Georgia Books

I grew up on Peachtree Creek in the fifties and sixties, on Woodward Way. So of course I was interested in this book. And the interest turned out to be much more than just the chapters about my own neighborhood. I affirm that the other reviews say the right good things about about it, I just want to add something. The author is a good writer, plain and simple. I don't know how to describe it, if I could I would be a good writer myself, I guess. The best I can say is that I found myself thinking, "This guy is not only taking me to interesting places, showing me interesting things, I'm enjoying a pleasant and comfortable ride." That aspect adds a lot to any book. Enjoy it for yourself.

Everyone in Georgia is familure with the Chattohoochee River, but few of us are aware of the history of Atlanta's Peachtree and Nancy Creek. Nancy
Creek flows through my back yard on its way to the Chattahoochee and onto
the Gulf of Mexico. I have always wondered where it started and what happens to it after it leaves my neighborhood. This wonderful book tells in great detail the paths that these creeks take,their colorful history and suggest things to do to keep them cleaner, more useful and better
preserved. It is loaded with many stunning photos of the area and its history. This is a great book for one who is interested in Atlanta and
knowing more about the waterways we cross and casually take for granted everyday.

The only thing that I am sorry about it that I did not get to meet the author as he canoed past my veranda.

I can't add anything to the prior reviews.. Simply a great book about the history of Peachtree Creek.

For lovers of Atlanta and Georgia history this is a must have book. Certainly more than "a coffee table" book. It is full of interesting facts and fabulous photos. The author is to be commended on his research.

Published by the University of Georgia Press in cooperation with the Atlanta History Center, "Peachtree Creek: A Natural And Unnatural History Of Atlanta's Watershed" by David R. Kaufman is a photographically enhanced exploration and survey of Peachtree Creek from its headwaters to its confluence with the Chattoochee River. The result of thirteen years of research, study, and exploration, "Peachtree Creek" artfully combines the informational content of scholarly research with the readability of talented storytelling to present a compelling mix of urban travelog, local history, and a clarion call for conservation. Combining historical images with his own superb examples of color photography, this study of a specific and finite watershed is a seminal example of an original work that would be as at home on the shelves of an academic library's Environmental Studies reference collection as it is on the front room coffee table of a non-specialist general reader with an interest in this history of the Peachtree Creek and its five tributaries (North Fork, South Fork, Clear Creek, Nancy Creek, and Tanyard Creek). An enthusiastically recommended read that is as informed as it is informative, "Peachtree Creek" would also serve as an excellent template for similar histories and studies of other American waterways.

I was so happy to come across this book. I first found it at the library. It's everything I could ever want in a snake book and more. Fantastic picture quality and detail!! Great illustration and resource guide.

The book is well research, well written, beatifully illustrated.
Knowing what's in your immediate enviroment is important.
I would recommend this book to anyone.

As many Herp books as I have read through, this book covers all the information provided by most other field guides on snakes in this region, and then some! It has great photos of all the snakes throughout this region and the info on each species is organized in a descriptive, yet reader-friendly fashion. The other contents in this book are very informative and covers everything from the biology of snakes to their predators and defenses, and everything in-between. The final section on "People and Snakes" is AWESOME!! It is important that people will be better informed about snakes and see that they do not live up to their unwarrented reputation. This section of the book does a great job in communicating this message to the reader and also how benificial snakes are to our ecosystems. At the least, this book is a fascinating read and should be accessible to anyone living in this region. The Southeast region is one of the best places, in my opinion, for finding some of the most unique and beautiful snakes in the country. If anything, there is much more to learn from this book than there is from "People" magazine by a long shot!! The only snakes you'll see in those magazines is their skins formed into purses and clothes :( If only idividuals of that sort were not so ignorant. Its a Great Book!!

A worthy successor to Snakes of Georgia & South Carolina, also co-authored by Whit Gibbons. This earlier volume, now out of print, was superb as well...though brief and exorbitantly priced.

The current work is logically organized, user-friendly yet comprehensive. The color photos are tack-sharp. For the amateur naturalist, teacher or student alike, or for the common sojourner this is the perfect reference--liberally illustrated but detailed as well. Plus--the price is right.

This book has everything a child and/or adult needs to know about the snakes that can be found in any given area of the Southeast. Even down to the parish/county you may live in. It gives you hints that let you know which snake is which (enormously helpful for venomous ones). It also shows a way, with only 1 exception (the coral snake), to determine if a snake is venomous by looking at it's shed skin. Now how many times have you or your child come across a snake skin and wondered if it could have been a harmful snake? I bought this book for my 6 year old son who, like his mother, has an interest in snakes and curiosity. I recently noticed my hubby perusing through it & he despises them. Matter of fact, my neighbor has already borrowed it for identification. He then decided to read through it the rest of the way...it's just that insightful!

What a beautiful memoir! The setting, a small town in central Canada, was almost exotic to me. The writing is poem-like, clean and meditative. With his gentle voice, Mr. O'Connor takes you to the world of the sensitive boy whose longing and wonder towards his mysterious father is so vividly felt. The beautiful images in the book will remain with me for a long time. I highly recommend this special work.

What a fascinating story! And so well written. It brilliantly brings the author's world to life in all its wonderful and awful detail. The people are portrayed so artfully, both as individuals and collectively, that you feel you are among them. And the central story is beautifully touching.

I work with the author. So much for full disclosure. And I had been told by another colleague before I read it that his book was wonderful. I wasn't prepared, though, to be overwhelmed, and I was: by the richness of its style, the honesty of its emotion, the entertainment of its anecdote, the relief of its humor amid pain and personal discovery. O'Connor travels two paths in search of answers about the emotional chill in his childhood home in Canada and the strange allure of cold climes. This yields on one side beautifully drawn pictures of smalltown life in which O'Connor's growing self-awareness and his tracking of family history coalesce. On the other, its offers perfectly rendered vignettes and lore about famous explorers, plain life and survival in the frigid north. Sometimes the juxtaposition seems impossibly apt, yet never forced. Along each trail run themes in varying proportions of love and hurt, sacrifice and estrangement, distance and intimacy, ambition and constraint. Through it all runs a classically balanced voice, blunt and eloquent and wry in confronting simple or hard truths. There is finally and happily about the book a physical irony in which I regretted its ending so soon but relished the knowledge that I could always find time to return time and again to a book as modest in size as it is grand in reward.

O'Connor's beautiful language is as smooth as ice, as clean as fresh snow. This is a haunting, mysterious story of family secrets, which the author tells partly through direct memoir narrative and partly through metaphorical history and legend of the far north. I found the scenes of O'Connor's boyhood to be particularly well drawn: the ways in which he conjures child logic and perception are magical. Touching, strange, cathartic.

I thought this was just beautifully done. The father, both of the parents, are so well-drawn in it. And the alternation of northern lore with the author's personal story works perfectly: O'Connor's voice is so specific and true, you stay with him as he swings between eskimo legends, a natural history of the northern parts of the continent, and a wildly funny drunken bar room contretemps, easily finding meaningful connections between it all. The main story is wrenching with a beautiful payoff. Read this book!

I've just finished this book, and loved it. I laughed out loud many times, and was also saddened many times.

The book is written in the first person by someone other than the central character, and the storyteller was a very kind and gentle soul. He was basically a wonderful human being, and someone I would love to have known. I actually liked him much more than Jenny Dorset.

Just one thing: I don't understand why the book jacket shows a brunette of only average looks. Obviously the artist didn't read the book - it clearly mentions, and many times, that Jenny was uncommonly beautiful, and had golden-blonde hair...

This book is a treasure to read!! Very funny, full of wit and charm. I fell in love with this book while on vacation in South Carolina and read it in a 12 hour marathon!! This book is a delight!! Thank You Mr. Phillip Lee Williams for writing such a gem of a book!!

This book is funny and I loved it.

Mr. Williams' story is filled with rollicking humor, wit, and wisdom. Vividly written, the reader is drawn into 18th century Charleston, and into the lives of two families, the Dorsets and the Symthes. Each and every character is memorable. You will laugh and cry reading this book. It has a permament place in my personal library. I loved it so much, I rushed out and bought several copies to give to friends and family. Mr. Williams deserves far more credit for his writing genius!

Williams' ambitious novel The True & Authentic History of Jenny Dorset is a refreshing medley of life in Charleston's 18th century, seasoned tastily with charming wit and intriguing characters. A truly enjoyable read, the tale is written with a sincere flare and comes alive to the reader.

More notably is the method in which Williams characterizes each member of the families involved in the story's plot - from the dueling heads, Mr. Dorset and Mr. Smythe, to Old Bob in his amusing stages of senility, and the ostentatious Jenny Dorset herself.

The reader will undoubtedly find the rich story line is highly entertaining, and written in a very lively manner. The tale is penned from the perspective of Henry Hawthorne, the Dorset's discerning and subdued family man servant. Hawthorne patiently abides by the family's somewhat eccentric and unruly lifestyle, and writes about his experiences first-hand, in memoir-like style.

Indeed, this novel is a great story-tellers' delight! The True & Authentic History of Jenny Dorset manifests very engaging humour with every flip of a page - more than once have I been in the throws of violent chuckles over it's whimsical comments and situations. It has quickly grown to be one of my favorites. I highly recommend it.

I finished this book in one day. After starting to read I just couldn't put it down. It was very well written that I actually felt I was there, visualizing every scene. It also was a eye opener for many of us who did not understnad the depths on how colored people were treated back in the days. It also had a positive side where black and white could get along. Reading this book was a great surprise at the outcome. I agree with one of the other posters on this board, this book should be an HBO special. The story line was excellent. In fact so good, I bought 2 books, and plan on buying another for my sister who is in to our black history and culture. If this is the first book for Nathaniel Lumpkin, I am anxioous to read more. I wish him the best!!!!

The title "WADE IN THE WATER," says it all! A really enjoyable read.

Has anyone taken the time to notify HBO, TNT, SHOWTIME, CINEMAX or BET? This book has the potential for a really good Movie. The characters are well developed and story is universally appealing. Reading the book was just like watching a movie, without the sticky stuff on the floor. I loved it. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. It is easy to read and even easier to understand.

This story has passion, honesty, intrigue and adventure. The main characters Billy Ray Horton and Jeremiah Liggons will take you on a trip back to a place long forgotten by many and to a place others will never forget. The dialogue between the two characters was great and I could visually picture every step of their journey.

I've read many novels over my lifetime including "The Catcher In The Rye," by J.D. Salinger, "A Thousand Acres," by Jane Smiley, "The Color Purple," by Alice Walker, "Macbeth," by William Shakespeare, "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine," by Bebe Moore Campbel, "Devil in a Blue Dress, Black Betty, and A Red Death," all three by Walter Mosley, "Roots," by Alex Haley, "Their Eyes Were Watching God," by Zora Neale Hurston and "Beloved," by Toni Morrison. All of which I cherish and loved reading very, very much, in most cases I've read several times. "Wade in the Water," by Nathaniel A. Lumpkin II, is a wonderfully written novel with well defined and developed characters that seem to jump off the pages into your living room. Jeremiah Liggons and Billy Ray Horton come of age during the great depression in a world that's already divided by race, and forge a friendship that must stand the ridicule of racism, murder, deception, betrayal and rape. Family love, loyalty, and God fearing ways are never questioned as Jeremiah's spiritually grounded mother calls forth a heavenly Angel to guide and protect him where ever he goes and whatever he does. This story touched my every emotion including, anger, happiness, sadness and grief. Wade in the Water is Nathaniel A. Lumpkin's debut novel, and it is a fantastic way to come out to the world. He is a writer that's easy to follow and understand, and his passion shines through his character's dialogue which is purposely written with a southern drawl. While reading this novel I could almost smell the Georgia pine trees down by the Ginsburg river, and I could vividly see the bright blue southern skys above as well as the red clay ground below, just as Nathaniel described it. This novel surely ranks up there with some of the other novels I've read and I most definitely recommend it to everyone. I read some of the other readers reviews, and I certainly agree with one reviewer that said "Oprah Winfrey," will LOVE this book. Somebody send her a copy or call her staff.

This is a terrific book on Southern reptiles and amphibians. The photographs are excellent and the range maps are very helpful. Amazon offers it at a very reasonable price. Highly recommended.

We wanted a book that would allow us to identify turtles and reptiles that live in our pond, and this book exceeded expectations. Good photos, habitat maps and detailed descriptions of every species. One of the best guides that we own.

This is an excellent book on herps in Georgia. I'm majoring in wildlife management in college and if this book was sold at the college, it would be while over >$120! Excellent book, current and up to date, color pictures for EVERY species, ranges for state (Georgia) and nation. What a BOOK!

This book is wonderfully written and layed out. Each species has a load of pictures to help accurately identify it. All information is useful with no filler material. Absolutely perfect.

Amphibians and Reptiles of Georgia is an excellent reference book, recommended for anyone with an interest in or appreciation for reptiles and amphibians generally, or anyone who wants to know more about the species that live in the state of Georgia. While it could be called a field guide, it is really too large for carrying into the field, although it does have a nice flex cover that might make it suitable for carrying in a backpack.

Upon first perusal I had the impression that over half the book was just about the salamanders. After taking more time I saw that the book had a roughly equal number of pages devoted to both reptiles and to amphibians, but there is no shortage of lovely photographs of salamanders. Most books about reptiles and amphibians spend a lot of time on snakes, with amphibians like salamanders included as an afterthought. Also, I live in the western part of the country, so I am used to having more lizards in a book like this, of which there is only a relatively small section in this book. That said, the book is very thorough, and it is the actual diversity of reptile and amphibian species within Georgia that determines how many pages are devoted to each group.

There are excellent range maps for each species, showing the counties where you can expect to find them. There is information on classification, habitat, reproduction, behavior and conservation status for each species as well.

If you want to identify a salamander or snake that you found in Georgia, this is the book for you. If you just want to look at beautiful photographs of salamanders, frogs, lizards, snakes and turtles, this is a great book for that too. If you want to know about the distribution and habits of Georgia's reptiles and amphibians, I can recommend the book for that as well. Basically it's just a great book for the lover of reptiles and amphibians, and I recommend it.

The University of Georgia Press has issued a recall on all of these books and rescinded the Flannery O'Connor Award based upon an intensely narrow-minded accusation of plagiarism. THIS IS ONLY AN ALLEGATION. Rather than correct what was obviously an editorial oversight on their part, the UGA Press has decided to unfairly punish Brad Vice. If you find a copy of this book, BUY IT. If you own a copy of this book, KEEP IT. Read it, re-read it, and tell your friends about it. Do not let UGA Press bully a fine writer and his appreciative and intelligent readers. Find out how much Brenn Jones of the SF Chronicle liked it at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/23/RVGC9F7EK51.DTL&type=books

This book, "The Bear Bryant Funeral Train", the author's first, was removed from every bookstore shortly after publication, due to the discovery that the short story entitled "Tuscaloosa Knights" contained many sections that were, by the author's own admission, "heavily borrowed" from Carl Carmer's 1934 work, "Tuscaloosa Nights." "The Bear Bryant Funeral Train" won the highly coveted Flannery O'Connor Award, which usually rockets a young writer into a successful literary career, but which, in this sad case, very likely has ended a career just as it was beginning.

Because the publisher withdrew every copy from stores and destroyed all the copies, then withdrew the award from Mr. Vice, only a handful of copies remain, making this first-edition volume the key collector's item in the Flannery O'Connor series. Without a doubt, it will be worth many thousands of dollars in years to come. The publisher quietly removed all copies from stores before announcing that it was pulping the book--thus, very very few copies have actually made it into circulation.

All of this is truly a sad development, as the material that was not plagiarized is quite brilliant. I hope that Mr. Vice, who is being investigated on ethics charges at the university where he teaches, will be able to survive this unhappy event and go on to have the chance to publish another first book--this time one that he has written entirely on his own.

Brad Vice, The Bear Bryant Funeral Train (University of Georgia, 2005)

I think at this point everyone has heard of The Bear Bryant Funeral Train. Not because it won the Flannery O'Connor Award last year, but because the award got yanked after it was shown that Vice had plagiarized parts of the book's opening short story, "Tuscaloosa Knights." More's the pity, because it's actually the book's weakest offering. A second allegation of plagiarism has been made for "Report from Junction," another story that comes about halfway through the collection.

None of this is actually relevant to the review, and without getting into a discussion of "fair use" which would take up far more than a thousand words, is here only for purposes of completeness. No one has yet complained that Vice lifted a complete story, whole and unbroken-- only various passages and sentences. And what makes the stories in this collection so good is the way those passages and sentences are strung together. (I have hopes that eventually Brad Vice will turn out looking like the print version of the Evolution Control Committee, the idiocy of this whole thing will go away, and the book will be reprinted.)

The simple truth of the matter is that whether a stray line in story A came from book B by another author or not, Vice has penned a wonderful batch of stories in this debut collection. Most of them are little slices of Southern life, usually Depression-era or not long after. I wondered about halfway through the collection, though, why it had picked up the O'Connor; while Vice's stories are on the whole excellent, they didn't seem quite dark enough to be worthy of bearing Ms. O'Connor's hallowed name. That, of course, changed a couple of pages after I had the thought. The book's three final stories take the collection into places of darkness and despair that it hadn't previously seen.

The title story, especially, is a corker. Set in the slightly-near future, it concerns an auto designer who's obsessed with making a black and white short film (and an amusement park ride) based on the Bear Bryant funeral train. It is obsessed with its own detail, and it treats its characters in very nasty ways. A good man is hard to find, indeed, and when you find him, you may find that you don't want him nearly as much as you thought you did.

I'd strongly recommend going and picking this up at your earliest opportunity, but the University of Georgia recalled all outstanding copies and pulped them. (They were going for as high as a thousand bucks apiece on Amazon, and may still be.) If your library is one of the few holdouts who still has a copy, I'd grab it and read it ASAP, because it's entirely possible that, otherwise, you will never get the chance. Stunning. ****

Listen: the book is awesome. A bunch of people who didn't understand the literary strategy of the book got real upset and railroaded the hardcover edition out of print. That was a shame, and the shame was not on Brad Vice. It was a big huge loss, too, because these stories are damn good, and they don't read the same way as some of the sources upon which a couple of them are based.

Brad Vice, by now, ought to be enjoying the rewards good work brings. I hope, at least, he's enjoying the good work itself, as I have been again this week. I give The Bear Bryant Funeral Train my strongest recommendation, and my bookshelves are holding a few spots open for future Brad Vice books.

Yes, there is some controversy about this little book, but discerning readers should not let that take away from the brilliance of other stories around which there is no controversy. The chapters on "Chickensnake" and "Mules" are brilliant. Truly brilliant. Others border on brilliance as well. Combined with Bobby Dews' collection of short stories "Legends, Demons and Dreams," you have the best of Southern fiction today. Forget the controversy. Read the book. It's well worth it. So is Bobby Dews' book.

"Bound by Red Clay" continues to astound the contemporary poetry market! It has been nominated for these awards: Georgia Writers Inc. Book of the Year--Poetry Category, Tufts Discovery Award, and the poem "Gopher Tortoise" was nominated for the coveted Pushcart Prize. The first run sold out in 6 months, and the second printing has sold 50% in only a month. Neca Stoller's work is indeed slated to become one of America's best.

When I ordered Neca Stoller's book I wondered if the high standard I had admired in examples of her work I'd seen on the net would be sustained through a book. It was.

My other concern was whether poetry specifically drawing on a Georgia, USA, landscape would be relevant in Australia. It was. Australian friends have validated my opinion on this.

Like the book itself the poetry is spare, direct and captures the essence of her subjects. Her focus is not distracted by any vanities. The discipline of Japanese genres shines through. The poetry is strong and credible.

I commend it to anyone with a sense of place and community, no matter where in the world they are centered.

Neca Stoller is a poet rooted in the soil of the rural South. Her latest volume is filled with images of the red clay of her home state, as well as characters from her family, uncles and aunts and cousins, former college roommates, and others who populate the Georgia backwoods.

Stoller, born in Savannah and educated at the University of Georgia during the tumultuous 60s, has spent the past several years living, working, and writing on a Georgia cattle farm. Her love of the land and the gentle rhythms of rural life sparkle in her poems. Bound by Red Clay is a slim volume of 60 selections, arranged in five titled chapters. It comes after numerous accolades for her verse from such diverse organizations as the Palomar Showcase and the Haiku Society of America.

Ms. Stoller is at once both peaceful and poignant when she focuses on the slow and repeating meter of country life. "Sultry Evening" is an evocative short poem about the pleasures of rocking on a porch hammock while crickets harmonize on summer evenings. In "Red Clay," we follow along as she wanders through sites of the Civil War, still heavy with memory. "Baling Hay" reminds us of the heat of such summer work, but rewards us with an image of " an iced mason jar/ black tea thick with sugar."

Stoller's themes throughout the book are telling: homecoming, death, lost love, the summer's heat, rural life, the social history of the South. She obviously has roots in her homeland, and that foundation creates lovely verse. The truths she finds among Georgia's red clay and pine forests ring true through time and space.

Even the title of Neca Stoller's first book of poems--Bound by Red Clay--tells us we're dealing with a Southern poet who deals with solid images. Many of these pictures painted by this Savannah poet are Southern and specifically Georgian: magnolias, lowland graveyards, 1960's protest marches, Cherokee excavations, front porches on sultry evenings, even a moonshiner by the name of "Flem." Red clay is a good image for the poets of Georgia, especially those who have left the land: Anyone who has tried to scrub the knees of a child's pants or footprints left on a beige carpet knows that red clay stains will always remain. One might be able to dull their immediate brilliance, but the brick-red trace will remain truly bound to the material.

That fading but "bound" sense of images propels the poet--and then the reader--through this book. The volume contains poems that are slim on words and fat on images. Stoller paints tiny pictures that loom large in one's verbal and pictorial memory. A pair of pinking shears "left marks like a bobcat's bite." Corpses are freed from their graves during the Flint River flood of 1994; "their hands rose and waved . . . they sat in the mud, naked-- / grinning--not a bit shy." On the morning after a lovers' tryst, the poet bittersweetly proclaims, "Such a short night, / still out of breath."

The poet reminds us we are tourists passing by a world full of scenes; the most important admonition someone can make to us is simply to look. Her haiku-like poems resonate with ideas and emotions that emerge out of the things pictured here. For instance, there's "White Chrysanthemum": "tucked between / fallen leaves / a white chrysanthemum / once pinned to my lapel / by your unsteady hands."

After a while, the poems begin to resonate with each other. Arranged into sections that Stoller calls "Chapters," the volume is like a collection of minimalist short stories: The poet's youth, a set of scenes with a former lover, her experiences during the University of Georgia's first year of integration, scenes from nature, and Stoller's own shifting and meditative identity as a poet.

Every semester, I post a new poem on my office door. I try to find one that immediately charms and then provides an opportunity for me, pausing with keys in hand, or for my students waiting for their office conference, to reflect. Stoller has given me a new volume's worth of poems to place on my door; this book will provide you with a similar opportunity to recognize and meditate.

"Bound by Red Clay," by Neca Stoller, is a collection of poems which allows the reader a brief peek into Stoller's life in Georgia during the 1960s. Stoller recounts moments through lively, visual poetry. She is unusually attuned to her surroundings and is able to describe scences with sharp detail and flowing verse. A poem titled "The Shrimp Boat" displays this talent. "Pushing through, past the channel markers, her name so faint, blurred by salt and time the bow appearing then reappearing, as her distant, tall mast crosses the marsh... Docked; still the boat' hole brims with shrimp, as the sunset slips down through the rigging, and as the full moon rises to surf the black waves." This careful attention to minutia draws the reader into Stoller's Georgia, puts the the reader right on the deck of a coastal shrimp boat. Another fresh aspect of Stoller's writung is the absence of too much emotion. Some poets go so deep into their inner thoughts the reader can become derailed and miss the meaning. But Stoller incorporates just enough feeling to touch her audience without overwhelming them. "Never meaning to grow old, in the mirror I am astonished to see age spots in a face more my mother's than my own...,"writes Stoller in "The Fire." With only a few words, Stoller captures the experience of aging. "Bound by Red Clay" is an ensemble of mature and well-written poetry which parallels life, detailing a range of experiences, experiences that run from disturbing events to moments of calmness. In one poem titled, "Sand Dollar," Stoller describes the last moments of a young soldier's life, and in another, "Rain," she explains how rain falls to the earth. It is apparent poetry for Stoller is a craft and for lovers of poetry she is a great gift.

What I like best about Georgia Kostas's book is the abundant "how to" information, such as how to overcome barriers to exercise, how to manage eating at special occasions, how to determine the right portion of a food, etc. I can tell Georgia has had lots of experience counseling dieters because she knows what dieters want to know about how to successfully lose weight.

I have not completely finished reading this book so I only gave 4 stars, but I am finding it very helpful. I also purchased the mayo clinic book and, between the two books, I am getting a much better idea of what to eat and how to go about it. They are very similar in their concepts. I really like this book and would recommend it.

A book for those demanding a healthy heart and a healthy lifestyle!

This should be on every Registered Dietitians' bookshelf!! I
would highly recommend this book to the public that requires sound information on weight loss. This book is good reading and
practical in it's approach. The book deals with strategies for
success and how to handle obstacles which is not always well covered in other weight management books. I bought her earlier book "The Balancing Act"; I didn't think that book could be outdone but this book is even better!! Sincerely, a Registered Dietitian

I just received this book and haven't been able to put it down. The information is clear and concise and practical. I love this book and feel that everything I have learned about wieght loss and thought on my own have now been confirmed. This book is not gimicky. It is realistic. This book helps us put into practice what most of us already know. If you are buying the book you are already to take the next step, and this is the answer!!! On a side note, Raynelle who also recommends this book was featured in Prevention, that is where I heard of this book and she looks awesome!! I hope to do as well as she did and be healthy in the process.

I confess I was drawn to this book by a)the inside jacket cover photo of the exceptionally attractive young female memoirist who seemed posessed of an enigmatic, almost haunted look, and b) the mysterious suggestiveness of the book title and partially obscured cover photo -- redolent of dark family revelations -- and I was not disappointed. 30-year old Jill Christman writes a searing account of harrowing family traumas, including her own recovered memory of childhood sexual abuse, the tragic auto accident that killed the young man who was the love of her life, her older brother's being nearly scorched to death by a freak shower incident, her near life-long estrangement from her father, and the wretched death in jail of a beloved uncle incarcerated for growing marijuana. All of these dark tales are leavened with ironic humor and described in superb detail. For me, the near 20 page account of Jill's preparation of a melted cheese sandwich for her frail grandmother, the ingestion of which led to her not untimely demise, was the piece de resistance.

If you have not read this book I suggest you do. I laughed out loud, cried, and was at a loss for words with this book. I really liked how the author used the nameless voice to bring out the questions and answers from the inside. I love to read and this is by far the best memoir that I've read.

I laughed out loud, cried, and was at a lost for words while reading this book. The element that sticks out is the second voice that appears throughout the piece. I encourage everyone who loves to read to read this book. I couldn't put it down once I started. I read it in one day. Job well done Professor Christman!

This book is a perfect example of the possibilities of creative nonfiction. Like the originator of the personal essay, Montaigne, Jill Christman chooses her self as her subject-the "I"-yet, in doing so, is really writing about all of us-the "we"-of humanity. Like more modern writers-Woolf, Stein, Eliot and so on-Christman also brings to her work a richness of prose, an understanding of arrangement and construction, and the confidence to employ such techniques as flashbacks, photo collages, and intertextuality. As a teacher of literature, I enjoyed this book for all of the reasons listed above. As a person who simply loves to read, I enjoyed this book because it is a GOOD READ! Sometimes sad, sometimes happy, sometimes terrible, sometimes funny-this book consistently had me turning the pages. I certainly recommend it.

Christman does a remarkably good job of solving the problems of telling about parts of her life and family in a creative new way. Like an outstanding photographic exposure, she brackets her frames by under exposing and over exposing in all the right places until she comes up with that perfect balance between light and dark, with remarkable shadow detail in the final image. She dodges and burns, weaves in and out, and through, the painful events in her life by the use of crisp transitions, and, in many cases, unexpected humor/irony. The accounts of her life experiences are compelling -- almost too much to take in even at proper viewing distances, but her clever use of photographic imagery and her references to technical aspects of the art during some of these transitions seem to require use of both sides of the readers' brain -- making the trauma somewhat easier to allow in. The clear presense of Christman's soul in this book keeps the reader engaged in a way that makes her/him feel as though s/he is there with her. So few people are willing to risk this exposure -- to allow others to see past a seemingly "circle of confusion" to the true image on the other side of the lens without hiding behind "fiction."

Christman, a courageous woman, is also a master of her craft.