Missouri Books

I can't say more on the plot because it's quite obvious what the plot is just from illustrations of the novel. But on the "controversial" aspect of the novel involving the excessive use of the N word, people have to think of the time period that Twain is writing about and when the novel was published.
The novel takes place in Missouri (a slave border state) in the 1830s. We use the term African-American or black now. Before that it was Afro-Americans, coloreds, Negr--s. The list goes on and on. The overall attitude was that as the terms changed the previous one was seen as more offensive than the progressive current one. Yes, that meant there was a time when the word "colored" was used by people who considered themselves progressive in terms of racial attitudes. But in the Antebellum South the use of the N word was thrown around quite easily. And persons added positive as well as negative adjectives to it. It's strange to imagine that. We today only think of it in a totally negative way. But even when Twain published the novel in the 1880s the word was unfortunately not yet out of fashion.
Also consider the way Twain writes of Jim, the runaway slave. While the knee-jerk reaction is that Jim is a total vaudevillian caricature of what the perception was of blacks in the Antebellum South, his relationship with Huck Finn was something to be viewed as progressive. Remember that a decade before the novel came out; Reconstruction was over and left things a mess in terms of race relations. There was a lot of bitterness in the South over the Civil War (probably the most destructive war at the time until WWI), and a whole generation of southern white men took it personally when they were expected to be on the same level in terms of voting rights and other things with men that was formerly human property. For us today "all men are created equal" is a statement of truth provided we all have a level playing field. But for many southern whites at the time this was hard to swallow. In an aristocratic agrarian society, some men are just superior to others. And in the Antebellum South, just below poor whites were blacks. This was the way things were in their society for over two hundred years and the Civil War didn't suddenly end that sentiment among the many. But for Twain to write of a kind of comradeship between a slave and a young white boy was definitely progressive.
Maybe Twain was hoping to reach a young generation raised by their bitter parents and discover that they could have friendships with blacks and not succumb to an entrenching separatist animosity that developed into the Jim Crow Era. Huck and Jim work together in schemes and have fun. This friendship (which is why Huck decides to do what he does on the journey) is what Twain emphasized in the journey down river. This was counter to the way whites were acting with and around blacks at the time (1880s).
I think it's clear based on a certain reading of the novel that Twain believed whites and blacks could and should get along. While today it may not be seen as "progressive", it was when it was first published.

Everyone should read or re-read this classic. Most of us read it in school, probabaly not in its entirety. Schools struggled then and now with the use of the N word, although teenage boys in the 1830's clearly would never have heard a synonym.

These adventures are a classic. The royals were a hoot, how many failed fraudulent enterprises could they invent before the inevitable tar and feathering. Huck and Jim are on the run from an abusive father and the law, respectively, and Twain shows all people have a great deal in common, in spite of theories prevalent in the antebellum era.

I'm not sure why Tom Sawyer needs to show up to conclude this thing. The ending could work without him, maybe Twain not sure that Finn could carry the book or film alone.

This Norton Critical Edition is truly the best version of Huck Finn one could find, with the original Kempel drawings, footnotes that fully explain textual issues without being intrusive, and well-chosen criticism. It is invaluable to me as a graduate student, and would be just as useful to the casual but attentive reader.

Huckleberry Finn is a classic. Simple as that. It provides a look into what life was probably like for a 19th century boy. It was different than the life of children today, because today life centers around education. Back then, it was a regular thing to play hooky, even though they got in trouble for it when they were caught. And when they were punished, usually it was with a beating instead of `You're Grounded!'.

The book shows us how badly slaves were treated. They weren't even considered humans! It was like they didn't have feelings, and didn't see things the same way white people did. They way the slaves actually did think was odd. It was sad to see that they could slap a slave for no reason, and the slave would accept it either because they were used to it or they thought that whites were better than them.

Huck Finn is rather unrealistic in the aspect of adventure. I'm guessing most boys back then didn't run off with an escaped slave to Cairo. The way that Mark Twain wrote the book was different than other first/second person books I've seen. The dialogue was very much like the 19th century southern Mississippi talk. Sometimes it got hard to decipher what a paragraph in slave-speak meant because it was so obscure.

All in all, Mark Twain's writing style is different than the traditional Southern book, but that doesn't detract at all from the story. I liked it!

This book is required reading for my 16 yr old son....the
book arrived quickly & in great shape! Saved me driving all
over town to compete w/ other parents also looking!! Thanks!

The Satanic Verses / 0-312-27082-8

Trapped for days and nights on a hijacked airplane, our heroes suddenly find themselves hurtling towards their certain doom when the hijackers finally decide to detonate the airplane mid-flight. As they plummet towards the ocean which will surely break every bone in their body, they embrace and sing children's nursery rhymes to slow their descent to a gentle, safe tumble. then, the strangeness begins.

The Satanic Verses is a heady carpet ride of a novel, an opium-laced dream. Most readers will probably tire of this quickly - there is certainly much to be said about racism and religious bigotry in this world of ours, but not everyone will appreciate the expression of this via scenes of women fantastically changing into glass statues, nor via images of hapless pilgrims marching into the sea to their death.

For those who will appreciate this unusual and vivid symbolism, The Satanic Verses is a genuine treasure. There is so much to absorb here that something new is found with each reading, some new gem of wisdom or seed of doubt. Rushdie does not claim to have any answers - he only claims to have questions. He does not believe himself to be blasphemous, for he believes that without belief, there can be no blasphemy. (There is some truth in this - no matter what you believe, you are still considered 'blasphemous' to someone, somewhere who dislikes your beliefs, but that doesn't mean that you mean to be blasphemous nor that you take pride or pleasure in it.)

Is this book offensive to Islam? I guess it depends on who you ask. I see this as one man's interpretation of a religion whose divine origin he has doubts on. There are thousands of books that say the same about Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Wicca, and so on. Rushdie does not present his doubts or theories as fact, just as heady dreams in the minds of his own insane characters. I believe teh purpose of The Satanic Verses is simply to ask the readers to examine their beliefs, whatever they may be, religious or otherwise.

Finally got around to reading this and must say it is one of the worst books I have ever encountered.It is dull, rambling, a real case of fishing for some sense in writing that flies and thuds with equal abandon,so that finishing it is more like punishment than pleasure.

I'm having trouble sticking with it. It's a little nebulous and I enjoy more concrete of a style. I'm still not sure what got him into so much trouble but it does speak to the attitude of Islamic people Catholics have been ridiculed and seem to take it better

My wife commented drily as she saw me reading this day after day that it was probably one of the least read bestsellers. Two decades after its controversial release, does this novel merit the considerable attention it demands from any reader taking on over five-hundred pages of often densely Joycean, exuberantly Dickensian, or meditatively magic-realist prose? I think the stories in isolation have many moments that reward careful examination. However, they are dispersed among long sections in which not much happens of any account, so far as the reader's concerned. Rushdie seeks to make a statement about the clash of East and West, the formation of Islam, a surrealistic trek from Pakistan to the Arabian Sea, and London's multicultural ferment. He does manage to explore all these realms, but only with intermittently engrossing scenes.

This novel took me days to finish. My favorite parts probably overlapped those that earned its author greatest hatred among Muslim critics: how the Prophet started Islam under the dictation of Angel Gibreel for me sustained my interest most consistently. The clash of Al-Lat, the female goddess worshipped in Mecca, and Al-Lah, the god who allows no competition, makes for intriguing tension as Hind, the representative of the polytheist old guard, squares off against Mahound the Messenger, who finds himself soon entangled in the dictations and prevarications of Gibreel. "The war between us cannot end in truce." (123) Rushdie contrasts this 7th-century reimagining of how Islam began with contemporary scenes set in London, that intensify other ideological clashes.

In one vignette, Pamela, the lover of Saladin, offers a poignant eulogy for the post-colonial era: "It has been quite a culture, brilliant and foul, cannibal and Christian, the glory of the world. We should celebrate it while we can; until night falls." (190) In exile in London, an Imam's condition spurs this reflection from the omniscient narrator: "In exile no food is ever cooked; the dark-spectacled bodyguards go out for take-away. In exile all attempts to put down roots look like treason: they are admissions of defeat." (190) I found such observations more durable than the fictional post-modern tricks that Rushdie used to keep the stories moving, as these often thwarted easy identification by the reader and wearied me.

Such narrative leaps are acknowledged, as Mimi notes: "I have read 'Finnegans Wake' and am conversant with postomodern critiques of the West, e.g, that we have here a society capable only of pastiche: a 'flattened' world." (270) "Salman the Persian," an early witness to Mahound's claims of being a chosen mediator between Al-Lah and the people of Mecca, suspicious of how the Prophet in seemingly contemporary fashion appears to be angling the revelations supposedly received from Gibreel as a divine messenger to suit his own mortal situation, observes: "This was when he had the idea that destroyed his faith, because he recalled of course that Mahound himself had been a businessman, and a damned successful one at that, a person to whom organization and rules came naturally, so how excessively convenient it was that he should have come up with such a very businesslike archangel, who handed down the management decisions of this highly corporate, if non-corporeal, God." (376)

This astute judgment makes it hard to take the Qur'an at face value anymore. Salman begins to insert what are called the "satanic verses" into the oral revelation, at first as a little joke, then as a way to bring down the pride of the Messenger whose fame and power increase as he is judged the recipient of the divine Revelation of Submission, the new faith that ousts Hind and the goddess-worshippers and the prostitutes-- an episode that numbers among the best in this tale. Mahound is determined to avenge himself in the name of Allah upon Salman and Hind and their kind: "Writers and whores, I see no difference here." (405) This contention between those who understand human desire and cater to mortal weakness against those who dominate the temptings of the flesh with the demands of the spirit-- all the while making exceptions for their own positions of power-- make for thoughtful pages here.

Finally, as with a nod to Nabokov, who'd I'd been thinking about when trudging on through Rushdie's increasingly complicated storylines, Saladin as Chamcha explodes in frustration at this knotted Arabian concatenation of one episode after another: "I give up, anyway. How are you supposed to read a man who writes in a made-up lingo of his own?" (456) This applies to portions here as much as "Pale Fire." The later section on the pilgrimage to the sea by Mishal and her contingent, as they plod on to the Arabian Sea, suffers by comparison with the more evocative scenes from the labyrinthine brothel or even the set-piece of a miniature London at a party on the sets of Shepperton studios. Rushdie has too many balls to juggle in the air, and it's still eighty pages to go. Still, it's probably rewarding enough for the patient.

The glimpses may be worth it, of Alleluia Cone's Himalayan portage, of Chamcha's polyphonic chaos caused at the expense of his rival and one-time pal Farishta, and of their exchanges on the relative distinctions of life lived in Bombay vs. London. No reader will fail to be moved by such chapters, but there's lots of languor intervening that challenges the casual visitor to this audacious and multi-levelled novel. It's all summed up to the moment, 90% through, on pg. 472 of the paperback in case you're totally at sea, however. Gibreel's dreams multiply as he faces the final apocalyptic (of course) showdown with rival Saladin.

Very strange book, but then I like strange. I fear that much of his artistry is lost in the translation. To really enjoy this book you must read from a different cultural viewpoint.

This is very dark fantasy with some good twists and turns.

I found this to be a real feel good book. I stumbled on Fannie Flaggs' book 'Welcome to the World Baby Girl' and was so taken by it that I looked for more of her books. I think she has written three books that take place in Elmwood Springs and I've enjoyed them all - just simple stories about people.

I've just read Standing in the Rainbow for the second time and it was as entertaining as the first time! Fannie Flagg again takes ordinary people and places and tells their story in an engaging way to draw in readers' hearts. Set in Middle America, the story revolves around a group of residents of Elmwood Springs and their normal but intriguing lives that weave the town's tapestry together.

Fannie Flagg has filled this story with authentic people from a small town; people we would like to meet for a cup of coffee. They're believable and likable and you wouldn't mind having them for a neighbor.

The story begins in the 1940s. Fannie Flagg lets the reader relive or learn for the first time about five decades of American history--the good, bad and sometimes awful when we've gone to war. All in all it's an uplifting story and one that keeps you turning pages because you're so connected with her characters and can't wait to find out what happens next to all of them. A delightful read. I highly recommend the book.

This is one of my favorite novels by Flagg. A must-read for anyone who loves witty humor and lovable characters. Flagg is a wonderful southern author and knows how to tell a story.

This was a funny, heart warming, lovely book. I'm trying not to read this too fast because I don't want to leave the characters in the small town of Elmwood. This book will have you laughing out loud. Highly recommend it. I wish my mom was still living.....she would have really enjoyed this book. It brings back memories of childhood events for me in the 60's.

Standing in the Rainbow (Ballantine Reader's Circle) I was introduced to this book and this author through the book club I attend. This novel was a great find! I thoroughly enjoyed entering the world of Elmwood Springs, Missouri in circa 1940. Neighbor Dorothy and her friends have become cherished acquaintances. I loved this book so much that when I found a follow-up "Can't Wait to Get to Heaven" in my local library I grabbed that up and read it as well. Enjoyed it every bit as much as the first one. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would enjoy a feel good read and don't be surprised if you find yourself smiling or even laughing out loud frequently as you read about the folks of Elmwood Springs.

The book is short but I struggled to finish it, and I'm an avid reader. The ending was really not all that surprising. Also, the character development felt forced and unnatural. I would not recommend this book.

Have to agree with a lot of the other reviewers that it was difficult to believe this was a first novel. The writing was wonderfully vivid and dead-on, and the characters, believable and haunting. I was sucked right into the story from page one, and though I'm normally not drawn to such dark topics, I couldn't put it down. Ms. Flynn isn't afraid to show the uglier sides of life in a way that makes you at once repulsed and sympathetic. With "Sharp Objects" she has written an incredibly perceptive book and I can't wait to read her others!

This debut novel is articulately written. Bordering on the bizarre and grotesquely unbelievable, this novel examines one of the most dysfunctional 'Mommy Dearest' families ever to hit the written page. The novel's genre is hard to describe. It is part thriller, part psychological mystery, partly a drama about family dysfunction, part murder mystery and partly a drama/memoir of the impacts of abuse.

The protagonist has a history of self-mutilation, cutting herself so badly that there are no areas on her body except for her face and hands that she can't leave uncovered if she wants to hide her secret. She has to wear turtlenecks, long sleeve shirts, pants, etc. From a clinical perspective, a cutter is someone who suffers excruciating emotional pain that is persistent, hard to identify, and takes up all of a person's consciousness. Usually, cutters have a history of abuse/trauma in their own backgrounds. Cutting, as a metaphorical blood-letting, causes pain in a specific place and allows the pain to be isolated to one part of the body. As the blood flows, the pain goes. In theory, once the blood is let, the pain identified and the intensity of the pain decreased, one is better able to function. However, cutting is not a good coping mechanism because the true source of the pain is not addressed, self-mutilation creates it's own shame-based symptoms, and cutting becomes a form of self-medication rather than treatment for root causes. Cutting is a short-term coping mechanism for a deep-rooted and serious underlying pathology.

The protagonist of this page-turning novel is a journalist who returns home after many years with no contact with her mother and step-father. From the tim she enters the house, the reader has goose bumps because of the creepiness and fear-factor that the house and its inhabitants radiate. She notices that her younger sister is sexually promiscuous and using a lot of drugs. This reminds her of her own sexual promiscuity and drug use when she was an adolescent. She decides to investigate and find out what is lying in the dank underbelly of her familial home.

There is an abundant sense of creepiness about many of the characters. However, no character is fully fleshed out. The narrative is interesting and the writing is good, but there are too many odds and ends in the narrative that dead-end or are not followed through with. Because I liked the book and it had so much potential, I wanted to know more of the 'who, what and why'.

I recommend buying this book or taking it our of the library because despite criticisms, it is a good book. Once the author gets her phenomenal gift for writing congruent with a well-told tale and flushed out characters, there could be some great surprises in store!

I hate to give this book a bad review but to me this book is too dark and too weird. The story being about a little girl killed and one gone missing should have given me a clue. Mysteries are my favorite but this just wasn't my cup of tea!

This is an extremely well-written and forceful book, especially for a first novel. There's nothing remotely tentative about this story of Chicago reporter Camille Preaker's return to her little southeast Missouri hometown to do a story on the murder of two local young girls less than a year apart. It may be the work of a serial killer and the local head cop is out of his depth, so they've called in a homicide specialist from Kansas City. But the murder investigation is only part of the story. More mesmerizing, and a good deal creepier, is Camille's re-examination of her own family, which brings new meaning to the description "dysfunctional." Camille's younger sister, Marian, died two decades ago at about the same age as the recently murdered girls, having been "cared for" by Adora, their vampiric mother. Then, a few years later, Adora had another daughter, Camille's half-sister, Amma, who, at thirteen, is extraordinarily pretty, precociously sexual, and who bosses the clique that runs the school with calculated cruelty. She's very much her mother's daughter. Stephen King, not noted for gushing endorsements of other people's work, comments on the jacket that the effect of the narration is cumulative, and that's exactly right. As you move farther and farther into this horror, you dread what you know is probably coming, but you're unable to look away, to stop reading. Flynn's style is both unadorned and exquisitely sharp. The former comes out in Camille's matter-of-fact description of her own pathology: She's a "cutter," having spent most of her life incising words into her body with knives and razors, cultivating the scars until she dare not wear anything but long sleeves and pants legs. The latter is demonstrated by the fact that this book just leaps with sly, quotable lines: "It was a natural gift for Adora, making other women feel incidental."

A visiting cop "peeled the label of the empty beer bottle next to him and smoothed it out onto the table. Messy. A sure sign he'd never worked in a bar."

In describing the way her mother manipulates everyone, Camille relates how the death of her little sister was so useful in that regard. No matter what anyone said, "my mother would not be distracted from her grief. To this day it remains a hobby."

Or, "Reporters are like vampires. They can't come into your house without your invitation, but once they're there, you won't get them out till they've sucked you dry."

Or, "`So hard to get good help these days,' she muttered earnestly, unaware no one really says that who's not on TV."

Or, "Like all rural towns, Wind Gap has an obsession with machinery. Most homes own a car and a half for every occupant (the half being an antique collectible, or an old piece of crap on blocks, depending on the income bracket)."

One of my favorites, in describing an acquaintance's rather bland husband: "He was good-looking if you looked at him long enough."

Flynn also has the knack of setting an entire mood by describing a single detail. For example, the little town of Wind Gap snaps into focus when Camille notes that she found the police chief "banging the dent out of a stop sign at the corner of Second and Ely, a few blocks from the police station." Or, of a group of 13-year-old girls passing around a bottle of rum: "The rim of the bottle was ringed with pink lip gloss."

Damn, that's good stuff.

This is one of those books you'll keep thinking about for months. Flynn is definitely going on my list of new authors to watch.

I also liked "Then Came Heaven", but the "hero" in that was a janitor, which I found to be a turn-off. I don't mean to sound like a snob, it's just the way I feel.

Anyway, though romance novels have never been my thing (I like romance in my books, I just don't care for it to be the sole focus--I only read romances with the frequency that I do now because I want to learn how to write them as they sell five times more than all other genres combined), I loved this one, and since the last time I've read this, I've developed an appreciation for the romance novel, if not a great love for them.

Though I don't care for the new country music, I do like some of the old stuff, and I was excited when Poplar Bluff, Missouri (my birthplace and where I spent many summers as a little girl with my grandparents and other extended family), was mentioned.

But, those aren't the only reasons.

I thought Ms. Spencer did a good job with character development, for though the story wasn't anything new, I grew to love the people (or dislike them).

Though I understand Faith's (Kenny's girlfriend's) dilemma, being a Catholic and not being able to marry a divorced man (so it's better to just shack up with him???), I can't feel that sorry for her when she loses Kenny to Tess, because, as Kenny says, "Don't you realize how ridiculous it sounds that I've been dating you for half my life?" (This is not an exact quote, but something like it.) I was a little annoyed that Kenny and Tess couldn't wait until they got married to have sex--not a very good example to set in front of Casey, even if they were engaged, because engagements can be broken more easily than a marriage can be dissolved.

I really didn't see anything wrong with Tess not wanting to have children. I think it's wonderful that she loves Casey as her own. Not every woman needs a bear a child (nor a man) to feel fulfilled and if she does, then that isn't healthy, because her happiness is dependent upon someone else. Whether childless (not by choice) or childfree (by choice). We can all contribute to the world in a myriad of other ways--not just as a mother, but as a daughter, a sister, a wife, a granddaughter, an aunt, a niece, a good friend, or just a very good person.

Tess is a strong woman (weak women make boring heroines), and Kenny is a good man (though one can understand Faith feeling duped, even if they were just "dating"--they weren't even living together). I really believe Faith's pride was hurt more than her heart was broken, and I think Kenny felt this, too.

I am also glad Ms. Spencer made Tess a size 10 instead of something ridiculous (not to mention unattainable for some), like a size 2.

Small Town Girl is easy and feel-good reading capturing many of the general feelings and emotions of the reader.

Perfect for inclusion in your holiday leasure reading.

I just found this book when I was moving stuff out of storage. It's been in storage for at least 3 years and I guess I've owned it since it was first published in 1997. I have no idea why I never read it before this! It was fun, romantic, sincere and just portrayed many very charming people. I am now going to find some more books by LaVyrle Spencer and read them!

This story, I confess, I rented as an audiotape read by Melissa Manchester. In fact, I think the only reason I liked it at first is because Manchester is such a talented narrator. The story itself started out okay, but it was a cliche' romantic comedy--the kind Lifetime will probably make into one of their worse movies down the line. Tess McPhail, country star who comes home for a month to look after a mama with a bad hip for a month in a small town, falling in love with the next door neighbor she tortured in high school and helping his talented daughter to become a success in Nashville? This plot is so unbelievable, thin, and hokey that Britney Spears could use it as a smutty getup for one of her concerts.

Sure, I laughed a few times, but it was like the cliche' romance crap that only jello queens and teenagers unaffected by the cruelty of life can appreciate all the way through. Even Manchester was laughing during her narration where she shouldn't have been, and I wondered how much they paid her to read the book all the way through. I don't think it was enough, or they wouldn't have left her laughter in. I don't even like current country music, so that probably didn't help anything, but I was impressed by Spencer's knowledge of show business and the recording process itself.

That doesn't excuse the fact that the characters are mostly cardboard cutouts of movies and novels you've read or seen over and over, and you can predict the outcome right from chapter uno. If some idiot who picked on me in high school expected me to fawn all over them and got mad because they're some dare-da-dare-yeehaw millionaire, I would laugh at them so hard and torture them back every chance I got. I wouldn't roll around in the grass with them and cheat on someone who's been with me for 8 years!

The last two chapters made me sick when they were fooling around in the hotel, and then the wedding itself? This book was cornier than a farmer's field in July, and the plot was so silly and juvenile that it's incomprehensible to accept the fact that a fully grown woman wrote it. I was humiliated to have it in my possession, but not as embarrassed as Spencer should be for having written it.

I started reading LaVyrle Spencers books by accident. There were some books being given away in the break room at work and I thought the book was 'The Blessing' rather it was 'Family Blessings'. I WAS HOOKED!!! I finished this book ('Small Town Girl') last night and it was WONDERFUL!! I was sucked in and could not stop reading!! I was rooting for Tess and Kenny and wanted Faith to bow out gracefully!! If you like Country Music, Romance, and Family....you'll love this book!!

This is one of the most in depth and well researched biographies that I have ever read. Stiles did extensive investigation into primary sources when performing the research for the book.

There is a great deal of perception of Jesse James as a larger than life myth. Much of what he did was very much grounded in the history of his time and focuses on the Civil War as a driving force behind his actions and behavior.

James's father was a Baptist minister who left the family to go to California during the gold rush in 1849. While there, he contracted an illness and died when Jesse was still a young boy. This left his mother to raise Jesse and his siblings on her own until eventually remarrying.

The James family owned a good sized farm with quite a few slaves and so had a vested interest in maintaining the slavery structure. They were very much a part of the Confederate mindset and supported that side during the Civil War.

Jesse joined his brother as a teenager during the Civil War by banding together with a bunch of "bushwhackers" who were basically guerrillas (or terrorists depending on how you look at it) on the Confederate side. They would walk up to Union sympathizers who were often neighbors and point blank kill them in cold blood simply for being supporters. This instilled fear in the local populace and a general sense of uncertainty and terror.

People from the Union side did similar types of things to Confederates namely Jayhawkers from Kansas. Missouri during the civil war and the days afterwards had a feel like that of Iraq today. People of differing ideological backgrounds resorted to violence and force to push their political agendas and philosophies.

Following the war James stayed with the bushwhackers until they gradually dissipated. At first they targeted banks to rob with Union ties for political reasons. Eventually, however, the targets became less political and more for pure monetary gain.

One of the primary reasons for Jesse James's notoriety and fame was his frequent correspondence with newspapers. He was a voracious reader and constantly maintained his innocence in letters to editors. Newspaper man John Edwards became a champion for James and glorified him and his gang in articles. He cast them as heros and icons for the Confederate political agenda and used them in print to help advance political purposes. In that day, newspapers were very openly partisan and did not try to maintain an appearance of neutrality as news agencies do today.

As James et al gained more and more fame and notoriety, public outcry became much more pronounced against them while encouraging local and state officials to crack down and bring them to justice. After stealing from express companies similar to Wells Fargo who operated primarily via railroad, private business interest arose in tracking them down and preventing future robberies.

His gang branched out into other states as well such as Iowa, Tennessee, Minnesota, Kentucky, and West Virginia obtaining national attention.

The Pinkertons a private investigative agency were hired to find them but most of their efforts were fruitless considering the James/Younger gang's support from local friends and their knowledge of the backwoods.

On several occasions, Jesse was injured in gun fights some requiring lengthy recovery times. All told though he personally probably killed at least 20 men so came out on plus side from his battles.

The gang eventually met their match while trying to rob a bank in Minnesota where the people fought back and injured or killed many members of the gang. Jesse and his brother barely escaped back to Missouri once word got out and posses were gathered to track them down.

Jesse never could settle down to a life of honest work which resulted in his downfall. He was constantly suspicious of those around him but gathered a new gang to continue his exploits. A couple of brothers in his new gang plotted to kill him and eventually succeeded, collecting a hefty reward in the process.

Stiles book reads like a combination of a pure history and real life historical novel. The first 200 pages are primarily devoted to the historical background of the Civil War and environment James grew up in. The last 200 pages are focused more on Jesse's emergence as a bank/train/stagecoach robber, leader of a gang, and Confederate symbol. As mentioned on the book cover, Stiles debunks the myth that James was a form of Robin Hood and was instead mostly interested in his own fame and fortune.

At times the book moves slowly and is exhaustive in its coverage of the material but if the reader stays with it, he or she will have a very complete picture of Jesse James and the history of Missouri during the Civil War and the decades afterwards.

This book explains how the Civil War gave birth to outlaws like Jesse James. It is very well researched, detailed and interesting. A must for historians.

This is a fascinating work on Jesse James. It is not so much a standard biography as a "political history" of James. And that makes this an interesting read. The question animating this book is (page4): "Why should one set of criminals be so much more memorable than another?" The answer (page 6): " [Jesse James] was a major force in the attempt to create a Confederate identity for Missouri, a political and cultural offensive waged by the defeated rebels to undo the triumph of the Radical Republicans in the Civil War." Hence, his Confederate background resonated strongly with the politics of Missouri.

The book itself follows a chronological organization, beginning with Jesse's father, a preacher. It also describes his mother, a most formidable person, who remained an important part of his life over the years--and a strong advocate for her sons. The Civil War was critical for the family. Frank James rode with some of the Confederate irregulars, such as William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson. Jesse was too young at the outset of the Civil War to be involved, but he rode with his brother, later on, with the partisans. When the war ended, the rage continued for the James brothers (especially Jesse).

The book contends (and it is a reasonable case as made by the author, although I'm not sure that all readers will be convinced) that James' outlaw exploits after the war were a continuation of that conflict by other means. He was, in the eyes of the author, something of a guerilla; he is also termed a "terrorist," in the sense of using violence to try to advance a political cause (this case may not be convincing to readers; I have my doubts that the case is very strong to adopt this language).

There follows an outline of his many robberies, the violence associated with them, the various members of his gang over time (including the Younger brothers), the ups and downs of their brigandage, and the political context in which their actions occurred. The political discussion appears to be done pretty well, placing the James' gang's depredations in a larger perspective.

Then, they detail nicely the disastrous Northfield, Minnesota raid (disastrous from the James' gang's perspective--not from those who wanted to hunt them down). Frank and Jesse escaped, Jesse (and later Frank) to rob another day. Then, Jesse's demise. The book ends with a quick summary of the fates of key players from this volume, and provides some satisfaction in bringing things to a close.

The political aspect to James, as argued by T. J. Stiles, the author, is very interesting and makes this an intriguing work. I am not sure that all elements of this work successfully (e.g., the use of the term terrorist). But the book provides a nice spin on the life and times of Jesse James.

I picked this book up, like everyone else, as I was curious about the man behind the legend. Well, I never really learned all that much about Jesse James. I certainly learned about Missouri, Kansas, the civil war, bushwackers and the like, but not a whole lot about James.

It seemed well researched and Stiles writes in a readable style but it was not the book I thought it would be.

This book was way too politically bias for me to enjoy, and the author went on at length more or less attacking James for being a southern democrat. He should get over it, most people who are familiar with James know that he was Rebel and fought for the south during the war. The author details the Pinkerton detectives and the politicans who were against James more then he does the central character which is James himself. If it was written by a less politically oppionated person it cooooooooould have been decent, but it still kept diverging from the central theme of James and the James gang often enough and at such length that at times I wanted to hurl it against the wall. I only keep the copy I own because of the sepia photo on the cover.
Read the assisination of Jesse James by the coward Robert ford, it or most any other book on the famed outlaw is surely far better then this account.

This book was very hard to follow and the story line was weak!

I'm not sure what the plot was supposed to be and couldn't keep up with the many characters in this book.

This book was like a soap opera on a college campus. It was hard to follow at some points because it jumped around alot. I ound myself flipping back and forth to keep the story line straight, but Ms. James was very descripitive and provided a great deal of detail in her writing.
I would recommend this book to other people as well as her follow up book "Beyond Our Mother's Footsteps".

I agree with the other reviewers that it would have been better to use real greek letter organizations. As a member of a Sorority, I too found it difficult to follow the different greek-letter organizations. I also didn't care for the jumping back and forth between the Betas and the Kappas activities. Subtitles should have been given. The author also could have done a better job of explaining the controversies that occurred. A lot of assumptions and inferences had to be made regarding the characters.

I think that this book was very hard to follow though it provided a lot of insight to the greek life on college campuses i think that it sometimes focused on the little things that did not matter or things that really did not tie into the story too well. Also the one major thing that drove me absolutely crazy about this book was how it went from one sorority to the next basically telling the same story over again which became really frustrating. Like the previous critic said I was just happy that I got through the whole book.

Andie, Raven and Julie are three young women who are more than best friends - they consider each other to be family. When the girls look in the window of an abandoned house, they see two people who they refer to as Mr. and Mrs. X engaged in a very risque and potentially dangerous adult game. The curious girls return another night and discover that Mrs. X has been killed. The aftermath of the discovery threatens to tear the girls apart.

The trio reunites again in adulthood when Julie's marriage breaks up so she heads back to the nest. Then strange things start happening: Andie receives a newspaper clipping about Mrs. X's murder, Julie has a sadistic new secret lover, and Raven suspects that her new client is using business as an excuse to insert himself into her life. When another woman is found dead, the local sheriff realizes that the three girls' memories may hold a clue as to who the killer is, and all secrets are revealed.

This book is very good for what it is - an escapist thriller geared towards women. Spindler takes the time to develop her characters, and although the book is a bit long it is still a page turner.

This book is the very first Erica Spindler book I read. I have been a fan since, and gone through multiple copies of this book.

The book introduces three friends, and takes you on a wild ride through something they involuntarily step into as teenagers, and believe me, the ride doesn't stop once the author brings you into their adult lives.

I don't want to give much away about the premise of the book itself, as I think it is important to read the tale in its entirety to get the full scope of this story.

Erica paints a very vivid picture and takes you deeply into the frightening depths of the scarred mind.

Having read Ms. Spindler's recent novels, I decided to read her older works. I checked out Shocking Pink from the library expecting a suspenseful plot. Instead I thought it was slow at the beginning and the plot was predictable. It was just an okay read for me.

When I started the book I thought it was a little slow to take off and get really interesting but I continued reading as I hadn't been disappointed by any of Erica Spindlers novels and I'm glad I did. The book is excellently written and the characters were all intriguing.

The book ended up being wonderful and the ending really caught me by surprise. A definite read if you like mystery thrillers.

Although I found this book to be interesting, well written, and the characters worth caring about, I didn't think it was one of Erica Spindler's best books. Though the storyline is sexually explicit and deals with an adult theme, it was done in a tasteful and inoffensive manner.

What kept me turning the pages was not necessarily the murder mystery itself, but rather the intricate and sometimes cloying relationship between the three young girls who grew even closer as they grew older. All were obsessive regarding family and loyalty due to various happenings in their own family dynamics. I had to keep reading to see if any of them would develop a life of their own.

I did figure out the mystery before the end and wasn't the least bit shocked. That notwithstanding, it was an engrossing story....hard to put down.

Right at first, I admit, I was a little disappointed with this book. When I first read the lead-ins on the back cover I thought, well, this lady is nutso! I wonder what caused her to be such a cold-blooded murderer? I mean, the only thing worse than a person who would cut open an innocent pregnant woman and steal her baby is someone who would kill babies. I really never found out what made her tick, short of a few vague allusions to her being abused as a child, and that kinda bothers me more than anything else.

I read a more recent version of the paperback, which included a "Special Update", which didn't include a verdict or more juicy research, as I'd hoped. Instead, the "update" consisted of a diatribe in which the author defended himself against bad reader reviews, most notably one by some girl from the area of Kansas where the murder took place, whom he honestly shouldn't have let bother him quite as much as he did. But I kind of did agree with some of the things she supposedly said about the book, as per him not knowing anything about life in rural Kansas. Now, I'm notoriously bad with Kansas geography even though I've lived here since I was fairly small, and admit I have no idea where Melvern is, but I did grow up for most of my childhood in a similar small Kansas town. I do have to agree that I've never seen women in aprons beating rugs. Small town Kansans tend to favor Roper jeans, mullets and snap caps that say "CAT" or "John Deere". They don't really worry about beating rugs, they mostly are either the goody-goody churchy type who take fried chicken to invalids or general skanks who have a couch on their front porch and watch a lot of wrestling and Nascar. Think "Joe Dirt", not "The Andy Griffith Show".

Also, I have driven through Manhattan KS, which is pretty progressive as far as Kansas towns, being the home of Kansas State University, which turns out doctors, scientists, and veterinarians by the score. Not exactly hicksville, and most definitely NOT flat farming terrain like described in the book. The area surrounding Manhattan and Topeka is some of the hilliest terrain in the state. The flat stuff, where you can easily see (and smell) for miles, is in western Kansas, (where I grew up) which, in the words of a comedian I saw on TV, "will suck the soul right outta you".

That said, I do think that Mr. Phelps, while transparent in his insufferable Republican conservative leanings, really is a pretty good writer. Writing nonfiction, especially while dealing with subject matter this fragile and still tender in the minds and hearts of those affected by the tragedy, has got to be the most catch-as-catch-can business there is. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to see the bitch hang, but then again, was satisfied to see that her family wasn't giving her much support in the end. Why should they? She didn't support them much while she was walking around, more than a few fries short of a happy meal, making everyone, including her own children, miserable.

In the end I had to adjust my thinking a little and concede that Mr. Phelps did the best he could do with what he had, and, in order to strike while the iron was hot, he put the book out when he did, and that was probably a smart thing to do. Just the same, maybe he ought to add yet another addendum to future printings of the book, after the verdict is reached, just to make everyone who is mewling over the premature birth of this book happy.

What say, Mr. Phelps?

Skidmore, Missouri is a quiet midwestern town but it has more than their fair share of horror stories and crime like the vigilante murder of Ken McElroy in 1981 and of course, the brutal murder of very pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett in 2004. She was 8 months pregnant when her murderer, Lisa Montgomery posed as Darlene Fischer arrived to discuss puppies. All Lisa wanted was the baby girl that Bobbie Jo was expecting after Christmas in 2004. She strangled her enough to get her unconconsious and performed a c-section on Bobbie Jo who fought to get her baby from her murderer. Lisa kidnapped the baby girl and tried to convince everybody that she just had given birth to a newborn girl despite the fact that she was never pregnant at all but she tried to convince others that she would. Lisa Montgomery was just convicted and sentenced to death for this brutal crime yesterday. The book is well-written but prematurely published while my copy has no pictures. Regardless, the author does do extensive research on Skidmore, Missouri.

I was in a bookstore looking for some books to read in the true crime section. I was only going to pick a few but the hardcover of this book just kept calling to me so I decided to get it too.

I wasn't disappointed whatsoever! Who could imagine a woman cutting another woman open while she was alive and stealing the baby to pass off as her own? My lord!

I am glad Mr. Phelps decided to write this before the hearings have concluded on this case because there was enough prior to the hearings to make a book. Thank GOD Victoria Jo is back with her real father but it is sad she will never have her mother.

It is so strange what this world is coming to. This book really does the story justice and I couldn't put it down.

Very well written. Such a sad story! proof again that there are very evil people on this earth.

While the writing was much improved over the other Phelps book I read, Murder In The Heartland seemed like a disorganized rough draft that was rushed to the printer.

The book was less about the crime, the victim, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, and the offender, Lisa Montgomery, than it was about Lisa Montgomery's relatives and their opinions.

M. William Phelps, who calls himself "Matt," claims to have researched the case for over a year. It is certainly not reflected in his book.

I noticed several inaccuracies in the book and was quite disappointed in it.

This book was written by an investigative reporter, who gained access to the files and participants of the real-life 1947 exorcism on which the novel "The Exorcist" was based. Very well-written and researched. He discusses in the end the possibility of a mental illness, but allows the reader to draw his own conclusion. My conclusion - it was a genuine case of possession.

This pioneering book and the story that it is based upon helped William Peter Blatty write The Exorcist.We all know what that did for cinematic history,don't we.Here, the subject of possesion is a boy in 1940's middle America who via an aunt and a Ouija board embark on the downward spiral toward increasingly volatile,abberant behaviors.One would think possibly schizoaffective or perhaps schizophrenic behaviors with psychotic aggression but perhaps not.Untreatable by local medicine and repelling local clergy he is referred to a different priest who with the help of other accolytes and assistant priests of a Jesuit variety embark on the long journey that is the ancient rite of exorcism.The story is clearly defined with just a sense of some holding back with regard to the true nature of the reality of the situation.The normal waxing and waning inherent in the ritual,the problems that can crop up that only insiders could know, as well as the continued path toward final expulsion are readily apparent and one gets the maximum treatment with full Roman Ritual furor.It is a story that perplexes the imagination but holds one fast as if the book were glued to your fingers.There are periods of fearful wonder and tactile and olfactory components along with the violence which are clearly felt.All does work out in the end,a rarity in these cases, but the story remains and leaves perplexing questions and doubts.There is the recorded event closely guarded by the church.The priests involved maintained silence until late in the case history.Both Blatty and Friedkin's'hollywoodization' if you will, does make more of the scene than is reported.Nonetheless,this exists as it is.Take it for what it's worth.Skip the movie of the same name,it stinks.Read the book,make your own judgements. If this is your stuff your money won't be wasted.The final opinion lies with you.Otherwise, enjoy some intense stuff.

Whether or not Allen misses and distorts some of the historical information contained within his narrative, this work is still ultimately entertaining. It provides an extensive look at traditional demoniac psychology/experience, which is invaluable regardless of whether or not we believe in possession.

It also provides an interesting look at Christianity's handling of demons and exorcism over the centuries, and even if there are historical inaccuracies, this aspect of the book is undeniably valuable.

I am also impressed with Allen's style; he makes no attempt at sensational, horrific, "scary" language. It seems to me that Allen's goal is to provide an honest, impartial account. He leaves the reasoning to us.

Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, this book has something to offer.

For background, I'm a Catholic, 55 yrs old, and an attorney who has seen about everything one can see after 27 years of practice. I'm no one to believe what people tell me without some skepticism and research into whatever is brought before me. But I've also been exposed to some things I can't explain readily without admitting the possibility of the unseen world being present, good or evil. For example, I once spent an hour in a County Jail Interview Cell, interviewing a self-admitted murderer, accused of stabbing a person 47 times with an icepick. We'd had murder and other serious felony cases before. We were to see if we wanted to take his case. (We didn't.) When my partner and I went into this cell, I felt an unspoken, non-vocal, non-"voice in my head" warning inside me that I should get away from the prisoner. Now, mind you, that guy was just sitting in a chair, in lockup, shackled, was physically smaller and older than I, and indicated that he wanted me to represent him. Sheriff's Deputies were available, had I needed them. So, I felt no fear that he would or could hurt me, but by just coming into the cell, I felt a bit unnerved. During the interview, the prisoner proudly told me that after the stabbing, he stood over his victim, and said "that's number 23". That unspoken warning, and a perceptible chill inside that cell, (it was in July, and the temperature on the thermostat a few feet away from the cell read 72 fahrenheit), was the first time I felt I was exposed to something I could not explain by my senses. Before, I had simply believed that what my Church instructed me about the Occult was true; but after, I had evidence as to the practical possibility that the existence of demons and things we cannot perceive in the sensory world is true, after all. So, call me a believer, but don't call me a patsy either. I give all books I read the "smell test". This one passed the test, for reasons I give below.
I first picked this book up two years ago, after having read Malachi Martin's book Hostage to the Devil, and having seen many of Hollywood's movies, which never come close to the truth, except for the movie version of this book, and a recent movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose. This book was possible only because the author was able to obtain a transcript of the actual rite of exorcism performed by the priests upon a child in St. Louis. The Catholic Church, for understandable reasons, does not enter into this sacrament easily, and does its best to keep the proceedings secret, not for arcane purposes, but to protect the privacy of the possessed person. The book follows the steps of investigation which followed before the rite was approved. It then examines the three stages of diabolic possession of a person, and follows the attempts and finally the successful ritual which followed.
I found the author's writing and presentation not sensational(he has a sensational subject matter anyway) and well suited to the general public. I also feel that the subject matter is very appropriate in this day where the human race reaches technical innovation one after another, which gives some the impression that people "invented" God and the Devil to explain things they could not in their primitive state of life otherwise explain. The book also mentions that before any rite is performed, the victim is given psychiatric and medical tests to detect any underlying disease or mental problem, which may be the real cause of the person's behavior or at least a contributing factor to it. Today, more testing is performed than when the case in this book occurred, but at all times there are signs of demonic possession which are hard to explain if present, unless something or someone from the unseen world has become present. The tests the Church performs to determine whether such signs are present was treated in the book well. To those and to the general public, it makes a very timely read and, given its' adherence to an actual Catholic rite of exorcism, helps to de-mystify the sacrament, how the Church actually handles cases brought before it, and then gives reasons for what is done and why it is done.
Given the plethora of books about this topic, and the scarcity of access to Church records(there is always a tape recording, and perhaps a video one, too) of exorcisms, I think it is valuable to read an account of an actual exorcism rite, successfully performed, to compare with the ones done by non-Catholic exorcists(and I don't make judgment upon the sincerity or truth of the more public accounts of those doing it outside of the Church, or by defrocked Catholic bishops or priests) and the "Hollywood" versions we are bombarded with before Halloween. Just say a pray, if you believe in God, before reading this, as you will find yourself tested or intrigued by the subject matter, which can be dangerous when one considers that demons are described by most Christian churches as spiritual beings having great preternatural skills and which can sift a human mind like wheat, unless we invoke God's protection against them.

Perhaps the most important thing to know about this account of the "true" story that inspired The Exorcist is that the real boy in question did not live in Mt. Ranier. So all the facts presented here about that house, about those neighbors, or relating to that location - it's at best derived from erroneous sources, such as the early 1980's reports that first mentioned the abandoned Mt. Ranier lot, and at worst it's all fabricated. The real story can be easily found via Google searches. Knowing this, the rest of this account then falls into serious question, rendering the book virtually meaningless to anyone seeking the truth behind the Exorcist inspiration. It may make a good read, but it doesn't do much to present the true story. Try Google, and happy searching.