Georgia Books

Judge Frank M. Johnson achieved national recognition for his decisions that supported Martin Luther King and other leaders of the civil rights movement, and for his defense of the individual rights of women, students, prisoners, mental health patients, and poor criminal defendants. Because these decisions expanded the scope of those Constitutional amendments that assert individual liberties and proclaim the equality of all citizens, Judge Johnson is often viewed as one of the great liberal judges of the Twentieth Century. On the contrary, as Tony Freyer convincingly demonstrates in his analytical introduction and conclusion to this selective collection of Judge Johnson's writings and public statements, Johnson's core values were fundamentally conservative, in that they were "based on individual freedom defined in terms of equal opportunity and equality under law."
The law, of course, is the U.S. Constitution, and Johnson's decisions, as his essays indicate, were informed and circumscribed by a profound understanding of the mechanics of the law. As Johnson told Bill Moyers in a 1980 public television interview, the transcript of which is published for the first time in this book, Johnson realized certain limitations when he opposed busing as a tool of desegregation because "when you make a child, or children, get up at five o'clock in the morning and wait for a bus to haul them 10 or 15 miles, past schools to which they were formerly eligible to go, then I think you are doing tremendous damage". Striving for judicial clarity above and beyond moral fervor, Johnson also said that he had never been inside of a prison or a mental facility because he "needed not to go there," but to make his decisions on "the basis of evidence that's presented during the adversary proceeding."
Judge Johnson's momentous injunction in Williams v. Wallace that ordered Governor George Wallace to allow a four-day civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery (from March 21 to March 25, 1965), led by Dr. King along Highway 80, was rendered in a carefully crafted opinion based on the principle that the right to protest on public property should be "commensurate with the enormity of the wrongs that are being protested and petitioned against."
As these essays make clear, Judge Johnson believed that the role of the American judiciary and of the entire legal profession should be one of activism, not on the side of morality, but to maintain the supremacy of the law. Johnson wrote that " the lawyer should remember that a disrespect or disregard for law is always the first sign of a disintegrating society."Throughout his forty-one years on the bench, Judge Johnson sought to decide the cases that came before him solely on their particular merits. His injunctive orders that sought to remedy deplorable conditions in prisons and mental health facilities were taken because, in his view, elected officials had failed to discharge their designated and constitutional responsibilities for fair and equitable governance. Judge Johnson clearly believed that all citizens, including the mentally retarded, the insane, and those convicted of felonies, still have certain basic rights to include sanitary living conditions, freedom from unwarranted punishment, and, if feasible, the right to rehabilitation. As he eloquently concluded his essay "Equal Access to Justice," the promise inscribed on the Supreme Court Building of "Equal Justice Under Law" cannot be fulfilled unless there is equal access to justice.
Towards the end of his judicial career, Judge Johnson wrote: "If we abdicate responsibility to address the difficult questions of our time, those in need of refuge from the torrents of political, economic, and religious forces will find no haven in the law and the law will no longer be supreme. . . . A judge must always be consumed by a passion for justice which propels judgment toward the just conclusion." This forceful summation of an American judge's responsibilities is elaborated in this artfully chosen collection of Johnson's insightful and thought-provoking essays. This is a valuable addition to the biographic literature on Frank Johnson that should be welcomed by all students of recent American History.

Federal Judge Frank Johnson achieved national recognition for his decisions that supported Martin Luther King and other leaders of the civil rights movement, and for his defense of the individual rights of women, students, prisoners, mental health patients, and poor criminal defendants. Because these decisions expanded the scope of those Constitutional amendments that assert individual liberties and proclaim the equality of all citizens, Judge Johnson is often viewed as one of the great liberal judges of the Twentieth Century. On the contrary, as Tony Freyer convincingly demonstrates in his analytical introduction and conclusion to this collection of Judge Johnson's writings and public statements, Johnson's core values were fundamentally conservative, in that they were based on individual freedom "defined in terms of equal opportunity and equality under law." The law, of course, is the U.S. Constitution and Johnson's decisions, as his essays indicate, were informed and circumscribed by a profound understanding of what the law does and does not permit. As Johnson told Bill Moyers in a 1980 public television interview, published for the first time in this book, Johnson opposed busing as a tool of desegregation because "when you make a child, or children, get up at five o'clock in the morning and wait for a bus to haul them 10 or 15 miles, past schools to which they were formerly eligible to go, then I think you are doing tremendous damage." Johnson also said that he had never been in a prison or mental institution because he "needed not to go there," but to make his decisions on "the basis of evidence that's presented during the adversary proceeding." This is a valuable addition to the biographic literature on Frank Johnson, that should be welcomed by all students of recent American History.

I won't write about her life since you can find a lot about that if you just type Gariela Mistral in the search box.

Her poetry sings of a woman with very deep emotions and incredible poetic talent.

For example, Los Sonetos de la Muerte begins as follows:

Del nicho helado en que los hombres te pusieron,
te bajaré a la tierra humilde y soleada
Que he de dormirme en ella los hombres no supieron
y que hemos de soñar sobre la misma almohada.

Here we can see a woman persecuted by men (put onto freezing niches or recesses like in a cave I suppose.)

Gabriela will put the woman (or man, possibly) down on the humble and sunny ground.

She adds: The men didn't know that I have to sleep on the ground
and that we must sleep together on the same pillow.

If she is referring to a man, this is a wonderful romantic image but if she is referring to a woman, it is a beautiful illustration of sisterly love. For that matter, this poem is so universal that it could be talking about a child or even a parent.

The poem (which has 42 lines) ends as follows:

Se detuvo la barca rosa de su vivir...
¿Que no sé del amor, que no tuve piedad?
¡Tú, que vas a juzgarme, lo comprendes, Señor!

It is saying at the end that the ship of your life has stopped, and

It seems to me that then she is protesting something like: You say that I don't know about love; that I never had pity on you or never felt pity in general??!!??

Then she turns to God and adds: Lord, you who will judge me, you understand, my Lord.

Thus she ends up by asking God for His judgment (or even Her judgment) probably, to defeat the lie which said that she couldn't feel mercy or didn't know how to love.

as i was taking a look in the encyclopedia i found the name gabriela mistral.i got excited suddenly and i wanted to see who was her.i found out that she was some kind of alatin writer.but that wasn`t the most exciting thing i found , the most interesting fact was that she won the nobel prize in literature at the very year where the secon world war had eneded.one of the very few women who won this prize.yet i was dissapointed when i found out that her books are neglected .i looked for them everwhere , but i found them not.they were not sold oftenly and so i don`t expect them at all to be translated.what ought people like us do.lovers of literature who want to read to her.i found out that no one has reviewe thiss book. i wanted to be the first one but that seems unlikely right.i foind that quite strange that i couldn`t but say oh GOD

I love good music and good writing. However, I would have never picked this book up if my 5 year old son had not said, "Look, Daddy, a book with a guitar on it!"

I read it cover to cover in one night. Raised in the South, I was just a little younger than the characters in this book. But, I knew every one of them.

I've since recommended this book to readers and non-readers. To a person, this book has been given rave reviews and passed on to the next person.

Buy it whether you are Southern, or not.

New in paperback is a book not to be limited to Dixie collections, but a 'must' for any who would understand the concurrent stories of music and race in the South. DIXIE LULLABY: A STORY OF MUSIC, RACE, AND NEW BEGINNINGS IN A NEW SOUTH traces the history and rise of Southern rock, comes from a veteran journalist who considers the effects of white southern rock on future generations, and provides a survey of regional and racial influences on this music. The author's own personal involvement with the music imparts the basics of growing up with rock and loving it - and supplements a survey of Southern rock history with a personal anecdotal style leisure browsers will find appealing and absorbing. No rock music history holding should miss it.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book pairs Mr. Rembert's remarkable paintings of his life with a poem by Nikki Giovanni. Winfred Rembert, an African-American artist originally from Georgia, incises scenes from his early life story on panels of leather, creating an unusually effective art form. The 3-D quality of his works, with forms molded through leather working techniques and colorfully dyed in precise areas, is difficult to capture in photographs, and some of the illustrations in this book only hint of the depth of his images. Mr. Rembert narrates the scenes in an approachable style. He has lived a life of epic proportions; he describes being given away as an infant by his mother to a relative, picking cotton in the rural south in near slave conditions, the good times at "colored corner," his civil rights struggle, surviving a near lynching, and his imprisonment, partly spent on a chain-gang. In prison he was introduced to the leather working techniques that he now employs in his art. In spite of his struggles, Mr. Rembert never lost his sense of himself or his optimism. Now living in New Haven, CT, he first exhibited his paintings at the Yale Art Gallery in 2000. This is the first book on his life and paintings. "Don't Hold me Back" is a must buy for anyone interested in African-American life and art, or in folk art today.

This book pairs Mr. Rembert's remarkable paintings of his life with a poem by Nikki Giovanni. Winfred Rembert, an African-American artist originally from Georgia, incises scenes from his early life story on panels of leather, creating an unusually effective art form. The 3-D quality of his works, with forms molded through leather working techniques and colorfully dyed in precise areas, is difficult to capture in photographs, and some of the illustrations in this book only hint of the depth of his images. Mr. Rembert narrates the scenes in an approachable style. He has lived a life of epic proportions; he describes being given away as an infant by his mother to a relative, picking cotton in the rural south in near slave conditions, the good times at "colored corner," his civil rights struggle, surviving a near lynching, and his imprisonment, partly spent on a chain-gang. In prison he was introduced to the leather working techniques that he now employs in his art. In spite of his struggles, Mr. Rembert never lost his sense of himself or his optimism. A selection of his paintings was exhibited at the Yale Art Gallery in 2000, but this is the first book on his life and art. It is an important source for people interested in African-American life and art, or in folk art today.

Kirkpatrick Sale has written a vision of the future that should be drilled into politicians' subconscious and taught in grade school. Sustainable, sane, ecologically minded bioregions. I was particularly struck by his definition of "querencia"--"a deep, quiet sense of inner well-being that comes from knowing a particular place of the earth, its diurnal and seasonal patterns, its fruits and scents, its history and its part in your history . . . where, whenever you return to it, your soul releases an inner sigh of recognition and relaxation." Sale is a wonderful writer, balanced in perspective, and able to distill complex problems into a form that the average mind can comprehend, despite all the arguments pro and con. Read it.

If you've come to suspect that most of the world's problems--pollution, warfare, crime, transnational piracy, mental illness--are inherent in a civilization in decline, you might like this vision of small, face-to-face communities living in respectful accord with the natural world.

The author makes the same point as ecopsychologists and the great whale researcher Roger Payne: built by millions of years of evolution to live in close contact with the wilderness, we who have penned ourselves behind fences and buildings carry with us a ten-thousand-year-old wound....a self-inflicted wound of aching alienation (hence our tendency to alienate--to marginalize--other people).

Read this book, then tour the decidedly un-zoolike San Diego Wild Animal Park while seeing how you feel there. For some this might offer a glimpse of a sanity so centering that you can feel it throughout your body.

After last year's impressive "Let Them Eat Data: How Computers Affect Education, Cultural Diversity, and the Prospects of Ecological Sustainability", this new book of Bowers establishes him in my view firmly as the Noam Chomsky of Environmental Education. Just as the latter has convincingly shown that the entire spectrum of mainstream politics, from conservative to progressive, shares in fact the same basic convictions with regard to Western capitalism and the US's right to govern the world, Bowers has made clear that almost all educational theories that were elaborated in the last half a century, including those intending to be progressive and radical, ignore the cultural roots of the ecological crisis we face. However radical and critical they might be of the capitalist system and its exploitation, they still buy into the modern myths of anthropocentrism, linear progress, development and the autonomous individual as the basic social unit. By doing this and by largely ignoring the environmental degradation, these theories perpetuate the system they claim to criticise.
Against these theories of Dewey, Freire, Peter McLaren, Henry Giroux and others, Bowers sets his eco-justice-based approach. Its most fundamental element is the insight that any educational reform has to be set within the framework of sustainability. Or in Bowers' words: "Reform efforts that contribute to eco-justice must address the right of future generations to inhabit an environment that has not been diminished by the greed and materialism of the current generation." This is the sine qua non and whatever we endeavour as teachers has to be judged against this background: "environmental issues must have primacy in thinking about educational reform." Bowers is very clear about the fact that only a society that reduces its dependence on consumerism, technology and experts can repeal the commodification of all aspects of life and thereby stands a chance of survival.
I believe that Bowers is a unique voice in the discourse of environmental education/ education for sustainability. This is due to two aspects of his work: firstly, he has the courage to question deeply held believes and fundamental convictions which others either dare not touch or are unaware of. Secondly, he has recognised that educational practice cannot continue to be a specialist discipline ignorant of the wider world around it. Only if education, just like any other (professional) activity, is framed by the limited carrying capacity of our planet, will there be any chance of it fulfilling its potential.

After last year's impressive "Let Them Eat Data: How Computers Affect Education, Cultural Diversity, and the Prospects of Ecological Sustainability", this new book of Bowers establishes him in my view firmly as the Noam Chomsky of Environmental Education. Just as the latter has convincingly shown that the entire spectrum of mainstream politics, from conservative to progressive, shares in fact the same basic convictions with regard to Western capitalism and the US's right to govern the world, Bowers has made clear that almost all educational theories that were elaborated in the last half a century, including those intending to be progressive and radical, ignore the cultural roots of the ecological crisis we face. However radical and critical they might be of the capitalist system and its exploitation, they still buy into the modern myths of anthropocentrism, linear progress, development and the autonomous individual as the basic social unit. By doing this and by largely ignoring the environmental degradation, these theories perpetuate the system they claim to criticise.
Against these theories of Dewey, Freire, Peter McLaren, Henry Giroux and others, Bowers sets his eco-justice-based approach. Its most fundamental element is the insight that any educational reform has to be set within the framework of sustainability. Or in Bowers' words: "Reform efforts that contribute to eco-justice must address the right of future generations to inhabit an environment that has not been diminished by the greed and materialism of the current generation." This is the sine qua non and whatever we endeavour as teachers has to be judged against this background: "environmental issues must have primacy in thinking about educational reform." Bowers is very clear about the fact that only a society that reduces its dependence on consumerism, technology and experts can repeal the commodification of all aspects of life and thereby stands a chance of survival.
I believe that Bowers is a unique voice in the discourse of environmental education/ education for sustainability. This is due to two aspects of his work: firstly, he has the courage to question deeply held believes and fundamental convictions which others either dare not touch or are unaware of. Secondly, he has recognised that educational practice cannot continue to be a specialist discipline ignorant of the wider world around it. Only if education, just like any other (professional) activity, is framed by the limited carrying capacity of our planet, will there be any chance of it fulfilling its potential.

Very seldom do I read a book twice. ENTERING THE STONE is one of those books. Barbara Hurd's reflections seep under your skin and take you places you've never been. It is frightening and revealing and profound. Hurd has discovered that in our deepest journeys a secret space may emerge, a white dog, the shape of emptiness, a spacious room.

It is a strange blessing that I ran across an excerpt of this book online and sought it out. The local library had a copy. I wondered about the experience of a novice spelunking. What I found was one woman's meditation on sorrow and loss and fear and awareness, and how reason and passion, how space and solid, how dark and light criss-cross and make the liminal experiences telling.

Please don't fault her beforehand if I sound too intellectual about it, too. It's a beautifully written exploration of the meaning of life, but it's sometimes very down-to-earth, too.

I hope that Larry Shriner publishes more! His book grabbed my attention on the first page and I couldn't stop turning the pages! I love his work.

This book should receive a lot of attention. Shriner has done his homework. It is refreshing to read a novel that does not fill space with four-letter words and sex. I hope to read more of his novels.

For the three days, I've been carrying around a little book, "Essentials: Jean Toomer."
This 90 page book illustrates Jean Toomer is far more powerful far than what is usually granted, by narrow racialists, to this author of "Cane". I believe Toomer is one of the the most important thinkers of the twentieth century.

Toomer's "Cane" was published in 1923, is considered by many to be the first literary work of the Harlem Renaissance. "Cane" was published before he met Gurdjieff. "Essentials" was published in 1931, seven years after he met Gurdjieff and while he was leading a group of people in Chicago who were attempting to practice the Gurdjieff's system of pyschological/philosphical method of living. "Essentials" had a very small run and was uninteresting to most of those people expecting a repeat "Cane." Here is a sample of some of Toomer's aphorisms: "Men are inclined either to work without hope, or hope without work. ... Social ills are caused by man's wish to have results greater than his efforts. "
This "Essentials: Jean Toomer" is an edited version of "Essentials" and has been re-published by Rudolph Byrd, a professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Nothing has been taken out of "Essentials"; however, something is added:
1. the former unpublished introduction, by Gorham Munson, written for the original.
2. a preface by Charles Johnson, African American author of National Book Award winning "Middle Passage"

Johnson says, "In American Literature, Toomer is unique -- a metaphysical pioneering genius, and this volume ['essentials'] of distilled reflections are indeed essential for the [twenty-first century]."

Jean Toomer was one of the great literary figures from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's. His signature work, Cane, is known by most people who have studied African-American literatureo. Lesser known to readers is this brilliant work, Essentials, published in 1931.

After his success with Cane, Toomer disappeared from the literary scene to pursue his own philosophical and psychological inquiries. He went against the grain of his time which believed African-Americans were not capable of exploring the world of metaphysics, let alone psychology. Toomer, way ahead of his time proved them wrong as he sought enlightenment in the teachings of George Gurdjieff. During this time (1924-1935), Toomer published this slim volume offering his attempts to grapple with the experience of what it means to be human.

Essentials is a collection of Toomer's ponderings in his search for wholeness in a fragmented world. Drawing on modern psychology and eastern religious belief Toomer falls into the comapny of Emerson, Thoreau and Gibran as he deals with that which is transcendent. He revives the use of aphorisms to convey timeless truths in a world which is incable of moving beyond its limited definitions of life.

Long ignored, this work gives us a glimpse of Toomer's metaphysical side. Through it we capture another alternative view of dealing with reality. It is essential reading for anyone interested in metaphysics, African-American literature, Toomer and as an example of a Black writer who refused to be limited by definitions of race for his life. Think on his words. Grow in the wisdom shared by a great literary giant of the 20th century.

I've enjoyed Mr. Goodrich's earlier books (Anarchy and Elegance and Roadster), but Faith is a Verb really is more than enjoyable, it is inspiring. Mr. Goodrich manages both to give an objective history of Habitat for Humanity and make the reader want rise from his armchair, grab a hammer and nail gun, and do something for the community.

Goodrich alternates chapters describing Habitat's genesis (the religious and social missions that infused it then and now) and how he participates in a local chapter, building houses in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

First Goodrich describes the meeting of Clarence Jordan, a Southern minister, bible scholar and social activist, with a spiritually searching, burnt out businessman, Millard Fuller, in May 1968. In Louisville, Jordan, Fuller and handful of summer missionary students formed a "koinonia" or "fellowship". Goodrich reminds the reader how in the Bible, "The spirit of Jesus, through Peter, forms a koinonia in which he and his disciples `had all things in common: and sold their possession and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.'"

In what I understand is one of the only accounts of the two men's relationship, Goodrich describes their meeting in a church in Atlanta. Goodrich says,

"One word kept coming up: partnership. Koinonia Farm was founded on that ideal, of course, but this new project - however realized - would be fashioned after a different model, defined more broadly, because both men had seen previous partnerships - Fuller's marriage, Jordan's `demonstration plot' - damaged by overconfidence and impatience, narcissism and narrow-mindedness. ...Fuller... had learned the hard way that partnerships do not exist in name only; they must be worked at, cultivated, honored. As a lawyer, he knew the importance of gathering facts before passing judgment, and as a sales-savvy businessman, that customers respond better to carrots than sticks, to respect than condescension. Fuller believed he had The Answer to the world's problems - faith in God - but had learned that lasting commitment occurred mainly when people came upon answers in their own way, in their own time, with their own cultural inflections."

Originally, Habitat planned to push three programs: manufacture, farming and homebuilding. However, only the third took off:
"The work that captured many imaginations, to an extent no one had foreseen, was home building. Snapping lines, laying block, nailing shingles, hanging doors; there was something new every day, some novel obstacle to overcome, and you never knew, going in, whether you'd be teacher or student, expert or apprentice, brains or muscle. And the experience brought home more than the idea of building community; it embodied the thought, for both volunteer home builders and future homeowners. Everyone marveled at the like-mindedness of such different personalities and perspectives, and felt themselves part of Something Big... and soon to grow much bigger."


Sometimes Goodrich -- and the product that at root he is supporting, Habitat -- get a little preachy. For example in a chapter entitled "Amateur Hour", he writes:
"If every U.S. citizen worked hard on somebody else's truly significant problem, saw what progress could be made through a few hundred hours of collective sweat ... well, who knows what might happen."
However, this preachiness is excusable, when both the author and the organization prove so effective. (Habitat has built housing for over one million people.)

Goodrich also occasionally spouts a little social science babble: "A true partnership explores divergent views, finds common ground, constantly remakes itself; never forgets that a vision can be selfish as well as selfless and everything in between."

But, just when Faith falters, Goodrich pulls back. For example, after the above, he describes a Tropical Build he worked on in the Dominican Republic.. Here, mixing and pouring a concrete roof (with the help of no machinery except a wheelbarrow) in hurricane territory, he says, he and the other volunteers felt they were fulfilling "an honest-to-God need - an actual want, not some manufactured "want" invented on Madison Avenue, Wall Street, Silicon Valley."

It is this `want' - this genuine feeling, ultimately, with which the book leaves the reader. I strongly recommend it.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Faith is a verb by Chris Goodrich. The book covers facts regarding the history of the organization Habitat for Humanity and the author's experiences volunteering. Goodrich writes about the places, the people, and the volunteers he has encountered during his five-year experience with Habitat for Humanity. The author speaks straight from the heart, some of which brought tears to my eyes, some of sadness, some of laughter. Even through all the heart-wrenching sights, Goodrich and his crew persevere, regardless of the obstacles they face. Goodrich's experiences include traveling around the world, from America to London from London to Paraguay even getting lost in the Sierra, Faith is a Verb, is a fantastic read. In addition, the book opens a person's eyes and heart to the devastation and suffering that many see everyday of their lives. The book puts into perspective just how lucky we are even though we may not think so; it made me not only look at my ethics and values but also encouraged me to pick up that hammer.