South Carolina Books

Mia Dery's Adventure Guide To The Triangle refers to North Carolina's Triangle area, who enjoy a range of outdoor activities from mountain and road biking to hiking and sea kayaking. Visitors and residents alike will find plenty of sports and outdoors-oriented suggestions, including clear directions and line maps for locating the area, difficulty ratings, and reviews of back roads and byways.

John Krapp's novel is extremely well written and luminous. I haven't seen an novel so well written since Dostoevsky's The Grand Inquisitor. Krapp is genius and should be praised for his exceptional accomplishments. I absolutely recommend this book and I hope it's not his last!

Each chapter is like taking a pleasant walk in an interesting place with a friend who is knowledgable and sharing but never didactic. The clear, clean writing flows smoothly and pleasantly thoughout.

Amelia makes the area come alive again through this book. She provides the balance needed in local history for African-Americans -- and respects the traditions which may soon be forgotten memories of past lives.

Her work focuses on two important parts of local history - the traditions in families living in Mars Bluff -- and the search for why tales of rice growing lives on in an area more than 150 miles from the "Low Country" and rice plantations of the old South Carolina. Both concepts are treated with respect while holding a scholarly approach to local history.

Amelia's work is something that may not be the same "fare" as Edward Ball's "Slaves in the Family" -- but its contribution to A-A genealogy, local history and preservation of oral traditions is extremely important. It is the foreword to any history of the Pee Dee area of South Carolina -- and should be treasured as a rare insight on the real lives of real people -- and the years that follow Reconstruction.

This book is the foundation of the research of the Gullah dialect as a serious subject. Being an Afrcan-American himself. Dr. Turner won the confidence of Sea Island Gullah speakers in the 1930s and won their confidence in providing a window to their lives and folkways. The result was this book, which was probably the first that did not patronize Gullah speakers as being backward and ignorant as some (sadly) still do today.

The central section of this book, which deals with linguistic similarities between West Africans and Gullah speakers, is primarily for linguists. But the chapters on Dr. Turner's acquaintance with the Gullah speakers anmd his collection of their tales of slavery, religion, and life expereinces make for interesting reading for the layman. Overall, a great window into a subject that had long suffered from mockery and ridicule. It shows the Gullah speakers in their pride and dignity.

Aging In The New Millennium: A Global View by Terry Tierrito (Associate Professor, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina), is a complex and scholarly analysis of shifting global population dynamics - the people in the world are, on average, older than ever and the trend appears to be continuing. Thoughtful essays on the ramifications of increased life expectancy, biopsychosocial perspectives, cultural attitudes and more fill the pages of this unique and enlightening study. Aging In The New Millennium is commended for Contemporary Social Issues reference collections and student reading lists.

Mary Lee Settle is an American writer who tells us of her experiences as a woman member of the RAF during WWII. Because of her wonderful literary ability, these stories are vivid and thought-provoking. They deal with the cultural differences, class differences, and wartime conditions she experienced. A memorable read - you'll never forget her confrontation with some of her fellow women RAF members or how she learned to understand them. Highly recommended.

The actor Maurice Evans penned his story in long-hand in the year before his death. Reading this book is what I always thought having a conversation with him would be like. His regal refined voice sings in your ears as you read the lines!

The book is very detailed on every stage of his life. He writes about the lean years when he was looking for serious work. After he acheives success in the theater, he takes you through every aspect of every stage production he has ever done. He writes extensively on famous personalities with whom he has worked, but remains the gentleman and never has an unkind word for any of them. Yet, you get the idea that he has been very honest. He writes of both good and bad reviews, parts he turned down that he should have taken, and parts he never got offered. He takes you into the less serious work of television that he seems to have enjoyed very much. Lastly, he describes his satisfying retirement.

For theater buffs, it is a great read.

An inspiring story of a black community's struggle to save its schools! I use this book in an educational history course I teach at the university level. Students love the book and begin to think more critically about issues surrounding school desegregation as a result of reading it. I highly recommend it.

Archibald Rutledge's tales combined by Jim Casada is a must read for all nostalgic turkey hunters. His tales of the sheer numbers of turkeys in the early 1900's in South Carolina will make even the stongest turkey hunter's heart beat faster. What I would give to have been with him on some of the peaceful days on his plantation hunting the majestic wild turkey. Rutledge got personable with his turkeys, giving them names and hunting them like he was on a mission. He saw turkeys and turkey hunting from a remarkable viewpoint over many decades. No turkey hunter will regret reading this one, and many will file these stories in their memory forever.