Isobel Sivulka is driven to achieve. Working on a thesis for her post doctorate degree, she encounters one of those jags most all of us - if at all we are the types to grow and expand in our selves, in our personal journeys of enlightenment throughout our lives - sooner or later encounter. Now and then it simply becomes necessary to move a few steps off our usual beaten paths, strike out, and blaze a new trail. Isobel blazes hers to Iceland. She abandons the thesis, she breaks off a relationship with her lover, puts a few close friendships on the back burner for a while. Iceland is a foreign place for her, and it is this "foreignness" she seems to need and want most. Perhaps we all need to, on occasion, place our familiar selves against an unfamiliar background in order to regain a clearer focus on who we are - and who we wish to be.

All of this is accomplished in Jenn Crowell's second novel. She writes well and uses enjoyably fresh expression and crisp dialogue. If I felt I was missing anything, then it was that I would have enjoyed the "foreign background" of Iceland to be painted in richer color, brought more to vivid life, so that I could have had a deeper compassion for Isobel's inner foreign ground in contrast.

"The rest of that evening was a kaleidoscope of burnished colors and surging emotion," Crowell writes... yet I didn't quite follow the crest of that surge. Isobel's journey is perhaps a bit too muddled and unclear - did she find what she was looking for? Or did she merely get lost?

A well written book, fresh enough that I am now reading Crowell's first novel (written at the ripe old age of seventeen!), "Necessary Madness," but with potential for growth I look forward to the author's filling. I believe she will.

"Letting the Body Lead" is the story of a young woman who learns that accomplishments and talents aren't all there is to life. She eventually learns to listen to her inner strenths and needs and to allow those to lead her. Its a coming of age story that is richly written and compelling to read. Crowell's writing, as she herself ages, will be even more delightful in the future.

You won't find much here about Iceland, but if you're looking for a case study on the American male midlife-crisis, this may be your baby. Taken that way it's unintentionally, although darkly, funny (There's no intentional humor at all. None.) And despite the jacket blurb, don't look for wisdom. A Pennsylvania guy in his 40's with house, wife, toddler and dog is drawn to spending a summer in rural Iceland. His mother worries about how her toddler grandson will handle it, and the author can't come up with any reason to go there, but then his mom is brutally murdered. This provides a good reason. Now the son needs Iceland to cure his grief and rage and also maybe to get in some kayaking on the side. He's no longer able to have sex with his wife, but finds he's generally able to sleep after pulling his pud. So in December he heads to Iceland by himself -- probably not the best time to fix up an abandoned shack near the Arctic Circle, but then he leans heavily on goodhearted Icelanders to pull him through. ("Friends" in the book are horribly used.) The wife and kid arrive in June. Nothing much is going on at the ends of the earth, and this would be a good chance for contemplation and to bring a deep truth or two out of the wilderness. Instead, the reader gets an almost day-by-day action account of what must be one of the most tedious, dreary summers ever. If anything worth mentioning happens, I missed it. The toddler apparently had to be rescued from a manure heap, but the author skirts that. And he finds dead things everywhere: a seal washed up on the beach doesn't smell or look great; baby wagtails fall out of the nest and are eaten. After a month of this everybody gets to go home to PA for a couple of weeks (for a funeral) and then returns to finish out August in Iceland. The guy never tries to learn Icelandic and argues it can't be learned, although his wife learns enough to get by. An Icelander sends love poetry to the wife, but the author breaks that up. He'd like to stay longer, but hears PA calling. You close the book hoping the wife and kid will run away with the poet.

My kind of book is a non-fiction book entitled "A Year in (blank)" or any calendar subset of that (e.g., Sue Hubbell's A Country Year). So when I encountered Summer at Little Lava, I was interested. I knew that it wasn't the journal of the author's life for a year in the country. But a summer in a remote cottage on the coast of Iceland was close enough for me. I was not disappointed. I tended to skim over the detail of natural history and bird behavior, but slowed down considerably when Fergus described crossing the lava fields, ocean kayaking, or having coffee with their distant Icelandic neighbors. The mix of natural history, animal and plant description, and story telling was well balanced. There was enough "journal-like" story telling to keep me reading to the end. The chapter "Poison Cold" was so good it was worth re-reading, but be warned -- be close to a woodstove when you read it because it will make you cold. An added human dimension to the book is the occasional memories and thoughts of the author as he wrestles with the deaths of both his mother and his niece. A particularly touching passage recounts the telling to his son of the tragic death of his niece. I recommend this book for all travel and nature readers. And for readers looking for a book without a hidden agenda and unnecessary symbolism. The author simply writes about what he sees and feels . . . and sometimes what he deeply feels.

I am third generation Icelandic, all of my grandparents immegrated to america in the late 19th century. They were all: "west coast Icelanders" Reading Fergus's book was of especial interest because my maternal grandmother [Holmfrethur Hansdottir] was born on Oct 20, 1860 at: Litliahrauni, Iceland, the exact site of Little Lava in this book. I have a journal writen by her husband in 1930 that spells out this history. I would like to send a copy of this journal to Mr. Fergus if I can get his address. Thank you.

A FAMILY IN ICELAND is a look at the family of Kristjan Finnson, a farmer. The book was published in 1985. I think many children will look at the book and balk at the odd clothes styles and the unusual decor. Actually, everything about the book looks like the 1970's to me. Then again, many children won't even notice those details, and will be happy to learn about Iceland regardless of the book's dated style.

In any case, it's a nice little pastoral depiction of this family. The parents don't even give the children allowances. Each child gets a farm animal (I think it was a sheep) for his or her birthday each year. A child can sell a sheep if he/she wants. I'm sure this family is just a family of wonderful hearty folk, but this is not your average family in Iceland.

Iceland is very much a modern, materialistic nation. Iceland is (with so much of the population living in Reykjavik) not so much a nation of small farmers who live such a pastoral life and want to pass along a farm to one of the daughters.

There is some nice background on Iceland. The information about the family is cute, and they are interesting people. However, it could have easily been written about a family in Iceland before World War II. Since that time, life has changed greatly for most folks in Iceland, and the book doesn't really reflect that.

I happen to be reading a travel guide about Iceland, and generally this A FAMILY IN ICELAND depiction of the Finnson family does not seem to be representative of a modern Icelandic family.

It's a nice book for a child to have as an introduction to the country, but it surely should be balanced with also looking at Jonathan Wilcox's book ICELAND (from the Cultures of the World series)or another book on the subject.

ken32

I bought this book for my 5 year old who LOVES horses. It has some nice pictures of horses, but there is hardly a story at all. It begins with a little horse introducing herself and then she spends the rest of the book saying "I thought I heard a noise...I can hear it, but I can't see it...I guess it was nothing. The End. I think that my 5 year old could have come up with a much better story. And you learn nothing about horses in this story. I can not recomend this book, as there are some calandars with equally nice photography.

This volume was absolute dribble!! The Hardys go to Iceland, walk around there getting into one problem after another with things that have nothing to do with any mystery. This book was about a bunch of dumb things that happened to the brothers. Somebody would have a crisis upon the conclusion of each chapter which was overcome at the start of the following chapter. WOW! Throw out the sleeping pills! For less money you can aquire a copy of The Arctic Patrol Mystery. Guaranteed to make you yawn or your money back. This book is a filler. Buy it to complete your collection - read it once (And wish you hadn't - life is short) and go on to something else. How in heck can ANYONE call this rubbage a mystery story???? This in my opinion was just about the worst book in the canon. Just to clarify - I did not like it.

Frank, Joe, Chet and later Biff go to Iceland to search for a missing sailor who has been left a large sum of money in a will. While there, they become involved in the search for a missing U.S. astronaut. This is an excellent book for anyone planning a trip to Iceland because the author has included many bits of information about the island. Unfortunately, he forgot that this is a Hardy Boys MYSTERY story, because there is very little mystery to this book. The plot is incredibly boring. What little action or cliffhangers are in the book are usually something that has no connection to the mystery, such as a plane crash or somebody disappearing, and they are resolved by the first or second pages of the next chapter. The book is anti-climatic because the most important criminals are captured during chapter 18 and the remaining criminals are so unimportant that they aren't even given names. This is an awful book; so, unless you're a glutton for punishment, DON'T READ IT!!!

The Arctic Patrol Mystery is a very good and very interesting book.The way Chet helps to find the imposter,and the way he and his brother think.This is the best book I ever read.And I suggest that you should read this book to.

While I must admire the author for trying to write a book about Bjork, I began to wonder if she really was, or was just trying to write about her social view towards God knows what. I mean I know it's trendy and all but Labeling this and that conservative and calling former mayor Rudy Guliani an ---hole was not only in bad taste but has nothing to do with the book. If she wants express her liberal ideology kaka she needs not look far, just don't put it in a biography about Bjork, who is quite the fox I might add.

Wow, who would of thought a book about the awesome BJORK would be dull. Instead of getting some interesting facts about Bjork, all we hear are the author's opinions over and over and over and over. It's like this, "Yadda yadda yadda yadda yabba dabbo do!" Boring!! Like fans don't already know how great she is. I put this book down after the first two chapters. All the information that IS in the book you can get from the Bjork webring. Don't waste your money, instead just buy the OFFICIAL BJORK book. Great stuff! heheheheh.

I couldn't help but smile while reading this book. I found it to be a fresh outlook on Bjork. Instead of hearing someone who knew everything, we see Bjork through the eyes of someone who started out knowing nothing about her. It's a first hand evolution of the bjork fan. I find it to be almost a representation of the crossing over into that place where it is hard to return. Once I became a fan, I was a fan for life, and I admire this author for sharing this raw, intimate experience she had. I enjoyed the book, and I feel it only brought me closer to Bjork's music. I think every Bjork fan could relate to this book.

Inexcuseable mistakes, such as referring to the special lateral gait of the Icelandic horse, the tolt, as the "tilt," pepper this book. I'll pretty much buy any book on this subject, if you also find this necessary, then you are fore-warned. Plus it's awful expensive for how short it is. There are other, better choices for a child's book about the Icelandic horse.

Paul Durrenberger is a US-based anthropologist who has made modern Iceland the focus of his academic research. This book is not a scholarly treatise, but rather a first-hand narrative about the author's experiences as he tries to learn the Icelandic language while working on a farm and insert himself into day-to-day Icelandic life. Although it's not exactly a page-turner, since modern Icelandic life isn't all that exciting or weird, this would be excellent reading for someone planning on visiting Iceland, who wants to go beyond the hackneyed tourist sites and learn something about the people. The book's fatal drawback is Durrenberger's insistance on inserting his left-wing opinions about US politics at every opportunity; he doesn't seem to realize that people are buying the book to learn about Iceland, not to get a lecture about US politics.