North Dakota Books

Sitting Bull

Bill Yenne

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Westholme Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $18.78

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> United States -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Amazon Significant Seven, April 2008: As a celebrated warrior, shaman, and leader of the Lakota tribe, Sitting Bull was both a fascinating and frightening icon to the expanding United States, a 19th-century cross-cultural superstar who was at once a friend to Buffalo Bill and the emblem of Native American resistance in the face of the westward settlement. In Sitting Bull, Bill Yenne has produced a fascinating and exhaustively researched biography, drawing from contemporary sources as well as the iconic leader's own "Hieroglyphic Autobiography" (a series of pictographs depicting pivotal events in his life) to create an informal and relaxed account that still packs an amazing amount of detail. Recounting the exploits of the budding warrior known as Jumping Badger, his misunderstood role in the Battle of Little Big Horn, and his death on the eve of the massacre at Wounded Knee, Sitting Bull cuts through legend to place the Lakota leader square into his own cultural context, spurning the usual wasichu filters or biases. --Jon Foro

Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota

Chuck Klosterman

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scribner Amazon Marketplace: 88 new & used starting at $3.41

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Authors
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Family & Childhood
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 70 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

From a grown-up, then anti-metal, punker 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

While I think that this book is deservedly the black sheep of the Klosterman books, its still enjoyable. What this book lacks is any sense of flow... I never caught a real story or any purpose. It just seemed like a series of rants on liking metal (pop/ hair metal in particular) that were taped and then transcribed. Klosterman still has that really approachable style that's fun and thoguhtful.

While I'd like to laugh at him for liking crappy bands, Klosterman's experiences are similar to most any youth who feels a strong connection to music. I know that they're not unlike my feelings as a young teen becoming obsessed with hardcore records back then... though I had one up on Chuck 'cos I was living in Philly, and not rural North Dakota, back in the day.

Typical Klosterman; funny, absurd, and thoughtful... I suppose a lot of other readers are turned away by what they see as a lack of direction or movement in the book.

Editorial Review:

Empirically proving that -- no matter where you are -- kids wanna rock, this is Chuck Klosterman's hilrious memoir of growing up as a shameless metalhead in Wyndmere, North Dakotoa (population: 498). With a voice like Ace Frehley's guitar, Klosterman hacks his way through hair-band history, beginning with that fateful day in 1983 when his older brother brought home Mötley Crüe's Shout at the Devil. The fifth-grade Chuck wasn't quite ready to rock -- his hair was too short and his farm was too quiet -- but he still found a way to bang his nappy little head. Before the journey was over, he would slow-dance to Poison, sleep innocently beneath satanic pentagrams, lust for Lita Ford, and get ridiculously intellectual about Guns N' Roses. C'mon and feel his noize.

Rainbow Tribe: Ordinary People Journeying on the Red Road

Ed Mcgaa

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperOne Amazon Marketplace: 95 new & used starting at $0.24

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> North Dakota
Subjects -> History -> General AAS
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Christian Living -> Faith

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

exploitation??? 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Ed McGaa, writing about what he is called to write about, has the blessed good fortune to be published. The ceremonies he writes about have meaning to him and he wishes to share their essence with the readers. There is nothing about exploitation in this. What this book does is send a message of hope that people will do SOMETHING in themselves to correct their insane ways and reconnect with the living Spirit that flows through Nature. Small minds need opening. Small hearts need opening. Envy is a disease of the soul. 1000 blessings to Ed McGaa, whoever he is, for his beautiful efforts. Small stones dropped in the water make ever-expanding rings. It is for readers to reflect on the meaning of what is written. Noone has to go out and perform rituals that are not theirs. There is something universal in all people's rituals, however. The wise see it and can work with it. The lazy idiots sit back and sling mud. When has it ever been otherwise? Bright Blessings.

Editorial Review:

The practical sequel to Mother Earth Spirituality that applies Native American teachings and ritual to comtemporary living.

Fort Abraham Lincoln: Dakota Territory

Lee Chambers

Amazon Price: $13.59 List Price: $19.99 Usually ships in 3 to 5 weeks By: Schiffer Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 1 new & used starting at $13.59

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 19th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> Civil War -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> Colonial Period -> General

Editorial Review:

Discover one of America's most important 19th century forts. Initially constructed for infantry troops in the Dakota Territory, Fort Abraham Lincoln was changed to house both infantry and cavalry troops to protect construction crews building the Northern Pacific Railroad. The first commanding officer was Civil War hero Major General George Armstrong Custer, with his famous 7th Cavalry. Custer was in command of Fort Lincoln at the time of his fateful expedition to the Little Big Horn. This book describes everyday life for the soldiers, including their food, entertainment, and weapons. Every building is described in detail and shown 200 blueprints, historic and recent photographs are included. Historians will relish this comprehensive new presentation.

The Horizontal World: Growing Up In the Middle of Nowhere: A Memoir

Debra Marquart

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Counterpoint Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $8.73

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Authors
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Family & Childhood
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Poetic sounding 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book sounds quite poetic in some chapters. I really enjoyed the last section of the book titled "signs and wonders" I do believe what the writer says in that part of the book. :) Quite a moving memoir..she credits various books that I now what to get a hold of to read as well.

Smart and Lovely 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is simply lovely. Now that I'm done I find myself thinking of it, dwelling in it, savoring its sweetness. This is the very best kind of memoir, as I learned not just about Marquart's experience, but about the land and its history as well. Really, I learned about my history. I thought of my own father when I read of hers, wonder what earth and sky my own grandmothers worked to their graves. If I wrote a memoir, I'd like it to feel like this one, to leave the reader bronzed as this book has left me.

Editorial Review:

Debra Marquart grew up on a family farm in rural North Dakota--on land her family had worked for generations. From the earliest age she knew she wanted out; surely life had more to offer than this unyielding daily grind, she thought. But she was never able to abandon it completely.

The River Where America Began: A Journey Along the James

Bob Deans

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $4.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> Colonial Period -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> North Dakota
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> South

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wonderfully written 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is a wonderfully written, informative book that focuses on the history that happened on the James River from 1607 to 1865.

Like any good storyteller, Deans illuminates specific characters (John Smith, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Patrick Henry and Abraham Lincoln among them), to shed light on the whole. And the whole is this: That the two original sins of the American experiment -- our near-genocidal treatment of the Indians and our institution of black slavery -- began here, early in our formative years, on the banks of the James River in Virginia. At the very same time and in the very same place, began our very real belief in a democratic government of laws and not of men.

On this river was nurtured the the notion that all men were created equal, even as those who proclaimed liberty and equality denied it (and increasingly codified that denial) to a whole race of men and women.

That such schizophrenia of national psyche could not long endure seems obvious. And the fever that provided the cure finally broke here, too, on the banks of the James in April 1865.

This is a terrific book. However, the publisher, I believe, has let the writer down in two respects: It could use more maps. When Deans writes of someone rounding this point, exploring this tributary or inhabiting that island, I want to have a map close at hand to see for myself. There are a few maps, and they are good, but I would like more.

And here's a thing sure to rankle any West Virginian ex-copy editor: In the chapter on John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry (then Virginia, today West Virginia), it says he was hanged in nearby Charleston. As any Mountain Stater (and probably even some Virginians) know, Charleston, the state capital, is in the south central part of the state. Charles Town, where they have horse racing, is in the Eastern Panhandle. Charles Town is close to Harper's Ferry, not Charleston. (And as any newspaperman knows, Charleston, Charles Town is an AP Stylebook entry. I presume the error is an editor's and not Deans'.)

Editorial Review:

From the establishment of the first permanent English colony at Jamestown in 1607 to the fall of Richmond in 1865, the James River has been instrumental in the formation of modern America. Over the course of the United States' first century, the James River bore witness to the irreconcilable contradiction of a slave-holding nation dedicated to liberty and equality for all. When that intractable conflict ignited civil war, the James River served as a critical backdrop for the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history. As he guides readers through this exciting historical narrative, Deans gives life to a dynamic cast of characters including the familiar Powhatan, John Smith, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Benedict Arnold and Robert E. Lee; as well as those who have largely escaped historical notoriety.

Dust Bowl Diary

Ann Marie Low

Amazon Price: $15.25 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University of Nebraska Press Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $5.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

“Life in what the newspapers call ‘the Dust Bowl’ is becoming a gritty nightmare,” Ann Marie Low wrote in 1934. Her diary vividly captures that “gritty nightmare” as it was lived by one rural family—and by millions of other Americans.

The books opens in 1927—“the last of the good years”—when Ann Marie is a teenager living with her parents, brother, and sister on a stock farm in southeastern North Dakota. We follow her family and friends, descendants of homesteaders, through the next ten years—a time of searing summer heat and desiccated fields, dying livestock, dust to the tops of fence posts and prices at rock bottom—a time when whole communities lost their homes and livelihoods to mortgages and, hardest of all, to government recovery programs. We also see the coming to maturity of the author in the face of economic hardship, frustrating family circumstances, and the stifling restrictions that society then placed on young women.

Ann Marie Low’s diary, supplemented with reminiscences, offers a rich, circumstantial view of rural life a half century ago: planting and threshing before the prevalence of gasoline-powered engines, washing with rain water and ironing with sadirons, hauling coal on sleds over snow-clogged roads, going to end-of-school picnics and country dances, and hoarding the egg and cream money for college. Here, too, is an iconoclastic on-the-scene account of how a federal work project, the construction of a wildlife refuge, actually operated.

Many readers will recognize parts of their own past in Ann Marie Low’s story; for others it will serve as a compelling record of the Dust Bowl experience

The WPA Guide to South Dakota: The Federal Writers' Project Guide to 1930s South Dakota

Federal Writers Project

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Minnesota Historical Society Press Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $10.71

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> North Dakota
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> South Dakota
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great gift for someone from that part of the country. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I bought this as a birthday gift for my stepmom after seeing it in a literary catalog, Amazon had it cheaper of course. She is from South Dakota and I had an idea she might like the book, but she LOVED it. She said she clocked in 20 minutes late from her lunch break on the day I gave it to her, because she couldn't put it down. I later learned that she lived in the country and had lots of homes, wells, etc. that were WPA projects. A home run gift on this one, too bad they are not all this easy.

Editorial Review:

Rolling prairie grasslands in the east, surreal Badlands and lush Black Hills in the west: South Dakota is a state of vivid contrasts. In this classic and now-rare guide to Depression-era South Dakota, you can discover the historic byways and back roads of this beautiful state. Originally part of the American Guide Series, this book was written both to chronicle the physical and cultural landscape of the Mount Rushmore State and to employ out-of-work writers. The result is a snapshot of South Dakota as our grandparents knew it.