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The Home Ranch (Bison Book) 7 reviews
Ralph Moody
Bison Books, 1994
Perhaps the very best of the series
What a grand adventure for a 12 year-old boy to work in a real man's job, earning a real man's salary, working for a cattle rancher/trader Mr. Batchlet. Moody skillfully portrays the cast of characters who compose the ranch crew and the owner's daughter Hazel who is a commanding figure in the book and in Ralph's young heart.
This is a never to be forgotten look at a old west that was ...
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Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers 58 reviews
Ralph Moody
Bison Books, 1991
So good it hurts
I've read this book twice. Once alone and now aloud to my 4 children. It is such a gift to find books that burrow down deep inside and make themselves part of you. Make you a better you!
Little Britches is such a book. Ralph Moody had an uncanny way of using the sparsest of prose to convey the grandest of meaning. Every emotion is felt in this book and you just become a part of the Moody family ...
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Five Seasons: A Baseball Companion6 reviews
Roger Angell
Bison Books, 2004
How much we've lost
This is a depressing book. Not because its subject is depressing; we're not talking about the Ukranian famine of 1932 here. No, this is a "You are there" book written at the end of baseball as we knew it. We weren't aware of that at the time, though we could see that things were changing. But we thought, and were repeatedly assured, that the changes would work themselves out. However, if you're ...
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Monte Walsh22 reviews
Jack Schaefer
Bison Books, 2003
IF YOU LIKE WESTERNS...
Monte Walsh makes Lonesome Dove seem like a comic book (and I have long been a die hard fan of LD) In Monte Walsh, the writing is superb, often lyrical. The colors are vivid, the scenes are vast. You can smell the dirt and taste the chili. The men are men and their friendships are rich and soulful. The trails they ride are long and dangerous. Jack Schaefer was a master of his craft and Monte ...
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The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets27 reviews
Ted Kooser
Bison Books, 2007
The Effect of the Teacher we all wish we'd had.
I must confess two things: I'm already a Kooser fan and I only found him because he's the current poet laureate of the United States.
But since I came upon him he's become my favorite, not only for his superb writing, but for the person who shines through in every sentence in his poems and in this book, The Poetry Home Repair Manual. What this book isn't, is a list of all the do's and don'ts, ...
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Black Elk Speaks, New Edition 12 reviews
John G. Neihardt
Bison Books, 2004
Timeless Classic
Black Elk Speaks is a 1932 autobiography of an Oglala Sioux medicine man as told to John Neihardt.
In the summer of 1930, as part of his research into the Native American perspective on the Ghost Dance movement, Neihardt contacted an Oglala holy man named Black Elk, who had been present as a young man at the 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn and the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. As Neihardt ...
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Battle: The Story of the Bulge27 reviews
John Toland
Bison Books, 1999
The American experience
Surely, as another reviewer pointed out, this book is a look at the American experience in the battle. However, that doesn't keep this book from being amongst the best about the Battle of the Bulge. Toland makes you feel like you are there. The chapters are broken up so that the book is highly readable and very fast paced. An excellent work of military history that makes you feel like you are ...
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Man of the Family10 reviews
Ralph Moody
Bison Books, 1993
The Ralph Moody Collection
A reviewer asked for help regarding the names and volumes in this series. Here it is...
1. Little Britches
2. Man of the Family
3. The Home Ranch
4. Mary Emma & Company
5. The Fields of Home
6. Shaking the Nickel
7. The Dry Divide
8. Horse of a Different Color
Mr. Moody shares adventures of his life in this series. It's wonderful, but there is some foul language. Therefore, I ...
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The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce9 reviews
Ambrose Bierce
Bison Books, 1984
I suppose this must be death
Ambrose Bierce's most famous story is An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and many of his stories follow that same kind of pattern: an event is related with some surprising or revelatory twist at the end. The stories of the Civil War are especially interesting as they are not at all typical writings about war. Bierce does not see the battle so much as one of North against South rather he sees the ...
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Crazy Horse (second edition): The Strange Man of the Oglalas (50th Anniversary Edition)29 reviews
Mari Sandoz
Bison Books, 2004
A Novel or Biography?
The strange man of the Lakotas made very little contact with the "white man" and remains a mysterious character of native American culture. Not much is known about him, his birth, his death, his burial.
Sandoz attempts to document as much history is known about this man, and she puts it in the form of a novel. It is easy to read and entertaining. Yet it includes historical facts, events and ...
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Mindgames: Phil Jackson's Long Strange Journey 7 reviews
Roland Lazenby
Bison Books, 2007
A great account of Jackson's life
Having always been intrigued by Phil Jackson as a coach and a person, I was thrilled to see that an account of his interesting career and life had been published. Being a coach myself, I had always wanted to find how this living legend's mind works and maybe try to apply some of his ideas/concepts to my coaching. That was the reason that I had devoured "Sacred Hoops" as soon as it came out back ...
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Beyond Armageddon6 reviews
Bison Books, 2006
Best reprint anthology of post-apocalyptic SF
This book contains the following stories: "Salvador" by Lucius Shepard "The Store of the Worlds" by Robert Sheckley "The Big Flash" by Norman Spinrad "Lot" by Ward Moore "Day at the Beach" by Carol Emshwiller "The Wheel" by John Wyndham "Jody After the War" by Edward Bryant "The Terminal Beach" by J. G. Ballard "Tomorrow's Children" by Poul Anderson "Heirs Apparent" by Robert Abernathy "A Master ...
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Covered Wagon Women, Volume 1: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1849 (Covered Wagon Women)7 reviews
Bison Books, 1995
Great Stories of the Overland Trails
The study of women's history has blossomed during the past several decades, and the result has been the production of several outstanding works on the subject. "Covered Wagon Women" is an important contribution to this growing field of investigation. It is a useful work that makes available to historian and buff alike several fascinating letters and diaries written by women involved in the ...
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Seasons in Hell: With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and "The Worst Baseball Team in History"-The 1973-1975 ...7 reviews
Mike Shropshire
Bison Books, 2005
Wretched team, great book
Anyone who thinks baseball is the overly groomed, PR conscious, coddled player, outrageous money game we see today has missed the true glory days of the sport. Not that the Texas Rangers of 1973 through 1975 were anywhere near glorious....they were wretched. When the Washington Senators were sold down south and arrived in the old orange monstrosity that was home to the Texas Rangers, baseball ...
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Mary Emma & Company (Bison Book)5 reviews
Ralph Moody
Bison Books, 1994
Excellent book for the whole family, Mr. Moody's and yours!
As a forth grader in Colorado our teacher read the first two books in Ralph Moody's series to our class. Now, almost 30 years later I'm reading the whole series to my family, we love them. Even our 3 year old asks me to read them at bed time. Mr. Moody's descriptions and the story of his life are more than touching and heartwarming, they are important lessions in morality, life and love. ...
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Bang the Drum Slowly (Second Edition)14 reviews
Bison Books, 2003
This book and the movie are special
From the sound of the spikes on the cement, the movie is authentic. From the opening lines to the end, the book is bittersweet in it's finest form. Running around the field at Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines in 1976, our shortstop, Vinnie Mallozzi from South Babylon Long Island and I, the second baseman would run and without prompting would hum or whistle "The Streets of Larado." The ...
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The Floor of the Sky (Flyover Fiction)8 reviews
Pamela Carter Joern
Bison Books, 2006
Take Me Home
While I was reading THE FLOOR OF THE SKY I kept thinking about how I would cast this as a movie. Toby Jenkins could be played easily by Shirley MacLaine or Ellyn Burstyn. Robert Redford would be a perfect George in my estimation, and I'm sure Robert Duvall would fit in too. I'm not sure about Lila, Toby's pregnant, sixteen year old granddaughter. Maybe a newcomer, an unknown actress would be ...
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A False Spring18 reviews
Pat Jordan
Bison Books, 2005
HE PLAYED THE GAME
Those of us who are profesional sportswriters spend a lot of time in press boxes with other writers who criticize what they see on the field, but either never played the game or never played it well. "The Suitors of Spring" is brilliantly written by Pat Jordan, who did play the game. It also brings to mind some of the best sports books ever. "Ball Four's" Jim Bouton played the game. "North ...
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The Southpaw (Second Edition)12 reviews
Bison Books, 2003
Among the best baseball fiction ever written
"The Southpaw" begins the great four book series on the career of New York Mammoth pitcher Henry Wiggen. Full of comedy, memorable characters and all the trials of a rookie in the major leagues. This is truly one of the best pieces of baseball fiction ever written, along with Philip Roth's "The Great American Novel", and I didn't want it to end. If you're a baseball fan you can't go wrong with ...
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The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt (Bison Book)6 reviews
Bison Books, 1985
Indigenous way of being
This book is the most powerful book I have ever read. Black Elk exudes a spiritual connection that is unparalleled. He also was a man of service. He speaks with a poetic sense of the world that has been killed by science, rationalism and money lust. If we could recover the spiritual sense, this indigenous way of being, that this man had the world would be rich. This book is better than the ...
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