Kentucky Books

William Donati's book, Ida Lupino, a biography, was very interesting and well written. Some of the data is in line with the A and E biography, but some is not. I have to agree with just one of the other reviewers in the fact that very little is said about Ms. Lupino's daughter, Bridget Duff as a grown woman. It came out very strongly that Ms.Lupino had a never ending concern about what her father thought. Ms. Lupino's roles on the screen were that of woman who, while flawed, were very interesting. One could not help to think about what would have happened if she was given better roles. Her constant feuds with Warner Bros. and many suspensions for not accepting lousy parts were outlined in the book. Another thing that the book does not go into is, why after 60 plus movies as an actress, 6 as a directors and 100+ as a TV director, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and sciences and the Emmy Awards has completely overlooked Lupino. Overall, I liked the book very much.

William Donati's book, Ida Lupino, a biography, was very interesting and well written. Some of the data is in line with the A and E biography, but some is not. I have to agree with just one of the other reviewers in the fact that very little is said about Ms. Lupino's daughter, Bridget Duff as a grown woman. It came out very strongly that Ms.Lupino had a never ending concern about what her father thought. Ms. Lupino's roles on the screen were that of woman who, while flawed, were very interesting. One could not help to think about what would have happened if she was given better roles. Her constant feuds with Warner Bros. and many suspensions for not accepting lousy parts were outlined in the book. Another thing that the book does not go into is, why after 60 plus movies as an actress, 6 as a directors and 100+ as a TV director, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and sciences and the Emmy Awards has completely overlooked Lupino. Overall, I liked the book very much.

This book provides a concise and in-depth investigation on what drove Ida Lupino, not only as an actress but to become Hollywood's first female director. Starting off with a background look at the Lupino family the author, William Donati, gives us at the foundation upon which Ida was driven to carry on in the family business, and would eventually lead her to Hollywood. Here we are given a real life look at what actors had to endure during the studios contract days, in which they controlled not only the lives of their stars, but their careers as well. We learn of the battles Ida had to put up with, both artistically and physically, and how the glamorous life of a star could be anything but. This treatment would eventually lead her to split from the studios and strike out on her own, as an independent. Here we learn of her first foray into directing, and the constant struggle to finance and put out quality films. This is paralleled with the conflict between her career and personal life, as we are given a clear glimpse at her failed marriages, and her battle with herself. The author gives us a real fans eye look at this great actress come director. Truly a must book for any fan of Hollywood's golden age.

Donati has written a respectful and seemingly accurate portrait of Ida Lupino as star, director and woman. A reader looking for basic biographical data on a deeper-than-encylopedia level will find what they are looking for with this book.

Donati, unfortunately, writes with a noticeable lack of flair and manages to nearly make Lupino boring. This is no mean feat, given how colorful and important she was. He does not place her films into a critical or historical context. Nor does he really explore her character on anything more than a surface psychological level. Furthermore, in his focus on her romantic life, he overlooks or skips over other important relationships that she had with other women. The most obvious omission is her adult relationship with her daughter.

Useful for class assignments, but other readers may want to wait for a better treatment.

The author is good at setting out the basic facts of Lupino's life. He writes clearly and is basically engaging. However, after having read the book, I don't feel I know Lupino well--personnally or as an artist.

As an artist--how did she view her acting roles? How was her personality expressed in the films she directed? Why did she make The Hitch Hiker, for example? Or, what was her sense of her contribution to film? In short--there is just about zero description of her work and no integration of film anaylsis and commentary into the biography.

About her personal life, we are told about her turbulanet relationships with no explantion as to why a powerful woman would put up with the seemingly abusive Howard Duff as a husband. There is one paragraph in the last chapter where the author speculates that Lupino had a borderline personality disorder. This perspective came through dimly as he worte, but I would have appreciated a more consistant and deeper exploration of her personality.

Unfortunately, I ended up having less respect for Lupino after reading the book than before, in large part, I believe, because the author refuses to place Lupino in an artisitc or psychological context.

Kaufman's book sets out to defend the "indefensible" and does a pretty good job of it. He answers some of the more common criticisms of the Bush Doctrine, all the while reminding us (as we are apt to forget) that the situation looked very different in 2002-2003 than it does now. He explores some of the alternatives to it, such as multilateralism, and reminds us with recourse to history (without any egregious examples of anecdotal cherry-picking) that most of them have serious drawbacks as well. Some of the book's strong points were also incident to its flaws; for instance in reminding us how the world looked in 2002-2003 he becomes wedded to an international and diplomatic snapshot that has since changed, namely our relationship with Germany and France after the succession of Merkel and Sarkozy, respectively. On the whole a solid and important book.

enough facts and analysis to give the reader a platform for understanding current events, and more important, an insight into the intillectual requirements for developing policy

I am most of the way through this book and have been impressed by its clear, readily understood prose and its straight-to-the-point sentences explaining the various foreign policies that the U.S. has embraced and the proofs of their failure or success with the reasons why. Naming and explaining one by one the foreign policy schools of thought and their proponents, as the author does in the first part of the book, was helpful in placing the current Bush doctrine in an historic context. The author then describes the Bush policy as, on the one hand, vigorous encouragement of the growth of stable, liberal democracies -- because stable, liberal democracies historically do not fight each other -- and, on the other hand, vigorous opposition to totalitarian regimes that deny freedom to their oppressed populations -- because oppressive regimes historically have defiantly ignored negotiated agreements of peace. Ironic that this book is available just as the tide of our miltary success in Iraq and public opinion at home and abroad is seen to be turning. Short and important, this book should be on everyone's coffee table.

The easiest way to review this is via ideology. People favorably inclined toward Bush will like it; those who oppose him will hate it. But since the author elected to publish it with a university press, I'm going to assess it as a work of scholarship and analysis. On that count, it comes up woefully short. It is well-written but panglossian defense of the Bush strategy. I am amazed that the University Press of Kentucky, which is an up and coming academic publisher, produced it. It is most certainly not an academic work but a ideological polemic masquerading as scholarship as per Noam Chomsky or Chalmers Johnson. There is no critical analysis of the Bush strategy, but simply a legal brief asserting that is it the best of all possible approaches. The author develops caricatures or strawmen of alternative strategies and then demolishes them. For instance, on p. 129 he write, "As the lessons of history attest, critics are wrong to object to the Bush Doctrine because it does not defer categorically to the UN Security Council or to multilateralism as any guise as an end in itself." This is Rush Limbaugh discourse--invent a position that no serious person actually holds (who, exactly, advocates categorical deference to the UN Security Council?) then ridicule it.

Let me give just a couple of examples of Kaufman's selective use of history and double standards to sustain his partisan argument (there are many dozens more). On p. 120 he writes, "By the end of his administration, Ronald Reagan has shifted away from his initial inclinations to back America's right-wing allies unconditionally, as it became apparent in El Salvador, the Philippines, Korea, and Chile that liberal democracy was a plausible alternative to either authoritarianism or communism." In reality, it was the Democratically controlled Congress that forced Reagan to push for democracy in these places, not some personal epiphany.

Second, Kaufman excoriates Clinton for not preventing the genocide in Rwanda (although failing to mention that in 2000 candidate Bush explicitly said he would not have used the U.S. military in Rwanda had he been president). Alan Kuperman has demonstrated that even had Clinton moved immediately once he was aware genocide was underway, it would only have had a limited effect, so I have to assume that Kaufman's criticism is because Clinton did not act in advance to prevent the killing. But in anything other than a hagiography, if Clinton deserve blame for not being prescient in Rwanda--a place with very limited American attention or involvement--then Bush deserves even greater criticism for for not anticipating the emergence of armed resistance in Iraq and taking steps to limit or prevent it (such as an infusion of a large number of troops and implementation of an effective reconstruction program in 2003). Kaufman does suggest "we [sic] should have anticipated better" in Iraq when, in fact, those who did anticipate better were attacked by the administration. Even after this mousy criticism, Kaufman goes to great lengths to make the ridiculous argument that even though "we" didn't anticipate better, it wasn't a big deal anyway since more Americans died in the world wars and the Civil War than in Iraq! At that point, I could no longer take the book seriously. It was, from the start, a blend of propaganda and scholarship. Since I assume the author does actually understand that the criterion for judging strategy is not the aggregate lives lost, but whether the benefits justified the costs, I have to believe that along the way he elected to jettison the veneer of scholarship and shift purely into propaganda.

Perhaps the most pressing conceptual flaw in the work is its disregard for the role of culture. The author uses the spread of liberal democracy to Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific rim as evidence of its universality and hence as support for the idea that it should be the cornerstone of American strategy. What that overlooks is the idea that liberal democracy can only develop stable roots in Western, Western-influenced, or Confucian cultures. Kaufman reiterates the Bush idea that Islamic violence is caused by the "insidious interaction of poverty, brutality, and oppression" rather than deep flaws in a culture which create unstable, uncompetitive states and then seeks external scapegoats for the ensuing failure. Unless the United States is willing to alter this culture--and nothing in the Bush strategy is designed to do that--the violence will persist.

Since Kaufman's book is a defense of the Bush strategy rather than an analysis of it, the author does not address the real criticisms of that strategy. For instance, rather than dealing with the question of whether liberal democracy is feasible in Islamic cultures, Kaufman simply demonstrates that it would be a good idea. To counter the criticism that Islamic culture is not fertile ground for liberal democracy, Kaufman, like Bush administration spokesmen, simply points to post World War II Germany and Japan. But, like the administration, he does not address the valid criticism that the Bush approach to Iraq and Afghanistan has not, in fact, followed the Germany-Japan model. Rather than a massive and protracted occupation while the foundation for democracy was built, the administration has sought democratization on the cheap. Kaufman cannot have it both ways--arguing that the post-war occupation of Germany and Japan validate the feasibility of a method while defending the Bush approach which did not replicate that method.

In most places, Kaufman simply re-asserts Bush administration talking points, taking them at face value. There are dozens of examples. In justifying the intervention in Iraq, he writes (p. 140)that "victory" there will "keep terrorists on the run by depriving them of the sanctuary of a rogue regime." While ideas like that are the standard stock of talk radio, Kaufman ignores the fact that Hussein was a very minor provider of sanctuary to transnational terrorists and whatever system emerges in Iraq--be it a fragile democracy, a fragmented state, a militia-dominated quasi-state, or some new authoritarian system--is much more likely to provide sanctuary to terrorists, either deliberately or by virture of its inability or unwillingness to fully control its own territory. Kaufman also lauds Libya's decision to abandon its nuclear program as validation of Bush's strategy of regime change and democratization without noting that Qaddafi's decision was a result of decades of sanctions, not anything Bush did. He attributes democratic reforms in Lebanon to Bush even though, in reality, democracy in that country is decades old (and floundered during the Reagan administration). He accepts without question the flawed assumption of the Bush strategy that democratization in the Islamic world will limit anti-American militancy. And, like the Bush administration itself, he does not grapple with the fact that Islamic violence in Spain and the U.K. refutes the connection between democracy and terrorism.

Ultimately readers looking for a balanced and rigorous analysis of the Bush strategy will be disappointed by the book. Bush supporters looking for intellectual ammunition to defend the administration will find it useful.

I found the book helpful, though not without its short-comings. It offered better military and foreign policy explanations and historical context for its position than I have ever heard, and it offered plenty of pro-Bush rhetoric, too. About the comments on this site from those who didn't like it, I am still not entirely sure where I stand on the issue, so I am very interested in thoughtful arguments either way. However, simple disparagement and mindless nay saying do not qualify as "thoughtful" or "argument." It is simply a display inane bias and is helpful to no one who is wondering whether to purchase a certain work. So, try this: When writing a comment about a book, please, at least attempt to make an intelligent, cogent argument for your position, or shut the #%& up!!

As both an admirer of history and a person who traces his family ancestry back to Kentucky for well over 200 years, A New History of Kentucky provided hours upon hours of enjoyable reading. The book's easy-to-follow style means that it does not "read like a history text", and the modular design permits either a complete cover to cover read (as I did), or a more focused study of particular areas in history.

And without doubt, the book's focus on underlying, consistent themes throughout Kentucky's historical developments provides a higher level of utility and modern-day relevance than other texts on the state that I have studied, whether it be frontier-oriented nature of the people, the (unfortunate) lack of emphasis on education, power struggles between eastern and western regions, the interplay of Southern and Midwestern cultural elements, the effects of tobacco, the perennial dominance of Louisville, or many others. The sections covering modern political developments were particularly well-developed, and the last section - providing an integration of Kentucky's past with its needs for the future - was both highly uplifting and of critical urgency.

This book was shipped exactally as stated in the description. I would do business with seller again if needed.

Spohie a thirteen-year-old girl goes on a sailing trip all summer. Her adoption-mother is worried sick about her while she is gone. She goes with her two adoptive cousins and her three adoptive uncles. They are sailing from America to Ireland to get to her grandpa Bompie's house. They make it to Bompie's house and Bompie tells them his stories from when he was a child.

On a scale from 1-10 I would give this book a 7 because it is about her life. It is a very good book. It has good details and strong words. This book has intresting characters and good settings that a lot of books don't have. I would recommend this book for kids the ages 8-12 years of age.

I took a class at Morehead State University entitled "History of Kentucky", and this book was chosen as one of the textbooks. We weren't required to read the entire text, using it as more of a reference than anything else, but I opted to slog through the entire book nonetheless. There's an incredible amount of information about Kentucky, starting with pre-history and continuing to the present day. As one review already stated, the book is a bit dry. I guess you'd have to expect that from a comprehensive academic text such as this. You must have more than a passing interest in the state to get enjoyment from it, but I heartily recommend this purchase to all Kentuckians interested in the development of their state.

I was excited to read a new history of Kentucky, but I was VERY disappointed with the efforts of Harrison/Klotter. While the two historians are well-known and well-respected, they did an unfortunate job in telling the history of Kentucky. They have done what any good historian will not do, judged the past by the present, in assuming that Kentucky, in the past, was comparable to Kentucky today. It saddens me to think that the children of Kentucky will grow up reading this book, and one that I fear robs them of their history and heritage. The book does nothing for Kentucky!

This book pulled me into its portrait of pain, regret and loneliness -- painted in palpable and heart-splitting strokes. To say it's hypnotic and melodious seems scant praise for such a powerful work. I didn't simply read this book. I lived it and felt it; lived Cap's unraveling and felt immobilized as well. The raw emotion hits like a runaway 18-wheeler, knocking the reader into a dimension of anguish that surrounds like moassess, thick and heavy and jading ... and yet I look forward to reading it again, to savor the music and the emotion of this book, a hymn of worship to life and loss.

Come and Go, Molly Snow, by Mary Ann Taylor-Hall, is a novel about bluegrass music, the loss of a child, and the question of whether the "circle will be unbroken, by and by, [is there] a better home awaiting, in the sky, Lord, in the sky?" Carrie is a gifted bluegrass fiddler and single mother. She has everything going for her, fiddle player in an outstanding band, Hawktown Road with the handsome Cap, when she daydreams for a moment and her five-year-old daughter, Molly, rides her tricycle into traffic and is killed. As Carrie reminisces: "The woman stood at the clothesline, dreaming, as the child wheeled her trike into the street. Nothing will change that." While a sad subject, this book is far from maudlin; Taylor-Hall fills both the characters and the music they love with light and life. Much of the book is Carrie's coming to peace with herself, that bad things happen, and that her daughter's tragic death is not her fault. She also must come to grips with the question posed by the old-timey song of whether, with Molly and with her, the circle will be unbroken. Carrie is a strong and sympathetic character, and the choices and actions she takes to regain measure in her own life are truly gratifying.

My women's book group read this over year ago, this story about a woman very unlike any of us, and yet we still refer to it in many discussions. Why? Because Carrie is, after all, very much like us in her motherhood and in her loss that most of us can only talk about if we preface it with "God forbid it should happen to any of us". The absolute sincerity of both her passions and her numbness are irresistible and her ultimate incremental steps toward recovery feel like a triumph for the reader as well.

This book is so hypnotic that, for the first time in my life, I missed my subway stop on my way home while reading it!

I would love to know what part of this book is true, if any. She writes it so realistically that it reads like a heart-breaking autobiography.

Mary Ann Taylor-Hall lives down the road from my aunt's farm in Kentucky. I have never met her, but I feel like I know her already. This novel, her first, is one of the best works of literature that I have ever read. Ever since I received my first copy of the book, one autographed to my grandmother, I have never let it slip out of my mind.

The reader cannot help but journey into the very core of Carrie. When she holds her fiddle, it is as if the wooden masterpiece is also extending from your hands. The drones omitted from the pages go directly to the reader's ears, never ceasing to convey the sorrow and utter hopelessness that she feels.

This book is amazing, and I recommend it to anyone who has a heart beating inside of their chest. You will read it and beg for more -- at least I did.

I found this book to be very interesting. I am a greek advisor for several chapters and although I do not think the "problems" and issues brought up in this book are really specific to Greeks - it helped me understand, I feel more what the "younger" generation of college students is going through - more specifically my younger sister that is a freshman in college at a large school with a large Greek community - and trying to figure out where she belongs on campus. She is 11 years younger than myself and I always struggled to figure out where she was coming from and why she does things and acts the way she does. I think this book does a great job to help bridge more of a generation gap and I feel would be good - as some other reviewers said, for College advisors, parents etc. to get a better idea of what it is like not just in the Greek community - but on a college campus in general these days. There were many areas in this book, specifically the body image of men and women and sexual degredation, where I found myself understaning what and where my little sister comes from when she's at the gym for 3 hours a day, acting in my mind inappropriately provacative etc. Great read - but I think better fits for the entire college population than just the Greeks. I also appreciate the fact that the author does not reveal secrets of the organizations - outright :) - something that I feel being a Greek - should be reserved for those of us that are Greek :)

Having joined a fraternity in the 1980s and still living in the town where i graduated from college, I thought this book was going to be an interesting read.

Although Desantis did his homework and cites a great deal of supporting research, his final product does nothing more than underscore all the negative public perceptions about the greek system ... that it IS as shallow as the majority of the "outsider" population perceives with very, very few exceptions.

Am I surprised with the findings? yes and no. Yes, I am surprised that the greek system I embraced twenty years ago has become so superficial and by todays standards, unnecessary. But, no, i am not surprised that today's students exhibit such simple and selfish behavior combined with a total lack of awareness to the world around them (regardless of the globabl reach of the internet) ... it is symbolic of the me-first attitude todays youth culture. There is little shock value in Desantis' work, but maybe it's because living in a college town has de-sensitized me to college students' in general or more likely, i've outgrown the idiotic behavior i exhibited myself so long ago.

I think the book would have been a better read had he used actual fraternities and schools (maybe a liability?) but the "Greek U" "John from Alpha fraternity" "Susie from Theta sorority" was too generic an approach to the subject matter ... it was actually a turn-off for me. The comments/responses/behaviors weren't exclusively greek ... any group of students could have provided the same material..

This book had potential, but i found it disappointing in that it echoes all the same lame greek stereotypes. It might have been better to look at how greek organizations have grown/changed throughout the years to let the reader know that today's generation of greeks are not symbolic of all greeks, but more or less a snapshot of today's youth culture. Desantis' work appears to be no more that a conglomeration of Newsweek/Time/Rolling Stone articles on binge-drinking, eating disorders and date rape ... I really expected a lot more.

Alan DeSantis takes us into a world few outside the College Greek system get to visit. Reads somewhat like a brother recounting their loved but embarrassing younger sybling's misconduct. Extremely well-researched and written with wit, brutal honesty and keen insight. DeSantis examines, warts and all, the Greek System, takes it to task on it's many shortcomings, examines it's often overlooked virtues and offers a glimmmer of hope of what it could, and should, aspire to be. I enjoyed being the fly on the wall for every page of this interesting journey.

Dr. Desantis paints an eloquent and well-researched picture of the current Greek culture at a large American university. His methodology produces rich description and illustrates all sides of Greek life--from the positive to the negative to the intriguing. The book does a great job of contrasting the ways in which fraternities and sororities differ, and Dr. Desantis--as a Greek himself--has a unique perspective on Greek culture.

No doubt that any parent of a student who is currently Greek or considering pledging would find this an interesting read, as would any academic or administrator looking to better understand his or her student body. Current Greek students may find the bluntness of the descriptions to be unarming, as much of what is described often goes unspoken, especially to those who are not Greek. However, Dr. Desantis' book is cutting edge and honest--and all readers would find it worth the buy. "Inside Greek U" reads well and quickly and leaves all readers with a broader understanding of how gender and youth interact in the unique environment that is Greek life. (and PS: I loved it!)

DeSantis has done an outstanding job of carefully researching many aspects of Greek culture and presenting the short- and long-term consequences of Greek socialization on young men and women. This book is extremely accessible to lay readers while still providing an extraordinarily insightful set of analyses that are of tremendous use to academic researchers in many disciplines. I would highly recommend this book to parents of university students (especially entering freshmen), young people considering pledging fraternties and sororities, university educators, administrators, and campus health professionals, as well as anyone curious about the phenomenon of Greek culture on college campuses. Because many academic researchers have not been a part of the Greek system and have no first-hand experience, this book can provide valuable insight into a population of considerable interest and provide a jumping-off point for further research. Frankly, it's such an interesting book that I was lending out my copy so often that I ended up buying a second copy.

First, the book is NOT a biography; it is, however, a memoir and I challenge anyone to recall with perfection every occurrence in his or her lives. In addition, yes, this book is indeed a journey. It is a journey through the nonlinear realm of memories. It is a journey through the expansion and compression of time. The expansion and compression that goes on in our minds and hearts as we recall, or attempt to recall, those instances in our past that framed our future. It is indeed a bumpy ride that McElmurray takes us on through those oscillations. However, it is truly a marvelous work and I compliment the author not only her bravery but for her creative ability to take us on this "journey" for redemption, on this "journey" for closure and ultimately to the beginning of a new "journey" for the author. The "journey" for her and her son to come to terms with all that has happened. A beautifully written book it is more like poetry than prose. Like a hushed cry, it will call you into the memories and will hold on to you until the very end.

She was barely fifteen. She was scared and full of Jesus and her baby. She had faith in the sacrament of marriage but that let her down. She was raised by a germophobiac Appalachian mother who surely thought cleanliness was next to godliness. In that way, her mother tried to save her daughter. After that, her daughter saved her son by giving him up for adoptiion in a system of adoption that was still relatively safe.

She never gave up thought of him and, mericifully, the Red Sea of Government finally parted for this mother and her son to be reunited.

Karen McElmurray is an enormously gifted writer with a heart larger than essential to anyone who would dare to claim the valor of motherhood.

This book is a celebration of birth, voice, recovery. It also stands as a shame to a country still divided on both sides of the "issue" by the "disposability" of the "misbegotten."

Read this book to know honesty, acceptance of responsibility, and how, if it's not too late, we can all find our way back to the womb.

I stopped reading this book shortly after page 96 where the author writes "None of this story is the absolute truth of course. I did not live in an apartment with black and white linoleum, did not live with a Randi or a Terence. I would never have been confident enough to unplug a vital refrigeration unit, touch the stomach of a pregnant girl, or remain calm in a kitchen full of people I'd known for only a few weeks. And Marsha? Was she thirteen or eighteen or something in between?..."

When I read a biography I presume it is as accurate a portrayal of real events that the biographer can reconstruct-not made up fiction for memories whose details have faded with time.

I commend the author for surviving a traumatic childhood and giving her child up at birth. I wish her the best in resolving the issues from her painful past and establishing a relationship with her adult son.

However, I would recommend a rewrite of this book eliminating the rambling, sometimes manufactured narration. It serves no purpose and detracts from the story of what actually happened.

Honesty is crucial in documenting all aspects of one's life and in our relationships with others including that of author and reader.

Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother's Journey is an astounding work of creative nonfiction. Rather than starting at the focal point of the story, her teenage pregnancy and subsequent choice to give her son up for adoption, McElmurray continuously moves backward as well as forward. In lyrical passages where the language is as beautiful as the story is difficult, she winds us through her childhood and adolescence. Maybe this meandering is what renders the characters so starkly authentic, for isn't that the way memory truly works, each moment connected as much to the moments preceding it as to the ones that follow? Surrendered Child is the moving story of a young mother's haunting choice. But this book goes beyond the story it tells, the narrative is a leaping off point and the water below contains the challenge to see what it means to be wonderfully, painfully, alive. As I finished the book I was reminded of the end lines of Adrienne Rich's great poem, The Novel. Rich writes, "You knew the end was coming / You knew beyond the ending lay / your own, unwritten life."

This is an important book for all interested in adoption and especially the birthmother experience to read. The writing is far superior to the usual adoption memoir; liquid,lyrical, poignant, vivid and emotionally true. The poetic stream of consciousness style is perfect to convey the ambiguity, pain, guilt, and clouded memory of a mother who gives up a child, especially the aftermath suffered alone in secrecy and self-loathing. The author's skill in making specific sights, sounds, smells stand out like objects coming into focus through a thick fog is especially effective in anchoring the narrative in reality while the very nature of that remembered reality is questioned.

This is not an easy book to read, especially for one like myself who also surrendered a child, under different circumstances and coming out of a blessedly more normal childhood, but so many of my unspeakable feelings were captured by Ms. McElmurray that at times I was not sure if I was reading the book or writing it. The more I read, the more I fell into the black hole of the years surrounding the birth and surrender of my firstborn son, when I was a college student in the late 60s. What this book captures so well is not a specific, literal linear story, moving from childhood to pregnancy to surrender to eventual reunion, but the shifting,viscuous nature of time and memory, how it is all happening all the time, back and forth and around and around, in the mind and heart of the surrendering mother.

The unreliability of memory, the fluid nature of time, and the endless private retelling and restructuring the story that Ms McElmurray portrays so well are also very familiar to me, the constant rumination over what really happened, and why, and who was to blame, the endless shades of misty grey, where it would be so much easier to make it all black and white and clear, as most such narratives do.

Those who are looking for the usual adoption reform saga will be frustrated; there are no evil social workers, greedy adoptive parents, cruel grandparents forcing surrender. There is only a very young mother at barely 16 making her own choice to save her son from the abused and pain-filled childhood she has known, and never forgetting or recovering from the awful echoes of that choice. She is forever alone, forever standing at the edge of some high mountain road with the choice to jump or fall, as the years and ghosts swirl beneath her feet.

The author's voice is clearly Southern, the way she endures and prevails worthy of a Faulkner heroine, but this poetic narrative is both particular and universal, the anguished cry of a mother who could not keep her son, and could not, in her heart and soul, ever let him go. I especially loved her modest depiction of their eventual reunion, letting the reader fill in what that was, so reminiscent of my own reunion with my adult son, for which there really are no words.

This book is disturbing, painful, and achingly beautiful. It is filled with truths beyond mere the facts, in the way of the most resonant stories and myths. I am in awe of the author's talent and courage, and highly recommend it, especially to other birthmothers and to adopted persons.

Mary Anne Cohen

I purchased this book as a gift for my dad. Janis Holt Giles came to me while doing family research, The Kentuckians was resourced in one family's information so I purchased that book. My dad took it up and read it and has been a Giles fan ever since. From then on every month I have bought a new Giles book for him to read and he enjoys them so. He reads the books in one day then passes them along to anyone who will read them.
He believes Janis Holt Giles to be one of the most gifted writers of all times.I just simply get pleasure from finding him books he loves to read.

Janice Holt Giles takes you to a small place in Appalacia and begins weaving a picture of the people, the ways of life, the long time traditions, and the religion that is deep in the heart of the country. She does it in a way that actually made me fall in love with the people and yearn for a simpler life (even though logically, I know I would have a hard time adapting to such a life). It took me a long time to decide to read this book because the cover is not engaging, but once I had started, I had a hard time putting it down!

This was the worst book I have ever had the misfortune of reading. You see, I had to read it for school. I am 13 years old. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not just a stupid 13 year old who hates everything to do with reading; I LOVE to read. I usually like all the books I read, this is the first one I absolutely hated. No offense to the author or anything, but do people really care how she likes her biscuts? Or does she really think we care about the music for the song "Jesus Hold My Hand"? I mean, give me a break! So those of you who want to read this book, please consider this before wasting your precious money on this excuse for a book.

You will enjoy reading this.

I did.

I loved this book because it took me on a journey to a part of the United States that is not known to most readers. And to a time that is not today. And to know people who are unlike any neighbors I have ever had.
I really enjoyed learning the landscape and the problems and the social activities of mountain people. Someone who lives in an urban area (or the suburbs of an urban area) may feel superior to these characters, feel privileged compared to such country types but I really admired many of the people for coping so well with their circumstances. Many seem heroic, even.
I'd like to say Thank You to this author!

Amazing and extremely thought provoking photos. Like observing a train wreck it is hard to divert one's eyes from these disturbing photos. Though most of the photos are from the 1980's the author makes it clear in the preface of the book that his pictures are by no means typical of the area and should NOT be interpreted as a general representation of all Appalachian people or their culture today. Granted, some 25 yrs later I presume that fact is even more valid. Mr Adams indicates that he was born in the region and knowing the back roads had access to the areas where other visitors would have been denied.
Fascinating glimpse of "back woods" Appalachian life.
Incidently, this book may be found at most public libraries. rather than paying the $300.00 price suggested here by sellers.

This book is attractive on several levels. Bluegrass fans will like the heartfelt portraits of ancient, weathered men cradling banjos, guitars, or a homemade Jew's harp. Fans of the Foxfire series of books on Appalachian crafts and survival skills will like Shelby Lee Adams' Ellis Bailey, Yeaddiss, 1989 (posing with a large animal skin); Mary Napier, Viper, 1989 (posing with squirrel trap and skins); The hog killing, 1990; and Chester and his hounds, Delphia, 1992. People who are amazed by photographer Nicholas Nixon's use of a 4X5 camera for ensemble portaits (Nicholas Nixon Photographs From One Year (1983) Untitled 31, The Friends of Photography) will find even more to admire in Shelby Lee Adams' portraits: Leddie with children, 1990; Children at Topmost, 1991; and Banks family portait, Beech Fork, 1987. Fans of photographer Russell Lee and his portraits of po' folks living in homes where newspapers line the walls for insulation (see, e.g., Russell Lee Photographer (1978) by F.Jack Hurley) will find much to admire in Shelby Adams' photographs of the Napier family home. Fans of Richard Avedon's In the American West will like Shelby Adams' The coal miner, Isom, 1988, and other portraits. Overall, though, there is something else busy at work here. Many of the photographs are shocking or chilling. All of the images depict people living in squallor. A weatherbeated young woman poses by a wheelbarrow filled with trash, wearing a misspelled tattoo on her arm reading: BORN TO LOOSE. The woman cradles a beautiful, spic'n'span baby, where the contrasting cleanliness of the baby only increases the shock that is lent by the trash and tattoo. In another portrait, three churchgoers (two men and a woman) pose by their church, smiling, but their smiles seem oddly unnatural. One of the churchgoers wears an incongruous SURF GEAR T-SHIRT. The name of their town (Hooterville) is spelled wrong, and a correction had been inserted by small hand-printed letters. These three people posing by the church have creepy smiles. The woman smiles broadly, but her face is sweaty and she has a gaping hole where a tooth is missing. One asks, are the unnatural smiles real, or did they result from the photographer's time-consuming task of adjusting (tilting, swiveling, swinging, expanding) the knobs on his 4X5 camera? Most overtly chilling are the images of the religious snake handlers and firehandlers, complete with shark-bite sized scars. Again, oddly unnatural features abound: Holiness Man holds a snake where the man has menacing eyes, and where the menacing quality is not intended. In another picture, Holiness Man places a hand on a Bible, but one of his fingers is oddly and unintentionally twisted. The man's other hand holds a snake. To conclude, Shelby Lee Adams' pictures take two approaches. The first approach is wholesome, happy families posing in squallor. This approach is also shown in Marion Post Wolcott FSA Photographs (1983) Untitled 34, The Friends of Photography, and in Social Graces by Larry Fink, published by Aperture A New Images Book. Shelby Lee Adams' second approach is portraits with incongruous or unnatural expressions, where these expressions are not intended by the subjects. The fact that the odd expressions seem not intended makes the photographs ever more chilling. Andy Grundberg expressed similar thoughts on Bill Burke's photographs of people in Kentucky: the faces we meet in his pictures seem alien, if not lurid and as viewers we are made into voyeurs (Andy Grundberg 1990) Crisis of the Real, Aperture, pages 203; 210-214). If Diane Arbus had done a portfolio of Gomer Pyle, the result would be images in Shelby Adams' second style.

Shelby Lee Adam's doesn't, as some accuse him of, train his camera on the families of Eastern Kentucky to ridcule or expose them in their poverty or backwardness. Instead, because of his devotion to capturing in an authentic way authentic people, he simply and lovingly captures their reality. Is the poverty easy to look at? No. Is the "backwardness" easy to understand? Not very. But Adam's neither condemns nor condones his subjects; he simply and carefully records. We should all be grateful for that.

This book paints a disturbingly distorted portrait of a people who have been constantly misrepresented by our society. I was born in Eastern Kentucky, in the Appalachian Mountains, and am personally offended by this book. Adams and Smith deliberately sought out to find the most backward people they could, and pass them off to the rest of the nation as mainstream Appalachia. Portraits slaps the face of everyone from the Appalachian area, and keeps the extremely unfair stereotype of Appalachia alive. It is a very culturally biased piece of work, and both Adams and Smith should have known better.

I grew up in central KY, just 1 1/2 hours away from Appalachian KY. While the stories and families depicted in these photos are quite true to their nature, it may offer a skewed view of Eastern Kentucky life. Not everyone over there lives in the condition that my dad and I jokingly call "Squalor in the 'holler." However, it happens to be the part that is fascinating. I think the purpose of this book was not to represent Eastern KY, but to represent the intense poverty of the region and to share a glimpse of a lifestyle that most of us cannot comprehend. This book shows what people want to see of Appalachian KY. It's what they are looking for, and it is delivered. That is a place that time has left behind. It's one of the poorest regions in the U.S. due to several certain factors and it is fascinating to see how other folks live. It is a different world over there. If you enjoy thinking about human geography and sociology, this book may welllead to hours of thought.

This book serves as a guide for the men who fought in Central America from the 1880's through the great depression. It recounts their exploits but really does not get into their motives. Simply calling them soldiers of fortune does not make sense when their exploits are explored in detail. I think this book has value as a starting guide except for the fact that it requires a lot of knowledge on the history to begin with. The author's attempts at trying to determine which groups were responsible for which raids leave a large scholarly gap to be filled. This books value is limited and really should only be used as a quick review of what happened.

This is a wonderful read. Vivid accounts of mercenaries and capitalists and their deeds in the early part of the century. The research put into this book is impressive. They provide little known facts about the individuals central to the travesty brought by American involvement. The lives of Lee Christmas, Samuel Zemurray and others from the period are fascinating. Their stories deserved to be told and this book has done a great job of doing so.

I found this to be an excellent rendition of some rather brutal and violent events. The cast of characters could fill a dozen novels, but they were all real people. The corruption, the revolutions, the mercenaries, the battles the the battles are all detailed in a readable style.

A wonderful book about a fascinating time in history. Lee Christmas, Sam Zemurray and all the other characters from the era are rescued from undeserved obscurity. Information not found elsewhere made this a worthwhile read. Having lived in La Ceiba, Honduras and Guatemala, this book brought back the smells and taste of tropical America. For anybody interested in the virtually unknown escapades of soldiers of fortune and crazy capitalists, this is the book for you. If anyone knows of similar books that can be purchased, please e-mail me. I have some, but the early publication dates and lack of market for republications makes it difficult to find classics by Beals, Batson and Cunningham among others.

One of the least appreciated fields of American foreign policy is the role American mercenaries, entrepeneurs and government officials played in the Central American isthmus prior to WWII. The highlight of this time and place is the Panama Canal of course; but there is an entire history separate from Panama that occurred just to the north in the countries of Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatamela and El Salvador. This book focuses on the history of these countries in the time frame of 1880 - 1930. Why this time? The answer is that during this time, this area moved out of the influence of Europe and Europeans, and passed under the influence of the USA. It is during this time that the phrase "Banana Republic" becomes common as the events in these countries were driven by the banana industry or those involved in it.

The book gives equal attention to both local actors such as Bonilla, Manuel, and Castro (not Fidel), and those from the USA such as Lee Christmas, Guy Molony, and of course higher ups in the White House such as Taft, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. The emphasis is on events in the isthmus itself, and many pages detail the battles and machinations of local officials.

The story painted in this book follows the general outline. First, whites discover the feasibility of banana production en masse within Central America. Second, whites from Europe and America move in to make money of the banana business. In doing so, they run into locals and the rivalries that dominate local politics, and are inexplicably drawn in. Washington occasionaly tries to force peace with ironclad warships of the coastal cities and battalions of marines and bluejackets. But this only works as long as the soldiers and ships are present, which is some of the time. The rest of the time alternates between civil wars within countries, and wars between the various isthmus countries. After the first chapter, one comes to realize that this represents one long soap opera. The concept of "dividing the spoils" rarely occurs and everyone fights to win it all.

The book is not long, but is quite tedious to read. Instead of focusing on several key events, the authors frame the book as one long timeline where each event is given 1 - 2 pages. As such, the list of characters, places, and events quickly becomes too much to remember and one page blends into the next. The book includes several pictures in the middle; these should have been included after each chapter to break the text and aid the reader in understanding what is being told. All in all, an interesting subject but not that good a book. There are probably better works to read to learn about this subject.

THIS IS A GREAT COLLECTION OF STORIES AND INFORMATION ABOUT A VERY GOOD TIME ERA. AFTER THE WAR AND TO THE PROSPERITY OF THE 1950'S. THIS BOOK IS VERY WELL WRITTEN AND HAS A TON OF INFORMATION. I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR THE REAL DIEHARD AND HISTORIC BUFFS OF BASEBALL. A GOOD EDITION FOR ANY LIBRARY. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Though Jackie Robinson appears (rightfully) on the cover of this book devoted to the period of baseball's long-overdue racial integration, the author's motive is to nominate Commissioner Happy Chandler as the true author of that history-making event. As a number of other reviewers have pointed out, that argument doesn't hold up under its own weight.

I highly recommend, "aseball's Pivotal Era, 1945-1951"for anyone interested in this exciting era.

I grew up in a baseball town with a class B Dodger farm club, during the Happy Chandler reign as Commissioner of Baseball. Since I was only 7 then, I didn't know much about all of the politics involved. This book really enlightened me about many historical facts of the game including integration and the Mexican League raids. As a kid I was unaware of so much going on behind the scenes.

I am retired now and have plenty of time to devote to reading about this passion of my youth, baseball, and of the many books I have read on the subject, this is one of the best.

As with any book that has lots of statistics, there are bound to be a few errors. Because of a sincere love of baseball, and a head stuffed with old baseball facts and stats, I have uncovered what I believe to be, several typos and/or discrepancies that I would happy to pass on, in case there is going to be an errata. Example: page 87, table 5, shows Brooklyn as NL Champion for 1946; actually the Cardinals were the champs that year. Probably nobody really cares, except the 1946 Cardinals, and me.

I especially enjoyed this book because it fills the time period from my age of two to eight years of age. I became a fan with the end of the "pivotal era". The author notes correctly that progress made during this era stagnated with the arrival of Ford "It's a League Matter" Frick as commissioner after Happy Chandler didn't live up to letting the owners do as they please. Significant details such as the Mexican League, the crucial year of 1947 with the arrival of Jackie Robinson, the Indians' championship of 1948, the 1950 Philly Whiz Kids, and the details leading up to Thomson's homer in 1951 all make this a significant book both for the knowledgable fan and the newcomer interested in baseball history. I did find a few minor errors such as on page 271, the author refers to Bill Bevans of near no-hitter fame in the 1947 World Series as Hal Bevans. Also, former Tigers manager, Red Rolfe, is said to have been replaced as manager in 1951 by Charley Gehringer. Rolfe was replaced during the 1952 season by former Tigers' pitcher Fred Hutchinson. Finally, Jackie Robinson died at the age of 53, not 56 as the author states on page 437. I can certainly put up with these errors. There is a lot to cover in the game's history during these years, and the author did a great job of covering the time period when I was too young to appreciate what was going on in the game of baseball. It's too bad the time period following this era was presided over by a do-nothing commissioner when the game was crying for leadership. However, the owners got exactly what they wanted in Ford Frick.

This book examines baseball during the term of A. B. (Happy) Chandler as commissioner. It is based on extensive oral history interviews, thorough archival research, and the author's keen sensibilities about baseball. I relished reading the book because it filled a significant gap in my knowledge of the game. Marshall is especially strong on the role of free agency and how this manifested itself in the Mexican league of the post-war era. His general knowledge of players, managers, and management is impressive. Finally, this book is well written, without academic jargon. "Baseball's Pivotal Era" merits reading by fans and scholars alike.