when I saw it's non-authenticity, I returned it for full credit. Fr. Powell has been duped!

Powell, a Catholic priest, has an agenda unrelated to the great mythic story of Sweet Medicine (Motseyoef in the Tsistsistas [Cheyenne] language; untranslatable in English), in which he has tried to blend the ancient indigenous spirituality of the proto-Algonquians with Christianity. Beginning only around 1830 with Suhtaio and Tsistsitas conflicts with the Pawnees and other Native Nations of the upper -trans-Missouri Basin, he doesn't even talk about Sweet Medicine, barely mentioning him and then going on to a standard replay of American history. It is a uninspired recitation of questionable information used to justify the missionaries converting the Indians to a better God and Civilization.

Father Peter J. Powell (who, contrary to the misinformation passed in another reader's review, is an Episcopalian priest) is the premium scholar of Cheyenne culture and religion. A Sun Dance priest himself, adopted by the Cheyenne, Father Powell renders the beautiful story of Sweet Medicine in evocative prose. After reading his work, I was privileged to meet Father Powell on a sad, but touching occasion, when he presided over the funeral of the great Cheyenne educator Bill Tall Bull in Lame Deer, Montana several years ago. Father Powell is held in great reverence by the Northern Cheyenne people, and on that day was sought out after the service by countless members of the tribe with greetings, hugs, and thanks. I can recommend SWEET MEDICINE without reservation to anyone with interest in Plains Indian culture.

As a novel this is certainly a commendable attempt at writing a gritty novel of the struggle of those in a downtrodden community, in the truly romanticised style of those writing about liberation movements and their host communities. To some extent knowing Danny in his 'activist' role I can see an attempt to re-write his own involvement in the social conflict in Northern Ireland in a more sanitized style and if thats the purpose of this as a novel (fiction) I can't really fault it. However its hardly a template for reality as some of the reviewers here might suggest. The conflict was a social conflict where a majority and a minority sought to impose their dogma on each other. From the viewpoint of a person who has suffered the effects of republican violence I caa assure you that this book completly blanks out the compelling reality that west Belfast nationalism was not engaged in a liberation struggle but was effectively a self-styled ghetto from which some of the most poignant atrocities were launched against innocent communities which were not nationalist in outlook. Not one of the housing estates in nationalist west Belfast ever endured the premeditated bombing atrocities of the Shankill, Belvoir, Rathcoole and La Mon communities.
This book is certainly a novel, and a good attempt at a first one, but its barely able to evoke in me any sentiment of parallels with reality, which it clearly tries to do.

West Belfast is a book of the rise of a young man from street-fighting to full-scale terrorism. If you are interested in a very, very biased Republican (i.e. Sinn Fein) view of the beginning of the troubles, buy this book from a well-known, once convicted Sinn Fein spokesperson. For a much better novel with a similar scope (but less republican, more catholic) buy Maddens One by One in the Darkness. If you want to read the ultimate novel on Northern Ireland, read McLiam Wilsons Eureka Street.

Danny Morrison's first novel, West Belfast, is significant for its honest portrayal of a conflict which has been written on extensively by outsiders but rarely by the people involved. A Republican of some standing, his writings have been criticized by many who feel that the Irish Republican voice should not be heard. This is perhaps the first time that a modern Irish Republican has attempted to show in novel form what his community has gone through under British oppression. The writing is at times slightly awkward--it is a first novel as I said--but it is refreshing honest and sincere. A good examination of politics and general human concerns.

A total waste of paper. Ms. Gitlin-Emmer totally ignores the lore behind each of the runes in order to promote her own feminist agenda. Example: The Thurisaz Rune is, according to all the available information, the Rune of Thor and has a masculine polarity. Although Ms. Gitlin-Emmer does make a passing reference to Thor, the rest of the information about the rune she gives is about a Goddess (which one seems to change from paragraph to paragraph). One of which has her own Rune (Berka, althouth Ms Gitlin-Emmer does not call her by that name).

Although Ms Gitlin-Emmer does present some interesting information on Goddess worship in ancient Europe, many of her "facts" are suspect; and many of her assumtions she treats as facts. This book (and the newest incarnation "The Woman's Book of Runes" by Susan Gray [aka Susan Gitlin-Emmer]) is not taken seriously by any serious rune worker that I know of. It is too bad that there isn't a 0 star rating for such a poor work on an esoteric subject like the runes.

When I bought this book, I was excited at the prospect that someone had written a thorough book on the runes from a feministic approach. After reading the first twenty pages, I was disappointed to discover that this was not the book.

Gitlin-Emmer immediately sets the stage for disappointment by making appeals to the concepts of the cult of the "Great Goddess of Old Europe" and the "peaceful matriarchy" as historical fact. Indeed these two concepts are topics of heavy debate among different historians, particularly where Northern Europe is concerned. The fact that this author does not even acknowledge the existance of debate shows her willingness to completely ignore evidence and academic thought contrary to her own opinions. This is further exemplified in her constant appeal to enigmatic claims as to what "most scholars" believe.

Her interpretations of the runes begin by giving various single-word meanings for individual runes that come from traditional runelore (yes she doesn't seem to make reference to any of the rune poems on which this lore has been based). She then piles on various pieces of goddess-oriented mythology. While these pieces may "sound good," the fragments of myths she chose to associate with each rune are apparently based on nothing more than her own conjecture and not research demonstrating a sound reason for her associations.

Finally, some of her mythology is highly questionable. She confidently describes Goddesses in grand detail that scholars like Pennick and Davidson have trouble making even a rough picture based on the fragmented literary references we have. As if that was not bad enough, some of her characteristics of various goddesses (Gollveig comes to mind quickly) are unsupported -- and even contrary to -- the literary depictions we DO have.

If you want a feel-good book on the runes from a speculative feminist perspective, this is the book for you. However, if you wish a more academic study, I would advise you to steer away fromt his work as mere conjecture and poorly (or un-)supported personal opinion piled on top of debatable assumptions. For those who want some sense of feminism in the Northern traditions (and a sense of what thorough scholarship on the topic is like), I would encourage you to check out "Roles of the Northern Goddess" by Hilda Davidson.

This book is beautiful and inspiring. It is written from the perspective of Feminist Witchcraft not from Heathenism which is why I think some of the reviewers did not like it.The author uses the meanings of the Elder Futhark as an outline for sharing the nature of Norse Goddesses. I admit that i have no intention of ever using the Runes for divination and read this book because i am devoted to the Goddess in all her aspects and wanted to learn more about her Norse identity. I can't really comment on how this book works as a guide to the Runes but as a guide to the "lady of the northern light" it is brilliant.Ms. Giltlin-Emmer weaves together a tapestry of the Northern Goddess using many sources including the Eddas, Saxo Grammaticus, Tacitus, compartive mythology, folk-lore, ancient and modern folk practice, and feminist witchraft. The book stems from the premise that there was once a Great Goddess of Europe but even if you don't believe that is true the rest of the book provides a wealth of information.The author admits the runes as we know them come from patriarchal times but supposes they caught on because the ideas behind them were familiar to the Goddess loving people--"Yet, suppose they are older. Not the runes themselves, but the concepts behind them". She then spends the rest of the book linking the ideas behind each rune to Northern Goddess lore.In my oppinion the ideas in this book are as valid as any others on the runes. Modern Pagans, and Heathens have to admit that the information we have on ancients who had and oral tradition of spirituality is very scarce--and that the information we have is highly suspect because it was written down by christians. Modern practice is 1% fact and 99% conjecture and intuition. And this is how it should be if it is to be a living tradition. I do not know if i would reccomend this book to beginners. It assumes the reader has a fair amount of knowledge of myths and the meanings behind pagan concepts. But perhaps a beginner could read the book, then do some more research and read it again.This really is a wonderful book. Susan Gitlin-Emmer should be honored along side women like Barbara Walker and Patricia Monaghan. I hope it becomes a classic of the Goddess path.

Yuck - this is the very last book of Catherine Coulter's I will ever read. This Viking triology was awful. I can't believe I actually read through them all. There was no creative and entertaining dialogue. The dialogue between the characters was stilted and boring. I can't begin to describe it. I have to agree with all the other reviewers who gave these books poor reviews.

If you want to read an author who can actually drag in to the story, try Judith McNaught or Kathleen Woodiwiss. With these authors, you get an in-depth story about the characters, their lives, their feelings & emotions, their growth, their surroundings, etc.

Catherine Coulter does not describe her characters' actions as they're speaking. One does not know if the character speaking is speaking in jest, anger, softly, harshly or whatever. What do the characters' faces reveal when they're speaking? Are they gesticulating? What is their tone? What do their eyes reveal? You get NONE of this from Catherine Coulter. Be honest, when you're speaking with someone, all these things matter in how you yourself will interpret the words being spoken to you.

Her characters' conversations are hard to follow. You get long long paragraphs of one person speaking. For instance, in each of these three Viking triologies, several instances occur where one person is telling off another. Come on, NO ONE interuppted? This person was just able to ramble on and on and on without ONE SINGLE PERSON interuppting??? Yeah, right, these Vikings, rough and ready to fight as Coulter TRIES to describe them, would willingly let a person continuing mouthing off without stopping?? Get a little creative, Coulter!!

On the romance part, it was hard for me to believe in any of this Viking triolgy that romance would spring up between woman-abusers, no sharing, violence. This wasn't romance, as one other reviewer, it was about hate and violence.

Coulter should read some authors who have more depth, to see what writing is really supposed to be.

This is definitely the worst of the Viking Trilogy! Coulter is one of the more prolific writers and also one of the most inconsistent. The best of the series was the first (Hawkfell), followed by the second (Raven's Peak). Ms Coulter should have stopped there.

While Chessa was a spunky, likeable heroine, I have no clue what made her so mad so quickly about Cleve. I found him dull, dull, dull! His daughter was quite cute, but for the life of me, I couldn't see what Chessa saw in him.

And the whole Loch Ness monster thing and the magic stick Cleve's father had - well it was just plain silly.

I'm the sort who will read and re-read over and over books that I like. This will not be one of them.

Bravo Ms.Coulter. I must admit that at first I didn't want to read this book because of low ratings other readers had given and besides low ratings-----I didn't seem to accept a scarred hero) I gave it a try though and I found that I was a fool to dislike disfigured heros) This book is much better than I thought. The hero is Cleve of Malverne from 'Lord of Raven Peak' (2nd book in trilogy) he is now friend of Lord Merrik and a Viking warrior. The heroine is Princess Chessa (she is Eze, daughter of the wizard Hormuze from 'Lord of Hawkfell Island') Cleve has a scar on a side of his face but it does not reduce the beauty of his face in Chessa's eyes. Their adventure is exciting. The secondary characters do their job well. I highly recommend all the books in Viking Trilogy. They are all entertaining read.

This book is a disappointment ! Having bought other Faber books (publisher) I had expected a well-written walk-through of Northern Italy with extensive descriptions of many producers, many tasting notes and vintage charts.

Verdict ? There are absolutely no vintage charts, the description of the vineries are superficial, the book is badly organised (no headers to indicate where you are in the book, for quick look-ups) and generally no specifications to the producers individual Wines. To me, this is a 'blah-blah' book... Conclusion: NOT recommendable, neither to the amateur nor the 'pro'

Nicolas Belfrage has used his extensive wine knowledge and more importantly his excellent understanding of Italy to write a book for the serious wine lover. Belfrage takes you completely across northern Italy and describes the wines of each area. While he doesn't give vintage charts for the wines, he does discuss the recognized better producers which allows the reader to find the wines and make his own decisions. More maps and some color pictures would have made the book more visually appealing, but would have increased the cost and made the book less travel friendly. It's definitely a condensed source of information that will prove very useful to the Italian tourist/wine traveler. I've been fortunate enough to have seen many of the wine areas in northern Italy. I wish I would have had this book with me. On my next trip, Belfrage's book will be packed in my carry-on.

Those who have read the Faber & Faber guides to wine regions such as Burgundy, Alsace and the Rhône valley and expect something similar, may be disappointed, but of course you can't squeeze that much into about 350 pages. What we get instead is a kind of long essay which covers Italy north of Tuscany. Belfrage still manages, almost miraculously, to cover quite a number of producers (including some that are not included in the Slow Food/Gambero Rosso annual guide to Italian wines), and, what's more, he gives you an idea of what's going on. A very useful update ten years after Burton Andreson's groundbreaking atlas. If you want to know more, you need to read Italian (and get the regional guides published by Slow Food).

I have bought this book around 10 days ago and must say that I am very disappointed about its content. I bought it because of the superb star rating it had. It is undoubtedly not ideal at all for someone who will be fending for himself whilst in Italy as all it has is superb photography and a good description of the various locations, but no info on tourist info offices, how to get to the various locations, emergency numbers etc. I sincerely can only suggest it to somebody who will be guided by somebody who is very familiar with the territory. I must say it is not written for the budget traveller and the few hotels and restaurants which are suggested at the back of the book are too expensive to even be considered by a budget traveller. Unfortunately I had received a large number excellent brochures from the various tourist offices in Italy which I obtained from Let's go Italy and I must say I have found this book a pure waste of good money.

This book was a good general reference on Northern Italy. There were lots of good pictures and description of places and sites. There was also an extensive section on Northern Italian culture, which is good per people who would like to "experience" Italy rather than just blow through on a site seeing trip. However, don't look for listing about specific hotels or restaurants in this book. However, this would be an excellent for anyone planning a trip to Northern Italy.

Facaros and Pauls are erudite people, who unfortunately do not always understand the delicate balance between good depth of knowledge, and useless obscure references. Furthermore, they made a few mistakes, and a subtle anti-Catholocism was evident in their writing (i.e. by not mentioing that Covadonga is a pilgrammage destination where a virgin's apparition occurred, and that the Oviedo's cathedral hosts the suderio santo, the rag Jesus wore while on his way to the Crucifixion). We sometimes doubted that the authors had actually visited the places described within, or if so, they they did not understand the guides! While not the best for logistics, this guide does offer the best quantity of history per page.

After much search for a book on Northern Spain. I believe this Cardogan guide to be one of the better ones. It does provide some essentials: overview and history of Spain's northern regions, culture, cuisine and travel highlights. Also good recommendations on where to stay and have a friendly drink with the locals.

A few drawbacks: lack of comprehensive maps of regions in relation to Spain as a country and more specific maps of towns that you may want to visit.

All in all this is the best guide I've found available to get you started and excited about your trip as well as help you focus your travels to a particular area in Northern Spain if time is a concern.

At least that's the case with Terry C. Johnston's Plainsmen series. Red Cloud's Revenge was the second part of this long, ambitious series that had as a goal to depict in Johnston's rich fiction all the major campaigns against Native Americans on the western prairie after the Civil War. Focousing on the Bozeman Trail-war of 1867 and the climax that was reached in the Hay Field Fight and Wagonbox Fight. Johnston knows his frontier history, albeit I sense a lesser degree of historical fascination in these early volumes than in the last he wrote. One of his biggest faults here is his inclusion of the highly fictional character of a confederate renegade in the ranks of the Arapaho. Perhaps trying to make the reader easily understand that one should not cheer on the Indian part he makes them all even more one-dimensional than his protagonist, the irishman Seamus Donegan. Depicted as larger-than-life, despite that Johnston insists he is as normal as anyone of his readers, he is not easy to swallow in this book or in any of the first four books in this series. Too bad that Johnston had to write 1000 pages in this series before he made good and fascinating fiction out of still exciting history. Still, I recommend this series to anyone that can not get enough frontier history. It only gets better by each book. *(*) on the barometer.

THE PERSON WHO WROTE THE REVIEW JUST BEFORE ME HAS IT RIGHT ABOUT THE THOUSANDS OF WORDS NEEDED BY jOHNSTON NEEDS TO GET HIS POINT ACROSS. I DO LIKE HIS STORIES BUT I'M NOT A SPEED READER NOR DO I ALWAYS COMPREHEND EVERYTHING THE AUTHOR IS TRYING TO COMMUTE. THE TWO BATTLES IN THIS BOOK, "THE HAY FIELD FIGHT and THE WAGON BOX FIGHT " only lasted but just hours. I have read about these by other authors and they took only several pages and gave me just as much fact.

In response to the review by the so-called teacher from Belfast(who couldn't even spell teacher, and several other words) I must point out that this is a review of the book, not a forum for you to air your bigotry and hatred of a certain organisation. This book is obviously badly researched, relying on information from sources who have reason to show the INLA in a bad light.It would have benefitted from the input of a range of objective and informed contributors who want to present a well researched and true reflection of this organisation. And, as I currently live in Northern Ireland, and have lived there all my life, you may not find it so easy to discredit my opinion on this matter.

As a member of the IRSM for the past 18 years, I am well aware of the movement this work claims to be the history of, and it is from this vantage point that I can state it is so filled with false information it is impossible to rely upon as a historical source.

From start to finish the authors depart from any pretense of historical objectivity and instead turn of vicious black propaganda of the worst sort.

Noone active in the Irish Republican Socialist Movement was interviewed for the book, but instead it is based almost entirely on the testimony of Harry Flynn, who left the movement in 1983-84 in a bitter dispute and never returned. Never, that is, other than in a strange alliance with Gerard Steeson who had once ordered his death, the sole purpose of which was to destroy the Irish National Liberation Army.

Even the supposed interview with the INLA's chief of staff published as an appendix is false, having actually been composed by IRSP member Liz LaGrua in response to written questions the author submitted.

I've read "Deadly Divisions," and I thought it was outstanding. As far as sources the author used, well, I looked some of them over in the Linen Hall Library Political Collection, and they seemed pretty extensive to me. I was particularly impressed with the fact that the authors gained access to the "comms," messages written by imprisoned gunmen and passed secretly during contact visits with their supporters on the outside. The research certainly didn't make me think the word "shallow" or "biased."

Something tells me that the people who villify this book are pretty much the sort that would consider anything but a "love letter" written about the INLA to be "biased." Well, as I've said in my post, I beg to differ.

ps. I met with Henry McDonald in Belfast in 1994 where I interviewed him for a paper on the INLA leader Dominic McGlinchey. He was quite helpful to me.

Biting at the Grave, now justly forgotten, was intended to revile the ten IRA hunger-strikers whose deaths were creating trouble for Thatcher. O'Malley doesn't do a particularly good job of it; the same sort of slander was being done much better by Paul Johnson. O'Malley--whose absurdly Irished-up name is intended to wrap the green vowels 'round his obvious loathing for all things Irish--is only a servile, native auxiliary.

Irish Uncle Toms have never been difficult to find, and for obvious reasons they have no difficulty finding publishers. But even in their grimy company, this would-be author (who's never produced another book, having expended all his venom on this one) stands out as a perfect metonymy for the cruelty, self-serving, and above all the sheer stupidity of the rightwing pseuds of the Reagan/Thatcher era.

I know that we should not all agree on things in this world, but I feel that the thoughtfulness the author put into the facts in this book did not match the level of understanding of the striker's motivations. That the authour would refer to Bobby Sands' death as feeding into and becoming part of the historical myths and lies of Ireland is completely bizarre to me. Has he not read Irish History? Or has he (like so many unfortunate people who were educated in the Republic) simply learned the revisionist history? The brave men who faced death and an unyielding, stone-hearted prime minister (Thatcher) did not do so lightly or misguidedly. While it was horrible that they died, it did not have to happen. Thatcher made a calculated risk and determined that these men's lives were not worth some simple concessions that would accord the prisoners the status they deserved. This book is definitely not for the uninformed reader. You should have a working knowledge of both revisionist tendencies in history and the "Green" historical ideas. It is probably useful as a condensed reporting of the hunger strikes and a brief rundown of Irish History, but keep an open eye for definite revisionist tendencies. A much better book is "Ten Men Dead" by David Beresford.

This is the best book I have found on the subject of the Hunger Strikes of the 1980's. He does a tremendous job of re-creating the pressure that the strikers must have felt and the pain and anguish it caused the families. If anything, I thought that with a name of Padraig O'Malley, a professor at Boston University (or College perhaps, I don't have the book in front of me,) he would be a little more sympthetic to the strikers and the Republicans as a whole.