Nuckolls (Brigham Young University) describes her anthropological linguistic work over the past 20 years with a Quecha-speaking woman from Ecuador’s Pastaza Province, illustrating cultural and grammatical communication among the Amazonian Quecha speakers. Luisa Cadena is a ’strongwoman,’ one who conceives of herself as having an abundance of inner power as well as physical strength. Her narratives and commentaries on everyday events reveal important features of Quecha speakers’ linguistic and cultural discourse: ideophones (words that communicate through imitative sound qualities), representations of dialogues between humans and nonhumans, and grammatical distinctions between a speaking self and an other. A key premise of the book is that the Quecha language is endangered, its animistic worldview is becoming marginalized. The book includes b&w photos. Annotation 穢2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)