South Carolina Books

It is not enough to simply read great literature, we must also think about what it is we've read -- and ponder not only what the author has written, but the why and the how of the writing if we are to derive maximum value from our efforts and time spent with that particular body of work and that particular author. Such is the case with "The Body In Flannery O'Connor's Fiction: Computational Technique And Linguistic Voice" by Donald E. Hardy (Professor of English, University of Nevada - Reno). Using as the basis for his extensive analytic treatise, Professor Hardy draws upon three major essays he had written (and for the purpose of this book, re-written to make it a comprehensive and organized text) to present an innovative thesis with respect to O'Connor's use of grammatical voice and physical bodies in the texts of her novels. Combining computational and linguistic methodologies, Professor Hardy illustrates and highlights O'Connor's use of the body and its parts in her literary explorations of the sacramental and the grotesque. The result is a seminal literary analysis of impeccable interpretive scholarship. "The Body In Flannery O'Connor's Fiction" is a welcome addition to academic library reference collections in general, and an important contribution to the utilization of linguistic terminology and concepts for an interpretive approach to the humanities in particular.

Grandma went to church with Henry Beattie. Her uncle testified for the prosecution. Granddad attended the trial. Dr. Trotti's article on half-tone images [featuring Beattie] in "The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography" whetted my appetite for his new book "The Body in the Reservoir." It was worth the wait.

Trotti's book represents a milestone in Virginia's cultural and journalism histories. For the first time [that I am aware] one work summarizes the crimes of Phillips, Cluverius, Marable, McCue and Beattie and their individual and collective significances. The book also reports on the newspapers' handlings of piracy, insurrections, lynchings [especially that of Thomas Smith] and other famous outrages peculiar to the Commonwealth. The author draws comparisons from a broad base of relevancy while maintaining focus on major cases.

The author traces development of newspaper sensationalism in Virginia from colonial days to the early twentieth century. Trotti credibly shows how cultural, technological and developments in social sciences encouraged such reporting. He identifies elements common to the South and unique to Virginia. In chapter five, he pauses to further hone his earlier work on image technologies.

Trotti's style is precise and logical. His conclusions are astute. The roles of police/dectectives in later cases may be understated, but the author presents newly compiled facts and statistics important to better understand these influences.

Illustrations and endnotes support the text well. The endnotes double as an informal bibliography. The index is optimal.

For scholarship, analysis and historical value, "The Body in the Reservoir" ranks high. The work compliments Lebsock's "A Murder in Virginia" by expanding the contributions of the African-American publisher/editor John Mitchell. Trotti's research on sensationalism belongs on a shelf beside Hamm's "Murder, Honor and Law;" each illuminates a different, key aspect of Virginia's legal psyche and that of the "New South."

Trotti covers all the great murder sensations of Virginia's yellow journalism period . . . . . all, of course, but the last one. The sensational Hall Case and its subsequent cover-up were only revealed recently in "Murder At Green Springs."

If you are thinking of a gift for someone that happens to be an Alumnus of Appalachian State, this is it! A great look into the past. Lots of pictures, lots of information. It offers up some geneology information, but not focused on it at all, a great read. No color pictures, what a drag.

Reading this book opened up a whole new world of thought for me. What is true love... our own selfish desire or the ability to let go?

Mr. Hyndman weaves an excellent true story of a young man's journey through the incredible hardship of paralysis, and the ultimate act of love by his mother. Well written and certainly a story worth sharing.

I'm pleased to write the first review for this wonderful book that reveals the idiosyncrasies of Southern race relations and the politics behind running a school district.

While he is very close to the topic, Tom does a remarkable job of giving factual accounts without raising a hint of defensiveness. Tom relays the events of his years in FSD 1 fairly, which must have been extremely difficult given the attacks inflicted on him during that period.

It is unfortunate that there is similar conflict in many Southern school systems. However, we are indeed fortunate that Tom's book raises consciousness on such an issue.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in discovering some of the real reasons our public school systems are rarely able to focus on the bigger picture of educating our children to their fullest potential.

Mr. Poston has done an excellent and exhaustive job with this book. To my knowledge it is the most comprehensive compilation to date. As well as photographs of the houses plans are also shown for many. A 9+ only because I'm reluctant to say that the "perfect" book has ever been published.

A great read for anyone with Burke county or Western Nc ties, some history along with some entertaining stories. a great gft for anyone with Morganton or burke county connections.

Glenn Eskew has detailed the history of the civil rights movement in Birmingham from 1945 to almost the current time. His account is a detailed view of the struggle within the African-American community to find a way to confront segregation that was regnant in Birmingham. He has told a story riveting in its details and close observations. I lived through the period covered as a white liberal in a city undergoing enormous change. I knew many of the players who stride across these pages--Fred Shutttlesworth, Eugene T. "Bull" Connor, Abraham Woods, C. Herbert Oliver,Police Chief E.H. Brown Lucius Pitts, James A. Head, David Vann, Erskine Smith,James Bevels, Tommy Wrenn, Meatball Dothard, John and Addine Drew,Tom King,James Mills,and James A. Simpson. Culiminating in the 1963 marches lead by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr., Eskew shows the interaction of the local civil rights movement impacted by a national movement. Before King ever came to Birmingham the struggle for civil rights was carried on by local people who deserve to be valorized. Eskew does not do this. His careful and balanced interpretations make this history at its best. If you want to know how a city becomes captive to an ideology (segregation of the races) in a way that permeates all of social, political, educational and cultural life it is revealed here. You will see how dissenters are rejected and punished. You will see how newspapers, churches, pastors, businessmen--indeed every segment of society--is made to bow down to the God of Segregation. Eskew is all balance and historical objectivity. I fault his account in only one way, which is subject to argument and interpretation. He misses the fact that "vigilante activity," the blowing up of houses, the beating of rebels against segregation, and the general terror that held segregation in place was "governmentally sponsored." The Klansmen who bombed, whipped, cut, tortured and attacked were protected by the police and approved in the community generally. This is a fine study and a wonderful corrective for a generation who think that Martin Luther King was the civil rights movement. It was an indigeous protest movement and different in every community in the South. Eskew tells Birmingham's bloody story, in a fine prose and sense of drama, that brings that old struggle to life.--W. Edward Harris

Dr. Ausband's elegant, easy, affable writing style (threaded with humor and just a hint of the bawdy) mirrors that of his subject, and reading this book is very much like listening in on a conversation between two men sharing their thoughts, observations, and tall tales about their adventures in a land they both love, while warming their hands around a steaming mug of coffee before an autumn campfire. The fact that they are separated by three centuries of "progress" is no barrier to their camaraderie, and because the book is so well written, the reader becomes a member of Byrd's expedition team, too, as Ausband does---without having to clean the mud off his or her boots, or cut through the brush in the Dismal Swamp. Almost incidentally, he or she also gets an education in botany, ornithology, and zoology along the imaginary line that separates Virginia from North Carolina, the descriptions of the animals, plants, and people Byrd encountered (and Ausband revisits) as colorful as the Carolina parakeet that once overran the area--and nowhere to be found is the cloying smell of leather elbow patches and tweed the one might expect such a book to exude.

It's a skillful piece of work, written by a master storyteller, and will be of interest to anyone who is a student of Byrd of Westover, a resident of the geographic area, a fisherman or hunter or hiker, or a bibliophile unable to resist the lure of an exceptionally well-wrought book.

Cape Hatteras: America's Lighthouse is a treasure to all of us who love what is arguably the most famous lighthouse in the world. The authors should be commended for writing not only a fascinating look into the past and future of this great beacon, but also a damn fine tale of passion, perseverance, intrigue, romance, grand schemes, utter calamities, and vast heroism.

This is an important bit of American history but it is not a dry text. This book is a real page-turner, one that will illuminate your mind as surely as the Hatteras lighthouse on a frightening, dark sea. Like the mariners which once depended on the light to skirt a dangerous coast, after you finish reading this book, you will be grateful for the experience.