How to Get Rich Without Winning the Lottery Simple Methods to Get Rich, Retire Wealthy, and Have the Time of Your Life!

Book Description

Everything that you need to know about basic personal finances, from how to open a checking account to getting credit cards to how to use credit wisely and to your advantage to how to avoid getting into trouble with debt and credit to how to get a loan or grant for university to basic investing ideas, and more is in this book! Filled with a wealth of knowledge to help you gain good personal financial habits and retire wealthy, Personal Finance 101 - A Beginner's Guide is ideal for teens and twenty-somethings just starting out in the financial world. Parents will want to read this book with their young adults to give them the head start in financial life that they never received. Complete with numerous links to on-line resources, you'll want to refer to this book over and over again!

Customer Reviews:

Great information for everyone!!!.......2005-06-15

This book is a great read! It lays out the rules for having credit cards and checking accounts that I wish I had when starting out with my personal finances. I finally found out how checks are used by banks and department stores. And I like the ways to protect myself from getting my personal information ripped off and my credit ruined. And the ways to get out of financial trouble if your in it are wonderful.

This book also has many ways to get free money in the form of grants for college and starting a business that I find useful. Many foundations and the government have a lot of money they give away every year. There is a lot of free money out there that I didn't even know about, like credit cards and special financing deals for cars and furniture.

I always thought that a budget was about counting pennies, but I was wrong. The way to create a budget in the book is easy and makes sense. And there is a lot of good information about easy investing for the future. I loved it!

Average customer rating:

How to Retire Wealthy
Lyle Allen
Manufacturer: Sterlinghouse Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Financial Planning | Personal Finance | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This book is designed to show you how to retire with dignity and style. A step-by-step guide will take you through the entire process of planning your retirement.

Book Description

A youngster's flying dreams become a reality when he enlists in the Army Air Corps. Flying ever more challenging airplanes, he earns his wings and learns the skills needed to fly the B-24 Liberator. He boards a plane for overseas, his destination being unknown. It turns out to be India, flying 4-engine cargo aircraft hauling gasoline over the Hump to China, where B-29s wait for gas to make bombing runs on Japan. Fear is not the enemy; fear is towering thunderstorms with lightning, extreme turbulence, driving rain, icing and headwinds. Over 150 photos clarify the dual CBI mission; the two year effort to reopen the Burma Road and the first airlift that delivered 650,000 tons of support to China.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting personal account of a WWII Pilot flying transports from India to China.......2007-01-12

The author trained as a pilot in the US Airforce in WW2, qualified to fly transports and was assigned to fly "The Hump," the airlift route from India to China that kept Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang forces together with US aircraft based in China supplied and equipped. It's a fascinating and very personal account, written in 2004 when the author was in his eighties. The book includes over 150 b&w photo's, most of them taken by the author during the war. They make a fascinating inclusion in the book and again, give a very personal view of the war. They're generally not the sort of photo's that make it into your standard history books and for that alone, the price of the book is almost justified.

The author gives a very personal account, the first half of the book focuses on the author's story and pays no real attention to the course of the war, the fronts, strategy etc, except in so far as it has an impact on the author. A good chunk of the second half provides an overview and a little bit of a history of the airlift, enough to give you a broad outline, but it's not a detailed study. The final couple of chapters is the authors autobiograhy up to the date of writing the book (2004 or thereabouts).

Overall, I found it very interesting as a personal account. There were many such books written immediately after WW2, most of them long out of print now. It's good to see an account such as this published and available, it provides an interesting personal view of what it all looked like to the guys doing the grunt work during the war. Kudo's to the author for taking the time to write this account and have it published, giving all of us a little more insight into what the WW2 veterans went through.

The book itself - well, the grammer is pretty person all (lol), seems there wasn;t a professional editor on this one - but it has a real authenticity and a raw edge to it that you don't get in the standard military histories. If you're a WW2 flying buff or interested in The Hump, this book is worth your while. If it's a chronicle of The Hump that you're looking for, don't bother. The author writes a bit about the history of the hump but it's not a historical study or anything close - there's other books that handle that aspect much better. A great read for all that and worth picking up if this is a subject that interests you - here's few enough of these personal accounts that this one is a valuable piece of history.

China, Burma, and India from the back seat: Memories from the China Burma Indian Theater during World War II : flying the "Valley" and the "Hump"

Average customer rating:

China, Burma, and India from the back seat: Memories from the China Burma Indian Theater during World War II : flying the "Valley" and the "Hump"
Douglas Devaux
Manufacturer: D. Devaux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Book Description

The true story of a small-town girl who mixed a prestigious Ivy-League education with the down and dirty world of stripping. Heidi Mattson successfully united sex and scholarship to realize a '90s version of the American Dream by becoming a smart, sassy, self-confident stripper while attending Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Intelligent and ambitious, she grew up in small-town Maine, and her whole town applauded when Brown accepted her. But school and living expenses carried a high price tag-one she couldn't meet by waiting tables and cleaning houses. A chance ad brought her to The Foxy Lady, a strip club in Providence not far from campus. Swearing she would stay only as long as she didn't feel compromised, she soon became one of the club's top attractions. In this engrossing story, Mattson tells us how she did it, how it felt to strip, how it affected her life, and about her peers, colleagues, and the men who frequented the strip clubs. Her story sets the record straight about the world of stripping, a world that she describes with candor, affection, and warmth.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting Book, but could have been better.......2007-06-24

My review is on the content of the book, not my judgment of the author, or what work she performed for a living.

My first problem with the book is the writing. This is a college graduate, from Brown? Most high school students can write better sentences. The book is filled with run-on sentences, sentence fragments, etc. Was there not an editor for the book? The poor writing affected the readibility of the book. This was a major problem in the book, and the reason I could only give a two-star rating.

The subject matter of the book was intriguing. Heidi provided an insight into a world few of us will either know or experience. However, the book does suffer from a lack of credibility. At several points in the book I found myself not fully believing the story being told. I don't think the author lied about her experiences, but I also do not believe she told the "whole" truth. I never fully believed her version of the soap dish incident. If she told the truth, she must have had the worst lawyer in the country to lose that case.

The author stated many times that her stripping was just to earn money to pay for college and it would not change her, but it did. Not only did she become addicted to the glamour and money (how many times did she count her money?), but she continued to strip long after her college was paid for and she had graduated.

My next problem with the book was the disjointed thoughts. In mid-paragraph, she would switch from one thought to another for no apparent reason. One would have no relation to the other. There was no coherant theme or thought pattern to any chapter. It was like a child rambling and babbling one random thought after another.

My final complaint about the book is that it seemed to be the author's therapy for her feelings of guilt about being a stripper. Throughout the book she rationalized what she was doing. She was afraid of what her family, especially her mom, would think of her for being a stripper, but then she would say that she was forced to do it to pay for her college.

The book is worth a read, as it is interesting, but keep a shaker of salt nearby.

Enormously entertaining!.......2005-12-29

I can't vouch for the accuracy or lack thereof,
but Heidi seems to be very forthright about everything
she says or does, so for me, the book rings true. Admittely,
I don't have that much experience with exotic dancers, but
her story seems humorous, entertaining ---and Heidi sounds like the kind of person I would love to meet. What a cheerful personality she seems to have! Most refreshing. To the bashers,
try giving the book another read--perhaps with a more open mind
and fewer biases.

Brown University should be embarassed!.......2005-04-06

Not that one of its students had to strip her way through school, but because it graduated such a terrible, sloppy writer! I bought the book as a joke for one of my friends, a Brown alum, and I couldn't resist reading it before I gave it to him. I marveled at how poor the writing was. Maybe she overscheduled herself at the strip club and had to pull an all nighter to meet her publishing deadline, because that's what the book read like. Brown should be a little more selective in its admission policy. At least if you admit a skank admit a smart, articulate one!

why all the hateful reviews?.......2004-03-17

I find the incredibly negative reviews of Ivy League Stripper interesting. I almost wonder if I read a different book than some of these people. Perhaps they were written by some of her rivals. Who knows?

Heidi does not "advocate" stripping anywhere in the book that I can tell, nor did she when I saw her on Real Personal with Bob Berkowitz. In fact, she made a point of saying she did not recommend it as a way of earning money. On TV and in the book she made it quite clear that it is not an easy or safe way to make money, however addictive that money might be. My sense of the book was that she came across as just about the only undamaged person in the business. She did discuss topics like drug use, prostitution, money addiction, and self-esteem, but since the book was about her personal journey, she didn't dwell on the problems of others. Perhaps it didn't appeal to people who wanted a more dramatic, negative, and victimized approach. She never said anything to give even the slightest impression that she was attempting a tour de force of sex work in the US. (I recommend Susie Bright or Carol Queen for that sort of thing.) This was a book about her personal journey, not yours. If your experience was different, then write your own book so we can read it, too.

I'll admit that my experience with "exotic dancers" is somewhat limited. I have only been to the clubs a half dozen or so times, and I don't know any dancers personally. I do hear by second and third hand stories that the scene does have a high rate of drug (including alcohol - it is a drug) use, prostitution, and other unsavory activities. There would probably be far less of such things if sex work were not forced into marginal areas of towns and the people involved treated like garbage by so-called "good citizens." The clubs I visited had full nudity.

The question of whether showing off one's body for money is degrading is largely a matter of semantics and personality. People who have an exhibitionistic bent are *not* degraded by such exposure, but exhilarated and empowered by it. Realize that there are different types of people in the world! Is it any less degrading for a coal miner to trade the health of his lungs for money, or a stock broker his/her ethics? Women in this society face degrading behavior all the time in every location and setting you care to name. (For that matter so do men.) If one looks beneath the thin veneer of common society here in the US, there is far more unsavory behavior going on than most will admit, and it happens in churches, boardrooms, and on Wall Street. This is a sick, sex-negative, anti-nature, and basically maladjusted society, and we all pay a price for that.

The discussion of nudity and appreciation of the human body and sexuality is a far too long and complex one to settle here. Read some history - When God Was A Woman, Ishtar Rising, or other material on how and why our current religious-based views of sex were created. Shame over nudity and sexual behavior is not universal, natural, "moral," or healthy by a long shot. Read Betty Dodson, Carol Queen, Susie Bright, Annie Sprinkle, Laura Kipnis, or some other of the intelligent, sex-positive writers.

My experience in strip clubs was transformative. I felt liberated and freed from centuries of lies. I experienced more spiritual release in those few short hours than in decades of Christian beliefs. I literally felt transported back to a time when women were proud of being sexual beings who owned, celebrated, and were masters of, their own sexual energy. I felt a deep sense of gratitude, wonder, awe, respect, devotion, and something so deeply spiritual that it sent me researching the goddess religions for understanding. Few women comprehend the tremendous power their body holds for men. (And there are forces in this society who don't want you to learn that, either.)

The complaints that she didn't seek "honest" work are humorous - maybe something honest like politics or working at Enron or pushing denatured foodlike toxins at a fast-food restaurant? I consider the no-strings, cash-for-a-look-at-my-body transaction in the strip clubs to be one of the most honest transactions in this society!

Of course, I realize that Heidi's real error was in writing what she really experienced and how she really felt, not what was expected or "politically correct." I find it interesting when women who respond to being sexually assualted/harassed by ramping up their self-esteem, owning and wielding their sexual power instead of becoming whimpering little victims who need someone to protect them, are attacked for it. Interesting how little is said in the reviews of the behavior of the people at Brown.

But then again, maybe some of the reviews are from folks at Brown............

I feel it is really a three star, but I gave it four in an attempt to create some balance. Her writing is okay, but not as insightful or powerful as Susie Bright, Carol Queen, Betty Dodson, or Laura Kipnis. Read them if you are looking for deep discussions of sexual issues. Read this book if you want to read one person's story.

ALL WRONG........2003-11-22

Although, I respect Heidi Mattson's tenacity...she wrote a book and got it published -- that is about it. As a woman who has been in and around this business for many years -- I can honestly say that Mattson is still hiding the truth from mom. Her fragmented stories are so "sugar coated" it is laughable to anyone who knows the truth about this dark world. I don't care if you graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School or if you have no education and grew up in foster homes -- if you have worked as a stripper for more than one night, undoubtably -- you have experienced moments of extreme degradation -- no one girl (dancer) is different in the eyes of a customer than the next in a strip club -- As a writer, if you are going to step up and write a book about this "taboo" subject -- TELL IT LIKE IT IS -- TAKE THE LEAP. This book is NOT an accurate account by any means of the real world of stripping....

Average customer rating:

Ivy League Stripper
Heidi Maattson
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000X9AYKE

Average customer rating:

Ivy League Stripper
Mattson
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTNFH2

Average customer rating:

Ivy League Stripper
HEIDI MATTSON
Manufacturer: Arcade Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JZX3XW

Average customer rating:

You will need much more than this book

So You're a Licensed Real Estate Agent - Now What?!
Roberts Allyson
Manufacturer: Maximum Potential Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

21 Things I Wish My Broker Had Told Me: Practical Advice for New Real Estate Professionals.

Your First Year in Real Estate: Making the Transition from Total Novice to Successful Professional

The Millionaire Real Estate Agent: It's Not About the Money...It's About Being the Best You Can Be!

How To Become a Power Agent in Real Estate : A Top Industry Trainer Explains How to Double Your Income in 12 Months

Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Real Estate Agent (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

ASIN: 0975930508

Book Description

"So You're a Licensed Real Estate Agent - Now What?!" gives the beginner realtor invaluable insight into the day-to-day operation of real estate. Written by one of the industry's top professionals, this comprehensive book lays out in detail the tools and lessons required to succeed in the business. Scenarios are given regarding working with buyers and working with sellers and how they are each similar and different. All aspects of the business are covered including new construction, traditional real estate, negotiation, motivation, personal safety, the importance of realtors finding their niche in the business, and even how to prepare a business plan tailored to fit a person's desire for success and happiness.

Customer Reviews:

You will need much more than this book .......2006-03-17

Despite the glowing editorial reviews of this book, I found it to be a mixed bag. It is very brief (just 120 pages total) so it is hardly a comprehensive guide for the new Real Estate agent. The author does include a handful of good points that are worth noting. However, some suggestions are personal to her and questionable, like holding food drives or handing out balloons by the pool to gain new business.

For me, the few good points were perhaps enough to justify the low (used) purchase price, but a reader should not believe that this book will equip them with the tools to be a successful Real Estate agent. Think of it as a bulleted list of good tips and a quick overview of the business - nothing more. You will need a great deal more reading material, training, and experience to be successful.

Book Description

Re-appraisal Michael Talbot looks in detail at Albinoni's output, and, placing the composer in his historical context, argues for a general re-appraisal of his achievement. He provides a detailed review of Albinoni's works according to chronology and genre and includes a discussion of several newly discovered works. Alongside this review is a penetrating analysis of Albinoni's musical style in general, resulting from many years of familiarity with the music. New Information Michael Talbot also presents new information about Albinoni's unusual life and many interesting details of Venetian background, showing how this very distinctive social and cultural environment left its mark on the composer. Also included is a complete catalogue of Albinoni's works, and a guide to modern editions. About the author Michael Talbot's considerable research into eighteenth-century Italian music has resulted in studies of Vivaldi and Albinoni, scholarly editions of their music and many articles. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Book Description

This indispensable Civil War reference profiles some 2,300 staff officers in Robert E. Lee's famous Army of Northern Virginia. These men--ordnance officers, engineers, aides-de-camp, and quartermasters, among others--worked at the side of many of the Confederacy's greatest figures, helping to feed and clothe the army, maintain its discipline, and operate its military machinery.

A typical entry includes the officer's full name, the date and place of his birth and death, details of his education and occupation, and a synopsis of his military record. An introduction discusses the role of staff officers in the Confederate army, describes the evolution and importance of individual staff positions, and makes some broad generalizations about the officers' common characteristics. Two appendixes provide a list of more than 3,000 staff officers who served in other armies of the Confederacy and complete rosters of known staff officers of each general in the Army of Northern Virginia.

Synthesizing the contents of thousands of unpublished official documents, Staff Officers in Gray will be of interest to anyone studying the battles, personnel, and organization of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Customer Reviews:

Serious Research.......2003-10-15

The older I get. the more I realize that the only history that really counts is "useable history". Readers want to know how history touches them. They want to know the people, places and ideas close to them. That is a start. Krick gives us a genealogical smorgasbord of the best and brightest young men of the southern states during the Civil War. Do you want to understand the Confederacy? Flip through this book and see that excellent minds served the South as well as the North. This is a deeply researched, unbiased presentation of facts that will help both genealogists and Civil War historians for decades to come.

The Krick family tradition lives on!.......2003-07-03

Bob Krick--the son, not the father--has proven himself a worthy successor to his father. In this extraordinarily useful work, Bob Krick has given us a volume every bit as useful as his father's earlier landmark work, _Lee's Colonels_. In this work, Krick provides us with informative capsule biographies of the many staff officers who played an important role in the Civil War, and photos of many are also provided.

I wish someone would do the Union equivalent to this book.

A New Standard Reference.......2003-06-26

A product of a decade of dedicated research, "Staff Officers in Gray" is an essential reference for historians, genealogists and the "just plain curious" concerning themselves with the Confederate Army. It is not limited to the Army of Northern Virginia, but includes Krick's gleanings from records dealing with other Confederate armies and other generals, as well as several rare illustrations. Excellent introductory essay is itself worth the price of admission. Super.

Customer Reviews:

what a concept!.......2003-04-24

This collection is truly amazing. To present the lives and careers of 70 famous Americans in such an innovative fashion is a remarkable achievement. The reason it works so well is, I feel, the brevity of the resume. The reader will learn quite a lot in just the few moments it takes to go over the entry. My two favorites are Isadora Duncan and Johnny Appleseed. And the introduction! Did that really happen? Someone should get ahold of Timothy Doe and find out.

historic resumes of famous americans.......2002-11-28

My friend showed me this book at school when we were learning about the poet Emily Dickinson. I didn't know she was such a good poet and now I have more of her books of poetry. It also has Edgar Alan Poe who was a great poet also. My favorite poem of Edgar Alan Poe is Annabell Lee.

There are also some Indians in this book that everyone should read about. Geronimo and Sitting Bull and Qwanna Parker are good ones to learn about. Qwanna Parker did not let the white people steal the land from his people. He was very brave and everyon should learn about him.

There are lots of other intersting people from history who I have liked to learn about and and the pictures of them are very good.

historic resumes of famous americans.......1999-12-16

I stumbled upon this book quite by accident while researching some biographical information at my local library. To make a long story very short, I ended up spending about two hours with it. It's absolutely fascinating. The author has created a fictional setting for the presentation of these (ostensibly) historically significant documents, and although the introduction may stretch the truth a bit, I find the resumes themselves to be accurate. To sum up, this book is well worth adding to your library. And the potential for future volumes is enormous!

Lots of fun and a great coffee table conversation starter.......1999-07-02

This (I assume) fictional collection of brief resumes of about 70 famous people from American history works on many levels. Although it doesn't deliver in-depth or complete biographies, it gives the reader enough tidbits of information to invite further research. I didn't know Paul Robeson had such an illustrious academic career, for example. Also, I'm a serious B. Traven (Treasure of the Sierra Madre, et. al.) fan, and there's a photo in this book that is said to be him. I don't know if it's real or not, but if it is, it is a significant find. If anyone knows how to get in touch with the author, please make an entry in this review section so I can contact him. There's a lot to be said about a book that can be informative, fun, and educational at the same time. Buy it!

Very valuable source for much American biography.......1999-06-02

As I have living in Madrid for many years but most enjoy the lives of famous Americans from the days of the Old West such as Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull, Annie Oakley and many others it was with great joy my cousin sends me this book from Los Angeles, California. I have learned much about these wonderful Western history people as well as many others such as Quanah Parker and Woody Guthrie and Carry Nation and so many others. Everyone could gain and benefit from this book. I will buy two more to make for presents for good friends who enjoy reading.

Book Description

The interior is often the portion of the home inspection of most interest to home buyers. From floors to ceilings this comprehensive text provides an in-depth introduction to the major components of a home's interior. The book discusses strategies for inspecting floors, walls, ceilings, trim, counters, cabinets, stairs, windows, skylights, solariums, and doors. The text additionally gives special consideration to the pervasive problem of wet basements.

Amazon.com

From the moment of his first, spectacular North American appearance--in 1974, at the age of 26--Mikhail Baryshnikov was viewed as one of ballet's great virtuosos. But few could guess that his experimental spirit would lead him from princely roles in the classics to trailblazing collaborations with modern dance choreographers. Baryshnikov in Black and White reveals key moments of the dancer's artistic evolution from 1974 to 2000 in more than 175 starkly expressive black-and-white photographs. Glimpses of performances with American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and the White Oak Dance Project join a few well-chosen studio rehearsal shots. They demonstrate Baryshnikov's enormous range, from the classical purity of Apollo to the improvisational HeartBeat: mb, from partnering Natalia Makarova to partnering a folding chair. Joan Acocella's introduction deftly and authoritatively sketches the dancer's career. Unfortunately, Robert Greskovic's annotated captions are segregated from the photos, requiring constant paging back and forth. --Cathy Curtis

Book Description

The only collection of photographs documenting the last three decades of Mikhail Baryshnikov's brilliant career.

Universally acknowledged as the most celebrated artist in the dance world (Time magazine proclaimed him 'the greatest living dancer') Mikhail Baryshnikov's defection from the Soviet Union in 1974, at the age of twenty-six, breathed new artistic freedom into an already astonishing career. Working with American Ballet Theatre (where he was Artistic Director for ten years), the New York City Ballet (with George Ballanchine), and finally forming his own company in 1990 with Mark Morris, White Oak Dance Project, Baryshnikov has, over these past decades, changed the face of dance.

Baryshnikov in Black and White presents, in over 175 photographs, the remarkable breadth of his achievement between the years 1974 and 2000. From his legendary roles in the classic ballets Giselle and Don Quixote, to his work with some of the world's greatest contemporary choreographers, Baryshnikov is shown here in both rehearsal and performance. Captured by the leading dance photographers, his vitality and genius are evident on every page. With an inspired and richly detailed essay by the New Yorker dance critic (and Baryshnikov biographer) Joan Acocella, a complete chronology of his roles, and extensive annotated captions, Baryshnikov in Black and White is the definitive book on his remarkable career in the West.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful book!.......2006-11-04

When I saw this book, I just had to have it. Mikhail Baryshnikov was "the best dancer alive" as praised by "Time" magazine, and remains to this day an absolutely stunning performer. The beautiful black and white photos carry more artistic weight than color could have achieved, and they illustrate his unrivaled talent and dedication to his art through both performance and rehearsal shots. If there is one small criticism to be given, it's that the text part of the book was not long enough for my liking. It covered many pages, but I simply wanted to know more. However, to be fair, that kind of indepth information is best saved for a full blown biography, and that is not this book. It is more a pictorial biography, and in this respect, it shines. Baryshnikov is a marvel, a living legend, and "Baryshnikov in Black and White" shows us why.

Average customer rating:

Baryshnikov in Black and White
Greskovic And Golovitser
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M1LIZS

Average customer rating:

Sublime 8 x 10 black-and-white photo
Mikhail BARYSHNIKOV
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MXG716

Book Description

The unforgettable account of a boy's struggle to learn in the face of handicaps most people would call insurmountable. Blackhorse Mitchell records his life from birth to the dawn of manhood in a distinctively personal style--a book filled with unforgettable characters and brimming with insights into Navajo ways and family relationships.

Customer Reviews:

Autobiography Catche Feeling of Talking to Navajo.......2005-01-10

MIRACLE HILL is Blackhorse Mitchell's autobiography. He began the book at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe as a writing student. It tells the story of his growing up on the Navajo Reservation in the Four Corners. Much of what he talks about is familiar to me, because I live near the reservation, on the New Mexico side of the Four Corners. I've read about Navajo children going to boarding school, the role of grandparents in Navajo culture, the importance of visions and dreams to the Navajo, and the work of herding sheep in other Navajo biographies. What is special about MIRACLE HILL, however, is Mitchell's use of language. Navajo is a very un-European language in terms of syntax, tense and pronunciation. It's hard for us to learn, if we don't start as babies. It's also hard for Navajos to learn English, if they don't start very young. When anybody tranlates from one language to another, they end up with their own idioms--something they put together that wouldn't nornally quite go that way in the language they're trying to speak, but actually comes from their own language. We all know the old Pennsylvania Dutch expression The milk is out -- meaning the milk is all gone. This is a direct translation of German, but not totally "correct" in English. We must say "all gone", or "we're out of milk." A German can simply say "Alles", all or "Aus", out and it's perfectly gramatically correct. Blackhorse Mitchell has caught this sense of working between two languages in MIRACLE HILL. We get a sense of our language through his eyes, and that is a touching and humbling experience. It is what makes the book good. It makes me realize how many ways we can use grammer and construct sentences to make ourselves understood. It reassures me that all human languages are very rich. We would all do well to learn a couple that are not our own. Unfortunately, the rhythm of Mitchell's words and his mixing of tenses sometimes makes MIRACLE HILL hard to follow. This isn't a book to read on the beach. You need a quiet place to think about MIRACLE HILL. Once you find that spot and get into the language, it's a good read.

Recommended reading for students of Native American Studies .......2004-11-08

First begun in 1962 as a 12th grade classroom assignment to pen the author's life story, Miracle Hill: The Story Of A Navajo Boy is the memoir of growing up and earning his passage into manhood. Author Blackhorse Mitchell recounts learning Navajo ways, herding sheep, living at a boarding school, the first time he encountered white people, and eventually, earning a place in the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, where his creative talent was encouraged and given ample opportunity to grow. Relating daily life in plain terms that transcent cultural barriers, Miracle Hill offers a unique and unforgettable picture of the Southwest. Highly recommended reading for students of Native American Studies as well as the non-specialist general reader with an interest in contemporary Native American culture.

Average customer rating:

Miracle Hill: The Story of a Navajo Boy
Emerson Blackhorse, and Allen T.d. Mitchell
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VJS66A

Miracle Hill - The Story of a Navaho Boy

Average customer rating:

Miracle Hill - The Story of a Navaho Boy
Emerson Blackhorse Mitchell & T. D. Allen
Manufacturer: Univ. of Oklahoma Press; Norman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000V7Y13E

Product Description

xviii + 230pp.

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