Rating: 
Summary: so inspiring, so intriguing, so beautifully written
Review: This was a book that could not be put down, a book that was so amazingly written. Lynn Andrews has much power..as a woman and a story teller. So many different insights are told in this story that have so much to do with each and every readers lives. All women can relate to her teachings in one way or another. We all nee d to step back..and realize how much we can learn from our sisters...and from our Mother Earth. The Native way is the Way... Happy trails...
Rating: 
Summary: ENJOYABLE READING
Review: THIS WAS A EASY READING, GREAT STORY THAT KEPT ME SPELL BOUND. A NICE TIE BETWEEN THE MODERN DAY WOMAN AND THE INDIAN FOLK-LORE. THIS IS A MUST READ FOR ANYONE WHO ENJOYS READING ABOUT INDIAN-MEDICINE PEOPLE. THIS STORY IS ABOUT A WOMAN, A MEDICINE WOMAN, AS A WOMAN IT IS A RARE FIND TO READ A BOOK THAT IS WELL WRITTEN BY A WOMAN-ABOUT A WOMAN.
Rating: 
Summary: WHAT A SHAM!!
Review: Though this is a good FICTION book, I am amazed that Lynn Andrews thinks we are dumb enough to believe this is an autobiography. Give me a break!! After doing some research on the internet, I am also amazed to find out that her live-in companion at the time this was written was David Carson (co-author with Jamie Sands in Medicine Cards book) who, at the time, claimed HE helped her write it. Also note that in the Medicine Cards book, David dedicates the book to three aunts, and two happen to have the names Ruby and Agnes---the same two female characters in Medicine Woman...hmmmmm. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. There are plenty of other SINCERE and HONEST books about Native American Shaminism and spirituality without wasting your time on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely wonderful.
Review: Upon receiving this title as required reading for graduate studies, I thought to myself, where can I find the cliff notes? That was then. Medicine woman has awaken my womaness and my spirituality. I have not experienced anything so powerful in quite a long time. As a passenger on the journey of finding the true self, when my stop came I did not want to get off. Bravo Lynn! This book is for the dreamer and the lover of life. It is definetly worth reading and passing on.
Rating: 
Summary: Fiction versas Non-fiction,
Review: We live in times where we feel we want to have a more personal relationship to the great mystery and all things spiritual. We want to feel the magic. As a result we seek paths that will include these missing elements - explain the unexplainable, know the unknowable. A book such as, Medicine Woman can fill that collective longing. It is about an ordinary woman who"blunders" upon extraordinary events, whose storytelling allows us the opportunity to fulfill our own unlived fantasy lives. Subconsciously, we are hopeful that if it could happen to her, it could happen to me. Unfortuntnately, we will remain fantasy - bound, mainly because the story and its supposed real events cannot be embodied or experienced. They are words printed in a book, their mastery, as factually described, unattainable only to the author. I believe the hunger is real for the spiritual experience, but that at this time these kinds of books do us a disservice. Narratives of this nature tie us to the author's extraordinary experiences and their accompanying interpretations but, they can never be truly authentic for anyone else. In addition, the "guru" type teachers who "always" insist on anonymity, are forever unaccountable, remaining dream - like and etheric. One would think that there would be building resentment in their apprentices, for by never being able to disclose their identities they have to remain under a constant cloud of criticism, always on the defensive. My final question is for those of us who do feel a geniune calling for the imaginal and unknown. Perhaps it is time to insist that these authors make avaliable their sources. After all, no one would study any other disapline expecting anything less. It is interesting that we let these people off the hook so easily, their credibility intact. These types of books may have served a purpose in the past, in that they inspired their readers to take the imagination and its experiences seriously, but now it may be time to tell the truth - I ask these authors to free their readers with an honest show and telling of the truth, and I bet that by doing so, it will free them in the process as well.
Rating:
Summary: White Wash
Review: Well, here she goes again, pretending to the reader that she can speak for American Indian culture. Folks, the world has seen this kind of cultural white wash before, albeit on a grander scale. It was the Yehudi (a.k.a. Jews) described by Roman historians as an Ethiopian race with broad noses, thick lips, wooly hair, and burnt skin. Europeans became so facinated with this culture that many learned to speak the language and many books were written about the culture, eventually making it a religion while history forgets the culture. Now the world is left with Text Book Africans (a.k.a. Christian missionaries) conquering the world with the old and new testament - teaching all that the people in these books are Caucasians while leaving Yehudi culture in the past.So be wary of the likes of white washers such as Lynn V. Andrews or our future world may be filled with Text Book American Indians. Note: American Indians and Africans still live - learn cultural spirituality from the source!
Rating:
Summary: A Story of Reclaiming One's Power
Review: What stands out to me, ten years after first reading this book, is that it represents so clearly the way that women easily give their power away and then develop blind spots to having done so. Lynn's ordeal reclaiming the marriage basket from Red Dog is a metaphor for my own process down this road. After all these years, it is still a strong milestone for me in my personal growth reading. It's also simply a wonderful and entertaining story. I highly recommend it to others.
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