North Carolina Books

This is an eye-opening, honest, and thoughtful examination of the role the military plays in our society. It is obvious that Lutz has thoroughly and carefully studied Fayetteville, NC, and she has delivered a powerfully written document of the effects an army base has had on the community. What makes this a brilliant work is that it invites the reader to consider the many arenas of our culture which have been influenced, even created, by the military complex we have embraced as our defense. Homefront is an extremely important book.

Catherine Lutz has once again taken us beneath the surface to get a first hand look at the powerful forces shaping America's psyche, forces so interwined in our lives that they have become almost invisble. But with the anthropologist's trained eye, Professor Lutz helps us to see that in this time of calls for military protection for every parade and football game across the country, a call which many are ready to support, we will be paying a bill on many dimensions. Her careful and thoughtful analysis in the works long before the tragic events of 9/11, is more important than ever in helping us understand the larger consequences of our reponse. It is not easy to ask unpopular questions, but I am thankful for the skill and rigor Lutz brought to the task

While President Eisenhower warned about the Military Industrial Complex in the United States, one could argue that what is more troubling is the military cultural complexion of the United States. Catherine Lutz makes this argument forcibly in Homefront: A Military City and the American 2oth Century.
Lutz uses Fayetteville, North Carolina as a microcosm to examine the quotidian and epochal influences arising from America's military in times or war and peace. Homefront is the result of intensive data collection and wide ranging interviews. Lutz masterfully combines the two to tell a story of the city and its people that are always interconnected with the ever-widening influence of the U.S. military in the past century.6.
Using the prisms of race, class, and gender, Lutz deconstructs the image of the military as the defender of the American Way. She inverts the paradigm to show that often the presence of the military reinforces existing divisions. Fayetteville is an army town. Throughout the last century it was also a town that experienced Jim Crow, increased domestic violence, hate crimes, and a widening gap between the haves and the underclass. Lutz also documents that the spit-shine image of the Army often camouflages environmental degradation resulting from base operations. Homefront tells the story of the costs-both quantifiable and hidden-to the United States of becoming and remaining the planet's only superpower.
Lutz sets each of her six chapters within an identifiable era for Fayetteville and the U.S. military. The book begins with the opening of Fort Bragg in 1918. This period is, as David Blight argues in Race and Reunion, formed by the previous half century of American mythmaking that raises both the soldier and the South to places of honor in the national psyche. Homefront details how the perception of heroism often conflicts with the local experience of oppression. As Lutz herself writes, when recounting the history of former slave John Nichols-who refused to leave the land that was to become Fort Bragg, "[T]his story is structured around the time's stereotypes." Indeed, throughout the book the presence of the Army is often described by Fayetteville's residents in archetypal terms.
Lutz calls Fayetteville a company town. Because the army is the base for economic activity, the long-time residents of Fayetteville both love and fear it. Lutz describes how already well-off whites have reaped great wealth from the development that Fort Bragg created. She also describes how the city's inability to broaden its industrial base has left poor whites and most blacks working retail jobs with some of the lowest pay scales in North Carolina. In addition, the presence of thousands of young men has created another economy-where sex is the commodity. Sex workers represent the underside of the military culture that envelops a military town. Homefront is direct in examining that underside.
Lutz's voice is clear throughout the book (even when examining the negative effects of World War II-"the good war"). And her critique resonates strongly in the current climate. As Lutz states several places in her book, a military definition of the situation is essential to the military project. The military and its supporters thrive on an us versus them paradigm. Most of the public embraces this paradigm.
Two letters to the editor in the August 28, 2002 Wall Street Journal excoriated the subject of a story who resisted operations at a nearby military base because he thought the base was a detriment to his neighborhood. One letter-writer accused the subject of being more concerned with his lifestyle than his fellow countrymen's security. A letter published in the September 1, 2002 Raleigh News and Observer went even further. In response to someone who questioned the presence of the Junior ROTC on a local high school campus, the letter writer commented: "What's wrong with our children having the same values as, say, George Washington . . . Ulysses S. Grant . . . or Dwight D. Eisenhower." Lutz warns that such conflating of all things military with heroism and leadership is exactly the problem with the cultural complexion that looks back at most Americans in our national mirror. And though Lutz book was finished before 9-11, her research helps explain much of the reaction and rhetoric that has met anyone who questions our current policy in the war on terror or toward removing Saddam Hussein.
My own critiques of Lutz's book are mainly on two fronts. First, her work seems to intentionally avoid the role of religion in Fayetteville and in the broader national discussion. Early on she quotes a minister who states in 1923: "It is a pleasure to record that the relationship between the church and the government as represented in the authorities at Fort Bragg has been most cordial." But aside from the arrival of a Quaker House during the Vietnam years, Lutz does not detail the ebb and flow of the relationship. It seems a dramatic lacuna. The relationship of religion to the military, especially in the South, was pivotal during much of the 20th Century. In fact, I remember that Fayetteville was a regular venue for evangelical gatherings-often Billy Graham-in the 60s and 70s.
Second, the scope of Lutz's work occasionally confuses issues. Because she is focusing on both individual anecdotal evidence and metalanguage, the arguments do not always match. For instance, her work in Fayetteville convinces her that "civilian is the majority, dominant category," but there is "widespread acceptance of a military definition of the situation." For those of us accustomed to identifying the dominant category by determining who has the power to define the situation, these two explanations seem mutually exclusive.
However, my complaints pale in comparison to my admiration. Catherine Lutz has given me-and I believe this will be true for all readers-a new prism through which to view our national military culture. In Fayetteville and throughout the United States, we have met the enemy and they are us.

Homefront is brilliant, incisive and chilling. Catherine Lutz is among the finest of story-tellers and ethnographers of contemporary America. With an anthropologist's eye for detail in the everyday, to a social theorist's eye for the big picture, Homefront is written with passion and intelligence. This book goes a long way in enhancing the readers' understanding of the culture of militarism that is so integral to the present moment. This is definitely a must-read!

Residents of Fayetteville, North Carolina awoke one morning in April of 1954 to find the front page of their local paper carrying news of a nuclear attack downtown; they were informed that sixty-four thousand soldiers were being deployed to amend the situation, aided by six tons of maps and forty-six chaplains. The attack, of course, was a fiction, but the soldiers and their simulated nuclear reaction mission (Exercise Flash Burn) were very real. Catherine Lutz demonstrates in Homefront: A Military City that the life of Fayetteville cannot disentangle itself from the life of Fort Bragg, the nation's largest military base. This study by the renowned anthropologist from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is both as specific as a city history and as broad as a national story. Though Lutz uses Fayetteville as a zooming-in point, her argument-that the dichotomies of military and civilian, war-time and peace-time, are collapsing-is applicable to the country as a whole.
Fayetteville, a city of one hundred thousand semi-affectionately known as "Fayettenam," was chosen as the centerpiece for this project because of its long and bittersweet relationship with Fort Bragg. Lutz traces this history from 1918 (when the city's founding fathers first lured the lucrative industry to the collective pocketbook of the townsfolk), through the patriotism and turmoil of the World Wars and the bitter clashes of the Vietnam War, to the present-day Hot Peace. Relations between the base and the city are both interdependent and strained so that, upon the close inspection Lutz conducts, it becomes unclear where the line between the two is drawn, if indeed it can be drawn at all. Lutz describes Fayetteville's economy as engineered to serve the needs of soldiers on paydays. While other North Carolina cities chose technology industries as their major source of income, Fayetteville cast its lot with the base and the retail sales it would create. This plan has had the two-fold effect of making the few who own the businesses quite rich and the many who work in them, merely touching the money as it passes from soldier to civilian businessman, rather poor. The question of who is serving whom (soldiers training to protect the lives of civilians while civilians tend to soldiers' needs) becomes blurred, as does the question of whom is actually receiving the government paychecks. Further blurring the dichotomy between military and civilian are the many civilians whose presence in Fayetteville is attributable to the military-for instance, the refugees who have come from all over the world, and the "war brides" who moved to Fayetteville with their soldier husbands and settled down. Lutz posits that the draft further lessened the gap between military and civilian by presenting a difficulty in readily distinguishing between the two; the idea that soldiers were lower-class, uneducated, and crass was prominent prior to the World Wars, but suddenly college boys from good families were moving into the base, and some soldiers were the type of boys by whom local upper-middle-class families might want their daughters courted. Another assumed intrinsic difference between soldiers and civilians-that soldiers always see war as the right course of action whereas civilians are more peace-loving-fell during the Vietnam War, when thousands of soldiers protested the United States' involvement and eventually brought about the military's departure from Vietnam. As the differences between soldiers and civilians have become blurred, so have the differences between formerly binary options of war and peace.
Though hegemonic history usually describes time as a series of wars and their interstices, Lutz finds the concepts of war-time and peace-time becoming ever more complicated. While war was formerly viewed as an interference upon the normal state of peace, the periods between war are now filled with preparedness for war, making war the natural state. War games are one, often bizarre, aspect of this war readiness. Obscuring not only the distinctions between war and peace but also those between Fayetteville and Fort Bragg, homefront and battlefield, are the situations in which Fort Bragg's training missions take them into the city in the acting out of a war situation. Though Fayetteville's civilians are notified when the soldiers will be rehearsing for nuclear holocaust or an invasion of "Pineland" (the imaginary country in which Fayetteville lies during war games), such realm-blending upsets traditional ideas of what war is and where it takes place. The Cold War also called into question the nature of war, since only recently has it been true that one can exist in which no blood is shed. Lutz contrasts this state with the current one of Hot Peace-even when the United States is not technically at war, the military is active on peace-keeping missions internationally, assisting insurgents or established governments in the protection of America's best interests.
Homefront is meticulously researched in all manner of sources. Largely ethnographic, Lutz's research consists largely of interviews conducted with eighty residents of Fayetteville over a six year period. Lutz's interviewees include not only the traditional writers of history, but also those whose stories are often left to fall silent-the result is a less favorable military history than the red, white, and blue ones usually heard. The recounts of these interviews have an informal feel to them, occasionally interjected with questions from Lutz and usually accompanied by the interviewees' actual names and personal, unposed photographs. This very human approach should not be seen as a substitute for heavily researched scholarship-Lutz is adept at providing both. Also cited are records from Fort Bragg itself, as well as reports found in the National Archives, local newspaper accounts from the turn of the century, and history books of North Carolina. Lutz allows her subjectivity to shine through the text-though raised in a military family, her horror at the effects of war on all involved are apparent, and it is clear with whom her sympathies lie. With such a well-researched argument, however, Lutz's agenda is incapable of falling through the cracks of substantiation. In the end, Lutz presents a compelling picture of Fayetteville/Fort Bragg as one town, under a base, indivisible.

This is a great book for anyone interesed in becoming a Trooper or other Law Enforcement Officer. It helps people understand the inherent risks of the job, but it also shows the amount of respect the North Carolina Highway Patrol receives (and deserves). It details several deaths of NC troopers (such as Giles Harmon and Bobby Coggins). It is an older book and very difficult to find copies of now.

A great read, hard to put down once you start

Firstly, this book is a credit to the North Carolina Highway Patrol -- a fine highway patrol organization.

I first read this book in late 1990, shortly after graduating from the Illinois State Police Academy. I enjoyed it, but didn't really connect with it on a "5 star level", as it didn't quite fit my concept of what highway patrol work is about and what my career would be like.

Now, 18 years later, I have thumbed through the book and find that it uncannily portrays exactly what patrol work is about. Some humor, some horror, some drudgery, some satisfying public service. Most of us love it, as witnessed by the almost non-existent resignation rate. The author did an outstanding job of selecting tales and retelling events.

The book is a bit unsettling to me since, as indicated by the title, it rather focuses on true fatal events that have happened out on the road (North Carolina highways, in this case). Almost all troopers have had countless gun battles in their sleeping dreams . . . no glory, just horror. Not to mention the even greater hazard of getting run over. As policeman/author David Hunter so accurately phrased it, "Every traffic enforcement stop contains the seeds of death". He was correct.

This is a very good book. Not everyone will connect with it, but if you're interested in the topic matter, I recommend it.

This book is great if you have ever thought about a career in the Highway Patrol. Just realize though it was written back in the 1980's and things have changed alot in the orgainization as a whole, but the people are still as crazy and dangerous as ever. The Stories are real and you can't put this book down.

This is an excellent guide to discovering who stands behind the badges of the highway patrol. I have a new found appreciation for the men and women who risk their lives every day. Even when they have to do so in an environment of decreasing respect and increasing firepower. I strongly reccomend this book.

Piper Berry is special. She has a dog named Booger, a small town that surrounds her (complete with waggling tongues) and her poetry. When Piper's family splits up she is left to make sense of it. While her parents act like children, Piper turns to writing and finds her world through her words.

Buttermilk Hill is an unassuming book - the cover looks like a "dog story" and preteenish....but remember - do not judge this book by its cover. What you will find when you open the cover is a touching story of a girl who notices everything, writes about a lot of it and has a lot to teach readers.

Unlike a lot of fiction for young adults and children, Buttermilk Hill does not preach or belittle its readers. The characters are treated with rescue and affection by the writer. This book is the perfect read for almost everyone I know.

At only 168 pages, the story is complete - touching and beautiful. I'd highly recommended it for readers who love a good story about people and how they cope with what life hands them. Relax, enjoy and savor. I'm really quite moved.

In the Book butter Milk Hill There is a girl named Piper Berry and her parents are divorced.And her dad gets remarried and Pipper was not real happy about it.Pipper rights poems and her poemss are very good .Her mom is going out with someone else to and they went away for awile.

There is a yr. old girl name Piper Berry and she is spending the night at her grandma and aunt Lindy's who is the same age as Piper too. Piper and Lindy love to listen to grandma's bedtime stories all the time. On Easter Sunday during chruch service Piper and Lindy where sitting by Mr. Mack fell asleep and started to snore and they started to giggle and then Mrs. Mack poked Mr. Mack in the side and he woke up with a jerk. Then fell asleep again and started snoring again too. And then he started to fall on top of Piper then her moom came and pick him up off her and he didn't wake up and Piper's mom said,"he is DEAD," and Piper went running out of the churh crying. If you want to know what happenes to little old Piper you should read the book.

In This book(buttermilk hill) it relates so much to my life. My parents started off fighting and ended up separateing and getting divorced. Then I became a kid stuck in the middle of my parents fighting and bickering for anything. I started writing poetry at an early age and I even also read and entered it ina contest and won!.!.! And AS for Piper I had me a very best friend, by my side thru it all. This book related so much to my life as I read it I felt like I was the one writing it. Love IT. -Oreo-

It was a good book. It is about a young girl who is going through a major change in life. Her parents are getting a divorce. Her whole life changes. After her father gets married again and he starts to forget about her. She begins to feel left out. Will she ever feel apart of a family again. You will have to find out.

If you want to order an out-of-print book, I strongly recommend Book Rescue. I received my copy of "Good Morning, Miss Dove" by Frances Gray Patton just two weeks after ordering it. The service was prompt and the description of the book given on their website was accurate. I certainly received excellent value for the money invested in this out-of-print book.

This is the story of a school teacher and her sudden illness which requires a life threatening surgery. As she prepares for her operation she reflects on her life and her former students who are now grown and serving her as her doctors, nurses, etc. This is a portrait of a small town and a teacher that you won't see today. It was a simpler, quieter life and Miss Dove is a stern, no-nonense, humorless woman who has ruled decades of classrooms with strict rules and intimation yet her students respect her and have learned valuable lessons from her. Well written and filled with humor and nostalgia, the book still holds up well today. It was filmed in 1955 with a wonderful performance by Jennifer Jones, who brought Miss Dove to life. The film is almost identical to the book with some minor changes which actually make the film a little better than the book (especially the memorable ending scene).

I'VE NEVER DID A BOOK REVIEW BEFORE, HERE GOES:THE YEAR THE MOVIE WAS MADE WITH JENNIFER JONES, I WAS BORN, I DONT KNOW WHEN THE BOOK WAS WRITTEN, BUT MY 7TH GRADE ENGLISH TEACHER HAD MY CLASS READ IT AND WRITE AN ESSAY ON IT. FRIST OF ALL I LOVE TO READ AND MADE A B+, ANY WAY ONE LATE NITE I SAW THE MOVIE, I GUESS I WAS 12 OR 13 YRS. OLD THEN, AND I TELL YOU THAT MOVIE MOVED ME SO MUCH THAT I CRIED FOR DAYS WHEN MS. DOVE BECAME ILL. I WAS MOVED BY THE LIVES SHE CHANGED,I REMEMBER CHUCK CONNERS WAS A POOR CHILD IN HER CLASS AND WITH HER ENCOURAGEMENTS HE FINISHED SCHOOL AND BECAME A COP.WHEN WORD GOT AROUND TOWN THAT MISS DOVE WAS IN THE HOSPITAL, THE WHOLE TOWN WAS UPSET.EVERY STUDENT SHE EVER TAUGHT WENT TO VISIT HER IN THE HOSPITAL,MOST OF IT WAS FLASH BACKS. SHE TAUGHT SEVERAL GENERATIONS. I WENT BACK AND READ THE BOOK AGAIN AND AGAIN, I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR THIS MOVIE EVER SINCE. I AM 47YRS. OLD AND TOLD MY DAUGHTER ABOUT IT, SHE'S (26) AND SHE CAN'T BELEIVE THERE'S SUCH A MOVIE! MY BOOK WAS LOANED OUT YEARS AGO AND LOST IN THE SHUFFEL. BUT TELLING HER THE STORY INSPIRED HER TO BE A TEACHER (3RD GRADE)CAN YOU BELEIVE IT! IN THIS MIXED UP WORLD TODAY. WE SHOULD THANK GOD FOR OUR TEACHERS TODAY! I HAVE CABLE WHICH AIRS OLD MOVIE CLASSICS, IN HOPES THAT IT WILL AIR REAL SOON, BEFORE I LOSE MY MIND!! I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN THE MOVIE NOR THE BOOK I GIVE HOMAGE TO THE ARTHUR, IT WAS A GREAT BOOK AND I WILL NEVER FORGET IT. TO PARAMOUNT PICTURES PLEASE RELEASE THE MOVIE ON VIDIO!! FOR IT IS TRULY A CLASSIC AND EVERY SCHOOL LIBRARY SHOULD HAVE IT. I WISH I COULD GET MY HANDS ON ANOTHER COPY, BUT IT'S SO HARD TO FIND. THE BOOK AND THE MOVIE SHOULD BE RATED "10"

After reading this book several years ago, I still wish I was lucky enough to have a teacher that understood children and still wished to be around them. Children aren't angels or despite evidence to the contrary, demons. Miss Dove didn't want to soften their lives- She wanted to train them to meet it well. She is likend in the book to a general marshalling troops but another military similie is to a drill srgt. She understands that children are different and special but she doesn't care. She cares that they conform to the rules. Which in general is how society is.By the end of the book you want to move to Liberty HIll and be taught geography by The T MIss D. If you have never read it -you are in for a treat and a thrill. If you have read it you are going for a specail vist back. ENJOY

I have loved this book since I read the original stories in a magazine when I was a child. The story is well-written, depicting a dedicated teacher who truly cares about her children but is not sentimental about them. Instead, she instills values and behaviors that will serve them well all through their lives. Her own behavior is impeccable, and she is a moral touchstone to the entire town and the several generations whom she has taught.

The story itself has wonderful flashes of subtle humor, as well as charming moments of tenderness, even though Miss Dove thinks herself above such behavior. I would very much like to see the movie with Jennifer Jones made into a video and think that there would be a real market for it. I heartily recommend this book -- it should be required reading for all teachers and students and all people who love a good, well-written story.

Louisiana's Song is a wonderful book. Great for all ages. Once again, Kerry Madden takes you deep into the very heart of the Weems family and keeps you there! I found myself longing for more Weems stories!

This book can show about really good times and really hard times. It could definitely teach people that have an easy and carefree life about much harder times and much better times. It's adventurous and exciting, and if you love nature, this book is perfect for you.


Alexis...
8yrs. old

Kerry Madden is a master at creating characters that existed in a real part of America - and allowing readers to understand the times and tribulations of a family in a time not too long ago. The importance of keeping recent history alive for young readers cannot be overstated. Real people, real problems, real characters that young (and old) readers can identify with and understand. Heartwarming, but not soft, Madden goes deep into the characters. This is the kind of book that keeps it real. The book stands alone, but to get the entire journey, start at Gentle's Holler.

Louisiana's Song

In reading Madden's second book of the Maggie Valley series and of the Weems family, you find yourself lost in the story. At the end, you must return to the world of tv, canned music, microwaves, etc. Madden's stories of the beautiful Maggie Valley might well be set anywhere as a young girl struggles with her dreams and the reality of everyday life.

This series is a great read for middle schoolers, teenagers, and even to the more mature readers who just want to lose themselves in a time that was more peaceful, more in touch with nature, and families were closer.

Here's my general rule regarding sequels: If you can pick it up and read it through without knowing one teeny tiny detail about the previous book (and I am including the author's name in that statement) and still feel like it stands entirely on its own two feet, then that's a pretty good book, mister. And "Louisiana's Song" is a pretty good book. A soft novel. The kind of book for a certain kind of doe-eyed twelve-year-old girl, perhaps. Or maybe I'm just limiting the scope of the potential audience of this title. In "Louisiana's Song" you're dealing with personal loss, hardship, and disillusionment. The ending could have used a once over, but for the most part this is a strong title and one that is sure to become deeply beloved by someone out there somewhere.

All Livy Two really wants is for life to become "normal" again. Ever since her daddy got in that car accident all those months ago her life has been topsy-turvy. Mama is having difficulty getting ends to meet. Grandma Horace is always insisting that they leave their lovely mountain holler home in the North Carolina mountains to live somewhere industrial. But now it is 1963 and daddy is coming home at last! Surely everything will go back to normal now, right? Wrong. Having suffered severe head trauma from his accident, Livy Two's daddy needs to relearn everything about his old life slowly. To Livy Two's surprise, however, it's her quiet sister Louise that is able to provide daddy with the help he needs and who works up the courage to sell pictures to make money for the family. Will all that be enough to overcome Grandma Horace's campaign to get their mama a factory job and them into the city? Time will only tell.

It's funny that the hero of Ms. Madden's series is always Livy Two, but that the titles are always named after her siblings and not herself. It's probably the mark of the series that the heroine's tales always bear the name of her sibs and that she herself bears a name that serves as a constant reminder that she was not the first child named "Livy" in her family. This is a loving household, but one that gives its children certain weights to bear. At one point Livy Two's mama explains why she willingly had so many children. It was because their father wanted a big family and to live in the beautiful outdoors. Now he's been hurt and no money was put aside for his family in his absence. And when families are this large, it's the older siblings who get stuck with the brunt of the responsibility. Little wonder that Livy Two's older brother Emmett takes off the minute he thinks he can.

Madden gets the emotional quality of her story right. In fact, there are times when it feels like she's shooting you through with one feeling or another on the sly. Livy Two's daddy is a good example of this. When they bring him to a kind of fun park called Ghost Town to see his son, a faux gunfight breaks out. The next line reads that, "Daddy stops crying and watches the rest of the show from behind a post." We didn't even necessarily know that he WAS crying at that point. So really, in a way this makes me feel even more sorry for him than if Madden were giving you a play-by-play of all her characters' emotional states and actions. The same might be said for Grandma Horace. Since we're seeing all of this from Livy Two's perspective, we're not supposed to sympathize with her Grandma, but it's hard for adult readers not to see her point of view when she says, "Child, I'm sixty-one years old, and I'm surprised that this year has not put me in my grave." Her methods for getting the family to move to Buncombe County may be questionable, but you can understand why she'd want to give her grandchildren what she truly believes to be a better life. Admittedly, it was a bit precious for me at times. I'll acknowledge that. It's remarkably hard for an author, any author, to show sentiment without dipping into twee. For the most part Livy Two and Louise are able to give their younger siblings stories and fairy realms that feel of childish innocence. Other times it's a bit much for me, though I suspect that child readers won't mind a jot.

As I mentioned before, this book doesn't require any knowledge of its preceding novel, Gentle's Holler. Be that as it may be, there were a couple moments where I got a bit confused. There's someone named "Uncle Hazard", for example, who is not identified as a dog until you're onto page 12 and the barking begins. And if you're not a fan of series where the plot bleeds into its sequel, best that you avoid this book. I got to the end of the tale without a lot of the major plot points getting resolved and was shocked to suddenly find my nose in the Acknowledgments section. It's an odd choice on Madden's part, I'll admit. "Louisiana's Song" stands on its own right up until the end. Readers, particularly child readers, aren't fans of books that leave them hanging so I wonder if at least one of the dangling strings could have been resolved.

There's a class of sixth graders that comes into my library once or twice a month, and these kids have a huge range of tastes and preferences. I'd say that five or six of the girls, though, like a certain kind of book. They read Izzy, Willy-Nilly by Cynthia Voight, A Corner Of The Universe by Ann Martin, and Shug by Jenny Han. They eat these puppies up and then come to me asking, "Do you have any more of the same? Do you have anything EXACTLY like these books?" I don't, obviously. The best that I can do is to sloooowly introduce them to the notion of historical fiction. These are kids who prefer contemporary fare, but find the right historical novel with the right characters and emotions and they go to town. So the next time I see them, I'm going to have to booktalk "Louisiana's Song". It'll be right up their alley. The great characters. The feelings of love and frustration between siblings. Trying to strike out on your own. For a certain kind of reader, this is a book to love.

I'll admit that I'm biased, just like an earlier reviewer, because I've ridden with and consider Timm a friend. However, I've got to take issue with a reviewer who lightly criticized this book as being lacking for a "newbie flatlander."

In his Introduction, Timm makes no bones about the fact that "This book is about singletrack: twisty hardpack, slaloming through trees and roots and rocks, rising through heartbreaking climbs, and descending in sometimes frightening fashion."

I applaud the newbie flatlander for taking a mountain biking vacation. Really, I do. I think it's the coolest thing, and I hope he takes more of them. But most people who take mountain biking vacations ARE people who are looking for trails like the ones in this book. And we can't change the landscape here in western NC...the fact of the matter is we have a lot of up and down, a lot of rocks and roots, and we usually get a lot of rain. If we want easier riding, we either stick to the fire roads or we travel somewhere in the eastern half of the state.

This book has what so many guidebooks lack: personality. The reason it's a great book is because Timm makes the trails seem, on paper, almost as much fun as they are on your bike. I've owned this book for a few years, and it never fails to snap me out of my doldrums when I can't decide where to ride. Just open a page, read the description, and I'm ready to go! I may even go ride Kitsuma today...

I bought this book to assist with planning for a trip to the Mt. Pisgah region.

POSITIVES: The writing was in a fairly entertaining style, and the trail descriptions and maps had lots of details.

NEGATIVES: There was no flow in the Mt. Pisgah section--the trails weren't arranged in sequence, neither by location nor by difficulty. Also, there were precious little recommendations for newbie flatlanders such as my son and I. The author seemed more interested in reporting his own experiences than in considering the needs of all his potential readers.

The book's OK, but I would only recommend it as an adjunct to the excellent "Western NC: Pisgah" book by Jim Parham.

Although it is dated, and trails have changed since 2003 this book remains a must for NC bikers for its range of trails, readability, elevations. Sets a high standard for mountain biking books. Trails range from easy to hard. If I were to buy one book for NC trails this would be the one hands down.

I found this book to be a real comfort to my coming vacation.

The trail discriptions are right on, along with the Elevations made my selections easy. I can't wait to spend a week in the mountians of Northern Carolina..

If you're going to mountain bike N.C. you need to own this book. It's easily the best one I own. The maps, directions, and charts are great and easy to follow. The rides are varied with all skill levels included. And this guy Muth has a great writing style, loaded with pesonality. My only suggestion is that he includes Dupont when he revises. Thanks Timm!

We live in a life-care community. I shall try to give this book to our health care center activities person, and to anyone I know who is having difficulties with dementia in a loved one, as well as to the active clergy of our acquaintance. The point Hill makes--requesting equal rights for the demented dying as for those who are in full possession of their mental faculties--is one that had never occurred to me before I read this book. I kept thinking (naturally) of my own mother, who for at least six months, and perhaps longer, didn't know anyone, and who seemed not to have anything at all to "get off her chest." Hill's entertaining (yes, it is) story of her wonderfully eccentric and charming parent made it clear that no matter what is happening, the person it's happening to is still somehow the same as in years past, at least enough so that it is cruel to ignore his or her need for expression. Whether there are old wounds to heal or bridges to mend is really secondary. Read this lovely essay and learn!

This is the most moving memoir I have ever read. The intimacy Sheridan Hill shares with her readers and close attention to details is breath taking. I could not put it down. Astonishing and simply beautiful.

This is a must read for the hospice community and the families they serve.

I could not put this book down, so real, taking us to that uncharted territory, the death of our mother. How do we stay present, how do we understand our relationship, how do we face death and find life?
Sheridan Hill tells her story with such detail and honesty. I am no longer afraid of death, for my parents or myself after reading this book.

Refreshing for the heart -- as eternal family values wait til the end of one's life to come to light. I want my siblings to read this. How I wish I had had time with my own mother before her passing!

I'm one of the "baby boom" generation, we who once shouted "never trust anyone over twenty-five!" And now we are in our forties, fifties, and sixties, often facing alone the crisis of the death of a parent or loved one. Our culture has ill prepared us for this passage, a society that dwells on youth and so carefully hides away death. I lost both of my parents several years back and only wish I had first read Ms. Hill's book, it would have served as a guide, and reaffirmed as well the rightness of decisions I made for the sake of my mother and father. It is not a book about death, it is a book about living and sharing to the fullest one's final journey with a parent.

I will freely admit I wept repeatedly as I read Ms. Hill's beautifully crafted tome which honors and celebrates her mother's final months. Reading it made me realize that so much of what I experienced was valid, that I was not alone in my feelings and gave me new and hopeful insights into my own life and the spiritual journey of my mother and father.

If you just read these reviews and do not buy the book, please heed her advice from this reviewer. Listen to your parents now, talk with them, share and recall all the moments, good and bad, and fight with all your passion to insure their time of passage is a time that is respectful of their dignity. Though I do hope you purchase this work even though the subject might be the last one on your mind at this moment. For someday it will occupy your life front and center and Ms. Hill is a guide you can turn to and trust.

Not only is this book excellent reading it is so funny. The writer is so true to form. Sherry W. Boone deserves a standing ovation. I have the cassette and laughed from beginning to end. Hope those who bought either or..enjoyed as much as I did.

One word......PERFECT.....
and to Sherry Boone, thanks
so much, write more!!

A bloomin bouquet letters from myrtle is one of the most uplifting books I have ever read. I love all myrtle's letters. The book makes you feel like you are visiting with your best friend. I looking forward to more in the future.
Vivian Greene
Deep Gap, NC

"A Bloomin' Bouquet: Letters from Myrtle" is one of the most uplifting books I have ever read. You need to read each and every letter. Some are funny and some tug at your heart strings. Sherry Boone has such an insight when it comes to people and it really shows in her "Letters from Myrtle." I highly recommend this book to everyone.

This book makes you feel like you are visiting with your best friend. You want the letters to go on and on. I look forward to more in the future.

I grew up in NC and my grandfather was an avid fisherman. I am learning saltwater pier and surf fishing now and I need something to give some basics, and some specifics about this avocation. This book explains so much about things I have seen my entire life and been curious about but didn't think to ask. I am sending a copy to my sister and mother as well. I think anyone that is going fishing along the coast of the Carolinas must get this book!

This book is about where one can coastal fish in the Carolinas and for what kind of species at different times of the year. I found it to be a very useful guide to plan future surf fishing trips. The author does not give a lot of specifics about rigging tackle. I think Eric Burnley's Surf Fishing the Atlantic Coast provides that information a little better. I plan to keep Goldstein's book in my truck when I am in the Carolinas, and I certainly will look to buy future, updated editions.

This book has lots of great information about fishing in the Carolinas. There is good information on different types of fish and locations and techniques for catching them.

It's pretty cool when the author mentions pier owners, bait and tackle owners, etc. by name. This book is really a must read for folks wanting to fish the Carolina coast!

Highly recommended.

If you're like me most fishing books are way too vague. Titles Like "Surf Fishing" or worse "Fishing the Atlanic" try to be a little help to everyone. This book is a lot of help for a few.

The book reads like a conversation with and old fisherman on a pier or in a tackle shop. The author covers all the bases like where to shop, what to buy, how to rig it up, where to go, how to cast, where to cast, how to set the hook, where to put the catch, how to cook it, etc. This is not the modern "magazine article" style of book, it's an old school how to catch fish book.

Something to consider...
The book is mostly text and some basic B/W images and illustrations. You must be prepared to do some reading before you go fishing. This is not a skim fast and go fishing today book.

If you live in the area or plan to visit, it is a great resource.

I'd have to say this is one of my favorite books on fishing and one of the most complete books on fishing a particular area that I've ever read...even right down to information on exactly where to fish for each species. This book is well written, easy to understand, and well suited to anyone trying to learn how to fish (or how to fish better) from surf, jetty, or pier. Highly recommended.

The setting in the Outer Banks of North Carolina is a major part of this book -- I've never been there, but have seen places along the coast and can use my imagination.

The main character is Callie, restaurant manager at a resort hotel on the Outer Banks. She has changed her name to avoid the press (she was involved in saving a child's life) and left an unfaithful husband to start over. Margie, who is her best wait person and someone she's grown to like, disappears one night, leaving a couple of notes behind but no explanation. Has something happened to her? Is she being stalked? Who is she, really? What secret is Margie hiding?

At the same time, one of Callie's kitchen staff finds a skull on the beach that turns out to be a murder victim's, who was killed several years ago elsewhere. How did the skull get to the OUter Banks? Is the killer around, and is he someone she knows, someone who might kill again?

This is the kind of book that you look forward to getting back to. And I'm serious, it made me want to move to North Carolina and live on the Outer Banks, hurricanes and all.

This was a most enjoyable read. A mystery within a mystery.

Callie McKinley has a mystery in her life she hopes few people will solve. Despite her best efforts, she becomes involved in a murder investigation on the Outer Banks where she is a restaurant manager.

The characters in this book are fairly well developed and they draw you in. You begin to see parallels between the characers as the story progresses. The plot moves at a fairly good pace.

I enjoyed this one so much, I am going to go back and read the first book.

This is a wonderful book! Had been waiting for its release and it lived up to the wait. Everybody will like this book, from its Outer Banks commentary to the characters to the surprise ending. Glad I found wendyhowellmills.com for book signing schedule and more! Thanks Wendy for these great books and keep 'em coming!

I absolutely loved the book! It's even better than the first one. I couldn't put it down and didn't know who the bad guy was until the end. Wendy's writing is wonderful and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I'm ready to read her next one as soon as she writes it. Way to go Wendy!

This book is a great read! It moves swiftly and keeps you guessing right up to the end. The characters from Mills' first book seem like old friends. Highly recommended!