12-22-02 @ 4:04 am EST

Actually, I just submitted my first review to Amazon.com...it was a negative one...I couldn't help it, I was busy rating the items I own so my recommendations will be on target, and I just HAD to offer a negative review of a book that's bugging me!

This is my review from the PREVIEW page, as Amazon has to screen all of them and approve them first, and it could take days, IF they ever post it at all. They might not. It would be only the second review for this book; the other person gave it one star. (I'm not alone! Ha.) But I thought I'd share anyway because I'm so literate and stuff! ^_^

Check Your Review of
Secret Society of the Shamans: 'Mystery Religions' of the North American Indians Revealed
by Dennis Morrison

Here is your review the way it will appear:

2 Stars = Interesting effort, but riddled with errors
Reviewer: tehuti@nmo.net from Cheboygan, MI United States

Living in northern Michigan, I was of course interested in this book. It was ordered from the back of a UFO-type magazine, though, so beware. The book most certainly is not boring in any respect, containing retellings of native legends of the area; however, its downfall is the number of serious errors committed. For one thing, some sources seem to be quoted directly without proper credit being given in the bibliography; "Lore Of The Great Turtle" by Dirk Gringhuis (a superior book) is heavily quoted and paraphrased, but not credited; "The Crooked Tree" by John C. Wright (another good book) is referred to in the text, but why not in the bibliography, also? Secondly, why is a book about the Northeast Woodlands Indians filled with pictures of Plains Indians life? I would rather the book had no pictures, instead of unrelated pictures; not all Indians lived in tipis and wore war bonnets. Surely the author could have located images of Ojibwa and Ottawa life if he'd tried. Lastly and most annoying are the typos and spelling errors committed: I cannot respect a person who writes a book about Michigan, and yet spells "Mackinaw Island" wrong. (For the record, it's MACKINAC Island.) All of this goes without mentioning some of the outlandish conclusions the author jumps to. An interesting read if you wish to simply pass the time, but not worth it if you are truly interested in native studies. Try Schoolcraft or Basil Johnston instead.

The book URL is here in case you're interested.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/093829444X/qid=1040546082/

Hope I got that right; it appears you can omit parts of the URL and it still shows up, but I can't figure out how much I can omit or not. Anyway. My cat is tossing a dead mouse around my feet, so tar!