Native Americans

• Ancient Child, The by N. Scott Momaday (1990)

  [6/10]

  "In The Ancient Child, Momaday again presents writing of the same caliber that won him the Pulitzer prize. Although Momaday demonstrates beautiful exposition, the text addresses problems relevant only to Native Americans."

• Brave Buffalo Fighter: Waditaka Tatanka Kisisohitika by John D. Fitzgerald (1973)

  [7/10]

  "As you can expect from any Fitzgerald work, you get an excellent picture of the period and setting in which the events take place. You get a detailed portrayal of life in a pioneer wagon train, including the reasons for making the trek in the first place and the risks involved in the journey itself."

• Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (2007)

  [6/10]

  "Of the three books in the Twilight series so far, I found Eclipse the least interesting. All the physical action takes place off stage, and we spend all our time inside Bella's mixed up head."

• Great Brain Does It Again, The by John D. Fitzgerald (1975)

  [5/10]

  "If you have read the other six volumes in the series, you'll still find enough fun here to keep reading this seventh volume, but you probably won't make this the book that you reread."

• Great Brain Is Back, The by John D. Fitzgerald (1995)

  [5/10]

  "I can only recommend The Great Brain Is Back to absolute fans of the series or people who want to say they have read every book in the series. This eighth volume certainly doesn't stand on its own, but it does let you spend just a little bit longer with these loveable characters."

• Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, The by Sherman Alexie (1993)

  [6/10]

  "Alexie uses graceful images and often poetic prose to describe reservation life."

• Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, The by Brady Udall (2001)

  [9/10]

  "If you met Edgar Mint in real life, you probably could not prevent yourself from saying, 'Oh, poor Edgar.' Edgar's life sucks."

• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (2006)

  [6/10]

  "At the end, you feel like you have just ridden a roller coaster -- a long, slow, boring ride up the hill and a brief thrill as you run the course. The excitement happens so fast, that you really want more and wish that Meyer hadn't spent so much time letting Bella mope about."

• Shanghai Noon directed by Tom Dey (2000)

  [7/10]

  "Shanghai Noon offers slightly better than usual Jackie Chan dialog, typical improvizational martial arts, and fun but merely average stunts (at least for Jackie)."

• Smoke Signals directed by Chris Eyre (1998)

  [8/10]

  "Smoke Signals succeeds on many levels: as a coming-of-age movie where two young men learn that they have more in common than they thought; as a road-trip movie; as a light comedy; and as a portrait of Native American life. Alexie successfully weaves these aspects together into a story that you can watch again and again."

• Wine-dark Sea of Grass, The by Marilyn Brown (2001)

  [5/10]

  "Marilyn Brown examines how the Mountain Meadows Massacre affected the lives of the Mormon settlers in rural southern Utah."

  Average score: 6.36