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Akpan, Uwem. Say You're One of Them. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2008.
"Say You’re One of Them is a beautiful, bitter, compelling read. The savagely strange juxtapositions in these stories are grounded by the loving relationships between brothers and sisters forced to survive in a world of dreamlike horror. Open the book at any page, as in divination, and a stunning sentence will leap out. Newspaper facts are molded by Akpan’s sure touch into fictional works of great power."
Boyden, Joseph. Three Day Road: A Novel. New York: Viking, 2005.
"Three Day Road is a devastatingly truthful work of fiction, and a masterful account of hell and healing. This is a grave, grand and passionated book."
Brown, Chester. Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography. Montreal: Drawn and Quarterly; San Francisco: Distributed in the USA by Chronicle Books, 2003.
"This biography does the trick of sorting out the historical complexity of Riel’s actions and those of his compatriots. Chester Brown’s drawings are dramatic, lively, sometimes droll, sometimes heart wrenching. He does a good job of bringing out parts of the Louis Riel story that are murky and mysterious (his mental state, his fatal sense of fair play when fighting a ruthless enemy). This is a great read for any age, but especially for young people who don’t know how really fascinating this piece of Native history is, and might not read Strange Empire, for instance, by Joseph Kinsey Howard. This book is a gift. It is a serious history that goes down easy. It is so complicated, yet so engaging that you will want to read it again and again."
Brown, Rosellen. Before and After: A Novel. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1992.
"An intensely gripping marvel of a book ... both deeply compassionate and full of shocking wisdom"
Covington, Vicki. Gathering Home. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988.
"An achieved work full of loveliness and restrained tension."
Earley, Tony. Here We Are in Paradise. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1994.
"Tony Earley does the practically impossible... these stories are both incredibly and effortlessly convincing."
Earling, Debra Magpie. Perma Red. New York: BlueHen Books, 2002.
"It is my pleasure to welcome Debra Magpie Earling's boldly drawn and passionate novel." (publisher's page)
Hogan, Linda. Mean Spirit. New York: Ivy Books, 1990.
"A story rooted both in truth and mystery, and Linda Hogan has written it beautifully."
Jetter, Alexis, Orleck, Annelise & Diana Taylor, eds. The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices From Left to Right. Hanover: University Press of New England for Dartmouth College, 1997.
"Strong-minded, full-hearted, this collection of voices is a provocative and moving testament to the political power of mother love." (publisher's page)
Kantner, Seth. Ordinary Wolves. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2004.
"I've not read anything that so captures the contrast between the wild world and our ravaging consumer culture. Ordinary Wolves is painful and beautiful."
LaDuke, Winona. Last Standing Woman. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 1997.
"This book goes out into the world much as a prayer. Reading it, I am blessed by the writer's use of language and strengthened by her courageous vision."
MacLeod, Alistair. Island: The Complete Stories. New York: Norton, 2000.
"Reviewing MacLeod in the New York Times, Louise Erdrich wrote, 'the young eventually realize that though they speak English, the old language [Gaelic] is internalized, that the sound and meaning of it rise to haunt them in the same way that the ancient mythologies and superstitions, spun through generations, exert an ineluctable hold.'" (publisher's page
Manning, Richard. A Good House: Building a Life on the Land. New York: Grove Press, 1993.
"A practical, philosophical, conscientious, and richly generous version of what it takes to put together a thoughtful house, a thoughtful life." (publisher's page)
Martin, Calvin Luther. The Way of the Human Being. New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 1999.
"This book is a real book--important, heartbreaking, and deeply beautiful." (publisher's page)
Power, Susan. The Grass Dancer. New York: Putnam's, 1994.
"Susan Power writers with a headlong energy and a force that are nothing less than thrilling."
Power, Susan. Roofwalker. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2002.
"Susan Power understands how historic truth threads the maze of the imaginzation. Roofwalker is a book of wild humor and compassion." (publisher's page)
Treuer, David. Little. New York: Picador, 1995.
"An exciting find, complex and compelling. David Treuer has written an ambitioius novel of extraordinary emotional range."
Turcotte, Mark. The Feathered Heart. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1998.
"Mark Turcotte's poetry is sound-vision stirring echoes of an Earth-based relationship in urban places, and offering the hope of a deeper human future."
Weisman, Alan. The World Without Us. New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2007.
"I plucked this book from the stack of Advanced Readers Copies that flood the store, read the first page, and then read the book straight through exclaiming to anyone who would tolerate me -- listen to this, and this, and this!!!!! This book is a thought experiment (what would the world be like if humans disappeared today, raptured up perhaps). A very simple premise that leads this marvelously straightforward, thoughtful, thorough author into parts of the world I hadn't known existed. As well, he deals with exactly what would go first and last in your house. How long it would take for Manhattan to collapse. On and on. It makes for obsessive reading. This is perhaps my favorite book this year. At once the most harrowing and, oddly, comforting book on the environment that I've read in many years." (author's page)
Welch, James. Riding the Earthboy 40. New York: Penguin, 2004.
Note: Welch's only book of poetry was originally published in 1976.
"The work of James Welch is great American writing. As a writer, I'll always be in his debt. As a reader, I'm just grateful."
Whiteman, Roberta Hill. Philadelphia Flowers. Duluth, MN: Holy Cow! Press, 1996.
"Roberta Hill Whiteman is a poet who understands struggle, and generously imparts her passion for renewal. Her work always stems from the toughness of a compassionate survivor. Philadelphia Flowers is a book of unflinching hope."
Modified: September 01, 2009,
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