Writers Books

If you're looking for a book to keep you laughing, this is it. The stories are real and funny. The characters are real and funny. It's about growing up in the South and the book is truly food for the Southerner's heart.

If you're looking for a book to keep you laughing, this is it. The stories are real and funny. The characters are real and funny. It's about growing up in the South and the book is truly food for the Southerner's heart.

I genuinely enjoyed this book. The stories reflect the true humor in simply being human, especially if you grew up in the South. I could have read 100 more of Mr. Adams artfully expressed stories....I hope to discover more of his work....and, yes...I actually DID go out and bring home some butter beans to further wallow in the nourishment of this read...

Joe Adams may be the funniest new voice in the South. The stories in this collection all make me laugh out loud, and I find myself reading them over and over again. Not only did I buy one for myself but have given it as gifts to friends who need a few laughs (and a few who didn't)

Joe Adam's "Butter Beans for the Soul" is a charming, laugh-out-loud read that will leave you with a smile on your face, and, as the title suggests, nourish the soul. This book is a collection of articles written for the author's hometown newspaper, "The Gaston Gazette" in North Carolina. The chapters are brief recollections and musings on growing up in a small, Southern town, as well as the author's humorous observations on his life today. With a heart and style as big as Mississippi's Willie Morris ("My Dog Skip"), Joe Adams tells us of the miracle of Television first coming to his small town; his grandmother stopping by the funeral parlor once a week to make sure her casket was still there (as the author notes, "Nobody had the heart to tell her it was a display model"); or taking his elderly cousins from the small town of Gastonia on a pilgrimage to Graceland in Memphis ("We've been here since 5 o'clock watching people go up and down on these glass elevators. We try to guess which floor people will get off. So far Mary's ahead'). He even locates an enchanted "healing springs" on his journeys that have been deeded outright to God. ("Although", he adds, "I don't know who pays the taxes. I would hate to see them try to foreclose on God for back taxes"). As life is a collection of moments, this witty collection of "snippets" -as the author calls them-provides warm insight and great humor into the author's rich life. All who read it will benefit from the joy contained within this book, and may find themselves craving a big bowl of butter beans once they're done.

My daugther has been strugling for the past four years since her divorce with four children, one with emotional problems, anger problems and learning problems. She cried a lot and said she didn't know where to turn to. Someone told me about this book and I let her read mine. She said she finally read a story sort of like hers and it gave her a lot of encouragement. Also, she is having a lot of problems with not enough money. The second part of the book provides a lot of money saving ideas that you can see in your budget when you follow the guidelines. The most important thing is that is written so she could understand it. She said the things she learn in the part called Let's Be Practical are things that are ordinary but she never would have thought of doing it. It really works, she said. Her voice sounded lighter than I had heard in a long time. I am sorry for parents cause I am one myself but I am so glad that this lady was willing to tell of her sorrow and heartbreak as well as the very positive and happy times so my daughter could be helped by it. I recommend this book to ALL PARENTS!

I found this book to be an example of how your everyday life can fall apart but with the guidance and help of God one can over come any obsticles that has been put in one's way. Throught reading this book I found myself seeing life throught the eyes of the author and experiencing what it was like for her. I found this book to be inspiring and influential in it's recommendations for living a christian life as a single parent with all the odds against you. I recommend this book to not only single parents but also to those thinking of becoming parents, thinking of getting married, or those who are married as a guide to help them understand what curve balls life can throw at you and how one can lean on God to help them through.

Orelia King wrote this review from my computer since she did not have one. Please understand that I do not review my own books. I did not want to appear dishonest. If you will look at the bottom of the last one with the information about daughter struggling, you will see Mrs. King's name.

As I read this book the message that I recieved from it was one of courage and determination to go on with everyday life even though where the means to go on where unknown however with God's help in providing the author always had everything that she needed for herself and her kids. They didn't always have the best of everything but they had each other and God and could do anything because of God. It is a great encouragement for single parents who have either divorced or been abandoned or widowed. It tells how one can survive and bring up a christian family with God's help.

This book is very valuable to anyone who reads it. I paused to consider my own lifestyle and how I needed to make some changes for the better. The powerful and emotional love this mother has for her sons, especially the special needs child, would make any mother's heart melt. As a social worker, I found it extremely effective to pass on to parents who were thinking about divorce. It has the ability to save marriages, make you realize just how good your own life really is as well as encourage single parents who think they just can't make it. I feel every minister or counselor needs this book added to their library. The information contained about increasing your buying power without another job is wonderful. I recommend every homemake that has the opportunity should purchase this book.

O. King School Social Worker

(My review is on Thoreau's Cape Cod rather than this specific edition).

While some literary critics seem to slight this work by Thoreau, saying that it is not as "powerful" as his other works, etc., I personally find this one very enjoyable. Sure, it does not have as much "philosophizing" as other books by him, but it is full of humor and very fun to read. The part where he describes the old man spitting into the hearth is particularly hilarious. The part about him sleeping in a lighthouse is also very funny. It lets us experience the more jovial side of Thoreau. This is probably one of the easiest to read among Thoreau's books.

Published posthumously, this volume is surprisingly consistent and complete (unlike "The Maine Woods" which is chopped into three different parts), it gives one the feel of walking along the entire cape, although the materials are quarried from several different trips. One only wish Thoreau had lived longer and had seen the West, imagine him taking a trip in the Sierra! Oh, well, meanwhile, we still have this one to enjoy.

This hardcover edition from Peninsula Press is unquestionably the best available edition of Thoreau's Cape Cod, for these reasons:

1) While all other editions are based on Thoreau's journal entries from only his first three visits to the Cape, this edition includes an epilogue compiling Thoreau's notes from his fourth and final visit, in which he traveled south to Chatham and Monomoy.

2) This is the only edition to translate the many, many Greek and Latin phrases Thoreau includes throughout the work, and it is also the only edition to provide illustrations, maps, and sidenotes in-text.

3) This is the only indexed edition ever created.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for fans of both Cape literature and Thoreau in general.

Thoreau visited Cape Cod in 1849, 1850, and 1853. These trips formed the basis for a series of essays, several of which Thoreau published in magazines. After Thoreau's death, the essays were gathered together and published as "Cape Cod" in 1865.

Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is different in tone in theme from his earlier books. The tone is leisurely and light. Instead of solitude or the wild woods, the picture that remains with me from this book is that of a long walk, or, as Thoreau puts it, a "ramble" through the sand and dunes of Cape Cod. The book is picturesque, full of humor and wry observation. Thoreau unforgettably describes the ocean, in its storms, vicissitudes, and moments of peace, the fish and the fishermen, the sands, birds, plants and lighthouses of Cape Cod, and the people. I have visited portions of the Masachusetts coast, but I have never been to Cape Cod. Thoreau took me there in his book.

The book is arranged into ten chapters. It opens with a description of the shipwreck of the St John on a rock off the Cape. Thoreau then describes a ride by coach across the Cape. But the heart of the book lies in the following chapters in which Thoreau with a companion walks the 30 mile beach from Nauset Harbor to Provincetown with many stops and diversions along the way. I felt the salt air and saw the fishermen and the sandy beach as I walked with Thoreau.

The most vivid characterization in the book is in the chapter "The Wellfleet Oysterman", as Thoreau describes a grizzled, taciturn, and ancient native of Cape Cod and his family who offer him hospitality for the night. Another memorable chapter involves the description of the Highland Lighthouse, no longer standing, and its keeper. The stops with the Oysterman and the Lighthouse punctuate Thoreau's long walks through the day over the beach and his meditiations about and descriptions of what he finds there.

Thoreaus walk ended at Provincetown, on the northernmost portion of Cape Cod, with its wood walkway, shanty houses, and ever-present scenes of fishermen, boats, and drying fish. Thoreau offers what I found an affectionate portrait of these hardy fishermen and their families. Following a description of what he found at Provincetown, Thoreau offers a great deal of historical background on the exploration of the Cape, from the Pilgrims reaching back to earlier French, Icelandic, and English explorers.

Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is a worthy companion to his books describing his experiences inland, on Walden Pond and on the rivers and woods of New England and Maine. It is beautifuly written with unforgettable descriptive passages. It made me want to get up and go from my life in the city, and over 150 years after Thoreau wrote, wander and walk for myself along the dunes and sands of Cape Cod.

This book details the flora, fauna and people that Thoreau found in Cape Cod in the 1850s. Thoreau organizes the book around a single trip to Provincetown, although much of the material that he uses in the book came from various visits to the Cape, and to the ocean in general. He starts with a description of a shipwreck at Cohasset, then a stagecoach ride from Plymouth, then a walking trip with a companion along the outer shore to Provincetown. Along the way, he describes not only the plants and animals he encountered, but also the people who he met. The book finishes with a lengthy academic historical account of the discovery and mapping of the Cape.

I found this to be the most humorous of all Thoreau's work. The character sketches he provides in this book, sharpened with his trained eye for observation of natural phenomena, are legendary. The cultural description of the Cape and its environment is quite fascinating for those interested in the history of daily life in 19th century Massachusetts. As Thoreau describes the desolate, treeless desert that made up the far reaches of the Cape, one begins to comprehend what it meant for an economy to be based on wood and whale oil for fuels. Thoreau stresses how valued driftwood was for residents of the Cape, as one of their main sources of heating and cooking fuel. Doubtless, he would not recognize the Cape today with its lush new forests. Or its Wal-Marts--switching to an oil economy has brought mixed blessings for the Cape. For those who think Thoreau to be a humorless didactic philosopher, this book shows a very different aspect of Thoreau as a writer.

You will forget about the outside world when you read this; nothing but sand, wind, and water. Plus some natural history, local folklore, a few shipwreck tales. Typical Thoreau; he finds beauty, interest, detail in the wilderness. The desolate landscape will help to clear your mind. Highly recommended.

A terrific book that kept me up all night. A page turner. Makes me want to read more and see what happens.The book's characters are hard to forget, very memorable and nicely drawn. I love how it ends, wonderfully wrap.

This author is a great one. She writes very descriptively, making it easy to lose yourself in the book. She wont bore you with useless details but gives the right amount to grab your attention.! You can reread this book over and over again. It is obvious that Catherine cares about her craft. I am waiting to read her upcoming books!!!

...truly heart-stopping and it keeps you guessing what'll happen the next. let's your mind imagine, picture all those events especially the brutal events, the war... and makes you feel like you are part of their world..magnifico! great sci-fi story..

Engaging book that is well-researched. A real page turner, keeps me guessing to the end. The online reviews are helpful, I'm glad to get a copy of the book. I really enjoyed it.

... believable characters equals to one powerful solid book.
A terrific read. My heart raced just by reading page one. After a chapter I asked myself "really?" So I read the next chapter and ended saying "what?" So I ventured forth, and said "no! what became of Noah?" So I kept on reading all throughout the night and the next thing I knew I was halfway done with the novel. Clearly Children of Time cannot be put down, indeed a one sitting novel and a real attention grabber. I recommend this book to all lovers of sci-fi, mystery, suspense and a bit of romance.

Christian Writers' Market Guide 2005 is the 20th Anniversary Edition of this invaluable resource. Christian Writers' Market Guide is published on a yearly basis. Each year new markets are added and even more information is included.

If you write inspirational, self-help, spiritual, poetry, or Christian articles, ebooks, books, or music this publication needs to be on your bookshelf. The information in this book includes both online and print media for domestic and international markets with each entry detailing the contact information (snailmail, fax, and email), submission guidelines, genre specialities, payment rates, and tips. These entries are cross referenced by media, market, genre, and denomination.

In addition to this helpful information, this guide also includes entries for reviewers, publicists, and distributors as well as detailed lists of associations, books, and online resources for writers. There is even a section listing contests and awards for Christian writers.

This resource for Christian writers is very thorough, with the notable exception of website addresses for the listed publishers. Now that Ms. Stuart has established a computerized data base, I'm hopeful this will be included in future versions.

The "Christian Writers' Market Guide" is still the reference book every Christian writer needs. Consider this a gimmee. Buy this year's edition. Buy next year's edition. Plan on the following year as well.

What you need to know about this edition:

* 1,180 markets. Pick a Christian denomination (Catholic and Protestant), and their publication is likely listed.

* Almost 700 periodicals, over 350 book publishers. Think of how many you are aware of? "Christianity Today," "New Man," "Decision" are probably at the top of your mind for periodicals. Tyndale, NavPress, InterVarsity Press are probably among the book publishers you know. Maybe you know a few more. Here, you'll discover how vast the Christian publishing world is.

Literary agents, contests, advice for various markets, editorial services, market analyses, specialty markets (like greeting cards) all have sections.

If you are looking to connect with other writers, you'll be happy to find the lists of writers' groups and clubs, and for conferences and workshops. A key group is the Evangelical Press Association, but there are smaller ones geared for denominations and market.

The structure is similar to previous editions, but, as always, the current year provides the most accurate data.

Each publication starts with symbols indicating if it is new, if the data is confirmed, and if they pay. There's the title, the contact info including a URL, an editor's name, a brief description, the page count and circulation number, the subscription cost, percentage freelanced, submission preference, payment style, and general content needs.

Missing but I hope soon changing, is a purely digital version. Searching through a book to find, for example, what periodicals pay for poetry, can be frustrating when I know a sensible CD version would allow me a complete list within seconds.

Weak also are listings for foreign markets, but this may as much a fault of the publisher as the guide's editor, or may be due to the limited number of international Christian publications.

Add up the above, and you will see how any writer aiming for the Christian market at large would find this an indispensable volume. It fills in the gaps left open by the very useful "Writer's Digest" market guides, and provides the required tools for connecting writer and publisher.

I fully recommend the "Christian Writers' Market Guide," as it remains the best option for any Christian writer.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

This book is a great and plentiful resource for any serious Christian writer. It leaves absolutely nothing undone. Kudos to the author. Incidentally, she actually does answer emails and is very willing to help with her many other publications as well as her expertise. She is very approachable. Thanks for all the hard work!

My aunt bought this book for me as a gift and I have used it almost daily in my profession. The book is organized well and has listings of publications and publishers that are not found in other guides. It is easy to read and includes a wealth of information including pay rate, tips, and special needs. At the back of the book, it also includes workshops and conference listings. A must have for any writer!

This is simply the most comprehensive complilation of data for the Christian writer endorsed by author's, publishers and agents.

I needed this book for the locations of publishers and agents, it is a great tool.

Whether you dream of writing magazine articles or books for the Christian marketplace, you need this book on your shelf.

The key is beyond having it in your possession. Study the book and use the many tools built into the pages from marketing guru Sally E. Stuart. Every writer can benefit from her many years of expertise tracking the Christian marketplace.

Every aspect of publishing is constantly changing, Sally gives you the latest scoop in this solid reference book. Don't be caught using out-of-date information. How are you caught? When you submit to an editor who is long gone from a publishing house or a magazine. The annual edition of this book will serve you well.

Terry Whalin
www.bookproposal.ws or www.thewritinglife.ws

The first time writer faces a whole series of problems in even getting some to take them seriously. Can you imagine what it must have been like to go to a publisher and tell them that you were writing this seven volume series about a boy going to Wizzard's school.

The key is to find a publisher that likes what you do. And that is basically a numbers game -- contact enough people and you will find one that likes what you write. This book is basically a list of people to contact. It covers not only the publishers (book and periodical) but also such things as writing groups, promotional contacts (book reviewers, publicists, writers conferences, agents) -- in short everything there is to know about the writing business with an emphasis on the Christian marketplace.

This book comes out every year, so you get up to date names, e-mail and physical addresses and of course the new publications that may not have a stable of writers.

I attended a Christian Writer's Conference two years ago, a dizzying initiation into the subculture that produces much of the written material that American (at least) Christians read.

There I heard reverential references to Sally Stuart's annual publication and dutifully picked up my copy at the bookstand.

It truly is a marvelous reference work, published annually in order to track the rapid changes in the industry. Major sections include resources for writers (you never knew there were so many), topical/subject and alphabetical listings of book publishers, similar listings for periodicals and specialty markets, and a section on helps for writers. The latter includes an extensive list of literary agents who will pitch (after perhaps rejecting or reshaping) your work to the right publisher.

Sally's book is what it is: an indispensible gathering in one place of the data you need to get published in this sector. If this is your desire, you'll want to make sure you pick up your copy annually.

This volume assuredly would be a welcome addition to the libary of anyone who loves Charles Dickens and/or the history of film. The style of writing is quite engaging, yet it does not descend into sentimentality or nostalgia.

The opening chapters, which provide a relatively brief yet surprisingly insightful treatment of Dickens' Christmas writings and social conscience, are a concise picture of the setting in which Dickens brought his classic to life. For those unfamiliar with the period, I would find this to be an essential background, lest A Christmas Carol be reduced to a fairy tale, as it is in certain film treatments. Those who are acquainted with these matters undoubtedly would find the quotations from Dickens' more obscure Christmas writings, and references to such other Christmas scenes as those in The Pickwick Papers, to form a comprehensive image of the combination of commentary and imagination in these works, and underlying themes which influenced a Christmas Carol itself.

The treatment of film adaptations, including the earliest silents, is extremely well researched and comprehensive. Even the biggest fan of "Scrooge pictures" would find some in this collection which were unknown. The classic films (for example, Alastair Sims' version) are analysed with an insightfulness that would increase anyone's understanding and enjoyment of their content.

As a Dickens lover, and also as one who is a "Christmas nut" (for whom the insights in this volume were a welcome and lovely nutcracker), I would highly recommend this book on all counts.

Dickens dose a great job introducing this book. He has very high vocabulary and his words are sometimes very confusing. However, that should not cloud over the book because it is a great read. In my opinion it is a must read. I think if any Christmas hater reads this book they will love it. It certainly was interesting.

Fred Guida has presented an incredibly well researched and beautifully written book that blends the literary history of this story along with the history of its various screen presentations. Thank you for this unique presentation.

I've been a fan of the 1953 version of a the Carol for as long as I remember. It was family tradition every Christmas eve to watch it. I've looked at as many possible versions and have yet to find it's match. This book is an amazing resource of all the various interpretations of the Dicken's classic has gone through from early lantern projected pictures, through the silent era, talking films, television, and animated specials. The early version were fascinating and I found it a special bonus that the author made note of various television shows which featured a special Christmas episode inspired by A Christmas Carol. Who could ever forget the "Six Million Dollar Man" Christmas special using the ideas from the novel. This brought back a lot of great television special memories. I was even able to track down two hard to find T.V. animated specials shown in the early 1970's but not seen since. (I found them on Amazon). All in all a great read, especially for fans. I did not agree with all of the criticisms, and the text is a rather dry read, maybe a little too academic. But still great stuff!!

Everyone has a favorite film or television version of Dickens beloved "A Christmas Carol." But few of us have any idea how very many adaptations there have been. Mr. Guida's wonderful book examines first the written "Carol," then goes on to detail some of the hundreds of adaptations and variations, from the early stage versions and magic lantern slides to modern made-for-television Carols. Mr. Guida discusses the major Carols with wit and humor as well as rare discernment: his love for his subject is evident. Minor Carols and variations are also covered, albeit more briefly. If you cannot find your favorite version in the text, you are sure to find it in the superb and very thorough filmography. The filmography is worth browsing in and of itself; did you know that there have been Western, country-western, rock-and-roll, and even science-fiction variations on "A Christmas Carol"? Or that actors as disparate as Cicely Tyson, Basil Rathbone, and Mr. Magoo have played Scrooge? If you love "A Christmas Carol" or simply dote on film trivia, I promise you will enjoy this book.

I happen to live in the Cotswolds, the setting for this beautiful book, this Monet of literature. And, complying with the below reviews, I have to say that Stroud has become a concrete river, choked with litter, sidelined with Burger Stars, neon lights; a MacDonalds is in the blue print stages. Hills are lined with new developments. It's like, and I quote my mother, "A disease is spreading."

Yet there are places untouched by Americanisms, consumerism, electricity (and here I apologise, as this becomes less of a review, more an account of personal experience). But there are still rivers afloat with leaves, valleys deep that welcome sunsets. They frost the sky in winter, burn it by summer.

"There's beauty in decay," as someone said. Haven't got a clue who. But there you go. Although dying of shallow needs and commercial interests, snippets of the old way can be found. And in all their glory, too.

This book was required reading during my childhood and, of course, I couldn't have dragged myself more slowly through it. How wise we become with age. This is an astonishing book. Lee is such a master of description that, after only a few pages, you slowly start to smell the fresh country air and hear the languid sounds of summer as you are inescabably drawn into the world of his childhood - a world that you realize has already faded into the mists of history. But this special time has not been lost - it has been captured forever in this irreplacable series of pictures. The people in these stories become more real than seems possible with only pen and ink: his characterizations are as clever as anything by Dickens or Dostoevski, and he catches the very essence of the sights, sounds and people around him with a charm unmatched by any other English writer. But this is not a story-book universe: the people in his young life have all the frailty, vanity, delight and tragedy that you would expect in any small community - but what other has been crystallized with such talent and wisdom. A wonderful work of art.

There should be more than five stars for books like this one. All the reviewers who wrote about how poetic yet concrete, magical yet real this account of boyhood in the Cotswolds have said it much better than I can. It is pure magic. I wish it was 20 times as long. You might also find this book under the title "The Edge of Day". If you loved "Cider With Rosie" you might also enjoy "Lark Rise to Candleford", "The Golden Evenings of Summer" and the movie "A Christmas Story".

A book to read & re-read. Finely crafted & evocative of a now long ago & far away time and place.

Rooted in the earth and shining with long gone summers and freezing winters this is a beautiful and poignant flower of a book. Written in a sensuous and lyrical poetic prose it tells the story of the authors's boyhood in the Cotswolds of the West of England. Spinning round the great orb of his clutter-minded and loving mother are his sisters and wider village life. There is Illness, murder, private sorrow, boiling summer and frozen winter and finally the running down of the feudal clock as long awaited change comes to the valley. A book, more even - a place to be visited again and again...

SMARTISH PACE remarks on "Egan's brave choice of form in a time when the designation 'new formalist' threatens to pigeonhole her work. But no formulated phrase can pin Egan's poem to the wall." This is true, as is the fact that it is language itself and not theme or narrative that draws us in to these poems and holds us there the way, as Egan herself writes, "he held me--a lover's lie, a dying friend, /the nights too drunk and dark/ for any arms but his to understand."

Not just brilliant, not just sensual, Moira Egan's "Cleave" is the rare art through which words express something seemingly inexpressable. Beyond mere categories, beyond mere emotions, she captures experience itself, by turns glorious, bland, and miserable. And this conclusion I reached before I even reflected on the collection's structure, a helix of the semantic idiosyncrasies that a single word is capable of serving up to us. As Moira Egan puts it in her poem "Love & Death," "How else to express the brazen philosophy, the teleology of flesh beyond love, the ontology of sex that can lead to death?"

In case you couldn't tell, I liked it--a lot.

I was delighted to find Moira Egan's book after enjoying her poems in magazines like Poetry, West Branch, and Literal Latte. She truly writes for the heart, the brain, and the rest of the body all at once. Cleave will not only please fans like myself, but will also introduce her witty, deft, and thoughtfully accomplished poems to a new crop of lucky readers.

"Poets are born, not made" they say and Moira Egan is one. (And the daughter of one.) They also say "true art conceals artifice" and that magic is no where more present than from cover to cover in the master-crafted poems of Cleave. BUT--and this is the part I love--every once and a while she coyly lifts the skirt of her craft to reveal a far more broken and beautiful world than any well-behaved surface could withstand. That is the push, pull doubleness, the seduction of Cleave.

Moira Egan is one of the few neo-formalists whose lush, exquisitely crafted, risk-taking poetry evokes words like "juicy" rather than "fusty." Rooted thematically in all the major meanings of "cleave" (including the seemingly opposite "adhere to" and "divide"), Egan's poetry's rich language explores both meaning and sound with intellectual and artistic profundity, yet manages to speak to a reader's human-ness and (I'll just go ahead and dare to say it--)to GIVE PLEASURE. YES, EVEN ENTERTAIN.

--Clarinda Harriss
Professor of English, Towson University
Editor/director of BrickHouse Books, Inc.

If you love to read about animals, especially horses, this is the book for you.

Clifford is a wonderful book for anybody who loves horses. It's also a great read for any animal lover, whether your favorite animal is a dog, cat, bird, or any other four-legged, furry friend. Nancy Bailey is a talented writer who is able to quickly bring the reader into her special world and share her love and connections with her animals. Clifford, the star of the book, is a comical, lovable horse who obviously adores Bailey but also insists on doing things his own way. Bailey isn't afriad to show these quirks and funny mis-adventures and that's what gives the book such a personal, enjoyable touch. Clifford and Trudy, another horse of Bailey's, also have a special connection with the many dogs that share Bailey's attentions. The book is made up of lots of short chapters, each one a new adventure. The horse/dog adventures are interspersed with stories about other animals that have touched Bailey's life. I particularly enjoyed the story about Rookie, the curious chickadee, Joe the Goat, and Frightful the Hawk. After reading this enchanting book, I feel like I know all of Bailey's special animal friends quite well. I highly recommend this book for a fun, memorable read.

This is a story about a horse that has a mind of his own, another horse who is perfect, and one who isn't so right in the head. Clifford of Drummond Island is a great book. Clifford is a chestnut colored Morgan colt who is raised using "clicker training" a technique used on dogs. With clicker training Clifford learns various tricks including learning how to fetch a cone. Clifford wins the hearts of everyone on Drummond Island, especially Mrs. Bailey's dad. This a great book for horse lovers and non-horse lovers alike!

Nancy Bailey has written a wonderful book, for animal-lovers of all ages, about Clifford, her Morgan horse with TOO much personality. Her evocative and descriptive prose takes the reader on a journey to Drummond Island, Michigan, and encounters with family members, islanders, birds, dogs, "fudgies," and of course Clifford himself. By the end of the book, I felt that I had known all of the characters myself!

This book gives us a peak in to the life of a very interesting, talented woman. She actually has time to ride her horse with her dogs running along beside. She has great adventures, thanks to a horse, Clifford, with a spunky personality. I think any animal lover will enjoy this book very much. References to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are pretty interesting, also.