Mitchell Books

This is the original collection of Jake and The Kid from 1961-62.

W.O. Mitchell is a highly regarded Canadian prairie author who wrote about life in Canada. We wrote with a great deal of passion, humor, and emotion. His stories are often simple, but very entertaining. They leave the reader laughing or crying or both. Few have his talents for writing. In his day when Canada had a population of fifteen to twenty million or so, he sold a bit less than one million books and if he had been an American writer he probably could have been an equal to John Steinbeck or similar.

This is a great collection of 13 short stories, under 200 pages long. They are narrated by Jake and alternately by "the kid." They are stories about their life on a Saskatchewan farm near Crocus, Saskatchewan, which we can assume is realistic but fictional. The kid's ma is alive, but the father is dead and Jake is a surrogate father of sorts, and of course he is the "hired hand" on the farm. He does most of the work and manages the planting and harvesting, etc. The stories are set in a time spanning the WWII era up to the early 1950s.

The stories touch a lot of current and universal issues and themes including the people who fought in WWII, school teachers, medical care, the courts, getting old, etc. most of these issues are still at the front of the social agenda. I liked all the stories; but, I especially liked the one where the kid got a new horse at the auction. Also, Mitchell is able to create a lot of charm and attraction in his descriptions of the life on the sometimes bleak prairies.

As a comment, Mitchell has a new 1989 collection also named after the famous 1950s CBC radio series and the earlier book titled "According to Jake and The Kid." The newer book is about 50% bigger than the original collection of short stories from 1962. This new collection has mostly all new stories, but not 100%, and a few of the stories are based on the original stories and have altered and improved plots.

This is a wonderful collection. It is highly entertaining and most will love the book. Suggested follow up reading are his other two famous books: Jake and the Kid (1989) and Who Has Seen The Wind (1947), both of course by Mitchell.

When I wrote this book on Jamaica Plain, MA
I was amazed at the rich history of this neighborhood of Boston that was once a part of Roxbury and originally known as the Jamaica End of town. With the Arnold Arboretum, and the Bussey Institute, Jamaica Plain became part of the Emerald Necklace and retains a bucolic and suburban setting. Hopefully, a text history of Jamaica Plain will be written shortly to augment this
photographic history.
Email comments to me at asammarco@msn.com
Share your photographs!

Students assigned "Jamestown, the First English Colony," will smile at how compelling it turns out to be. Good map and pictures. Quick and easy to read. Background research outstanding. Even-handed candor highly refreshing.

From Front Flap:

"Here at last is a book that provides a comprehensive, in-depth study of the Japanese garden and the underlying design principles upon which it is made. Unlike the vast majority of books on this subject, it does not merely portray the outstanding details of various gardens but rather concentrates on describing, understanding, and appreciating the garden as a whole. Written and illustrated by two experts..


The book is divided into three parts, each intended to answer these basic and important questions about Japanese gardens:
* What is the special quality of the Japanese garden?
* Why is it designed as it is?
* How is it made?

Part One of the book carefully examines 10 exceptionally fine Japanese gardens built in Kyoto before 1650. Complete drawings and a great many photographs are included, along with clear conceptual plans indicating where each photo was taken and its relation to the entire scene.

Part Two exposes the design traditions that produced the medieval Japanese garden. It deals in a graphic format with the historical development of landscape art in Japan and presents visual examples from paintings as well as existing gardens.


Part Three focuses on the design principles and ideas common to all of the outstanding Japanese gardens and illustrates the techniques and details of garden making in easy-to-understand drawings and photographs.


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This tiny book is great, it takes about five minutes to read, but it is one you'll pick up and look at again and again, I have mine on my nightstand, great photos and interesting Jeff Gordon facts and information. This is a must for a Jeff Gordon Fan.

I had purchased jewel sticker stories for my grandaughters previously and ordered more for Christmas. My oldest is currently a fairy herself and loved this book. Both girls like to hear the stories and participate by putting stickers on the pages.

This guide to Jewish living is a collection of articles which were originally published in 'The Jewish Chronicle'. Each one is a small gem of insight into Jewish living. The world of values which is expressed in this work are in my opinion that which the Jewish people needs now. Torah and Derech Eretz, true love of the land of Israel, a Judaism of devotion to the service
of God.
An outstanding work.

This travel - guide provides the basics in regard to food, lodging, synagogues. It covers the greatest share of places in which there are Jewish communities. It also provides brief histories of the local Jewish communities.
It does not have feature articles of great interest.
It is a reasonably done, potentially useful guide.

This is a fascinating book. I bought it as light reading to take on vacation. I expected it to be folk tales - sort of I.B. Singer goes west. Maybe the Wise Men of Cheyanne. It turned out to be a collection of really interesting true stories about Jews who for one reason or another had significant interactions with various native American tribes. Some fought with the Indians, some were traders, one became an Acoma chief (this is a job for a nice Jewish boy?) I found all of the stories interesting. When I was a kid, my father used to tell me stories about when he was an elephant trainer (before he went to work in the post office). Maybe he wasn't kidding!

The Parkes-Wiener Series on Jewish Studies has provided Cesarani with two book editorships in the same topic area of the Port Jew. In this second opportunity Cesarani with Romain have collected a wide array of articles on various Jewish communities around the world stretching the original concept of Port Jew. Some of the articles are absolutely wonderful if your focus is on the Mediterranean/Atlantic which in my mind is the 'sweet spot' for Port Jew studies. As a starting point for a seminar course that will bring out many aspects of what Port Jew studies mean, this is an excellent book and I highly recommend it. As a research tool, it works as well but it isn't a concentration in any one area of the Port Jew model, but, the articles are well foot-noted and are a good step towards covering the ground needed for a more in-depth study.