taos

Tao of Jeet Kune Do
$16.95
this book is just very well written. you can tell when he is sad from when he is happy and you just fill good about your self after reading this book. i cant stand reading at all but after i watched this movie i had to buy this book after getting it in the mail i started reading it. and yes there are some very cheap stick figures drawing in it and some strang art but it still was an out standing book.

Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet Boxed Set
$27.00
My book arrived within the time period promised. The book was in good shape. Great job.

Edge of Taos Desert: An Escape to Reality
$21.95
I found this book intriguing, well-written and hard to put down. In the year of the Russian revolution, Mabel Dodge Sterne, at age 38, newly married to her third husband, artist Maurice Sterne, abandoned her high society life in Florence and New York City and moved to Taos. This, the fourth volume of her autobiographies starts with her arrival by train in Santa Fe. So eager was she to reach her destination that she left the slow train and hailed a car and driver to take her the rest of the way. But when the car breaks down she reboards the train. After a few weeks in Santa Fe she finally goes to Taos and immediately rents an apartment to the consternation of Maurice who plans to return to NY. An unusual woman who doesn't take no for an answer, she slowly adapts some of her ways to the culture of the Indians in Taos Pueblo, and soon she has established an emotional connection with Indian Tony Luhan.
There are marvelous descriptions of their adventures, and the purchase of an adobe house and expansion of that house by Tony and his builders. Mabel spends time every day at the pueblo, learning from the Indian way of life and teaching knitting skills to the women. Eventually Mabel knows that she will be connected to Tony for the rest of her life and she gives Maurice a date to move out. After only one year of marriage, Maurice returns to NYC never to see Mabel again. At the end of the book, Tony moves into Mabel's adobe and the blending of their lives and cultures is complete. Yet he still maintains his family relationships with his Indian wife Candelaria and family in the Pueblo. How this was managed is not explained. Mabel's son John, a collector of Spanish folkart, lives with them. Their large house becomes a hub of social and artistic activity as Mabel invites artists, writers and intellectuals as guests. Tony carefully maintains his Indian identity and is usually silent with Anglo guests. Mabel trusts his intuitions completely. He not only builds and maintains their home and guest houses, but also farms the land for alfalfa and oats, and is a respected leader in the Pueblo. They have a farm full of animals. An account of their first year together is written in Mabel's other book, "Winter in Taos" which is a classic. It seems that Mabel Dodge Luhan's great wealth allowed her to create the life she dreamed of, without constraints. Sometimes she could be selfish and cruel toward friends but was at heart a generous woman. Eventually she built a hospital for the town of Taos. Her philosophy of living in the moment and being very alert and aware to everything around her provided her with the keen observations that make for such interesting reading. That philosophy also foreshadows the current 21st Century obsession with living in the moment and minimizing past and future. I sensed the vivid sights, sounds and smells of Taos from her writing. Writings from other Taosenos help to fill in the blanks: Frieda Lawrence, wife of writer D.H., English artist Dorothy Brett, Santa Fe poet Witter Bynner, and Taos bookshop owner Claire Morrill who wrote "A Taos Mosaic" help to round out a picture of the unique people and cultures of northern New Mexico during the early 20th Century.

Winter in Taos
$26.95
This book, Winter in Taos, along with its counterpart, Edge of Taos Desert are treasures in my library. I never lend them out and they have a special place in my home where I keep my favorate books. I first learned of Mabel many, many years ago through my mother, who was a niece, or great-niece of Antonio Lujan, Mabel's last husband. She told me that Mabel was an author and wrote of Taos and many people of the area, including people she knew or was related to. As an adult, I discovered these books in a library and later purchased them through Amazon to learn more about this intriguing woman. Regretfully, I never knew her, although my mother did. This is the type of book that makes you want to make a cup of hot tea, curl up on a cold winter afternoon and immerse yourself in her storytelling; and since I know the areas about which she writes, I also try to visualize what it must have been like during the 1920's, when she walked the paths and trails, before Taos became widely known to the outside world. Whenever I'm in Taos, I visit her grave and say my silent hellos, and wish again that I could have known her.