-08-30

Not as good as the first 2 books of the Fallon series. Unlike the first 2, that showed the build up and then how a Fallon took part in first the revolutionary war, and then the war of 1812. The Fallon legacy leads up to both the civil war and the battle of the Alamo, but never gets into them. Also the book leaves allot unfinished. Let me put it this way. If the wheel of time ends the way this series does, the dark one will be set free, Mat will still be trying to get the daughter of the nine moons to marry him, and Rand will be wondering if now would be a good time to save the world. Oh and a forsaken will be waiting in the next room to kill him.

Over all this was a let down. I'm really glad that RJ dropped this series and wrote the wheel of time.

The best of the trilogy.......2003-11-27

In the Fallon Legacy, the story concentrates mostly on James Fallon, Robert Fallon's long lost son. The story takes you through James' adventures in the Texas frontier. Amidst much excitment and adventure, Robert Jordan is able to provide the reader with an extraordinary amount of history and culture from the Mexico/Texas region. The characters in this book are awesome. Some of the most loveable and hateable people I have ever read about. The Fourrier family continues to haunt the Fallons all the way up to the last chapter of the trilogy, but the Fallons are once again able to persevere, although with some heart-wrenching losses.
.

While the adventure and romance of this novel were very entertaining and fun to read, the best thing about the book, and indeed the whole trilogy, is the fresh perspective that it provides on the history and the culture of America 200 years ago. Books like this help to preserve our heritage.

A glimpse into history.......1999-11-27

The struggles and hardships of the revolutionary period and beyond are masterfully captured between robert jordans bookcovers.A story of a family that stems with importance but not to much to be mentioned in our histroy books, a stragegy thats as complicated to preform, but done so as not to quell the importance of the book.A book so flowing with intrigue and danger, the only dissapointment that it had was that it had to end, or until the sequel arrives which will be waited for inpatiently.

Awesome, But don't make a movie.......1999-10-03

Robert Jordan is a thrill a minute writer with incredible wit, but no movie could ever capture what Jordan writes.

Don't insult Jordan's writing ability with a movie idea.......1999-07-31

I've read the Fallon series and the WOT series and couldn't even imagine them being deplored by a movie. Never in my life have I seen a movie that compared to the book. You wanna see a movie, fine, but writing as complicated and intertwined as Jordan's couldn't be put into a movie of any length.

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This is the worst book that I ever had to read.
Beautiful Story
Beautifully Written Tale That Will Live On
Always worth it to take a trip to Cather country
This is a Woman Among Men [83]

O Pioneers! (Vintage Classics)
Willa Cather
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679743626
Release Date: 1992-12-01

Book Description

Willa Cather's second novel is a timeless tale of a strong pioneer woman facing great challenges, shining a light on the immigrant experience, and revealing the emerging voice of one of our greatest authors.

Download Description

The first of her renowned prairie novels--a story that expresses Cather's conviction that "the history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman". When Alexandra Bergson takes over the family farm after her father's death, she falls under the spell of the rich, forbidding Nebraska prairie.

Customer Reviews:

This is the worst book that I ever had to read........2007-09-14

Attention all readers, this is a general alert. If you come in contact with this book, it must be destroyed immediately! It may be contaminated by a rare soul-sucking virus that causes students who are forced to read it to loose all willpower to go on caring about 10th grade english class.

Beautiful Story.......2007-08-25

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a touching, well-written story with a good plot and a lot of heart. If you have a sentimental side but still want intelligent writing, this novel is for you.

Beautifully Written Tale That Will Live On.......2007-07-26

As the story opens, we meet 16-year-old Alexandra Bergson. She and her family had immigrated from Sweden years before, and are now settlers on the wind-swept Nebraska prairie. As her father was dying, he told the children that Alexandra, as the oldest, was to be in charge of the land. A land he wanted to keep in the family, no matter what the cost. He didn't trust the boys to do what was right, and he knew that Alexandra would.

Many people at that time were cutting and running, selling the land for so much less than it was really worth. And the boys wanted to do this as well. But Alexandra knew better. She knew that the land would be worth a lot some day, and talked the boys into mortgaging the land to buy more. She traveled to different counties and universities to find the newest farming techniques and crops -- much to the dismay of her brothers, who were always so worried their neighbors would be "laughing" at them. And yet, as time went on, the Bergson farm flourished and grew. Lou and Oscar, the two older boys, each found a wife and moved out on their own. But Emil, the youngest, was Alexandra's heart. He was sent to the university to become more than just a farmer. She wanted him to have a life beyond just the land.

And just as Alexandra is starting to really feel the lonliness of her life, an old family friend, Carl, reappears to visit. She has some decisions to make about her life, her family and her land.

This tale spans a space of 25-years in the life of Alexandra. She is an incredibly smart business woman and a wonderful strong character. She is not given to do things based on appearnces, which is an attribute that I love about her character. But she is lacking a lot of the social awareness that most women have. Especially since the character was written by a woman! But through all the hard times and the good times, Alexandra is there to hold this family of pioneers together. This is truly a fantastic book, well deserved of the title "Classic"! If you haven't read anything by Cather, I strongly urge you to read this one!!

Always worth it to take a trip to Cather country.......2007-06-17

O Pioneers! does not equal My Antonia, but even getting halfway there means you're writing at Pulitzer Prize level. Cather takes a lot of liberty here, skipping ahead by sixteen years at one point and waffling on the main character--is it the land itself or Alexandra Bergson, so passionately and excellently taming it? To use an extremely lowbrow comparison, one wonders every Thursday why Meredith Grey, one of the least likable characters on ABC's wonder child Grey's Anatomy, both titles the show and gets to narrate the beginning and end. The show doesn't always center around her, just as this novel doesn't always center around Alexandra. It elicits an uneven and shortchanged feeling, a desire to see the author shift focus to the peripheral characters. But Cather ultimately catches up with us and makes all of her characters in to full and breathing people.

This is a Woman Among Men [83].......2007-04-08

This novel revolves around Alexandra Bergson, a Swedish immigrant tilling land in Nebraska. Few female characters in American literature have her feminine strength. Maybe Dagny Taggart of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged?" Or Margaret Mitchell's Scarlett O'Hara of "Gone With the Wind." Scarlett and Alexandra are the adhesive, business-minded, matronly women who run things in an otherwise man's world.

Having lived in the midwest for numerous years, albeit in the 1970's, I met people who mirrored the mannerisms and had the backgrounds of Alexandra. Like Alexandra, their parents left continental or scandinavian Europe for Nebraska's farmland. These people are as pure as the black loess within which the corn and wheat survive.

Like many novels of this generation, this tale involves tragedy. A great tragedy. And, like Rand, many conversations about the seemingly obvious include contrarian statements which loudly ring otherwise unobserved truths. For instance, Alexandra seeks to pardon the murderer of those closest to her - she seeks to pardon someone whose single act clouded and depressed her soul forever. But, when you read this novel, you will agree with her decision. One hundred percent.

Agrarian life, sometimes subjected to nature's entropy, is more than a seemingly simple venture. The character of Alexandra also is more complex than her appearance. She was a genius at farming. Today's farmers rotate to keep the land's fertility alive - grow alfalfa (to put nitrogen in the soil) to replenish what corn depletes. Alexandra speaks about rotating her soil because she heard about the concept from a "college boy." They laughed at her. She grew wheat as the revenue stream from the land would increase. They laughed at her. Like Taggart and O'Hara, she was right while the dumb men around her were not. Unlike Taggart or O'Hara, Alexandra moves without confrontation, without eddy, without notice.

She writes without wasting words, many details are delivered with few words. Her style reminds me of J.M. Coetzee or V.S. Naipaul. She is in very good company. She is a novelist I will read again.

Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865: The Diary of Sarah Raymond Herndon

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Great Read!
Absolutely wonderful!
Depictions of life on the trail

Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865: The Diary of Sarah Raymond Herndon
Sarah Raymond Herndon
Manufacturer: TwoDot
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0762725818

Book Description

Sarah Raymond was an unmarried woman of twenty-four who in May 1865--barely a month after the end of the Civil War--mounted her beloved pony and headed west alongside the wagon carrying her mother and two younger brothers. They traveled by wagon train over the Great Plains toward the Rocky Mountains, with no certain idea of where they would settle themselves but a strong desire to leave war-torn Missouri behind and start a new life.
Days on the Road is the story of this remarkable journey and of the young woman who made it. Written on the trail and originally published in 1902, it is a tribute to all of the emigrants who made their way west and the tale of a truly extraordinary woman.

Customer Reviews:

Great Read!.......2006-11-10

This diary is well written and thoughtful. The detail is really vivid.

Absolutely wonderful!.......2006-09-16

I found this diary charming and informative. Having always had a fascination with the time period and wagon trains, I couldn't put this book down. By the end of the book, I was saddened by the fact that Sarah didn't continue recording her life in Montana. I felt as if I had known her personally and was touched by the whole accounting of her travels.

Depictions of life on the trail.......2003-07-20

Enhanced with a Foreword by Mary Barmeyer O'Brien, Days On The Road: Crossing The Plains In 1865 is the personal diary of Sarah Raymond Herndon, a young pioneer woman who, as the dust from the Civil War settled, left the battle-scarred state of Missouri with her family and traveled overland to the Rocky Mountains in search of a new place to live and a new life to build. Sarah's daily insights, her depictions of life on the trail, her descriptions of the hardships, the triumphs, and the evocations of her memories, combine to form a vivid and accurate image of pioneer life through the words of a pioneer who headed west to escape the ravages of the American Civil War to start her life anew. Days On The Road is a welcome and strongly recommended addition to 19th Century American Studies reading lists and history collections.

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A great book about arizonas old west history

The Arizona Rangers
Bill O'Neal
Manufacturer: Eakin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0890156107

Customer Reviews:

A great book about arizonas old west history.......2005-06-02

The Arizona Rangers were a special force created to assist jurisdictional lawmen at the time when outlaws and criminals outnumbered lawmen in the Arizona Territory. They served from 1901 to 1909.
This book is excellent written and completed with several pictures.
It is a must have for everyone, who is interested in the old west history of the grand canyon state Arizona. It is the Story of the three AZ Ranger Captains BURTON C. MOSSMAN, THOMAS H. RYNNING and HARRY C. WHEELER and those men who helped to pave the way to statehood.

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LOTS of mistakes
This One is Done Right
Possibly the best book in my extensive Western library
Review of Enyclopedia of Western Gunfighters
An absolute must for all gunfighter enthusiasts.

Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters
Bill O'Neal
Manufacturer: Univ of Oklahoma Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0806115084

Customer Reviews:

LOTS of mistakes.......2001-09-18

This book is entertaining and well-organized; unfortunately, it's not very accurate. Some of the author's mistakes are due to credulity (it's possible, but not likely, that Butch Cassidy survived his final gunfight in South America; O'Neal reports it as fact); some to partisanship (he's an unabashed Clantonite in the matter of the OK Corral, and thus again reports speculation as fact); and some to ignorance (he doesn't seem to be aware that Florentine Cruz and "Indian Charlie" were probably the same person). The history of the American West is treacherous territory, and nobody can avoid a few mistakes, but Mr. O'Neal seems to make more than his share. I can't recommend this book.

This One is Done Right.......2000-10-22

What a great book for Western gunfighter nerds! O'Neal did his research and presents it in a highly accessible manner. I've had this book for over a decade and I still return to it with a gleam in my eye once or twice a year.

Possibly the best book in my extensive Western library.......2000-07-10

This book is fascinating because it separates truth from fiction. All documented gunfights of the old west are included here (as of the book's writing), & all gunfights that are undocumented are excluded. It's as simple as that. I don't buy the author's premise that if it was a real gunfight, it must have been documented at the time (wouldn't most killers have wanted to keep their killings a secret if at all possible, & wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that a good number of gunfights occurred in deserted, out of the way places where there likely would be no witnesses?). Other than that, this book is an old west fan's bible! It's that good!

Review of Enyclopedia of Western Gunfighters.......2000-01-06

Bill O'Neal's work is not a simple re-hash of old facts. Instead it is a refreshing and factual look at the men who made the frontier into the myth that survives today. The most interesting aspect of the book is that it shows, over and over, how truth often far outshines fiction in its detail and graphic nature. It is apparent in one read that O'Neal has an intimate knowledge of his subject. This book is destined to become a cornerstone of reference libraries for any and all western history aficionados.

An absolute must for all gunfighter enthusiasts........1999-09-19

Bill O'Neal has included information on 255 gunfighters including Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, amongst lesser known 'shootists' with equally sensational feats. It is an excellent source of reference. Where possible dates have been provided for births, deaths and gunfights. He has been careful not to glamorize the gunfighters achievements by concentrating upon hard facts, rather than speculating into more contentious issues. However, it is by no means exhaustive and in some areas could do with updating, in view of recent material surfacing. A good example of this would concern the careers of such characters as Wyatt Earp and Curly Bill Brocius. Nevertheless, a thoroughly enjoyable read, and an excellent acquisition for any personal library on 'Western Gunfighters'.

Three Novels: O Pioneers!, the Song of the Lark, and My Antonia

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Three Novels: O Pioneers!, the Song of the Lark, and My Antonia
Willa Cather , and Maureen Howard
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786705981

Book Description

Complete in one volume, here are three of the most adored works by early 20th-century writer Willa Cather. O PIONEERS! (1913) tells embodies American heroism in one pioneer woman. THE SONG OF THE LARK (1915) plots a great Wagnerian soprano's journey toward her destiny. MY ANTONIA (1918), is the story of a strong farm woman who still affirms her passion for the land after her father's suicide and desertion by her lover.

My Father, Daniel Boone: The Draper Interviews With Nathan Boone

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Nathan and Olive Discuss Father Daniel Boone
Boone, From Myth to Reality

My Father, Daniel Boone: The Draper Interviews With Nathan Boone
Nathan Boone , Olive Van Bibber Boone , and Lyman Copeland Draper
Manufacturer: University Press of Kentucky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0813121035

Customer Reviews:

Nathan and Olive Discuss Father Daniel Boone.......2003-06-24

Nathan Boone and his wife, Olive van Bibber Boone, had the kind of memories most people wish for. They remembered virtually all of the early history of Commonwealth of Kentucky. When Lyman Draper came to visit them for two months in 1851 he found them full of the most interesting and detailed memories of Daniel Boone. Not only had the elder Boone lived with them and shared his own memories, they had also lived through many of the incidents themselves, and knew many of the old pioneers -- old van Bibber was one of the earliest settlers in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Enjoyable, highly readable. I highly recommend this book.

Boone, From Myth to Reality.......2000-09-06

The Draper Interviews provide insight into the life of Boone, free of the myth and larger than life stereotype that has always surrounded this remarkable frontiersman. Nathan Boone's recollections of his father also gives us a glimpse of how Daniel himself viewed the world in which he lived and allows us to more clearly understand the man from which the legend sprung. Though many books written from similiar interviews are dull and rather boring, the Draper Interviews are arranged so that they make for rather stimulating reading and keep the reader eagerly in longing for the next chapter. Truly a "must read" for anyone interested in Daniel Boone or early Kentucky history.

White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America

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A Great Irish-British-American
Sir Paradox
My Hero
Guy Johnson on cover?
The Many Worlds of William Johnson

White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America
Fintan O'Toole
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0374281289
Release Date: 2005-09-22

Book Description

A provocative new biography of the man who forged America's alliance with the Iroquois

William Johnson was scarcely more than a boy when he left Ireland and his Gaelic, Catholic family to become a Protestant in the service of Britain's North American empire. In New York by 1738, Johnson moved to the frontiers along the Mohawk River, where he established himself as a fur trader and eventually became a landowner with vast estates; served as principal British intermediary with the Iroquois Confederacy; command British, colonial, and Iroquois forces that defeated the French in the battle of Lake George in 1755; and created the first groups of "rangers," who fought like Indians and led the way to the Patriots' victories in the Revolution.

As Fintan O'Toole's superbly researched, colorfully dramatic narrative makes clear, the key to Johnson's signal effectiveness was the style in which he lived as a "white savage." Johnson had two wives, one European, one Mohawk; became fluent in Mohawk; and pioneered the use of Indians as active partners in the making of a new America. O'Toole's masterful use of the extraordinary (often hilariously misspelled) documents written by Irish, Dutch, German, French, and Native American participants in Johnson's drama enlivens the account of this heroic figure's legendary career; it also suggests why Johnson's early multiculturalism unraveled, and why the contradictions of his enterprise created a historical dead end.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Irish-British-American.......2007-01-18

William Johnson may be the greatest colonial American in our history. Had there been no revolution, or had the British won, he would be remembered with the esteem we now reserve for "founding fathers". Johnson proved himself a giant in three arenas. First he made a fortune in the fur trade and parlayed his wealth into vast real estate. The Iroquois preferred to deal with him because he respected them, didn't cheat and kept his promises. Secondly, Johnson became a master diplomat. For most of the 18th century, he kept the six Iroquois tribes pro-British and important allies in the French and Indian War. Thirdly, Johnson was a valiant commander in that war, winning the Battle of Lake George, capturing Fort Niagara and assisting in taking Montreal.

O'Toole's book is especially good at bringing out the diplomatic history.
In fact, if you are thinking of joining the Foreign Service, Johnson has left a record that is still of use today. One can learn what it takes to negotiate with a non-Western, non-progressive people who are given to barbarism and who control extensive natural resources.

O'Toole is Irish and never misses any nuances regarding Johnson's heritage. Such an approach is unusual, but does give clues to the man's psychology. What I hoped to find, but did not, were numerous anecdotes and personal asides revealing the fascinating character that was William Johnson. Alas, the 18th century collected little trivia. Still it's a worthwhile read.

Sir Paradox.......2006-12-03

Once I started reading, I found this book hard to put down. It is about a paradoxical man and a fascinating period of history.

Unlike some reviewers, I thought the references to Irish history were a logical link to understanding William Johnson's identity and actions. In the process, I also learned something about Irish history.

My Hero .......2006-08-13

I confess that I was waiting for this book for a long time. By my own admission, William Johnson is probably my biggest hero in Colonial America and his death probably changed the way the revolution in NY turned out (a feared loyal citizen soldier many who rose against his sons would not have done so against him).

This book though left me bored in spots. I find no reason for the author's constant attempt at apologizing for Johnson's conversion to being Protistant nor do I care much about the break down of Irish land ownership. It was not until several chapters in that the book focused on William himself and his time in America.

If the book consitrated more on Johnson as an individual and less on Johnson the Irishman it would have been a better read to me. The most important contributions Johnson made was as a negotiator with the Natives and more time should have been spent building up to this.

I think the author has a great person to write about, but does not do Johnson proper justice. The author should stick more to Ireland and its history in future works. He shows a love of Ireland and its history and his time would be worth spending on that. Writing on Colonial American subject just did not hit home with me.

Guy Johnson on cover?.......2006-04-02

The mystery is why an important book about Sir William Johnson has a picture of a relative and not him on the cover.

The Many Worlds of William Johnson.......2006-03-12

It is refreshing to see a new biography of the fascinating giant of colonial America, Sir William Johnson, a figure who is both crucially important in American history and terribly neglected in the popular American imagination. Fintan O'Toole's book is not the definitive biography of Johnson - for that you need to read `Mohawk Baronet' by James Thomas Flexner. It does, however, cover ground not before fully explored. O'Toole focuses on Johnson's amazing ability to be a man of two worlds - fully integrated into the British imperial world while simultaneously wholly comprehending and moving effortlessly within the world and mindset of Native Americans. He explains this by examining Johnson's heritage and upbringing as the son of Irish Catholic Jacobites, a family that had to learn to survive under the hostile control of the Protestant British power.

O'Toole's book is really much more than a biography. It even goes beyond the scope of its subtitle, which mentions Johnson's role in the invention of America. O'Toole spends so much time on examining the world of Catholic Jacobites in Ireland and Scotland, and explaining how they came to cope with their position of defeat and banishment, that this book is almost as much a study on that lost world as it is of Johnson's life. It is perhaps the best book that I have seen for showing just what impact these defeated Jacobites had on the formation of America.

Sir William Johnson is arguably second only to George Washington in his significance to the early history and formation of the United States of America, and he is second to none in his personal story and colorfulness. This book adds to the literature already available by fleshing out what it was that made this amazing man tick. If you have already read Flexner's definitive biography of Johnson, you will still gain much from reading this one.

This book should appeal to anyone with an interest in colonial American history, the Iroquois Confederation, and the French and Indian War. It should likewise appeal to anyone interested in Irish history, particularly as it applies to the last days of Jacobite culture and diaspora - highly recommended.

Theo Logos

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Great NON-Princess Story!
Swamp Angel
A Book For All
I really liked Tarnation!
What's not to like?

Swamp Angel (Caldecott Honor Book)
Anne Isaacs
Manufacturer: Dutton Juvenile
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0525452710

Amazon.com

On the day of her birth, nothing about Angelica Longrider suggested that she would one day become the greatest woodswoman of Tennessee. In fact, the newborn was "scarcely taller than her mother and couldn't climb a tree without help." It's not long, though, before Angelica is vanquishing varmints such as Thundering Tarnation, a huge bear with a taste for settlers' winter rations, and swallowing entire lakes in a gulp.

This tallest of tall tales is an original from an intriguing newcomer to children's books, Anne Isaacs. In the tradition of Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, the story of a self-sufficient, tornado-wielding, unflappable heroine lopes along at a perfect pace. Paul O. Zelinsky's folksy oil illustrations are painted on cherry, maple, or birch veneers, with old-fashioned frames; the extravagant and fanciful paintings have garnered the distinguished illustrator yet another Caldecott Honor. (Zelinsky has already received one Caldecott Medal for Rapunzel and two Caldecott Honors for Hansel and Gretel and Rumpelstiltskin.) The dry and fantastically far-fetched humor of the author-illustrator team will make readers of all ages feel as though Angelica herself has tossed 'em in the air so high that they are still on the way up at nightfall. (Ages 4 and older) --Emilie Coulter

Book Description

Swamp Angel, a prodigious heroine who can disarm taunting men and marauding bear alike, is the original creation of a talented new writer whose tall-tale text unfolds in a crackling combination of irony, exaggeration, and sheer good humor. Caldecott Medallist Paul O. Zelinsky, working in an American primitive style on cherry and maple veneers, brings his matchless wit and whimsy to these characters of extraordinary dimension. Drawing us into the luxuriant beauty of the American wilderness, his paintings flow with rhythm, deft expression, and a sense of monumental motion that befits a heroine who can wield a tornado like a lasso and drink a lake dry. From the Great Smoky Mountains to the starry heavens above, Swamp Angel and Thundering Tarnation leave their indelible impressions on land and sky. So too will this book hold readers with its bold, expansive image-making--grandly demonstrating the flamboyant vigor and winking humor by which the tall-tale tradition endures.

Customer Reviews:

Great NON-Princess Story!.......2006-11-10

My 3 year old loves this book! She enjoys looking at the beautiful illustrations and listening to the great escapades of this strong female character. If you and your family like Paul Bunyan stories - this one is great for women to be.

Swamp Angel.......2006-05-22

Swamp angel is about a friendly, strong, giant girl; from the South. The conflict of the story is, Tarnation, a giant gorilla is eating up all the food. So, the mayor decides to have a contest to see which man can kill him. Whoever succeeds, will get to keep the pelt of the giant animal. Everyone who dared to try to kill the beast, failed, until one day the Swamp angel stepped in. This book is extremely funny with wonderful illustrations. I believe this book would be suitable for children under the age of eight. I give this book two thumbs up.

A Book For All.......2006-04-21

Swamp Angel is a great adventurous folktale, with unbelievable illistrations. And a funny southern accent that all will love. A heart warming tale bout a freindly, super-strong, giant girl; who saves her dear little home from dangers like a tornado. Anne Isaacs did an exceptional job to make this book humorous, exciting, adventurous, and fun-filled for all especialy children. Swamp angel is a considerate, generous, and all around nice person. Yet she's strong, brave, and determined. This story is taken place in Tennesse, down south. The problem is that Thunderin' Tarnation is eating all the food, so the mayor decides to have a contest. The first person to kill Thunerin' Tarnation gets to keep the pelt of the giant beast, saves their intire state's food from being eaten, and dthey will have an abundance of food. Many tried and almost all failed but one Swamp angel. But she still hasn't saw Thunderin' Tarnation yet. Until one day by the lake she spotted Old Tarnation. And that was were the showdown between Old Tarnation and Swamp Angel began. If you're a Paul Bunyun fan, well then this book is for you. I thought this was a fun and exciting book. If you read this book, I can almost garuntee that you will feal the same way. I give Swamp Angel two thumbs up!

I really liked Tarnation!.......2004-08-23

WARNING!!This review may contain Spoilers!

This story starts out by telling about the birth of a young girl who is amazingly big for her age. No one knows that she will become a great woodswoman since she cannot climb a tree at birth without help:). As she grows older she saves her town numerous times with her strength earning her the name "Swamp Angel".

When a mean bear comes to town many hunters try to capture it before it causes anymore damage.(One is Swamp Angel) Eventually she does capture the bear, named Tarnation, and kills him. Call me a sucker for a happy,happy ending, but I was hoping Tarnation would give up his evil ways and use his strength for good. And then they could have all lived...well you know what I mean.

What's not to like?.......2003-12-07

A truly enjoyable folktale. With Paul Zelinsky's inventive and endlessly amusing illustrations, the book tells as well as it views. With sentences like, "Varmint, I'm much obliged for that pelt you're carryin'", Swamp Angel's showdown with the bear Thundering Tarnation is of epic proportions. Zelinsky has truly outdone himself in his portrayals of their fight. There are thousands of tiny illustrations hidden on each page for kids to discover and delight in. The fight itself is about good old-fashioned wrassling, and it's a joy to watch. Zelinsky painted his illustrations on actual wood veneer, hoping to give the book a folk-art feel of some sort. The result is a beautiful story that adults and kids will both enjoy. As I might have given away, I'm a fan. book could easily be paired with another tall tales, possibly that of the other gigantic hero Paul Bunyun or the great John Henry. Both would fit in well with this story, though Swamp Angel owes perhaps most of her telling to Pecos Bill more than anyone else.

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