Virginia Books

As a civil war buff who enjoys touring, I unexpectedly lucked onto this rare,out of print,1991 edition in a major bookstore recently.It was the only copy on the shelf. I devoured it in conjunction a Blue & Gray magazine trilogy about John Singleton Mosby's exploits during the war in Virginia. This Evans/Moyer book is loaded with neat little tid-bits of information about the man, himself, his many facinating associates and opponents, their controversial engagements and the multitude of specific locations where his "Rangers" operated from 1863 to 1865.Fortunately, many of these sites are still available in beautiful, historic, north-central Virginia. I give it 5 stars even though it's map/diagrams are confusing and can only be understood with the assistance of updated, fully detailed maps. Despite these defects the book deserves such a rating.

Thoroughly researched and entertaining, this rare and compelling book is a must have for Civil War enthusiasts. Bravo!!

Last night, I finished reading Andy Colvin's book, The Mothman's Photographer II. This is one of those books that is essential reading for those of you fascinated with Mothman.

Somewhat appropriately, and like the Mothman mystery itself, the book is full of all sorts of twists and turns, dark and disturbing scenarios, contains as many questions as it does answers, and definitely defies convention.

The book basically tells the very personal story of Colvin's interest in, and obsession with, the Mothman; something that began in his childhood in the sixties when he and his friends constructed a "shrine" to the Mothman - and after which strange and bizarre things began happening to Colvin, to his family, and to those around him.

In many ways, Colvin's book is more mind-bending than John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies. But this is a good thing: rather than simply go over old ground, and recount the original story, Colvin describes for us how the Mothman personally affected, manipulated, and possibly guided, his own life experiences, right through to the present day.

And it's written in an appropriately unconventional style too: via interviews, transcripts, personal comments and thoughts, and more.

For those who view Mothman as purely a crypto-zoological puzzle, you'll find yourselves at odds with Colvin, who places the creature in a very different category.

Essentially, Colvin views the Mothman as being akin to the Garuda - the majestic bird-like entity of Buddhist and Hindu mythology. Colvin's view is that the presence of the Mothman at the Point Pleasant, West Virginia bridge-collapse of 1967 (as described in Keel's book) was not in any way sinister.

Rather, Colvin sees the Mothman/Garuda as being basically a benign entity, and one that surfaces from its strange realm of existence at times of peril and strife, and when things are distinctly ill with the world. Part-helper, part-guide, it's inextricably linked with us - but generally for the better, Colvin believes.

But it's also a creature whose presence should not be taken lightly - nor should the fact that the creature's presence at Point Pleasant may have been tied in with a whole host of other activity, including classified government projects in the fields of mind-manipulations and psychotronics, synchronicities, the Men in Black, dark and tragic prophecies, the world of big-business, the military-industrial complex, and much more.

The Mothman's Photographer II is a fantastically strange trip into a world without rules, where just about anything goes, and where convention is thrown out of the window. But it works - and it works very well.

If you read the book, you are likely going to come away with a new view (or, at the very least, a modified view) of Mothman, thanks to a man who had the vision and guts to follow his instinct and present his data, ideas, theories and thoughts to those willing to listen.

And, given the fact that it seems the nature of Colvin's life was almost pre-destined from the day he first immersed himself in the world of the Mothman, perhaps he was meant to write the book. And perhaps we're all meant to read it. If so, Colvin has done us a great service in providing a book that is unique, unusual, riveting reading, and beyond thought-provoking.

Read and prepare to have your mind blown, bent, reorganized and, if you get the message, elevated, too.

Andrew Colvin has put together an amazing, detailed, and compendious book on sightings of the Mothman, or Garuda, whose visage Colvin has apparently captured on film--but which also touches on the Rockefellers, the Manson Family, The Philadelphia Experiment, Union Carbide, and strange 1967 premonitions of the destruction of the World Trade Center.

With transcripts of his interviews by the excellent Keith Hansen ("Vyzygoth") framing the work, Colvin weaves a fascinating tapestry of synchronicity, anomaly, and unexplained occurrence. There are transcripts also of talks by Grey Barker and John Keel, and of Colvin's own television program, The Mothman's Photograper, with annotations and asides by Colvin throughout. There is much, much more, though.

The Garuda has been legendary throughout human history as a harbinger and a protector--an inspirer of prophetic visions. That this legend would manifest itself to Americans in the 21st century is, in Colvin's view, some cause for alarm--and comfort. Alarm, because its appearance usually foretokens disaster; comfort, because those visited are forewarned and forearmed. Colvin's friends and family in and around Mound, West Virginia speak eloquently of their visitations.

My recommendation is that you unplug the phone, toss aside the iPod, shoot the television and spend a weekend delving into this most fascinating book.

I wish that other authors of hiking guidebooks would read this one and copy its author's style. Each hike is described in detail with every bit of information you'd ever need, including how to get to the trailhead, where to park, etc. The trail maps are clearly marked and well detailed, taking the guesswork out of navigation. The trail descriptions are detailed and accurate, with useful and interesting information throughout. I can't wait to get back and tackle more of the trails he describes.

Things get awful hot during an Arkansas summer. I decided to head for the Southern Appalachins, where the summers are cool. Mount Rogers National Recreation Area has the scenery without all the crowds of the Smokies. Molloy's book details literally everything you can do there, from biking rail trails, to camping, to overnighting at B & B's, to hiking at Virginia's highest point.

After arriving there, I started in the West End at Beartree Campground. Reading Molloy's book at camp, kept leading me to other destinations at Mount Rogers. Before I knew it, two weeks were up and I had barely scratched the surface of this outdoor getaway. Molloy must've had a blast writing this book. I sure had fun using it. This book is a must buy guide to what is going on at Mt. Rogers. Take a read and see for yourself.

While best known for her novels, Virginia Woolf also wrote essays and short stories. This is a short collection of seven stories from the period 1922 to 1927, around the publication of Mrs. Dalloway. Some of the stories had previously been published elsewhere, but this is the first publication for two of them.

Like the novel, these short stories surround the party; but unlike the novel, most of these stories focus on the guests at the party. The first of these relates an expedition of Clarissa Dalloway's to buy gloves, and is full of all the interior monologue one might expect. The rest are rather character sketches and encounters among Mrs. Dalloway's guests, and absolutely leave one satisfied with a picture of each character and encounter. If you enjoyed Mrs. Dalloway, and you can read short stories, you absolutely will enjoy this book.

You don't need to have read the classic novel Mrs. Dalloway to appreciate this collection of short stories (which take place at the party which is the centerpiece of that book) in order to appreciate Woolf's genius, although it certainly won't hurt. Woolf's internal monologues are, if anything, more delightful in these smaller doses. The point of view is always clear, and those who have found Woolf's prose to be sometimes a tad tiring will be pleased to find this much easier reading. As in the novel, her characters are emotionally flawed, thoroughly believable, and all-too-familiar. A perfect choice for readers not ready to commit to a complete novel by Woolf, but who want to know what all the excitement is about.

It has been very useful to help my 1st grader be attentive during the mass. She has read it cover to cover. She understands why we sing the opening song, say "Alleluia" and other parts of the mass.

"My First Missal" is one of those little books that is so inexpensive, you might not immediately see its usefulness... "My First Missal" tracks the entire Mass (with pastel-colored drawings along the way), explaining why we do the things we do in simple-to-read detail, following the pattern of the Mass in Ordinary time. It is easier for kids to follow along with than it is for them to use the missalette in the pew. There's also a nice part at the end which explains the Sacrament of Reconciliation and teaches children how to examine the conscience. We keep copies of this little book on our church's book table and my children each have their own copy.

The other day I went to the university library only to discover that it was closed. My natural reaction was to head over to the Henry Art Gallery (in Seattle) to check out the new photography exhibit at the Henry called Small Wars by Vietnamese American photographer An-My Lê. I didn't really know what to expect. I was very pleased that I absolutely loved the photographs. Lê captures compelling the peformativity of war in her two series, "Small Wars" and "29 Palms." The former depicts images of Vietnam reenactors in Virginia and the latter military training and preparation for war in the Middle East on the 29 Palms military base. The images are deeply affective - emoting a sense of absurdity in the very plasticity of the convoluted term we all hear and throw around so often: war. Yet it is in this realization of the "un-realness" of "the wars" in the images that brings forth the disturbing and haunting aura of the word in any and all its permutations, spectral or not.

I just got a copy of _Small Wars_ by An-My Lê (the book, published by the Aperture Foundation), and I've been reliving my experiences seeing the photographs at the Henry. Included in the book that was left out of the exhibit is a series of photographs taken in Vietnam, which serves as the book's opening. The semiotics of the arrangement of the photographs create a powerful narrative of the wars that Lê personally navigates through, in all its fictions and truths. I highly recommend this book! It's fantastic!

An-My Lê is a photography artist whose technical talent with the 5-by-7-view camera serves to capture her insightful, powerful imagery of landscapes that serve as matrix for the exploration of war and its impact on individuals. She combines images of actual wartime situations with 'practice/artificial' war training camps and the juxtaposition is startlingly surreal in capturing the reality of war.

Lê fled Saigon at age 15 during the US exodus in 1975. For the first series in this stunning portfolio from 1994 to 1999 Lê returned to Vietnam in an attempt to reconnect with her homeland. While there she photographed rural landscapes and urban views that, though still scarred by the incisors of the Vietnam War, are moments connecting her memory of home with the passage of time and change. The images are not manipulated, they are simply shot with clarity and in that vein such powerful photographs as 'Untitled Hanoi, 1995' is at once a stark apartment housing project 'fortress' in the foreground of which is the unfocused movement of young boys playing soccer while a central figure on a tree stump, in focus, stares off into what feels like a broken vision of hope.

In the period of 1999 to 2002 Lê turned her camera toward the activities of a Virginia-based club self-named 'living historians' as the reenacted events from the Vietnam War (wargames these are) and in posing as a player, both civilian and enemy, she managed to penetrate the strange obsession with these men in somehow maintaining the myth of the war. 'GI' is a simple portrait of a reenactor at rest in battle regalia gazing into Lê's camera with occult thoughts of intention. It is a very human testimony to the confusion the concept of war creates.

In 2003 and 2004 Lê installed her camera and eye on the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms at a time when troops were training for Iraq and Afghanistan, absorbing not only the machinery of war but also the effects of landscape in the process of being altered by war machinery. Many of these photographs are serenely beautiful: 'Night Operations III' is a night photograph of aerial bombing in the desert, the streaks of mortar fire and illuminators create a balletic frenzy in the black sky over the miniaturized training camp facilities.

An-My Lê takes her title 'SMALL WARS' of this profoundly impressive book from the military term for guerilla warfare - warfare that stretches from the military zone into the land. Her emphasis is on the landscape in each of these personal images, a factor that subtly focuses on the smallness and vulnerability of the subjects. She puts war into a context where few have ventured and the result is an intense experience and a book of substantive beauty. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, October 05

As Continental forces and Virginia militia units were engaged in winning independence, American quartermasters and provisioners struggled to provide these units with all the necessities of life, from meals and guns to meat, fodder for horses, the horses themselves, firewood, and every other type of material. Much of this was requisitioned from the civilian population and certificates were issued payable in either continental or state funds, depending on the units supplied, upon presentation to court authorities. Thousands of these certificates issued to Virginians were duly entered by the courts, and they provide a fascinating insight into the period of the Revolution. These "Publick" Claims booklets contain interesting and useful information about the contributions of ordinary people to the Revolutionary War. They provide some details of people's service in the militia or as guards for prisoners of war; they indicate where some bodies of troops were at particular times; and they identify providers of horses, wagons, cattle, grain, or other supplies. Much of the information in these booklets cannot be found anywhere else, which makes the surviving records particularly valuable. Also remarkable is the fact that records survived from virtually every county in the state at that time with the exception of the newly formed Kentucky counties. This makes the collection even more valuable in covering areas which heretofore in this time period have suffered from a lack of personal data. The "Virginia Publick Claims" are published by counties. In addition to a faithful transcription by Janice Luck Abercrombie and the late Richard Slatten, a complete index is provided for each county booklet. This series is an extremely important genealogical tool for searchers in Revolutionary-era materials.

The sun sets, the moon rises, and here come the bears, arriving on foot through the forest and in brightly colored hot air balloons. "A broad-beamed caller/howdys all:/Welcome, friends,/to our Big Bear Ball." The music plays, the bears begin to dance, and a rip-roarin'good time is had by all. "Small bears sway/and slap your paws./Tall bears stomp/and pop your jaws.// Two paws up,/waving high./Catch some stars/and scratch the sky." And as the celebration moves through the forest, moles and foxes are awakened and join in, frogs jump up and sing along, and even an old alligator joins all the fun.....Joanne Ryder's engaging text begs to be read aloud, is filled with rhythm, rhyme, energy and motion, and complemented by Steven Kellogg's bold, vibrant and expressive artwork. Eye-popping illustrations dazzle with bright colors, marvelous facial expressions, and woodland detail that is sure to captivate little ones as they linger before turning the page. Together word and art create an entertaining and joyous, finger-snapping, toe-tapping romp. Perfect for preschoolers, Big Bear Ball is a winner, and a picture book kids will want to read again and again. "Go lightly, sprightly,/on your way./May you dance/with the music/as we welcome the day. // Farewell one!/Farewell all!/See you next full moon/at our Big Bear Ball."

This is a very challenging and rewarding book. In this day of political correctness, all too often we do not want to acknowledge this contradiction in the formation of our nation. This book is the product of a government project to preserve first-hand accounts of slavery before the last surviving slaves died in the 1940s. As terrible as these accounts are the book acknowledges that many personal accounts were toned down so as not to offend. The resiliant spirit and courage of these slaves who are now free will both encourage and at the same time make you angry. It is encouraging because in spite of the horrific lives of many of the former slaves they were unwilling to allow this to destroy them. At the same time this is maddening as we consider how many intelligent and talented men and women were enslaved with many also being abused or even killed all for the greed and profit of some.
Some of the accounts have been challenged because they are personal accounts based totally on the memories of the now freed men and women with little or no collaboration. However this is also what makes these accounts so valuable. This is their story about their life and what they endured. No amount of legal documents can relate how this affected these courageous men and women.

"The Negro In Virginia" is a book the American School System must include in their History classes! They have done a disservice to the American student! After reading the book, it brought me to shame and pride. Shame on Americans who caused slavery to be part of a nation who was supposedly a "Godly nation". Shame on all the other people, who involved themselves in the trade of slavery: Africans, Dutch, French, British, Spanish etc. Shame on those who preached of God's Love and who held slaves themselves; and on the politicians who wrote the Consitution and held slaves, and for those who used them for their own personal sexual satisfaction.

The biasness of the "white" man is conveyed so eloquently, without offense. Many people who have many fears, misconceptions and are misinformed of African Americans, may thank their ancestors.

I take pride in knowing that although, many innocent men, women and children died as a slave, those who prevailed, helped the cause for Ameican Freedom, not just freedom for the "negro", did so honestly. Many Slaves who fought in the Civil War and other "wars" did so valiantly! The contributions from African American is so well described.

The book allowed me to see through the eyes of the former slaves who survived. The pain of fathers who were separated from their family. The mothers whose children were taken away and sold. The children who never knew who their parents were. For those families who searched for each other after the Civil War. It described how blacks were not only used as commodoties but, used against each other at times.

The strength of the African American is so alive and descriptive in this book; and so is the fear of the Anglo-Saxon. For many Anglo-Saxons who contributed to the freedom of slaves described their, compassion, love, and boldness and perhaps their the true "Godly Fear".

Everything from the American Presidents' African Kings, and Foreign Rulers involvement in slavery to economics to education of African Americans is in this book.

It's a book you cannot put down, especially if you thought you knew American History, as I did. It brought tears at times and amazement, but most of all it has enlightened my knowleged and appreciation for the continual struggle of African Americans.

If you have compassion...It's a must read book!!

I'm not much of a writer of reviews but do want to heartily recommend this book to all and especially anyone interested in the Appalachian area, history, media, or law.
I did truly find it to be a page-turner.
I'm a native of the area but this case was a little before my time and I had not heard a word about it. I was hooked from the first page.
I do think most people would like this book for one reason or another. I was so surprised to see how Wise County was a bit before its time in some of the legal aspects of the trial.

The Depression era saw its fair share of sensational murder trials in the United States: Winnie Ruth Judd (the 'Trunk Murderess'), child-killing cannibal Albert Fish, and Bruno Richard Hauptmann (accused of kidnapping and killing the Lindbergh baby), to name a few. They all received extensive press coverage, provoked controversy, and went on to become the subject of more than one best-selling book. Although her two trials in connection with the death of her controlling father were cause celebres for their durations, Edith Maxwell has never received a book-length examination of her case until now. And that's what makes Sharon Hatfield's "Never Seen the Moon" such a fascinating read and important social document.

It's more than just the reporting of a young schoolteacher's now-forgotten battle for her life and then her freedom. Sharon Hatfield exposes 1930s America's prejudice toward Appalachian culture in general and 'hillbillies' in particular, political restrictions that forbade women from sitting on the Maxwell jury and allowing her to truly be judged by a collection of her peers, and the younger generation's fight to challenge violent paternal authority.

"Never Seen the Moon" can be read and interpreted as an exciting piece of True Crime or a sobering social document. Highly recommended.

NEW ENGLANDERS ON THE OHIO FRONTIER is a witty and scholarly chronicle about migration to Ohio in 1802 for 41 families (settlers, not speculators) from Connecticut and Massachusetts. The McCormicks have used an unusually rich store of primary data to document the transformation of life in Ohio. Into the wilderness these settlers came with an elegant town plat which included a village green, Episcopal church, a school, and a subscription library, and within 10 years attained material culture which matched or surpassed that left in the Northeast. This case study ends in 1836 just after Worthington's incorporation. The McCormicks are scholars who write beautifully and this very accessible, colorful history ends too soon. The reader is primed for a sequel.

"New Englanders on the Ohio Frontier" is more than a history of the founding and settlement of Worthington, Ohio, and subsequently, its impact on the development of Columbus, Ohio. It is the fascinating study of how migration into the Ohio frontier was not accomplished by adventurous individuals in buckskin, but by a well-organized and well-led company of settlers from Connecticut and Massachusetts with a definite purpose in mind. It demonstrates how their New England culture was transplanted into the Ohio wilderness and how it continues to influence the modern city. Virginia E. and Robert W. McCormick have written a scholarly but very readable text on local history. I highly recommend it on many levels. Paul Watkins, Worthington, Ohio