Kentucky Books

Kentucky even though it was south of the Mason Dixon Line was a border state. They felt the pain where their families were torn apart. Kentucky wanted to remain neutral but Mill Springs on the Cumberland River was the first on the Union's Western Campaign. Bragg and Buell marched their armies around Kentucky and met in Perryville where there were eight thousand casualties. Bragg leaves the state but John Hunt Morgan, whose mother was a Hunt from Alabama, continued to terrorize our state with his raids. This is history and the author gives a good account of it. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"

Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelTravelersThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War

This is where brother literally did battle against brother. Kentucky is called a border state (although it is a Commonwealth and not technically a state). As such, they fielded armies for both sides and while their Yankee troops were ruthless and effective, such Rebel outfits as Morgan's Raiders redefined military strategy.

Hard to miss with this wealth of interesting history.

I am currently working on my family genealogy and most of my relatives hail from this area of Kentucky and Virginia. This book mentions many of the units my relatives served in, which includes both Union and Confederate. I found the book to be filled with good information about the major battles and some of the smaller ones. The author gives good background on most of the major commanders, to include some of the Confederate commanders of several small local units. Occasionally individual soldiers are mentioned. All of the information is taken from well-documented sources.
I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the Civil War and how it affected the people of eastern Kentucky and western Virginia.

When most of us close our eyes and try to picture the Civil War as it happened, I imagine most of us see long rows of uniformed men advancing toward one another with appropriate flags waving above them, in an open field lit with sunshine. We seem to picture the war as one great Pickett's Charge. All the men are true and brave, ready to die doing their duty. Of course, that's not the way it was. And that vision was especially untrue in the regions tucked away from the commerce and the traffic and the war's main events.
The ridges of the Appalachians separated people. They defined borders between states, between free and slave, and for a while between a country trying to save itself and another wanting to begin on its own. Those mountains and the narrow valleys between them offered plenty of shade and shadows in which people of all sorts could seek refuge. Where they ended in northwestern Pennsylvania the lumber camps became havens for well-armed bands of Union deserters. Farther south, along the Kentucky-Virginia frontier, mixed bands of deserters from both sides hid in the forests and preyed upon the locals. "Volunteers" stepped forward under the shield of being soldiers to steal from whomever they didn't like.
As Brian McKnight points out in this regional study of the war near the Cumberland Gap, although lightly populated, this area had points of military significance, the gap itself being but one. It was here that James A. Garfield first proved his worth in the field, managing his men so well that he quickly gained promotion to brigadier and appointment as Don Carlos Buell's chief-of-staff. McKnight, who teaches at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, located right in the center of the area covered by his book, does a great job of showing all the facets of the war as they happened there. He shows you the military side, but also the partisan and civilian sides, which was significant in this mountain country where grudges were quickly formed and rarely forgotten, and an assassin in the dark could just as easily dole out justice as could a judge or jury. This was, after all, where the Hatfields and McCoys would carry on their own private war not many years afterward.
In his thoughtful introduction, the author provides a good historiography of other regional studies of the partisan war fought in other places in the Appalachians, as well as in Missouri where it was, perhaps, at its worst. And he correctly points out that the war around the Cumberland Gap has never been adequately covered before. It has now, thanks to his efforts now available in this excellent book.

My wife and I got this cookbook as a gift about ten years ago, and it has become a holiday staple. The book automatically falls open to certain pages, such as the Hungarian gulasch, the Viennese tenderloin, and a new favorite that we made yesterday, the Raspberry torte. The recipes in the book have simple names, but they do not taste like run-of-the-mill food. We get compliments every time we serve them.

My husband and I stayed at the Inn in 1993. We bought this cookbook after sampling the "Welcome to Snowvillage Inn" chocolate chip cookies that were placed in our room in a little basket. They were WONDERFUL, as was all of the food we dined on during our stay. This continues to be one of my favorite cookbooks including the recipe for Potato Leek Soup and Kate's Last Minute Artichoke Spread (EASY!) and the Tomato Cognac Soup.
It's a great and delicious reminder of the terrific stay at Snowvillage Inn!

The third of the Charlie Resnick procedurals, this one brings the quality back up after the somewhat disappointing Rough Treatment. This may be because the stakes are raised back to the level of the first book Lonely Hearts. In this one, someone is slicing up hospital workers, and the motivation is a rather interesting one. There's also a side plot involving a man who won't take no for an answer. There's the usual business with some delving into the messed-up private lives of the police, Charlie takes in a wino jazz saxophonist, and has his ex-wife turn up again. Whets the appetite for Off Minor.

Police Officer Charlie Resnick is assigned to investigate a series of vicious assaults on the staff of the large English hospital. The culprit is a pro with a surgeons scalpel as he carves his victims in such a manner as to end their medical careers. Tim Fletcher is the first victim, but others quickly follow.

Charlie soon realizes that the slasher is not only good with the knife, he understands the inner psyche of his victims and their families. A desperate Charlie concludes that only a medical person could do the professional incisions of the attacks and only a medical person could so understand where to place the maiming so as to destroy the victim both physically and mentally. Charlie knows he must stop this serial slasher before the body count requires astronomical numbers to keep track.

If not consistently the best, the Charlie Resnick British police procedurals are one of the top five series on the market today. CUTTING EDGE is a reprint of a classy novel first released in 1991. The who-done-it and the police elements are well written and fun to read on their own account. However, what makes this novel and the eight tales worth reading is John Harvey's insight into the personal lives of his characters to the point that the reader feels good about being a peeping Harriet.

Harriet Klausner

I blame television. When reading _Daniel Boone: An American Life_ (University Press of Kentucky) by Michael A. Lofaro, I realized that I didn't know anything about Daniel Boone. I thought he wore a coonskin cap and was a contemporary of Davy Crockett, and maybe fought at the Alamo. I discovered at the end of the book that Lofaro blames television, too. Boone's fame to my generation comes from "...Fess Parker playing the lead in _Daniel Boone_, a historical disaster for baby-boomers who still confuse Boone with Crockett" because Parker sequentially played one then the other in the mid-fifties. Lofaro had insight on my own ignorance, and his book is shot through with impressive scholarship that takes Boone, as much as possible, from myth and tall tales (and television-inspired error) and puts him into realistic historical perspective. There is plenty here that is inspiring, and fit for legend-making, and also plenty to show that Daniel Boone had essential trouble in managing to get along with society. And also (_pace_ Davy Crockett), Boone hated coonskin caps.

He was born in Pennsylvania in 1734, to devout Quakers. His rudimentary schooling shows up in many excerpts from his writings here; for instance, it seems to be true that on an East Tennessee tree he carved the inscription "D. Boon cilled a Bar on tree in the year 1760." Boone did indeed become an accomplished woodsman and hunter, and was always less fit for the life of frontier farming. He had a pattern of reaching out to new lands; he had a wanderlust, to be sure, and encroaching civilization always meant that he had to move to new frontiers to hunt game, but he was always eager to apply the simple solution of moving away when having people live around him was just too complicated. He would be on the move all his life. He fought for the British (along with Washington) in the French and Indian War, and then against the British in the western version of the American Revolution, which consisted mostly of fighting Indians. He had prodigious skill in the outdoors, and there are many stories here of heroism and craftiness. Although he could always win battles against Indians, he could not win against lawyers, and was often in court because of disputed boundaries he had surveyed. He was guileless and always assumed that treating someone honestly would get him honest treatment in return, an assumption that he never seemed to learn was unwarranted.

Boone was amazed that he became famous. There was a bogus autobiography printed in 1784, that was translated into German and French, and made Boone internationally known. He was painted by the young John James Audubon. James Fennimore Cooper based much of Natty Bumppo on him, and in a note to one of the Leatherstocking Tales said that Boone headed out from Kentucky to Missouri in later life "because he found a population of ten to the square mile inconveniently crowded." Tales of Boone's dry wit became staples. He did indeed, when asked if he had ever gotten lost in the wilderness, reply, "No, I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days." He blazed trails, most notably through the Cumberland Gap, and then was dismayed that they became widened for wagon travel and further encroachment by civilization. Ending up in Missouri, he spent his last years hunting buffalo and trapping beaver. He died at 85, as the nation was pushing further west and the wilds were more speedily declining. Lofaro's informative biography puts the brilliant pioneer and naïve citizen at the center of a complicated and longstanding war between settlers and Indians.

This book tells how Dniel showed honesty and cofidince. Everything about Daniel Boone is in this book. If you have a report due on a leader this is want you want. I prefer this book to anyone.

I read this book for a school project. I didn't know anything about Daniel Boone before I read the book.

I learned Daniel Boone joined the militia when he was 20 years old. He had eleven children and they all lived in a one room cabin. He hunted for food and skinned the animals for clothes and blankets. He lived in many different states.

I learned that Daniel Boone was captured by Shawnee Indians in the beginning of 1778. The Shawnee Chief adopted him as his own son, because the chief's son was killed in battle. He was able to talk the Shawnee Indians into not killing him and his men if they would hunt for the indians. He escaped from the indians in the summer of 1778.

I learned about frontier life and why Daniel Boone is famous. I would tell a friend to read the book if they need to do a report because it is interesting and you can learn about things you didn't know before.

Great book because it is REAL. Wonderful Boone keepsake book for adults as well as children. This is a wonderful book to give as a gift to children whom you want to learn and know about this man who was an honest to goodness American pioneer hero and just a good person. Glossy heavy pages - sturdy hardback - filled with beautiful color photos (actual photos!) and illustrations. The book goes from his early years through his death and also includes a separate Timeline, Glossary, Recommendations for further reading, Places of interest (in connection with Boone) and how to contact them, Internet sites, and Index. Bright, colorful, interesting and informative. You can't go wrong. Destined to be a collectable.

While it is true that the case might not hold up in court, I found this an interesting read and would recommend it to anyone interested in cromwell.

I disagree with Jay Freeman's assessment of this book. The author meticulously reconstructs Cromwell's last days and reveals the royalist Dr. Bate's account as a tissue of lies and misrepresentations. While the verdict might well be a Scotch one (that is, "not proven"), McMains makes a strong if not absolutely convincing case for poisoning.

This was a new piece of history that sadly, I was not taught in school. I applaud the ladies and gent who were dedicated to bringing literacy to the masses at all cost. The $28 salary opened doors for the care of their families, it was the love of reading and the people that kept them going back day after day.
Everyone in education or who just loves a good straight forward look at history MUST read this book.

This is the kind of book we all should read, regardless of age. It is well researched, well annotated and well written. I bought it for my wife, a reading specialist, for Easter, and wound up reading it before she got her hands on it. It would be great to have an older version, filled with more info, etc. For now, however, I'll take what I can get!

If you like the Mitford series, Little House on the Prarie, and All Creatures Great and Small series you are bound to like this story. I can't wait to read all the rest she wrote!

And while you are at it, check out The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

Janice Holt Giles is one of my favorite authors, and her first novel is excellent. Anyone who has ever read "Miss Willie" or "Tara's Healing" will love learning how it all started with Hod and Mary. Her descriptions of the Kentucky mountains and the lifestyle there are concise. I especially enjoy reading about Hod's thoughts and the moral dilemmas he faces as he grows older. This book contains several interesting points for us all to ponder, and the plot moves along nicely. I highly recommend it, as well as any other books by Janice Holt Giles!

Beginning with the introduction, William Palmer in Engagement with the Past, draws the reader in and invites him to join him through his research, to an enjoyable and friendly reading.

To put it blunty, this is a nice book. Not especially penetrating or provocative, but pleasant. Palmer selects about 15 historians of the American and European past, including C.V. Woodward, K. Stampp, R. Hofstadter, Trevor-Roper and C. Hill, and uses biography to illuminate their works of history. So we are told of the effects of the Great Slump, the Second World War, the civil rights revolution in America and the Cold War on the thinking and writing of these men and women.
The choice of historians is strong, if sometimes curious. For instance, I suspect that Gertrude Himmelfarb is included due to her gender and her right-wing politics; her scholarly contribution is hardly up to the c.v.'s of the others included. Alfred Crosby, Bernard Bailyn, Francis Jennings and E.P. Thompson are very conspicious in their absence as all four were enormously influential in their fields and even beyond. And the author is very biased toward historians of the United States and Great Britain; there are no scholars of Asia, Africa, or the Americas outside the US. Palmer is quite respectful of all his subjects and refuses to offer much criticism. So the reader will have wait if they desire a study that includes materials placing these women and men in an ambigious light. It's a pity and just shows how Palmer's skills and courage do not measure up to those of some of his subjects. But then we all can't be Woodward or Hofstadter.