Georgia Books

Harold Clarke is an amazing man. But before one pretends to know him, it is important to know that he voluntarily relinquished his position as the Chief Justice of Georgia's Supreme Court so that Charles Weltner, the great Civil Rights figure of Georgia's past, could become Chief Justice before he died of cancer.

Such an action is typical of Harold Clarke's character. He is an immaculate man of decency, a true southern gentleman. I will defer the fact that he knew my grandfather and cares greatly for my father and even me. The fact is that he is a hero of Georgia's often troubled judicial history, and I love him greatly.

His book is most worthy of being read. I can promise anyone who reads it that you will appreciate Chief Justice Clarke's simple upbringing and his rise to destiny.

- Jeff Berry

A pleasant trip into the past. Runs the gamut of human emotions: Nostalgia, Humor, Sadness. So very reminiscent of when times and places were simpler. I highly recommend it. Very enjoyable reading. E. F. Howard .

Dr. Wiggins has assembled an outstanding collection of photographs, as well as commentaries on dozens and dozens of Confederate soldiers from totally unknown men of the ranks to well known subjects. Not only can the historian or reenactor gain much from the details of the uniforms and weapons but we all have the opportunity to look into the eyes of men long gone who marched off to a horrifically brutal war. Images of the men at reunions decades after the war show us old men who lived with the wounds, amputations and memories of what they had done in their youth. A remarkable book preserving these men for all time.

Hugh T. Harrington
author of: "Civil War Milledgeville, Tales From the Confederate Capital of Georgia," "Remembering Milledgeville, Historic Tales From Georgia's Antebellum Capital" and "More Milledgeville Memories."

Best collection of Georgians in their Confederate uniforms I have ever seen! The book features over 120 images of this type and another 100 or so of Georgians returning from the war. Very impressive!

Good work for the younger reader who wants to know more about Georgia's Confederate heritage but also for the serious researcher.

People of all ages and all walks of life, whether from Milledgeville or not, will enjoy Mr. Harrington's vivid accounts of this Georgia town's tales. I could say it's "easy to read," but that wouldn't do the book justice. Mr. Harrington writes as if an old friend is telling you a story, but in this case, the stories historical tidbits that anyone, not just history enthusiasts, will enjoy. I highly reccommend sitting on your porch with a glass of sweet tea and a copy of this book for a lovely afternoon of fun reading.

Anyone who likes mysteries, murders, witchcraft, oddities, humor and a host of other things too numerous to mention will love this book. Each story is completely different and you'll learn so much about Milledgeville, Georgia. Even if you've never been to the antebellum capital of Georgia you'll feel as if you have after reading the stories. I honestly believe that this book will appeal to everyone, no matter if they live in the United States or abroad. It reminds of Reader's Digest with short stories except these are all true events that happened right here in the heart of Georgia. I would highly recommend this book to everyone.

The Remnant is a chilling suspense novel about an FBI agent who learns of the mass suicide plan of a cult leader. Trapped between the madness of Father Will and his Remnant cult, and the deadly threat of the FBI itself, she struggles to survive and save as many lives as she can, including Father Will's firstborn son. Author G.J. Flosi's debut novel The Remnant is recommended as a gripping, tense work showcasing the insistent, self-destructive human impulse and the equally relentless battle to preserve the light of hope even in the darkest hour.

FBI Agent Shari Rigel survived the Jonestown Massacre as a child. Now she brings that experience as she observes a similar cult. For two months she steals time to watch over Eden to methodically check each camera blind. Admittedly obsessed, Shari waits for the opportunity to stop another mass suicide. Compelled to prevent a reoccurrence of Jonestown or what she witnessed with the Branch Davideans at Waco, Shari intends to stop Father Will before the FBI descends on the compound to usher in another version of Armageddon.

Father Will, leader of the apocalyptic Christian sect, has built a fortress and a prison inside a mountain honeycombed with caves and tunnels. With the aid of computer technology, Father Will selects each new disciple carefully, transferring their wealth his own accounts as he brings them into the fold. He also uses advanced programs to monitor his adversaries, making him a powerful and dangerous enemy. With the mesmerizing grace of a madman, Father Will leads the Remnant to destruction, planning to begin first with the sacrifice of his own first-born son.

Author Georgia Flosi debuts the "Exit Counselor Series" with a gripping account of a mass suicide planned by the cult leader of THE REMNANT. Flosi's experience as an award-winning playwright lends this tale a fierce, convincing sense of drama as it enacts the dilemma faced by millions of people snared by cults today. Heroine Shari's chilling experience at Jonestown keeps the tension building as she relates that experience to the escalating dangers presented by Father Will. Secondary characters likewise present sympathetic and heart rendering contradictions, especially Maya who refuses to allow Father Will to wed her teen child, or to leave without her family. Father Will presents a dangerous brilliant manipulation of scripture in the midst of madness, preparing for an end of chillingly inevitable destruction. A work of burning hope in the midst of dark intent, THE REMNANT comes very highly recommended.

I found this book quite thought provoking, interesting and meaningful. I have not looked at eating patterns in this way before, but I will now. It is a "must read" for anyone. I can't wait for the next book from Dr. Andrianopoulos, a Mediterranean Cook Book maybe? Keep writing.

Very interesting perspective on our relationship with food. Further, the concepts discussed in the book, and exercises presented, would apply not only to overeating but to many other negative behavioral patterns.

Burroughs's book is a wonderful tale of exploration into the dense, winding, wonderful Waccamaw River in SC, and into the mostly forgotten past of his native Horry County. His marvelous sense of detail, poetic sensibility, and grand sympathies with all things natural and human make this a memoroble book indeed. I know Prof. Burroughs might hoot at the comparison, but I enjoyed this book as much as anything I've read in Thoreau.

A human life, I think, should be well rooted in some spot of native land, where it may get the love of tender kinship for the face of the earth, for the labors men go forth to, for the sounds and accents that haunt it, for whatever will give that early home a familiar, unmistakable difference amidst the future widening of knowledge: a spot where the definiteness of early memories may be inwrought with affection, and kindly acquaintance with all neighbors, even to dogs and donkeys, may spread not by sentimental effort and reflection, but as a sweet habit of the blood. -George Eliot (Daniel Deronda)

This sentiment and the chance discovery of Nathaniel Holmes Bishop's The Voyage of the Paper Canoe (1878), detailing a canoe trip down the East Coast which included a side trip on the Waccamaw River, were the twin impulses that lead Burroughs to return to his native Horry County, SC and make his own trip down the Waccamaw. Burroughs, a professor at Bowdoin, published a terrific collection of essays Billy Watson's Croker Sack in 1991 (it even made Mr. Doggett's Suggested Summer Reading List for Students) and this book is every bit as good.

Whether he's detailing the history of the county, the river and his own family or relating his encounters with the river's unique residents or describing the wildlife he encounters, Burroughs has a sharp eye, a sympathetic ear and a silver tongue. Here is his description of one bird he meets:

Yesterday a red-shouldered hawk had called the day to order, and got its business underway. Today it was a pileated woodpecker: a staccato drum-burst against a hollow tree, then the bird itself. It flew across in front of me, with its peculiar alternation of flap, swoop, and collapse, and its last swoop fetched it up against the trunk of a cypress. It clung there a moment, cocked and primed, a perfectly congruous mixture of Woody Woodpecker, frock-coated nineteenth-century deacon and pterodactyl. Then it gave the tree an abrupt, jackhammer strafing, rolled out its lordly call, and swooped away, leaving the day to its own devices.

If you've ever seen one, you know that a pileated woodpecker has never been described better and if you haven't you must almost feel that now you have.

This is a wonderful bucolic look at the history and nature of the Waccamaw, which will leave you wishing that you too had such a place coursing through your blood.

GRADE: A

This is a beautiful book, from the painting of Cooperstown on the cover to glossary where historical references, or the names of birds or other words that have changed over time are explained. Cooper's prose is insightful and charming, and, given the book's historial prespective, makes me think about present and future environmental concerns for our country. Rural Hours makes the chain of small mill towns we have here in the Blackstone Valley region of Massachusetts come alive--Cooper saw the quiet commerce of the canals give way to the noise and pollution of the railroad industry and realized that the land and species of bird and animal life surrounding her were threatened. However Cooper's response to these feelings of peril was not to preach, but rather to praise the countryside and the life forms she witnessed. As a woman reader, I must also say that it right and just that the parts of Rural Hours that were omitted from all editions since 1870 should be brought back to us to now think about, appreciate, and learn from. Since reading, this book has stayed with me--the many beautiful images of nature that Cooper portrays, but also her quiet voice of urgency that encourages me to continue positive action in my own community, to not only save what land is left, but also to restore urban and other environments that have been abused. I highly recommend Rural Hours--it's a great read, a book to cherish.

For over a century, admirer's of Susan Fenimore Cooper's "Rural Hours" (1850) have been dependent on a heavily abridged version dating from 1887 -- the only one to be reprinted in modern times. Though "Rural Hours" is generally accepted both as good reading and as a major contribution to American nature writing, it has not previously been available as the author originally wrote it -- and as others, including Thoreau, read it. Susan Fenimore Cooper, long overshadowed by her novelist father, is today becoming recognized as an important writer of the 19th century; this new text will make her most important and influential work fully available again both to scholars and to a new generation of readers.

I bought this for my sister who recently graduated from SCAD herself. She thought it was neat to see some of her academic buildings through the years. I bought it after my wife and I visited her in Savannah which had a wonderful historic charm in areas.

A well-researched addition to the history of Savannah and the Savannah College of Art and Design. The descriptions and the photographs are first-rate, and Arcadia Publishing has done another great job in the quality of this one. Kudos to the author, Connie Pinkerton.

Extensively researched and brilliantly written, this book by Carl Solana Weeks relates the story of Savannah's pre-revolutionary and revolutionary past through the experiences of his ancestor Peter Tondee and those who were in close contact with the historic figure during his life. Tondee owned the bar in Savannah where the Sons of Liberty planned parts of the American Revolution, and was an important figure in Savannah's colonial society. His life was so interesting that Weeks, having started writing and finished over half of the book in a fictionalized style, reconsidered and rewrote the entire book in a historical style without embellishment, to great effect. Easy and enjoyable to read, Savannah in the Time of Peter Tondee will keep you turning pages while learning interesting and little known stories and facts about the colonial history and significance of the "Hostess City of the South."

J. Lyon Layden
The Other Side of Yore

Savannah in the Time of Peter Tondee is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of not-so-famous early settlers of Colonial Georgia that is part history, part genealogy, and every bit a lively read. Early on the author indicates he had started the book as a relatively straightforward family history on his ancestor Peter Tondee, an early settler and fairly prominent citizen of Savannah. Like many researchers Weeks is vexed by the paucity of records on his ancestor and comments "I have only caught of glimpse, shadows passing in and out of view." Sentiments echoed by many other researchers as they search in vain for a better understanding of their ancestors. Weeks instead weaves the few threads of his ancestor's life into those of the community around him in Savannah and the results make for captivating reading. Orphaned at a young age Peter Tondee is placed in the orphanage started by Reverend Whitefield, one of the prominent figures of Colonial Georgia and Tondee's life is played out against the larger and smaller events of the young colony.

Weeks's writing is very lively and he recalls many tales of Savannah both familiar and forgotten. Well annotated and researched the book is a lively retelling of how difficult the colonial period was for average citizens. Savannah in the Time of Peter Tondee would be of great interest to those wanting to learn more about Savannah and Colonial Georgia, especially the lives of average citizens as well as for those interested in writing on family histories. Weeks has taken what could be a major drawback (lack of primary source records) and turned it instead into a very interesting book.

Although you would think this more of a coffee table book, it is a good read and has some beautiful pictures.

Savannah has always been a "southern-charm" city. Some of it's beauty and history has been preserved by the renewal of interest in it's squares, small parks and cemeteries. This book is a perfect companion depicting the charm of this city-so unique in the busy world of today. Not only is the photography superb, but the accompanying writing is great. A great memory boost for someone who has been to Savannah or a precursor for someone preparing to tour the city. I visited in the mid 1960s and was delighted to see it again! Thanks!