Kentucky Books

You will be amazed at the beauty, simplicity and artistry of this little book. You will also feel compelled to read his first book which describes his wondrous shantyboat voyage from Brent, Kentucky to the Bayous of Louisianna. Both are successful stories of love of life fulfilled by bringing it into harmony with the ancient rhythms of nature. All this is recorded in a poetic narrative which expresses the beauty of everyday life of a couple attuned to ebb and flow of great waters and changing seasons. His descriptions of his everyday routine and observations will change your view of nature and life, revealing an intimacy seldom attained. All this comes from an unknown man from the same town on the Ohio River where I was born and lived during these events. I wish I had known of then then. He was at home as much in the Bayous as he was building his shantyboat and wintering through a flood on the Ohio. He is an artist and a musician and paints a picture you feel you are there. You can feel it and hear it and, by golly, you see yourself doing it too. You will enjoy it, even learn how to get your own soft-shell crabs in the bayous and make your own flour. If you have a love of mature, it is a book you should read.

Shantyboat chronicles the adventures of Harlan and Anna Hubbard, who in the early 1950's, built a wooden houseboat (or shantyboat) out of a demolished house and drifted down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. Spanning several years, the book describes winters spent drifting freely with the current and summers foraging for or growing what was needed. Much more than a travelogue, the journey is an experiment in living just outside the confines of a newly emerging technological civillization, but still in a fully "civillized" way. Their lives were hardly lived in seclusion. Instead they preferred the richness of friends, good meals gathered from abandoned or empty lands, and art: Harlan was a painter, Anna a concert pianist. The story of their days drifting is often filled with anecdotes about weather, fishing, or dogs, and slowly draws the reader in with a steady seasonal rhythm. Their time on the river represents the last days of the shantyboater, a breed of free spirit that quickly dissappeared after the second world war. Industrial growth along the waterways, large new dams, and toxic pollutants ensured the end of a tradition of free living. Today, our world continues to grapple with issues of technology and its impact on what makes us human. "Shantyboat" offers an alternative, or perhaps a perspective on what is really important.

An insightful and extremely helpful analysis of mostly British, and some American, horror literature from the late nineteenth-century. Navarette's knowledge of the field is impressive, all the more so considering that this is an area often overlooked by academics. Most professors in her field have read works like The Great God Pan only once in their lives, crammed in between cartloads of other works read in a feverish white heat during doctoral studies. Other writers, such as Robert W. Chambers, lapse in obscurity even among the professors of that era. What Navarette does is to examine works ranging from The Great God Pan to The King in Yellow, from the fin-de-siecle exoticism of M.P. Shiel to the psychological horror of a canonical writer like Conrad, and to establish a network of degeneration and decadence among these books. In the process, she reveals that the concerns of the horror literature of this period are not self-enclosed, but rather are inseparable from the relevant thought and discourse that characterized the non-horror literature of that era. As a horror afficianado and literature student, I found this book to be exactly what I've been seeking for years. Wholeheartedly recommended.

I have this book. It's factual and informative reading. Well researched and written.

Anyone who is a fan of undeground works, or is just a World war II studier should get this book. It highly details the work of the French escape lines of WWII, and the helpers who gave up their lives for the soldiers. It is a great read.

This book was truly a great find for myself and my family, this is a wonderfully interesting story of the Old West, the main character in this book is my Great Grandfather, Benjamin Holladay, my parents gave me this book some years ago, and this is the only account of Ben Holladay I can find, my Grandfather took my Dad, when he was only 13 years old out of Rifle, Co. where he was raised and put him to work helping on the freight line, evidently my Grandfather Holladay (Willard Benjamin Holladay) had inherited the freight company (what was left of it) from his father, the last any of us know about my grandfather was that the freight line just kind of died in Sacramento, Ca. and this is where he stayed. They hauled freight to the cowboys on the range and other towns along the way from Rifle, Co. to Sacramento, Ca., my father told me this book was very true according to what his father told him.

From 1900 Alberta/Northwest Territory Rocky Mountain foothills comes this story of the taming of the last of the wild west. A young minister comes among the secretive closed-off society of lumberjacks, ranchers and cowpokes who view encroaching civilization with a proud cynicism. Initially stuck with the derisive appellation of "The Sky Pilot" - his influence nevertheless brings God, goodness, and personal decisions to be viewed as serious opportunities to develop character in keeping with the rugged grandeur of their surroundings. The colorful local zanies are astounded at his non-religious manner and how accepting he is of what they thought he would be against and how challenging he is in several unexpected ways. Several characters are carefully developed; much humor - a moving story.

Even though this is an old book, it is very touching and thought provoking. I recommend this book to all christians

The Soil and Health is a wonderful book that is equal parts agricultural science and environmental advocacy, with just a dash of kooky Nature worship thrown in. Howard was a conventionally trained agricultural scientist in the late 19th and early to mid 20th century who was employed by the British government to bring modern industrial agriculture, based on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides to Britain's tropical colonies. Soon, though, he realized the value of more traditional agricultural practices from India and China, especially in keeping the microbial, fungal and invertebrate life in the soil healthy.

If you believe in the value of organic agriculture, it is somewhat sad to see how little has changed since 1945. Howard confidently predicts in his book that organic methods based on compost would soon sweep the globe. Things have changed some, though. We can now buy "organic" labeled products in most markets in America, and I believe that more people have an appreciation for the importance of treating the earth well. This book does an excellent job of establishing and reinforcing that appreciation.

The updated version of this important study is a welcome addition to the history of American popular music. Each chapter is a thorough overview of various genres and eras of folk and popular music in America. The central claim that most of what we perceive to be American music is deeply rooted in the music of America's southland is a strong one, and it adds to our understanding of connections between regional culture and history. The excellent discography provides a terrific guide to important musicians and recordings, and the new information on Cajun, Zydeco, Norteno, and contemporary acoustic music update the earlier edition.