Ohio Books

Until recently, the only renown that Canton, Ohio could claim, was as the home of the Football Hall of Fame. But now a young local writer, with astonishing talent, has assembled a charming collection of delightful poems that reflect a remarkable singularity of thought. Some poems project a rational exuberance, while others exhibit a dark, brooding content. In her writings, the author teases the reader with this mystery: Which of these verses represent the true experiences of the poet, and which verses are merely fantasy? As I attempted to resolve the question of fact or fiction, I found myself being drawn deeper into the author's mind. Rhonda K Baughman's lyrical work is worthy of my highest praise.

This book was a great read! The poems were very vivid and thought provoking. Her quotes were comical and often profound, and her poetry invokes a full range of emotion. Ms Baughman has a true gift for being able to use just the right words to carefully manipulate the feelings and mood of her readers. This book is a must have for all up and coming poets, and I highly recommend it to everyone else. Excellent work.

It's often difficult finding inspiration in a cultural vacuum like Canton, Ohio but I have met some pretty amazing people in my journeys, both in and out of Ohio, and have come to realize they are all the insight I need to write poetry. Writing is not so much a DESIRE as it is a NEED for me, and I hope that shines through in my work, thus distinguishing itself from the rest of the mainstream poetic pack. The Carnal trilogy are not books for the masses, but a collection of ideas written with a select population in mind. And they will know who they are...As indie rocker/actor Andras Jones (web site) says, "you can call it what you like, but I call it messin with the id."

Since I have been a friend of the author, it provided some clues for me as to the origins of his unique personality, but likewise obscured (or referred obliquely) to some of his more curious and no doubt equally fundamental traits. Perhaps contrary to his central premise, the book demonstrates that artists are either born to insight, aloofness, solitude, singularity, uniqueness (take your pick) or, at least, become that way before they are aware of it. Hopes seems to have been a poet from his earliest memory, and it has influenced everything since; I would not credit or fault Akron, Ohio, nor would I invoke the holy spirit. No doubt that spirit (in whatever denomination) exists in all artists. As a result, I viewed the book as a special insight on what it means to Hopes to have been a poet growing up in a fairly unartistic community. I am glad to say Hopes did not bemoan any difficulties he must have experienced as a child in Akron, but instead shows us how his insights developed and were nurtured and tuned.

Hopes slices through his particular, peculiar boyhood down to a quirky, abyssal holiness in Akron, of all places, in the shadows of the rubber industry and a mile high glacier. He transforms Goodyear Heights Metropolitan Park into his "Maytree," a real madeup place where the Mother of Turtles lived and his sister became the Red Dancer, defiance herself rising and wheeling in the bitter rain. Here are the beginnings of a poet and a fierce worshipper of the things of a world most of us do not see, a glimpse of which he brings forth for us here. His prose is slick and quick as a slim-jim. He opens doors to places most of us never knew were there.

This book is a moving, remarkably eloquent memoir, an extended autobiographical essay that describes the author, the poet David Hopes. It is so beautifully written that it is almost a kind of poem. Highly recommended!

This is the most complete and best written Clevelaqnd Browns book ever! A+!

This book contains some information that you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere such as radio-flagship history and assistant coaching rosters. The short quipps about players, teams, and games brought back memories that I didn't even know I had! It was a very fun and easy read for me because of the index-type format of the book. I don't often get to read for long periods of time, but this format allowed me to read two or three entries at a time and not lose a thought.

Organized in encyclopedia format with entries for each letter of the alphabet, Cleveland Browns A To Z by Cleveland Brown expert Roger Gorden is an original and remarkably informative reference resource offering just about everything there is to know about this celebrated American football team. Enhanced with appendices listing numerous additional statistics and tables, Cleveland Browns A To Z in clearly in the" must-have" category and a perfect giftbook for the legions of dedicated Cleveland Browns fans.

After a lot of bad press, this book may help remind folks they have some very good cops in Cleveland - courageous and solid.

One retired cop to all others - read this one!

I found this book very exciting and interesting. It is a book that I could hardly lay down, I had to keep reading it.
This book brought to my attention just how critical a Police Officer's job can be, and a job I feel very few could do.
I recommend this book for readers who like reading true stories that they can enjoy reading.

As a retired Police Officer, I have read literally hundreds of Police Books. Cleveland Cops takes out the "sanitizing" usually done on Police stories and takes you inside the real world of law enforcement. This book is "in your face" from start to finish. The reader will get to ride in the police car and learn the realities of the job.
Chapter 8 "Some stories you never want to talk about" [ Kids in the crossfire] was a moving tribute to the officers involved. One story takes you to the scene as 2 officers respond to a domestic, only to arrive to a man holding a baby and shooting at them. Then having to feel the helplessness as this man pistol-whips the baby, throws a samauri sword at the officers having set fire to the house. He goes to the roof and jumps with the baby in his arms.
It doesn't get any more real than this book. Straight from the Cops who were there.

Very informative history of the Cleveland franchise from the late 1800's to the present. Comments and player stats for every season. Bios on all players, front office, ballparks, Hall of Famers, Great Moments and many other features. There really isn't much of note that you could want to know about the team that isn't included. This effort must put the Indians fans in a more knowledgeable position about their team than any other fans

The wealth of expertise from author/editor Russell Schneider is demonstrated in this hefty volume of facts and history of the Cleveland Indians.

Schneider was a long-time Indians beat reporter/columnist for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer and ended his newspaper career several years ago as a sports columnist for a small weekly chain based in northeast Ohio. He has written a number of books on the team.

This is a definitive exploration of the franchise, with the sketches on each season a major highlight. And since the 2008 team has stumbled to its 10th consecutive loss, the information is readily available on the last time the club reached such futility (for the record, it was 1979, in a season where the club stole more bases than hit home runs).

The encyclopedia will be a welcome addition to the clubhouse of any fan of the team and is certainly a first-round draft pick for those who enjoy exploring the history of "America's Favorite Pastime."

The Cleveland Indians Encyclopedia(2nd Edition) is even better than the first! I don't actually own the book, my mother-in-law, Lillian Zupancic, does. She is not only a die hard fan of The Cleveland Indians but a fan of both the authors as well. Russel Schneider has a co-author who also worked on the 1st edition with him, Mr. Joseph Simenic. He is a prominent baseball researcher and co-founder of the Society of American Baseball Reasearch. He is a long-time Indians fan.

The authors have done a marvelous job on the book. It is complete with beautiful color photos and a color insert of the current home of The Cleveland Indians, Jacob's Field. Facts included are all players from the origins of The Cleveland Indians to present time complete with stats. This is a book that you definitely must own if you are a fan of the Cleveland Indians.

I say this not only because Mr. Simenic is my mother-in-law's brother and my husband's uncle, but because The Cleveland Indians Encyclopedia (both editions) are a valuable asset to any fans' library!

The format of this book is extremely easy to follow. The examples, descriptions, and remedies from Mr. Rahtz are excellent. I am not in law enforcement, nor do I have a degree in Administration of Justice, but what I can offer you, concerning this book, is this: this book gives the average citizen a good look into what community oriented policing is all about. Mr. Rahtz does mention that there are other definitions and other styles of community policing that are currently being practiced by other agencies. His book is one of many, but one that should be noticed. Mr. Rahtz introduces the reader to two approaches in policing: the old way of policing, and then there's the new approach - community oriented policing. The author advocates for the new way and makes his claim that the new is more productive and shows (with examples) that it actually works. Later in the book, he gives the supervisor tips on how to effectively apply community oriented policing in the leadership role. Many police officers may think that they have a good understanding of what community policing is, or that some may be resistant to the whole idea of community policing, but these concepts and ideas, encapsulated in this short read, is a good reminder to the veteran police officer and to the skeptics that learing, training, leadership and being connected to your community is a never ending process. If you're thinking about law enforcement as a new career, if you're currently in the academy, or if you're a veteran police officer, this book is worth the money and the time to read.

As a reader who is not a policeman, I enjoyed Lt. Rahtz's book from a police story perspective. The anecdotes of the force were entertaining as well as instructive. In my humble opinion, the description of the community oriented police work probably is what most recruits believe their job will be like. Every recruit enters the force with a great attitude - gung ho and wanting to make a difference. What happens next - chasing radio and 911 calls - wears down many cops until the reasons they joined the force are forgotten.

With the recent unrest in Cincinnati, maybe the city will listen to one of its own and expand community policing.

Howard Rahtz has made community policing accessible for the beat cop. His handbook cites real-world examples of how community policing works. He also cites research to back the examples, but he doesn't get bogged down in statistics or academics. This is a primer. Every new cop should read this in the police academy. Every veteran cop should too. And supervisors should refer to it regularly.
I've taught community policing classes for years. This handbook does in less than 150 pages what I've tried to get done in hours and hours of classes. This handbook explains in simple terms that community policing is a philosphy of action. It makes the SARA model of problem solving easy to understand. Howard Rahtz obviously knows his topic and he writes in easy to read, street cop language.
This book doesn't belong on the shelf. It should be on your desk, in your briefcase, or in your hands. And it should be read by every community leader, from the elected officials to those volunteers who are so vital to making community policing work.

The book is beautiful beyond words. I got fast shipping and the item arrived in perfect condition. I buy with confidence from Amazon.

The photos in this book are gorgeous. Frequently the verbiage in bridge books makes for pretty dry reading, but I found the words in this book to be as enjoyable as the photos & just the right length.

There seems to be no shortage of books about covered bridges these days. This one distinguishes itself by the quality of the descriptions of the bridges and Bill Miller's outstanding photography. It is in a class by itself! Judged by the photography alone it would appear to be at home on the "coffee table". However, to classify it as such would do the book a disservice. The quality of the text makes it much more worthy.

Ohio bridges are the centerpieces based on their numbers, although the other two states are done justice as well. Miriam Wood is the matriarch of Ohio covered bridges and has published an earlier more historically detailed book on this subject. David Simmons is author of several scholarly publications on historic bridges and is editor of Timeline, the spectacular color publication of the Ohio Historical Society. If you have just one book on the covered bridges of this region (or perhaps any region), this should be the one.

This cookbook not only contains delicious recipes but also has great photos and a ton of interesting information about Canton, Ohio and the surrounding area. Great for football fans, gourmet chefs, and those looking for easy recipes too. There is something for everyone - complicated recipes that always turn out and quick and easy recipes for last minute meals. Amazing desserts, fun drink recipes, appetizers, soups, salads and so much more.
This is an always appreciated gift and a must have that constantly stays out on my counter - my daughters even enjoy following the recipes.
A definite must-have.

Great Cookbook with easy to follow recipes and great flavors. This one has a lot of information about the hometown of Canton, Ohio...the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but the recipes are great for any part of the country! Great for gifts...and football fans!

Crowd Pleasers is a fabulous cookbook full of great recipes and interesting historical information about Canton and the surrounding area. On nearly every page there are tidbits of info that even being from Canton, I didn't know. I've even caught my husband reading the cookbook from time to time. The recipes are delicious, with an appetizer section to die for. There's even a "Quick and Easy" section at the back of the book with an awesome recipe for Scottish Haystacks -- butterscotch peanutty candies that get devoured everywhere I take them. I definitely recommend this book!

If you are unacquainted with Dawn Powell, as I was until just recently, this is an excellent means to begin your acquaintance, with five of her early novels arranged chronologically in one volume. Powell draws the reader along as she unwinds the thread of her narrative, slowing her pace for extended dialogue and description let her stories breath and speeding it to keep the narrative moving and reader engaged. A major benefit of having these five novels together is that the reader can trace the development of Powell's satiric style as it progresses from a spot here and there in "Dance Night" to all pervading in "Angels on Toast" and "A time to be Born".

The earlier works "Dance Night" and "Come Back to Sorrento", both of which have Midwestern small-town settings, have elements of Willa Cather, while the latter three, all New York satire, fall somewhere between Dorothy Parker and P.G. Woodhouse with punchy, sarcastic dialogue and vivid description. Like Woodhouse, Powell understands the humor of being anthropomorphic in describing inanimate objects.

The brief chronology at the end of the book, which I recommend readers unfamiliar with Powell read first, explains some of Powells returning motifs: absent parents, children farmed out to relatives, traveling salesmen, dysfunctional families and American class consciousness. She is masterful in presenting the "happily" part of the ending, but at the same time, registering misgivings about the "ever after."

"Dance Night", set in a generic Lamptown, is the story of Morry Abbot, a young man coming to maturity and sexual awareness. Powell sets this against the story of his dysfunctional parents, an absentee traveling salesman father and a mother who falls in love with the dance instructor. A whole set of fully-fleshed minor characters fill out the narrative.

In "Come Back to Sorrento", another small town narrative, Connie Benjamin's life changes when a new music teacher comes to teach at the school in Dell River. Connie, who has shown great promise as a singer, but who was restrained by her domineering grandfather who had raised her, has lived alone in her dream world for almost two decades. Professor Decker, who lives in his own artificial world, arrives and the two become fast friends. Although their pretensions, played out for before a spinster school teacher pass well into the realm of embarrassing, Powell deftly keeps them sympathetic simply by keeping the reader fully aware that these characters are lost in a world they only partly created.

Dennis Orphen, the hero of "Turn, Magic Wheel", a New York satire, has written a novelized book in which he satirizes a world-famous novelist, Andrew Callingham, having gleaned most of his information from Callingham's ex-wife, Effie. Dennis, an inveterate womanizer, has unbeknownst to himself, fallen in love with Effie and she with him.

The traveling salesman motif returns in "Angels on Toast", a story of the contrasting marital infidelities of Lou and Jay, who are continually on the road. Replete with wives, girlfriends, and at least one ex-wife, this is the fastest paced of the five novels in this volume.

"A Time to be Born", reportedly based on Clare Booth Luce, is the most complex of the five. Interspersed within the interwoven narratives of Amanda Evans and Vicky Haven are the workplace politics at Peabody Publications, the riotous family life of the McElroy's, (one of Vicky's colleague in the office) and a return of Dennis Orphen from "Turn, Magic Wheel", along with his writing and drinking buddy, Ken Saunders. Although Powell fully exploits her satiric wit in this novel, it does turn grim, especially towards the end.

These are all excellent reads and well worth the investment in this Library of America edition which has the same quality of their other publications. Library of America has also produced a second volume of Powell's works that include later novels.

Dawn Powell (1896-1965) wrote 15 novels which received little notice during her lifetime. Powell was born in rural Ohio. After college, she moved to Grenwich Village in New York City where she lived most of her life. Her novels have a strong element of autobiography. She wrote novels of her early experience in Ohio and novels of her life in New York City and often contrasted the different pacings and values of life in the Midwest and in New York. Her later books are sharply satirical and often cynical. She wrote of love and of affairs and of loss in unconventional situations.

In the 1990s, many people discovered Powell's works, sparked largely by the biography and other writings on Powell by Tim Page. In 2001, the Library of America published a two volumes of Dawn Powell, with notes by Tim Page, including 9 of her novels. The LOA is a wonderful and ambitious project which aims to capture the best in American writing, novels, poetry, history, philosophy. It is a record of American thought and of the American experience.

This volume consists of five novels that Powell wrote between 1930 and 1952. The first two books center upon life in the Midwest while the latter three books are satires of urban life.

The first novel in the book, Dance Night (1930), was Powell's fourth published novel and her own favorite of her works. It is a coming-of-age novel set in a town called Lamptown, Ohio. It deals with the restlessness of adolescence in a small town and with sexual frustration. The book points the way for its hero to leave Lamptown on a train bound, presumably, to seek his chance in New York City.

"Come Back to Sorrento", Powell's next novel was written in 1932 and sold very poorly. But the novel is a gem. It is set in a small midwestern town and its two main characters are a woman, trapped in an unhappy marriage who had dreamed in her youth of becoming a singer, and the town music teacher who had aspired to become a concert pianist and who is likely homosexual. The book is on the whole subdued and understated and centers upon the frustrating relationship between the two protagonists.

The next book in the collection, "Turn, Magic Wheel" (1936), is the first of Powell's novels satirizing life in New York City. Its characters are a young man who has published one successful novel lampooning a literary idol of the day, the literary idol himself, (modelled on Earnest Hemingway), and the women who are involved with both of them. There are great descriptions of the streets, bars and sites of New York City. The story is sharply, but compassionately, told. The book, I think, is ultimately a love story with an ambiguous message about the possiblity of happiness.

"Angels on Toast" (1940) is a satire of the world of business with its two main characters commuting by train from Chicago to New York City in search of money and mistresses. It is sharp and engaging, if one-dimensional. I don't think it as good as the other four novels in this volume.

The final work in this collection, "A Time to be Born" (1942) was one of Powell's few novels to achieve commercial success during her lifetime. One of the main characters in this book is modelled in part on Clare Boothe Luce. In this book, Powell juxtaposes life in midwest Ohio with life in New York City. The two major women characters in the book move to New York from the same small town in Ohio with very different results. This book is satirical but it is also -- actually primarily -- a coming-of-age novel for its young woman heroine. It gives an unforgettable picture of life in New York City just at the eve of United States entry into WW II.

Powell is best known as a satirist, but the books in this series show she was that and more. Her themes as a novelist are somewhat limited, but they are developed well and embroidered in each successive work. Her writing style develops with time until in her final novels (the second volume of the series) it becomes beautiful. She offers a vision of New York City and of the loss of innocence that is her own. The Library of America series is to be commended for finding writers describing American experience in somewhat unexpected places. Powell deserves her place in this series and in American literature. This volume will give the reader a good exposure to the work of Dawn Powell.

An author of immense popularity, Dawn Powell (1896-1965) wrote satiric, witty, sharply written and observant fiction that went out of print following her death. Then in the early 1990s a renewed awareness of this major literary figure saw the reissuing of her work, only to have it fall back into obscurity once again. Now The Library Of America has brought her work back into print again and in a format that will insure that her fiction will continue to be available to both scholarship and the general reading public for decades to come. Volume 1: Novels 1930-1942 includes Dance Night; Come Back to Sorrento; Turn, Magic Wheel; Angels on Toast; and A Time To be Born. Volume 2: Novels 1944-1962 features My Home Is Far Away; The Locusts Have No King; The Wicked Pavilion; and The Golden Spur. Dawn Powell: Volumes 1 & 2 is a very highly recommended addition to both academic and community library literary fiction collections.

As its title suggests, this scrupulously researched tome portrays Emerson as perhaps the most stable and secure (and kindly) among a group of eccentric, sometimes borderline crazy writers and thinkers. A must for any interested in the transcendental movement, or in perhaps its most distinguished man of letters.

In the Epilogue, Carlos Baker writes, "Biography is the study of the whole man in the context of time." Strange, then, that Baker's biography of Emerson begins when Emerson was already in his late twenties. One wonders what happened to Emerson during his first three decades. Nevertheless, Emerson Among the Eccentrics is well worth your time.

In Chapter 31, Baker describes the decision, by Emerson, James Freeman Clarke, and W. H. Channing to write a biography of the late Margaret Fuller, "America's first feminist," who drowned at sea on a return tour of Europe. Emerson, writes Baker, "was certain that whoever undertook the task must pay the closest attention to the personalities who had surrounded Margaret. 'Leave them out,' said he, 'and you leave our Margaret.'"

Emerson's perceptive insight about writing Margaret Fuller's biography is taken to heart by Carlos Baker. His thesis is that one cannot know Ralph Waldo Emerson without paying the closest attention to the personalities who had surrounded him. Therefore, Emerson Among the Eccentrics: A Group Portrait is a biography not only of Emerson, but also of numerous others with whom he associated, such as Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, Ellery Channing, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Bronson Alcott, Jones Very, Theodore Parker, and Herman Melville.

The most famous of the New England "Transcendentalists," Emerson resigned his position as a clergyman when his first wife died. He believed that ethics, not theology, metaphysics, or religious doctrine, was the heart of Christianity, and he argued throughout his long life (1803-1882) for self-reliance, nonconformity to superannuated dogmas and liturgies, and for the "priesthood" of the lone individual who needs no mediator between himself and the "World-Soul." He proclaimed that "God" was immanently accessible both in nature and in man's soul.

Emerson's writings are brilliantly provocative, but one often is puzzled by the obscurity of his metaphysics. What exactly IS the "World-Soul"? Although Emerson spoke often of "God," one gets the feeling that his concept of deity was more radically "protestant" than often believed. Was it pantheism, or perhaps even atheism in clever disguise? He certainly rejected traditional forms of faith and praxis.

Indeed, one might ask, To what extent was Emerson truly a "Transcendentalist"? Was this a brand of philosophical idealism, a la the "two-worlds" dichotomy of Platonism? Or was it more like Paul Tillich's "God above the god of theism"? ... a humanistic seeking for wisdom, truth, love, and justice that was more anthropocentric than theocentric? Different readers of Emerson will doubtless come to quite different conclusions.

Carlos Baker, who is perhaps best known for his biography and criticism of Ernest Hemingway, died in 1987. Emerson Among the Eccentrics: A Group Portrant is his swan song, and a beautiful volume it is, a fitting tribute to one of the greatest thinkers, moralists, and philosophers that America has produced.

I read this book after final exams for some reason Emerson and the whole American Renassiance mystic was calling to me...I finished the novel packed my bags and drove straight to Concord, Mass...The tour guides at the various sites I visited where perplexed by my numerous inquires...This book drove such a desire in me to learn and love literature from that period...Well worth the time and the read...and make every effort to visit Concord when your done it adds to the experience...