Ohio Books

Biljana Sljivic-Simsic's book is wonderful. She understands linquistics, understands teaching, understands how students learn. This is worth every penny and more.

My father is from the former 'Jugoslavija' and consequently I have developed an strong interest in his background and an even stronger desire to learn his 'mother tongue'. Unfortunately he is unable to teach me so I have been searching book stores and the internet for suitable 'teach yourself' books. I find Serbo-Croatian Just for You provides me with an excellent incite to the basic grammar and helps enormously to improve my understanding of the associated intricacies of the language. I would like to see a 2nd year programme come on line.

I've tried a few different books for learning Serbo-Croatian-this one is far better than the others-highly recommended

I am an inveterate dog-earer, often bending the pages unconciously, and I find, after reading Robert B. Shaw's SOLVING FOR X, that I've folded down the corners of 17 pages! I haven't messed up a book of poetry this badly in a long, long time.

Many of the poems in this book are metrical, and quite of few of them employ perfect rhyme. One of these, my favorite in the book, is "A Roadside Flock," a poem ostensibly about copper weather vane roosters, which concludes:

" . . . their giddy doom to pivot, / prey to the winds that flounce about the sky. / It's not the life we'd live if we could live it.
And gleam gives way to verdigris, raised high // to weather drably, exiled from the ground . . . / Feel that? A hint of breeze. Birds of a feather, / their regal beaks shudder without a sound, / and all the copper flock turns tail together."

But "A Roadside Flock" has a lot of stiff competition. I also very much enjoy "Airs and Graces," "A Field of Goldenrod," "The End of the Sonnet," "Dec. 23," "Espalier," "A Paper Cut," "Ant in Amber," "Seed Catalogues in Winter," "A Flashback," "Letter of Recommendation," "Out of Character," "Static," "September Brownout," "Other Eyes: Hurricane's," "Remainders," and "Living past 19."

I'm struck by how casual Shaw's style is, how downright funny at times, without being the least bit loose or nasty. It's a tricky way to write, but Shaw has mastered it, and I think this is his best book to date.

And that's saying something when you consider his excellent previous books or poetry: THE WONDER OF SEEING DOUBLE, THE POST OFFICE MURALS RESTORED, and BELOW THE SURFACE. But don't trust me. Read everything he's written, including his superb study of the poetry of Herbert and Donne, CALL OF GOD, and judge this intelligent, accessible, witty writer for yourself.

I am an inveterate dog-earer, often bending the pages unconciously, and I find, after reading Robert B. Shaw's SOLVING FOR X, that I've folded down the corners of 17 pages! I haven't messed up a book of poetry this badly in a long, long time.

Many of the poems in this book are metrical, and quite a few of them employ perfect rhyme. One of these, my favorite in the book, is "A Roadside Flock," a poem ostensibly about copper weather vane roosters, which concludes:

" . . . their giddy doom to pivot, / prey to the winds that flounce about the sky. / It's not the life we'd live if we could live it. And gleam gives way to verdigris, raised high // to weather drably, exiled from the ground . . . / Feel that? A hint of breeze. Birds of a feather, / their regal beaks shudder without a sound, / and all the copper flock turns tail together."

But "A Roadside Flock" has a lot of stiff competition. I also very much enjoy "Airs and Graces," "A Field of Goldenrod," "The End of the Sonnet," "Dec. 23," "Espalier," "A Paper Cut," "Ant in Amber," "Seed Catalogues in Winter," "A Flashback," "Letter of Recommendation," "Out of Character," "Static," "September Brownout," "Other Eyes: Hurricane's," "Remainders," and "Living past 19."

I'm struck by how casual Shaw's style is, how downright funny at times, without being the least bit loose or nasty. It's a tricky way to write, but Shaw has mastered it, and I think this is his best book to date.

And that's saying something when you consider his excellent previous books or poetry: THE WONDER OF SEEING DOUBLE, THE POST OFFICE MURALS RESTORED, and BELOW THE SURFACE. But don't trust me. Read everything he's written, including his superb study of the poetry of Herbert and Donne, THE CALL OF GOD, and judge this intelligent, accessible, witty writer for yourself.

Robert B. Shaw's newest book of poems, Solving For X, possesses two qualities that are not always found together: lyric virtuosity and emotional depth. Few poets write so securely in their sense of line and stanza; few poets write with as much moral insight and emotional persuasiveness. Very few, indeed, combine these two qualities so happily, as in "Ant in Amber," which I quote in full:

Ever since Fate's undeviating thumb
englobed this ant in aromatic gum,
eons of weighty chafing in the earth
have milled it to a bauble of some worth.
Nature expended quite some enterprise
in getting this poor sap to fossilize.
Now honey-hued, translucent, it displays
intact the forager of former days:
every last leg the little soldier needed
is here embalmed, or we might say embeaded.
Didn't the Greeks believe such beads were spawned
as tears of sunset, hardened as next day dawned?
Knowing the source (a long-gone, weeping tree)
makes this a different kind of prodigy-
a model instance, maybe, of renewal-
interred as ant and disinterred as jewel.
Thus in our scale of values, though we can't
be sure it would appear so to the ant.

The poem displays throughout the sobriety, lyric self-awareness, and precision of the middle style. The sober clarity of the poem is a function of the diction, especially the qualifying adjectives, and of the way in which the syntax drapes the couplets: subject/predicate/subject/predicate in lines 1-4, and then a quickening of the syntax in line five, followed by the expansive adverbial phrase with the groan-worthy pun in line 6. Never is there syntactical displacement to accommodate the rhyme. It is obvious that the poet is composing by the line and the couplet and that the form has not distorted the syntax but sharpened it. The poem conveys a sense of lyric self-awareness in the self-corrections: "...embalmed, or we might say embeaded" and "a model instance, maybe, of renewal." These self-corrections or hesitations are an aspect of the almost Ciceronian rhetorical structure of the poem, with its four line introduction, its general thesis, exposition, conclusion, and peroration in the final couplet.
For all its cleverness, the poem is not light or exhibitionistic. The final couplet combines litotes and the informality of the rhyme on "can't" to prevent the rhetoric from rising beyond the level that is appropriate to the emotional weight of the argument. Although we may notice that the amber is analogous to the poem itself, this analogy is not imposed on readers.

At some point a reader wants to construe poems in relation to the poet's intentions, insofar as they can be discerned. Some of Shaw's own ambitions for his poems might be guessed from "A Paper Cut":

Whatever first impressions may allege,
this poet's work does, after all, have edge-

Witness my finger, slivered to the quick
as payback for its disapproving flick.

Granted, I turned the page with reckless haste,
calling no halt to justify my taste.

But does the stuff deserve a second reading?
Feel free to guess. It stings, but there's no bleeding.

If "bleeding" signifies the strong emotional response of a reader, this seems to be something Shaw expects to experience in poems that merit a second reading. In any poet who seeks such a response to middle style rhetoric there is much restraint and ellipsis. "Style," after all, is not the representation of a persona's emotional state, but the representation of a persona's emotional state as he is speaking. The emotions in Shaw's poems are often reflective, their sufferings and pleasures not stated but powerfully implied.
Robert Shaw is one of the wisest and most skillful poets now writing in English, and this is perhaps his finest collection yet. Anyone with a modicum of interest in contemporary poetry should seek out his work.

This is great book for a young man or hardcore fan. Easy to read because there are so many short passages in the form of letters or wisdom from the players who left Ohio State University many years before. Their memories with the passing of time - Timeless!

If you are on the go and can only read short passages, plenty of places to bookmark and pick up again later!!!

This was a great gift for my brother. I read it over and there was a lot of history of OSU football in there.

Great Read, Great Book for any Ohio State Fan. Great gift. Strongly Rec. Go Bucks!

This is an excellent book and reads very fast. .

This book concerns Shiloh and one Union Officer. ( Col. Tom Worthington) who was a West Point graduate.
While the Union soldiers were camped at Shiloh Col. Worthington, rode around camp looking for axes, so his troops could level the trees in front of his regiment. ( This is called, clearing a 'field of fire') Sherman didn't think it was necessary. In fact Sherman felt they were in no danger of attack. Even though the records point out that several officers told Sherman there were Confederate Cavalry close by, and about 200 Confederate soldiers watched some of the Union officers review their troops at Shiloh. Many of the Union regiments had never had one drill before the Confederate attack, which resulted in many of them not being able to respond when they were attacked. In fact, many of the Union soldiers had never even fired their rifles one time, let alone practiced drills of any kind.

Sherman in fact told some of his regiments, after they warned him, 'if they were that afraid, maybe they should just go back to Ohio'. ( as a minor note, even General Grant did not believe they would be attacked)

Col. Worthington, of course would not be silenced, in his protests of the Union not being prepared, either before the attack or after. In fact, Col. Worthington became more outspoken after the battle, against Sherman, and laid much of the blame on Sherman for not being prepared.

Worthington and Sherman hated each other intensely.

Sherman waited for his chance, as a superior officer. Sherman had Col. Worthington court-martialed, he was convicted, and later Judge Holt overturned Col. Worthington's court-martial. Yet, Worthington was not allowed to rejoin the army. Worthington later, even met twice with Lincoln. The second time Lincoln referred the matter to Grant. Grant of course did not want Col. Worthington back in.

Col. Worthington was an arrogant person, older than Grant and Sherman. But, the facts bear out he was right at Shiloh.

One has to wonder why Grant and Sherman did not want Col. Worthington back in the army. Were they afraid Worthington would continue to talk, or perhaps look for mistakes? or create dissension.

There is no question, Col. Worthington, of the 46th Ohio Vol. performed admirably at Shiloh. Perhaps even going so far as to save one entire wing of Grants army.

If you're a Civil War buff, this is one book that is really interesting and well worth reading.

An in depth point of view of the struggles leadership had in Command and Control in one of the bloodies campaigns of the Civil War. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I had a personnel interest in the historical information as my Great-Great-Great Gandfather was with Company F, of the 46th Ohio Voluteer Infantry Regiment at the very battles discribed in the book. Excellent book

The author states that he did not wish to write yet another book on the Civil War. James Brewer has lived up to that pledge by telling a story which transcends categorization into "Civil War Books."
Colonel Tom Worthington was a truly decent man, whose family values, training at West Point, and experience as a soldier, shouted out to him that General William Tecumseh Sherman was not demonstrating the behavior of a good leader during the weeks and days directly before the Battle of Shiloh.

Chiefly because of Worthington's criticism of Sherman at Shiloh, General Sherman had him court-martialled out of the army.

With thorough research and notes, Brewer tells Tom Worthington's story, showing how his age and life experience compelled him to dare to stand up to General Sherman, and declare to the world that the emperor had no clothes.

These are not just an author's assertions, but carefully documented facts which Worthington presented against Sherman: his lack of proper drilling, lack of proper posting of pickets, ignorance of reconnaissance tactics, refusal to implement defensive tactics (such as the abatis), and Sherman's contempt for many of his subordinate officers.


This is an excellent book; not just for history or Civil War buffs, but for all people who have just known that they were right, despite the unwillingness of others to believe them.

One more teaser: Col. Tom Worthington took his case all the way to Abraham Lincoln--read the book for Lincoln's reaction!

"TRIALS IN YOUNGSTOWN,OHIO" is a wonderful book written by Wolfgang Cooper. Although a short story, "TRIALS" is chock full of more fervor, passion and intensity than a lot of books that run 500 plus pages. For anyone who grew up in the seventies, and remembers big cars, big industry, down and dirty local rock and roll bands and all the effort it took to win over family and friends when you were 18 years old, this is definitely a book that will get your blood pumping. Teenagers of today will also enjoy the story. Cooper has an interesting writing style that is easy to follow. I blew through it in one weekend. Enjoy!

"TRAILS IN YOUNGSTOWN,OHIO" is an interesting combination of the J.D. Salinger classic "Catcher In The Rye" and feel-good football film "Rudy," where an upstart from a steel mill town makes good on his promise to attend Notre Dame and make the varsity football team. "TRIALS" will hit home with baby-boomers who grew up in the midwest, giving them a chance to remember the anxiety of being a teenager, as well as the final glory days of the steel mill era and local rock and roll. Just about everyone went through ego-depleting moments when they were young, from constantly being harangued by parents to not being hip enough to get a date, to not being talented enough to make the football or baseball team. It's a wonderful series of events that occur when the main character of the story, Matt Burns, finally gets his moment in the sun after being degraded by both family and friends. This is a short, easy to read book, that I would recommend to teenagers or parents. Wolfgang Cooper has a simple yet interesting writing style that reads almost like a screenplay. I liked it a lot.

Since we've all faced adversity at one time or another, this is a story that everyone can relate to. Cooper effectively captures the confusion and frustration faced by a young man growing up in mainstream America, where winning is often the only thing that counts. The writing is colorful, and baby boomer readers will particularly relate to the sights and sounds of the 70's. Highly recommended!

This is a very comprehensive listing of steamboats, where they were built, their size, who was Captain if known, etc. It also includes some, but not a lot, very nice photographs of steamboats. The only drawback is that the index is not comprehensive. My gg grandfather had only two listings in the index by his name, but he was actually mentioned in one additional listing for a total of three. So a bit of due diligence is required.

I believe this to be the best riverboat/steamboat reference I have ever come upon. It is the most complete I have ever seen although it is not totally complete. This is a book you cannot be without if interested in river travel history. I will never sell mine.

Way's is an almost staggering achievement. Mr. Way (now deceased) spent approx. 80 years of his life collecting this information. There isn't any other source that comes close to Way's if you need to know about steamboats on the Western Waters (Pittsburgh westwards).

My great-grandfather was one of the "Weary Boys" so I was really excited to find this book. It is an interesting, actual account of what life was like for the soldiers during the civil war.

Good read. The book was well written technically. I became more enlighted on the politics behind the scenes of the Civil War and more appreciative of the deplorable conditions of the soldiers.

... the Civil War or Ohio History. Pope gives a detailed account of an Ohio regiment's three-year tour of duty in the war, from the recruitment process in 1863 through the battles it participated in to Lee's surrender in `65. The 110th Ohio fought in many battles, including the Second Battle of Winchester, the Battle of the Wilderness, the Battle of Monocacy, and the final assaults at Petersburg and Appomattox Court House. Pope includes many first-person accounts from soldiers' letters and journals, and from Keifer's book about the war. You get a real feel for the conditions the soldiers lived under and their opinions about the decisions of their superiors--something you rarely get from standard history texts.

"When you begin reading a diary, you drop abruptly into someone else's life." And what a life. Ms Fisher has brought to life the story of an unheralded German immigrant and in the process provided more than a glimpse of antebellum St Louis and Cincinnati, two of America's frontier cities in the mid-nineteenth century.

The editor's insights, introductions, and annotations are the highlights of this biography. I think I enjoyed the notes at the end of each chapter as much as the diary itself. The notes cover the spectrum: from the origin of the vernacular "OK" to the frontier oyster industry to the peculiar acquisition of German surnames before the modern era.

Extensively researched, "The Whiskey Merchant's Diary" provides budding genealogists a roadmap on how to track their own family history with references to the National Archives (Washington, DC, and College Park, MD); the Library of Congress; and, state archives from New Jersey to Wyoming.

As I have mentioned in other reviews, the presentation of a book is very important to me and in this case the Ohio University Press has been superb: the feel of the paper and the type font are outstanding. Highly recommended.

This thoroughly researched diary of a German immigrant is a must read for anyone interested in the history of the American mid-west. Spanning the years 1847 to 1862, it records the adventures of a young man who loved the ladies (perhaps, too much; syphillis which caused blindness ended his entries), a good time and a good deal. Filled with rare pictures and maps of pre-Civil War Cincinatti and St. Louis, the book carefully reflects the rise of a budding merchant against the background of the American early Victorian period. Of special interest to historical and geneological buffs, it is also an entertaining read for the general public.

Dr. Linda Fisher has taken the words of Joseph J. Mersman - an 1847-1853 era merchant - written in his own hand, and added commentary and exposition to them, to bring the world of Mersman back to life, full of the vibrancy that Mersman felt as he was writing down his life experiences. Mersman's diary opens in 1847 Cincinnati, and moves - in January 1849 - to St. Louis, where he lived the rest of his life.

This book, a culmination of more than 9 years of work, describes that world - business, social, and everyday life - and adds background information on the issues and events that Mersman encountered in his life, including the devastating cholera epidemic of 1849, and other significant events of the day.

The author recreated the 1850 maps of Cincinnati and St. Louis, and located on them the places that Mersman mentions in his diary, so the reader will have a sense of not only the events that occured, but the spatial world of Cincinnati and St. Louis. The volume is well written, and is a "must read" for history enthusiasts and scholars, especially those interested in mid-19th century life, business and medicine.

The stories in this collection are moving, extremley funny. It's a great holiday gift.

I read a review of this book in the Detroit Free Press and in the New York Times. It is just as good as both reviews claim. Full of wit and poignant moments -- I'd recommend it to all.

Sharon Dilworth's "Women Drinking Benedictine" is one of the wittiest, most original story collections I have read in years. In landscapes ranging from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Miami, Florida, Dilworth's characters are often deeply baffled by their own lives. In "Figures on the Shore," a story that is hilarious in its middle and deeply mysterious in the end, a woman, Janeene, opens her door to men in orange Day-Glo jackets one night; they've had car trouble and need to use the phone. These men, revealed as father and son, argue in front of Janeene, who quietly enjoys their banter as relief from the silence of the northern Michigan landscape. Dilworth lets these men go on with their verbal sparring until eventually they are on the floor, punching and wrestling. Janeene simply watches this without judgement, and the comedy is almost emblematic of "scenes" we all endure in our lives when strangers puncture our privacy without hesitation or self-consciousness. Readers will laugh here at Dilworth's brilliant understatement, achieved because, like so many of her characters, Janeene's perceptions have a matter-of-fact quality that suggest she's ready for anything. Almost all of these characters dread boredom more than the bizarre. Certainly this is true of the title story, "Women Drinking Benedictine," where readers will enjoy an intricately shaped story that reads like a strange mystery, with twists and turns that eventually cast cold light on the speaker of the story. In the sub-plot of this story, the world magazine models infiltrate this remote winter landscape. A resident alcoholic character in the story who witnesses these models (who come into the bar for Benedictine) seems to feel they are angels from another world. After they disappear from the bar, all he needs to do is find them. Dilworth gets you to feel the out-back quality of this place that sees itself only in the shadow of a pop-culture that has no regard for its existence. In this, as in every story, you can't help laughing at what's always a dark comedy bordering on the tragic. In the beautiful story "Awaken With My Mother's Dreams," Dilworth reveals a mother who is both a recent widow and a passionate Detroit Pistons fan. She's bored without her husband, and does not take much comfort in the traditional role expected of women at this age: she's tired of remembering, and grandchildren don't fill this void. It's a delight to hear mother and daughter talking about the mother's outrageous dream to play men's basketball. "You'd be awfully short," says the daughter. But the mother knows her stuff, knows that not all the players are that tall, and "Spud Webb's only 5'6." And the "shortest player in the NBA is only 5'3". Tyrone Mugsy Bogues." Dilworth reveals the affection and protectiveness the daughter feels without sentimentality. And the mother, dreamer that she is, is also firmly rooted on earth, a realist who knows she'll never dribble down the court, and so seeks adventure in a kayak. Th ending of this story is so perfect you'll come away in awe of Dilworth's mastery of form, while you'll remember this narrator for her insight and humor. Of her sister she says, "Prone to exaggeration, sometimes outright lying, Nina is the kind of person who goes around telling people that her whole life changed when John Lennon died." There's not one bad story here, but everyone should make sure to check out "Three Fat Women of (Pittsburgh Just Visiting) Antibes"--a celebration of women, friendship and food, and "Me and Danno Booking 'Em Good," one of the most marvelously unreflective, hilarious narrators you will ever encounter. This book is for people who like their sense of humor engaged and who enjoy fresh characters and finely crafted stories.

This book is an entertaining and engaging remembrance of growing up in America in the 1940s and 50s. Whether this was when you grew up or not, the book brings back the innocence of childhood and that first loss of innocence that we all go through.

Ms. Brown has a good eye for people and how they interrelate. She shows that although we are different, we have much in common and this is what makes the book so enjoyable. As you read it, you will pause and remember your relatives and their foibles.

Recommended.

I really enjoyed reading the book. The author had a real understanding of events which took place during that time frame. There are sections of the book which makes you laugh, and some sections which makes you cry. Overall, the book explains key events, which will change things forever.