Missouri Books

The Western Writers of America awarded "Leaving Missouri" the 1998 Spur Award for Best Paperback Original! Since only 6 or 7 Spurs have been given to female authors of book-length fiction in the past fifty years or so, I thought this was worth mentioning. "Leaving Missouri" is a hoot! It's funny and charming and scary and sad, a book you'll want to read over and over. Bring Kleenex!

A good story of "Hush Up Clutie Mae Chestnut" Initially, the dialect was a bit overpowering, but the storyline soon puts that out of mind. The book reads quickly and well; I found myself amazed at the number of events occuring within a short period of time. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Recknor's works.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It made me sad and made me laugh- what a good book! Clutie Mae is quite the character and her story is unique

Ellen Recknor's "Leaving Missouri" has surpassed standard western fare and shapeless pulp fiction, and has earned the right to keep company with the great literature we remember from the good old days (the quality of which we were sure would never again be found in the new release section). The lushly detailed characterization and slick-as-a-whistle comedy, go hand in hand with an immensely moving story. This young heroine moves not only beyond the state line, but beyond her small-town ideas and limitations, as she gains wisdom and strength on the journey to adulthood. You will laugh, you will cry, you will cheer. And by the end, you will have lived a lifetime through the eyes of Clutie Mae Chestnut.

I've bought copies for everyone I know who's interested in westerns. Leaving Missouri is a genuine hoot.

Wasn't sure what the title meant when I picked up this book ... but once I started it, I couldn't put it down. It was a busy weekend in New York city, but each time I could get to it, I started reading again. I bought ten copies this Christmas to gift to good friends so they could enjoy it too.

The Logic of a Rose is a wonderful read. Lombardo weaves together stories that are not only entertaining but also beautifully written. He describes his characters and environment so simply yet manages to capture every moment with such detail that the reader feels that he is a part of the story, standing right next to Petey in the Wallace Playlot or watching Petey's father load the bakery's delivery truck. Lombardo is a gifted writer, and the only way to better experience his narrative is to hear him read his marvelous work aloud.

There are many passages of beauty in this brilliant first book. A "Winesburg Ohio" of the Italian working class enclave of Bridgeport on the south side of Chicago, Lombardo's book is written with tenderness, humor, and deep affection for people he knows well and a city he loves. Lombardo recalls the work of Stuart Dybek, but he is not as relentless, objective and hard-edged. This is gentler fiction, but it is very fine on its own terms. Funny and touching passages about his moralistic and loving father (not unlike the bus driver father in "A Bronx Tale") ,about his father's emotional reaction to a Tony Bennett recording, about Italian working people, and about a chance meeting with a first love in a laundromat are haunting. There is a sense of wonder to these terrific stories.--David Evanier is the author of "Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin," "The One-Star Jew," winner of the Aga Khan Fiction Prize, and a former senior editor of The Paris Review.

This is a great book of stories. Lombardo lavishes loving attention on the details of Bridgeport, and this attention will be a joy to readers who know the area and those who don't. Like the author Stuart Dybek, Lombardo finds beauty where others are too jaded to see it. This compassion and heart is also with him as he explores his characters, and Petey Bellapani above all. Whether the characters are living up to their ideals or whether they're muddling their way through, they are touching, understandable, perfectly real. This collection really stays with a reader, like the most important memories of childhood.

This collection of short stories balances perfectly between the perspective of its child protagonist, Petey Bellapani, and the wisdom and understanding that comes of age. Lombardo portrays Petey with tenderness and understanding without ever sentimentalizing or idealizing him. In other hands, Petey's evolution might have led to disillusionment, but Lombardo brilliantly captures Petey's internal voice, a voice that never loses its wonder even as he learns the codes of Bridgeport, his tough neighborhood. Lombardo's collection defies the flat characterization of masculinity too common in contemporary popular culture. Petey, his father, and even the punks of Bridgeport are three dimensional, outwardly posturing but inwardly real, devoted to the toughness expected of them while holding within extraordinary loyalty, affection, courage, and their own brand of honor.

Ella Jo Sadler tells her true story, which kept me on the edge of my seat, while I took in each word. I use to live in a small farm community, and can relate to the feeling of comradery and security that one has without ever entertaining a thought that bad things happen to good people in the country as well as big cities. This book is very suspenseful, wonderfully written with the author sharing her heart and personal faith in God. Through all the tragedies in her life, she gives us the answer to our Why's? and that is Trust God! I thank Ella Jo Sadler for her willingness to share her life.

I live in Potosi, about 15-20 miles from Quaker, where this took place. This book is the 100 % truth of what happened. My aunt is a family member of one of the victims and has told me about it. The book is available at the Washington County Library in paperback all of the time. I think many readers do not realize how small these towns are, Quaker is just a bunch of farms where everybody knows everybody and just about everyone is related. It was a shock that something like that would ever happen because even today, it just doesn't happen here.

When I was younger my mother bought me this book signed by Ms. Ella Jo Sadler, I was a little scared to know that this could happen so close to home (only about 45 minutes away) I think it is a very good book, and I think it takes great courage to be able to write about something this tragic especially when it has happened to you and your family.

Ella Jo Sadler has written a touching story of her experience with the brutal attack on her family which resulted in the deaths of her father and her best friend. She herself was beaten beyond recognition and left on the brink of death, and her mother was shot but not killed. The book kept me riveted to my seat until I finished it! The family showed such faith in God through the entire ordeal that it was an encouragement to my faith, as well!

This book tells it like it is. This is a true story, and it happend in a small town in Missouri. the older guy that committed the murders just recently died in prison. And the younger guy is out on parol {which should have never happend}. The lady who wrote the book "Murder in the Afternoon" is still suffering, She is 95yrs old and still lives on the property where this took place. She witnessed it all first hand, and was in a coma three weeks prior to the murders.

A book for treasure hunting in Oklahoma is long over-due (even though this was done several years ago). Precise information along with very well done maps and easy to follow stories. There is no other book like this nor can any other book compare with it's information. Money well spent for this interesting Oklahoma book is a treasure hunters dream come true. A must read book.

I thought this book was really interesting! It provides the stories of lost gold mines, buried outlaw loot, old Spanish mining efforts, and more. Includes lots of pictures.

For the serious treasure hunter, this book may provide a place to start looking for sources, but it doesn't contain any detailed maps or secrets.

Nonetheless, I would strongly recommend this book to people with an interest in lost treasure or with an interest in the history of Oklahoma. (I found out from this book that I grew up about 20 miles from a lost gold mine area!)

Steve captures the essence of the Wichita Mountains in an inspiring way. As someone who grew up in these magaical mountains, I appreciate the insight he brings to the book. The photos, maps, and stories offer great depth into an area that I've enjoyed exploring since I was a young girl. Thanks to Steve for sharing the stories of Oklahoma with the world. He's a great storyteller, an amazing author and photographer.

Although this book was originally published several years ago, it remains "the best" reference book for authentic treasure leads ever published, particularly for Oklahoma.

Many of the old west treasure stories recorded here would now be lost to history if not for Steve Wilson's thorough detective work.

I was shocked to read one review here stating "there are no detailed maps" in the book. I beg to differ with that opinion. This book contains several authentic treasure maps. It is an absolute fact that treasure was recovered using some of those maps. (Read "Shadow of the Sentinel" or "Rebel Gold" for the story of one treasure recovery). I'd go as far as to predict, that in the near future, other treasures will be found using the maps in this book.

Every day another treasure hunter enters the ranks of those who seek buried gold. They can do no better than to read, and read, then re-read the OKLAHOMA TREASURES AND TREASURE TALES.

To truly understand the way treasure maps are actually drawn and how they work this book is a must. Study these maps paying careful attention to the codes and ciphers hidden in them, then with some luck and lots of hard work you might be the next person to get rich from Steve's work.
Bob Brewer
Author/Historian/Cache Hunter

This is the definitive work on lost treasure in Oklahoma. The author gives an excellent survey of most of the lost treasures in the state which are commonly known (and some which are not so well known). The author seems to have researched the treasures in the western half of the state, particularly those in the Lawton area, more heavily than the treasures in the eastern half of the state. Nonetheless, on all of the treasures surveyed, there is sufficient information in the bibliography for the serious student to start researching any of the treasures.

THE RAGTIME KID is a historical mystery based on actual people and events surrounding Scott Joplin's composition and publication of The Maple Leaf Rag in Sedalia, Missouri in 1899. The story is told through the eyes of Brun Campbell, a young white piano player who hears Scott Joplin's "colored" Ragtime music and becomes obsessed with it and the composer. He leaves his home to study piano with Joplin in Sedalia and becomes involved in a murder case and an interracial struggle for control of the black composer's music.

Until I read this book, I knew little about Joplin or Ragtime music, but I found this book fascinating. Karp has done a wonderful job of bringing to life a time and place that seems very distant to many us now. Karp's Sedalia is a turbulent mixture of blacks and whites with strongly held feelings about the desired relations of the races - former Union and Confederate soldiers, freed slaves, freeborn blacks, abolitionists, and KKK members all live in this small town. And when Scott Joplin, a talented, educated black man, refuses to sell the rights to his music cheaply to a white man, it is like putting a match to a powder keg.

The thing I found so interesting about this book was the amount of historical fact that Karp has used in the story. He has basically created the mystery to suit and explain the fantastic and unprecedented events of 1899. While he did create several fictional characters for the story, Karp populated Sedalia with many of its actual inhabitants and businesses. Those of you who know more about Ragtime than I did may already know that Brun Campbell isn't a fictional character, that he did study with Joplin in 1899, and was a professional musician for much of his life. Me? I was surprised.

While the resolution of the mystery is a little too sensational to ring true, Karp's exploration of the motivations of the different historical characters is a delightful study of conflict and compromise. Frankly, I couldn't put the book down because I wanted to find out how these real-life people from long ago turned out.

Favorite character? Dr. Walter Overstreet. Did I guess it? Mostly. Will I read another? This is the first book of a Ragtime trilogy and the quality of Karp's writing and the ability to draw in the reader makes this a definite yes. I have to know how it ends!

We already knew that Larry Karp was a talented mystery writer, thanks to his previous novels. This latest work shows that he can write historical fiction and make it fascinating. Even though I started the book knowing nothing about ragtime music, by the end I wanted to learn more!

His other strength is his ability to create characters that are so real, and so endearing, that the reader quickly begins to identify with and root for the protagonist(s). This makes the book a real page-turner, because you can't wait to read more about what "your" characters are doing!

If you haven't read anything by Larry Karp yet, you're in for a treat!

I've just re-read Larry Karp's The Ragtime Kid, and just as you shouldn't play ragtime too fast, you shouldn't read Karp's book too fast, either, lest you miss the music of his prose and the nuances of the stories he tells.
In this, his latest book, it's 1899, and young piano player Brun Campbell has run away from his rural home in Oklahoma to Sedalia, Missouri. He's only just heard ragtime for the first time, and hopes to learn this new music from the master himself, Scott Joplin. Arriving in Sedalia, and looking for a room for the night, he stumbles, literally, upon the body of a woman, and picks up two objects that will become vital to the solution of her murder. He finds employment at a music store, and begins studying with Joplin, but when a man he knows is innocent is arrested, Brun is, however unwillingly, drawn into the search for the real murderer.
Though Sedalia is a town filled with music, it is only 30 years since the end of the War Between the States, and racism is very much a part of this story. Joplin insists on being taken seriously as a musician, and receiving royalties on the sheet music which will bear his name as composer, an unprecedented demand for the times. Thus, another plot line develops, as Joplin pursues his ambitions despite some unprincipled and amoral adversaries.
The characters here are a mixture of real, from Joplin and Campbell and other musical figures, and fictional, to some of the townspeople. In skin color, they are black and they are white, and in character they are black and white, as well, but the two categories do not necessarily overlap. Brun himself is a fifteen-year-old, a musical Huck Finn in some ways, coming of age in a world more complex than he ever imagined, and he's learning, at first hand, what black and white are all about. As events unfold, Karp vividly captures the sheer awfulness of racial (and other) bias as it was then.
Just as there are two plot lines, there are two narrative voices here, speaking in a gentle counterpoint. One voice is someone who knows Brun and tells his part of the story, occasionally noting that "Brun once told [him]" about one event or another. The other voice is an omniscient third-person narrator, who recounts Joplin's story, and the ongoing search for the murderer of the woman whose body Brun found. As Brun's music lessons commence, his plot and Joplin's intertwine, connected by some unscrupulous music promoters, and by his own efforts to absolve the innocent man.
All the characters, and some of them are surprising, are vividly realized, and they all speak very much in their own voices. Those voices, moreover, are often eloquent. Early in the book, Joplin tells Brun that ragtime is like "a bright sunny day, just a perfect day, but . . . sooner or later, the lovely day will have to end." Even more moving is a grieving father's lament for the brutal death of his son, which he knows will not be investigated: "[We] was born slaves, and now we been set free, but I don't see the leas' difference. White men kill us on the plantation, they kill us now, an' it's no matter."
From the geography of Sedalia to its weather, the sense of place in the novel is intense. It's a book that takes place in a hot Missouri summer, when the air is "close to drinkable," and we breathe in that heat and humidity as we follow Brun through the city. More characters appear, his life becomes more complicated, and as he puzzles out the solution to the murder, the action leads up to a triple denouement. First there's a violent confrontation with some brutal men, followed by an even more suspenseful encounter which culminates in the unmasking of a murderer. Then, in a shocking turnaround, Brun's own "lovely day" is over, and his life moves in a new direction.
The Ragtime Kid is a scrupulously researched look at a time in America's musical and social past, a fiction that can, as Karp notes in the concluding pages of his book, tell "a truth more striking and wondrous than any historical reality." It's a book written with humor (and not a little irony), with occasional pathos, and always with generosity . Listen to some Joplin while you read it

Larry Karp writes books. He doesn't just write genre fiction; he writes each work as an individual, well-crafted, offbeat narration. Even in his Music Box series, published by the now-defunct Write Way, all three novels were entirely singular, and unique. So, too, is *The Ragtime Kid*, an outstanding piece of historical intrigue that focuses on the origins of ragtime music and is written within the murder mystery/crime literature category of fiction.

Dr. Karp is a particularly fine writer, and his prose shines, but here, the story itself--and the characters--truly dominate.

The protagonist of the book, young Brun Campbell, is so drawn by the allure of the new music craze, ragtime, that he runs away from home to study with the great Scott Joplin in Sedalia, Missouri. Just off the train, Brun stumbles over the body of a woman, Then, not long after, he has himself a job and becomes a student of the elegant black composer, Joplin, who very well might be a homicide suspect.

Another great theme of the book is American racism. Although the Civil War has been over for a good long time, those who fought in the war--and many in Sedalia did--haven't forgotten--from one side of the great divide, or the other.

Racism, ragtime, and murder are his topics, and Karp intertwines the three adroitly for the novel's readers, then throws in a little romance as a sort of seasoning. Male/female relationships are as complex in The Ragtime Kid as they are in real life.

But perhaps the element that tickled me most about the book is the fine detailing of the time and place. Karp, a longstanding ragtime enthusiast, took the Scott Joplin biography and that of the real-life Brun Campbell, and without distorting the documented facts, wove a tale of what might have occurred. Behind that marvelous foreground though lies a backdrop lending the intoxicating particulars of the time: memories of the Chicago's World Fair in 1893, a young woman eager to perform in vaudeville, a spring-powered fan to drive away the heat, and yellow streetcars providing the Sedalia citizens their transportation.

In short, Karp has created a darn good read, a compelling and literate story that entertains on many levels--as a novel, as a mystery, and as a chronicle of one stage in our national history--a tale peopled by very real and believable characters.

*The Ragtime Kid* proves itself to be both a fun and an enlightening pastime.

G. Miki Hayden, author of *Writing the Mystery* and *The Naked Writer*.

Brun Campbell loves to hear and play music. In Oklahoma city he listens to some musicians in a music store playing a tune by Scott Joplin and knows instantly that is what he wants to learn how to play. He runs away from home at fifteen and hops a train for Sedelia, Missouri in the hopes that he can get Mr. Joplin to give him lessons. On the way into town he runs across the body of a woman strangled to death and he takes a musical money clip that is nearby and a locket on her neck.

In town he meets businessman Mr. Fitzgerald who stakes him to a room at the YMCA and money to buy food while he looks for work. Someone who hears him playing music recommends he ask music store owner Mr. Stark for a job. Mr. Stark listens to him play and offers him a job on the spot. He also auditions for Joplin who agrees to give him lessons. When Mr. Fitzgerald is arrested for the murder of the woman Brun saw the first day he was in town; he knows the man didn't do it. The money clip which belonged to Joplin could implicate him and Brun in the murder. Brun decides to find the killer with the unwitting help of the townsfolk as he maneuvers them in the direction he wants them to go for information relating to the murder.

As historical mysteries go, THE RAGTIME KID is one of the better ones. The author doesn't only write a good who done it, he shows the readers how the plight of the black man had changed very little since Emancipation back three decades earlier. Scott Joplin takes a big risk to be paid in royalties with his name as the arranger of the music, something unheard of in the 1890's. The protagonist has a touch of larceny in him that helps him get what he wants but he is so adorable, readers will root for him in spite of his faults.

Harriet Klausner

I love Dorothy Garlock. I think this was her last great series of books. Her writing is not as strong as it used to be and that is very sad. Read this whole series you will not be sorry!

What a well-written, engaging novel! Dorothy uses just enough description, but doesn't over-do it. She uses the river and it's potential flooding as the backdrop, building suspense behind all the sub-plots. Loved the characters she creates. My fave book of the year!

My attention was captured by the rural farmhouse art on the novel's cover, Dorothy Garlock's name, and the word "Americana" in reviews.

Been analyzing various types of mysteries and needed a relief from the clue focus. Was definitely refreshed returning to my old haunt of Early-American, 1930's romance. In that genre I live with the characters and plot in warm, family settings, yet I'm removed enough from the heavy work loads and financial horrors families shouldered in the depression era.

The prologue was a chilling, mesmerizing lead-in to the plot's contrast of emotionally heated grit around a good cast of strong, feisty characters weaving wit into wherewithal.

Say what?

Okay. Re-wording:

The prologue gave an accurate profile of a rapist, and the psychological response to the discovery of that profile (after 5 years grieving her husband's death) by a wife who had no clue to his dark side. The easy, quipping banter among characters in the ongoing plot gave a good contrast to the pain in the prologue.

I enjoyed the easy reading rhythm of slipping through a plot without the necessity of applying memory retention techniques to hold onto an intriguing horde of details, clues, and diversions. My recent reading tastes have been craving cozy culinary mysteries, with other genres and mainstream novels temporarily shoved off the back burner onto the floor behind the stove, where greasy dust bunnies abide and multiply. Even within a craving frenzy, though, one needs a break. This was mine.

How refreshing to live through the pages of a book with no underlying game-board beyond the simple elements of a good story. Not that simple stories are empty; with a balance of plot, characters, and setting, enough is most often enough. And, there is clearly thematic and psychological depth here.

I cheered the cunning contrast between the enduring country values of the Jones, and the un-elegant, empty ethics of a few snobs in town. It was refreshing to see redemptive evolutions of youth (Sammy) and of more mature characters (Jack). Of course the conflicts, tensions, and resolutions were predictable, as they're expected (desired) to be in this genre. If these anticipations are altered too dramatically, the drama sometimes descends into a literary category, and (for me) can too easily go sour in that miasma.

I was refreshed by the formulas met, yet literarily satisfied with this warm story's easing gently and sagely into and through difficult issues.

Surprisingly, the exposure (and healing) of a mild sexual perversion was artfully and tastefully done within this plot, edging the work almost into a literary gestalt, without leaving the appealing warmth of healthy romance

Loved the scene of peeping Fred snapping his backbone to stand up against bitter Shirley. Once backbone is acknowledged, perversion has an option to dissipate. What I enjoyed most in that first scene of Fred's spirit surge was that he accomplished this initial shift in his sibling relationship simply and gently. This situation occurred earlier in the story, giving characters the opportunity to begin healing dark tendencies, and the reader the regenerative benefits of "taking cues" from realistic character growth.

Woven naturally into the action were Lots of interesting bits of info for dealing with various types of emergencies, including medical. The fitting manner in which these "how to's" were delivered increased my involvement in the reading.

April Asbury leaves a big city hospital where she worked as an emergency room nurse to work in the small town of Fertile as Dr. Forbes office nurse. On the surface Fertile seems like a serene little town where neighbor helps neighbor survive the Great Depression. She meets Joe Jones when her car breaks down forcing her to walk until she finds herself in a field with a bull. Joe rescues her and takes her into town where she rents a room at Mrs. Poole's and starts work in Dr. Forbes office.

She begins to sense that the postcard prettiness of the town masks secrets that people want kept hidden. Dr Forbes is in love with a woman most people would consider black and is not allowed to legally marry her. Mrs. Poole's brother Fred spies on April when she is naked in her room and Mrs. Poole is going through with a diabolical plan that could destroy innocent lives. April is afraid to give her heart to Joe because she thinks he is a flirt while Joe thinks April would not want to get involved with a poor farmer. When the river threatens to flood the town many secrets and feelings finally see the light of day.

Dorothy Garlock is the queen of Americana tales and RIVER RISING is a perfect example of her superior writing talent. The romance of April and Joe plays out against the manipulations and actions of the secondary cast who are drawn very realistically. There are multiple sub-plots that all tie to the main storyline that enables readers to feel what it was like in small Missouri town during the Great Depression.

Harriet Klausner

River Rising is an excellent book with great subplots. I couldn't put it down. Dorothy Garlock's stories are always so real and emotional.

This book is not only entertaining and educational for kids, but for adults, too! The artwork is lovely to the eye and I'm looking forward to getting more of these books.

What a wonderful idea for a series of books. This is one of 50 alphabet books; there is one for every state. This one is packed with beautiful illustrations which contain hidden symbols, poetry, and tons of "unique to Missouri" facts. Don't just buy this one....collect them all. They are sure to be a valuable resource for teachers and parents alike. Despite it's ABC format, it is intended for all age groups.

This book is GREAT! As a school teacher, I'm delighted to have this book in my classroom. As a parent, I'm delighted to have it at home. It's an alphabet book, a poetry book, a textbook, and an art book all in one! Though I have lived in Missouri all my life, I sure learned some new things by reading S is for Show Me. I learned about the Kimmswick Bone Beds where mastodons used to live. I learned that nearly all corncob pipes in the world are made in Washington, MO! I learned about caves, springs, animals, ice cream cones, the Pony Express, the Civil War and so much more. This book should be read over and over because there is so much information that it just can't be absorbed in the initial reading. The illustrations are beautiful. Many of the paintings contain hidden details that my kids love to search for. The poems are fun to read aloud to young children and give them just enough information to spark their curiosity. But each page also has a sidebar of text that provides more in-depth information for older children and adults. S is for Show Me crosses all age barriers. I highly recommend this book to young and old alike, to anyone who is interested in the great state of Missouri!

This book is simply well done. I must say though, it is a bit misleading as it is not a simple ABC book even though it is set up in that particular format. It is so very, very much more. The author and illistrator have given us a wonderful oversite of a wonderful state, starting with prehistory and working forward to the present. The emphasis is on the outdoors of course, as Missouri, if nothing else, is an outdoor kind of place. The cities too have been well covered though, so there is something for everyone here. This book contains some pretty sophisticated information so, for the younger child, it might be a good idea to use this as a "read-a-long" book. The art work is great and quite detailed and fits the text perfectly. I have to admit, even though I am a native of this state, have lived here many years, I too, learned quite a few facts that I was unaware of. For an informative, well designed and fun to read book, I do recommend this one highly.

S is for Show Me fulfills a need of which librarians have been aware a long time. Finally here is a book that provides a great amount of information about the state of Missouri in an easy-to-read format all ages can enjoy. The magnificent illustrations develop great interest in the excellent poetry and interesting research material. Adults as well as children will gain much knowlege of Missouri from this informative and enlightening book. I cannot praise S is for Show Me too highly!

This is what you would expect a history of any period to be like, but unfortunately few are. Bowen has done a masterful job in explaining what happened, why it happened, who made it happen, and who didn't. Almost every situation is explained as to the political, economic and military impact of what happened as well as thoughts on what different could have been done and what the effect might have been.

By keeping Spain out of direct belligerency, Franco protected Spain for the post-war era. Though his dictatorship was brutal, it was homegrown and homemade (except for the help of the German Air Force-Condor Legion) and for the most part, kept home. With belligerent armies in the millions, and forced labor in the millions; Spain contributed at most seventy thousand troops and workers all told, with fewer than 20,000 at any one time.

If you want to know what happened in Spain during WW2, this is your book.

This is an important new volume, filling a major gap in the recent history of Europe. But in addition to that, it is an engrossing and entertaining read!

For several decades after World War II, historians of the various fascist and semi-fascist movements tended to focus on the leaders, the party structure, international diplomacy, and issues related to the war. Only recently have historians begun to focus on the "little people" who supported these regimes. (This is in stark contrast to the historians of Marxism, who have much more often written about the devotion of the individual party members.)

Franco's regime was a complex one, combining elements of military dictatorship, fascism, and reactionary monarchism. Although Franco succeeded in steering a middle course between these elements, there were many radical members of the Falange who wanted closer ties to Nazi Germany. The motivations behind these people -- mostly young radicals -- have not been explored in any English-language history book until now.

In "Spaniards and Nazi Germany," the author (Wayne Bowen) examines the various individuals who advocated closer ties between Spain and Germany between 1933 and 1945. Germany aided Franco's Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War, while the Soviet Union was aiding the Republican forces. When the Civil War ended, many observers expected Spain to become a close ally of Germany. But when Hitler struck a deal with Stalin in 1939, this changed. The Spanish Right had always seen Communism as their greatest foe. So when Hitler and Stalin gleefully carved up Catholic Poland, most of the Spaniards loyal to Franco realized that Hitler's ideology was not at all the same as theirs.

However, radical elements in the Falange refused to break ties with Nazi Germany. Many of them formed Spanish-German friendship groups, and even tried to undermine Franco's control of Spain. Finally, when Hitler double-crossed Stalin and invaded the USSR in June 1941, many young anti-Communist Spaniards volunteered to fight on the Eastern Front. These volunteers of the "Division Azul" ("Blue Division") ended up fighting alongside the Germans between Leningrad and Moscow.

Dr. Bowen does an excellent job of chronicling the activities of the pro-German Spaniards, as well as the controversies surrounding them. On a political level, Franco was trying to steer a course between the neutrality he desired for Spain and his tactical preference for whichever side seemed to be winning the war at any given time; on the other hand, the radical Falange saw politics in terms of the National Socialist "New Order" which they believed was the future of Europe. On an ideological level, most of Franco's supporters respected the Nazi Party's opposition to Communism, but distrusted its radicalism and its neo-paganism; again, this contrasted with the Falangists who saw Nazism as admirable. Even in the face of explicit German disdain for their "Latin allies", many of these radicals persisted in their loyalty to the Nazi ideals.

This is an excellent book which really opens a new chapter in the history of 20th Century Europe.

I enjoyed this book, which is very well documented with lots of footnoes and bibliography. The Nazis come off looking pretty arrogant about Spain, which they thought was at their beck and call. This book has everything a good history should: adventure, war, diplomacy, economics, conspiracies, and unexpected results. Excellent.

I really liked this book! My boyfriend is a real history buff, watching the History Channel all the time and everything, so I wasn't convinced I would enjoy it when he kept pushing me to look at it, but after I started reading Bowen's book, I couldn't put it down. There are a lot of amazing stories in it, like when Spaniards fought to defend Berlin at the end of World War II, and when Franco said "no" to Hitler -- and got away with it! For a history book, it's a pretty fun read!

This is an exciting story about my country's history during the Spanish Civil War and Second World War, when my grandparents endured starvation and political warfare. Professor Bowen has written a very interesting book, finding archives and research materials that no Spanish historian has used, to create this history which reads like a novel. I had no idea so many of my people were enthusiastically pro-Nazi, fighting in the German army, agitating for Spanish entry into the war, and volunteering, even after the war was lost, to help Hitler win. I had heard of the Blue Division, but thought these were soldiers Franco forced to go to Russia, not tens of thousands of volunteers who wanted to fight Stalin. Sometimes Bowen seems to go a little too easy on Franco, who contributed so much to making life difficult in Spain during this period, but I still recommend this book for everyone interested in the Second World War or Spanish history.

This book is a joy to read. George Elsey has told the story of his experiences with clarity and continuity that makes history reading fun. The word serendipity came to mind numerous times while George relates the fortuitous events in his life. He does not belabor the reader with oft-told events that are common knowledge. His narrative style paints a vivid picture of how important and significant world affairs melded together through the 40s, 50s and 60s. Persons who also grew up in this time-frame will immediately relate to the events. George Mckee Elsey still exhibited his sharpness of mind during a recent radio program on NPR called, The Book Guys.

George Elsey was one of the architects of Truman's upset of 1948. Truman even predicted the outcome some weeks before the election to Elsey and Elsey put the prediction in a safe place. Truman was a little optimistic, but he really defied the odds and the bookmakers in Nevada by beating Tom Dewey.
This is a must for any fan of Harry S Truman. Bet they sell lots of this book at the Truman Library in Independence, MO. There were no two people like Bess and Harry Truman.

From National Review Online:
An Unplanned Life, by George M. Elsey. The newly published reminiscences of the author's days as a Naval aide to FDR and speechwriter and advisor to President Truman. Now 87, Mr. Elsey spent many hours with Roosevelt in the White House Map Room, served as the president's personal witness to the invasion of Normandy, and decoded and delivered to Truman the first report of the mission over Hiroshima. The stories are fascinating and engagingly told - the product of careful note-taking, an undimmed memory, and a modest, gentlemanly character. --Matthew Scully

George Elsey was a Harvard graduate student in history who wound up as a 23 year old Naval Aide to FDR in the midst of World War II. Thus began an unplanned career as a key witness, participant, and recorder of one of the most important chapters in our nation's history.

Working in the Map Room, he coded, decoded, read, and transmitted the most top secrets of the war, including:

-Handing Churchill the news that the Allies had sunk three German U-Boats, which Churchill knew meant that we'd broken the top secret German Enigma code. Churchill jumped up and down and shouted "We got them! We got them! We got them!" This was in May, 1943, regarded by many as the turning point of the war.
-Handing FDR the news that Mussolini's government had collapsed in July, 1943.
-Handing Truman the news of the atomic bomb.

But he didn't just pass along news, he made news. He was a key architect of Truman's foreign policy, and also nudged him to proceed with civil rights speeches. And then during the "greatest political upset of the century," George Elsey wrote Truman's speeches during his famous Whistle Stop Campaign, sometimes as many as 15 speeches a day.

He had many more accomplishments in government life as well.

He worked at the Red Cross for over 20 years, 13 as President, and was personally responsible for many of the core tenets that live on to this day.

George Elsey is the kind of man we all want to be, and his story, written with great candor, modesty, and precision, reminds us that giants used to roam the halls of the White House.

While the title of this book could fit most of our lives, most of us do not get to go to Princeton, and then assigned to work in the White House through World War II and beyond.

Mr. Elsey did this and more. He was assigned to the White House early in the war. He was to remain, first with Roosevelt and then with Truman for many years. Later, during the Viet Nam war he worked with Clark Clifford looking for ways to get out of the war. Finally he spent a long career with the Red Cross.

This career placed him near the center of power for many of the critical years of the 20th century. Now at 88 years old, it is clear that his memory is still sharp. And as his attitude towards life comes through it is easy to see how he would have fit into many different assignments.

The photograph section of the book is fascinating as it shows him off to the side or behind the president, but often with people very powerful in their own right.

I can't say enough how much I enjoy every book Dorothy Garlock writes.
She has a way of telling each story and really makes the reader feel like she is back in time. I have already read this book but wanted to read it again as I do many of her books. I am looking forward to her next book, On Tall Pine Lake, can't wait.
If you like books with a little of everything, you will enjoy this book.

This is a sweet and action-packed story, with the love story of Berry and Simon and Rachel and Fain. Dorothy Garlock is a master of creating memorable characters.... and this is one of her best.

Berry and Rachel are two strong female characters, that overcome numerous hardships, but always help each other through them. Their troubles seem to grow and grow, and even the strong characters of Simon and Fain get drawn into their bad luck.

This book is full of romance, intense action, and lots of suspense. I couldn't put this one down!

Enjoy, I'm off to read Annie Lash now! Watch for my upcoming review.

Dorothy Garlock's book is a great read. The characters are believable. I have read the book numerous times. It was read so often, I bought a second copy.

There is a fine line between a heroine who is 'spunky' and a heroine who is TSTL (too stupid to live). Dorothy Garlock's heroine in WILD, SWEET WILDERNESS is definitely TS.

Reluctantly, Berry Warfield and her pregnant stepmother are traveling to Missouri. Missouri is a long way from an Ohio homestead, but the cruel actions of a vicious man forced the journey. Suddenly, fate intrudes and they are finally free. Berry Warfield's wretched father is dead and now the two women must face the savage wilderness alone.

Simon Witcher is a rough, tough, frontier man. He is a man who loves the challenge of unbroken land. He is a trader and an adventurer and although Berry Warfield's beauty and carefree spirit fascinate him, there simply is no room in his vigorous life for her.

Dorothy Garlock is an author who CAN write a historical setting. This author never ceases to amaze with her unique specified gift. However, a pleasant feeling of excitement and wonder should always fill a romance story. The romance should be idealistic, sentimental, and mystifying. In WILD, SWEET WILDERNESS the heroine's actions are not pleasingly romantic. Regrettably, Berry Warfield's vicious tongue and foolish ideas are not enjoyable to read. Even so, Garlock's strong writing style, setting control, and secondary characters do manage to pull WILD, SWEET WILDERNESS into 'page turner' territory.
Grade: B-

MaryGrace Meloche.

Once again I've gotten to read about an interesting time in our country's history and enjoyed a wonderful story as well. I have almost all of Ms. Garlock's books and consider each of them a treasure. I have a book shelf specifically dedicated to her work. She's one of a kind!