Books about West here from Amazon.com

The Street Stops Here offers a deeply personal and compelling account of a Catholic high school in central Harlem, where mostly disadvantaged (and often non-Catholic) African American males graduate on time and get into college. Interweaving vivid portraits of day-to-day school life with clear and evenhanded analysis, Patrick J. McCloskey takes us through an eventful year at Rice High School, as staff, students, and families make heroic efforts to prevail against society's expectations. McCloskey's riveting narrative brings into sharp relief an urgent public policy question: whether (and how) to save these schools that provide the only viable option for thousands of poor and working-class students--and thus fulfill a crucial public mandate. Just as significantly, The Street Stops Here offers invaluable lessons for low-performing urban public schools..
Price: $13.65 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Tiny Haines, Alaska, ninety miles north of Juneau, is accessible mainly by water or air—and only when the weather is good. There’s no traffic light and no mail delivery; people can vanish without a trace; and funerals are community affairs. As both obituary writer and social columnist for the local newspaper, Heather Lende knows better than anyone the goings-on in this breathtakingly beautiful place. Her offbeat chronicle brings us inside her busy life: we meet her husband, Chip, who owns the local hardware store; their five children; and a colorful assortment of friends and offbeat neighbors, including aging hippies, salty fishermen, native Tlingit Indians, Mormon spelunkers . . . as well as the moose, eagles, sea lions, and bears with whom they share this wild and perilous land..
Price: $1.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Hiking from Here to WOW: Utah Canyon Country guides hikers to the most compelling destinations in southern Utah's spectacular canyon country This second book in the new full-color WOW series covers 90 trails that epitomize the "wonder of wilderness."

In their years of their research, the authors hiked over 1600 miles through Zion, Bryce, Escalante-Grand Staircase, Glen Canyon, Grand Gulch, Cedar Mesa, Canyonlands, Moab, Arches, Capitol Reef, and the San Rafael Swell. They took more than 2000 photos and hundreds of pages of field notes. Then they culled their list of favorite hikes down to 90--each selected for its power to incite awe. Coverage ranges from short dayhikes to multi-day backpacking adventures. The book describes precisely where to find the redrock cliffs, slickrock domes, soaring arches, and ancient ruins that make southern Utah unique. It offers the boot-tested advice you need to create rewarding adventures. And it does so in a refreshing style--honest, literate, entertaining, and inspiring.

The book's full-color interior features 220 striking photographs, engaging text, and a trail map for each dayhike and backpack trip.

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Price: $18.78 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Exciting tales of lost treasure in the deserts of the US! This is a reprint of a rare 1966 book pinpointing real bonanzas in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Texas and Nevada, giving the locations of over 100 fabulous fortunes waiting to be found in the ore-rich Southwest! For the first time, lost treasure stories of the Southwest are stripped bare of their legends and lies! The author's account of each treasure includes * the approximate location * the estimated total value of the treasure * an authentication of that value * and reading sources for each locale so readers can do additional research Dig Here! is a gold mine itself, overflowing with fascinating lore, spellbinding backgrounds, driving Western drama ‘ and exciting, reliable facts!.
Price: $9.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Members of a Tewa Indian family living in Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico follow the ages-old traditions of their people as they create various objects of clay..
Price: $3.13 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Many famous people, past and present, have ties to St. Louis. With that in mind, authors Charlie Brennan, Bridget Garwitz, and Joe Lattal have written an informational guidebook about this midwestern city.

Here's Where uses anecdotes and interesting facts to explore well-known as well as little-known St. Louis connections. Eleven easy-to-read neighborhood maps with coded symbols help the reader differentiate between existing and no-longer-existing sites. Locals and visitors alike can pick a favorite famous person and find the related landmark--where bombshell Betty Grable, poet Maya Angelou, or music legend Chuck Berry was born, or where Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra sold newspapers as a boy. Literary fans will enjoy locating the apartment and the shoe factory where Tennessee Williams got inspiration for such works as The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire.

Other notable entries include significant people from the past, such as Mark Twain, T. S. Eliot, and President Harry S. Truman, as well as big names from more recent times, including Tiger Woods, Regis Philbin, Sheryl Crow, Bob Costas, and Ronald Reagan. The entries are organized alphabetically; an appendix cross-references the entries by category (movies and television, sports, literature, political figures, etc.)..
Price: $8.69 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In this third volume of plays by Cherríe Moraga to be published by West End Press, we confront the changing California landscape of the 1990s, as anti-immigrant, anti-youth, and English Only legislation sweeps across the farmworker towns and multi-racial urban communities of the state.

Both plays were developed through interviews conducted with residents in the two towns of Watsonville and East Palo Alto. Both towns stand in the shadow of the first world culture of the University: East Palo Alto is a poor neighbor of Stanford University south of San Francisco, while Watsonville, further south, has seen the University of California at Santa Cruz devour the nearby Pacific coastline.

These plays document the incursion of the white world of power and authority into poor, racially mixed communities. But they are more than reports of the times. In vividly realized drama, Moraga shows the communities mounting their own bold resistance to cultural domination and the threat of economic enslavement. The indigenous and feminist consciousness of the two communities brings them together to struggle against their oppressors, from within and without.

In the spirit of Salt of the Earth, but moving to the beat of modern times, Moraga returns to the drama of social consciousness that is one of the major functions of her radical feminist voice..
Price: $10.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Author Richard Wood profiles sixty of Colorado's late greats, both famous and notorious in this unique collection of brief yet compelling biographies. Included are singer John Denver, controversial writer Hunter S. Thompson, US Supreme Court Justice Byron White, queen of the Denver brothels, Jennie Rogers, and many more! A great read!.
Price: $8.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"The early Scottish West Texans are the real reason for these stories," says nationally award-winning teller and performer Rosanna Herndon. "I wanted others to know them. Their unpretentious lives marked a clear path for me and for generations to come."

Herndon, who has been telling stories to audiences for more than a quarter of a century, had her first audiotapes released in the mid-1990s, at which time her daughter began urging her to write them down. Through her own family tales, Herndon began to study how such stories contribute to listeners' concepts of self and family, what they reveal about communication patterns within families, and how they reflect who we are and who we wish to become.

The eighteen stories collected here cover several generations of Scottish West Texans. Some are tales of Herndon's own ancestors; others are of extended family and friends. They tell of life experiences that measured character and produced a distinctive toughness of spirit. Others are personal narratives of more recent history but also regional, reflecting a culture peculiar to the southwestern United States and specifically Herndon's own West Texas..
Price: $10.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This handy book will help make any visitor's trip to Vieques a success. Written by an author who lived on Vieques for two years and still owns property there, you get a true insider's guide to the best beaches, snorkel spots, restaurants, shops, bars and activities the island has to offer. Detailed descriptions and accurate contact information helps you put together the vacation of a lifetime. Get a brief history, discover hidden stretches of sand, encounter the island's flora and fauna, and learn about the biobay - the brightest in the world according to the Guinness Book Of World Records. Includes a special section on getting to Vieques which helps you enjoy your time on the main island of Puerto Rico for a night or two while in transit. Be Here Now: Vieques is continuously updated for accuracy thanks to the author's continuing close ties with the island and its residents. $4 from the sale of the book benefits the Vieques Humane Society..
Price: $17.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]