Pennsylvania Books

This was a gift for my boyfriend's birthday. He hasn't read it yet, but is looking forward to it. He was really excited when he saw it. Thanks.

Pittsburgh Pirates fans have suffered through an agonizingly extended season of discontent - one that encompasses fourteen consecutive years of losing more games than they have won. As October approaches, we watch the excitement that other fans in other cities experience, and watch our team hang up their spikes and go home - again. We wait for next year - a next year that never comes. As if we were in a bad dream from which we cannot wake, it is all the same, year after year; one excruciatingly long nightmare season. It's enough to drive a man to drink!

To keep off the sauce and chase away the baseball blues, I picked up `When the Bucs Won It All', the story of the 1979 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates. It proved to be just the right tonic to put a smile back onto my face. The book was a quick read - it does not dwell endlessly on a game by game, blow by blow recreation of the season, but hits on all the memorable highlights. One thirty-four page chapter covers the regular season, and forty-six pages are devoted to the post season. It is not exhaustive coverage of that championship year, but is really all that is necessary to trigger the great memories in any fan that lived through it. Like any good baseball book, it includes a good selection of black and white photos and plenty of charts of statistics as well.

The bulk of the book is taken up by biographies of the players who made up the Pirates' "Family" that magic season. Every player who was on the Pirates major league roster at any time during that season, as well as the manager and coaching staff, is covered. A brief history of their careers prior to the '79 season is given, a recap of what that player did during the '79 season and post season follows, and finally, what they did and what became of them after 1979 is related. Some of these bios are loaded with interesting information. For both Bert Blyleven and Dave Parker, the authors explore their respective cases for possible enshrinement in The Hall of Fame. In relief pitcher Enrique Romo's bio, they talk about his mysterious disappearance from Pittsburgh and baseball after the 1982 season, and the rumor that he had a relationship with a woman involved with a mob figure who told him never to return. To date, Romo has never appeared at any of the '79 Pirates reunions or autograph signings. I found this section most appealing, and more interesting than a simple blow by blow recreation of the season.

Any Pirate fan who remembers "the Family" and that magical '79 season will enjoy this book. It may have a broader appeal as well for those interested in that era of baseball, as it provides a snapshot of how the game was played at the dawn of the free agent era, when relief pitchers were first coming into prominence, and the game was in a major state of transition.

Theo Logos

This is an excellent book. It details the shooting of Rebecca Wight and Claudia Brenner, two lesbians hiking near the Appalachian Trail in Adams County, Pennsylvania. When Stephen Roy Carr, the "mountain man," saw them engaged in sexual activity, he shot at them with a .22 caliber rifle, killing Wight and injuring Brenner. What follows is a reconstruction of those events, Carr's subsequent capture, and the legal proceedings that followed.

Pohlman does an excellent job describing the events that occured that day in the woods in May 1988 - so well that it reads like a murder mystery. He is also equally strong in presenting the legal issues at hand. Did Carr shoot the women because of his anti-homosexual beliefs, or was he simply jealous? Could the victims and their families expect justice in a conservative small town such as Gettysburg, PA, where the jury could conceivably lessen Carr's crime because of their own anti-homosexual beliefs? The author makes good use of interviews with the prosecuting and defense attorneys in the case, as well as with the State Police officers associated with the investigation. One quickly realizes that what would appear to be an open-and-shut case - no one really belived Carr *didn't* shoot the women - can easily develop into a complcitaed web of legal issues. This happens as easily in small-town America as it does in O.J. Simpson's L.A.

I grew up in Adams County, and I was in junior high when this incident happened. I remembered hearing about it and even remember seeing it in the local news paper. For me, it was incredibly interesting to go back as an adult and read about these events. Just recently, I was able to use the author's description of the crime scene to retrace the steps Brenner and Wight took on that fateful day. That should give you some idea as to how detailed this book is.

Pohlman, a political science professor, has done an excellent job of shedding light on the inner workings of the criminal justice system and raising issues with which every thoughtful American should be concerned. I read this book in two sittings and found it fascinating. The story is dramatic, the writing tight and clear, and the treatment of the issues even-handed.

This book is a true treasure. The photography is amazing. As a Pennsylvania native, this book truly enlivens the state and brings it's natural beauty alive.

Richard is a skilled writer who has the ability to entertain and educate. His descriptions of Pennsylvania's landscapes and wildlife are educational, but at the same time, down-to-Earth. While reading, I felt like I was on a hike with him through the wilderness as he taught me about the scenes all around.

This attractive book will be a wonderful memento for Pennsylvania outdoor lovers, or those from out of the state who have grown to love the surprising intensity of Pennsylvania's natural beauty. And speaking of surprises, many people from outside Pennsylvania, and even many actual residents of the state, might be unaware of our vast natural wonders, which should encourage both appreciation for that beauty and awareness of the need to protect natural treasures from rampant development and consumerism. Author Richard Whiteford is a renowned Pennsylvania conservationist, and with his writing here, he does an outstanding job describing the human and natural history of the state, and ruminating on the need for protection and appreciation of natural resources. (However, due to some awkward breaks in tone and logic, I suspect that Whiteford's text has been heavily edited by the publisher. Keep this in mind while enjoying his otherwise exceptional writing.) The true treasure of this book is the stupendous photography of Michael Gadomski, who has captured a plethora of stunning shots from around the state and in all seasons, from humble wildflowers to expansive vistas, all of which amply illustrate how "industrialized" Pennsylvania can be a real surprise for nature lovers. [~doomsdayer520~]

I have long enjoyed watching wildlife programs on PBS and the Discovery channel, but I was surprised by both the breadth and depth of their treatment here. There is a wealth of information about the genre, and many interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the films and their makers (the bit about Frank Buck is priceless!). The author is evidently a media scholar or film historian of some sort, and is clearly at home analyzing how films work, how audiences receive them, and how the economics of the film and television industries shape content. He makes some good connections between wildlife films and written animal stories, animated films, myths, fables, etc. I admired the way he outlined the historical development of wildlife films by constantly showing the relevance of that history to contemporary programs. His discussions of how wildlife films depict the complexities of evolutionary biology were of particular interest to me, and in my view were very astute. He makes a good case that profit-driven and formulaic media images have done little to help the general public toward a better understanding of scientific facts related to contemporary wildlife issues, and that they really are not meant to. I'm amazed the whole subject has been overlooked for so long, and am delighted to see it get this kind of treatment.

For anyone seriously interested in wildlife films, this book provides a compelling argument that they share many traits with mainstream Hollywood moviemaking, often to their detriment as scientific educational tools. Bousé traces how traditions within the film and television industry have constrained wildlife films from the silent era through the present. He gives numerous examples of how evolution and behavioral biology have been misrepresented by filmmakers intent on telling stories about animals behaving in ways analogous to human heroes, villains, parents and children. Particularly fascinating is his account of how the Walt Disney Company drew from conventions in its animated films when entering into wildlife filmmaking with the True-Life series, which subsequently influenced other wildlife films. This is an eye-opening read that should enhance critical viewership of these films and inspire future filmmakers to rethink their approach to the animals they depict.

The poem of 'Piers the Ploughman' is often considered to be anonymously composed, as the name William Langland was less an authorial designation as it was an inscription on the back of a manuscript - it would be as if I would be assigned the authorship of the O.E.D. because, in some future time, the only remaining copy was missing the title pages, but still had the hard-cover with my 'ex libris' impression on it. Be that as it may, Langland is considered at least as likely an author as any other, and becomes a sort of stand-in, an 'everyman' for his time period. A few details of this Langland are known - he was a wanderer, a constant reviser (the poem goes through several revisions that scholars have designated as texts A, B, and C (and some argue for Z). This is not a spiritual autobiography, as J.F. Goodridge states in his introduction to another edition, but there are no doubt autobiographical elements in the text. That the lead character is named 'Will' helps in this identification.

This poem stands alongside Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' as one of the great products of Middle English; this also has the character of being a different sort of Middle English than Chaucer's more courtly, continental influenced variety. Thus, it gives breadth to the history of the English language. Goodridge ranks Langland as a great English poet on a par with Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth and Yeats, as representative of his age both in topics as well as language facility.

This epic poem deals with themes familiar for the time - like Dante and Milton, Langland deals with the grand ideas of the meaning of life and the destiny of humankind. However, unlike Dante and Milton, Will and Piers the Ploughman do not go through a mystical, otherworldly adventure or journey, but rather stays rooted to the earth. These are dream sequences, but these too need not be otherworldly - they are things that can happen to every person. The ideas of the seven deadly sins, the virtues, the church, and the images of heaven and hell are very much rooted to regular society images of the same. The discussion of the allegorical characters, aptly named Do-Well, Do-Better, and Do-Best, does much for the moral teaching of this poem, which would have been of primary concern to the author.

Langland's text is often more Old English than Chaucerian in ways. It is far more alliterative, a strong component taken from Old English. Also, it is less metrical in rhythm than Chaucer - there is a pause in each line akin to older English poetry, but the metre is less secure.

There are over 50 non-related texts of the poem that have survived the Middle Ages, that vary from minor to major changes throughout. Reconciling these is rather like attempting to reconcile the gospels of the Bible, and then adding to that task the discovery of other non-canonical gospels. It leads to rich discussion, but less agreement.

George Economou, who has translated ancient and medieval poetry from many different langauges, has taken as his base text the lesser-used C text for this translation. Economou includes a good introductory essay, a selected bibliography, and a good verse translation that preserves many elements of the original, such as alliteration.

This is one of the classics of English literature, perhaps the least known among them.

Though a difficult work, Piers Plowman is definitely worth reading for anyone studying English literature. This allegorical dream-vision follows the narrator, Will, on his journey though the world and into the depths of the human consciousness. Always vivid and imaginative, sometimes even humorous, this poem is a fascinating glimpse into mid fourteenth century England. Economou's translation of the lesser-read C text is often poetically quite beautiful and always easy for a modern reader to understand.

The story of how William Penn evolved to become what Thomas Jefferson described as "the greatest lawgiver the world has produced" (Pennsylvania's Charter of Privileges) is well told by these authors. Penn's ideas were, of course, foundational to the U.S. Constitution, just as "Cosmic Laws" are foundational to the Second American Evolution and The CONSTITUTION of UNITED DIVERSITY. Triaka, aka Wm Penn

Read this book before you anything else about William Penn! This is the best for all age groups. You will want to read everything these authors have written on "Heroes of History"

I have read all five of Mariam's Journals and enjoyed them all. I felt like I was part of her family.Carrie Bender done an excellent job. I like to hear about the Omnish People. Their beleif is similar to mine.Great job, Carrie Bender

I love this book,it is my favorite of all the her stories. It was the first one that I read 6 to 7 years ago. Since that time I have read everyone of her books, except for this last one that I just found. It was this book that started me on reading all these Amish books. Went on to read all of Borntrager series, plus Beverly Lewis books. Again I`ve read all hers except the last two which one I am starting now. I have nothing but pure raves for all of Carrie Benders books. Read them you will surely enjoy, happy reading.

Its very rare to come across such a well researched AND well written novel. The author has lived in close proximity to the actual places where the action of the novel takes place. I commend him on doing such fine work making the subject matter and the belief systems of the protagonists both accessible and illuminating to ones own spiritual work. This novel can therefore be read on several levels. I believe any student of mysticism and especially of the Rosicrucian, Sufi and Martinist varieties will find great nourishment here. Kelpius the main character who at a very young age was chosen to lead an early migration of free thinkers and mystics on their migration to the the New World is largely unknown. I think he would have been very happy with this account of his life and interaction with the wide milieu of characters from the time of his youth in Transylvania and Germany and his sensitive meeting withe native americans and local ruffian elements in Pennsylvania. I was particularly impressed by the author's ability to weave elements from a diverse number of sources into a cohesive whole. I recommend this book very highly both for its well written storyline, which is very inspirational since in a sense every mystic is also laboring in a wilderness surrounded by ignorance and self promotion as well as for the deep research which is intelligently presented.

What a strange and extraordinary new book.

With it's seekers of knowledge and true wisdom, secret societies, Old Europe science, New World adventures, mystics meditating in Pennsylvania caves, genuine history and examinations of the nature of intolerance, rigidity and fear, this book is like nothing I've yet read.

Toss in a hefty dose of alchemical/astrological/astronomical mysteries (such as the curious and remarkable Holographicum, an instrument that no less than Benjamin Franklin comes to inherit, and is actually on public display in an obscure museum in Philadelphia today), and I think this is a recipe for a blockbuster, break-out book.

I appreciated author Scott's final notes, untangling factual events from fictional narrative. The depth of research into a multitude of obscure topics is evident.

I'm not certain how to categorize this historical novel, but I read it straight through in a weekend, cover to cover.

Perhaps it is best not pigeonholed, but left to speak for itself. That, in itself, seems to be one of the driving points of the book.

The book is an excellent collection of cutting edge writing on women.

Further, anything written by Susan Slyomovics is spellbinding. I have become quite a fan of her publications. She has a unique viewpoint; she allows her sensitivity to culture of the Middle East and her own humanity to shine through her academic production. Another writer like this is Michael Sells. It has been a long time coming.

Women and Power in the Middle East provides college-level audiences with seventeen essays which analyze the social, political, economic and cultural forces shaping gender systems in the Mid-East and North Africa. These appeared at different times in the journal Middle East Report, and outline changing roles women have played in the politics of the region, when and why they mobilize, and how movements and politics affect their lives. Recommended for any collection strong in women's or Middle East history.

This is a great example of how to do a modern ethnography. Many of the methods texts dealing with ethnographies fail to provide any useful advice on the topic. This book does not offer advice, but rather a very successful model of what to do. So, you could say that it informs by example. Aside from that particular benefit, the book is a great read and source of useful insights into how communities construct an image to maintain their viability.

Often when people think about folklore, they picture quaint villages populated by storytellers and quilters. John Dorst seeks to dispel those stereotypes with his postmodern analysis of the hidden ideology and power behind the serene façade of a middle-class elite suburb, in this case, Chadds Ford, PA, home of the Wyeth family of artists. In doing so, he pushes folklore studies into an intriguing new direction. The Written Suburb introduces 4 key concepts: 1.) post-ethnography-the reading of institutions, printed materials, and events such as museums, historical societies, arts and crafts festivals, diner menus, and AAA brochures as postmodern texts; 2.) postmodern vernacular-a particular "dialect" of postmodernity characterized by self-reference without the ironic sense of humor as found in MTV and comic books; 3.) auto-ethnography-the self-generated texts of a literate society capable of observing itself. The folklorist's job is to collect and read critically these texts; and 4.) Site-a suburb as an assemblage of texts and ideology. Dorst also questions the rhetoric behind museums (in this case the Brandywine River Museum) and the concept of tradition. The unique combination of the works of postmodernists and semiotics scholars such as Frederic Jameson and Dean MacCannel with American folklore scholarship is truly stimulating.

Being so theoretical, The Written Suburb is not an easy book to read, nor can its concepts be easily grasped in one reading. But it is a valuable book for folklorists who are serious about the evolution of the discipline and who enjoy finding connections between folkloristics and postmodernism.