Rating: 
Summary: Apprentice?
Review: There is little if anything about Amazonian shamanism in here.
The book is basically about a tourist who ventures into the Amazon, meets a few shamans and takes hoasca, the hallucinogenic brew. Where apprenticeship comes in here i honestly cannot tell.
What Plotkin does not say is that he is a founder of "Shaman Inc.", a pharmaceutical company the function of which is to go to these old shamans, appropriate their knowledge for a pittance and package it into pills for Western consumers. Rather unsavory stuff, IMO.
Of course, those who speak, do not know. This is all too true in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely captivating book, impossible to put down
Review: This book gives you a need to go down to South America and experience the things that the author has written so well about, he gives someone such an urge and strong emotions when writing of the tribes danger of extinction
Rating:
Summary: one of the best ecology books i've ever read
Review: This book is great for those who are interested in ethnobotany, those who want to find out more, and even those people who just want to know more about our fragile link to the rest of the world. Plotkin makes ethnobotany fun and easy for the non-botanist to digest and at the same time is able to deliver the important warnings about consequences of mismanagement of natural resources. Even your kids will like this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Real Eye Opener!
Review: This book opened my eyes to issues to which I had never given much thought. In planning for a trip to the rain forest of Belize, a friend gave me Tales of An Apprentice Shaman. As it wasn't a book I selected I was a bit tenative about starting it. Having now read it cover to cover, I can honestly say it is a book that has changed my perspective of the world and given me insight to people from non-Western/Indian cultures, the fragility of the ecosystem, and secrets of the jungle. For me, this book was definitely worth my time and effort.
Rating:
Summary: This book will change the way you view the world!!!!!!
Review: This is a truely a great book, I have read it and reread it several times. Mark Plotkin illustrates the plight of the rainforest and it's people. The book is written for the layman and it's one fault is that it lacks some of the plantlife sketches that the author talks about in some depth. The book has given me a new respect for the value of the rainforest
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: This is an absolutely amazing book. Basic story: autobiographical accounts of an enthnobotanist looking for medicinal plants in the Amazon rainforest.Daniel Quinn talks about 'The Great Forgetting' in the Story of B. But this books really hammers home how great a Forgetting it has been, and how much of a loss it will be when tribal cultures have been totally wiped out. Whereas our cultures may date back several thousands of years at most, the cultures of these people have been distilled over so much longer a period. I remember when reading 'Roots' I was stricken and moved by the oral traditions of the tribes (preserving their ancestoral history by word of mouth). I got a similar feeling here as well.. In one part the author talks about the tribe telling of ancestors who 'crossed through great cold, wrapping themselves in animal skins..'. Apparently it is generally accepted that the Indians of South America crossed over from Asia during the last Ice Age. Can you imagine a culture rich enough to preserve stories dating back twenty+ thousand years? The book's focus is definitely on the author's search for the flora (and sometimes fauna) of the jungle. However, there is a lot more to take away from it. Highly recommended reading.
Rating:
Summary: For those interested in ecology and other cultures
Review: this is an excellent book. While his comments on plants and their medicinal uses were interesting, I found the glimpse I got of another culture fascinating. The people were real with the same problems and diversity of personalities as anywhere. As a physician I especially enjoyed the healings in the books,most notably the one's experienced by the writer himself,although the shaman's viewpoint certainly does not correlate with western medicine. Overall a very interesting book
Rating:
Summary: Well-researched, informative and holds the reader's interest
Review: Very thorough but interesting and understandable to the layman, Plotkin's record of his studies increases our appreciation for the disappearing rain forest, its peoples and the potential cures we may find, if we don't destroy them first.
Rating:
Summary: Why this is an excellent book
Review: Why is this book great? Two words: reads well. Many people, like myself, see scientific books as dull and hard to follow because of a general lack of knowledge regarding the subject of the book. Plotkin, however, does a great job of making this book fun to read, for the people who know nothing about how plants work in producing their healing chemicals, to knowledgeable botanists who could have contributed to this book as well. This book reads like a story, and Plotkin does a great job of weaving tidbits of humor into this journal of everyday life among the Indians of Amazonia. His humorous stories in this book are refreshing interjections to the detailed descriptions of plant life, as well. All in all, I greatly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered how indigenous people in the rainforest are able to survive in today's world
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling if you like slow-moving uneventful books
Review: Why Read this? Poorly developed story line and not very interesting at all
| 
