Georgia Books

Wilderness is a necessary part of life if humans are to heal - and so are the animals which form it. Pinhook Swamp is a watershed and wildlife corridor linking different wildlife refuges in the South: Janisse Ray's Pinhook: Finding Wholeness In A Fragmented Land follows the swamp's need for restoration and the human concurrent need for wilderness, providing a blend of natural history and philosophy which is winning and thought-provoking.

Janisse Ray has now written two marvelous books about the natural world, our impact on it, and its on us. She writes in an engaging low-key style that draws you into her experiences. "Ecology of a Cracker Childhood" is about growing up in rural Georgia, and about longleaf pine forests. "Pinhook" talks about the wilderness being preserved by the creation of the Pogo wilderness area (Okeefenokee, Pinhook, Osceola). Light, easy, and long-lasting in its impact. I wish we could get more people committed to the subjects of Ms. Ray's efforts.
Bill Schwendler

Janisse Ray continues in her appealing and warm style to bring us to environmental concerns in the northern Florida-southern Georgia swamp lands. She takes us with her in visiting the land and people. Her deeply sensitive relationship with the land draws connections that the average reader would probably miss. This book is like spending time with a good friend.

When women share their lives we find a rich blend of joy, pain, and discovery. The biggest discovery is that we are more alike than different. While we may feel alone with our stories, we quickly learn that our stories are much more global. What a glorius discovery to accept while reading the everyday moments of six women who are willing to tell all with clarity, and honesty. I highly recommend this book for any woman who is seeking fulfillment and the need to feel connected with other women.

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Pink Jasper is a must read for all women. Each and every page is filled with a deep honesty, sometimes brutal and sometimes comedic, but always filled with deep-set feelings that all of us have experienced at one time or another. Georgia Richardson uses her comedic talent to discuss everything from compulsive disorders to dieting in such a frank and light-hearted way that she's like a breath of fresh air, while Pamela June Kimmell's story of discovering herself out of the ashes of a failed marriage and cancer treatment will grip at your heartstrings. Jackie S. Brooks' story, Stroke, should be required reading for anyone working with, living with, or loving a stroke victim. Carolyn Horton's touching story regarding the loss of her son, Eveline Maedel's beautifully written spiritual poetry and essays, and Dana Smith-Mansell's reflective and insightful stories and poems round out this collection of work. These six women have provided a myriad of emotions in the form of short stories and poetry that will live with you long after you've put this book down. My hat is off to every one of them!

THIS IS THE IDEAL HOLIDAY GIFT FOR A FRIEND, SISTER, MOTHER, MOTHER-IN-LAW, AUNT OR ANY OTHER WOMAN ON YOUR HOLIDAY LIST!
I ENJOYED EACH AND EVERY WORD OF THIS BOOK AND FELT CONNECTED TO EACH AND EVERY AUTHOR WHO SHARED THEIR PERSONAL STORIES IN THIS TERRIFIC COLLABORATION! I WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE ASKED TO DO A FORMAL REVIEW FOR THE BACK OF THE BOOK AND IT IS MY PLEASURE TO SHARE IT WITH YOU HERE:
"Pink Jasper easily ranks as one the best books I've ever read! It is a tightly organized collection of poetry and essays chronicling the personal journeys of six outstanding authors. From the loss of a child- to surviving cancer- to the discovery of God, this book grabs one by the hand and draws one through a wide variety of emotions and challenges. There is deep grief here, illness- and yet laughter and divine celebration. The material is superbly balanced and superbly written. Pink Jasper is a spiritual breeze- and yet a hardy gemstone- that lands on one's lap and sparkles like no other."

- Anastasia Clark
Poet and Author

What a great book! After taking the quiz I was relieved to find out that I had indeed picked the right "breed" this time around ;-) A recommended read for anyone already in a relationship... or even those simply out there looking for pick of the litter :-)

Well Ladies, here's your chance to categorize your man or men friends. This book is a great buy and once you pick it up and start reading, it is truthfully hard to put down and stop reading. I recommend buying this book for you and your friends, so that you may be more successful in finding the perfect partner or better at determining which groups(Herding, Sporting, Hound, ect.)of guys you may be more compatible with. Guys can also enjoy this book and find out the RUFF truth about what breed they fit into. There is also an awesome quiz to find out what type of pooch you may be, man or woman. BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOU AND A FRIEND TODAY!

Porch Dogs is a great read, a very unusual and fun reference book and a DIY guide for assuming some control over a search for a satisfying relationship. Though the book may have been written with women in mind as a primary audience, don't discount the value to all readers regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. The underlying concept in the book, comparing men to dog breed characteristics, is designed to help the reader define and categorize some common male attributes. With the resulting improvement in understanding men, it is hoped that the reader will be able to better manage their relationship(s).

For the guys, the book can be very revealing, much like looking into a mirror. What I saw was right on the mark and funny as hell! Now I don't feel so bad about some of those allegedly annoying habits I've been told I have.

The Porch Dogs Quiz is very interesting and has sections for men and women. The resulting personality characterization is matched to one or more dog breeds.

Quite insightful and useful, the book is a terrific value and copies make excellent and unusual gifts for your friends and family members that need a little encouragement or guidance in their love lives.

Check it out!

I included Puttin on the Peachtree in the gift bags for guests at my wedding. We got such fabulous comments from everyone about the cookbook. My guests *loved* it.

This a fabulous cookbook to have onhand -- lots of terrific recipes.

The Pizza Popover on p. 111 is one of my faves!

Of all of my cookbooks that I have collected over the years, this is one that I turn to time after time... it is one of my all-time favorites! The recipes are super and I can always find inspiration when I need something yummy and special. Try the "Flawless Hollandaise" and you will be assured that this recipe alone is worth the price of the book! (I'll be making Eggs Benedict for New Years Day brunch using that recipe and will, once again, get raves from my guests!)

This biography is a must have for all Ellison fans. I could barely put it down to sleep!

I loved this bio of Ellison, the first to be published, and its focus on the early years. The writing is top-notch and Jackson has clearly done exhaustive research to uncover an amazing amount of fascinating detail. Belongs in any reader's collection devoted to American and African American literature and history.

This is the most detailed look at Ellison's life that I've seen. This biography covers his path from poverty in Oklahoma to becoming part of the literary elite in the early 1950's. The author examines Ellison's involvement in the black rights movement and his relationships with Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. From start to finish, this is a fascinating read.

An excellent reminder of the values that shaped our parents and grandparents. The stories are told in such a positive light, such that I long to live in those times that seem less harried, more focused on the importance of family and relationships.

I came away wanting to know more about this unique blend of personalities and their charm, and at the same time resolving to incorporate these ideals into my personal living.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this charming book. The author's style of writing paints such a vivid picture that I felt transported right into the story. Every chapter made me smile as I read about each new childhood adventure and about living in the warm embrace of a big,loving family. The author's light hearted and humorous words delighted me as I read her wonderful portrait of idyllic small town life in the south.

What a delightful book! Reading about her adventures and the family members that helped shape her life, I couldn't help but reflect on my own childhood. Her story brought back memories that I thought were long lost.

Highly recommended!

Nigel Slater has a great sense of humor and personality to spare. I like knowing what kind of food will "stand up to a cheap bottle of red wine," myself. Though I use only his vegetarian recipes, I haven't had a miss yet. His recipes are simply prepared with ingredients you are likely to have. Most importantly, of course, they are delicious. Reading this book is like having a chat with an old friend. It would make a great gift.

Delia Smith books are a bit of a cooking institution in UK and usually form the foundation of most cook book collections. Endearing image - Delia holding an egg smiling. It's a very useful book but I personally find her style a bit sterile.

Nigel Slater's book on the other hand offers some truly mouth watering and relatively straight forward recipes that will impress at a dinner party. There's none of this "1/2 tsp of Something-you've-never-heard-of-let-alone-know-where-to-buy-it-from" etc and this means his meals are relatively easily shopped for from a good supermarket. This is a rare feature of cook books I find! N. Slater's suggestion for cooking a roast leg of lamb with Rosemary and garlic is the best I have ever tried! This book like Delia's covers a wide range of recipe's and is more of a Jack of all trades book compared with REAL FOOD. If you already like Nigel Slater's style or you're looking for more specialised recipe book with fewer but comprehensive sections on "Chocolate" and "Cheese" then go for the authors REAL FOOD book which is again very inspiring with some excellent photo's.

Throw a dinner party, use the book and your friends will love you forever!

`Real Cooking' by Nigel Slater (name above the title, of course)and 'Nigel Slater's Real Food' are two great expositions on the real joy of cooking. Slater characterizes his point of view in the motto to `Real Cooking' as `There is too much talk of cooking being an art or a science - we are only making ourselves something to eat.' With this sentiment, Slater dismisses the Shirley Corriher / Alton Brown `kitchen science' camp on the one hand and the Keller / Boulud / Girardet `haute cuisine' camp on the other. In some ways, this also dismisses the high-end culinary magazine crowd as you may find in `Bon Appetit', `Gourmet', and `Martha Stewart Living'. While this seems to dismiss a goodly portion of the modern culinary establishment, it really does not. Slater is certainly in the same camp as his nibs, Jamie Oliver, his good friend, Nigella Lawson, and Oliver's mentors, Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers of London's River Café. In fact, if I did not know that Oliver was primarily influenced by Gray, Rogers, and Gennaro Contaldo, I would have guessed that Oliver was a Slater disciple from the word `GO'. I am happy to say that there are plenty of important cookbook writers in the United States who can easily be considered to be in Slater's camp. Leading the list is probably Jacques Pepin, especially with his various quick cooking books such as his latest `Fast Food My Way'. I do not wish, however, to give the impression that Slater is all about fast cooking. He is certainly about simple cooking in the same sense that Richard Olney describes in `Simple French Food', but he is a whole lot more about being in love with the sensual qualities of food and how well those qualities of various foods mix together in the most effective way.

What is certainly true is that both Slater and Oliver represent the kind of cooking I enjoyed on my two trips to England, primarily the kind of cooking I saw at some of the better pubs in Hampshire and in London suburbs.

Both of these books are primarily about recipes and the salient qualities of particular classes of food. For a study of Slater's `philosophy' of cooking in depth, see his recent book `Appetite'. These two books are even organized in very similar ways, in that each chapter presents a particular raw material or class of raw material. The more traditionally organized `Real Cooking' has chapters on:

Fish & Shellfish
Chicken & Other Birds
Pork, Bacon, and Sausages
Lamb and other Meats
Pasta, Beans, Rice & Grains
Vegetables
Cheese, Snacks & Puddings

The later book, `Real Food', which is also the tie-in book for a Television Series (not seen in the US, to my knowledge) is more to the point, with chapters entitled:

Potatoes
Chicken
Sausages
Garlic
Bread
Cheese
Ice-cream
Chocolate

The chapter on bread is a good indication of Slater's point of view, in that he gives us nothing on baking bread, but just about everything you may want (this side of Nancy Silverton's sandwich book) to know about making some really interesting and unusual sandwiches. Similarly, the sausage book says nothing about how to make sausages, only how to make the very best use of them.

True to his word in his `motto' quoted above, you will find not one word about the relative fat content of milk and cream, the emulsifying power of an egg, or calibrating the temperature of your oven. On the other hand, you will find much about, for example, the relative tastes of pork, beef, and lamb fat and the virtues of free range raised poultry. Here is one strong point of contact between the articulate and reflective Slater and the ebullient and emotional Oliver (or our own Emeril Lagasse, if you wish). Both will rhapsodize at length over the qualities of a nice thick layer of fat on a chop from an artisinally raised hog.

For those of you who do not like `chatty' cookbooks, both of these books may be preferable to the very discursive `Appetite', although both of these books do have their share of culinary poetry before the recipe details. Neither book is as extreme as `Appetite' in the direction of teaching us to cook without a book. You can easily pick out a recipe from these books and make them without a lot of background reading or culinary skill. But never confuse `simple' with `easy' or `fast'. While Slater may do the Rachel Ray gig in other books, these books have their share of slow marinades and braises. They also have their share of whisking, filtering, and thickening techniques.

The other side of the coin is that Slater's palate is extremely simple. Aside from his protein or starch of choice, few of his ingredients go far beyond the simple pantry of milk, cream, butter, basic cheeses, parsley, flour, lemon, lime, bacon, sage, thyme, bay, bread, olive oil, rice, stock, garlic, and mushrooms. Unlike Sir Jamie, Slater is about as down home English cooking as Paula Deen is about Savannah cooking.

The biggest difficulty an American is likely to have with Slater's recipes is that they are all make heavy use of metric units for weight and larger volumes in place of ounces, pounds, and cups. Even though I was a chemist thoroughly familiar with the metric system, I had to dig out a good conversion table to remind myself that a pound was about 450 grams. A lesser difficulty may be with Slater's names for common food varieties such as potatoes, although he almost always specifies `waxy' or `floury' potatoes rather than the English varietal name.

The other main difficulty with Slater's recipes is that they are all paradigms of high fat, high sodium, and high cholesterol preparations. They are definitely dishes to be eaten when the occasion calls for serious comfort food.

If you like Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson, you will really like Slater!

This was a very intrestling book about the 2nd best coach and the incredible story of the 1991 season. This is a must read book for FSU Fans everywhere. I thourghly enjoyed this book. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves college football.

As a freshman at Florida State in '91, I worked with the football team as a student athletic trainer. I remember Ben Brown, and how he spent almost every minute with the team, nearly becoming a part of it. Take it from someone who was there: Ben Brown got it right. If you want to know what a season at the top of college football's elite feels like, read this book. Even today, reading passages takes me back to memories I will never forget. I just wish Ben could have been with us in '93, when we won the National Championship, so he could have written a happier ending.

I felt this book reached deep down into college football. I was thrilled when names such as Edgar Bennet, Charlie Ward, Amp Lee, and Danny Kanell. I felt the boos of the opossing fans and felt the cheers of ours. Until I read this book, I never realized the preparation it takes to coach a college football team. This was a well planned, well thought, documentation of Florida State Football.

A gorgeous reflection of what the island excels in. Mr. Whitehead's photographs beautifully depict the nature of and on the island. When I can't be there, I fantasize through this book.

The photography of this naturalist, Fred Whitehead, capture the four season beauty of Cumberland Island. I met this author, who led a tour of the island one April morning, and actually asked him whether the island had 'seasons.' He humbly answered,'yes', without mentioning his book, his photography, or his experience. An hour later I found this book in the gift shop of the inn, and my question was answered in detail. Few can experience a long stay on this island, but no nature lover should fail to visit this place and see a nearly undeveloped barrier island larger than Manhattan. This book is a true souvenir of my visit, and the tour led by the author.

I recently returned from a visit to Cumberland Island and I had already purchased and admired all of the photos in the book. When I returned from my trip I again looked at the book and it made the island come alive again in my mind. The photographer has captured the entire essence of Cumberland Island and brings it to life. The book gives a preview of all of the things the island has to offer: wildlife of every description and vegetation scenery that takes you back in geologic time before man set foot on the island. The photos in the book show the diverse creatures such as deer (including 2 white ones); alligators, racoons, wild turkeys, bobcats, birds, waterfowl, armadillos, pigs and wildhorses (not native to the island) etc. The diverse vegetation and wildlife is featured by seasons in the book. The photographer is a wildlife expert and also gives tours to the guests of the incredible and comfortable Greyfield Inn. Buy the book and then go see the island!

Since few people in respectable circles today would admit to having supported segregation, it is rare to read honest accounts from White southerners who admittely accepted the system and went along with it, as most did at the time.

This book is an interesting read for that reason. He speaks matter of factly about his own acceptance of the prejudices of his era and area, as he punches a black boy who uses his mouth on the same needle that he does to blow up a basketball without realizing why at the moment, although he is usually pleasant in hiis relations with the black customers who frequent his grandfather's general store in Wade, NC in the 1950s.

However, he comes across people who challenge everything he is led to believe about Blacks. There is the African-American schoolteacher who forces him to refer to her as "Miss" and most of all, his unlikely friend Street. Street is a self-educated free spirited intellectual who is amazingly accurate on biblical, astronomical, and constitutional facts who lives in a cave by himself. The local Whites dismiss him as crazy and eccentric, but Melton comes to see that Street is not only accurate in his facts, but represents the tragedy of racism through the inability of Street to make a living from his knowledge. One of the most interesting characters in all of Southern biography, one could easily picture Louis Gosset Jr. or James Earl Jones portraying Street in a film version of this book.

I would strongly recommend this for exposing young people in particular to a seldom-heard side in writings about the segregation era.

McLaurin has written a valuable and beautiful book. It deserves a place on the shelf with "Coming of Age in Mississippi" as a document of life in the segregated South and of the moral challenges that segregation presented to those who lived in the system.

McLaurin's book is a touching recollection of growing up in the South during the 1950s. His rich narative describes not only the difficulties all teenagers face, but explores how these difficulties are made even more difficult in a changing environment. While so many imagine the white teenagers of the Little Rock school integration as pictures of young whites during the 1950s, McLaurin paints a picture of a young man sensitive to the plight of blacks in the Jim Crow South. A very good book, highly recommended to those who wish to get a detailed portrait of the 1950s South