Alabama Books

The book's table of contents serves as the index: all 125 waterfalls are listed. At $9.95 this book is an exceptional value (8 cents per waterfall).

This book does a great job of giving detailed maps and directions to some waterfalls that are very remote and obscure (as well as some that aren't). The author, a former surveyor, is very precise with his descriptions with milages accurate to .05 miles. The chief drawbacks are a lack of commentary and information on the fauna and flora of the region and a complex identification system that becomes rather cumbersome. Overall, an excellent catelog of some of the prettiest waterfalls in the region.

The title might make this seem like a fairly comprehensive waterfall guide for three states. It does cover waterfalls of Georgia better than any other book I know of. It's section for Alabama is relatively short. I'm less familiar with Alabama and don't know whether that means the book's coverage is sparser there, or whether there are far fewer waterfalls (or at least far fewer public-viewable ones) in Alabama. But as for Tennessee, the book's title is a bit mislesding to the extent that it would seem to claim general coverage for waterfalls in that state. There are whole good-sized waterfall-rich portions of Tennessee that are completely left out. The north part of the Cumberland Plateau is one part left out and the other is the northern district of Cherokee National Forest. Those areas are more or less as waterfall-rich as their more southerly counterparts that are covered in the book. Also omitted from this book is the Tennessee portion of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but another book by the same author does cover waterfalls of that park. Another drawback of this book is that it has no index. But the upside is that, in the areas it does cover this book provides good directions to the waterfalls in question and maps in most cases. The maps show contour lines, which makes the trails easier to follow for those who know something about reading topographig maps. For the falls it does cover, it is therefore a good guide. It also has in the middle a section of beautiful photographs, most of them in color. Possibly it is the most comprehensive waterfall guide for Georgia, and I wouldn't konw about Alabama. But as for Tennnessee, there is a much more complete waterfall guide that covers all parts of that state that have waterfalls, and that is WATERFALLS OF TENNESSEE by Gregory Plumb.

My family has been drug up to North Georgia to hike on every Waterfall in this book. We love Blood Mountain falls and Wildcat Creek falls, because you can slide down them. Barnes Creek in the Cohutta Wilderness is another great place to play, right when the trail starts at the bottom, and all the way up to all the multiple falls. There is a big grass camping field on top of the mountain for a wonderful all downhill hike on Barnes Creek too. The falls in the Tallulah Basin and over by the Chattooga River are so exciting to find and explore. The scary cliff clinging hike in the Three Forks is as good as it gets. Mark even mentions Rock Town, an area of house size boulders you have to climb on , around, and under. You could spend all day there and still not see everything. It's amazing how many waterfalls the great state of Georgia has. Get this book and start enjoying some of the best weekends in some of the best wilderness area's in all of the Eastern U.S. There are so many more waterfalls past Anna Ruby and Amicalola. Please pack out though, and be safe. Another great waterfall book is Waterfalls of the Southern Appalachians, which covers waterfalls in North and South Carolina. Go Mark Go.

The title might make this seem like a fairly comprehensive waterfall guide for three states. It does cover waterfalls of Georgia better than any other book I know of. It's section for Alabama is relatively short. I'm less familiar with Alabama and don't know whether that means the book's coverage is sparser there, or whether there are far fewer waterfalls (or at least far fewer public-viewable ones) in Alabama. But as for Tennessee, the book's title is a bit mislesding to the extent that it would seem to claim general coverage for waterfalls in that state. There are whole good-sized waterfall-rich portions of Tennessee that are completely left out. The north part of the Cumberland Plateau is one part left out and the other is the northern district of Cherokee National Forest. Those areas are more or less as waterfall-rich as their more southerly counterparts that are covered in the book. Also omitted from this book is the Tennessee portion of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but another book by the same author does cover waterfalls of that park. Another drawback of this book is that it has no index. But the upside is that, in the areas it does cover this book provides good directions to the waterfalls in question and maps in most cases. The maps show contour lines, which makes the trails easier to follow for those who know something about reading topographig maps. For the falls it does cover, it is therefore a good guide. It also has in the middle a section of beautiful photographs, most of them in color. Possibly it is the most comprehensive waterfall guide for Georgia, and I wouldn't konw about Alabama. But as for Tennnessee, there is a much more complete waterfall guide that covers all parts of that state that have waterfalls, and that is WATERFALLS OF TENNESSEE by Gregory Plumb.

Unlike most other travel books,it does not categorize it's contents by city or region. This book instead gives a "topic" with names like "Time Travel" or such to each trip. However,it's very difficult to people who aren't familiar with Alabama to plan a trip with only this book. There isn't any kind of detailed map for regions. I can't even know where the cities it talks about are. It doesn't say too much on each region's attractions but has 60% of it's pages advertising hotels and restaurants. Also,the rest information of the 40% can mostlikely be obtained easily from some public source. I think the yellow page can do the same job for free if i ever need those information. The entire book is printed on non-color bad quility paper which hurts my eyes so much. Overall,in my opinion,this book isn't very helpful and should be worth 1/5 of it's price.

Book is great if you like to visit old houses and fancy restruants Having lived in Alabama all my life I was disapointed with the book.There is more to Alabama then this.

This is a great book to have about visiting a wonderful state.

If your children are doing school reports on specific states, this book could make the difference between a ho-hum report and a top notch report. The school librarian should have this book.

I highly recommend it.

I found this book to be exceptional. In addition to providing enticing ideas for weekend getaways in my state, it is historically interesting. It covers the entire state and includes ideas for everyone ... campers, romantics, history lovers, shoppers, etc. Although not the type book one normally reads for entertainment, I found I had trouble putting it down long enough to sleep. It brought back fond memories of places I've visited, made me mad that I'd missed things I didn't realize were in visited areas, and elicited a strong desire to TRAVEL more throughout my beautiful and historical state! A WONDERFUL BOOK!

This book is a work of art for travelers. Very well done. My wife and I use a lot of travel books and this one gets an A+. The text is well written, the organization is clear and the photos are pertinent. Also well indexed - many travel books are lacking in that department. The theme is from south to north, but the Contents and the Index make for easy hopping around. Even the use of bold type for key names, while not original, allows quick referencing. There are lots of web references as well as the usual names and addresses. I wish the photos were in color. I hope the author and her husband/photographer do some more states.

This books gives a great autobiography of the state of Alabama, filled with tons of useless dates and names of people who had no lasting impact on the state. Anything and anybody plus their family history that had something to do with Alabama is crammed into one chapter. The book is struggle to read and hard to keep up with.

Alabama has a turbulent history. I hate to use clichés, but in this case the word "turbulent" really fits. In fact, Alabama's history is so politically charged and divisive that no scholar dared touch it for 60 years. This book is the first comprehensive history of the state written since Moore's HISTORY OF ALABAMA of 1934. An awful lot has happened since then.

This book does justice to the state and its fascinating, if not always comfortable, history. It enjoys the intellectual resources of four notable scholars, with paths variously intersecting at Auburn University. It's a political and social history, divided into four chronologically arranged sections, each written by one of the four. The coverage of early Alabama settlement and consolidation is a bit thin, the narrative rushing somewhat to reach secession, but the rest of the book is rock solid, up until about 1992.

All the topics you expect to be in here are: Cotton prosperity, The Civil War, Reconstruction, the Great Depression, the Jim Crow Era, Civil Rights, and modern economic development. There are also a few nice surprises too, such as good studies of the development of education in the state, the role of women during the many wars, and the tense balance between agricultural populism and industrial growth. It's a well-written, comprehensive study that presents the state in a critical but respectful light. And since the standards of scholarship are high, the reader should expect criticism where criticism is due. The authors use their sharp narrative skills with the support of appropriate data to test hypotheses and reach conclusions that are difficult to refute. It's an enjoyable casual read, but also a rigorous analysis. This is history done well.

As good as any of the other Southern state histories (better than most, actually), this book should be included in the library of any amateur or professional Southern historian.

This is truly one of the most comprehensive histories of Alabama I have encountered. From the first settlement by Native Americans to the confusing, and most times laughable, political present of the "state" of Alabama. Dr. Wayne Flynt, Professor Emeritus at the University of Auburn, writes the final section of this book which covers the socio-economical status and political machinations of Alabama from the early 1900's through the present. He has a clear insight of where Alabama has been historically and where she must go to contribute significantly to her people and her nation. A must read for anyone who votes in Alabama and a must read for those who envision a new and brighter history for Alabama.

The most comprehensive history of Alabama I have found on amazon. It covers a large period, from Native Americans to present.

A must read for anyone who loves Alabama also if not American like me (I'M Italian).

Chicken Dreaming Corn gave me, an American with Romanian ancestory who now resides in the south, insight into the roots of our family values and the guiding themes of that particular generation of immigrants' lives. The compelling story is carried mainly by the immediate love the reader feels toward the main and certainly most realized of Hoffman's characters, Morris Kleinman. The story is crafted in such a way that Hoffman leads the reader seamlessly through the important events in Morris' life in such a way that flashbacks and backstory never seem contrived. The reader is privy to the building of Morris' character as well as his lapses into weakness. He is both inspirational and steadfast, an everyday hero because he lives strongly by the themes of his generation: family, hardwork, pride, humanity, and strength. These are personified in the Morris' actions against the monumental difficulties in his life, difficulties that he never lets stand in his way.

The story could have been deepened for me if Hoffman had given a bit more attention to the personality of Morris's fellow store owner and life long friends as well as the other people in his family and town. Though he touches on a few of these characters, I feel that he let a many of them drop and did not satify me with the depth of relationship that Hoffman implied. Many of the subplots moved too quickly for me and could have been strengthened without remotely risking a rambling story. Hoffman's writing is vivid and concise, but a bit too concise, sometimes leaving me just wanting to get back to Morris because I could not sink my teeth into the other characters.

Despite this, Chicken Dreaming Corn is a worthy read and has definitely taken a unique bend on two thoroughly written about experiences: that of the American south and that of the greatest, absolutely greatest, generation.

Morris Kleinman has travelled from his native Romania to New York and now to the port city of Mobile, Alabama, to raise his family and start his fortune.

The journey from the Old World wasn't easy for father Morris but he has brought with him the virtues of hard work and a mighty faith in God. These mores, along with the many opportunities in a young country, may just give this Jewish shop owner a chance at a better life.

While the Kleinman family fares better than they would in their homeland, where Jews are under the iron shackles of Anti-Semitism, their lives are still dominated by cultural prejudice, financial hardship and tragedy.

The story starts in 1916 and takes the reader through nearly 30 years of family history; through two world wars and the Great Depression. The sacrifices required to live through tough times are a major theme in the book. One has to be taken by how recent arrivees to America have such a love of country even as their own lives are so trying.

Another interesting aspect of the book is the friendships that Morris forges with blacks and immigrants like Cubans in his downtown neighborhood. There is a strong sense of community among these people, who have little more in common than the place they have chosen to make a new life. Highly recommended.

Sweetly written and possessing a distinctive charm, Roy Hoffman's paean to Southern Jewish immigrant life is a novel of missed opportunities. Its title, "Chicken Dreaming Corn" draws from a Romanian idiom speaking to our universal anguish over unfulfilled dreams. Ironically, Hoffman's novel sadly mirrors the perpetually hungry chicken, wistfully dreaming of a full stomach only to live with a growling hunger.

At its best, "Chicken" captures the wistful and frequently derailed hopes immigrants cherish as they climb -- at first on the lowest rungs and then, slowly, clumsily up -- the ladder of economic betterment and social acceptance. Lamentably, however, Hoffman's story is predictable, his characters lack depth, and his insights are not particularly new or instructive.

"Chicken" chronicles the life of Morris Kleinman, who flees his Romanian homeland in the wake of anti-Jewish pogroms and arrives, fully of hope and ambition, in America. He ultimately arrives in the multi-ethnic Southern port city of Mobile, Alabama, where he sets up shops and raises a family. Full of optimism and genuine decency in his business dealings, Morris rejoices in the small victories he earns in his Dauphin Street neighborhood. There, other immigrants scratch their way out of poverty and grapple with the now-familiar burdens of assimilation, identity reformation and generational conflict.

Kleinman loves America but cannot shake his Old World roots. He emerges as a lovable Dixie Teyva, shrugging his shoulders at adversity and arguing amiably in Yiddish with his God. He doggedly sweeps clean the sidewalk in front of his dry-goods/furniture store. Hoffman painfully points out this blatantly symbolic daily ritual; no matter how hard Morris works to cleanse his life of unwelcome clutter and painful memories, debris and disaster reoccur. Death is a constant companion, first claiming his immediate family and then extending its grasp to friends and foes alike. Disappointments land like calculated blows on his already overburdened shoulders; his oldest son seethes with resentments and his youngest son shows little interest in sustaining his father's business. One of the unsettling realizations Morris is compelled to accept is that he never will be a true Confederate; his efforts at being a loyal son of the South are mocked by the impermeable anti-Semitism of his community.

It is this jagged confluence of a good man's attempts to understand and integrate himself in a new, alien community and his ultimate failure to dent deeply-held prejudices that Hoffman chose not to explore. This decision robs the novel of authenticity. The author never explains how Morris, the father, responds to his son's confrontation with the Klan. Hoffman inexplicably turns away from analyzing Morris' transformation from being a jovial-Jewish good-guy creditor to a more modern, hard-handed businessman. Instead, Hoffman seems content to have Morris learn how to grow a spine by osmosis from his oldest son, Abraham.

"Chicken Dreaming Corn" doesn't bother with fleshing out female characters. The long-suffering Miriam steadfastly stands by her man while simultaneously mourning the loss of her real love, Brooklyn. Appropriately named Aunt Fanny really serves no other purpose than existing as a sexual fantasy for Kleinman's youngest son. By the time she finally emerges as an intriguing, complex woman, Fanny still serves as but a foil to the son's developing social conscience.

Just as creamed corn is a quintessential comfort food, "Chicken Dreaming Corn" is easy to swallow but provides no true sustenance. Lacking nuance, the novel travels fast but arrives nowhere. Southern Jewish memoirists have surveyed the territory Roy Hoffman has claimed with far more accuracy and integrity. While earnest and easy to absorb, this novel is best seen as an unfulfilled dream.

I just finished reading "Chicken Dreaming Corn" by Roy Hoffman and found it a most satisfying read. As a lifelong resident of the Mobile, Alabama area myself, I have often thought that the multicultural origins of the great port cities of the Southern United States are not well understood by our neighbors in other parts of the country. As I have travelled, I have often had comments on my lack of stereotypical southern accent and have found myself explaining that Mobile is a city with origins and cultural influence from around the world. It continues to be so today. Certainly, as portrayed in this book, we have a microcosm of the American experience. Also, this book tells once again the poignant story of the human experience...the hopes and dreams of a man for his life and for his children's lives weighed down as always by those things which we simply can't change. If you would like to walk in the shoes of a Southern Jewish American dress salesman who lives over his store on a street in a Southern port city with his children and wife in the first half of the twentieth century and whose smoking companions include a Cuban cigar maker, a German furniture salesman,and a Greek baker, then you will enjoy escaping back in time with Roy Hoffman for a few hours. Thanks Mr. Hoffman.

Smith certainly knows how to interweave characters' plots. This is a delightful book. A bit more obvious than her later books, it is also more humorous, with several laugh-out- loud moments. Mostly, it has a wry sense of irony, as people believably rail against the very vice they are illustrating, for instance. The title is ostensibly about an event in competitive baton twirling (a quintessentially Southern event in 1965, the time of the novel). But, the title is also about the self-congratulatory town celebrating its 150th anniversary, and all of the town's population are represented doing their own version of a "fancy strut." I think my favorite is Manly Neighbors (a too-obvious name, but fun), the owner/editor of the weekly paper, a happily complacent guy who knows he doesn't like to think too much. I also like batty, snobbish old Miss Iona Flowers, a belle left over from a finer era, as she alone sees it.

I have read most of Lee Smith's books, I found this one to be one of the best, It flows and keeps you guessing

I had a very hard time getting through this one. I have enjoyed some of Smith's other work, but I had to force myself through this one. The characters were one-dimensional caricatures and the plot seemed contrived and disjointed. This story was certainly not as tightly woven as FAMILY LINEN, which I enjoyed immensely.

This book made me laugh so hard, so often, I had to run to the bathroom on more than one occasion to avoid wetting my pants. The characters are all a delight to get to know, even the ones you love to hate, and it made me wish I lived among fun folks like these. What better compliment could a writer get?

Response time was very short. You couldl tell that the book was used, but nothing beyond what would be considered "normal" wear. Overall conditioin was very good.

I've only read bits and pieces of his book, but a recent opinion piece that he penned in the Fulton County Daily Report--in which he maliciously attacks a sitting federal judge and attempts to whitewash Hugo Black's vile racist/anti-Catholic tactics during an infamous Birmingham, Alabama murder trial in the 1920s--strongly suggests to me that Suitts's book is not worth the trouble.

In a word, Suitts appears to me to be nothing more than a liberal, partisan hack.

This superbly researched and written biography of Hugo Black recreates for the reader the times in which the Deep South was bound up by traditions of white supremacy and how a Southern white man developed a judicial philosophy and temperament to help end America's legal segregation and restore a simple justice that was the hoped for outcome of the American civil war, but which had been undercut by the development of a "Jim Crow" social order of repression and segregation. Biographer Steve Suitts provides new and pivotal information as he lays out the story of Black's personal and public life, provides new perspectives on the sweeping forces that shaped the destiny of Black's life, and the struggle for racial justice in the first quarter of the 20th century. A work of impressive and accessible scholarship, Hugo Black Of Alabama is a highly commended addition to community and academic library American Biography and Judicial History collections.

Very timely, with the recent death of Judge Rehnquist, the book gives and in-depth picture of a man who follows his own ideals of truth, justice and the equality of all men, regardless of color or faith.

If a bus could talk is about a little girl named Marcie who steps onto a bus that can talk. The bus tells her that she is ridng on the Rosa Parks bus. Then the bus tells her about Rosa Park's life and about Martin Luther King and the bus boycott. I learned alot about Rosa Park's life from reading this book, and I would recommend If a Bus Could Talk to any child who doesn't know much about the civil rights movement.

The title is promising, but misleading. "If a Bus Could Talk" implies an entertaining story for the beginning reader; but, the concept is lost as the story drags from the first few sentences. The gimmick of the driverless bus is mishandled, and one soon wonders why the author thought it necessary add a gimmick to a true story that is inherently interesting when skillfully told. One might speculate that someone early on criticized the book as being a Civil Rights manual for young adults rather than a picture book for children; hence, the story was prefaced with the garbled mess that makes up its first few pages of text. Perhaps that part was hastily added. The suggested audience is the five-to-nine age group. Any healthy five-year old will be dozing from page one. Once it becomes obvious that the prose is better suited to an older child, though, the biography itself becomes quite informative.

By the third or fourth page, the talking bus is forgotten, except for the convention of including a quotation mark at the beginning of each paragraph. The story becomes a straightforward account of Rosa McCauley Parks' life story. As such, it is compelling. The KKK is mentioned early on, with dramatic descriptions of midnight raids that must have been terrifying to a black child growing up in the hostile environment of segregated Alabama. The book mentions torture, beatings and lynchings--quite graphic for a picture book. But it goes on to provide good, detailed biographical material on Rosa, from childhood into adulthood. It tells of her mother, Leona's, determination to have Rosa educated beyond the shamefully lacking, bare-minimum education provided for black children by the state of Alabama before 1960. At age eleven, Rosa went to a girl's school in Montgomery, and then "on to high school at Alabama State Teacher's College for Negroes," but was forced to drop out of school due to illness and death in the family. She did go on to get her diploma, but later on couldn't get a job that would utilize her skills. Meanwhile, she took a job at a department store, doing sewing and alterations. Here, the storyline gets a little disorganized. It gives an early account of discrimination by bus drivers and explains in detail some of the insults that black people were forced to endure under the segregation laws. This might be the perfect lead-in to Rosa's famous protest, but instead, the story jumps to Rosa's marriage to Raymond Parks and goes off on a tangent about Mr. Parks' association with the NAACP. It details Rosa's attempts to get registered to vote and how she managed to do it. Then it jumps to the "fateful day" when Rosa Parks took "this very bus" and refused to give up her seat. Her arrest follows. The book once again bogs down in a quicksand of factual details of the Civil Rights movement, describing the efforts of the NAACP, the Women's Political Council, and local black ministers to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It gets a little preachy. The young Dr. Martin Luther King and his speeches are mentioned, including his arrest and the bombing of his house as a result of his involvement in the boycott. This section barely maintains the book's pretext of being a picture book, once again sounding like a ninth-grade essay on Civil Rights. Finally, though, the storyline manages to straggle back to its simpler form and includes a few pages about freedom songs and birthday cakes. The illustrations are wonderfully rich in expressive color and soul. They beg for a simpler text.

The positive thing about this book is that it is a good, factual, biographical account of the life of Rosa McCauley Parks, probably of interest to an older child who wants to make a study of the 1960's Civil Rights movement. It is a good reference work. Its failure is that it was published in a picture-book format that is too young for its ideal audience. It should have been a chapter book.

What would you do if a bus with eyes, nose, red hair, and a yellow cap pulled up to your bus stop? When the door opens and a voice calls out, "Step on up, young lady," Marcie does just that. It will be the ride of her life, for she hears the courageous story of Rosa Parks straight from Rosa's bus itself. This story spans a spectrum of detail in 32 pages: from Rosa McCauley's childhood in Pine Level, Alabama, to her marriage to Raymond Parks, to that fateful bus ride on December 1, 1955, to her continued struggle for equality after the boycott. The artistic style of Faith Ringgold leaps from the page in dramatic acrylic color on canvas. The suggested reading age for this book is 5 - 9. Yet it is not a quick read. Text is detailed enough to make some younger listeners restless. Vocabulary is challenging enough to daunt some older beginner readers. But don't let that deter you from sharing If a Bus Could Talk with your children. No doubt they take their integrated schools, pools, movies, and restaurants for granted. If anything, this story will get THEM to talk!

If a bus could talk is about a little girl named Marcie who steps onto a bus that can talk. The bus tells her that she is ridng on the Rosa Parks bus. Then the bus tells her about Rosa Park's life and about Martin Luther King and the bus boycott. I learned alot about Rosa Park's life from reading this book, and I would recommend If a Bus Could Talk to any child who doesn't know much about the civil rights movement.

Edited by AuthorHouse this work has the style of what one would expect of a short novel from a part-time writer who must resort to publishing "aux frais d'auteur". Details of the intrigue aside, the clumsy prose leads one to surmise that Naito san has devoted too much of his study of English fiction to reading supermarket check-out counter bodice-rippers. Potential readers would do well to peruse a copy to sample some of the riper passages relating the "romantic" encounters of the protagonist. Not that it isn't laudable to introduce a more "I-love-you-kind-of-guy" to the world of crime fiction, but the flowery amorous descriptions and accompanying stilted dialogue are more laugh-inducing than they are heart-warming.
The image of the Deep South as a milieu is shallowly romanticized and lacking in any truly evocative mood, such that one finds oneself yearning for a single "immediate" detail that might relate to a true insight. Similarly, characters -- local or otherwise -- are mostly stock "types" without any convincing dimension beyond cardboard outline. Those looking to reinforce an image of slender, winsome, blue-eyed Southern belles will enjoy the read. Despite the Alabama setting, Japanese readers can safely give this one an ol' miss.

I bought this novel after reading a review in The Japan Times. I didn't expect much since I didn't know anything about this author, but I was very surprised. The novel combines education and entertainment in a superbly balanced fashion.

The novel opens with a Japanese private eye, Suda, receiving an unexpected visitor in his Tokyo office. The visitor turns out to be a client, who asks Suda to look for her missing husband, a Japanese businessman, in Alabama. From there, the stage moves to a rustic country town in the American deep South, and I was drawn in so powerfully that I couldn't put down the book. The author captures the mood in the South so beautifully that, as The Japan Times pointed out, I was reminded of the equally excellent movie, "In the Heat of the Night," starring Sydney Poitier. Racial tension was the theme then, and racial tension is also a theme in this novel. But as The Japan Times also argues, this author "does not dwell overly on interracial attitudes; he also alludes to the extraordinary friendliness and hospitality of which people in the U.S. South are indeed capable."

This relatively short novel is rich in content and texture and is an outstanding mystery novel as well as a romance novel. The book is educational in a sense that it presents us with a dilemma of having to balance economic interests and national pride. I hope our politicians read this novel so that they can get some sense of the danger we may face if we don't watch out for foreign influence in America. In close, I am going to paraphrase once again what the reviewer wrote in The Japan Times. "Reading 'The Red Earth of Alabama' made me reflect on how much America, and the world, have changed in the past 38 years." I concur.

Of the three mysteries written by this author, I like The Red Earth of Alabama the best. In fact, this novel is one of the best in the genre. A private detective from Tokyo going to Alabama to track down a missing Japanese businessman is an intriguing motif for a mystery to begin with, but the novel really goes much deeper. There is a serious theme of protectionism versus free trade underlying this novel by which the author reminds us all of the danger of putting economic interest ahead of national integrity.

This is a relatively short novel and is very easy to read, and yet, it is rich in texture and realistic to the core. Of course, the author does not forget to entertain us, either. The novel is sprinkled with episodes that are skillfully designed to excite us and move us. There is violence. There is love. There is sorrow. There is joy. And what a sexy novel this is! The Red Earth of Alabama not only stands out as a perceptive commentary on current affairs but also as one masterfully crafted entertainment masterpiece.

No hype, no glitz, no gimmick. This is just a down-to-earth excellent mystery by a relatively unknown author. The story is about a Japanese private eye investigating a case of a missing Japanese businessman in rural Alabama. What amazed me is how well the Japanese detective blends into the rustic setting of small-town USA. The story revolves around a Japanese transplant and its economic as well as social implications. This is definitely a mystery with a message and yet, nothing in this novel is pedantic or boring. From the onset, the novel smells like a typical hard-boiled American mystery but there are no stereotypes here. Most characters seem well-rounded individuals and so real.
The story is so well-conceived I certainly could not guess the ending. Five stars to this excellent mystery.

When I spotted this book,the cover ( the paperback edition shows a girl in a farm field ) was the thing that caught my attention.It immediately made me think of the Southern novels by Erskine Caldwell.God's Little Acre,Tobacco Road and many,many,more made him the best of the Southern,earthy novelists.For several reasons,he is almost unknown today ;but at his height he even outsold Steinbeck.The reasons why his works are hard to find,have more to do about bucking the establishment and political correctness and not over the supurb,quality,popularity and originality of his work.
If one has read much by Caldwell;it is very natural to compare Southern novels with his.This book is an easy read and it did keep my interest; all the way to the end ,but I kept looking for more than there was there.
For me,I have to feel the author's passion and experiences with the location,stories and most of all the characters.Caldwell lived and knew the characters in his novels and even when he created fictional characters they became real.
Obviously,while Pruett is a well trained and literally connected author,there is no feeling that she ever really knew the people,or types of people, she developed in this book.
Can a female writer compete with the likes of Caldwell,Faulkner and Steinbeck? Yes,I think so ,Margaret Mitchell immediately comes to mind.
This book gives me the feeling it was written by a 'trained artist'rather than by one who 'walked the walk'.
Maybe this is the quality of what one gets from the American Voice,Southern Exposure,Black Warrior Review and The Writing Group Book, Limestone and The Louisville Review;I don't know,not having read any of them.I think the success of great authors comes from life experience gained by living with the people not by being a writer-in residence in some center of literacy.

Sure, compare this fun amusement to Fannie Flag, but comparing this to Faukner IS pushing it. It's a fun beach read, enjoy.

Wonderful! This is being presented as a "debut novel," but it is supremely accomplished, in both content and style. I read slowly, and put aside as many novels as I finish, maybe more, because sooner or later the author starts slacking off, delivering flat predictable scenes or long stretches of humdrum prose. That never happens here. Lynn Pruett is unfailing good company for 276 pages, and as you make your way through her numerous short chapters, each one offers its own distinct thrill of discovery and insight. The prose is the same way: always graceful, apt, and basically easy, it always has more to offer when you want to pause and savor the full import or the exact tone of what is being said.

Story-wise, what first captures you is the humor of the early chapters, the wonderfully strange mixture of horniness and holiness: that, and of course the human interest of Hattie's quest, as she basically takes on the world in defense of her truck stop and her four girls. Part of what the girls need to be protected from, though, is their own uncontrollable sensuality, with its disastrous tendency to involve them with men twice their age. I don't want to give away too much, but there are enough off-center, ill-advised, oh-no sexual entanglements here to supply a dozen episodes of ER. But whenever you start thinking you have met these people before, on The Jerry Springer Show, you notice again how completely Pruett's writing captures what the tube never can: their humanity, the inner dignity that even the most mistaken and sinning of chracters have in this world.

There are plenty of laughs here, but in the end the story shapes up as a serious quest for redemption, taking us down into the worst places of family hurt and betrayal, then back up again, beautifully, just when we think it can't happen, to forgiveness and reconciliation. Reading for laughs, you end up with much more: a kinder take on the species, and some solid advice on how to turn your life around, should you happen to BE one of those people on The Jerry Springer Show.

Imagine what would happen if Fannie Flagg (the author of ``Fried Green Tomatoes'') had written one of Faulkner's novels, and you'll get a fair idea of the tone of Lynn Pruett's first novel.

The book crackles with fresh imagery, imaginative dialogue, and characters developed far beyond the usual small-town southern stereotypes.

This is a strongly feminist novel, without a word of visible femonist rhetoric. It's about women grabbing hold and taking control of their lives, even if some of the choices they make do not necessarily take them to good ends.

Pruett's male characters are awkward, shambling, but each bears a shred of redemptive grace, even the fire-and-brimestone preacher who gets caught--quite literally--with his pants undone.

Pruett is not afraid to leave loose ends at the end of the book. There is no neat denouement or resolution of some characters' core conflicts. It is as if a second volume ot stories about these same folks is waiting in the wings.

I read this book in a single sitting, and caution future readers that they will be compelled to do likewise, no matter what more compelling tasks lurk. All in all, a great read.

This book is very well written and gives great trail descriptions of some of my favorite hikes and some hikes that are sure to become my favorites.

I bought it but returned it to my local store when I discovered that the author did not include any GPS waypoint coordinates. This is unfortunate because the book description states that it contains GPS based maps. It does contain maps that were created using what must have been the author's GPS tracks/waypoints, but I am disappointed that the author did not share the GPS waypoints with his readers.

In this day and age, any new trail guide really needs to take advantage of the incredible capabilites of GPS technology and share waypoints with the reader. If the next edition of this book includes waypoints, then I will certainly buy it. If you do not use a GPS then you will find this book very helpful. If you do use GPS, you will feel somewhat disappointed that the author did not share his GPS waypoints.

From our local publisher, Menasha Ridge Press, this is a welcome book for all nature-lovers in Birmingham. You'll find rural and urban hikes, wildlife hikes, historic hikes and more. There are ample illustrations and the book is attractive enough to lure you out of the house to get out and make use of the great weather we enjoy neary year-round (the dog-days of July and August not included).

As a new citizen to Birmingham I was anxious to explore the city and its surroundings. After conquering the trails of Oak Mountain, Ruffner Mountain and Little River, I was eager to move on to bigger, better more!
A good compilation of local trails in detail. The difficult choice now is which one do I tackle next weekend?