Kindle
$14.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$25.13
Audio CD
$24.99
Buy new:
-10% $25.13
FREE delivery May 20 - 23
Ships from: MyPrepbooks
Sold by: MyPrepbooks
$25.13 with 10 percent savings
List Price: $27.95

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
FREE delivery May 20 - 23. Details
In Stock
$$25.13 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$25.13
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
MyPrepbooks
Ships from
MyPrepbooks
Sold by
MyPrepbooks
Sold by
MyPrepbooks
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$19.95
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Inspected to ensure requirements match condition listed.. cover, spine, and pages may show general signs of use, all pages intact and unmarked. Inspected to ensure requirements match condition listed.. cover, spine, and pages may show general signs of use, all pages intact and unmarked. See less
FREE delivery Monday, May 20 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$25.13 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$25.13
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Jim Kristofic
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

House Gods: Sustainable Buildings and Renegade Builders Hardcover – August 1, 2022

by Jim Kristofic (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$25.13","priceAmount":25.13,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"25","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"13","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"O1yKqPNjqXYbKSh614wLS4q%2B24x2rh6jKUpiJ2EDfvkZ0whw7REGuzzM7FFLTB1JU08NP3GqXu3KTDug5pB3R4wU%2Fl728G33gs1bj%2F%2FArD8W3HseFQmSO38sTkR275HEc7lWc%2FSUudOx4fsEPc4Fn%2BDvL7W8DOKrVU3NKz6LDme%2FjbkFg9hu%2BLfEBR9kqFjt","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$19.95","priceAmount":19.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"19","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"O1yKqPNjqXYbKSh614wLS4q%2B24x2rh6jHdixbtvdCmGNvgM%2F%2BH93ArltK6a5aet4xBu5DtN8A%2BBZ9GPcsWWgmFAJV84xtkAfJUXEZp2mgljaAwKycBea%2B4PxPzyOh0WOfOwfjTsmpHDFYBXOINyi%2FWYxlFdmeuWgZAl0CD%2FQUnlIBSSdyAVEnWu4iPyB1StD","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Additional Details

Black-Owned Business
The current featured offer for this product is sold by a Black-owned business. Look for this badge in Search results and the Additional Details section on product detail pages. Discover more about the Black-owned businesses selling in Amazon’s store and Amazon’s commitment to empowering them.
Learn more
Black-Owned Business
The current featured offer for this product is sold by a Black-owned business. Learn more

Our buildings are making us sick. Our homes, offices, factories, and dormitories are, in some sense, fresh parasites on the sacred Earth, Nahasdzáán. In search of a better way, author Jim Kristofic journeys across the Southwest to apprentice with architects and builders who know how to make buildings that will take care of us. This is where he meets the House Gods who are building to the sun so that we can live on Earth. Forever.

In House Gods, Kristofic pursues the techniques of sustainable building and the philosophies of its practitioners. What emerges is a strange and haunting quest through adobe mud and mayhem, encounters with shamans and stray dogs, solar panels, tragedy, and true believers. It is a story about doing something meaningful, and about the kinds of things that grow out of deep pain. One of these things is compassion--from which may come solace. We build our buildings, we make our lives--we are the House Gods.

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    224 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of New Mexico Press
  4. Publication date
    August 1, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0826363652
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0826363657
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"House Gods is a book that should be read, shared, and studied by anyone who hopes to help save our planet for future generations."--Book Reporter

"Kristofic is a terrific, compelling writer who has turned the topic of sustainable housing into a transcendent cause. His knowledge of the land and the culture and the history of the American Southwest is nothing short of thrilling, and, as a reader, I would follow him anywhere he wants to go. We need what he has to say. And it's an enormous pleasure to hear it."--Sebastian Junger, New York Times bestselling author of WAR, The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea, and Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging



"Kristofic's House Gods takes us into territory inhabited by Edward Abbey, Chuck Bowden, Gary Snyder, Barry Lopez, and other literary stalwarts who have tasted the rarified air that invigorates true adventurers in pursuit of balance and integrity. This is a compelling work that keeps the home fires of resistance burning heartily."--Jack Loeffler, author of Headed into the Wind: A Memoir

"Kristofic moves deftly between practical, detailed explanations of building techniques and a spiritual, almost mystical tone that probes philosophical questions about sustainability, the purpose of our dwellings, and our impact on the Earth."--Yelizaveta Renfro, author of Xylotheque: Essays

About the Author

Jim Kristofic grew up on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona. He has written for The Navajo Times, Arizona Highways, Native Peoples Magazine, High Country News, and Parabola. He is the author of Medicine Women: The Story of the First Native American Nursing School and Navajos Wear Nikes: A Reservation Life and the coauthor of Send a Runner: A Navajo Honors the Long Walk (all from UNM Press). He lives in Taos, New Mexico.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of New Mexico Press (August 1, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0826363652
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0826363657
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Jim Kristofic

Jim Kristofic

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Jim Kristofic grew up on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona, and has worked on and off the “Rez” for more than twenty years as a river guide, journalist, ranch hand, National Park ranger, horticulturalist, construction worker, and oral historian. In 2018, he was named the National Teacher of the Year by the Johnson-O'Malley Association.

He has written for The Navajo Times, Arizona Highways, Native Peoples Magazine, and High Country News. He is the recent author of Medicine Women: The Story of the First Native American Nursing School, from University of New Mexico Press. He also wrote the award-winning books The Hero Twins: A Navajo-English Story of the Monster Slayers and Navajos Wear Nikes: A Reservation Life, both published by UNM Press.

He lives in Taos, New Mexico.

You can contact him at www.jimkristofic.com or through the "Navajos Wear Nikes" Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Navajos-Wear-Nikes/132679940123287

Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5
3 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Aimee
5.0 out of 5 stars Is this Kindle price correct?
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2022
Good luck Jim! I know you put a lot into this, as usual. Is this Kindle price correct? Is the Kindle edition really more expensive than the hardcover? I have read all your other books and expect this is another 5-star work of research and story telling. I'm looking forward to reading it, but am not ready to bite the $28 bullet for a Kindle book. I prefer the Kindle editions because I don't have room to accumulate stuff. Maybe I'll talk my local library into buying the hardcover. You are the best!
Helpful
 Report
Barscoinc
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating house/environment building/saving info and human situations
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2022
House Gods
Jim Kristofic

Review by Barbara Bamberger Scott

Mystical lore and highly realistic science and technology combine in this deep dive into the world of house building by author Jim Kristofic.

Kristofic, who grew up on a Navajo Reservation in Arizona, opens his visionary narrative with a walk through the door of a hoghan, the basic Diné dwelling. The structure is composed of logs sealed with adobe mud. The House God stands at the entrance, which often faces east so that the deity reflects the rising sun, instilling spiritual thoughts in those who enter. Contrasted to this ancient form of architecture based on simple building techniques and a mind to higher realities are such phenomena as the huge number of flung together mobile home parks in New Mexico. As Kristofic takes it upon himself - with the faithful Rainey, a canine he rescued from extinction at an animal shelter – to visit various New Mexico home builders, he learns from one that in that state, about 20 per cent of the population lives in trailers, consuming huge amounts of energy – “these homes rob their renters at night,” particularly in the winter. Yet it is possible to build simple homes, with fewer eco-threatening materials and more reliance on solar energy, more direct water supplies, and generally less consumption of the fuels that we, as the world’s largest consumers of the earth’s resources, are more and more rapidly sapping. One featured form of housing found in Kristofic’s rambles are the Earthships constructed especially for harvesting solar power. Other individuals have come up with unique ideas for saving energy such as fireplaces that store heat instead of expelling it through large chimney openings, and a method of using and then moving outhouses to prevent soil destruction. These determined off-grid sorts are, the author states, “hard to find” and their lives may be as fraught with sorrows and challenges as those of anyone anywhere. But Kristofic has made his search in order to prove to readers that even small efforts can make a difference.

Kristofic, author/co-author of numerous books (Medicine Women, Navajos Wear Nikes) and a widely read journalist, has created this poetic, poignant and practical study with an idealistic purpose. He melds the timeless wisdom of indigenous peoples with the use of the latest technologies and throws in a healthy dose of humor. His empathy for the weaknesses, and admiration for the strengths, of his fellow human beings shines through each passage. This is a book that should be read, shared, and studied by anyone who hopes to help save our planet for future generations.
Helpful
 Report