Georgia Books

I live in Los Angeles but have been on the Roswell Ghost Tour and now, after reading this book, all I want to do is go back! The thing I love about this book is that Dianna gives you background to the story. A scary story just isn't as scary without a little history. The movie "Psycho" wouldn't be as much fun without the story of the owner of Bates Motel!! This book is not only for those who live in the area. This book is for all lovers of the paranormal! I highly recommend it!
Dage Baker

My husband and I moved to the Atlanta area just this past May and one of the first things we did was go on the Roswell Ghost Tour with Ponyboy as our guide. Being new to Georgia it was great to hear about some of the history of this very interesting city as well as learn of its paranormal activity. We have been on other ghost tours, but Roswell is our favorite and we plan on going again. When I found out Dianna Avena had written a book on Roswell I eagerly awaited its publication and after reading it, it did not disappoint me. The stories were written in the order of the actual tour. It was well written and gives a good sense of Roswell's history along with the hauntings that so many people have experienced. The pictures were a good supplement to her stories. Whether you have taken the tour or not, this book is very entertaining and informative for all of you "ghost hunters" out there. I thoroughly recommend this book and look forward to more tours and books from Dianna and her crew.

The book is a wondering weaving of history and storytelling. Dianna's writing style is an easy read and kept me wrapped in the pages from beginning to end.

I found the book to be well written and very informative about both the history of Roswell, Georgia as well as the paranormal activities going on in this town north of Atlanta. I have lived in northern Georgia since 1990 and did not know a lot of the history of Roswell. This book educated me on both the history of Roswell as well as some of the "creepy" things going on in some of the locations around Roswell. If you live in or near Georgia and/or interested in the paranormal, this book is a definite must read. Two thumbs up! Now, I am going to go take the Ghost Tour of Roswell that is offered by the author! Wish me luck!

I found that the book was full of details and laid out in a way that it was easy to read and understand the content. It also had good pictures to go along with the stories so it made you feel as if you were there, not only through words but with the visuals as well.
It's very apparent that the author is very knowledgeable about the subject she wrote about!

Any one who has a personal copy of Walden with heavy underlining and pages falling away from the binding will read the words of David Kline with respect. This is a man so completely at one with his physical world, so at peace with his chosen lifestyle, and so appreciative of his environment that he makes Thoreau seem under-developed. While Kline, an Amish farmer who lives an economic life far out-of-step with his contemporary American culture, writes little about his religious philosophy, he is man at peace with himself and his God and he is able to convey that without talking directly about his theology. He expresses appreciation for his heritage of the family farm which has become his, and for his early teacher who taught him to see the wonders of the natural life which was found on that farm and in that area of Ohio. The life of a farmer is one of seasonal cycles which dictates the work, and the habits of the creatures of the wild. The book is roughly cyclical in scope, but has no straightforward time line. Kline writes as though engaging in easy conversation, reminiscing about berry-picking and manure-spreading, bird-watching and gardening. His life is an out-of-doors life, but he does not complain about the weather! Bad weather seems to be a time to read, and he cites authors from Kathleen Norris to A. Leopold, evidence that he is as much at home with the written word as with the topography of his farm Kline's little book makes me want to know more about him, to know how he relates to the strange and stressed humans with whom he shares this land. The book is as much spirtitual as scientific in content, bringing a sense of peace in a too-busy world. One waits for another from this delightful author.

Scratching the Woodchuck, Nature on an Amish Farm by David Kline sits on my credenza at work. I reach for it when I need an antidote for institutionalized schizophrenia.

Scratching the Woodchuck is a collection of about 60 short essays. They are organized into four catagories: The Farmstead, The Fields, The Woods, Creeks and Sky and The Community. The essays are rich in adjectives and read at a slow and leisurely pace.

For example:

"I was startled the other day to see a meadow vole (one of those fat little short-tailed mice that abound in meadows and fields) come charging out of the grass-covered ditch and dash across the road as fast as its stumpy legs could carry it. Before the sprinting vole had reached the safety of the opposite ditch, it was followed by two more of its kin. These, however, instead of racing across the road, made large half-circles and then ran back into the same ditch twenty feet down the road.

I stopped and watched the spot where the meadow voles had emerged. Soon a small pointed nose poked through the grasses and two obsidian eyes glared at me--a weasel. No wonder the voles were scared silly. Of all their enemies, nothing alarms the mouse family as much as the weasel, because there is no place to hide from the long, slender killer." Page 42.

Plusses:

*The essays are short. You can pick up the book and regain sanity in about 2.76 minutes.

*The essays are consistently high quality writing. There is none of the unevenness that results when a book is banged out in a hurry.

Minuses:

*The book does not come back quickly when loaned out. "Oh, I was going to bring it back today but my wife started reading it." kind of thing.

*Ultimately, you finish the book and you want more.

Scratching the Woodchuck is a good book to pick up if you feel like the pea-in-a-whistle. Mr. Kline's prose will slow your heart rate and reduce your blood pressure. Mr. Kline assures us that life only appears to be fragmented. The patient observer can find the connections.

Scratching the Woodchuck is probably *not* a good choice if your preference for escapism-liturature tends toward verb-packed, staccato writing (like Tom Clancy). You will find Scratching the Woodchuck maddeningly slow and boring.

Reading Kline's book makes one want to immediately ditch city life. This talented writer takes a look at nature in simple, basic terms, bringing it close to everyone who has ever watched a spider in a web, or looked at tracks in fresh snow. His unpretentious approach is precisely the way that nature should be viewed. . . with knowledge, joy and kinship with the out of doors. (Review by Judy Wade, author of Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year; Southern California and Baja, published by Fulcrum and also available through Amazon.)

Scratching the Woodchuck is quite simply the best piece of natural history writing I have read in decades. David Kline is a keen observer, a competent naturalist, and an eloquent writer. We need more books like this in our all too technology-based, human-centered society.

This book takes the reader back to humanity's roots, and to our essential relationships with other species that inhabit this planet with us. Something beautiful and important is found here that has been lost to many of us for a long, long time.

This story was a wonderful, lighthearted portrayal of nature on Kline's farm. The stories were short and a quick read. I found myself reading one story, every night before bed. I was not looking forward to the end of what became a daily companion. Kline is able to paint with words. He excels at describing life's simple, natural pleasures. This book could be compared to a more recent Sand County Almanac, but I didn't find that book as interesting. A good read!

You read this book and discover your true nature and how you fit in this world. Never have I felt that close to nature...

No more discussion about the abuses of chimpanzees in abstract terms. Peterson goes out to find out what specifically happens to specific chimpanzees and tracks their lives usually to their grim end. Dr. Goodall, the world's foremost expert on free chimapanzees contrasts Peterson with her insightful understanding which over thirty years of intimate knowledge of these great apes has given her. Sharing more than 98% of our genes with the chimpanzee and all of the cognitive and emotional similarities that go along with that, we need to rethink how we treat our closest living relative.

This brilliant, understated book exposes a terrible injustice in the United States, corporate medicine's aggressive attempts to undermine the Endangered Species Act and CITES for their personal gain. Like so many embattled exploiters, they have responded to criticism and revelations with mud-slinging campaigns and lies, such as NIMH's estimate that they needed 200-300 chimpanezees a year to continue research vital to human health. At the same time, NIMH had access to more than 100 chimps, and was only able to find uses for 25 of them.

Goodall has taken the productive path: honesty without invective or confrontation. This has allowed her to accomplish small but significant changes, but they are far too small and far too trivial. It would be nice if Dr. Robert Gallo would agree to be locked into a 5x5x7 cage, with a grate at the bottom so he would not find himself smeared with all his feces, but nothing to protect him from the blowflies his stench would draw. Welcome to medical research.

Human beings have a history of declaring those it would exploit to be "lesser creations": Jews, Negros, Indians, Gypsies, the harmless primates we have nearly exterminated. When the "lesser creations" are human, they can speak out to protest, and they are heard. Someone else must speak for the chimpanzees mutilated in research labs, the orangutans brutalized to entertain Las Vegas drunks, the gorillas slaughtered so their children can be confined in zoos.

The next time you see *The Tempest,* imagine Caliban turning on Prospero, with his complacent human superiority, and speaking the extraordinary and powerful words of Shylock: "Hath not a beast eyes? Pricked do we not bleed?" Animals are bleeding to make your mascara safe. Read this book, look long at the orphaned chimp huddled in one of the photos, and then look in the mirror.

No more discussion about the abuses of chimpanzees in abstract terms. Peterson goes out to find what specifically happens to specific chimpanzees and tracks their lives usually to their grim end. Dr. Goodall, the world's foremost expert on free chimapanzees contrasts Peterson with her insightful understanding which over thirty years of intimate knowledge of these great apes has given her. Sharing more than 98% of our genes with the chimpanzee and all of the cognitive and emotional similarities that go along with that, we need to rethink how we treat our closest living relative.

Certainly the most influencial book I've ever read - it led to my pursuing a degree, becoming a vegan, and an animal rights activist. And a better person. The tales of misery endured by these brethren of our are a very difficult read for those who have the capacity to care selflessly about all life, but gives the reader a very genuine sencse of what they suffer at the hands of humans who would do anything to make money and enhance their careers. Visions of Caliban is a very sobering experience, and it's very difficult at points to read beyond a couple of pages, because the reality of what these horribly unfortunate beings is truly sadenning. If everyone read this book, chimpanzee research would come to a very sudden conclusion. Read this Book!

As a 10 year old girl, I was stricken with Polio. This was in 1944. My home was in Florida. Within two weeks, my hometown doctor had contacted a doctor friend at Georgia Warm Springs Foundation and I was admitted to that wonderful facility. That year I spent 8 months undergoing Physical Therapy. I was one of the fortunate ones who recovered enough to walk without the aid of braces. I had a spinal curve and while it never got better, it never got worse. Three years later I had some surgery on my right foot.

While I was at Warm Springs Foundation in 1944, President Roosevelt was able to come for the annual Founders Day Dinner at Thanksgiving. I was included in a short skit during the prepared program of entertainment. At the end of the dinner, President Roosevelt sat at the doorway in his wheelchair and shook hands and had a few words with each of us as we wheeled past him. That is an unforgettable memory I have. I didn't realize then (now age 11) how amazing it was for the president to even be at Warm Springs. After all, he had just been elected to a 4th term as president and World War II was raging in both Europe and Japan. He was tired and was not really doing well physically.

I was able to return home that December. In April, 1945, President Roosevelt died at his Little White House in Warm Springs. I felt as though I had lost my best friend.

This book included many pictures of things I remember well. I would recommend it to anyone interested in history, polio, President Roosevelt,
or physical therapy. It is really a picture book with a narrative. I treasure it.

Lynn L. Rice

As a polio survior, I have been to the Warm Springs Clinic, so I am interested in anything I can find on this subject. I was very much impressed with the books' detail and overall reading and pictures. I would recommend the book to anyone who would have an interest in this type of book.

I bought one at the Bulloch House in Warm Springs and went to pick up two more for Christmas gifts and they had sold out. Amazon had them luckly and I received before Christmas. The book is really incredible and I agree with the other reviews. Between the hbo movie and their museum, this book is a treasure of photographs. Arcadia has some really good photo books but this is one of their best.

After I watched the movie on HBO about Warm Springs, I was so impressed with the subject that I bought and read everything that I could about Warm Springs and FDR. I have come to the conclusion that one can talk about FDR without mentioning Warm Springs but one cannot talk about Warm Springs without mentioning FDR. The authors have done a magnificent job of researching the subject. Their story flows seamlessly from their introduction and throughout each of the carefully written photographic captions. I loved it. I encourage every American to read this book, it's uplifting and educational at the same time. Well done to the authors for writing this book.

My father was a polio at the Warm Springs Foundation during the 1940s and he was at the Thanksgiving dinner in 1944. FDR was there but I had never seen a picture of him as many do not exist of the Thanksgiving dinners Roosevelt attended. All of the children performed skits and this book covered everyone of the things dad talked about regarding his stay in Warm Springs. Although I have some photos given to me of Warm Springs, this book did more than just add images to my dads memories, I was able to learn why Warm Springs is, and why FDR came there and how America benefitted from FDR going there. If you want to see images of President Roosevelt in a way that has not been portrayed before, this is it. I loved the Little White House chapter. Each chapter begins with a nice quote from Roosevelt stating his thoughts and the chapters are chronological from the times when Indians used the springs to today. I also saw the HBO movie with Kenneth Brannagh as FDR and it too only whetted my appetite for more information. I am giving mine to dad for Christmas as a visit down memory lane that honors the president of his time. Good picture book altogether and a good story read.

Eva Rutland's When We Were Colored is the slightest of these three books, but in some ways the most intriguing. A collection of personal essays originally printed during the 1950s in women's magazines such as Redbook, Woman's Day, and Ladies Home Journal, they were first published in 1964 under the title The Trouble with Being a Mama. Thus, with the exception of the new preface written for this reissue, the book is not retrospective but rather a series of contemporaneous accounts of her family's experience of what she calls "integration qualms." At times, Rutland would agree with Henry Louis Gates Jr., who wrote in his better-known memoir Colored People (1996), "For many of the colored people in Piedmont . . .integration was experienced as a loss. The warmth and nurturance of the womblike colored world was slowly and inevitably disappearing." However, Rutland's overall purpose was not to indulge such nostalgia, but to educate her readership, who were largely white women. Her pedagogical methods are shrewd. She begins each essay "seeking common ground with white mothers" on issues such as the role of "psychology" in childrearing, helping your children make friends, moving the family to a new neighborhood, difficulties with husbands and fathers, preparing children for school and dating, and joining the PTA.

Once she has built firm connections with her readers, she introduces the "hook" at the end of each essay. She describes the day her brothers, walking home from work, were jumped by a group of "white boys" and cut with switchblades. She ends the essay with a reflection on her brother Sam, a college graduate:

the deep, ugly bruises of a lifetime of blows--the long, long walk on a cold, wintry day to the segregated school, the push to the back of the bus, the climb to the "jim crow" section of the theater to see a special movie, the longing walk past the spacious parks and swimming pools reserved for whites, and job--truck driver, under the supervision of a man whose education could not touch his own. The switchblade marks were only the surface marks--a symbol of "what they think I am."
Many essays end with similar anecdotes: her daughter's white schoolmate whose mother won't let her "come over"; a bright black child with excellent grades placed with the "slow learners" in school; a school dance so fraught with racial and sexual tension that her daughter asks later: "I was so embarrassed . . . Why didn't they just tell me not to come?" In places she addresses her audience directly: "But I can only tell you that they are human as are your own children." Of the night she watches Vivian Malone walk past Governor Wallace and enter the University of Alabama under armed guard, she writes, "I cannot help but believe that somewhere, perhaps in the South, a white mother, simply because she was a mother, also watched with tears and pride and fear."

Rutland returns frequently to the theme of social class: her father was a pharmacist and though she insists they were poor, she admits "we were so much better off than many of our Negro neighbors." All her mother's relatives had graduated from college, and her mother consistently had hired help. As a child her world existed "across town," where friends and members of her extended family lived among the black bourgeoisie of Atlanta. Of her friends, she says "All had cars--comparatively rare in my day--many had fine houses, some had maids, and most attended private schools." Returning as an adult to these neighborhoods, she writes:

Visiting Atlanta, I would go from one spacious home to another--luncheon and bridge during the day, parties at night. Or we would visit Lincoln Country Club--the Negroes' private club with its own little golf course. Or we would take the children to visit our alma maters and the other surrounding Negro universities, stroll on the beautiful campuses, listen to a lecture, attend a University Players production, walk through the library. How I wished my children could grow up there, go to school there. How beautiful it seemed--Atlanta with its ermine-trimmed, diamond-studded, velvety cloak of segregation.
Though one may read the above sentence as tinged with irony, Rutland was a proud woman: proud of her race and class; proud of her family, especially her compassionate and tolerant mother; proud of her children; and proud of the "brave young people" who decided "segregation was wrong anywhere--schools, bus stations, lunch counters--and picketed all over the country"--even when they shut down her beloved five-and-ten cent store.

At the same time, though she denies it, she is touched by shame. She writes that the color of her skin is the mark of the slave ship, the stamp of shame upon her heritage. As she explains,

The shame transmits itself to you, and you lower your head when confronted with the symbols of your past--a bandanaed Aunt Jemima, a black-faced comedian with a Negro dialect, a bare-footed boy with his face sunk in watermelon.

And the shame becomes a burden on your heart, a chip on your shoulder, carried with you into the marketplace, the streets, the schools.
In the next breath, though, she insists that because of her family and her segregated schooling, where she learned Negro history and literature (especially the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar), "I think I escaped the shame altogether, and the chip rests lightly on my shoulder." I'm not so sure. She does have a sense of humor and is able to laugh at herself. But in her urgency to convince her white female readers of the full humanity of Negro mothers and children, pride battles shame. Continually imagining herself through white eyes, she remains shadowed by what "they" think, the double-vision so well described by W.E.B. DuBois in Souls of Black Folk (1903). In the end, pride wins out. Her book closes as she watches the 1963 March on Washington: "But most of all I was proud of the people, black and white, who stood in the sweltering sun, tired and weary, quiet and dignified, saying more eloquently than we ever could, We, the people of the United States."

From the January/February 2008 Issue
"Stepping Out and Moving Forward" by Margo Culley

Ready or not, here comes the picture perfect African-American family
Norman Rockwell never got around to painting. Eva Rutland, with
absolutely no formal child-rearing knowledge, is the ever so
delightful wife, and mother of four children. She makes it
possible for us to sigh and then laugh in WHEN WE WERE COLORED. She
shows how raising four African-American children during the early
years of segregation was accomplished. There were no textbooks or
how-to magazines, and rarely does Rutland seem to be even advised
by her own mother; trial and error is the order of the day.
Recognizing no priorities keeps her sane, if you can call it that.
She is the normal African-American mother who is not afraid to take
advantage of segregated neighborhoods and allow her children to
develop into who they will become. Rutland is the pioneer
of "Mother Knows Best"(tm) or better stated, let the housework wait and
just go with the flow. She is the mother who never made it to the
sit-coms.

In a very charming and witty fashion, Rutland discovers mothering
four different individuals requires patience, delegation,
flexibility, and creativity. Plus adequate amounts of keeping her
children involved in community and church leaves no time for
destructive behavior. Just when her patience runs out, Rutland is
canny enough to pass the torch to Bill, her husband. She is
brilliantly funny enough to know when to retreat into the bathroom
with a magazine and locked door. Readers can follow this mother
through her children's dating years and laugh in spite of themselves
when she suggests how her daughter can remain a lady on her first
date.

You feel the peace emanating from this mother who courageously
selects a house in an all-white neighborhood instinctively trusting
her children will cope. Yes, Rutland is the quintessential mother of
yesteryear and all mothers can learn from reading WHEN WE WERE
COLORED: A Mother's Story. It will leave you enlightened
and inspired, it will make you proud that segregation, racism,
discrimination, riots, and prejudice did not weaken this strong
mother, or inhibit how her children turned out.

Rutland's memoir earned several awards and the only thing left to do, is come up with even more awards for this wonderful story.

Reviewed by Swaggie Coleman
for The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Eva Rutland takes us back to a time of penny candy, 5and 10 -cent stores, and racism. In times when the world seemed much gentler, some Americans could not simply sit down to eat at restaurants unless it was marked Colored, and could not go to the school of their choice. Ms Rutland struggled to rear her children without the emotional scars that sometimes came with dealing with racism.


Eva had an open door policy. All were welcome at her door; no one was discriminated against. Eva was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia in the house that her grandfather, a freed slave, built himself. That community had not segregated itself. Although Atlanta was segregated, where Eva lived, everyone knew each other and Eva knew how to find common ground with her neighbors no matter what race they were.

Bill Rutland, Eva's husband, was a trailblazer. He joined the Air Force at the time that it was first desegregated. Not wanting to be separated from his family, he packed them up and moved them to California. Bill met discrimination when he went out in advance to find a home for his family. Some neighborhoods were integrated but Bill had a hard time finding them or a realtor that would help him. Whenever Bill found a house that he wanted, he would have trouble procuring a loan to purchase it. He found a run-down house in a neighborhood that Whites had began to desert because of integration. When the family wanted to move to better surroundings they had to get one of Bill's co-workers to buy it for them, much to the outrage of the seller.

Eva combated racism by becoming a den mother, joining the PTA and every other group that she could find; so that she could help her kids understand that not everyone was a racist. Eva found that every mother has the same fears for their children so she reached out to all mothers and not just members of her own race. Instead of looking for adversity, Eva always looked for the common ground. Eva was a tireless worker who was so busy insuring that her children's mental health did not get ruined that she often did not have time for herself.



I loved this story! Rutland wrote strictly from a mother's point-of-view and did not let bitterness enter into the equation. I read this book and cheered for her She bared her heart to her readers and wrote with honesty stating flaws and all. Every man, woman and child, especially the younger generation, could benefit from reading this book. This book is not about color but about a mother trying to do what is best for her children, in a world determined to keep them as second-class citizens. Every race would gain something by reading this story.

Margaret Ball

APOOO BookClub- .

"Eva Rutland has done all of us a grand favor - [to] tell the powerful and poignant story of the courage and love of a black mother in a society that devalues black children."
-- Cornel West, author, "Race Matters," Professor of Religion, Princeton University

"Eva Rutland's chronicle of child rearing during the transition from segregation to civil rights is warm, poignant, and funny. It is also a powerful object lesson in how and why women - as mommas and grandmothers -have long anchored the soul of Black America."
---Willie L. Brown, Jr., former Mayor of San Francisco and former Speaker of the California State Assembly

"Rutland brings the reader back to a time and place in this country when there weren't protected civil right, when she couldn't swin in the local pools, when a visit from a neighboring white girl who wanted to use their phone prompted a dangerous visit from the police..."
---Martha Mendoza, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Associated Press

"'When We Were Colored' has an amusing 'Moma Knows Best' sensibility. The book also gives the reader a serious look at the West's black middle class - usually invisible in American storytelling."
---Janet Clayton, assistant Managing Editor, Los Angeles Times

"Eva Rutland's evocation of race, place, and time has near perfect poignancy and verisimilitude. With a wonderful blend of intemacy and sociology, 'When We Were Colored' recaptures the wisdom, resiliency, and love of a family overcoming a world once oppressively divided into black and white."
---David Levering Lewis, Professor of History, New York University, and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography

Book review of "When We Were Colored: A mother's Story" by Eva Rutland, 2007, IWP Book Publishers, ISBN 13: 978-1-934178-00-3, 152 pp.

Book reviewer: Joe Fabel, American Authors Association Review Board

Eva Rutland is a most unique individual who has shared with the reader the wisdom of her life as an individual, a wife and a mother. She is unique because she values the virtues which lie within. Exterior behavior norms are not what she is about for her family. Yes, she teaches her children how to live with others; yet she goes beyond to emphasize the true value of living a life of commitment to excellence. She instills within her children, whenever they will sit still and pay attention, the virtues of living and choosing to perfect themselves as full human beings.

There is reference to her upbringing in the South, a time of sheltering within the black community as defined by white segregation mores. She states that it was a time of comfort in the sense that she and her folks understood the boundaries established, knowing what the segregating Southern whites demanded. There was never a question of what one could or couldn't do.

The quiet segregation experienced among people in the West, the quiet yet definite
"lines marked in the sands" is a daily occurrence. Eva Rutland emphasizes that each of her family must achieve academically, socially and personally according to their abilities and gifts. There must be no question of squandering what the good Lord has allotted each of us.

This is a story by an insightful and sharing mother. The book should be on all reading lists of all levels of the schools, available for the parents of all the students. It contains
messages by which each individual must live his or her life, be you a child, a parent,
a neighbor or simply a citizen. Eva's message is a golden rule to live by.

This book is very special to me because a lot of it is about my family and the local area where they came from. The picture on the front is of my Granddaddy's grocery store, Nick's Grocery, and the woman in the story, Ms. Nick, is my grandma. All the stories brought back fond memories of my childhood. I'm taking my copy home to the Hudson-Jones reunion this summer to have Georgia autograph it. Enjoy!

Georgia Green Stamper is a versatile writer who can succeed at humor, nostalgia, social commentary, and gentle satire. The columns and essays in this collection cover events in Kentucky from the colonial period through the day before yesterday. In her stories, a grandfather does his Christmas shopping in the local village after the tobacco is sold and he has a little cash money and a modern wife finds herself lost and disoriented in the overabundant material diversity of a modern mega-store, a high school basketball coach integrates a rural team peacefully, farmers hold their places together with baling wire, grandchildren test the limits of their courage, and a young girl learns how to be an adult woman with gentle guidance from a village of grandparents, parents, teachers, and friends. Georgia laughs with them and cries with them. Not many writers can do both.

Georgia Green Stamper has been compared to Bailey White and praised by the likes of Silas House and Leatha Kendrick. That should tell you something about her before you even pick up her wonderful book of essays that so powerfully evoke a simpler time and place. But when you open that book and start to read her essays you will be taken in by the rhythm and cadence of her language. You will feel like you have stepped back in time and you will laugh at some of the essays and no doubt wipe a few tears with others. This is storytelling at its best. Her voice wisely and triumphantly celebrates a people who are sometimes overlooked because of their poverty and ranking as common folk. But there is much that we can learn from these people and Georgia eloquently brings this to light in her essays.

Georgia's essays speak to the common threads that bind us, the simple moments in life that make us smile or muse or laugh or cry. I cried from start to finish during the essay Shan's Shoes that took me back to the emotions of September 11th, and I laughed out loud at the essay about babysitting the author's two-year-old grandson.

Some of the essays offer up bits of wisdom, others are simply a bridge to memories we store from the passages of our own lives. In either case, her observations are gently woven into stories that read as if the author herself was sitting across the table, sharing her thoughts over a cup of tea.

This book belongs on every night stand in America. (I just bought a second copy for the guest room, and I think I'll insert a bookmark for guidance, as soon as I can decide which of my favorites deserve that prize.)

"You Can Go Anywhere From Here" has earned a spot on my perfect-for-almost-everyone gift list, and I definitely will be watching Amazon for more books by this author.

This is a good book. If I had to cateogrize its content with one phrase I would say it is a "celebration of family." But, it is much more than that. While family is at the core of most of the pieces, from great grandparents to grandchildren, there is also the appreciation and love of the culture that surrrounded and surrounds the family and that was created and is being created by the family.

One of the strongest attributes of the author is that she can switch gears from being very serious and thought provoking to being downright funny. She ranges from Harper Lee's appreciation of the beauty of simple, sometimes imperfect, reality to a humorous observation of that same reality in the style of Erma Bombeck or Jean Kerr. If you want to read material that provokes good memories of the people and places of your life this is the book to buy.

This is also the art of oral history at its best. Reading this book will remind people over the age of fifty of remembrances they heard on their front porches, or those of their grandparent's, on dark nights with light from the moon and a lamp in the front room providing the only illumination to the scene. What a treat to be taken back to a peaceful scene like that accented only by the occasional crack of the screen door slamming shut. For the younger generations this book will implant an idea of how important it is to keep your family alive through memories -- sad, happy and humorous memories. This book will make you feel good.

My good frend vents toled me bot this book here, I like game warden. dey need to get out of uncomfortable cotton/poly blend shirts and britches and wear BVDs say my other good friend johnny.

I have two friends, he he

Super book. I worked for and with the author. After reading a lot of Game Warden books, this is the best. I did this for a living and it is a must read for any outdoorsman, woman or, cop, game warden or anyone that wants to laugh one second and have the hair to stand up on your neck the next.

The author's experience and story-telling talent fill this book with wonderful human interest stories. I would recommend to anyone.

As an outdoorsman and retired Ranger, I have read several books about Gamewardens. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Sgt. Hethcox portrays the humor and hardships a Ranger experiences while performing his/her duties. It was easy to identify some of the characters even with the name changes. Is Sgt. BIGGERS who I think he is? It also brought back my memories of similar cases that I came in contact with during my career with Georgia Game and Fish. Having worked my first and last days with him, Honor describes the author and MOST that wear the Green and Grey. Thanks Jim, for taking the time to put it on paper.

This is a great book for any type of reader! It's not just a "man's outdoors" kind of book. It was extremely interesting and it is an easy reading book too! I couldn't put it down, and before I knew it, I had read the entire book! I highly recommend it for men and women alike!

I thought this book was terrific. I love Georgia O'Keefe and I've traveled to Lake George a couple of times, and it proved fascinating for me personally. But it's also a great read for anyone looking for a smart mystery. The main character has lots of wit. I can't wait for the next one.

Spectacular fall foliage and the beauty of the Queen of American lakes (Lake George) serve as the back-drop for an entertaining murder mystery involving the theft of previously unknown paintings by Georgia O'Keefe. O'Keefe fans in particular will enjoy the historical background that leads to the "discovery" of lost art. A great beach book.

Anne White has spent her life as a writer, editor and librarian. She has had short stories published in several magazines, including McCall's, Career World, Lake George Arts Project Literary Review, and Glen Falls Post Star. She holds degrees in English and Library and Information Studies. Affinity for Murder is her first novel. She lives in Glen Falls, NY.

Ellen Davies is occupying her uncle's old house in Lake George. Georgia O'Keeffe is one of Lake George's most notable figures, during the summers she spent in Lake George with her husband. Ellen is set to interview an art expert acquaintance of her new friend Diane's who is staying at her and her estranged husband's bungalow when they discover smoke, a fire in the bungalow...and a dead body:

"The partially burned body of a man lay on his side facing away from me. The handle of a long, thin knife or letter opener protruded from his back. Blood had puddled up around the wound and formed a grotesque strawberry mark on the man's tweed sport coat. The smell coming from the body and from the singed hair was sickening enough but it was the face, when I leaned sideways to look at it, that really started my stomach churning."

Anne White has written a thorough entertaining tale with punch lines galore, masterful description, and a plot intricate enough to pull the reader along until the final exciting denouement. Using Georgia O'Keeffe as a backdrop, her story has a "what if" and "it could happen" air about it that is compelling. Ms. White knows her O'Keeffe, and the stories and descriptions of her painting and life alone are enough to make this a great mystery. But, not content to rest on her laurels, Ms. White proceeds to write just about the perfect mystery.

An Affinity for Murder has it all...great characterization, action, eloquent writing, a heroine who is fun to follow, and a crackerjack plot line. She hides the culprit until the very end, and adds a witty twist just for fun. Excellently done, Ms. White! We would all love to keep following Ellen Davies! She is devilishly independent, intelligent, and savvy.

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer

This mystery put all five of my senses right back in the beautiful Adirondacks where I was born and raised and lived untill I was 19. I could smell the wet leaves on the tall trees alongside Bolton Road and see their beautiful array of colors cluster after cluster. I could hear the wakes of the lake smashing against the docks at times and feel the smack of the cold Lake George air on my exposed face on a late October night. I could taste that freezing rain on my tongue during one of the most thrilling nights of the story. I am still thinking about all the characters, weeks after finishing the book,and hoping that Ellen and her friends return in a sequel. And yes, I have this feeling that if Georgia O'Keeffe and Anne White had had the opportunity to meet one another, they would have been best of friends.

Anne White's cozy small town mystery AN AFFINITY FOR MURDER delights by continuing her Lake George mystery series with a different sleuth, a journalist pursuing a story. Georgia O'Keefe's painting take center stage in this mystery.

Ellen Davies plans a feature story on the artist Georgia O'Keefe who spent her summers at Lake George. When she goes to visit an art critic Edward Maranville for background material, she discovers a fire and a body burned beyond recognition and a knife stuck in his back. As Ellen pursues the story, a group of paintings hidden in a locked closet vanish. Only the painting of the black iris remains behind but even that painting might become a dangerous possession. As Ellen researches her Georgia O'Keefe story, danger lurks in unexpected places as a murderer follows her path.

Anne White's AN AFFINITY FOR MURDER is a wonderful mystery read with a small town atmosphere. The reader sees another dimension to Lake George itself with her historical research as Anne White turns her focus on new characters as they explore part of the town's history and small town rumors. With the exploration of Georgia O'Keefe's work and her history in Lake George, Anne White adds a richness to this mystery through her sensuous descriptions of Georgia O'Keefe's flower paintings as well as discussions of the artist's technique, her relationship with the famous photographer Alfred Steiglitz and other corners of the art world. AN AFFINITY FOR MURDER is unforgettable --- a delight for mystery and art fans! As Anne White turns her vision to the art history of the Lake George town, the series grows organically, giving both newness and familiarity as the reader re-enters the wonderful community of Lake George.

I am a middle school teacher who found this book full of useful ideas which I have incorporated into my poetry unit. I also have Ms. Heard's book, For the Good of the Earth and Sun,and I found this one (Heart)to contain more practical lessons on poetry mechanics. She describes the how-to's of poetic language, form, rhythm and rhyme, etc, which were easily adapted to fit my students' needs. I did have to do a lot of reading and typing (no ready-to-copy pages) but it was worth the effort. I esp loved the heart mapping and the six-room description process.

Georgia Heard's book Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School suggests ways for teachers to help students have positive, successful experiences with appreciating poetry and creating their own poems. Heard gives poetry workshops for teachers and has worked in many classrooms with students at different grade levels in schools across the country. Her book, Awakening the Heart, reflects how far our understanding of the teaching of poetry has come: students will not come to see themselves as poets if poetry instruction is relegated to a "poetry unit" after state tests have been administered.

Heard's book reaches out to teachers who haven't taught poetry in a workshop format before in that it offers the same descriptions of poetry and poetic terms that she uses when she speaks to students, reteaching us the essentials of poetry as we prepare to teach others. She gives examples of directions useful in explaining the centers to students, and includes student work produced in classrooms Heard has worked in. The reader gains the confidence that taking time to gain inspiration from Heard's minilessons, coupled with dedication to a positive classroom environment that integrates poetry into daily life, will really help students to become poets who read poetry with understanding and craft it thoughtfully.

Ms. Heard has put together exercises and knowledge to create a stunning list of usable classroom exercises. She uplifts even the most discouraged teacher heart and gives you the renewed vigor to attack ignorance while inspiring others to find the light within.

This is a wonderful book for both the new and the experienced teacher hoping to bring depth and breadth to their classroom poetry programs. I used it as a first-year teacher of writing, but ended up buying a second copy after sharing-out my original with a colleague with substantially more experience.

For starters, the book is well-written and concise. For busy teachers (is that a tautology?) this means you will really read and really use it. It has all the elements that keep such readers engaged: practical classroom ideas, samples of student work, segmentation of topics into smaller components and, wide-ranging perspective.

Most importantly, however, the book has PASSION! Heard launches you with an introduction entitled "Poetry, Like Bread, Is for Everyone". She maintains this level of enthusiasm through to the last page, where she quotes Matthew Fox to the effect that "The Celtic peoples... insisted that only poets could be teachers... knowledge that is not passed through the heart is dangerous."

I agree - passion HAS TO BE the core of a poetry program in elementary or middle school. Amidst the wash of demand for reading and writing more expository material that standardized testing has brought to the writing class, passion and poetry have often slipped to the background. The poetry 'program' can become a quick trot through narrow 'tricksie' forms like name-poems and shape-poems. Kids need more. You do too.

Heard offers a wonderful suite of approaches to poetry 'centers' in a chapter on "Making a Poetry Environment." These include listening, illustration, performance and music centers as well as poetry windows, amazing language center and a handful more. The centers-based approach can be hard to manage unless properly prepared, but it is a wonderful way to build fluidity into a process that otherwise suffers from rigidity of task or schedule. This book will offer strong support for such an approach.

In the chapter discussing "Writing Poetry", Heard takes the metaphor of the door as entryway, suggesting, among others, the "observation door", the "concern about the world door" and the "wonder door." She then moves to the details of crafting of poetry with a "toolbox" metaphor and a nice collection of tools. In this as in the earlier instances, her pedagogical metaphors will serve your students but also serve to structure your planning and presentation of concepts. Heard concludes with a chapter about the observational element of the poet's craft - what she terms "sharpening outer and inner visions", and a number of useful appendices.

I'm certain this book will light-up your enthusiasm for a poetry-based classroom.

I used this book as a basis for starting a poetry study in my classroom of 4th graders. The information and ideas that Ms. Heard gives are fantastic. It helps you create an poetry friendly environment, not just a few lessons. My students responded whole-heartedly to the suggested activities. The heart map activity was one of their favorites. She gives advice on how to help children write from their hearts and access true emotion (as opposed to writing about surface feelings,"I like my Nintendo"). This is the best poetry book for classroom instruction that I've found. Also, it is an easy and quick read.
I saw her speak on this book at Regis University in June 2003, she is an engaging speaker and it made me love the book even more.

It goes beyond talent. Stafford captures your heart as each shell he finds opens a new passage way for the reader to explore. Stories which cause us to question our beliefs, our thoughts of people, and our inner most feelings. I've read and reread this book and would highly recommend that you do as well.

Fifty years ago Anne Lindbergh inspired us by drawing analogies between found sea shells and the role of womanhood. Now, Richard Dobson Stafford has done the same for men. He reminds the reader that the world has changed for both men and women. This would make a great Father's Day gift. Wit and good sense! 50+ Magazine, Raleigh, North carolina

There is wit and good sense in what Stafford writes as he shares how his spirit was reawakened while examining his newly found shells. If there is one word to sum up this book it is "grace." This would make a splendid Father's Day gift, so forget agonizing over another tie or aftershave lotion. Women, too, will find the book to be compelling. A thought provoking book! It would make a good read for a book club. Mae Woods Bell- Rocky Mount Telegraph

This book offers a look into a man's life of whom we know nothing. It allows us to hear his life story through an interesting comparison of sea shells. This book is great for all ages, but especially good for moms and dads whose son(s) or daughter(s) is about to go to college. A definite "Must read" book for the whole family.

Looking for a new way of understanding your life? Beyond the Beach delivers a powerful message for every father, grandfather, and son. This is a wonderful companion piece for Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea. A must for your summer reading...see you at the beach! Mike Fitsko, New Braunfels Herald New Braunfels, Texas