Kentucky Books

Would have to say this was on of my favorite of Karen's contemporaries.. (this, Bait, and Paradise County). I got sucked into the plot - loved the heroine and the way that she and the hero tried to resist each other, but ending up being drawn in. Hero is a total alpha-male, and the plot lines aren't that contrived. Heroine's job is a fun subplot as well as her relationship with her siblings (who is a guardian too).. watch for a hot scene in the rain on the hood of a car.. (you get the drift). Recommended!

This was my second Karen Robards book and it was just as good as the first one I read, Bait. I'm such a sucker for these books. A good steamy romance is just the thing to occupy a hot summer day. I enjoy these more than just a traditional romance though because as seen in this book, it is not only about the relationship between Will and Molly, it also has a good mystery and plenty of surprises. The conversations between Will and Molly were so well-written and entertaining. I'm ready for another book by Robards!

This was my second novel of Robard's and I was disappointed. I read Dark of the Moon earlier in the week and I was knocked off my feet. Granted, that was a historical romance, I had high hopes for this one. :(

Unfortunately, I couldn't care less about the story surrounding the horses. First Will was investigating an illegal betting scheme, then there were some mysterious horse slashings, a murder, and then a kidnapping? The plot was all over the place and I didn't feel as though any one aspect was developing, except the romance between Will and Molly.

The romance between Will and Molly was, in a word ~ awkward. What on earth did Will see in her? Also, why was he jealous of her sleazy boyfriend, Jimmy? His behavior (considering his age) was ridiculous. I thought they were mis-matched from the get-go and I never felt they belonged together.

When I like an author I read the good and the bad. Hopefully I happened upon a bad one, I will give Robard another try based on Dark of the Moon. :)

This is a fun book for me to read ~~ I think I found it at a library booksale and it was a quick and fun read. It is a mystery/romance novel ~~ the first Robards book I have ever read.

Molly Ballard, working as a groomer at a Kentucky stable while raising her younger brothers and sisters, runs into trouble with the law when she spirits away $5,000 that the FBI had planted in one of the barns. She was planning to use the money to feed her brothers and sisters, but FBI agent Will Lyman thought otherwise. Once he realized that she was speaking the truth, he decided to use Molly as an insider to investigate a race-horsing fixing scheme. Only Lyman got more than he bargained for ~~ not only was he focusing on the race-horsing fixing scheme, there were horse mulitations happening, a unsolved murder case, and a suicide in the peaceful Kentucky countryside. And falling in love with Molly ~~ it all provides entertainment and mystery throughout the book.

I would have given this book a 5 if it weren't for some explicit sex scenes in the book ~~ I am one of the readers who likes to be teased, not told of every sexual act in the story. Must be the midwestern in me. Other than that, this book provides great entertainment for me ~~ a fast read, which is something I need around here in a house full of happenings and it's fun to read as well.

If I run across Robards' other books, I'll be sure to pick them up since I enjoyed this book. She is a new author for me to explore and this book is hard to put down. I don't regret picking this one up at all.

11-7-02

Will Lyman, an agent with the FBI, has been sent to Kentucky to investigate some questionable winnings at the horse tracks. Just when he believes he is tying up the case as they watch for the criminal to pick up their $5,000 bait money, a beautiful woman appears in the barn, looks into the sack that contains the money, and then picks it up and walks off. Will is close to speechless. How could such an easy assignment go so wrong and who was that woman?

Molly Ballard has just quit her job as groomer at the Kentucky stable and has come to pick up her final check. She accidentally finds the bait money and on a whim - takes it! She is beside herself with worry but is totally broke and she is responsible for the care of her four younger siblings. She is sure that no one saw her take the money and figures it is money that was earned illegally anyway. Within hours, a gorgeous man in a distinguished suit appears at her door sporting a FBI bag and a tape of her taking the bait money.

Will Lyman takes in the young lady's surroundings and determines that she is probably just plain desperate. She lives in a very run down home and is barely surviving financially as she takes care of her two brothers and two sisters. He decides to let her off the hook and not charge her with theft. Then he discovers that his informant has died and returns to asks (really demands) Molly to participate in the sting operation. To enable easy communication during the sting, Will acts the role of her boyfriend.

This was a really good, enjoyable story. Karen Robards can write some good male leads and I believe Will Lyman is one of her best yet. You just like being around this guy. It was a stretch for me to accept that he is fifteen years older than Molly. He has an eighteen-year-old son and it doesn't seem to fit with his other personality traits that he would be attracted to someone so much younger than himself. Molly is supposed to be a really kind person but she treats others with disdain more than kindness. She is protective and loving towards her siblings under her care but she is also quite prickly.

Eventually Will and Molly develop an attraction to each other that neither has pursued but cannot ignore. He is pure sophistication, from Chicago, and apparently lives the good life. Molly has only a high school education, is actually poor, and has never had any real advantages in her life. She has not been exposed to many refinements but is basically a good, hard working person. Her prickly nature is due to many hardships as she grew up.

I was engrossed in this story until half way through the book. Robards had managed to write a fresh story that was interesting on every page. Then, without warning, the author introduces one of the most overused, maddening romance novel plot lines. I just had to put the book down for a while. I felt betrayed. Molly discovers that she loves Will and realizes that there is no future for them. She decides the best way to handle her newly found feelings is to treat him with hate. She kicks into high hateful gear, treating Will with a huge amount of disdain when he has done nothing wrong, and doesn't speak to him unless it is with meanness. This "I love you so I must treat you as I hate you" is one of my least favorite things about romance writing. Fortunately, Will does not accept this treatment from her and ignores her. He has recognized her game and will not play into it. This contrived misunderstanding is the turning point of the book. Although I did not appreciate this particular turn of events, I kept reading and, with relief, found this situation did not drag on for long. This is the reason for a four star rating rather than a five star.

The story is actually very tender. There are only a couple of sensual scenes and they rate no more than a three out of five (see More About Me for rating guidelines). The story does not need any more sensual pages - it is just right for the framework of the book.

Although the heroine stretches the limits of realism more than once, it is a book that I would read again some day. After all, romance writing is not very realistic. How could we depend on those happy endings if it were not? It is a pleasurable read with some degree of depth. I could actually read two more books with this hero starting today!

i read this after loving a yellow raft on blue water. i was unable to care about these characters- even the ones i already knew and loved from the other book. it is full of tangents, stories that start and go nowhere, characters introduced only to disappear, overly sentimental and generic dialogue. i was bored.

He definitley has a style of story telling that leaves a bit of the "yea right's" behind. Some of the plot is a bit unrealistic and interrupts the flow of the story. also, some of the characters go into these long tangents of thought and it really leaves the reader gasping for relief. Now that said, the writing in terms of wording has a bit of Erdrich's great style, fantastic imagery, colors and characters you seem to envy at one point or another. I loved that dorris wrote an epic novella here. we need more of them in general. be forewarned however, a lot of the plot is revealed in clouds for the yellow raft and vice versa. you really need to read them together, preferably beginning with this one. (I had to struggle to remember who aunt pauline was. still don't know. This book gets my four stars because simply, I couldn't put it down. I took about 90 pages to grab my interest. I really had to stick with it, and from then on the plot got better. feeling like the last two chapters should have been an epilogue though, an aside if you will bc they don't really involved the story. It almost makes it seem like there was a need to insert rayona into the clouds book like promised on the back cover. not a bad read...

First read Yellow Raft in Blue Water before reading Cloud Chamber.
Do not expect it to be the same. The writing style is excellent, and also very different. Stick with it and the last chapters will make it all worthwhile.

This book is truly incredible. Dorris was a brilliant writer and I am only disappointed that I didn't find my way to this book sooner.
In many ways this book reminds me of Ann Marie MacDonald's "Fall On Your Knees" in that it is a family saga that spans over generations. In this case however, the family is a hodgepodge of different origins. Dorris makes the mismatched pieces fit like a glove.
In my opinion, this novel is a very realistic display of family and he in turns displays the tragic ugly side of humanity along with its utter hilariousness.
I've heard that this book serves as both a prequel and sequel to "Blue Raft on Yellow Water." Though I have not had the pleasure of reading that book yet, I can assuredly say that "Cloud Chamber" stands strongly on its own and it is a true joy to experience. I laughed out loud a countless number of times, and was fuming mad an equal number of times. I had much trouble putting it down. The book simply begs to be finished.
Clearly, the point is that we don't get to choose our family, and therefore must simply make the best of it in whatever ways we can. As Dorris shows, sometimes it takes a vivid imagination.
I challenge anyone to read this and not find familiar quirks within their own family structure. As paraphrased by a character in the novel, "Thank God we are not all normal!"

`Cloud Chamber' is the follow-up novel to his earlier `A Yellow Raft on Blue Water'. To say follow-up, however, is somewhat misleading. It is actually both a prequel and a sequel to that novel. Whereas in YRBW we are presented with the history of three generations of women in a backwards progression, in `Cloud Chamber' we begin several generations prior, leading one to speculate (even unto the last quarter of the book) why exactly is one reading this, and what relationship it truly has to YRBW?

The patient will be rewarded in her or his reading. We begin in Ireland, with a tale of passion and betrayal (as only the Irish under English-domination could seem to muster). This account, almost unrelated to the rest of the story save as the seed of the action, actually provides an undertow of passion and betrayal felt by the family's succeeding generations.

When the young, best-prized son becomes a priest, and then dies tragically in a rather stupid accident, both the mother and the woman-in-love (who marries his brother, ironically, to stay close to him) get angry with the entire world, to no good end.

Men, when they figure in the story at all, are usually distant characters, not fully developed, and the full implication is that the literary character is not very developed because the human character is likewise undeveloped. That being said, this is not feminist-philosophy here; as happened so often, women often had a very different psychological and personality development, given cultural mores, and perhaps the view of the men could never be complete given this societal-enforced distance.

We come up on Rayona's lineage from the other side this time, through her father, but in this, it is very much the matriarchal line. We learn that, even given strong women of intelligence and passion, the wisps of reality still can make for a struggle for survival. Chronic disease runs through the family; great need (most often unacknowledged) contrasts and conflicts with great strength.

The story ends in hope, and renews the hope at the end of YRBW. Rayona has a history and prehistory of tension and passion and difficulty, but also one of love and hopefulness, and this is the conclusion.

This is a truly intriguing way of introducing an entire new cultural element into the storyline, and an innovative way of following up a great novel.

i had a super crush on these gals growing up in the 60's. they were really talented & fun to watch. i just wished they appeared more on screen with Abbott & Costello. they all appeared well together. enjoy.

It's surprising to read some of the negative comments posted here but, as it is a free country and to each his own, I'll let it go at that.

My own feeling is that Mr. Sforza wrote a good, informative history that tells the reader not only about the Andrews Sisters but you get an encapsulated look at America during World War II.

If you are like me, then you know the sisters only from old Abbott and Costello movies or by the homage that Bette Midler paid them. That's a great introduction but in SWING IT, Mr. Sforza takes it a step further and gives you a short and sweet story about the women. Although it is clear to see that he likes not only Patty, Maxine and LaVerne as performers, as people too, he never lets his personal feelings get in the way. In a non-critical but highly informative way, the reader learns just how talented the Andrews Sisters were just as you walk away from the book with a clear understanding of what it was like to be living during those times.

His research is quite thorough but the book is neither talky or dragging. Facts are pleasantly given with no preaching or sermon.

If anyone wants to discover what a true American icon was like, pick up this book

I was estatic to finally find a book based around the career of the Andrew Sisters. If you're looking for information on who the sisters were as people, Sforza only hints on the subject. This book is largely a chronicle of their career and Sforza does an amazing job of tracking their discography. The book is not truly a biography as it does not delve into events in their personal lives. It leaves many things to the readers' imagination.

It would have been wonderful if the remaining sisters could have buried the hatchet one last time and collaborated on a biography. It would have been truly wonderful to have a book that commemorated not only their work, but the amazing lives they led.

Sforza and U. of Ky. press are to commended on issuing the first biography of the Andrews Sisters. While this book may not answer every question, particularly about the private lives of the sisters, it does establish a publication basis for future efforts. In and of itself, the book documents the public careers of this seminal trio of popular song. Sforza lays out in convincing terms the threesome's place in history by comparing them to other vocal groups who have come and gone over the years. He rightly points to the variety of music sung by the Andrews gals from their early swing efforts of the 1930's to their harmonizing of broadway music in the 1970's, and everything in between--South American music, hymns, polkas, Hawiian, Christmas--their rousing version of Jingle Bells with Bing Crosby can still be heard in supermarkets across the land 50 years after it was recorded! And, this perennial trio was a hit in every medium of their day--records, films, theaters, nightclubs, radio and television. They packed a wallop and were loved by millions of fans in America and abroad. The book brings all this home to the reader. It should be of interest both to audiences who remember the Boogie Woogie girls, and to younger fans who still enjoy their music and want to know more about their unparalleled career. For more serious collectors the book provides a filmography, a discography, and information about their on air performances on radio and TV, their gold records, most played jukebox hits and more. Also, the book features lots of photographs, some rare. Hence, the volume is appropriate for the casual reader, because it is an easy and interesting read, but it is also a must for collectors, discographers, musicologists, and libraries for its valuable information. Appreciation is due Sforza for bringing this book to life; a book that is long overdue.

Bob Boyer

I read "Swing It" upon recommendation and found it to be both entertaining and informative. As I read through the pages, the Andrews sisters, a band I was vaguely familiar with, came alive to me thanks in great part to Sforza's intricate research and finesse. For the casual reader, I recommend this book as a companion to the music and work of the Andrews sisters. For the educator, I stress the importance of this book and its treasure trove of information as a tool for teaching music, culuture, and history for Sforza not only entertains and informs, but, also, "fleshes out" these interesting women and their contribution to the American tapestry. Work well done, Mr. SForza !!

The world of Stephen Crane's Manhattan doesn't exist any more, a fact for which we can be grateful. It's a world where poverty, alcoholism and disease were not only rampant but blamed entirely on the victims.

Crane was no humanist; he was content to record the depravity around him with a keen eye and a cool heart. In his mind man was but passing flashes of cosmic debris, and his New York stories, written in the first half of 1890s and collected here, capture the jagged pieces of life he saw with unblinking candor. "War Is Kind" was the title of a collection of Crane poems; this collection of stories could be called "Man Is Not".

In "When A Man Falls, A Crowd Gathers", we have a tale of urban rubbernecking before the age of the automobile. A man collapses on the street, and a throng soon surrounds him, gaping hopefully for the sight of death and trodding on each other's toes. "An Eloquence Of Grief" covers a young lady accused of prostitution realizing no one cares about her plight in the cold recesses of a busy courtroom.

"The Men In The Storm" sets us amid another throng, this time a huddled mass seeking shelter beneath a blizzard: "Then a dull roar of rage came from the men on the outskirts; but all the time they strained and pushed until it appeared to be impoosible for those that they cried out against to do anything but be crushed to pulp."

That's about the lot of everyone in these stories, sadly, from the title character of Crane's first novel "Maggie" to a small dark-brown dog who finds temporary shelter with a small boy and his thoughtless family. For Crane, originally from upstate New York, Gotham in the last decade of the 19th century was a frightening place, hellish because it placed people in such close proximity to one another.

The stories collected here don't necessarily work in isolation, though "A Dark Brown Dog" remains a sentimental favorite of mine when I feel tough enough to read it and "George's Mother" works very well as a story of a shortsighted woman and her wayward son. But reading them in tandem here gives you a sense for what it was Crane found so fascinating and terrifying. Even a lighter piece like "The Broken-Down Van" feels fabulously unreal in Crane's hands, almost dreamlike in the way the narration jumps around without rhyme or reason among drivers, spectators, drunks, and a cop.

The character of Maggie makes a cameo in "George's Mother, and the book's Introduction by Larzer Ziff states flatly that three of the other stories - "Dark-Brown Dog", "An Ominous Baby", and "A Great Mistake" - also deal with Maggie's family. That seems a reach to me, though it's true Crane's characters feel oddly connected with one another, even when they are of different station. The children in "Mr. Binks' Day Off" have the same first names as Maggie and her siblings, though they couldn't be farther apart socially.

It's been said that Crane was both Naturalist and Impressionist when it came to his art, and that case is well presented in this collection. Miserable as man's condition may be, boring it's not, and Crane is as good a representer of that reality as anyone.

I reread Stephen Crane's "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" yesterday. It was the first time that I had revisited the book in almost thirty years. Originally, I read Crane's writings in a seminar course which compared his pioneering works to those of Ernest Hemingway. There were common themes in the works of both authors and they both employed a naturalistic style. Crane was more poetic, however, while Hemingway was more workmanlike in his choice of words and phrases.

This tragic story takes place in the slums and the garment district. Maggie is the daughter of two alcoholic Irish immigrants. Her youngest brother dies during early childhood. Her older brother spends his youth fighting rivals in the streets and enduring beatings at the hands of his intoxicated parents at home. In adulthood, Jimmie becomes a teamster and introduces his sister to his friend Pete, a well dressed local bartender. Pete is taken with Maggie's shape and begins courting her. Eventually, Maggie quits her five dollars a week job at the cuff and collar factory and leaves home with Pete. This ill considered decision is the beginning of her ruin. Pete cares nothing for Maggie. She is a only a passing fancy.

Environment determines everything in this sad tale. Alcoholic rages and casual acts of random violence occur on almost every page. Crane employs dialect to reflect the speech patterns of his characters. When Pete abandons Maggie for Nellie, a stylish prostitute, the saddest line of dialogue is Maggie's question: "Where kin I go?" Disowned by her widowed mother, who is herself a frequent defendant in the police courts on account of her drunken behavior, and brother, whose own relations with women are not much better than those of Pete, for having gone to the devil, Maggie begins walking the pavements alone and becomes one of the scarlet legions.

Initially, Crane had to self publish this book since it was considered to coarse and profane to print. It proved to be unprofitable and he gave many copies of the limited first printing away. Unlike "The Red Badge of Courage," there is no place for heroism and redemption in the Bowery streets inhabited by Maggie, Jimmie and Pete. This sad account of an unfortunate woman driven into a life of prostitution is far removed from the nightly celebrations at the opulent Everleigh Club.

It is humbling to think that Crane was capable of creating such a novella while he was scarcely over the age of twenty and that all of his poetry and prose was completed before his death at the age of twenty-eight.

This is a great book,I love this book,though it is almost unbearably sad.The novel's uncompromising realism in its portrayl of stunted,wasted and degraded lives in the New York tenements of the 1890's,horrified many of Stephen Crane's contemporaries,and he initially had to pay to have it privately published(it was his first novel).Only when he became famous as the author of "The Red Badge of Courage",was there a proper edition.Crane railed at "sentimentality",which he saw as an artistic curse.There is no sentimentality in this book,and Crane proved that a good writer could still move the reader to tears without purple prose.

I am amazed at the fact that Stephen Crane was only twenty-one when he wrote this story "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets". I found it to be a genuine effort to tell a story from the inside-out instead of the usual outside-in.

I also found Crane's style very addictive. When I moved on to my next novel, I truly missed Cran's writing style. If you haven't read any of Crane's works, I suggest you start off with Maggie to see how you like him.

See ya next review:

www.therunninggirl.com

If Edith Wharton captures the snobbery, superficiality, hypocrisy, materialism, and coldness of New York City's turn-of-the-century elite, Stephen Crane reveals the toughness, callousness, brutality, and violence of New York's working class. Ironically, Wharton's Lily Bart and Crane's Maggie Johnson, both romantics moving in anti-romantic spheres, share a similar fate--abandoned by their respective societies.

Unlike Wharton, Crane wrote from a primarily journalistic, dispassionate point of view. The settings, the situations, the speech, and the similes reveal the underbelly of life among the working poor. Maggie opens with "a very little boy," her brother Jim, serving as "champion" of Rum Alley, an aptly named area where life is centered on working, drinking, and fighting.

Maggie and Jim's father can't keep him from fighting because that's all the boy knows, and the torn clothes that his drunken mother bemoans cannot compare to the furniture and crockery damage that occur during their violent marital spats. The father, a drunken brute like his wife, does not understand the irony of his demand when he says, ". . . Yer allus pounding 'im . . . I can't get no rest 'cause yer allus poundin' a kid. Let up, d'yeh hear? Don't be allus poundin' a kid." The infuriated mother responds with increased savagery. "At last she tossed him to a corner where he limply lay cursing and weeping." Jim, Maggie, and even the baby Tommie seem to be as disposable as the rest of the household goods.

Life in the city is lived outwardly, and the strong do not question themselves. While "Jimmie had an idea it wasn't common courtesy for a friend to come to one's home and ruin one's sister," his contemplations of his own actions toward women are cut off by self-absolution before such introspection can lead to self-incrimination. Later, Pete will share this attitude when Maggie attempts, in his mind, "to give him some responsibility in a matter that did not concern him."

Maggie and Jimmie's parents represent an extreme. Everyone knows their family's business, from the residents who share their tenement with its "gruesome doorway" to the group of urchins who waylay the mother as she is ejected from a saloon for "disturbance." The Johnsons' troubles delight the neighbors; the old woman downstairs tells Jim that "deh funnies' t'ing I ever saw" was Maggie "a-cryin' as if her heart would break, she was. It was deh funnies' t'ing I ever saw."

In the midst of this squalor, Maggie does have an inner life. Combined with her romanticism and naïveté, it convinces her that Pete is the height of urbane sophistication as he bullies waiters, telling them to "git off deh eart'." Interestingly, as she toils over "eternal collars and cuffs," Maggie has a daydream that foreshadows Pete's final chapter in the novel; she imagines him with a half dozen women "and thought he must lean dangerously toward an indefinite one, whom she pictured with great charms of person, but with an altogether contemptible disposition."

In Maggie's final appearance, Crane does not use her name, which perhaps answers her question from the preceding chapter: "Who?" She begins her anonymous journey near a theater district, where the affluent emerge from "a place of forgetfulness." Her wanderings on this one night reflect her life over the previous several months, as she leaves behind the bright light and glamor on a trail of rejection that leads ever downward, until she meets a wreck of a human, who follows "the girl of the crimson legions." No longer Maggie, she represents those whose naivete, hopes, and foolish romantic dreams are crushed by the code of toughness that Jimmie fights for at the beginning and the hypocrisy that her lamenting mother exhibits at her fall.

These stories can be hard to read, partly because most of the relationships seem detached or distant at best and bitterly heartless at worst. Maggie's father talks about pounding "a kid" as though they are not his own and have nothing to do with him. Pete is "stuck" on Maggie's shape only until she gets in the way of greater desires. George of George's Mother is happiest when he has made his old mother miserable. At the same time his "friends," whose habits and exhortations have led to his downfall, abandon him, just as he turned on his mother.

Love is a rare visitor to Crane's pages, apparent mostly in the maternal indulgences of George's Mother and the rediscovered affection of Mr. and Mrs. Binks in "Mr. Binks' Day Off." It is only in the countryside of New Jersey that the battling Binkses find a moment in which to express genuine affection: "Mrs. Binks had stolen forth her arm and linked it with his. Her head leaned softly against his shoulder."

Notably, the other loving relationship, between a child and "A Dark-Brown Dog," is marked by the brutality of the one and the submissiveness of the other. Their friendship begins when "the child lifted his hand and struck the dog a blow upon the head"; the dog "sank down in despair at the child's feet." In the world both know, the more powerful must domineer, and the weaker must submit. Living by this simple rule, however, does not guarantee survival.

Crane self-published Maggie, and it is sometimes clear that his work could have benefited from an editor's counsel. For example, similes such as, "The little boy ran to the halls, shrieking like a monk in an earthquake," are ineffective and draw too much attention to themselves. Yet these stories are an amazing accomplishment of observation and writing that make Crane's premature death at age 28 even more tragic.

This is an excellent book. Gives a lot of great detailed information on the history of that era.

I found the book to be a bit long-winded and belaboring certain points. The author was passionate about his subject - helping the people in the area - but just wrote in a manner that got tiring. He went into details on the mining operations that we really don't need to know about.

Nevertheless, it was a book worth reading, I am just glad I have finished it!

I was on vacation spending the week at our family's river cottage and this book, dusty and long-forgotten, set upon the shelf. After spending an idle week reading this book, I feel like I have a better understanding of the history and human forces that shaped this region of the United States. This book is a rare treasure that offers an eye-opening historical perspective which is easily accessible and well-written. While the publication date is over 40 years ago, if you are at all interested in the story of the Cumberland area, about the path towards industrialization brought about by coal, and the tragedy that befell a once proudly individualist and free people, you should read this book. You won't be disappointed. Be warned though, it's not a book for historical revisionists and it uses language in use during the time it was published, so check any political correctness before you open it.

When reading this book, one must keep in mind that it was written in the 1960's. Caudill's history has some inaccuracies. One such problem is the idea that the original mountain people were the "human refuse" of Europe. In actuality, many of the people who move into the mountains did so by way of Revolutionary War land grants which Caudill admits later in the story. Most of the people who fought for the Continental Army were from the middle or working class of American society--hardly the "human refuse" of Europe. This is just one instance of Caudill's inaccurate claims.

There are some good things about the book, i.e. a discussion of Indian/Anglo crossbreeding. However, I can definitely see why people from Eastern Kentucky have such a low opinion of the book. The author makes Appalachians look like animals who need to be saved from themselves--a common liberal stance of the 1960s.

The book, however, is worth reading. Just do so with a very critical eye. In addition, read a solid Kentucky history book before diving into this one in order to better separate the wheat from the chaff.

Harry Caudill's account of Eastern Kentucky's "untamed children" takes the award for the modern era's grossest stereotypes, excepting perhaps the SNL skit, "Appalachian Emergency Room." Yes, this coal country history is rife with the most insulting characterizations of mountain people. Caudill extends beyond the ubiquitous moonshiners and feuders by asserting that this area was settled by "embittered outcasts and rejects from the shores of Europe" who were lawless and, of course, fiercely independent (13). Then between 1870 and 1960, the region became plagued with inbreds, idiots, people lacking any artistic creativity and, God forbid, appreciation for Shakespeare or other expressions of "real culture," women who procreated out of wedlock to obtain government money, and wastrels incapable of pulling themselves out of the squalor that befell them upon King Coal's collapse.

This book is a depressing account of a depressed area scarred and wounded by industrialization and allegedly locked in the past by despondent people, corrupt corporations, and a negligent government. Caudill chronicles the regional cycles of boom and bust from the 1870s to the 1960s and seeks to explain the causes of the vast poverty surrounding him when he wrote this book in 1963. His most prominent and unfortunate explanation is the heritage of the mountain people, who, as mentioned before, were supposedly Britain's social outcasts. In Caudill's eyes, they only became more barbaric and unruly as they lived in the Eastern Kentucky wilderness and mingled with Native Americans. Their progeny later responded to post-Civil War political animosity with feuding and violence. This constant warring chased off the virile men that it didn't kill, so women began marrying their cousins as a result of the decreasing gene pool. Their "mentally inferior" children were the ones who entered into the mines. Once these "fantastically inbred" mountaineers were integrated into coal mining communities and culture, they then became subject to the vagaries of industry (84). As the coal boom collapsed into the Great Depression, the mountaineers-turned-miners became shiftless and despondent and began relying heavily on government handouts. During a later coal collapse, they also began seeking government-sponsored relief by manipulating local leaders through votes. Caudill's insulting explanation does not solely blame mountain people, for he also denounces coal operators and local politicians, but not nearly to the same extent. In fact, he is sometimes sympathetic to the capitalist designs of industrialists, even when he admits that they abused their workers and stripped the land of all of its value.

No references are included in this work, so the information Caudill presents is dubious at best. Some of his assertions are naïve, like his insistence that miners and coal operators were, almost without exception, friendly toward each other until the Great Depression. Other claims are completely outlandish. He insists that many mountain people, "literally starved for compliments and for some outward show of appreciation," readily sold their mineral rights after being wooed by slick-tongued mineral buyers (73). Caudill also argues that during WWII, coal companies struggled with labor shortages. Many able-bodied men had either gone to fight or had left the region seeking higher paying jobs in industrial cities, leaving in their wake those who did not qualify for military service due to health reasons. He cites malnutrition as a key problem, a valid assumption considering that the war followed twelve years of extreme economic depression. However, Caudill again resorts to a common misconception about mountain people when he interjects, "Illiteracy and low mentality - the latter induced in part, perhaps, by generations of inbreeding - also caused the rejection of hundreds of others" from military service (226). Comments such as these make me doubt even further the veracity of his arguments or the extent of his research.

I was warned that Night Comes to the Cumberlands perpetuated stereotypes, but I wanted to read it because of the influence it exerted on America's perception of Appalachia. According to regional historian John Alexander Williams, this book was a non-fiction bestseller. It was massively influential and initiated the idea for what became the Appalachian Regional Commission. I do not regret that Caudill called attention to Eastern Kentucky. Indeed, the land and people were suffering and their plight warranted national action. Even now I stand amazed at how little attention is paid to Central Appalachia in regards to the destruction of mountains, streams, and peoples' homes and health because of mining. But I ultimately fault Caudill for failing to acknowledge the diversity, intelligence, and industry of the people who chose to remain in Eastern Kentucky. Widespread activism that called attention to strip mining and black lung did not emerge in the region until a few years after this book was published, but one can certainly assume that the seeds of discontent had been sewn by 1963. What of the teachers, doctors, miners, and other proud men and women who pushed their youth to achieve, felt empowered by their local churches and community groups, or served as Union leaders prior to the 1960s? Their inclusion would have changed this book from a "biography of a depressed area" to a more inspiring call for social and environmental justice. Caudill's intentions were good, but he missed the opportunity to change the way that the region was viewed. Needless to say, I only recommend reading this book in order to understand how different eras have perceived Appalachia. Anybody seeking an introduction to the region should look elsewhere.

The books starts well, with a description of a man-made cave he discovered. It really goes downhill from there. Bill does seem to want to follow scientific method in his research, but the focus on his own experiences rob the book of any objective perspective. In addition, his drawings of the cryptids seen by others are disturbing, not from a " we saw a monster" perspective, but from the details he adds that could not possibly have come from a verbal description. They all look like the same thing; a demon-like creature with long claws and a bad attitude. I would not buy the book again. This is not in the same league with books from Lauren Coleman and Jim Brandon.

BM Nunnelly does an admirable job chronicling the strange and weird creatures that lurk in the hidden places of Kentucky. Although I found some of the reports very hard to believe myself, it is fascinating to read about the unbelievably odd encounters that average people are reported to have experienced in the pursuit of the mundane. Who would have thought that the Bluegrass State had such a rich history of UFO sightings, as well as those of other inexplicable creatures and oddities throughout the state? (I'm waiting for the History Channel to do a documentary about the 1948 UFO chase that resulted in the death of the pilot.) Although there are some typos, misprints and grammatical errors throughout the book, they in no way make the book difficult to read. (The publisher is supposed to catch those things!) Nunnelly is overall a good writer who knows how to tell a story well; however I wish he would have treated the purported accounts in this book with a healthy dose of skepticism; it would have made for more balanced reading. That having been said, I do look forward to learning more about Kentucky's strange creatures and undiscovered mysterious in his next book.

Fortean author and field researcher Bart Nunnelly warns us in the introduction that the stories in this book are not mere folklore but eyewitness reports of every conceivable anomaly, except for hauntings.
Chapter 1 guides readers on a tour of historic--or prehistoric--Kentucky, examining a catalog of eerie artifacts, strange petroglyphs, supposed remains of Roman legionnaires and Vikings, and giant humanoid skeletons unearthed at various spots between 1792 and 1965. Chapter 2 pursues aquatic cryptids, ranging from a turtle the size of a Volkswagen Beetle to various serpentine creatures reported from various rivers throughout the Bluegrass State.
Chapter 3 reviews a range of aerial anomalies, including unexplained rains of stones, dried flesh, cookies, fish, and coins. UFO sightings from 1869 to the present make up the bulk of this fascinating chapter. Chapter 4 brings us back to the realm of cryptozoology, with reports of tiny humanoids from all parts of Kentucky.
Chapter 5, by far the longest, draws extensively from Nunnelly's Kentucky Bigfoot web site, presenting both archival and modern eyewitness reports of unidentified humanoid creatures. While Bigfoot remains the most common subject, their competition includes scaly lizardmen, werewolves, dogmen, and an elusive goatman from the 19th century.
Chapter 6 completes the crypto roundup with black panthers and hyenas, giant snakes, huge birds of prey, "devil monkeys" that slaughter livestock, and hairy "gravediggers" who will not let the dead rest in peace. Nunnelly rounds off his tour with a brief biography of psychic Edgar Cayce, known to his admirers as "the Kentucky Nostradamus," who was born there in 1877 and lived there until 1920, when he moved to Texas
Fact or fiction? Nunnelly wisely leaves readers to judge for themselves. One fact is indisputable, however--fans and students of the paranormal should run, not walk to their nearest bookstore, to obtain a copy of this book.
--Michael Newton
Mysteries Magazine issue #20

I should have spent my money on another book of Kentucky. There was not one decent story of hauntings by ghosts. In other Whitechapel books, tagged with "Mysterious", you get a well rounded variety of history, mystery, spooks, and then some creapy creatures. One of the drawings of a sea serpent looked suspiciously like Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent from Beany and Cecil. I'm so afraid!
For those looking for good stories to tell around a campfire, this is a great book. I wish it were titled more closely to its content. I could have gotten Ghosts of Louiville instead, where I can assume I will read some good paranormal stories.
I've been to KY more than any other state than my own. I love the state. This book gave me nothing to look back on, and say... Yes, I yearn to go back there.
I would rather give this a 2.5, but that is not possible. Troy Taylor, please visit Kentucky and give us the ghostly lowdown! Please!

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys reading about scary, mysterious, events...you won't be disappointed. This unassuming looking book is full of some of the most terrifying accounts of every kind of weirdness you can think of (and some you probably can't).

Because it seems you can't throw a rock in Kentucky without hitting a Bigfoot, Goatman, Little Person or some other anomaly. The only problem was that eventually I began to wonder why none of the numerous subjects in this book, including the author, ever seemed to have a camera on them, or even think of carrying one, during any encounter, even though some of them, including the author, were described as having so many experiences that they had a good chance of capturing something on film. Instead, there are many very muscular drawings that, while demonstrating the author's talent, are not really adequate when there was photo op after photo op.

I have seen some of his drawings before on the internet, having read Jan Thompson's terrifying accounts before. Her presence in the book was definitely a point in its favor.

P.S. If you, like me, were wary of ordering another Whitechapel Press book because of the countless typos and non-existent editing that make so many of its books a pain to read, rest assured that this book does not have nearly as many of those types of flaws, though that might be thanks to the author.

4-star quality writing. However the dialect (which is integral to the story)... as in "chillern" and "tobaccer" is a little tiresome. So although it is well-written and insightful, I suppose it's a matter of individual taste regarding the novel's rural and stick-poor roots.

This is an interesting story of the early notoriety and heartbreak that surrounded the family of North America's first live birth quins, and an equally interesting study of how everyday people can be drawn into the excitement and tragedy of such an event. Descriptions of the times and early media interest are well done, but as the book progresses and the family sinks into tragedy, I feel the story loses some of its impact, and I struggled to finish the story.

This is not to say that the characters are unsympathetic, or that the reader cannot identify with their plight, but more that as they struggle to deal with their lives, interest in their lives begins to wane.

Sheri Holman's "The Mammoth Cheese" deals with a similar topic in modern times, but is by far the better book in my opinion.

What a dumb book. So slow you could skip pages and pages and still not get anywhere. A total waste of time.

When quintuplets are born at the beginning of the 20th Century in rural Kentucky, the parents are taken unaware. Misdiagnosed, Christie is amazed when she gives birth to five tiny infants. This is such a bizarre event, five babies at once, that people begin to arrive in droves to see the infants. Reporters, photographers, well-meaning neighbors, family: they see, they touch, they talk, touch some more. Long before medicine has achieved the sophistication to ensure the protection necessary to sustain the babies, many mistakes are made in their care and handling. One by one, the tiny babies die. It is a devastating loss, followed by a crop failure that dilutes the family's already fragile economic resources. With three small children to provide for, Christie and James, burdened by grief and financial hardship, allow themselves to be drawn into a tour with the quints, who are now encased in glass. At each stop in the tour, as the carnival atmosphere reaches a deafening roar, the bereaved parents finally cannot continue. They donate the five infants in their tiny glass coffins to a scientific institution. The story moves as slowly as the times, with enough historical detail to create a vivid portrait. It is a strange and sad tale that portrays the overwhelmed young parents as the saddest of all.

This novel will capture your heart; the dialogue, the characters and the setting take you back to the early 20th century in rural America. Christie Wheeler, mother of three, is pregnant again and believes she will birth a monster as punishment for having impure thoughts of another man. Instead, she has quintuplets, each with their own little personality and appearance. Tragedy strikes, though, and Christie and her husband, James, must learn to deal with the loss of their babies. Bobbie Ann Mason does a fantastic job of depicting family life, industry and the media in the early 1900s. I would also recommend Weeds by Edith Summers Kelley. -- Melissa Galyon

The title on this book is a bit of a misnomer--there are no dinosaur bones in the book, though there is a mention of some minor fossils seen in a coal vein. There is also an allusion to something that is dinosaur-like. So much for the dino connection...

Nevertheless, I liked the book. I got interested in the characters and the relationships. The plot was interesting. I found the philosophical aspects of the book to be banal, with the typical zen emptiness infatuation, but it was tolerable and not overly annoying. I guess it fit, somewhat, but it seemed shallow and sophomoric. Of course, I may be overstating it...it's just my opinion and others may not have the same reaction.

Though I suspect it was unintentional, it is humorously ironic that the web of relationships in the small town elicited a sense of being inbred and incestuous. I guess that may be an almost inevitable consequence of tiny-town life. As Stephen Stills said, love the one you're with.

I hoped to see more happen with the Ten Fifteen character. His presence was almost like he was the requisite friendly freak, but it never progressed as I would have liked. He was kind of like a post-it note--there but not really within. I wanted his character to develop, not just observe. He really only experiences one major change in the story, and though funny, it was ultimately minor.

I did end up caring about the characters, and the minor short-comings didn't detract from the enjoyable read this story provided. I suspect most folks won't even notice the things I mentioned, they will just appreciate the characterizations and plotting. The book kind of took a stab at a theme I could appreciate, but I found that the story overwhelmed it. I almost wish the philosophical aspect had been more deeply fleshed out, and that the big tension-building subplot had been excised. In my opinion it squelched the potential the novel had to be seminal and timeless, not to mention important. Still, I want to emphasize that the story was quite enjoyable.

*** SPOILER ALERT !!!: IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE THE WHOLE PLOT PLOPPED ON YOUR PLATE LIKE A SPOONFUL OF MASHED POTATOES, DON'T READ TOM LARSON'S REVIEW BELOW. Larson is one of those self-congatulatory dolts who relish their own comments about a book more than the book itself. Unfortunately, his type are rife on the Amazon site. A bit of advice to such plot ploppers: take a class at the local junior college if you want to wax eloquent on the details of book plot. Just because you like the sound of your own voice doesn't mean that you ought to SPOIL the book for those looking for advice on whether to buy or read a book.

I loved this book. I thought I was going to be reading a simple story about. Instead, Ms. Witt provided me with a love story, stalking, grave robbing, murder and a fight against the big bad coal company.

I enjoyed the author's style of having several things going on at once. It became a real page turner.

I do feel that the excitement of the book was over about 25 pages from the true end of the book. It's as if Ms. Witt wanted to end the drama and try up any loose ends -- although the ending is certainly not unimportant. I did enjoy every bit of this book.

I loved the plot, the characters, the setting, and the way the story was told. Gilman Lee is definitely an unforgettable man. I'm really pleased that I happened upon this book in the library one day. I found I needed to have it in my own library, so I tracked it down and ordered a copy at my local bookstore. (Didn't have access to Amazon at the time!) I'm presently, a couple of years later, reading it a second time, and enjoying it even more! This is a wonderful, quirky little story, and I'd highly recommend it.

A friend recommended this book to me and I could not put it down! I loved the characters and the in-depth description of the town. I can't wait to read more from this author. A very enjoyable story.

The title grabbed me when I was browsing the bookstore for a good summer read -- what a great surprise this book turned out to be! It's hard to believe this is Lana Witt's first book. "Slow Dancing on Dinosaur Bones" reminds me of the early novels of Larry McMurtry, Clyde Edgerton and Rita Mae Brown.

If you are interested in Smedley Butler, don't miss the book The Plot to Seize the White House by Jules Archer.

Author takes a fascinating story and dries it out into a less-than-stimulating biography. General Butler deserves better than this

If you like this book, you'll love The Plot to Seize the White House, which just came out from Skyhorse Publishing. General Smedley Butler is an amazing character.

anyone who questions the validity of going to war needs to read this book.

Smedley Butler was a great American, a two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, a General in the Marine Corps, and, in retirement, an articulate and famous pacifist, who could not be dismissed as effeminate or ignorant. His life is worth examining, particularly by anyone in the military.

Butler was also a skein of contradictions: a Marine from a Quaker family, a general who joined the Marines as a private, a critic of politics in the military whose congressman father just happened to oversee the department of the Navy, a soldier who spent most of his days maintaining order in America's colonies, official and otherwise, who then went to vehemently condemn the deployment of American troops overseas, and perhaps most importantly, a soldier who inspired fierce loyalty. This list could go on and on.

Unfortunately this biography reads like a police report and not like a measured and analytical examination of a truly fascinating American. Butler was a great man who deserves a much better biography. (Un)fortunately court historians who write popular political hagiographies seem to eschew the lives of quixotic Marines, however impressive, interesting, and instructive their lives may have been.

As there are not that many biographies of Butler extant, this one may well be worth reading for the facts, but do not expect greatness from this book.

Karen Harper agains gets your attention and keeps it until the last page.

I greatly enjoyed this book by Harper. I have read several books by Harper and this was right up there with the best. It had the right amount of suspense and realism concerning the black market for babies to make for a great read. It will definitely be a reread on my shelves.

This book has a great plot and some wonderful twists. Having the heroine be a midwife and the hero be a doctor was a wonderful idea.

I would have rated it higher if there weren't so many plot coincidences. Also, a couple of scenes, though exciting, didn't ring true because they seemed a bit contrived.

Also, I would like to know why the front cover blurb gives away a major secret!

I gave this one a B- a All About Romance.

The story in this book was interesting, but I found the style of telling it to be choppy and hard to follow. The description of a difficult childbirth was mesmerizing and really well-done, but the romance was too sparse. Mostly I objected to ends not being tied up....we never found out what happened to several of the secondary characters, people we had either come to like or wanted to be sure they got what they deserved!

I have read almost all of Karen Harper's books. I think she is a great writer. She really pulls you into the story. Like all of her other stories, she has a gift for making you feel like you are the heroine/hero. You feel like you are actually living in Apalachia (sp?).

I liked the character of Emma - the midwife/heroine of the book. Griff was interesting too. I wish Karen Harper would include more romance in her books. I always feel like she is holding back in the romance dept. There were so many opportunities in this book. I do highly recommend this book. Romance or not the story was suspenseful and the secondary characters were first rate!