Arkansas Books

I Love ALL Enid's books. Her stories always captures the heart of the readers because it reflects our every day lifes. Not only that, it teaches good characters. The price are also very affordable!

I think the only reason I became an avid reader was because I was introduced to Enid Blyton books as a child. Born and raised in the tropics(part of the British Empire at one time), I found it hard to believe that I coudn't find them easily at bookstores here in the USA when I wanted to buy them for my daughter. I would say the first books I chose to pick up for her to read were the Wishing Chair series and the Faraway Tree series. I think they really represent what Enid Blyton's books are all about. Her books are not only imaginative and entertaining they contain good values and an appreciation of nature. The Wishing Chair series is a set of stories about a boy and girl who end up with a magical chair that sprouts wings on each of its legs. And when it does its ready to fly off and take the children to visit mysterious lands full of magic and wonder. For those children who are not ready for spine tinglers and chillers, her fairy tales create a warm, comforting setting with just the right touches of fun and humor to encourage even the most reluctant of readers to continue turning pages and asking for more. My daughter and I have since collected over 250 of her books. This year, I donated extra copies that I owned to her elementary school because I really believe that her books can reach out to any reluctant reader. My daughter said that she even found teachers reading them during their spare time. If you have spare copies of her books, please consider donating them to schools. Most school libraries are rarely able to obtain them.

I have to agree with the users below. I was raised in Malaysia and most books were imported from the UK. These were the books that really helped my english. I am really surprised that they don't sell these books in the US. I wholeheartedly recommend Enid Blyton's books to all children, I wish I still had mine!

I originally purchased this book as part of a southern history class in college. At semester's end, I chose it as one of the few books I would add to my permanent collection. This volume is filled with stories reminiscent of post-Civil War Arkansas Ozarks, seen through the eyes of a man who grew up in the pristine Leatherwoods. It reminds me so much of the Mark Twain stories we've all read in school, but means even more because the people are not just based on real individuals, they ARE real. I highly recommend it!

John Quincy Wolf depicts life in the Arkansas White River area in the late 1880-90's..It is very descriptive of how people lived and reacted to these environs; and easily and eagerly read. There is some duplication of parts of stories since some of the text is taken from newspaper columns written by the author over the intervening years.
But it is very interesting and gives good account of what life was like growing up in those times. I would recommend it.
Verne Garrison

Great book about growing up in the Ozarks. Wonderful pen & ink drawings.

It was Hizzoner, Jim Bob Buchanon's big day. Jim Bob's Supersaver Buy 4 Less was ready to open. The ribbon cutting ceremony was beginning, the high school band was playing, the cheerleaders were cheering, and the crush of the crowd had created a traffic jam in sleepy Maggody, Arkansas (population 755). With the deli, fresh produce department and food service picnic pavillion, some of the local merchants were far from happy, afraid ol' Jim Bob would put them out of business. But big events like this don't happen too often in Maggody, and so the whole town turned out to check out the new competition and try some of the promised, free "gourmet" food. Within minutes, people started getting sick and dropping like flies, and the big opening became the big closing. With her hands full of citizen complaints, health inspectors, and threats from Hizzoner, Chief of Police, Arly Hanks, could barely keep up with all the chaos, gossip, and rumors. But when another round of poisoning ensues, and a local dies, Arly figures this isn't just some mean spirited prank, turns up the heat on her investigation, and she won't stop until she gets to the truth..... Turn off the phone, and lock the door, Joan Hess is back with another marvelous romp through Maggody that will have you laughing out loud, and rooting for Arly to the very end. Her well paced story line is full of entertaining, vivid scenes, and intriguing subplots, and her writing is crisp and smart, complete with witty, irreverent dialogue and back-woods humor. But it's Ms Hess' wacky and quirky cast of characters that makes this novel stand out, and once you've gotten to know Maggody's finest, and not so finest, you'll be hooked for sure. With a hilarious climax that deftly ties all the story threads together, and a very satisfying conclusion, Madness In Maggody is a pleasure to read in a series that just gets better with each new installment. For those new to Arly Hanks and company, start at the beginning with Malice In Maggody, and read them all. For those who are already fans, enjoy!

In the 4th book in the Arly Hanks mystery series, a new supermarket is due to open in the small town of Maggody, Arkansas. Most of the business owners are furious, thinking that they will lose everything to the new store, Jim Bob's Supersaver Buy 4 Less. But on the opening day, after the band had played and the speeches were made, 23 people developed severe food poisoning at the free food giveaway in the picnic pavilion. Arly, Maggody's police chief, starts an investigation but cannot find proof of malicious intent until the results of laboratory tests are revealed. In the meantime, she tries to shut down the new store, and reluctantly agrees to keep the store open (but the picnic pavilion would remain closed). When pins and poison are found inside some pre-sealed snack cakes, Arly knows that someone is truly serious about thwarting the new business venture. But when someone dies from poisoning, this case turns from mischief to murder. Working hard despite having a gossip mill much larger than the town itself, Arly puts the pieces together and solves another mystery in this amusing peek at life in Maggody.

This is the first book that I have picked up in the Maggody series, and I have to admit that it did take me a while to figure out the characters and the dialogue. Not being born in the south, or from a small town, I found some of the aspects to be a bit odd at first...including the fact that there were only 755 people total that live in Maggody! But, I found the actions of the townspeople to be very comical and found the workings of the rumor mill to be entertaining. The mystery itself wasn't hard to decipher, but the appeal of this series seems to be in the characters themselves, as they are wacky, witty, and wonderfully entertaining. Great addition to the cozy genre!

The first book in the series is called "Malice in Maggody". Enjoy!

The Maggody series is the funniest mystery series that I have ever read. The characters are very well developed, and it does not take long before you feel like a citizen in this bizarre little town.

An incredible book, Rabbi Levi Meier captivates me with his words. There is so much "life" wisdom in these pages, it is a book I will keep forever!

There are three R's on the menu of Bible study...Reading, Reciting, and Remembering...but they are a mere apértif in the quenching of an enduring spiritual thirst. In this provocatively titled book, Levi Meier serves up a main course which serious Bible students, both kosher and Christian, can dig into with relish. With scholarly and insightful interpretations from the first five books of the Old Testament, Rabbi Meier sprinkles his book with such observations as, "Spiritual transformations take place more often in the gutter than in a soft bed," and "Joseph's brothers sold him into slaveryŠwe don't do thatŠwe sue." There are other tasty tidbits to savor (did you know that, in Hebrew, an angel is called an ISH?), but he is seriously informative addressing difficult subjects, such as the ambiguities of life, the significance of biblical paradox, and the usefulness of evil in the world. (His comments on page 182 about death are particularly poignant in light of the worldwide reaction to the recent loss of Princess Diana.) Can we expect a 249-page book to deliver more? This one does. In his own review, the author emphasizes his modern-day applications of Bible truths, but for me, his real-life anecdotes as a clinical psychologist and hospital chaplain were icing on the cake, not the meat-and-potatoes of his book. Through the courses of each chapter, Rabbi Meier delivers a nourishing, inspirational meal.

In these days where fundamentalist spiritual leaders demand to accept a simple interpretation of the Bible, Rabbi Meier uses his gifts as a rabbi and a Jungian analyst to open the Bible to all of us, not as a narrow document with one solution for all, but as a series of enduring stories which offer insight into our lives today. It proves that the reason the Torah endures is that it tells stories with universal meanings, that are as fresh today, millenia after the actual events, as they were when they were first told. Rabbi Meier shows how the Bible offers insight on a variety of issues from sexuality to honesty. He explains when the Torah instructs us not to bear false witness (that is, not to lie), it also allows us to lie--so as not to infflict pain. Perhaps, most important for the contemporary reader are the insights the Torah provides us on sexuality. Sex is not merely a means of pleasure, but one of communication and understanding. The Torah tells us that sexual intimacy MUST become a means of learning about our partner, not just for sexual intimacy, but also a means to spiritual intimacy. Rabbi Meier supplements this lesson from the Torah with lessons he has learned from his clients: the main cause of infidelity is a lack of communication between the partners. It is this ability to link the stories from the Torah to the knowledge he has gained in counseling clients (people seeing psychological help and spirtual guidance) that is the real strength of this book and it's why I recommend it highly. The language can be a little too simplistic at times, but at least that makes it easy to read. It's a good book and I dare say that it is one that I will continue to turn to for many years to come.

Dr. Raferty has done a wonderful job bringing together Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's journals of his adventure into the eastern and central Ozarks Region before major settlement. Schoolcraft's jouney begins at Potosi, Missouri on November 5, 1818 and proceeds southwest to the Arkansas border along the North Fork River. From there he travels northwest towards modern day Springfield and then back southeast into Arkansas along the White River to Batesville. From the Batesville area he proceeds northeast back towards Potosi arriving there on February 4, 1819.

Schoolcraft's descriptions of the unsettled land and its native plants and animals are wonderful. Prof. Raferty has added an appendix which provides a day by day account of Schoolcraft's journey and the modern reference points with amazing accuracy.

This is a great book for anyone with an interest in the history and geography of the Ozarks Region. Very well done!!

Schoolcraft's journal describing his expedition into the Missouri/Arkansas border area in the dead of an Ozarks winter is an entertaining read! He describes with great dignity how he fell into the icy cold river -not just once, but twice! He talks about the wildlife that roamed the area, many species of which are long gone from here now. He also talks about how clean and clear the rivers were then - a shame its not true today. Schoolcraft used an expansive vocabulary to describe his surroundings, which is almost more entertaining than the facts he's trying to relate. A common misconception is that Schoolcraft was exploring country that had never before been seen by white settlers. Not true! There were several hunters' families in small, isolated settlements in the area long before Schoolcraft arrived, and he stayed overnight with some of them. He saw himself as a bit of a lad, which is evidenced by his writings regarding the "greasy" women in the settlements. He once made some of his imported tea for a hunter's wife, who was used to drinking only sassafras tea. She told him his tea was the most bitter thing she'd ever tasted; a mark of how uncivilized she was, in Schoolcraft's opinion. He ends his journal abruptly, with no philosophical revelations about how 90 days of stomping through the brush and ice and greasy women has changed his life, etc., which is a bit of a let down, but all in all it's a fun read. In the back of the book Rafferty has inserted a table that relates the landmarks Schoolcraft described to the way the landscape looks/is used today. There are also several excellent maps marked with the dates and locations of Schoolcraft's movements. Rafferty's research, comments, and detailed maps, coupled with Schoolcraft's descriptive tales, earn this book a well-deserved Five Stars.

While not as famous as Lewis and Clark, Henry Schoolcraft conducted the first of his many expenditions with similar care and attention to detail. One needs to excuse some of the poetic descriptions. The book gives an excellent insight into the very early development of the region shortly after the Voyage of Discovery.

The author has considerable personal research with Schoolcraft's travels as a college professor leading field trips on portions of the expedition. The most helpful is the author's appendix which keys the days of travel to current day locations.

For anyone studying the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks, this is a must-have. It provides the only contemporary vision of this part of the United States prior to the rapid development in the years prior to the Civil War.

Outstanding effort by one of the best poets using rhyme and meter today. Comparing Mr.Steele to Gjertrud Schnackenberg,Dana Gioia,Robert Mezey,Greg Williamson,et al shows him in an extremely bright light and good company. The rhythm of his poetry moves and the impassioned messages are moving as well. Here is a sampling to whet the appetite:

'We enter life and thus inherit/The Kingdom of the human voice./ The Word is Word because we share it./Wonder encourages our choice/To sort out life's conflicting data,/To come to terms with its traumata,/To shape ourselves to nothing less/Than reasoned self-forgetfulness./For years we've traded rhyme and measure,/And if our poems are books today,/It is in hopes that others may/Take from them solace,sense,or pleasure,/ Though years pass with accustomed speed/And though the times we shared recede.'

Another favorite is about Luther at Wartburg,1521-22 (excerpt) 'Odd,how his genius courts expectancy,/And views life as a text it's read./Yet others,seeking God in all they see,/Not finding Him,will claim He's dead,/Or will descry false gods when history slips/Into a fraudulent Apocalypse.'

A great epigram that clinches the book for any reader/reviewer: 'Beethoven's 9th at the Hollywood Bowl': The chorus sings, musicians play,/ But on a stage so far away,/ It is as if we strain to hear/ The 1824 premiere.

Get your hands on anything by Mr. Steele, such as Color Wheel and his prose explanation of meter and verse 'All the Fun's In How You Say a Thing'. Enjoy!

Timothy Steele, in terms of his command of meter and rhyme, wit and irony, powers of observation and restraint, is the finest of the New Formalist poets. My only complaint with his work is that I get a strong sense of deja vu when reading it -- sometimes I think I'm reading Richard Wilbur instead. (Of course, Richard Wilbur is hardly a bad model.) Steele writes almost entirely in meter and rhyme and is the most competent poet featured in the "Rebel Angels" anthology.

Sapphics and Uncertainties contains Tim Steele's first two collections of Poetry, "Sapphics against Anger and Other Poems" and "Uncertainties and Rest." It's a slim volume of intelligent poetry written in meter and form. This collection, much like the lates one "Color Wheel", shows why Steele is considered one of the best poets writing formal verse. Every line, every word is well thought out. Steele is one of the poets that should be on your shelf.

I live here iin Dutch Harbor Alaska, and found some war paper from a veteran
here, and wanted to know more about the men that were station out here during those hard winters and bad weather, and fined out more about the history and the forgten men that were here on the inlands. great book. thanks

Marty

I enjoyed this book. As someone who served on the island of Adak with the Marine Corps during the Cold War, it was great to read a book about a place I know very well. It gave wonderful look at what life was like during WW2 in the aleutians. You come away with an appreciation of how harsh it was to live and fight under the extreme conditions of the aleutian islands.

Collaboratively researched and written by Donald M. Goldstein (a veteran of the United States Airforce and Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh) and Katherine V. Dillon (U.S. Airforce, Retired), The Williwaw War: The Arkansas National Guard In the Aleutians In World War II is a fascinating and informative history of the 206th Coast Artillery Regiment of the Arkansas National Guard in 1941, when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed their lives forever and plunged America into a global war. Deftly following the travails and experiences of these brave servicemen who struggled with boredom, extreme weather conditions, and life-or-death battles, The Williwaw War reveals a time of danger, death, and pride in the regiment. The Williwaw War is an appreciated and commended contribution to academic Military Studies collections in general, and World War II military history buff reading lists in particular.

FIRE AND SWORD, ARKANSAS, 1861-74 (Horrors of War and Peace.)

Sadly, this is a "typical" story of the post-Civil-War hardships that overtook the South in the aftermath of the Lost Cause. Hardship hardly covers the matter of living with starvation always at the door and suffering marauding by lawless bands of the scum of the earth willing, often eager, to kill in order to rob, mobs that the close of the fighting inevitably turned loose in Arkansas and most other defeated states. Compounded with this mere criminal element were the murdering bands out for revenge on each other over wartime differences and incursions. Life was secure for no one. This is as good a primer on that as will be found in Civil War literature, and prospers as so many new histories do from digging into the micro-records of personal recollections, contemporary letters, news articles and other minute examinations of what life was like.

You get a feel for the time and place, the people and their most intimate beliefs. Names of historical characters seldom heard of pop up with frequency, and of course during the war there is the stock cast of military with whom Civil War Buffs are familiar.

The period prior to the Civil War set the stage for much of what happened as it did throughout the South. Arkansas was divided between rich planters of the east, southeast and south, in the river-bottom low lands, and primarily non-slave-holding small farmers of the uplands of the northwest. It is significant that cotton doesn't prosper above an elevation of 1,000 ft. above sea level, which accounted for most of the enclaves of pro-Unionism among many throughout the south. (In the most extreme example, West Virginia seceded from Virginia and formed a new state.) The red-hot secessionists were slave owners with an economic stake in the peculiar institution. The poor subsistence farmers owed nothing to the rich slave owners, who almost always managed to control politics. This had violent repercussions when the loss of the war temporarily put an end to the aristocracy's power. As events proved, there was little over which they would hesitate in order to regain it.

I will wager that few today think about the terrible - truly devastating - effects of our past domestic wars directly upon millions and millions of our forebears, and those who do so reflect, simply can't shrug into the garments of those long-gone Americans, and come close to appreciating the degree of their fear, apprehension, suffering and sacrifice.

The sense of bewilderment by those who lost everything, as the Tories in the Revolution, and the South after the Civil War, must have been overwhelming. Three wars were primarily on our own soil. The Revolution, upon which the nation was founded, the War of 1812, which could be considered a continuation of that war, and the Civil War (which in a sense of who the contestants were is often likened to a continuation of the English Civil War - Cavaliers against Round Heads, or as was said of the Civil War, the Chivalry against the Shovelry.).

All three of those wars were recognizably between brothers. The Americans who went into the Revolution considered themselves Englishmen who had been deprived of their rights. The War of 1812, between nations who spoke the same language and had the same common customs, was avoidable, but on the English side reflected a desire to rub the noses of their former minions in the gravel and teach them a lesson. But the grandaddy of the three was The War Between Brothers; our Civil War.

On the surface it appears like an avoidable tragedy, but was in fact, as William Seward dubbed it, "an irrepressible conflict." The moral and economic differences between North and South simply became too strained. Arkansas, and other states of the Confederacy were to be the principal victims.

Arkansas had a lot of Unionists, but almost all of them were Unionist with a couple of provisos: that the North keep their (should we say cottonpickin') hands off slavery, and that in the event some Southern states did secede, the North would make no effort to coerce them back into the Union. It was the latter proviso on which Arkansas finally passed an ordnance of Secession after it became obvious that Lincoln's government did, indeed, intend to coerce.

Arkansas had been a state only since 1836, only 25 years, when the war broke out. It had produced not a single famous name to be found in history books of the magnitude of Jefferson Davis, Roberts Toombs or Lincoln, or Seward and Stephen A. Douglas. Nor did it produce a lot of cotton compared to the other cotton states. Its population wasn't large enough to contribute mighty armies. Why did it get caught as it did in constant fighting back and forth if such was the case? Because it was "literally in the middle," as the saying goes. It was bordered on the north by Missouri where the Union had its principal military center in the West, St. Louis. Early the Southern government tried to hold Missouri and make it a state of the Confederacy. That didn't work. The Union by rapid action held St. Louis first of all, and ran the confederate government of Gov. Claiborne Jackson up the pike. Former Missouri governor, Sterling Price, until then a Union man, changed his mind and took a commission as General of the Missouri militia. He defeated Union General Nathaniel Lyon at Wilson's Creek in Aug. 1861, assisted by the Arkansas and Texas troops of Gen. McCullough.

Following Wilson's Creek, McCullough returned to Arkansas, and Price after raiding in Missouri, retreated to southwest Missouri and went into a winter encampment at Springfield. But he was determined to advance again and take Missouri for the Confederacy. This threat determined that Arkansas would "end up in the middle" for the whole period of the war.

The Union struck back with an army under Gen. Samuel Curtis, who ran Price out of Springfield, followed him into Arkansas, and defeated Price's forces, united with those of Gen. McCullough, both under the command of a joke of a Gen. Earle Van Dorn at Pea Ridge in March of 1862, A rematch occurred later that year at Prairie Grove, also a Confederate defeat. The Confederacy never mounted a serious threat to Missouri afterward. But Arkansas caught it because the Union wanted to neutralize and occupy it permanently to assure that the South didn't try another invasion from that base. They were reminded of this need, when Price wasn't saber rattling over a return to Missouri by raids by his subordinate Missourian generals, Jo Shelby and Marmaduke. (Both later to be elected governors of Missouri.) Price made one final stab at retaking his home state in late 1864 and lost his army after a comic opera campaign fizzled out. (For example, duelist Marmaduke was captured wearing a pair of overalls, and nursing a broken arm sustained in a fall with his horse)

The movements of both armies during the war kept the countryside denuded of supplies as they foraged for whatever they could find in the line of food for man and beast. It must have been a helluva time for a lone woman with children to feed, and her husband gone off to war. In fact it is unimaginable how they managed to survive.

The problem didn't abate with the end of the war. The land and its primarily agricultural economy were in a state of ruin. The slaves, now freed, were taken care of by the Union Freedman's Bureau, but were a tremendous problem in every way. They had no idea how to manage for themselves and it was necessary for the former slave owners to effect a means of now employing them to attempt to reestablish plantations and farms. The effort, in view of its insurmountable appearing obstacles was in time remarkably successful. The result was what we know as "share cropping," but it took experimentation to find this solution. In view of the lack of money to pay wages, such a system was probably inevitable.

The state, meaning its people collectively, was faced with another complication. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified Dec. 6, 1865, freed the slaves, but that was only the start of the problem. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified on July 9, 1868, in effect, deprived anyone who had participated in the Rebellion, of the right to vote. This, coupled with the Fifteenth Amendment, which guaranteed Negro voting rights gave birth to what became known as Carpetbagging. In Arkansas, the prohibition of the right to vote of those who had participated in the Rebellions had already given the state a former Yankee general as governor. And what a hell of a governor he turned out to be. A man who controlled Arkansas politics until his 1914 death. Who was he? I'll bet not one in a hundred Civil War buffs can name this fellow who is characterized as one of the Union's most-successful cavalry generals. Read the book. The situation that enabled such a man to be elected governor, was what gave rise to the Ku Klux Klan, which this governor successfully opposed as far as its initial purposes were concerned, often by using black militia. (One can imagine how popular that was, and at least one attempt was made to assassinate the governor.)

You meet a cast of similar wildly improbable characters of whom you've never heard much, if anything. General Thomas Hindman who was so effective in making slackers measure up that even Arkansas petitioned the Confederate government in Richmond to send him elsewhere, which they did. He returned after the war and entered Arkansas politics with his customary pugnacity and effectiveness and was rewarded by being shot one night through the window of his home and killed. (You know why; the bastards that did it were afraid to face him from the front in broad daylight?) We also had Gen. Marmaduke who killed a fellow general in a duel. [No singular event, by the way; Union General, Jefferson Davis (no relation to the Confederate president) who was a significant participant at Pea Ridge shot and killed his commanding officer and walked.] And, of course Gen. Jo Shelby, a Southern tradition and later governor of Missouri, a general who welcomed into his ranks such stalwarts as Frank and Jesse James.

One thing that you gain from author Thomas A. DeBlack's research and writing is a feel for the time and place, such as you get from Mark Twain's Huck Finn as he traveled through this country. This was the land of personal honor where, as in Huck, an aristocrat shot down a mudsill for repeatedly "blackguarding" him.

You can also almost smell the `taters' frying, after they got some `taters' that someone didn't steal from them. It was a rustic, homey place, at root, and still is in the rural areas that haven't changed all that much.

A great book all around, complete with many good, pertinent photos of the people and places, plus a solid bibliography and index.

Thoughtfully written by Thomas A. DeBlack (Associate Professor of History, Arkansas Tech University), With Fire And Sword: Arkansas, 1861-1874 provides a scholarly examination of just how the events of the Civil War and the Reconstruction so heavily devastated the state of Arkansas, its population and its economy, that this southern state was never to fully regained the level of prosperity it had enjoyed prior to the war. A candid and detailed retracing of crucial decisions, their interplay, and their lasting legacy, With Fire And Sword is a welcome contribution to the growing library of Civil War literature and Reconstruction Era reference collections and reading lists.

At first look, "With Fire and Sword: Arkansas, 1861-1874" appears to be an update to the 1994 Department of Arkansas Heritage project, "Rugged & Sublime: The Civil War in Arkansas", to which Dr. DeBlack was a major contributor.

WITH FIRE AND SWORD follows much the same outline and material as "Rugged & Sublime," and adds some new information and personal stories drawn from recent works on Arkansas and its role in the Civil War. Where WITH FIRE AND SWORD stands out, however, is in the extension of its coverage beyond the War years to the recovery of the state and its citizens after the War and the role played by Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction as well as local politics, leading up to the local "Militia Wars" and the "Brooks-Baxter War." These instances have not been addressed in readily available works in the past decade.

WITH FIRE AND SWORD stands as an excellent first reader or introduction to antebellum conditions, the Civil War, and Reconstruction in Arkansas; and provides not only an overview of events but also footnotes, lead-ins, and references to additional research for the reader who wants to look deeper under the surface in this fascinating area.

This is a very progressive book. I have read it in 1974 and found it to reflect the true picture of beirut at that time which society tried to hide behind traditional roles and responsibilities.

THIS AMAZING WORK OF LITERATURE THAT DEFINES THE HUMAN NATURE, ITS NEEDS, SINS AND PORTRAYS HOW PEOPLE IN THEIR PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS MIGHT JUST LEAVE IT BEHIND IN THEIR HASTE TO FIND IT. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS NOVEL FOR ANYONE WITH AN INTEREST IN ARABIC LITERATURE OR THAT OF ANY PSYCHOLOGICAL GENRE. SAMMAN'S TECHNIQUE IS JUST WAY TOO SOPHISTICATED IN THIS WORK.

I gave this book as a gift and was pleased with it when it arrived. The person who received it as a gift likes it and has successfully tried several recipes already. It's a specialty item but fit the occasion and the circumstances perfectly. Anyone who enjoys good, Southern, down home cooking would appreciate this collection.

Being from Arkansas, naturally I was drawn to this book. I also collect cookbooks so I have learned to weed out the ones that tend to be too extravagant for my everyday meals. This cookbook has all the wonderful, Southern-style, home-made recipes I grew up enjoying. It is a compilation of the best recipes from fifty-four different cookbooks from my home state. Historic pictures and interesting tid-bits about Arkansas are scattered through out this collection of tried and true recipes. I know I will enjoy using this cookbook for many years to come and it has already become one of my favorites when I am looking for something yummy to cook!