Pennsylvania Books

I am in the process of reading this book along with the photo-essay. So far it is very personal, to the plight that the people of Centralia have had to deal with in this terrible tragedy. The author has embraced it with a passion, as his wife was roommates with a young lady who actually lived through the "part of God's country that became a living hell."

As a native of industrialized Pennsylvania I'm perplexed by how little is known of the tragedy of Centralia. I was unfamiliar myself until some years ago when I innocently passed through the area on route 61. I found a ghost town with an orderly street grid, with city blocks completely devoid of all but one or two lonely buildings, and vast abandoned fields covering what could have been orderly neighborhoods. I thought, what in the world is this? I also witnessed what I thought was a natural hot spring emitting steam from a hillside. Only over time did I learn that the hot spring was really smoke from the underground mine fire that wiped out what was once a normal small town.

DeKok's book is probably the most extensive investigation of the Centralia tragedy, especially with his coverage of the political ineptitude over decades that made a minor problem into a major disaster. Dekok reveals that the town started the fire itself in 1962 by burning trash in a landfill that had an unknown connection to an old mine shaft, which ignited the slow-burning coal in the mines beneath the town. For 19 years the slow fire affected more and more people with toxic fumes, until by 1981 tragedy struck when a gentleman had to be hospitalized and a boy fell through a flaming cave-in behind his house. DeKok covers the years and years of political and bureaucratic ineptitude that merely led to "studies" of the fire rather than action, as the people of Centralia were pawns in a game between apathetic agencies with overlapping jurisdictions, plus buck-passing between the state and the Feds. Even the citizens were torn apart by divisiveness caused by stress and anger. Eventually most of the residents chose to be relocated to other towns by the government, and DeKok's most moving coverage concerns the social agony caused by this final abandonment of the town.

As an update since this book, the fire is still slowly burning beneath much of the area. For their own strange reasons, a few residents are still hanging on in their lonely houses and still dealing with fumes and cave-ins. St. Ignatius church was demolished recently and route 61 has been permanently re-routed around the section that kept collapsing. This is the legacy of uncaring politicians and bureaucrats.

The title of my review says it all. A good read but one that will get your dander up about how this was handled.

This is a great book! I recomend it to anyone who likes learning new things and to people who enjoy nonfiction.

I first found out about the underground coal mine fire at Centralia PA and the devastation of the town above it while surfing the Web, looking for information about urban ruins. The photos I saw on various websites were eerie: where a small town once stood there was now only streets and sidewalks. A sliver of a dwelling that had once been part of a string of row houses stood alone, propped up on either side by brick chimney-like buttresses that provided the support that other dwellings, now torn down, once gave. Steam rose from cracks in a twisted and abandoned highway or from patches of scorched earth surrounded by dead vegetation. While these photos were very creepy and intriguing, I didn't stop to read much about the story of Centralia; I was on a quest to find out more about abandoned sites closer to my home in New York State's Hudson Valley region that I have seen for myself and visited: the Lente house, Bannerman's Island Arsenal, and the Cornish Estate.

Years later but a few weeks ago I happened across the last five minutes of a segment on C-SPAN's Book TV that caught my attention. Joan Quigley, author of "The Day the Earth Caved In" was talking about the Centralia mine fire. From the little bit I saw of the show it was clear that there was much more to the Centralia story than what I gathered from the photos on the Web. I eagerly wrote down the name of the book and its author so that the next time I visited Amazon I could order it. After adding the book to my shopping cart, Amazon suggested that I also might want to check out David DeKok's "Unseen Danger", an earlier volume on the same subject. I ordered both.

As chance would have it, "Unseen Danger" arrived about a week before "The Day the Earth Caved In" and now, having read both books, I'm glad it did. I have a busy life and don't have a lot of time to read but I found Mr. DeKok's telling of the story so compelling that I neglected a lot of my duties around the house to make time for it. I took it to work and read it on my lunch and dinner breaks. I stayed up into the early morning hours, far longer than I should have, to finish it in a couple of days instead of the weeks it usually takes me to read a book.

As the blurb quoted on the cover from the New York Times Book Review states, there are "enough bureaucratic villains [in this story] to fill a Dickens novel." I would add that there were some Centralian citizens (especially one infuriatingly obnoxious homeowner in particular who I kept hoping would disappear into a subsidence) and the local Catholic church (who should have also suffered the same fate) who deserved to be included in that category as well. This is a story of missed opportunities, inter-governmental squabbles, denial of the present realities and local feuds all working together to turn the lives of the residents of this beleaguered town into a living hell. Mr. DeKok does a fine job of telling the story and it is obvious that he put a tremendous amount of effort into researching it and a lot of detective work into trying to separate fact from fiction, especially when it comes to the matter of how the mine fire got started in the first place. He paints a clear and terrifying picture of what the residents who were most effected by the danger had to go through before they got some relief, and the unconscionable indifference that government officials showed to the plight of their constituents in order to protect their own political behinds. The cast of characters in "Unseen Danger" is large and varied and includes the above mentioned villains and a few heroes too. The attention to detail is astounding and makes for extremely compelling reading.

However, in my opinion, the book is not without its flaws. While the above mentioned attention to detail is most welcome, at times it can be confusing, especially when trying to picture the relative locations of the events. Three small maps are included in the paperback edition that I read; one showing where Centralia is located in relation to large East Coast cities, a local map indicating local landmarks and some street names along with the locations of the fire's origin and the site of one especially scary event, and a third map that indicates where the fire hot spots were located in 1983. These graphics are only helpful in a minimal way and don't go far enough toward clarification.

Photographs appear at the start of each chapter and there are a few in the bodies of the chapters. In terms of graphic clarity (not subject matter) all leave much to be desired and in many cases they are of such poor quality as to be useless. They have the appearance of being photocopies of photocopies of photocopies and are of such high contrast that the very features that they were intended to illustrate have become invisible. I do not blame Mr. DeKok for this - his publisher should have done a better job. As for the type of photos included, there are many of Centralians effected by the fire, some of the government workers who had to deal with the situation on almost a daily basis, one of the fire itself, and many of the government figures involved. However there is one glaring omission: aside from the cover photo which is obscured by the bold lettering of the book's title there are no pictures of the town, either as it was at the beginning of the story, during, or after. For those, one must go to the various websites dedicated to the subject.

Ms. Quigley's book generally does not suffer from these kind of setbacks. Even before her Prologue we are provided with a nearly full page map which clearly indicates street names, locations of local landmarks, locations of the principal character's homes, indications of the sites and scope of efforts to stop the fires, and a distance scale to help us better grasp the relative proximities of the places and events described. I wish I had this map while I was reading "Unseen Danger", it would have increased my appreciation of that book all the more. "The Day the Earth Caved In" contains eight pages of black and white photographs, all well reproduced, including one of the authors' grandparents row home from 1984, and one taken in 2000 of a tourist observing a cloud of vapor emanating from a non-descript area in the woods, as well as photos of mine workings from the 1880's and pictures of some of the people central to her telling of the story. As with "Unseen Danger" wide angle photos of the town before and after are absent and their inclusion would have helped drive home the immense scope of this catastrophe. Again, one has to search the Internet to find those kind of pictures.

While David DeKok relates the Centralia story by presenting an almost day by day account of the events that occurred he does not get inside the heads of the principals too deeply. He doesn't have to - anyone who has an atom of imagination can empathize or sympathize with the horrors that these people must have been through. But what left me scratching my head in bewilderment after I finished his book was why the Centralians were so reluctant to leave their homes and flee the danger. I suppose this is because I was born and raised in New York City and have moved to new homes five times since I left my parents house - once because the dangers of living in a loft on NY's Lower East Side became too much to bear. It wasn't until a few days ago while discussing the matter with a co-worker who grew up in a small town in upstate New York (population about 2000) that I really began to understand what made Centralians want to cling to their homesteads so tenaciously. Joan Quigley, by telling her version of the story through the eyes, histories and emotions of a few of the key players attempts to explain that sense of attachment, but is only partially successful. Ironically enough, it is DeKok's sparse explanation that comes closest to what my co-worker told me and what I've observed since moving from NYC to a small town: that many people living in small towns are fearful of the outside world and are much more likely to cling to surroundings that are much more familiar and therefore comforting.

Quigley's device of presenting the story by delving into the personal histories and feelings of her selected subjects is a welcome supplement to the mine fire disaster story as told by DeKok but ultimately it falls short in conveying just how desperately dangerous their situation was. At times I got the impression that she feels that the personal relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children or neighbors and neighbors is the interesting part of the story and the mine fire and its dangers were just a backdrop to that soap opera. Major events, like one man's close encounter with death by carbon monoxide poisoning while asleep in his bedroom and the circumstances leading up to it are described in great detail in "Unseen Danger" while Ms. Quigley mentions it almost in passing, preferring to more often dwell on what clothes a person was wearing. (What bearing does who wore what color pants suit on a particular day have on the story at hand? Inexplicably, these kind of observations appear far too frequently.) This is generally indicative of both authors approach to their subjects.

Similarly, Mr. DeKok tends to speak with authority and presumably understanding on technical matters while Ms. Quigley shows some lack of comprehension. For example, at one point she states that oxygen was the fuel that kept the mine fires burning. Just for the record: coal is the fuel that is consumed by the fire while oxygen needs to be present for oxidation - burning - to occur; oxygen in and of itself does not burn. This is elementary Junior High school science. While I realize that the point Ms. Quigley was trying to make was that some scientists proposed that if the mine fire were to be deprived of oxygen then it might go out, it is this misunderstanding of basic physics that influences me to trust Mr. DeKok's opinions over hers.

One rare instance where Ms. Quigley's narrative excels over Mr. DeKok's is in her scathing indictment of the Reagan administration and of the local Catholic church, an institution highly revered and trusted in Centralia, who let their parishioners down as shamefully and grievously as the government had. Mr. DeKok also criticizes these institutions, but instead mostly relies on the method he employs when dealing with other facets of the story, that of letting the facts speak for themselves. Ms. Quigley does this as well, however, she goes one step further on this one point by including examples of government official's blunders not cited in "Unseen Danger", in particular those of the lunatic James Watt (who was Secretary of the Interior near the end of the story) whose public statements were so insane that President Reagan gladly accepted his resignation, and none too soon: after Watt left office he was indicted on charges of influence peddling. None of this information about Watt was in "Unseen Danger" and I strongly feel it should have been.

Both books tell pretty much the same story (though from different perspectives and not equally as well), but one disagreement between the two is about how the fire started in the first place. In my opinion Mr. DeKok presents a far more plausible explanation, citing specific evidence in chapter 3 of his book while Ms. Quigley covers the subject in an author's note at the end of hers. While she states that her research provides strong evidence for her version of the events, she reveals very few specifics of it and appears to rely heavily on the testimony of residents living near the ignition site, claiming that they had no reason to lie. I view this claim with a lot of skepticism. Her own depiction of the character of the Centralia residents (especially some who lived near the dump) leads me to conclude otherwise. Also, Ms. Quigley seems to overlook one gigantic 500 pound gorilla in the room: Why would the town dump be set on fire if it was already burning? It seems painfully obvious to me that they wouldn't. In any case, the cause of the fire is only one part of the story and either scenario would have led to the same result.

If one is interested in reading about this subject my advice is to get both of these books. Read "Unseen Fire" first (it is by far the better of the two because in part it tells the horrific story in much more frightening detail) but keep "The Day The Earth Caved In" handy so you can refer to its superior map. Then read Ms. Quigley's book as a supplement, to flesh out some of the characters involved and to learn a handful of interesting but not necessarily essential facts that were left out of Mr. DeKok's. Some may find her more personally intimate and emotional method of storytelling preferable to DeKok's somewhat dry, fact based delivery but I for one did not. For as much as I enjoyed "The Day The Earth Caved In" on a certain level I think I did so because I already knew the facts ahead of time. Much to her credit, Ms. Quigley invoked in me even more sympathy for the people she chose to focus on than I had before, (at least those who were deserving of it,) especially one young couple's story of being pulled apart because of wanting different things out of life, which paralleled my own personal experience. However, I feel that this concentration on the private lives of a select few takes too much attention away from exploring and understanding the broader picture of governmental incompetence that any one of us could fall victim to under similar unfortunate circumstances.

Hope that nothing like this ever happens in your town.

Bonita Campbell has done a phenomenal job. She has the gift of providing whatever needs to be said. i am amazed at the scope and accuracy of her work, and ma the good Lord bless her and the work she is doing.

I wear the hats of both an artist, and a collector of decorative aluminum. As an artist, I am drawn to the Campbell book, because it represents the first fully researched history of the company that introduced this uniquely American art form. As a collector, I am delighted to find a work that gives me information to determine the provenance, including dating, of the Wendell August Forge artifacts.

A beautifully illustrated book showing countless vintage pieces of hand forged aluminum artwork of exceptional rarity. Comprehensive appendixes on trademark handstamp marks and dating clues allows collectors and dealers to date peices with considerable accuracy. This book is valuable to novice and experienced collectors, antique dealers, researchers and historians. It is destined to become an essential resource to anyone interested in decorative, architectural or hand hammered aluminum.

"Wendell August Forge: Seventy Five Years of Artistry in Metal," by Bonita Campbell, is a benchmark work. For dealers and collectors of decorative and hammered aluminum giftware, the book is noteworthy because it is well researched, well written and generously illustrated. Campbell skillfully relates in a readable narrative format, the history of this company and its place in the decorative aluminum industry that it founded. Moreover, Campbell's research also gives the reader information on company marks, motifs, and production styles, that makes it possible to date Wendell August Forge pieces. Collectors and dealers who know the provenance of a piece will always have advantage over those who do not. We can only hope that Campbell, as a noteworthy expert in this genre, will soon be publishing additional works about decorative aluminum.

Finally, a well researched book that chronicles the Wendell August Forge, pioneers of hand forged decorative aluminum giftwares and architectural items. Not only does this book detail the incredible story of the Wendell August Forge but also gives much insight into other producers who had their beginnings with the forge. Artisans such as, Arthur Armour, James DePonceau and Arthur Palmer along with many others are briefly discussed also. Wendell August Forge: Seventy Five Years of Artistry in Metal is beautifully illustrated showing scores of wonderful pieces of hand forged aluminum items of both giftware and architectural nature. Appendices showing marks help to date pieces more accurately, making this book valuable to collectors, dealers and researchers. This book is extremely well written and is a joy to read. You will refer to it again and again!

I have read a fair amount of Perelman and although I enjoy him I find his humor a bit dated at times, while at other times he is trying to be too clever, playing word games that interfere with the overall flow of the writing. I have no such reservations about this book, whose humor is timeless, and outstanding. Anyone who has ever felt they've been done in by a contractor, or anyone who has ever tried the country life for a while will especially enjoy the book. One of the stories, about staying alone in the country house at night, caused me to break out in tears of laughter the first three times I read it.

I scribble the occasional humor book myself (most recently, Scratching The 'Net: Web Sites for Cats) but I can only dream of one day reaching the classy comedic heights of Mr. Perelman. He had an amazing command of language, yet wrote in a style so amazingly easy to read that it goes down like a fine wine. Acres and Pains is a decent sample of his work, telling tales of his travails in Bucks County, PA, where so many of the New York literati used to maintain country homes. His run-ins with the locals, relatives and the house itself (which he named "Rising Gorge") provide one hilarious situation after another. When it comes to 20th century humor writers, Perelman is a refined cut above.

As S.J. Perelman himself put it: "Before they made me, they broke the mold." One-of-a-kind, lapidary, laugh-outloud prose. Buy this book and become addicted, like the rest of us.

Why do so few people know SJ Perelman's work today? Is it because of the strange way his last name is spelled and thereby eluding the casual library/bookstore searcher typing in something like: "Pearlman"? Or perhaps he has simply become overshadowed by his more famous and equally witty contemporaries, Robert Benchley and Groucho Marx. (Perelman did indeed help write a few Marx Bros. movies - and he writes hilariously about those experiences). Check out Mr. Perelman's work. Sadly, this short book is just about the only collection of his material available on the market, and that's a great pity. It's not really his finest work... but at the least, it's a start. One must let S.J. take them out for a whirl.

I scribble the occasional humor book myself (most recently, Scratching The 'Net: Web Sites for Cats) but I can only dream of one day reaching the classy comedic heights of Mr. Perelman. He had an amazing command of language, yet wrote in a style so amazingly easy to read that it goes down like a fine wine. Acres and Pains is a decent sample of his work, telling tales of his travails in Bucks County, PA, where so many of the New York literati used to maintain country homes. His run-ins with the locals, relatives and the house itself (which he named "Rising Gorge") provide one hilarious situation after another. When it comes to 20th century humor writers, Perelman is a refined cut above.

Coke works at Hazelwood closing chapter on demise on steel in entire region. Read also: Homestead, with new forward by author, best one-town summary

I read this years ago, and I thought it was an excellent analysis of the collapse of the steel industry in Pittsburgh, filled with compelling tales of individual people.

The books feels like a Greek tragedy, in which the protagonists are doomed to a slow slide towards the edge of a cliff. Institutionalized conflict overcomes the efforts of people from both labor and maangement to halt, or at least slow the inevitable slide.

For people who think that the current dot.com crash is a serious downturn, this book offers a very good counter-perspective. When an area loses 100K jobs in 10 years, and whole towns essentially close, that's a *real* downturn.

On the other hand, there's always hope. Pittsburgh has bounced back, and has a much more diversified economy. The last time I visited, I could see the sky, which was more difficult in the steel days. To grasp those days, either see the early Tom Cruise movie "All The Right Moves", or for depth, read this book.

This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to learn about what went wrong in this basic industry. Not only a study of the collapse of the steel industry in the Mon Valley, the book is also a study of the pain of postindustrialization that swept the country in the 1980's. Esentially, the author is writing about a national trend, but focuses on the Pittsburgh area, which is really a microcosm. It is also a good look at what happens when unions and management can't get their acts together.

This is a detailed and heartbreaking story of the failure and collapse of the American steel industry. Sometimes the details are more than one needs to know, but this book will serve as an excellent case history on the underlying reasons for the transfer of the "rust-belt" jobs overseas, and now America's reliance of foreigners to produce the goods we use, in return for pieces of paper (Bonds) giving them claims on American wealth.

Mr. Hoerr tries to write a dispassionate history, but it is difficult in the face of such monumental stupidity and greed. "A vibrant forty-six mile stretch of river valley, providing primary jobs for over thirty-five thousand steel employees... would be devastated and expunged from economic memory in less than five years." "After that, the opportunities are limitless... from here to there where McDonald's needs someone to serve the one-trillionth burger." (p12-13).

The author was a reporter during this period, and apportions blame to both the steel company management and the unions, but clearly reserves his primary animus for management. They saw labor as an undifferentiated mass of dumb "hunkies", the pejorative term for people of Slavic origins, who only needed to take orders. That attitude was repaid, as Mr. Hoerr says: "I have known only two major corporations that actually engendered feelings of hatred among their employees, GM and US Steel." (p206) Management eventually acquiesced to the form, but not the substance of labor participation by forming "Labor-Management Participation Teams," but usually ignored their recommendations. There was also a willful neglect in spending the capital to modernize the operations - USX finally proposed building the first continuous caster plant in the Mon Valley in 1986! - at the very end. (p550) Instead it infuriated the labor force by spending its capital in buying Marathon Oil.

The author had access, and draws telling portraits of the principal actors involved, from the USW's I.W. Abel, Lloyd McBride, Lynn Williams, Bernard Kleiman and Edmund Ayoub. On the management side there was David M. Roderick, Thomas Graham and David Hoag.

I worked in US Steel's Homestead Works for two summers during my college years - '65 and '66. At the time I thought this work was the most "real", and those mills would be eternal - America would always need steel, and would obviously need to produce it. Fortunately the avenging angel passed me by, as I decided this work was not for me. Once again another "wolf" has finally come to America - this time high (and higher still) gas prices, which will force more economic dislocations that prudent planning could have avoided. Will American society be able to organize its economy prudently, to truly meet the real needs of its citizens, and minimize massive dislocations? This book is an excellent story of previous follies - can we learn from them?

My dad - who died a couple of years ago - published this book. He was very proud of it, and I think he would have been very pleased to see that Amazon customers are responding to it favorably.

I did not know that PA had so many trails that can be day hiked or for weeks on end. This is a good place to start if you want to see if you can handle it before trying to hike th AT all the way.

Mitchell points you in the right direction to many well kept secrets in the Allegheney's!

Backpacking Pennsylvania does exactly the job the title leads you to believe it will do. 37 major trails are described and made accessible to the the Pennsylvania Backpacker.

Each trail narrative is preceded by a chart summarizing 13 "want-to-know" items for the trail: its length, approximate time needed for the trip, a difficulty rating, typical terrain and trail conditions, blazes, water supply, area vegetation, trail highlights, maintaining organizations, sources of maps/guides/contact information, and trailhead directions.

The trails are divided into seven geographical regions, with a map for each region showing the counties and general layouts and locations of the trails there. For each of the 37 trails, another map shows the local roads, towns, creeks, parks, and potential campsites and vistas. The narratives are sufficiently detailed that backpacker armed with this book would be able to save the purchase of many individual trail guides and maps, though these would offer more in-depth information on the history, geology, or other particulars.

This book is a great guide for planning backpacking ventures of appropirate duration, difficulty, and location in the Keystone state. I most recently backpacked the Bucktail Path and found Jeff's summary to be quite on-target. It should be in every Pennsylvania backpacker's library.

Jeff Mitchell's dusty boots had already covered new ground when he wrote "Hiking the Endless Mountains" - the first hiking book to explore the beautiful forests and creeks of Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains. Written by the Pennsylvania native, "Backpacking Pennsylvania, 37 Great Hikes" has now established Mitchell's books as the most current and definitive guide series for hiking and backpacking throughout Pennsylvania. In "Backpacking Pennsylvania", Jeff travels beyond the Allegheny Plateaus to provide concise and well-written trail descriptions. Just enough information is provided for each trail system and Mitchell leaves it to the reader to put his book down and to just start hiking!

Jeff Mitchell's Preface in "Backpacking Pennsylvania" is a righteous testamony to those special places which are rapidly disappearing in the 21st Century. "By respectfully visiting and experiencing these places, we can appreciate and protect them" and "Backpacking reintroduces people not only to nature, but also to each other".

Yes it's possible, in "industrialized" Pennsylvania of all places, to hike for days without seeing a single other person, and outdoor enthusiasts from throughout the Northeast should be more familiar with the Pennsylvania backpacking experience. I'm a native of the state who has been seriously hiking and backpacking for years, and I'm still continually amazed by the variety and extensiveness of Pennsylvania's long-distance hiking trails. Amid the state's surprisingly remote and wild areas are dozens of trails that exceed 20 miles in length, and several that surpass 100 miles. There is far more to Pennsylvania backpacking than the famous Appalachian Trail, which Jeff Mitchell accurately describes as one of the least interesting trails in the state. This book is not meant to be a true guide for any of the trails described, but summarizes the long-distance hiking opportunities available. Therefore, unless you really know what you're doing, following trails with this book will be difficult given its abbreviated travelogues and very non-detailed maps, so don't try to do an extensive trip *only* with this book. Detailed trail guides and/or maps are usually available elsewhere.

What makes this book a real winner is an outstanding introduction concerning various backpacking issues and challenges, and excellent geographical info for each trail described, especially in terms of trail conditions, locations of trailheads, and contact information. I have completed several of Pennsylvania's long-distance trails, especially in the central and north-central regions of the state, and given Mitchell's knowledgeable and accurate writing I can attest that he has either hiked these trails himself or has talked extensively with people who have. For this reason I am confident about his descriptions of the trails I haven't yet tackled, and you should be too. So if you're in Pennsylvania but are unaware of the adventures in store, this book is an outstanding introduction to our vast backpacking opportunities. [~doomsdayer520~]

A wonderfully suggestive work. Clothed in sometimes rigorous scholarly prose, this book is a fit remedy to the spiritual pabulum of our day. Not everyone who dies is escorted by loving family members to the spirit Harvard in the sky.

There are "homeless" spirits, who can't even find their way to hell and others so purposeful, they refuse to wait for their next incarnation to have their say. They both might choose to occupy the bodies of people--or dogs.

If they're the homeless type and Jewish, you might consider bringing a Muslim or Christian exorcist. The spells and spirits they bring will crowd out and disgust the Jew into leaving. If they're the other kind, and they misquote a classic Jewish text, but you don't quite catch their drift, they could decide you're too dull for dwelling in.

An entertaining and edifying historical anthropology of a key phenomenon, spirit possession, at the dawn of modern Jewish mysticism.

This is the most scholarly work on the subject of Jewish exorcisms in English. I recommend it to the student and religious practitioner alike. If nothing else, the appendix and bibliography are invaluable to anyone interested in the subject.

I feel that not enough attention was paid to non-dybbuk forms of possession. Demonic possession, though not as prevalent in Talmudic Judaism, does appear throughout Jewish history. Also, more information on 'good' forms of spirit possession would have been helpful, specifically those forms which exhibit themselves in Chasidism.

My only real negative criticism on the text itself is that the translations leave the average reader quite sated but only whet the appetite of a serious scholar. Chajes should consider providing the original Hebrew and Aramaic texts in an additional appendix.

Although many people will focus in on the "ecstatic women on the margins" possibilities of Chajnes's book, I find the study important primarily for opening eyes to what was mainstream Judaism, and European at that, in the early modern period. Not just an isolated incident or two, and covering many phenomena of Jewish life, spirit communication and mystical insights are typical of a major stream in Judaism. Where did we get the hyper-rational and book-dominated religion of Reform Judaism today? That should be the question. The religion is rich with the same kind of intermingling of heavenly and earthly worlds that Christian and Muslim peoples saw. Think again about what is normal, orthodox in any of them. Thinking in the long historical perspective, Judaism as ethics, reason, and law and those elements only - that is the anomaly.

This well researched investigation of the passage of souls and the potential delays and solutions that could be encountered is surely the best book available on the subject. It can be read and understood by the common man of any religion and scholars will also find much newly translated and well interpreted depth study of this most important subject. Buy it, read it and give gifts of it. It will change how you look at life and death.

An amazingly informative read, Between Worlds offers a rare glance into the writings of Early Modern Jews dealing with spirit possession, excorcism, and prevailing attitudes of the times, both Jewish and non-Jewish. It was fascinating to read about Luria and his contemporaries dealings with dyybuks, possessed women, and to have the comparision with Christian and Islamic practises and writings of the period. The possession accounts are captivating, and Chajes is excellent at breaking the information down to guide the reader through all the twists and turns that an excorcist would follow. I especially enjoyed the chapters on women and their use of possession to call for change, and heavily influence powerful men at times. While academic in style, it is none the less a great read for anyone remotely interested in Jewish spirit possession, exorcism, women's religiosity, and Medieval/Early Modern Kabbalistic attitudes of these issues.

"Caught In The Act" (Amhearst Series #2) has main character Merrilee Kramer bumbling from one klutzy moment to another, getting herself into scrape after scrape as she tries to find out who killed Arnie Meister. Merry is the local paper's cub reporter covering the murder story who fashions herself to be a sleuth.

It's Christmas, and she is having a hard time figuring out who would want to kill Arnie, her co-worker's soon to be ex-husband. But before you can string up some garlands, the suspects start piling up: the soon to be ex, an old high school flame, the biggest business tycoon in town.

To make matters more complicated, Merry thinks she's falling in love with Curt Carlyle, a local painter, but are her many brushes with near death scaring him off?

I liked Merry Kramer and her antics. The book is well written, as are all Gayle Roper's books. As it's set at Christmas, this would make a dandy Christmas gift.

I didn't think I would enjoy "Caught in the Act" as much as I did "Caught in the Middle", but I liked it even better! The mystery kept me guessing until the end of the book(and so did the romance). I can really relate to Merry. She seems like someone who would be a good friend(if she were real). She's a great character. I cannot wait for the next in the series. Write(and publish) faster!

After reading Caught in the Middle, the first book in this series, I thought that it would be impossible for the second installment in Gayle Roper's series to measure up to the first book. Happily, the second book is even more entertaining than its predecessor and will not disappoint readers in any way.

Perhaps the best part of this series is the main character. Merry Kramer continues to be a person that everyone can relate to. She, unlike many characters in Christian fiction, is a real person who is not perfect. She makes mistakes but learns from them, just like the rest of us. She battles with bad hair days and the always present cat hair on her pants. She often finds herself in unusual and often hilarious situations and never runs away from a challenge. The rest of the books characters are immensely entertaining; from Merry's demanding cat to the artist who is constantly frustrated at her independence. The newspaper staff that Merry works with is full of colorful characters who provide many of the best scenes in the novel.

As an avid mystery reader, I am used to being able to predict the endings of mysteries before the main character does. I was very happy to discover that I was completely wrong in my guess at who the murderer was in this book. The ending is a complete surprise; I cannot think of a better way to end such a charming, entertaining book.

Humor, mystery, faith, and a little bit of romance are all skillfully blended together to create a book worthy of a "prime" spot on anyone's bookshelf.

If you read my review of the first book, you know that I loved it. Well, in my mind, this one is so much better. I don't remember laughing out loud at this one, but over all the story is so great. The mystery is harder to solve, yet makes perfect sense. The romantic subplot is great as are the plots involving the other characters that we meet. I saw a lot of myself in Merry's problems with her personal life. The first book is great and a great way to meet the characters, but this book gets even better. Be sure to read them both. I'm egarly waiting the third book, Caught Napping, which the author has just started on.

The predecessor to this book was good, but the sequel was even better. The characters are just as real and loveable, and the feisty heroine Merry tells her story with both dry wit and tender feeling. The mystery was also even better--just about as hard to solve as an Agatha Christie. If you liked the first book, grab "Caught in the Act"!

This well-written book gives keen insight to events surrounding the dissolution of Yugoslavia while providing a view into the collective mind of former Yugoslavians. This book also makes one wonder about how nationalism is used, for better or worse, in other countries as a political vehicle to motivate its people to support specific ideals. While I agree with Ugresic's criticism of nationalism and the role it plays in post-Yugoslavian times, I also wonder if it is just a collective defense-mechanism, a means for survival when collective identity is being shattered. It is a fascinating read, well-written, and illuminating on many different levels.

Ms Ugresic makes a real case when she exposes the nationalisms that permeate our world. How do things that are similar become different? Why do people not approach themselves but are being "held apart"? Much of the reasons are political policies, money and power struggles. At the end of the day, everyone of us is victim of national brainwashing. This is why we ought to be critical and never forget how we have something essential in common: we are all human.

Although it has taken the English translation of this collection of essays a few years to come into print (it was first published in Dutch),this is a highly relevant, illuminating, and moving book. Most of the essays were written between '92 and '94, with more recent postscripts. With rare clarity and complexity of thought, gift of articulation, emotional courage and absence of pretence or squeamishness, Ugresic has carried out a highly accessible investigation into the Yugoslav war, the demise of communist Europe, the East-West polarity, the ambiguities of exile. With references to other East European writers and thinkers (Milan Kundera, Miroslav Krleja, Danilo Kis, Josiph Brodsky), she explores the tyranny of the new constructs of national identity in the Balkan states, the enforced collective amnesia of the former Yugoslavs, the many traumas of their history, as well as the common psycho-cultural lanscape of the 'Eastern block'. There are many deeply moving episodes and revealing insights here, delivered in the familiar 'Central European' style of ironic, melancholic, bitter humanism. Vaguely reminiscent of Milan Kundera, only better because of the lack of smugness and the final doubting humility of someone who has felt intense pain and articulated the nature of this pain.

Dubravka Ugresic is perhaps less well-known in the English-speaking world than the other Croatian "dissident" writer Slavenka Drakulic, which is unfortunate. Both Ugresic's essays and especially fiction are far superior to that of Drakulic. "Culture of Lies" includes the author's observations of Croatian society and politics of the last ten years, both of which have been none too kind to her (indeed, while achieving great acclaim in other European countries, she was branded a "traitor" and worse by Croatian politicians and the pro-regime press for her uncompromising criticism of Croatian nationalism, etc.). In this book, Ugresic shows the many ways in which nationalism imbued all levels of society in Croatia, making people increasingly hostile to different views and people who were/are "different." Her particular area of interest is the way this was reflected in the behavior of intellectuals, who-at least one would like to think-are not supposed to be as susceptible to the appeal of God-and-country patriotism and nationalistic kitsch. Her description of an incident in a Zagreb tram, in which a young man accosts and beats an old destitute drunken man, is particularly vivid and sadly indicative. In fact, this whole section of the book, called "Souvenirs from Paradise" is an excellent collection of impressions and observations of the underside of Croatian life. Despite the recent sweeping political changes in Croatia, many of the negative aspects of society in this country as described by Ugresic are still here, and they will haunt this country for some time to come.

It tells truth of thousends of people manipulated with mass media on Balkans. If you want an expert book on how wars started in ex-yugoslavia you should read this one.

The majority of most military histories tend to dwell solely on the combatants and the battles fought, and ignore non-military life as it occurred before and after the event. This masterpiece by Frassanito investigates the battle of Gettysburg, paying attention to the town life of Gettysburg before the battle and after the battle. Frassanito has made his imprint in military history by focussing on the photographic legacy that has remained. This book examines hundreds of photographs of the battle in minute detail. Included are the photographic studies made famous by Alexander Gardner and Matthew Brady, including the rebel sharpshooter lying dead in Devil's Den. Also included are the rare photographs, such as shots of the afore mentioned sharpshooter lying in the field where he actually died, before Gardner dragged him to the spot where he was immortalized. But the most important element of the book is the way that Frassanito examines life (by photograph) of the town of Gettysburg before and after the battle. He provides the historian with many invaluable aids, including panoramic shots of the town, and a photo study of the creation of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. He introduces the reader to the inhabitants of the town so well you come to almost know them. During a recent visit to the battlefield, I stopped at the Evergreen Cemetery and was surprised at the sense of attachment I had to people who had died almost one hundred years before I was born, especially Peter and Elizabeth Thorn, the keepers of the cemetery Gatehouse, which features prominently throughout the book. This is truly one of the greatest treasures of Civil War history, and one no historian should be without.

Although the majority of this book is about the battle that took place in Gettysburg, as well as its after-effects, I have to mention that there is quite a bit of scholarly information on the town itself. The pictures, and especially the accompanying text for each photo, gives the reader a window-through-time view of the little village shortly before and just after the events of early July 1863 so one can see exactly what those who were there saw. Gives me chills just thinking about it.
I never realized just how well photographically documented this particular battle was until I flipped through the pages of Mr. Frassanito's books. The then and now photos are fantastic, and the maps of each section where the shots were taken was an excellent inclusion.
Having been to Gettysburg twice in the last two years, I made myself a promise that I will not return without this author's two books ('Journey Through Time' is the other I am alluding to) as I find these to be an invaluable resource that, when I do return in '08, will help me to get a better understanding of the lay of the land, so to speak.
Truly a great and complete overview of that horrific battle. A must for Civil War fans.

One would think with it being so many years after Gettysburg and with so many books written about the battle that there would be little room for anything truly unique on the subject. However unique is a great word to use in describing this book.

This isn't just any Civil War book and William Frassanito isn't your normal Civil War author. He's a trained photo interpreter and the first man to truly take a careful study of the early photographs of the Gettysburg battlefield. The result is an amazing book that changes our perspective of many famous Gettysburg photographs and in some cases finds important new information.

For example, Frassanito in his book shows a photograph never published before of the remains of soldiers being interned in the National Cemetery. The only problem is the graves are in a straight line and the gravemarkers today at the Cemetery are in a curved line meaning the markers likely don't accurately mark the positions of the soldiers. Another photograph in the book is the famous snipers nest photo. Frassanito however shows proof that the soldier was moved to that position and that the picture was staged. He even found the dead soldier in another photograph of dead on the battlefield.

This book is a must have for anyone seriously interested in Gettysburg. It will not so much help you understand the battle as much as help you understand the battlefield.

While most volumes of this genre tend to emphasize research over readability, Frassanito manages to combine both to produce this authorative work. A sequel to his excellent "Gettysburg, A Journey in Time", this book can be devoured by the casual Civil War buff, as well as the researcher needing solid reference documentation. Over 400 pages of seldom seen photographs of the battlefield at Gettysburg cover everything from the battle itself to the history of the photos and the photographers. With a price of $49.95 this Thomas Publication is a must for any history collection.

This book presents the whole impact of the Gettysburg battle during our Civil War. Life at Gettysburg and related skirmishes are described beautifully. The text flows smoothly while not compromising historical facts. But the photographs just bowled me over. I have seen numerous Civil War photographs but Frassanito has rendered us a jewel here. Rare and not so rare photographs are described relative to events and places. Many show the locale as it appears in the present day. What a treasured work that obviously took immense effort, knowledge, and a genuine love of history.
If you are into history or even a casual peruser of history get this volume. If you are a Civil War buff then you probably have this book. If you do not. Get it. Excellent work.

Thomas Lipinski is not only a good professor (I had him as Professor for a creative writing class at Edinboro University) but a good writer. At the end of the semester he gave the class an autographed copy of his first book published "The Fall Down Artist". I took it only because it was free, it didn't seem like my type of book. I later picked it up to read only to judge his writing ability since he spent 15 weeks judging mine, to my amazement I really enjoyed his book. It took a few chapters for things to grab my attention and keep me reading. The name of the book, along with the book description does the book an injustice, with a better name and description I am sure people would be grabbing for his book as a first pick to read. Also, a someone who grew up in and around Pittsburgh, I was very familiar with most, if not all of the locations that he used in his book, and I was able to identify the locations fairly easily. If you are from or around the "Burgh" this is a must read.

Carroll Dorsey emerges as an investigator who likes to do his job and do it right! It was such fun to open the pages of this book and climb inside Carroll Dorsey's Buick. From the very first chapter, we were busy travelling along the well described streets of Pittsburgh trying to unravel this mystery.Thomas Lipinski will take you into the dark alleys and bars of Pittsburgh and then reveal the corruption of high powered people. Lipinski will take you places and excite you as you see the city through a different but realistic lens. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next!I sipped coffee with Carroll Dorsey as he read through his office files and would later find myself "sloshing" down a Rolling Rock beer with him as I anticipated what was to come!Realizing the full involvement of his close family member left me yelling out and throwing this book against the wall; what an ending!

You'll probably not hear anything about Lipinski on Oprah's show, or see full page adverts for his writing...more's the pity.

This guy writes solid, intelligent stories populated by believable people.

If you want a book that will entertain and demonstrate the mystery genre, get this or one of Lipinski's other Carroll Dorsey stories.

In The Fall Down Artist, Thomas Lipinski offers us not only an exciting and ultimately satisfying mystery, but also insight into the collapse of the steel industry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Through his extremely moralistic and highly loveable character Carroll Dorsey, we are taken on an insider's journey into the heart and soul of southwestern Pennsylvania. PI Dorsey is a complex man with an uncanny ability of coming off as someone the reader has known, and liked, all his life.

This is a very dramatic, moody, heart-felt work that should not be missed by any mystery lover or anyone with an interest in the trials and tribulations the collapse of big business can have on an area and its people.

Carrol Dorsey is an investigator who likes to do his job and doit right! It was such fun to open the pages of this book and climbinside Carroll Dorsey's Buick; from the very first chapter, we were busy travelling along the weel described streets of Pittsburgh trying to unravel this mystery. Thomas Lipinski will take you into the dark alleys and bars of Pittsburgh and then reveal the corruption of high powered people. Lipinski will take you places and excite you as you see the city through a different but realistic lens. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next!I sipped coffee with Carrol Dorsey as he read through his office files and would later find myself sloshing down Rolling Rock beer with him as I anticipated what was to come!