Missouri Books

I ran into an old friend in the library stacks, an old CBS commentator pictured on the back of his book, "Not So Wild A Dream." For one who was always captivated by this worldly-wise soul, Eric Sevareid, pages into this memoir of his early years to manhood and full citizenship at the close of World War II I was in complete enthrallment. Like striking the richest vein of learning. Inside this "memoir" you wil find three adventures: the earliest taken by Sevareid and a companion by canoe and foot over 1300 miles of northwest waterways at age 17; then a railway tour of the U.S. in the thirties, filled with nuggets of whimsy and wisdom, leading to the outbreak of World War II,the final adventure spanning 4 continents, major Allied campaign areas while raising a family and meeting deadlines.All the captivating storytelling gifts man can struggle for are on display in this wonderful look at the Greatest Generation in the first half of the 20th Century by one of our very own. Compelling human drama, amazing quickly-drawn human sketches and thought-provoking commentary when normal words begin to fail are the seldom-realized resources of this journalist of the House of Murrow. For those who know that time and place only through Life or Time magazines, this will color in all the gaps with greater dimension. This is a treasure trove for aspiring writers of any level to read one who walked with Dickens, Gibbons, Herodotus, Churchill and Gertrude Stein at his side, the antidote for the TV jackanapes who serve us propaganda with no historical context under the banner of "headline news." Sevareid represents the elite of Murrow talent who were first in the service of truth, skeptical of those who wandered away from that path and had the integrity to caution those who thought otherwise.Henry Adams, another American, represents the patrician class; Sevareid, a classless original.

Well, yes, Eric Sevareid's autobiography to the year 1946 is a good read by a seasoned world observer. He grew up in the same North Dakota milieu as my father. I liked the part where he was advised not to enlist during World War II because he might find himself "...cranking a mimeograph machine in the public relations section of some Nebraska army camp for the next three years." Surely his contributions as a wartime news correspondent served in good stead.

I'm not sure Sevareid thought much of women-he refers to an "honest whore" and "old crones." His wife is barely mentioned. Then again, he was a product of his time. Sevareid ends his book with, I guess, a plea for niceness and not bad war. As has been said, however, men love war. It is "...like lifting a corner of the Universe and taking a peek." We'll never top that.

Eric Sevareid (1912 - 1992) was a third generation Norwegian-American born and raised in a small town in northern North Dakota. His book of memoirs Not So Wild a Dream, published in 1947, is mostly about an action-filled 15 year period from high school graduation in 1930 (age 17) to the end of World War II (age 32). During that time Sevareid professionally and personally went through a number of adventures that typify his "Greatest Generation" and events of the world at large.

Sevareid was one of the pioneering "Morrow Boys", a team of radio journalists who filed daily radio journalistic pieces from Europe during the war. This allowed him to travel to many places and get up close to the front and fighting. Sevareid is at his best narrating his adventures, the book is episodic and some of the best include: Bombings in London during the Battle of Britain; the plane wreck while going over "the hump" into China; his experiences in Paris during the "phony war" and "Exodus"; the horrors of war on the Italian front; the D-Day invasion and subsequent Battle of the Rhine; the mutiny on-board a Liberty Ship in NY harbor. His accounts of the Great Depression, when he tramped around as a hobo on a train are really excellent, as is his description of a 2500 mile canoe trip, which is covered in more detail in his 1935 book Canoing with the Cree. These two books, written while still a young man, would be his most popular, and last real literary output - although he always considered himself a writer first, most of his later career was on television..

Sevareid was known for writing "think pieces", for example in one transcript, aired late in the war to popular acclaim, he talks about the unknowability of the experience of combat for a soldier, the impossibility of words to describe the immediate and often irrational emotions and thoughts of a soldier. These "think pieces" became a trademark of his later in life as a TV reporter, and Not So Wild a Dream often goes off on a thinking tangent. If there is a theme to the book, Sevareid is seeking the essence and spirit of his time and generation, what we might call the "Zeitgeist", and he often comes very close to capturing the immediate feeling of change. It is why this book is so important as a primary source for documenting the times and his generation. One of the more profound moments for me is when he sees a change in his generations attitude towards war:

"Our own men, whose cult was antimilitarism [in the 1930s students were highly anti-military], whose habit is to identify themselves merely as civilians in different cloths who detested soldiering, now subtly changed. There was a dash and verve about them that I had rarely observed before, and young boys would frankly say: "In Italy all i used to think about was going home. Now I kinda hate to quit before we get to Berlin." It was if they suddenly realized they were soldiers by profession, with the honest desire to complete this masterpiece of their skill down to the last detail."

Sevareid is right, during WWII the American military went from a small and and unpopular enterprise to a large beast that to this day is a major force in American culture, the consequences of which Eisenhower predicted in his military-industrial complex speech. Another area Sevareid muses on is the waning power of Britain and the ascending power of the USA - which given the events post-Cold War and the "Rise of the Rest" of the world, also has a prophetic tone. To get an idea what the US will be like as it becomes less relevant in the world - with the rise of China, India and the rest - one only has to read Sevareid's account of the waning power of Britain in the last chapters of the book.

One of the best books written by an American. Read it, and you will agree.

The book was compared to "The Education of Henry Adams" when it was first published. I think Sevareid's book is much better. Ignorant of me? I hope not. I have read them both more than once, and Sevareid is the best.

This is the book to read about America in the 20th Century. The depression, riding the rails, the incredible canoe trip Sevareid and his friend made, pre-war Europe and Nazi Germany.

Then, the war. Sevareid saw it from Asia and Europe. He survived the crash of his C-46 crossing "the Hump," and returned to Europe to see the end of the war.

You see the war as he saw it, and you read one remarkable story after another. Sevareid's account of the war is personal, on a personal level. He writes of people and events. the GI slogging through Italy, and the impressions left by encounters with the great and powerful.

What a great book. He wrote thoughtfully and beautifully. His observations are remarkable. You feel America when you read his book. What a treat to have this book around. Just fabulous.

The rarest of coming of age stories, one that deals not with the emotional struggles that adolescents face upon reaching social maturity, but instead a story of a generation and a nation (would that we Xers had a representative as articulate and thoughtful as Severeid) coming to terms with their ideological commitments and global responsibilities.

This book is just great. Rose is one of my favorite character. She like to read books and has a great appeal. I think every girl who are around 11~12 would find this book wonderful. So I give 5 stars to this book.

This book is just great. Rose is one of my favorite character. She like to read books and has a great appeal. I think every girl who are around 11~12 would find this book wonderful. So I give 5 stars to this book.

The girl was quite a firecracker. Again, just as charming as Little House, but the storytelling is a bit more complex and more reflective of who Rose was. This series truly equals the charm and storytelling of Laura's story. Kudos to those who thought to bring this series to print.

...I found this book quite enjoyable to read. Rose is growing up and I had a Feeling she would Fall in love with one of the Cooley boys. I was also delited to learn that Swiney had a real name.(Although it took some getting used to, I was used to knowing him as Swiney). I was also saddened when I read that Grandpa Wilder had died...

Little Town in the Ozarks is the fifth book in a series about Laura Ingalls Wilderýs daughter Rose. Rose has many fun, exciting, and scary adventures, such as getting Pneumonia and rolling down a hill in a barrel.
One of my favorite characters, is Nate who lives on a farm with his older brother, Abe, Abeýs wife, Effie, and Effieýs twin babies, James and Elza. I like him because he is nice , like when Rose gets sick, he comes to see her a lot.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about 12 year old girls who have lots of adventures and who love to read. One adventure is when a tree falls on their henhouse, after a big ice storm, and makes a big hole that the chickens escape out of, and then they have to find all of the hens and roosters.

no matter the side you take in the persistent vegetative state, this book exposes you to the intricate details of life and death matters. William Colby is not only an outstanding lawyer but a great author. the book is detailed with facts and carries you into a world that we dont normally think about or decide to ignore: the world of legal matters concerning death and what happens if this is a personal matter. you'll learn a lot from this book aside from it being an interesting and engaging read!!!!!!!!!

I really am enjoying this book. Although I am reading it as an assignment, I believe I would have read it regardless.

Long Goodbye: The Deaths Of Nancy Cruzan by William H. Colby is the in-depth and true story of a judicial trial concerning Nancy Cruzan, a woman who was thrown from her vehicle and suffered horrific injuries. Since that tragic accident, Nancy has remained in a coma for five years, until her family abandoned hope for her revival and requested the removal of Nancy's feeding tube so her life could end peacefully. But the state intervened and denied the family's wishes. Thus began a extended legal battle began over who had the authority and the right to authorize the end of medical intervention with respect to a patient like Nancy. Long Goodbye is a profoundly emotional story of striving to do what one hopes is the right thing, in accordance with the wishes of those who cannot speak for themselves -- and the role of government to intrude into family and medical issues. This is a profoundly important issue that plays out in our hospitals and nursing homes every day. At the crux of the matter is the right to life, the right to die, and who has the final authority over a loved one caught up in a plight similar to Nancy Cruzan and her family.

Despite this book being written by the lawyer who represented the parents of Nancy Cruzan who wanted feeding apparatus to be withdrawn and thus to have Nancy die, this book presents the issues and the struggle fairly and even-handedly. This is shown in a way since after reading it I conclude the U.S Supreme Court's decision was right--in the circumstances shown the family could without monetary loss have permitted their child to not be starved to death. The account of the trial and of the appellate history of the case is absorbing and shows the author is an able lawyer, admirable in representing his clients. I have no hesitancy in saying if it had been my child I would not have gone to the efforts which Nancy's father went to in order to have his child die. But psychologically Nancy's parents wanted the living death to end and their lawyer was right to seek the relief his clients desired. An extraordinary book.

During my training as a chaplain at Baylor University Medical Center, it was considered part of the "dues" of training that one would take lots of being on-call at the hospital for handling of emergencies. To that end, there was a "call room" where a chaplain could catch a little sleep, while waiting. On one of those sleepless nights in the call room, I viewed a Frontline special on the story of Nancy Beth Cruzan. She was a young woman, fully alive, who, as a result of a terrible accident, would become a test case for end-of-life matters for years to come. After seeing that special, I was deeply touched by the need to convey what our wishes were for the ends of our lives.

The Nancy Beth Cruzan case took the better part of ten years before resolution. The lawyer who fought for her right to be disconnected from the feeding tube was William Colby, the author of this outstanding book. Those of us on the front lines of trying to help families prepare for the issues they will face at the end of life will find insight into the ramifications of that case, as well as grist for the mill of the work that we are doing.

Colby is a highly readable author (at times, I felt like I was reading a Grisham novel), the Cruzan's case is deeply compelling, the story is truly tragic, and readers will come away with an appreciation of the law and concepts that are involved in pursuing these matters. There are several important story lines running throughout this volume: There are the lawyers, one who pulls an unexpected punch; the politicians, aiming for re-election; the Cruzans, especially Nancy's father, Joe, a salt-of-the-earth laborer, broken to the core over the loss of his little girl; a common sense probate judge, just trying to do the right thing; and the right-to-life movement (with whom we generally have sympathy, but not in this case). Indeed, under the skillful telling of Mr. Colby, law itself becomes a character, fickle at times, inflexible at others, and, at the last, compassionate.

ElderHope heartily recommends this excellent book.

I really loved this book. It made you laugh and made you sad. I wish I could have the courage to rescue dogs in the same manner as Randy Grim does. Truly inspiring stories.

Mr. Grim is a living saint in the mold of Brother Francis. If you believe that a dog dumped by someone who doesn't want him anymore will end up wild and free like a wolf . . . if you think neutering your dog will somehow affect your own manhood . . . if you think your dog should have "just one litter" because "the kids should see the miracle of birth" . . . read this book and then try to sleep at night. Dogs are not wolves in Snoopy costumes, able to return to the wild at a moment's notice. Dumped dogs die slow and terrible deaths, and dogs born on the street live short and wretched lives. They need us. They can't survive without us. Our ancestors made them that way, and passed on to us the responsibility for their life and death. Randy Grim knows this in his guts.

Read this book, and when you stop shivering, call your local animal shelter and ask them what they need most. And if you see a dog wandering alone, look into its eyes. You'll know what I mean when you're done with The Man who Talks to Dogs.

Randy Grim hates being called a hero. He feels like a fake when people use that term to describe him because, in his eyes, he's a frail and fearful person, full of complexities and issues. It takes all his energy to face life's challenges but, for some reason, it all changes when he's on the trail of a dog that needs his help. Then he's a fully focused, driven machine that will wade through filth, skid along icy, dark streets and face down the roughest, toughest people to accomplish his task. He can't and he won't leave that canine alone on the street.
This book is fast paced and fascinating. I was hooked from word one. The author has managed to weave together the story of a fascinating, though reluctant hero with the graphic and gritty reality of the price being paid by the strays in our midst. The author dissects the various causes and brings the tragic results into sharp focus. It is hard to blink, to look away, to pretend it doesn't exist. Those weary, confused eyes stare back from the pages.
While we witness the dark side of humanity and it's wretched victims, we are also allowed to share the small and great triumphs that result from Randy's dedication. Many are the hurdles that have to be overcome but, step by step, the right people join the battle, sanctuary is provided, supplies appear and donations arrive.
This is how heros and saints come to be. It's the leap of faith that says, "I don't know whether I'm making a difference. I don't know how I'm going to manage but I will. Because I'm not taking my eye off this one, and the next one, and the next one until they're safe." One small miracle at a time creates a haven. For the strays, for the people who care and for the children who see that brutality or indifference are not the only choices.
Thanks Randy, for showing the way and thanks Melinda, for telling the story so well.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. There are few people I have encountered that are as dedicated to a cause as Randy seems to be. His devotion and tenacity are to be commended. He is doing such a great service to the city of St. Louis. There are a lot of us out there that would've never even realized there was such a stray problem in this country. I am so glad to have read this book and to be more informed on the conditions these dogs have to live in. It has been said over and over about this book, but the prevailing message is that one man can make a difference and seeing that proven in Randy's case is a great motivator for the rest of us. For anyone who loves dogs and/or loves inspiring stories, read this book.

A warts'n'all portrait of a man who devotes every spare moment and every spare dollar to rescuing abandoned and abused dogs from the streets of St. Louis. Though numerous stories about dogs tortured and neglected may be upsetting to sensitive readers, this is ultimately a deeply inspirational story about how one man CAN make a difference. As soon as I can, I'm hunting down his address and sending him a check. Makes a good companion piece with Kat Albrecht's THE LOST PET CHRONICLES.

PS: As I write this, the animal shelter in Buffalo may be a victim of budget cuts. One step forward, two steps back.

If there is ever a book that humbles a proud knucklehead, it is this one. The character Richard Hamilton is so high on himself, your begging for him to get killed. What is so amazing is by the end of this great novel, you hardly believe it is the same person. I hope this novel becomes a movie or miniseries. It is right up there with the Wilderness series, M.Wayne Zillman's Crow Killer and Win Blevins' Rendevous.

After reading this book, I really dreaded it coming to an end. The follow-up book, "Coyote Summer" also comes highly recommended. You really feel like you're part of the mission/excursion. It seems like everybody who reads this book either knows someone like Richard Hamilton or can relate to him in some way. These two books showed how two different worlds could learn from each other and change their lives and the world around them.

LIVING HISTORY, BEAUTIFULLY AND ACCURATELY PRESENTED IN A STORY OF A MAN,S INNER AND OUTER SEARCH FOR HIMSELF, HIS OWN MANHOOD IN THE TIMES HE LIVED, AND HIS SEARCH FOR FOR THE TRUTH OF HIS SOUL(S).

THE AUTHOR REVEALS HIS OWN SEARCH AND HIS OWN INNER BEAUTY TO US AS HE UNWINDS A TALE OF A WILD RIVER AND THE MULTI-FACETED CIVILIZATIONS THAT LIVED, FLOURISHED, STRUGGLED, AND DIED ALONG ITS COURSE. SO MUCH LIKE THE RIVER OF LIFE ITSELF. WE ARE ALSO REMINDED OF THE DANGERS OF MAN'S ARROGANCE AND PREJUDICE, WHICH CARRY FORWARD TO THE WORLD WE ALL LIVE IN TODAY.

DON'T FAIL TO READ THE SEQUEL "COYOTE SUMMER" (AS IF ONE COULD RESIST!) AND EVERY ONE OF THE VAST TREASURE OF BOOKS BY MICHAEL AND/OR KATHLEEN GEAR. AND NO, I DON'T KNOW THEM, BUT WOULD BE HONORED TO

I do not like to read, and was forced to read this book by my professor. Thank God he did, because it is the most amazing thing that I have ever read or will!!!
This book took over my life! Do yourself a favor, read this book!!!
Great, especially for guys!

I absolutely LOVED this book. I was transfixed, spellbound, couldnt put it down and felt like I was living the story as I read it. The characters are incredible and the story was wonderful. I bought the sequal "Coyote Summer" the instant it was available and have since been in correspondence with Mr Gear begging him to write a 3rd sequel. I cant stand not knowing where life took his characters. If you even slightly enjoy historical type novels set in the early American frontier this is MUST reading.

Although I am a big fan of the Civil War I rarely read books of this nature. Being from the Cape Girardeau area I thought I'd give it a try and was very surprised. I would highly recommend this book if you are interested in life on the Mississippi or the Civil War.

CAPE GIRARDEAU ON THE MISSISSIPPI MEETS BUDAPEST ON THE DANUBE - Morley Swingle's new book, The Gold of Cape Girardeau, reached me here in spring, 2006, and I had the great pleasure of reading it, while at the same time musing over my own boyhood in Kansas City, yet another river city in Missouri.

The book has everything--murder, intrigue and love portrayed against the background of the tragic days of the civil war and steam boating on the great river. Swingle's astonishing scholarship on these subjects is evident throughout and gives the tale a remarkable authenticity.

There's a deeper feeling to this novel though, that is somewhat difficult to define. In my opinion, Morley Swingle is a natural born story teller. Of course, he's a flawless wordsmith, but the quality of this story goes well beyond mere fluency with the language. While reading, I always had the sensation that Mark Twain's spirit was hovering approvingly in the background, manifesting itself at every twist, turn, and nuance of the river, as well as through the action and dialogue of the characters. Rather spooky, don't you think - but in a wonderfully entertaining sort of way. Read the book and see if you don't sense this continuity from Twain and Hannibal to Swingle and Cape Girardeau. You will become deeply aware of Swingle's love and profound respect for his city and his region. This is indeed Mark Twain and Swingle country and Morley writes about it with the same loving care that Twain used when immortalizing Hannibal, Missouri, his boyhood home. Morley Swingle is a worthy successor to Mark Twain and I eagerly await more of his work.

Mystery and history fans out there, don't miss this one, it's a rare treat!

Greg, Budapest, Hungary

An outstanding book! Morley Swingle did a great job of combining an intriguing era in Missouri history with all of the elements (Hero, evil guy, love, greed, hope, tragedy, justice)that make a great story. It would make an excellent movie. I look forward to his next work.

"The Gold of Cape Girardeau" is a wonderful story that successfully combines fiction with history. You fall in love with the characters and become unable to put the book down. It has an intriguing plot that mixes the past with modern day. You go back through time and become a part of Lindy's and John's world, laughing when they laugh, crying when they cry. It evokes all your emotions and touches your heart. It is truly one of the best!

Morley Swingle has a gift of storytelling that makes the 290+ pages of this book speed by, you'll be reading and not notice that hours have passed. The characters in The Gold of Cape Girardeau were honest and believable, the villian didn't even come forth as being cartoony, even though that would have been easy to do with someone as hateful as Claxton. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who loves a good story. For someone who lived in Cape Girardeau for four years and who has lived in Missouri his whole life this book is even more entertaining. The numerous references to the area made the book leap to life in my head. I often used to drive out to Cape Rock to watch the river and the boats drift past lazily. As an alumni of Southeast Missouri State University i'm proud for the schools name to be attached to this book. A friend who is involved with the SEMO Press tells me the book may be turned into a movie. Keep your fingers crossed!

This is one of my favorites from Pamela Morsi. She has a way of making you feel like you really know the characters. Great vacation read when in the Ozarks.

This is the first novel I've read by this author but it won't be the last. This is a wonderful book, with interesting characters and enough depth to make it a worthwhile read. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I started reading Pamela Morsi years ago. She is one of my favorite authors. I am still reading this book but so far I love it. If I had the time I would just sit and read it all the way through!!!

I just finished this book and already want to read it again. I loved the characters and the town. I want to go to Bitsy's and try the terrible BBQ and dance on music night. This is the first book I have read by Morsi and look forward to reading more of her. While some of the plot seemed to be very obvious I was pleasantly surprised with the twists and turns that kept me reading. What a great read!!

Bitsy's Bait and BBQ is a little snapshot of life in the Missouri Ozarks. The characters are endearing and it is a delightful tale of small community life. It is a charming story of Katy and Emma who think they are buying a Bed and Breakfast and instead wind up with a Bait and BBQ. While Katy and Emma adapt to country life and try to master the BBQ pit, Katy's ex-husband Sean and his domineering mother Gwen arrive to try to gather evidence in order to change the custody arrangements for Josh, Katy's son. The small community rallies around Katy and the story comes to a great ending. My only complaint is that I want to know the rest of the story. Several budding romances were just beginning to blossom at the end of the book and I want to know what happens next.

Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections

Pushing Up the Sky



I was buying some books on Amazon.com with an article I had to write at the back of my mind, and a parent Guide I was editing for EMK Press (www.emkpress.com) by Terra Trevor (author of Pushing Up the Sky) at the forefront. I was ordering on automatic pilot, while thinking about the articles I was editing... suddenly my choice of books had an Amazon.com suggestion staring up at me.

It was of course Karin Finell's searing, sensitive book Good-bye to the Mermaids. It documents `a childhood lost in Hitler's Berlin'. My brain clicked into gear as I read the brief blurb. Serendipity! I was writing an article for adoptive parents of kids adopted internationally. The remit? How we adoptive parents help our adopted kids feel pride in birth cultures prejudiced by e.g. civil war, lack of human rights, family planning practices that seem draconian, societies where the ethos of `family' is lost to poverty and the baggage of substance abuse which that brings.

I bought Good-bye to the Mermaids, and devoured it in three late night sittings. And I realised as I read that this book is a must read for anyone who has survived... or helped another survive.. the onslaught of horror and terror which was imposed not sought, where the survivor has been helped to find another safe haven, an anchorage in which to grow.

But the book shows that no-one who survives can leave behind the memories. Even if they move to another country where things are meant to be better...

What a message for adopted children and their parents! EMK Press (where I am Senior Editor) publishes books and offers free Parent Guides for adoptive kids and their families. Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections, our publication for adoptive parents, has a wonderful section JOURNEY which deals with where adoptees travel as adults in making sense of adoption. To add to this chapter in our groundbreaking book, I would recommend that adoptive parents and folk now adult who were adopted internationally read Karin Finell's book on how to survive knowing you were part but NOT part of a culture that made family life impossible.

After reading this remarkable book I concluded it was not only informative as to historical content but also a masterpiece of writing. It is an important addition to a series of books by a variety of people, who lived through the horrors at the end of WWII in Berlin - I have read most of them, including the one by Anonymous. Their stories reflect all of the terror and awful conditions of those months and years as does Karin Finell's book. The framework Finell uses, the very detailed personal memories enriched by her reconstruction of actual verbal exchanges is unique, as is the perspective of a child growing up and experiencing the change from a privileged early childhood to the frightening reality of what followed - and then the slow and gradual recovery. And also, the special relationship with her Oma, which I thought is a centerpiece of Finell's book. Apart from the very human side, the American raised Oma also brought the U.S. close to Karin Finell as a child and prepared her for her immigration. The book is a tribute to the women who had to cope and did cope so valiantly with the conditions thrust upon them by a war which many supported, and a few loathed from the beginning, as they loathed and continued loathing the Nazi government. Finell's book also made me aware again how little we citizen can do when politicians go amok as did Hitler and all of the Nazis.

If you read all these reviews of Karin's book, you will still have many surprises as you read Goodbye to the Mermaids. The strength of Karin's narration is that she recounts the precise moments when her attitudes toward war change--and those moments shock because war mutilates reality. None of the events in this book conform to normalcy. To buy bread, for example, meant dodging bullets and bombs in occupied Berlin. Putting on a dress meant risking your life.

Karin recounts the contrasts between her family's needs and desires with the realities of war, and she does this in a subtle, detailed way. Karin wasn't just a child in the war, she was a maturing young woman whose sensibilities grow within the context of her story. She makes her reader feel the deprivation and humiliation of war. This book is one of the best I've read in a long time. It's an extraordinary work by a woman who sacrificed much of her life to war and the repercussions of it. She deserves our respect, and I feel honored to know her.

"Karin Finell's memoir affected me tremendously. It widened and deepened my understanding of a young child's character growing up under extraordinary (and many times extraordinarily difficult) circumstances. Finell, in her narrative, recreated so vividly the world of her youth, the places she lived in and the people she lived with, as well as her own thoughts, feelings, insights, and observations. It was as if I could hear the voice of the child Karin telling each story. Using the device of a series of "stories," by the way, seems exactly the right way to develop such ar narrative.
This is a first-rate book, beautifully written and beautifully produced by the Missouri Press. Anyone interested in the WW 2 period will be the richer for having read it, as am I. "

A heart-wrenching story lovingly told by Karin Finell. She relates what was for her a normal part of growing up while participating in activities of the Hitler youth, watching friends disappear, and daring to question.



Good-bye to the Mermaids is beautifully written, with gorgeously remembered details, providing a deep, rich look into life in wartime Germany that we have not seen before.

Cuneo is very accurate with his facts (I should know, I was there), and he also has an excellent writing style.

This December, ten years ago, while a hostage to a group of terrorists
in Lima Peru, my name was called for me to come down from the second
floor of the Japanese Ambassador's residence. I was to be released.
It happened at 11 am on a Sunday morning at the same time a special
prayer service was going on at my church in Lima. My pastor was asking
for the safe release of all the hostages. He asked that the Lord to
intervene and gain the release of me and other church members held
hostage. It was already happening as they prayed.

All of us have our own stories, we know there's power in prayer.

I thought of all that when I read "Almost Midnight" by Michael Cuneo.
The book is about Darrell Mease, a criminal in Missouri who brutally
killed three people in a drug deal (crystal meth). Mease was convicted
and sentenced to death. He had received the Lord at an early age and
his mother was still active in the Assembly of God church. She led
prayers for her son. Mease turned to the Lord again and made what many
considered to be a sincere conversion. A blue grass musician received
a word from the Lord that he was to speak to Mease and tell him that
the Lord was his lawyer and that he was not to worry he would not be
put to death. After the musician visited him in jail, Darrell Mease
had a revelation that he was to be spared the death penalty. Time went
by and his execution date was scheduled for late January 1999. He
never lost faith that he would be spared.

With only two weeks to go before his execution, the date was suddenly
changed. It seems that Pope John Paul II was scheduled to visit
Missouri on the same day as the original execution date and Governor
Mel Carnahan had it changed to early February to avoid embrassing the
Pope who was a strong opponent of the death penalty. The Papal staff
were aware of the change in the execution date for Mease. The Pope's
visit was a one day stopover in St. Louis. During the visit, the Pope
presided over a special prayer service attended by Governor Carnahan.
As the service concluded, the Pope slowly made his way to the Governor,
took his hand and whispered in his ear, "Please have mercy on Mr.
Mease."

Amazingly, Governor Carnahan commuted Darrell Mease's death sentence
based on this personal plea from the Pope.

One of the pastors who had attended the interfaith prayer service at
which the Pope had descended from the altar and talked to the governor
had also ministered to Darrell Mease on death row and had urged him to
make peace with God as his execution date approached. Darrell had told
him that God had been clear that he would not allow his execution. The
pastor said, "I was blown away -- Darrell had never asked the pope to
say a word on his behalf. He'd simply continued to pray. Absolutely
remarkable. And I thought there was a lesson here for all of us. The
Scriptures are radical, and God's mercy is boundless. But most
Christians don't truly appreciate this. We're too timid in the our
faith. We needed someone like Darrell Mease to drive it home."

The story went on with other strange twists. A few months after he
commuted the death sentence, Governor Carnahan was killed in a plane
crash as he campaigned against John Ashcroft for the US Senate seat
from Missouri. Carnahan, although dead, received more votes than
Ashcroft on election day a few weeks later. The new governor of
Missouri named Carnahan's widow to fill her late husband's Senate seat.
Ashcroft went on to be named Attorney General of the United States.

God answers prayer -- "Almost Midnight" made me remember that again.

Michael Maxey

"What on earth is a Canadian of northern Italy Jewish descent teaching at New York's Fordham University researching a meth-related multiple murder in the Ozarks?" I asked Mike Cuneo as he sat across from me in Branson's Bob Evans Restaurant. He was in the tourist town researching the Darrell Meese case for a book. Meese was sentenced to die by lethal injection in 1990 after the brutal shotgun murder of three people, Lloyd Lawrence (a man many locals admitted "needed killing") his wife, and their paraplegic grandson. A drug kingpin might deserve it, but two innocents?
Governor Mel Carnahan had just recently made news for his commuting Meese's death sentence, after having met with Pope John Paul II in St. Louis during the Pope's visit. Cuneo,
"I don't know why Carnahan would do that. He's killed himself politically, I would think," I told Cuneo. Little did I know that the governor who saved Meese's life would lose his own in a tragic plane crash during a race for senator-and still beat opponent John Ashcroft.
Like the Meese case, Almost Midnight, Cuneo's "American story of murder and redemption" is filled with sudden turns, surprises, and ironic twists. It's interesting and riveting investigative journalism. For Ozarkers, it shows a subculture that exists in the land of Bible belt religion, country music, and family-friendly tourists, a subculture unknown to many residents unless they are involved in law enforcement or social services. Cuneo covers the events that lead up to the murders, Meese's hair-raising road trip to the Southwest that only leads him closer to justice back home and death row, and the trial itself. He also looks closely at Mease's time in prison, where the convicted murderer rediscovers religion. It is there that he professes "God is my lawyer" and is miraculously delivered from lethal injection-just as he predicted he would be.
It sometimes takes an outsider, or a novelist, to show us the family skeleton we deny exists. Cuneo takes us on the real wild ride in actuality that Dan Woodrell does in fiction in Tomato Red. For those who are Ozarkers, the book is interesting to read just to see "if Cuneo misses the mark" in capturing a portrait of an area and a culture. For non-Ozarkers, it's an interesting portrait of the Ozarks and its denizens that, unfortunately, can add to the stereotype that exists. Cuneo's Almost Midnight, with its detailed descriptions of the virtues-loyalty, self-reliance, family, and faith-and the negatives-violence, chemical dependency, and lawlessness-of our Ozarks' culture presents a remarkable portrait of Meese and ourselves.
The tourist area that prides itself on family values and a friendly atmosphere while hosting almost 8 million visitors annually has a below-the-surface reality that's hard to confront. All it takes is a Meese incident, or an incident like the triple murder of the Husman children and mother at Kissee Mills, Mo., this last March, to let us know now shallow is the soil that covers what's beneath. Michael Cuneo probably has material for another riveting book.-Fred R. Pfister: Editor, The Ozarks Mountaineer

I was reading a lot of books with the word MIDNIGHT in the title when I stumbled across this one. This is by no means the worst one of the bunch. In its own unique way, it's a fine study of redemption, breeding, and forgiveness.

And marketing too, for it seems almost as though the late Pope John Paul II was the victim of a marketing scam when he decided to pardon Darrell Mease, the killer at the heart of this wonderful biography. He was coming to St. Louis on a once in a lifetime trip, and a local cleric decided that he would gain some press by picking out a convicted killer and seeing what JPII could do for him.

It helped that the circumstances of the crime indicated that Darrell was himself well loved in his community (in the fields of rural Missouri) and that the man he killed, Lloyd Lawrence, was hated and feared. On the other hand, Lawrence's wife was killed too, as well as a poor paraplegic boy who hardly ever did anything hurtful to anyone.

Methamphetamine, the scourge of the Ozarks, was behind the killings. Darrell, who served time in Vietnam, was one of those who couldn't get it together after his tour of duty. He had a surface charm and affability, but inside, he was troubled. We get all of this through multiple narrators, people in the community who tell us his whole story from birth to the present. Like CITIZEN KANE, ALMOST MIDNIGHT gives us a constantly shifting perspective on a hidden corner of America. The popular TV sitcom MY NAME IS EARL will come to mind when you read this book, for the multiple murders that claimed the lives of the Lawrence family are just one more twist removed from the wacky trailer-motel life of the MY NAME IS EARL characters. Or, Johnny Depp in CRY BABY.

Roughly the first half of the book concerns the life and crimes of Darrell Mease, hard-partying hillbilly 'Nam vet and would be meth cooker. The detail in which Mease's life is recounted makes it hard not to sympathize with him and to understand his crimes, a feeling which the author appears to share.

The second half of the story explores Darrell's trial, imprisonment, conversion story and ultimate pardon from execution. In that part, Darrell is portrayed less sympathetically, and there is even a suggestion that he is undeserving of his eventual pardon from death row.
This apparent shift in viewpoint is appropriate to this complex tale, though, where Darrell comes to represent something different to everyone who comes into contact with him: death penalty opponents, Ozark locals, the victims' family, law enforcement, even Pope John Paul II!

It's a fine book, ultimately, and explores a lot of the issues (religion and government, death penalty, small town policing, veterans' problems, rural poverty, drugs) raised by this unusual case. Well written, compelling and highly recommended.

As an adult convert to Catholicism struggling for now five years with infertility, a non-American and the daughter of a founder of my hometown's Family Planning Association, I ordered this book wondering if it would help me sort out my mixed feelings about abortion. When it arrived my heart sank: though I had been interested in the topic, it looked long enough to remind me of the first-grader's book report, ``This told me more than I wanted to know about penguins.'' But it's so well-written, well-peopled and thoughtful it's a joy to read. When Cynthia Gorney describes a pro-choice activist she does it so carefully you feel certain she's pro-choice, and certain you must be. But when she describes a pro-life activist, you realize she might be pro-life -- and so might you be. If we were all be so generous and balanced, so readily able to enter into the subtleties of other people's positions, abortion might never have become a ``war.''

This book was wonderful. Though on first glance it seems very long and likely dense and dry, it is anything but. Gorney does a fabulous job of presenting both sides of abortion evenly and without bias. And she ties in the thoughts and feelings of the players with the actual battles of the day so smoothly that the book ends up being an easy and very enjoyable read. It should be mandatory reading for anyone involved in, interested in or having an opinion about abortion.

Before Roe vs. Wade thousands of women a year were getting illegal, unsanitary and oftentimes dangerous abortions. Articles of Faith does a great job of presenting both sides of the abortion argument. The book focuses on the abortion wars in Missouri. It starts in the 60's with Judith Widdicombe, who is an obstetrics nurse and who had an abortion herself. She is a key figure in the underground abortion world in St. Louis. She recruits doctors and she directs women to doctors. Her opinions on abortion are formed from personal experience as well as occupational experience. She was strong in her opinions that a baby and a fetus were different. She had seen hospital beds full of women dying of infection from getting illegal abortions. This led her to her calling.
While Judy was directing women to safer but still illegal abortions, the laws state by state were slowly starting to break down. This created a movement of concerned citizens who were against abortion. These citizens would give presentations using medical and scientific information to support their position that life begins at creation. As to drive their point home, they would show pictures of aborted fetuses. These pictures featured a trash can full of little fetuses and a bloody mass of appendages. What they didn't realize is that people like Judy Widdicombe looked at the same stuff, in real life-not in photographs. She would bring women with gauze and bandages stuffed up their vaginal cavities and let them miscarry in her home. She would then examine the remains of the miscarrage and make sure there wasn't anything left inside the woman.
After Roe vs. Wade, Judy set up a clinic specifically for performing abortions-the first one of its kind in Missouri. She wanted it accessible for all women, and wanted a warm and medical environment that set women at ease-they knew their situation was understood and they knew they were safe. This is where Samuel Lee is introduced. He arrived in St. Louis in 1978 intent on studying theology at Saint Louis University's seminary. As soon as he arrives he becomes involved with the Franciscans. They hosted a meeting of people planning a protest on the steps of an abortion clinic. This was how Sam became drawn into the abortion argument-he was exhilarated by it. Sam researched both sides of the abortion argument, but the more he read the more he became convinced that abortion was never justified-it was putting an end to human life. He left the seminary and became engulfed in the protests and the research-he would protest and be arrested until there was no longer a need to protest abortion.
The abortion argument came to a head in the 80's when Sam and Lou DeFeo wrote a bill that was passed by the Missouri state Senate and the House. It became a Missouri law in 1986. The bill stated that public funds may not be used for abortions and public employees may assist in abortions. The bill also stated that life begins at conception, unborn children have interests that should be protected and the parents of an unborn child have protected interests in the child. But that's only the beginning. The bill says that unborn children at any stage of development should have the same rights of all of other people. This was the first attempt to reverse the ruling of Roe vs. Wade, and it seemed well on its way.
One month before the law took effect, a lawsuit was filed against the bill by Frank Susman. He approached Judy, who had been fighting for almost 30 years for the woman's right to choose, and she was hesitant to join the lawsuit. She was tired of the fight, but she couldn't turn her back on this lawsuit-this one was too dangerous to reproductive health. The judge in that suit came back in 1987 declaring that every provision in the bill was unconstitutional. In 1989, the law suit went to the U.S. Supreme Court for appeal and the justices left Roe vs. Wade alone. The problem with this ruling is the vagueness of the language in the ruling-saying that parts of Roe needed to be more defined, but that it needs to be argued for years to come. When I read the ruling in this book, I really didn't understand exactly what it meant. It almost seemed like the judges had very definite opinions, but they were all different from each other.
After reading this book, I was more affirmed in my own opinions of abortion. It was really interesting to read the other side of the argument. There's no arguing that at life begins at conception-just like a every cell in our body is life, so is a zygote. However, the foundation of my belief in the pro-choice movement lies in the belief that a woman has the right to decide if a fetus should be born. One of the best bumper stickers I've seen about abortion is "Don't like abortion? Don't have one." A woman deserves the choice, that's it-PERIOD.

Written in 1998, and criticized for stopping its retelling of the abortion story in the U.S. several years before that, Articles of Faith is nevertheless still an important book and may be increasingly so if the abortion debate heats up again now that George W. Bush is President. A completely even handed retelling of the history of the abortion debate in the U.S. from the 1960's through the 1990's told through the lives of dedicated partisans of both sides. Yet the author tells this story with sympathy to both sides. Its hard to read this book, your emotions swing from side to side in the debate as Gorney shifts her focus from chapter to chapter from pro choice to pro life. Each side is presented forcefully, but not stridently. Its an excellent book.

Once in a while, there's a rare book that'll smack you in the noggin, grab you by the lapels and scream, "This is how it really is! Now learn something!"

Articles of Faith is one of those books. You'll learn abortion is never nearly so clear cut as "either side" would have you believe; you'll see how each side's arguments, legal status, movements and, later, extremism are developed. But most importantly, you get the honest truth about what it's all really about, or not about. Despite the serious of the issue, I was never even able to get a glimmer of what Gorney's own view is of abortion. It's not simply objective; it never fails to delve into the details of each side, while coming up with an occasional fresh insight.