Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pure Gold, December 6, 2000
This review is from: Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest (Paperback)
Reading a book twice is a rarity for me. But this book was worth both the investment (I bought one for myself, one for a friend) and the time. Having lived in and explored most of Arizona through backpacking, hiking, and horse trekking, I found Douglas Preston's recounting of his adventure to be both a delight and a thoughtful read. Anyone who has experienced the difficulties and beauty of nature first hand, will benefit from this book. All horse lovers will find themselves and their fleet-footed friends well depicted in Preston's travails. And those who simply want to learn more about the Southwest, its original inhabitants, the Spanish conquest and the impact of civilization on this fragile landscape and doomed people will want to explore Preston's sensitive, well-documented exposition. His final observations on our future are prescient and a warning: we, too, may go the way of the Zuni, Navajo, conquistadores and ranchers.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is a TREASURE!, November 1, 1999
This review is from: Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest (Paperback)
This book is SO much more than a travel log. The journey that the author and a friend took through the desert on horseback, by all rights, should have produced on dead author and one dead friend, but, instead, produced and extremely rich book. Its not often that an author can bring to bear such a breadth of knowledge and skill: historical knowledge, great research, wise understanding of political/ecological issues, thoughtful good judgment in observing cultures, gutsy explorer-courage, and great writing skills - each like extra icing within a tasty adventure-story layer cake. The book is high quality information gathered in one spot covering so many areas: Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Pueblo, and Apache history; early Spanish/Mexican culture; the Spanish/Mexican invasion under Coronado; Anglo history in the southwest; southwest ecology, geography, climate, flora, fauna, and horse psychology 101. Best of all, the words are written by a person of heart who feels and shares the magic of meeting people of other cultures, both present day and ancestral (via those tantalizing archeological sites, through native oral tradition, and from the European perspective). I've read my old hard copy edition of this book twice, and loan it out often - whenever I spot someone showing early signs of becoming fascinated with the Southwest.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cities of Gold: A journey Across the American Southwest, January 9, 2000
This review is from: Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest (Paperback)
This is one of the most well written, expansive stories about the settling of America I have ever read. It takes you back to the time of Cortez and before, but the author's adventures are current and often funny. It is filled with courage; of the writer, the various Pueblo Indian tribes, the Spanish and some Americans. The Zuni philosophy and understanding of the competative needs of the white man are truely enlightening. This is a book I will read again and again. Preston's books about the southwest are both educational and exciting. Sometimes you can hear the wind and taste the dust.
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