Georgia Books

I finished this book in one day. After starting to read I just couldn't put it down. It was very well written that I actually felt I was there, visualizing every scene. It also was a eye opener for many of us who did not understnad the depths on how colored people were treated back in the days. It also had a positive side where black and white could get along. Reading this book was a great surprise at the outcome. I agree with one of the other posters on this board, this book should be an HBO special. The story line was excellent. In fact so good, I bought 2 books, and plan on buying another for my sister who is in to our black history and culture. If this is the first book for Nathaniel Lumpkin, I am anxioous to read more. I wish him the best!!!!

The title "WADE IN THE WATER," says it all! A really enjoyable read.

Has anyone taken the time to notify HBO, TNT, SHOWTIME, CINEMAX or BET? This book has the potential for a really good Movie. The characters are well developed and story is universally appealing. Reading the book was just like watching a movie, without the sticky stuff on the floor. I loved it. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. It is easy to read and even easier to understand.

This story has passion, honesty, intrigue and adventure. The main characters Billy Ray Horton and Jeremiah Liggons will take you on a trip back to a place long forgotten by many and to a place others will never forget. The dialogue between the two characters was great and I could visually picture every step of their journey.

I've read many novels over my lifetime including "The Catcher In The Rye," by J.D. Salinger, "A Thousand Acres," by Jane Smiley, "The Color Purple," by Alice Walker, "Macbeth," by William Shakespeare, "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine," by Bebe Moore Campbel, "Devil in a Blue Dress, Black Betty, and A Red Death," all three by Walter Mosley, "Roots," by Alex Haley, "Their Eyes Were Watching God," by Zora Neale Hurston and "Beloved," by Toni Morrison. All of which I cherish and loved reading very, very much, in most cases I've read several times. "Wade in the Water," by Nathaniel A. Lumpkin II, is a wonderfully written novel with well defined and developed characters that seem to jump off the pages into your living room. Jeremiah Liggons and Billy Ray Horton come of age during the great depression in a world that's already divided by race, and forge a friendship that must stand the ridicule of racism, murder, deception, betrayal and rape. Family love, loyalty, and God fearing ways are never questioned as Jeremiah's spiritually grounded mother calls forth a heavenly Angel to guide and protect him where ever he goes and whatever he does. This story touched my every emotion including, anger, happiness, sadness and grief. Wade in the Water is Nathaniel A. Lumpkin's debut novel, and it is a fantastic way to come out to the world. He is a writer that's easy to follow and understand, and his passion shines through his character's dialogue which is purposely written with a southern drawl. While reading this novel I could almost smell the Georgia pine trees down by the Ginsburg river, and I could vividly see the bright blue southern skys above as well as the red clay ground below, just as Nathaniel described it. This novel surely ranks up there with some of the other novels I've read and I most definitely recommend it to everyone. I read some of the other readers reviews, and I certainly agree with one reviewer that said "Oprah Winfrey," will LOVE this book. Somebody send her a copy or call her staff.

As a polio survior I am glad to see this fine history of the great colamity that hurt me.

As a 10 year old girl, I was stricken with Polio. This was in 1944. My home was in Florida. Within two weeks, my hometown doctor had contacted a doctor friend at Georgia Warm Springs Foundation and I was admitted to that wonderful facility. That year I spent 8 months undergoing Physical Therapy. I was one of the fortunate ones who recovered enough to walk without the aid of braces. I had a spinal curve and while it never got better, it never got worse. Three years later I had some surgery on my right foot.

While I was at Warm Springs Foundation in 1944, President Roosevelt was able to come for the annual Founders Day Dinner at Thanksgiving. I was included in a short skit during the prepared program of entertainment. At the end of the dinner, President Roosevelt sat at the doorway in his wheelchair and shook hands and had a few words with each of us as we wheeled past him. That is an unforgettable memory I have. I didn't realize then (now age 11) how amazing it was for the president to even be at Warm Springs. After all, he had just been elected to a 4th term as president and World War II was raging in both Europe and Japan. He was tired and was not really doing well physically.

I was able to return home that December. In April, 1945, President Roosevelt died at his Little White House in Warm Springs. I felt as though I had lost my best friend.

This book included many pictures of things I remember well. I would recommend it to anyone interested in history, polio, President Roosevelt,
or physical therapy. It is really a picture book with a narrative. I treasure it.

Lynn L. Rice

As a polio survior, I have been to the Warm Springs Clinic, so I am interested in anything I can find on this subject. I was very much impressed with the books' detail and overall reading and pictures. I would recommend the book to anyone who would have an interest in this type of book.

I bought one at the Bulloch House in Warm Springs and went to pick up two more for Christmas gifts and they had sold out. Amazon had them luckly and I received before Christmas. The book is really incredible and I agree with the other reviews. Between the hbo movie and their museum, this book is a treasure of photographs. Arcadia has some really good photo books but this is one of their best.

After I watched the movie on HBO about Warm Springs, I was so impressed with the subject that I bought and read everything that I could about Warm Springs and FDR. I have come to the conclusion that one can talk about FDR without mentioning Warm Springs but one cannot talk about Warm Springs without mentioning FDR. The authors have done a magnificent job of researching the subject. Their story flows seamlessly from their introduction and throughout each of the carefully written photographic captions. I loved it. I encourage every American to read this book, it's uplifting and educational at the same time. Well done to the authors for writing this book.

Brad Vice, The Bear Bryant Funeral Train (University of Georgia, 2005)

I think at this point everyone has heard of The Bear Bryant Funeral Train. Not because it won the Flannery O'Connor Award last year, but because the award got yanked after it was shown that Vice had plagiarized parts of the book's opening short story, "Tuscaloosa Knights." More's the pity, because it's actually the book's weakest offering. A second allegation of plagiarism has been made for "Report from Junction," another story that comes about halfway through the collection.

None of this is actually relevant to the review, and without getting into a discussion of "fair use" which would take up far more than a thousand words, is here only for purposes of completeness. No one has yet complained that Vice lifted a complete story, whole and unbroken-- only various passages and sentences. And what makes the stories in this collection so good is the way those passages and sentences are strung together. (I have hopes that eventually Brad Vice will turn out looking like the print version of the Evolution Control Committee, the idiocy of this whole thing will go away, and the book will be reprinted.)

The simple truth of the matter is that whether a stray line in story A came from book B by another author or not, Vice has penned a wonderful batch of stories in this debut collection. Most of them are little slices of Southern life, usually Depression-era or not long after. I wondered about halfway through the collection, though, why it had picked up the O'Connor; while Vice's stories are on the whole excellent, they didn't seem quite dark enough to be worthy of bearing Ms. O'Connor's hallowed name. That, of course, changed a couple of pages after I had the thought. The book's three final stories take the collection into places of darkness and despair that it hadn't previously seen.

The title story, especially, is a corker. Set in the slightly-near future, it concerns an auto designer who's obsessed with making a black and white short film (and an amusement park ride) based on the Bear Bryant funeral train. It is obsessed with its own detail, and it treats its characters in very nasty ways. A good man is hard to find, indeed, and when you find him, you may find that you don't want him nearly as much as you thought you did.

I'd strongly recommend going and picking this up at your earliest opportunity, but the University of Georgia recalled all outstanding copies and pulped them. (They were going for as high as a thousand bucks apiece on Amazon, and may still be.) If your library is one of the few holdouts who still has a copy, I'd grab it and read it ASAP, because it's entirely possible that, otherwise, you will never get the chance. Stunning. ****

The University of Georgia Press has issued a recall on all of these books and rescinded the Flannery O'Connor Award based upon an intensely narrow-minded accusation of plagiarism. THIS IS ONLY AN ALLEGATION. Rather than correct what was obviously an editorial oversight on their part, the UGA Press has decided to unfairly punish Brad Vice. If you find a copy of this book, BUY IT. If you own a copy of this book, KEEP IT. Read it, re-read it, and tell your friends about it. Do not let UGA Press bully a fine writer and his appreciative and intelligent readers. Find out how much Brenn Jones of the SF Chronicle liked it at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/23/RVGC9F7EK51.DTL&type=books

This book, "The Bear Bryant Funeral Train", the author's first, was removed from every bookstore shortly after publication, due to the discovery that the short story entitled "Tuscaloosa Knights" contained many sections that were, by the author's own admission, "heavily borrowed" from Carl Carmer's 1934 work, "Tuscaloosa Nights." "The Bear Bryant Funeral Train" won the highly coveted Flannery O'Connor Award, which usually rockets a young writer into a successful literary career, but which, in this sad case, very likely has ended a career just as it was beginning.

Because the publisher withdrew every copy from stores and destroyed all the copies, then withdrew the award from Mr. Vice, only a handful of copies remain, making this first-edition volume the key collector's item in the Flannery O'Connor series. Without a doubt, it will be worth many thousands of dollars in years to come. The publisher quietly removed all copies from stores before announcing that it was pulping the book--thus, very very few copies have actually made it into circulation.

All of this is truly a sad development, as the material that was not plagiarized is quite brilliant. I hope that Mr. Vice, who is being investigated on ethics charges at the university where he teaches, will be able to survive this unhappy event and go on to have the chance to publish another first book--this time one that he has written entirely on his own.

Listen: the book is awesome. A bunch of people who didn't understand the literary strategy of the book got real upset and railroaded the hardcover edition out of print. That was a shame, and the shame was not on Brad Vice. It was a big huge loss, too, because these stories are damn good, and they don't read the same way as some of the sources upon which a couple of them are based.

Brad Vice, by now, ought to be enjoying the rewards good work brings. I hope, at least, he's enjoying the good work itself, as I have been again this week. I give The Bear Bryant Funeral Train my strongest recommendation, and my bookshelves are holding a few spots open for future Brad Vice books.

Yes, there is some controversy about this little book, but discerning readers should not let that take away from the brilliance of other stories around which there is no controversy. The chapters on "Chickensnake" and "Mules" are brilliant. Truly brilliant. Others border on brilliance as well. Combined with Bobby Dews' collection of short stories "Legends, Demons and Dreams," you have the best of Southern fiction today. Forget the controversy. Read the book. It's well worth it. So is Bobby Dews' book.

"Bound by Red Clay" continues to astound the contemporary poetry market! It has been nominated for these awards: Georgia Writers Inc. Book of the Year--Poetry Category, Tufts Discovery Award, and the poem "Gopher Tortoise" was nominated for the coveted Pushcart Prize. The first run sold out in 6 months, and the second printing has sold 50% in only a month. Neca Stoller's work is indeed slated to become one of America's best.

When I ordered Neca Stoller's book I wondered if the high standard I had admired in examples of her work I'd seen on the net would be sustained through a book. It was.

My other concern was whether poetry specifically drawing on a Georgia, USA, landscape would be relevant in Australia. It was. Australian friends have validated my opinion on this.

Like the book itself the poetry is spare, direct and captures the essence of her subjects. Her focus is not distracted by any vanities. The discipline of Japanese genres shines through. The poetry is strong and credible.

I commend it to anyone with a sense of place and community, no matter where in the world they are centered.

Neca Stoller is a poet rooted in the soil of the rural South. Her latest volume is filled with images of the red clay of her home state, as well as characters from her family, uncles and aunts and cousins, former college roommates, and others who populate the Georgia backwoods.

Stoller, born in Savannah and educated at the University of Georgia during the tumultuous 60s, has spent the past several years living, working, and writing on a Georgia cattle farm. Her love of the land and the gentle rhythms of rural life sparkle in her poems. Bound by Red Clay is a slim volume of 60 selections, arranged in five titled chapters. It comes after numerous accolades for her verse from such diverse organizations as the Palomar Showcase and the Haiku Society of America.

Ms. Stoller is at once both peaceful and poignant when she focuses on the slow and repeating meter of country life. "Sultry Evening" is an evocative short poem about the pleasures of rocking on a porch hammock while crickets harmonize on summer evenings. In "Red Clay," we follow along as she wanders through sites of the Civil War, still heavy with memory. "Baling Hay" reminds us of the heat of such summer work, but rewards us with an image of " an iced mason jar/ black tea thick with sugar."

Stoller's themes throughout the book are telling: homecoming, death, lost love, the summer's heat, rural life, the social history of the South. She obviously has roots in her homeland, and that foundation creates lovely verse. The truths she finds among Georgia's red clay and pine forests ring true through time and space.

Even the title of Neca Stoller's first book of poems--Bound by Red Clay--tells us we're dealing with a Southern poet who deals with solid images. Many of these pictures painted by this Savannah poet are Southern and specifically Georgian: magnolias, lowland graveyards, 1960's protest marches, Cherokee excavations, front porches on sultry evenings, even a moonshiner by the name of "Flem." Red clay is a good image for the poets of Georgia, especially those who have left the land: Anyone who has tried to scrub the knees of a child's pants or footprints left on a beige carpet knows that red clay stains will always remain. One might be able to dull their immediate brilliance, but the brick-red trace will remain truly bound to the material.

That fading but "bound" sense of images propels the poet--and then the reader--through this book. The volume contains poems that are slim on words and fat on images. Stoller paints tiny pictures that loom large in one's verbal and pictorial memory. A pair of pinking shears "left marks like a bobcat's bite." Corpses are freed from their graves during the Flint River flood of 1994; "their hands rose and waved . . . they sat in the mud, naked-- / grinning--not a bit shy." On the morning after a lovers' tryst, the poet bittersweetly proclaims, "Such a short night, / still out of breath."

The poet reminds us we are tourists passing by a world full of scenes; the most important admonition someone can make to us is simply to look. Her haiku-like poems resonate with ideas and emotions that emerge out of the things pictured here. For instance, there's "White Chrysanthemum": "tucked between / fallen leaves / a white chrysanthemum / once pinned to my lapel / by your unsteady hands."

After a while, the poems begin to resonate with each other. Arranged into sections that Stoller calls "Chapters," the volume is like a collection of minimalist short stories: The poet's youth, a set of scenes with a former lover, her experiences during the University of Georgia's first year of integration, scenes from nature, and Stoller's own shifting and meditative identity as a poet.

Every semester, I post a new poem on my office door. I try to find one that immediately charms and then provides an opportunity for me, pausing with keys in hand, or for my students waiting for their office conference, to reflect. Stoller has given me a new volume's worth of poems to place on my door; this book will provide you with a similar opportunity to recognize and meditate.

"Bound by Red Clay," by Neca Stoller, is a collection of poems which allows the reader a brief peek into Stoller's life in Georgia during the 1960s. Stoller recounts moments through lively, visual poetry. She is unusually attuned to her surroundings and is able to describe scences with sharp detail and flowing verse. A poem titled "The Shrimp Boat" displays this talent. "Pushing through, past the channel markers, her name so faint, blurred by salt and time the bow appearing then reappearing, as her distant, tall mast crosses the marsh... Docked; still the boat' hole brims with shrimp, as the sunset slips down through the rigging, and as the full moon rises to surf the black waves." This careful attention to minutia draws the reader into Stoller's Georgia, puts the the reader right on the deck of a coastal shrimp boat. Another fresh aspect of Stoller's writung is the absence of too much emotion. Some poets go so deep into their inner thoughts the reader can become derailed and miss the meaning. But Stoller incorporates just enough feeling to touch her audience without overwhelming them. "Never meaning to grow old, in the mirror I am astonished to see age spots in a face more my mother's than my own...,"writes Stoller in "The Fire." With only a few words, Stoller captures the experience of aging. "Bound by Red Clay" is an ensemble of mature and well-written poetry which parallels life, detailing a range of experiences, experiences that run from disturbing events to moments of calmness. In one poem titled, "Sand Dollar," Stoller describes the last moments of a young soldier's life, and in another, "Rain," she explains how rain falls to the earth. It is apparent poetry for Stoller is a craft and for lovers of poetry she is a great gift.

What I like best about Georgia Kostas's book is the abundant "how to" information, such as how to overcome barriers to exercise, how to manage eating at special occasions, how to determine the right portion of a food, etc. I can tell Georgia has had lots of experience counseling dieters because she knows what dieters want to know about how to successfully lose weight.

I have not completely finished reading this book so I only gave 4 stars, but I am finding it very helpful. I also purchased the mayo clinic book and, between the two books, I am getting a much better idea of what to eat and how to go about it. They are very similar in their concepts. I really like this book and would recommend it.

A book for those demanding a healthy heart and a healthy lifestyle!

This should be on every Registered Dietitians' bookshelf!! I
would highly recommend this book to the public that requires sound information on weight loss. This book is good reading and
practical in it's approach. The book deals with strategies for
success and how to handle obstacles which is not always well covered in other weight management books. I bought her earlier book "The Balancing Act"; I didn't think that book could be outdone but this book is even better!! Sincerely, a Registered Dietitian

I just received this book and haven't been able to put it down. The information is clear and concise and practical. I love this book and feel that everything I have learned about wieght loss and thought on my own have now been confirmed. This book is not gimicky. It is realistic. This book helps us put into practice what most of us already know. If you are buying the book you are already to take the next step, and this is the answer!!! On a side note, Raynelle who also recommends this book was featured in Prevention, that is where I heard of this book and she looks awesome!! I hope to do as well as she did and be healthy in the process.

Deadly Deception is a great mystery novel, a real page turner, by first novelist, Susan P. Mucha. Compelling and intriguing from start to finish, her characters are well developed and real and the plot with it's twists and turns keeps you eagerly engaged to the conclusion. Mrs. Mucha ranks right up there with some of the best female mystery writers of our time and I look forward to her next novel with great anticipation!

Apparently this is Susan Mucha's first novel, but you couldn't tell by the quality of her writing. Deadly Decpeton is a beautifully written, fast-paced mystery/thriller which whips the reader from exotic Peru to the stately grounds of the Augusta National in Georgia. It's obvious Ms. Mucha didn't get her facts from an encyclopedia; she knows Peru and the Augusta area quite well, and readers are transported to wherever this talented writer chooses to take them.

I'm sure we'll be seeing more of this author's work. If her first book is any indication of what's to come, we're all in for a treat.

Not being much of a reader of fiction, I have to say that
"Deadly Deception" grabbed and held my attention from beginning to end. It's obvious that the author has thoroughly researched
the subjects and locations in her book. Ms. Mucha's writing
style is clean and easy to read. Her descriptions are so vivid
she makes you feel as if you are right there, in the moment, in Peru, seeing everything just as the main characters are viewing their surroundings.
This book is a page-turner...and I could be persuaded to become
a reader of mysteries now. I can hardly wait to see what Ms. Mucha plans to do with her fascinating characters in her next book.
A+.

For first time author it was a very good read. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of places and food of Peru. It made me want to return. She was able to keep the reader involved and made it a real page turner.It reminded me of the old love stories that let your imagination take over rather than have every kiss and "heaving bosom" be described in detail. I am anxious to read her next book.

I began this book with skepticism; I finished it with admiration and awe. Susan Mucha did a marvelous job with this novel. I couldn't wait to read each new chapter, breaking my own rule of one chapter a night. I can't wait for the next novel, and expect it to be as good as this one.

I've dove Cuba a lot and this is the only authoritative Dive book on Cuba that I have ever seen.

Bill Belleville's Deep Cuba book is part Cousteau adventure tale, part natural history, part cultural history, with a smattering of Hollywood documentary drama. It is enjoyable and engrossing to read- a must for those interested in protecting our fragile environments. Belleville's sensitivities and attention to detail give us greater understanding of the pristine waters and lands of Cuba, a place that seems so far away, yet is in reality right next door. Like many readers, I have grown up during a time when Cuba has been "off-limits." Ironically, this embargo has in many ways protected the environment by keeping masses of American tourists away. How lucky we are to be able to visit this magical place through Belleville's enlightening account.

When the author climbed aboard the research boat hired by a Discovery Channel film crew bound for Cuba, he gained entry to two engrossing stories. One covers the exploration of Cuba's coral reefs, sunken ships, and sharks, whose mysteries are elucidated live-on-location by Discovery's consultant scientists and cultural experts. This story is by turns exotic science, pure travelog, and just plain spooky - expedition members in a submersible find two complete sets of diving gear hundreds of feet below the safe diving range, in an area where divers were known to have disappeared. Belleville's deep dive in the little sub hangs in mid-book like a luminous bubble of science, poetry, and spookiness.

The second story is a weird tale of the making of a documentary film. It's unnerving to see the innards of the "documentary" process exposed. For instance, Belleville watches as the camera bypasses scientists who lack sex appeal or sound-bite savvy. Or, although Fidel Castro's visit to the expedition's ship makes great reading, it evidently makes bad vibes in Filmland, and is cut. And Belleville's account of the debate over whether the word "forbidden" should be used in the film title is hilarious.

These two narrative lines intertwine to weave a fascinating path around, and even into the throbbing and troubled heart of - gasp! - the forbidden island of Cuba.

The title of this book seems straightforward and explanatory enough. Yet, the content is far more complex, and thankfully, the author is more than up to the task of explaining broad concepts of oceanography, of documentary film making, and the oddball politics that have embargoed Cuba over the last 40 or so years. But more than anything, this is just a really well-told story that takes the reader along on an expedition to a place that few Americans have ever seen. Belleville seems to have a lot of experience as a scuba diver before this trip, and his acumen as an 'underwater naturalist' is much appreciated by this reader. So too is his exacting descriptions of daily expeditionary life---which at time is hilarious, enlightening, dangerous, and at times downright ironic.

The chapter describing Castro's visit when the expedition is in Havana is refreshingly candid---and quite a hoot, as well. Belleville knows how to craft a good story, and has the stylistic tools to do it.

Thematically, the author tries very hard to make a solid case for the need for more funding for ocean research---as well as for diplomatic relations that will finally let the leaders of the U.S. and Cuba manage their regional waters under one umbrella. As an educator specializing in marine sciences, I think the ecological connection between our country and Cuba is one of the great under-reported stories of our time. My deepest gratitude to Belleville for having the fortitude to tell it---and to tell it with great style.

Bill Belleville, author of "River of Lakes: A Journey on the St. Johns River," again takes us down to the water to quench our thirst for adventure. In "Deep Cuba," we set sail with him aboard an expedition vessel for a journey that plies the waters of both politics and discovery.

Through his poetic telling, the island's previously unexplored waters come to life, populated by everything from mysterious bioluminescent creatures and toothy sharks to the simple souls whose livelihoods come with the tides. We meet a variety of Cubans, among them a harbor master who boards the ship and skillfully guides it to port, two scientists who join the expedition in a rare show of cooperation between Cuba and the U.S., and a group of boys who frolic among the watery mangroves of a distant island during a break from their studies of becoming boat captains. And late in the book, there is Castro himself, who boards the ship with his inquisitive intellect.

We witness, too, the dynamics of an expedition driven by filmmaking -- in this case, a documentary for the Discovery Channel, which funded the voyage. Belleville lets his keen observations of the personalities of the expedition ebb and flow through the narrative, and it soon becomes apparent that relations between the filmmakers and scientists are at times as chilly as those between the U.S. and Cuba. We learn first-hand how science can take a back seat to the wants of filmmakers, even on such a rare expedition as this.

Throughout the book, there is much high adventure. Belleville descends 2,000 feet under the surface in a mini-sub, and he dives reefs and plunging ledges that teem with fish. In one harrowing chapter, he even loses his way during a night dive in open water.

The book is a page-turner, to be sure. But along the way there is much to be learned as Belleville weaves scientific findings and cultural observations seamlessly into the telling.

At the very least, this scientific expedition has found a happy marriage in word, if not on film.

Dundury is an excellent book! This book captures love, excitement, and adventure as you follow the characters through the southern, gothic town of Dundury.

I couldn't put this book down, I was drawn into the pages with this story. How exciting to find a book that I liked so much, they are so few and far between. If you like some drama and suspense this is well worth the read.

I loved this book. It is smart, surprising and great fun. If you love history, mystery, magic, or just a good old fashioned page turner, you will love it too. It will keep you guessing from beginning to end.

Read two thirds of the book in the first sitting. The only reason I put it down was because I had to be up for work in 4 hours. Intriguing characters, facinating plot. Well worth the read. Looking forward to book two.

This book is really, really fun! I enjoyed reading it and couldn't put it down. It is a book mixed with magicand begs to be read! It is very thought provoking! I can't wait for the author to get the next book out!!!

This reviewer learned of "The Empty Nursery" by checking reviews posted by an Amazon "friend". EN is set in Gwinnett County, GA in the early 90's. Readers will be drawn into the story immediately: Kathy Hardwick is interrupted at work by her husband, Kenny. Their baby has been kidnapped! According to the bizarre tale, Kenny stopped to help 2 disabled motorists-and they stole baby Haley. Readers, not to mention the cops, will be highly skeptical. In fact, the investigators never give credence to Kenny's tale. He is the picture of a shiftless, good old boy loser. And yet....and yet authoress White effects a superb writing job in maintaining suspense far into EN. Could Kenny actually be on the level? Will all those volunteer search parties find Haley's body? By some miracle will Haley turn up alive? Suspense aside, there are also 2 other main elements to EN: The first is the palpable anguish of poor Kathy pining for her baby. Readers will identify with the grieving mom. The other is the patient, steadfast, by-the -book investigative work of the local Georgia Law. These guys never trust Kenny from start, but they stay the course. What happens? A good review reveals no resolutions but readers should not be disappointed. As for that "Ann Rule rule", it is not in effect. The photos, which are not in the centerfold, do their job of illuminating characters while yielding no clues. The back cover likewise reveals nothing. If EN has a weakness, it lies in its' cost. Authoress White's works are all priced aggressively. Ms. White is a fine true crime author. Would not a new $$$ structure open her works to a wider range of readers? That consideration is insufficient to lower the rating above. EN remains 5 star True Crime reading. Recommended!

This book is riveting and excellently crafted. Jaclyn Weldon White is a gifted writer as well as a knowledgeable law enforcement professional.
Move over Patricia Cornwell-White can take TRUE stories and present them as well as you write fiction.
Anne Jones

The deaths of babies and children are always the most difficult
true crime readings for me. It unnerves me to believe there are people out there who would take the life of any child,
especially one of their own. There has to be an absence of conscience for someone to commit such a cowardly act. As in this
case, Haley's death was the result of a cruel, senseless, cold-blooded murder. The death penalty serves a purpose for people like Kenny Hardwick. After the first two chapters of the book, I was so angry with Hardwick that had Haley been my child I would have probably strangled him myself. The author, Jackie White, does a superb job of reseach and writing Haley's story. Since she was so close to Haley's mother, I am certain it took great restraint for Jackie to curb her own anger and emotion and not allow her feelings to color the story. Honestly, I was kept on the edge of my seat until I finally finished reading the book, and confirmed what everyone had already suspected-Kenny was the culprit of this horrible deed. I highly recommend An Empty Nursery and label it a 5 STAR book!!!!!

I am the author of Roseflower Creek, a novel which tells of the short life and death of ten-year-old Lori Jean Dodson, who dies at the hands of her stepfather, in l950's rural Georgia. But Jackie Weldon's story is not one of fiction. It is the heartbreaking true chronicle of a crime which tortured a young mother, her family and all of Atlanta during the sweltering summer of l992. Written with the skill of a true word artist, it will keep you reading long into the night. Though the narrative will break your heart and haunt your soul, you'll find it concludes with the birth of hope, literally and figuratively. Don't miss this story or this gifted author's ability to tell it.

One look at the photo of baby Haley Hardwick will lure you into reading the story of a child gone missing. Assume nothing with
The Empty Nursery! Interesting twists and turns develop throughout the telling of this case. Jaclyn Weldon White writes from experience as former police officer in Gwinnet County Georgia, where this crime occurred. She gives the details of a baby's death without being lurid. The reader can feel the aching despair of young Kathy Hardwick, the baby's mother. She bravely endures weeks of not knowing where Haley is only to discover that her husband Kenny has lied to her. The reader is given an inside look at how investigators have to follow protocol even when they have a prime suspect. You will not be disappointed with this heartbreaking story of grief and courage.

I remain fascinated by Gullah and Daufuskie cooking. This book is a welcome addition to my ever-expanding collection. I'm glad I found it.

I have tried to catch Ms. Robinson's t.v. shows when I was able. Having grown up poor and having to make ends meet by stretching the food, you appreciate any attempt to liven up the meals. Ms. Robinson has done this very well. I enjoy her, and I enjoy the book.

One of my favorite episodes of Sara Moulton's cooking show featured the author and included a visit to her childhood home. I was THRILLED that Ms. Robinson washed her green leafy vegetables in warm water. What a shame such wisdom (do Americans even know the term "nightsoil" anymore???) has been disregarded in the wake of carnival barkers who demonstrate their cooking ability by ripping open a bag of greens (prewashed, My Aunt Fanny!) and cooking raw meat straight from their styrofoam and plastic packaging. Ewwwww, you know no amount of cooking heat can clean that up. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Thank you, Ms. Robinson.

I grew up in St. Helena Island (Frogmore). Having and using this book brings back those memories

This was the perfect gift for my sister who lived on Dafuskie island for several years. She personally knew Sallie Ann and was sad to leave her east coast home and the lovely people she met there. The book brought back memories of a delightful period in her life.