Kentucky Books

My wife and I got this cookbook as a gift about ten years ago, and it has become a holiday staple. The book automatically falls open to certain pages, such as the Hungarian gulasch, the Viennese tenderloin, and a new favorite that we made yesterday, the Raspberry torte. The recipes in the book have simple names, but they do not taste like run-of-the-mill food. We get compliments every time we serve them.

My husband and I stayed at the Inn in 1993. We bought this cookbook after sampling the "Welcome to Snowvillage Inn" chocolate chip cookies that were placed in our room in a little basket. They were WONDERFUL, as was all of the food we dined on during our stay. This continues to be one of my favorite cookbooks including the recipe for Potato Leek Soup and Kate's Last Minute Artichoke Spread (EASY!) and the Tomato Cognac Soup.
It's a great and delicious reminder of the terrific stay at Snowvillage Inn!

The third of the Charlie Resnick procedurals, this one brings the quality back up after the somewhat disappointing Rough Treatment. This may be because the stakes are raised back to the level of the first book Lonely Hearts. In this one, someone is slicing up hospital workers, and the motivation is a rather interesting one. There's also a side plot involving a man who won't take no for an answer. There's the usual business with some delving into the messed-up private lives of the police, Charlie takes in a wino jazz saxophonist, and has his ex-wife turn up again. Whets the appetite for Off Minor.

Police Officer Charlie Resnick is assigned to investigate a series of vicious assaults on the staff of the large English hospital. The culprit is a pro with a surgeons scalpel as he carves his victims in such a manner as to end their medical careers. Tim Fletcher is the first victim, but others quickly follow.

Charlie soon realizes that the slasher is not only good with the knife, he understands the inner psyche of his victims and their families. A desperate Charlie concludes that only a medical person could do the professional incisions of the attacks and only a medical person could so understand where to place the maiming so as to destroy the victim both physically and mentally. Charlie knows he must stop this serial slasher before the body count requires astronomical numbers to keep track.

If not consistently the best, the Charlie Resnick British police procedurals are one of the top five series on the market today. CUTTING EDGE is a reprint of a classy novel first released in 1991. The who-done-it and the police elements are well written and fun to read on their own account. However, what makes this novel and the eight tales worth reading is John Harvey's insight into the personal lives of his characters to the point that the reader feels good about being a peeping Harriet.

Harriet Klausner

I blame television. When reading _Daniel Boone: An American Life_ (University Press of Kentucky) by Michael A. Lofaro, I realized that I didn't know anything about Daniel Boone. I thought he wore a coonskin cap and was a contemporary of Davy Crockett, and maybe fought at the Alamo. I discovered at the end of the book that Lofaro blames television, too. Boone's fame to my generation comes from "...Fess Parker playing the lead in _Daniel Boone_, a historical disaster for baby-boomers who still confuse Boone with Crockett" because Parker sequentially played one then the other in the mid-fifties. Lofaro had insight on my own ignorance, and his book is shot through with impressive scholarship that takes Boone, as much as possible, from myth and tall tales (and television-inspired error) and puts him into realistic historical perspective. There is plenty here that is inspiring, and fit for legend-making, and also plenty to show that Daniel Boone had essential trouble in managing to get along with society. And also (_pace_ Davy Crockett), Boone hated coonskin caps.

He was born in Pennsylvania in 1734, to devout Quakers. His rudimentary schooling shows up in many excerpts from his writings here; for instance, it seems to be true that on an East Tennessee tree he carved the inscription "D. Boon cilled a Bar on tree in the year 1760." Boone did indeed become an accomplished woodsman and hunter, and was always less fit for the life of frontier farming. He had a pattern of reaching out to new lands; he had a wanderlust, to be sure, and encroaching civilization always meant that he had to move to new frontiers to hunt game, but he was always eager to apply the simple solution of moving away when having people live around him was just too complicated. He would be on the move all his life. He fought for the British (along with Washington) in the French and Indian War, and then against the British in the western version of the American Revolution, which consisted mostly of fighting Indians. He had prodigious skill in the outdoors, and there are many stories here of heroism and craftiness. Although he could always win battles against Indians, he could not win against lawyers, and was often in court because of disputed boundaries he had surveyed. He was guileless and always assumed that treating someone honestly would get him honest treatment in return, an assumption that he never seemed to learn was unwarranted.

Boone was amazed that he became famous. There was a bogus autobiography printed in 1784, that was translated into German and French, and made Boone internationally known. He was painted by the young John James Audubon. James Fennimore Cooper based much of Natty Bumppo on him, and in a note to one of the Leatherstocking Tales said that Boone headed out from Kentucky to Missouri in later life "because he found a population of ten to the square mile inconveniently crowded." Tales of Boone's dry wit became staples. He did indeed, when asked if he had ever gotten lost in the wilderness, reply, "No, I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days." He blazed trails, most notably through the Cumberland Gap, and then was dismayed that they became widened for wagon travel and further encroachment by civilization. Ending up in Missouri, he spent his last years hunting buffalo and trapping beaver. He died at 85, as the nation was pushing further west and the wilds were more speedily declining. Lofaro's informative biography puts the brilliant pioneer and naïve citizen at the center of a complicated and longstanding war between settlers and Indians.

This book tells how Dniel showed honesty and cofidince. Everything about Daniel Boone is in this book. If you have a report due on a leader this is want you want. I prefer this book to anyone.

I read this book for a school project. I didn't know anything about Daniel Boone before I read the book.

I learned Daniel Boone joined the militia when he was 20 years old. He had eleven children and they all lived in a one room cabin. He hunted for food and skinned the animals for clothes and blankets. He lived in many different states.

I learned that Daniel Boone was captured by Shawnee Indians in the beginning of 1778. The Shawnee Chief adopted him as his own son, because the chief's son was killed in battle. He was able to talk the Shawnee Indians into not killing him and his men if they would hunt for the indians. He escaped from the indians in the summer of 1778.

I learned about frontier life and why Daniel Boone is famous. I would tell a friend to read the book if they need to do a report because it is interesting and you can learn about things you didn't know before.

Great book because it is REAL. Wonderful Boone keepsake book for adults as well as children. This is a wonderful book to give as a gift to children whom you want to learn and know about this man who was an honest to goodness American pioneer hero and just a good person. Glossy heavy pages - sturdy hardback - filled with beautiful color photos (actual photos!) and illustrations. The book goes from his early years through his death and also includes a separate Timeline, Glossary, Recommendations for further reading, Places of interest (in connection with Boone) and how to contact them, Internet sites, and Index. Bright, colorful, interesting and informative. You can't go wrong. Destined to be a collectable.

While it is true that the case might not hold up in court, I found this an interesting read and would recommend it to anyone interested in cromwell.

I disagree with Jay Freeman's assessment of this book. The author meticulously reconstructs Cromwell's last days and reveals the royalist Dr. Bate's account as a tissue of lies and misrepresentations. While the verdict might well be a Scotch one (that is, "not proven"), McMains makes a strong if not absolutely convincing case for poisoning.

This was a new piece of history that sadly, I was not taught in school. I applaud the ladies and gent who were dedicated to bringing literacy to the masses at all cost. The $28 salary opened doors for the care of their families, it was the love of reading and the people that kept them going back day after day.
Everyone in education or who just loves a good straight forward look at history MUST read this book.

This is the kind of book we all should read, regardless of age. It is well researched, well annotated and well written. I bought it for my wife, a reading specialist, for Easter, and wound up reading it before she got her hands on it. It would be great to have an older version, filled with more info, etc. For now, however, I'll take what I can get!

If you like the Mitford series, Little House on the Prarie, and All Creatures Great and Small series you are bound to like this story. I can't wait to read all the rest she wrote!

And while you are at it, check out The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

Janice Holt Giles is one of my favorite authors, and her first novel is excellent. Anyone who has ever read "Miss Willie" or "Tara's Healing" will love learning how it all started with Hod and Mary. Her descriptions of the Kentucky mountains and the lifestyle there are concise. I especially enjoy reading about Hod's thoughts and the moral dilemmas he faces as he grows older. This book contains several interesting points for us all to ponder, and the plot moves along nicely. I highly recommend it, as well as any other books by Janice Holt Giles!

Beginning with the introduction, William Palmer in Engagement with the Past, draws the reader in and invites him to join him through his research, to an enjoyable and friendly reading.

To put it blunty, this is a nice book. Not especially penetrating or provocative, but pleasant. Palmer selects about 15 historians of the American and European past, including C.V. Woodward, K. Stampp, R. Hofstadter, Trevor-Roper and C. Hill, and uses biography to illuminate their works of history. So we are told of the effects of the Great Slump, the Second World War, the civil rights revolution in America and the Cold War on the thinking and writing of these men and women.
The choice of historians is strong, if sometimes curious. For instance, I suspect that Gertrude Himmelfarb is included due to her gender and her right-wing politics; her scholarly contribution is hardly up to the c.v.'s of the others included. Alfred Crosby, Bernard Bailyn, Francis Jennings and E.P. Thompson are very conspicious in their absence as all four were enormously influential in their fields and even beyond. And the author is very biased toward historians of the United States and Great Britain; there are no scholars of Asia, Africa, or the Americas outside the US. Palmer is quite respectful of all his subjects and refuses to offer much criticism. So the reader will have wait if they desire a study that includes materials placing these women and men in an ambigious light. It's a pity and just shows how Palmer's skills and courage do not measure up to those of some of his subjects. But then we all can't be Woodward or Hofstadter.

Most gardening books are written for the wonderful British climate. The extremes of the Midwest make for a different approach. The info in this book addresses these differences in climate and also varieties of plants that will do well. I was so glad to find this book.

This is a "must own" for every newer gardener in the lower midwest states, i.e., Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio. Even seasoned veterans will appreciate the information provided in this book. Originally, I had planned to use the library's copy, but when I started to bookmark every page, I realized that purchasing my own copy was the only reasonable and considerate option. Ms. Heilenman shares her hands-on experiences without flinching at the sometimes harsh realities of the weather, and she describes the plants that grow well, as well as those that have failed. Her dry humor, for example when noting her personnal failure with a plant that her colleges seem to grow with ease, is amusing. The book has only a few photographs (they are in color), but it did not deter me from making use of her advice. This is, as far as I know, one of the very first midwest regional gardening books, and it is still, in my opinion, one of the very best. The contents are straight forward, practical, and emanently readable. And considering the pricetag you can't do better!

It's a little confusing because Phillips decides to go out of chronological order whenever he feels that grouping films by theme or subject matter would allow him to get his points across better. Thus the three Godfather films are discussed back to back (to back), and even though this allows him a freedom to show the cross-connections among the different parts of the Godfather saga, I wonder if it doesn't screw up our understanding of the amazing ups and downs of Coppola's career. Otherwise it is an amazing read and will be the standard book on the director for some time to come.

It is a measure of the book's evenhandedness that, even when I disagree on Phillips' rankings of the different movies, I still respect his opinion. He rates THE RAIN PEOPLE and FINIAN'S RAINBOW considerably lower than I do, while heaping plaudits on top of BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA and Winona Ryder's performance. I was glad to see that Phillips has seen and likes RIP VAN WINKLE, the episode of that Shelley Duvall fairy tale TV series that Coppola directed at a low point (it was on RIP that Coppola first worked with Eiko Ishioka, the costume designer who later on made the fantastic DRACULA costumes so creepily memorable).

Spelling the "best film of the 90s" as GoodFellows is a little odd, but Phillips is an old school journeyman film writer, with lots of research under his belt, and a level head to boot. He makes us curious about all the footage said to have been cut by Warner from THE OUTSIDERS (1983) and how handy is it that from what I hear this footage has been restored by Coppola for the upcoming theatrical re-release and DVD of the film this fall! I wonder if we will ever see another version of THE COTTON CLUB too--or if Coppola will ever work again with Diane Lane, on whose behalf he labored so long, like John Hughes did for Molly Ringwald or, if it comes to that, as Josef Von Sternberg did for Marlene Dietrich.

You can read the full review at www.donmcnay.com

Coppola: godfather of filmmaking

HIGHLY READABLE BIO OFFERS INSIGHT AND PERSPECTIVE

By Reviewed By Don McNay

At first, I feared that Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola would be a stilted thesis. Instead, I found it to convey the research and knowledge of an esteemed academic in a book that is easy to read.
The research is certainly strong; author Gene Phillips, a professor of English at Loyola University of Chicago, knows his stuff. However, I am more impressed with the way the book flows. It covers Coppola's work with just the right amount of detail.
The book is biographical, but the focus is on Coppola's movies and how they were made. Phillips breaks the book into chronological chapters but also groups similar works together. He discusses all three chapters of the Godfather saga as a group, even though they stretch over a 20-year period, during which Coppola was making other movies.
Phillips is obviously a fan of Coppola, but the book comes across as dispassionate and even-handed. It takes us through Coppola's youth, his education at the UCLA film school, and his work for Roger Corman, the king of the B movies.
The book would be well worth the effort just to read Phillips' perspective on how Coppola turned Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather into a classic film trilogy. Coppola saw through some of the more graphic sex and violence in the novel and focused on the drama of the struggle of the family. Graphic scenes were certainly part of the movie, such as the famous horse-head-in-the-bed scene, but Coppola was able to weave the drama and story line of the book in the way that became a film classic.
Coppola was savaged by critics for casting his daughter, Sofia Coppola, in a critical role in Godfather III, and Phillips explains that she was a last-minute replacement after Winona Ryder became ill.
Phillips also examines Coppola's screenwriting, as well as his business dealings in Hollywood.
Coppola won an Oscar as the screenwriter for Patton, in which he captured the eccentric general in a way fans and critics could appreciate.
And while they were developing Apocalypse Now, Coppola and George Lucas, who had been very close, broke their friendship; Coppola finished the film that is now considered an American classic.
Coppola's skill as a director was not always matched by his skill as a businessman, and his money woes included bankruptcy. One of Coppola's low-budget successes was The Outsiders, a movie about teen alienation that helped launch the careers of Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze.
Phillips notes that the Coppola legacy has been passed to the next generation. Sofia Coppola won an Oscar this year for writing Lost in Translation and was nominated for best director for the same film.
A slight irritation is that Phillips injects himself into his book every 30 pages or so. In discussing Coppola's success in the wine business, Phillips writes "For myself, I chose a bottle of dark, dry Coppola claret." So?
But overall, Coppola's movies will be seen for generations to come, and the book Godfather is a good insight into those films and the man who made them.

Don McNay is president of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond and is a weekly business columnist for the Richmond Daily Register. Reach him at www.donmcnay.com.