Georgia Books

Marvin's book is very inspirational. He shows us that with hard work and determination you can conquer any obstacle. He grew up in a poor family a child of a truck driver and a domestic worker, but he managed to graduate from high school, college, graduate school and became a lawyer, city council president and a judge. He was faced with racial discrimination in his early years growing up in Atlanta. He discusses his involvement with the civil rights movement and how that shaped who he is today. He was one of the first black men to attend Emory Law School in the 1960's. My favorite quote in his book is "I believe that all children given appropriate guidance and instruction from their families, teachers and communities can achieve success." I believe he is a great example of that belief. I think this book is a great read for a young adult and anybody else who wants to be inspired by Marvin's success.

Marvin Arrington has crafted a lucid and accessible narrative that details his experiences growing up in Jim Crow Atlanta. In addition to describing his rise to the presidency of the Atlanta City Council, he offers many anecdotes from his childhood that give an idea of just how painful racism can be through the eyes of a young boy. Throughout, he encourages his readers to learn from his example of hard work, which is fortified by his experience growing up in public housing projects, attending segregated schools, and working a wide variety of jobs. Then, having integrated Emory Law School's full-time division along with his friend (current U.S. District Court Judge) Clarence Cooper in 1965, he carries forth the lessons of his youth to the legal profession. He would later partner with famed civil rights attorney Donald Hollowell to form Arrington & Hollowell, one of the top 10 black law firms in the nation. He is currently a Superior Court Judge in Fulton County, Georgia, having been elected in 2003.

Arrington's book is both the story of one man's personal odyssey through hardship and success, as well as a short history of the city of Atlanta.
Thanks to his involvement in politics, his book sheds light on other major figues in Atlanta life with whom he had frequent contact, such as Q.V. Williamson, Maynard Jackson, and Andrew Young. Thanks to his wealth of experience, Arrington also gives an impressive insight into the duplicitous nature of city politics, culminating in his loss to Bill Campbell in the 1994 Atlanta mayoral election. In October 2008, Campbell will be completing a stint in federal prison for tax evasion.

The lessons that one can glean from his autobiography are just as relevant today as they were more than four decades ago. Arrington's recent collaboration with Bill Cosby in addressing the myriad problems plaguing urban communities has only helped to buttress his timely message. I agree with other reviewers that this book should be required reading for middle school and high school students thanks to its power and relevance.

I first met Marvin Arrington when I was a college senior and editing the Emory Wheel and he a second year law student, though I doubt he remembers that. We had many encounters after that and I had the opportunity to follow quite closely his legal and political career for many years. Yet as close as I felt I knew him, it was not until reading his memoir that I better understand the inner soul of this gentle and committed man. I thanked him for writing it, because as a son of the south and as a white man who had many friends who were Black Georgians, it wasn't until I heard or read the stories Maynard Jackson, Vernon Jordan,
Andrew Young, and Marvin Arrington told in their personal memoirs that I felt I had understood my own time with them. Whether a reader knows him personally or not, I enthusiastically encourage people to read this well-told narrative of growing up in the Jim Crow and post-Jim Crow south. That Marvin has brought his unique and heartening experiences to the courtroom and has had children follow him into the law is an evolution that could have been expected, but nonetheless still very gratifying.

This book should be assigned reading for every fifteen year old. The story of Marvin Arrington is proof that poverty and apparent lack of oppuritunity can be overcome.

Martin L. Fierman
Madison, Ga

Judge Marvin S. Arrington has been fixture in Atlanta, GA legal and political circles for more than thirty years. I expected his autobiography to be another in a long line of inspiring tales about tough warriors in the AFrican American quest for dignity, respect and inclusion. The title should have been my clue that it is much more. It is a saga of how his extraordinary life mirrors that of his beloved and iconoclastic city. Just as Atlanta rose from its ashes to become an international hub that defies its southern roots, Arrington forged his path from obscurity to a place of honor on the right side of Atlanta history. From the early chapters, where he offers a riveting picture of his early life in the neighborhood fictionalized in Tom Wolfe's Atlanta-based novel, to the later ones, he builds on the theme of refusing to stay in the place unjustly assigned to him by his city, his circumstances and his culture. A virtual who's who in law and politics endorsed this book including Pres. Jimmy Carter, Sen. Sam Nunn, Mayor Shirley Franklin, Ambassador Andrew Young, and Gov. Douglas Wilder. Tom Wolfe also lent his name. This book has been added to my collection of African American biographies. It is written in a narrative style that makes it accessible to a wide range of audiences, informative to multiple disciplines and enjoyable for re-reading over time.

I am from Columbus Georgia where the witnesses (two Black men)were housed for their protection. I have seen first hand what can happen when an individual "owns" a town. There are instances where in Columbus, the mayor, chief of police, and county sheriff all answered to a private citizen (I will not name him because his family are still prominent in the area). He could have a man jailed or released or even have a person beaten as punishment for real or manufactured offenses. We hear of the atrocities committed by organized crime families and readily accept such reports. Don't believe that such things are restricted to the big city. I read the book several times and have recommended it to others as an example of modern day feudalism. For readers who find it difficult to believe, check the newspaper archives of the incident and trial testimony. Also read up on Phenix City, Alabama and learn what real organized crime and population control was. The powers that were went so far as to kill a prominent politician (Albert Patterson) because he campaigned to get rid of organized crime (prostitution, gambling, numbers, murder, shakedowns, and mistreatment of servicemen from Fort Benning) in that city. I know that this does not fit the usual form/content of a review; it is meant to enlighten as to the historical truths that have produced such incidents as "Murder in Coweta County" It is true that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"

My mother is from Meriwether County Georgia. I was first introduced to this book as a youngster and have listened to the oral accounts from my grandmother and other relatives and friends who were there to witness these events first hand. I own the video and the book. I am fascinated by the wit and demeanor of Sheriff Lamar Potts.

I took pleasure in reading this book and watching the video because I am familiar with the area and I could go to actual people who were and still are living in the area at that time and listen to thier stories about this gruesome murder. The made for TV Movie was the topping on the cake!

Margaret Barnes' detailed description of the events puts you right in place as though you were there in the 1940's. I highly recommend this book for all who want to know a part of history in rural Georgia.

This is one of the most gripping true crime stories I have ever read and I have read many,many of these. This wonderful story relates actual incidents during a horrendous, brutal murder, undeluted arrogance of power, sheer stupidy on the part of the perpetrator and a brave sheriff whose singular determination to arrest and prosecute the offender will warm the heart of anyone with a sense of justice and equality for those of us with a lesser standing in a community.

This is a great story with great characters and like all good true stories, its better than fiction. For those who would read it, understand it is NOT, as some reviewers suggest, a commentary on Southern oppression. It is instead a great account of good actually winning over evil. The sort of corruption represented by the land baron in this story could be found in every State of Union during the period discussed. This book is not about racism (the victim was white) but was instead about the abuse of power on one hand and the contrast of honor on the other. It is NOT about the South, though the incident occurred in Georgia. It is about right vs. wrong. That even applies in the historically corrupt, post-depression Northern regions of the U.S. It is a great read about a honorable law man standing against criminal behavior and political corruption. Don't miss it if you enjoy true crime and great characters and you like to admire honorable Southern Sheriffs who will stop at nothing to do what is right.

I saw the television movie prior to reading the book and was blown away by the superb acting done by Johnny Cash and Andy Griffith. Never would I have believed that the Sheriff of Mayberry could be so cruel and brutal. Upon reading the book, I was struck by the closeness with which the movie tracked with the book. My list of heroes was growing rather short but Sheriff Potts became a permanent addition. His dedication, perseverance and honesty represent the best of those qualities we seek in a public servant. It's a pity he can't be cloned. Buy the book, see the movie and be impressed.

Well researched and poetically rendered, this book tells a compelling story of The Little Town That Could. It's not just for R.E.M. fans, either; some of the best passages take the reader to the early 70s, when chance meetings, boredom, a thriving gay subculture, and some unsung movers-and-shakers who watched from the wings made things happen. Rodger Lyle Brown was there for much of the action and he captures the voices (and vices) of scores of characters who sowed the seeds that were reaped by bands such as the B-52's and R.E.M..

This book is a must for anyone interested in the Athens music scene (REM, B52s). Actually, it's insight on the challenges new bands face in breaking through makes it a must read for anyone in the music business. Greatly entertaining and a fast read. And I actually knew a few of the people mentioned in the book.

It's great to see this book back in print - seemingly a modest look into a grass-roots community of eclectics and artists, PARTY OUT OF BOUNDS actually presents a valuable piece of history - the rise of the Athens GA music and arts scene.

The reverberations from Athens ultimately threw a spotlight onto similar developments in Austin, Boulder, Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem, Minneapolis, Seattle/Olympia, Monterrey MX, and countless other places off the beaten track of the commercial culture industry, spawning a tremendous amount of great and influential work in the process, and this book is - amazingly - still one of the only documents of it all.

Browne was a part of the scene, so his resources, contacts and memories aid in the construction of a rich cultural history. The DIY spirit of the times has been reflected in other works (Clinton Heylin's FROM THE VELVETS TO THE VOIDOIDS springs to mind) focusing on other places, but certain other aspects - the diversity among the people and participants - is largely overlooked in most histories, and Browne gives the art influences, the 'Southern' influences, and the gay influences that all formed some of the scene's foundations the respect they deserve.

And Browne does detail just how stressing and grueling being in a struggling young rock band can be - the joy and the myth is here for sure, but so is the work and financial strain. Browne hits the perfect balance in the writing - he manages to convey, with equal import, the cultural significance, and the fun and energy in scenes like the one that exploded in Athens, and one is also left with a great picture of how such developments can impact (culturally) cities and towns for decades afterwards: again, though this book is Athens-specific in its' historical focus, this in many ways is the story of many places.

At every level, this is an essential recounting of the history of grass-roots and underground creativity in the US.

-David Alston

Just so that the author isn't the only one posting reviews, let me just say that I've lost track of the number of times I've enjoyed this book. Every time I reread it, it conjures up a movie in my mind, artistic college kids in the deep South living to party and play music. Although I grew up in Minnesota, the early punk/new wave scene of the late seventies was much the same here as it was in Athens, GA, and the (hazy) memories of that time are lovingly recounted here.

Hey folks. Yes, this is a facsimile of the original edition from 1991, except this one has a great new cover that's much more like what I wanted for the first edition. Got a new intro, too. Folks have been asking for copies for years, but it's been out of print (with used copies for as much as $50, if you can imagine). If you have any rem, b's, or otherwise fans of athens, let em know.

Any questions, email me at rodlbro@aol.com

rodger brown (author)

I can't add anything to the prior reviews.. Simply a great book about the history of Peachtree Creek.

For lovers of Atlanta and Georgia history this is a must have book. Certainly more than "a coffee table" book. It is full of interesting facts and fabulous photos. The author is to be commended on his research.

I grew up on Peachtree Creek in the fifties and sixties, on Woodward Way. So of course I was interested in this book. And the interest turned out to be much more than just the chapters about my own neighborhood. I affirm that the other reviews say the right good things about about it, I just want to add something. The author is a good writer, plain and simple. I don't know how to describe it, if I could I would be a good writer myself, I guess. The best I can say is that I found myself thinking, "This guy is not only taking me to interesting places, showing me interesting things, I'm enjoying a pleasant and comfortable ride." That aspect adds a lot to any book. Enjoy it for yourself.

Published by the University of Georgia Press in cooperation with the Atlanta History Center, "Peachtree Creek: A Natural And Unnatural History Of Atlanta's Watershed" by David R. Kaufman is a photographically enhanced exploration and survey of Peachtree Creek from its headwaters to its confluence with the Chattoochee River. The result of thirteen years of research, study, and exploration, "Peachtree Creek" artfully combines the informational content of scholarly research with the readability of talented storytelling to present a compelling mix of urban travelog, local history, and a clarion call for conservation. Combining historical images with his own superb examples of color photography, this study of a specific and finite watershed is a seminal example of an original work that would be as at home on the shelves of an academic library's Environmental Studies reference collection as it is on the front room coffee table of a non-specialist general reader with an interest in this history of the Peachtree Creek and its five tributaries (North Fork, South Fork, Clear Creek, Nancy Creek, and Tanyard Creek). An enthusiastically recommended read that is as informed as it is informative, "Peachtree Creek" would also serve as an excellent template for similar histories and studies of other American waterways.

Everyone in Georgia is familure with the Chattohoochee River, but few of us are aware of the history of Atlanta's Peachtree and Nancy Creek. Nancy
Creek flows through my back yard on its way to the Chattahoochee and onto
the Gulf of Mexico. I have always wondered where it started and what happens to it after it leaves my neighborhood. This wonderful book tells in great detail the paths that these creeks take,their colorful history and suggest things to do to keep them cleaner, more useful and better
preserved. It is loaded with many stunning photos of the area and its history. This is a great book for one who is interested in Atlanta and
knowing more about the waterways we cross and casually take for granted everyday.

The only thing that I am sorry about it that I did not get to meet the author as he canoed past my veranda.

I was so happy to come across this book. I first found it at the library. It's everything I could ever want in a snake book and more. Fantastic picture quality and detail!! Great illustration and resource guide.

The book is well research, well written, beatifully illustrated.
Knowing what's in your immediate enviroment is important.
I would recommend this book to anyone.

As many Herp books as I have read through, this book covers all the information provided by most other field guides on snakes in this region, and then some! It has great photos of all the snakes throughout this region and the info on each species is organized in a descriptive, yet reader-friendly fashion. The other contents in this book are very informative and covers everything from the biology of snakes to their predators and defenses, and everything in-between. The final section on "People and Snakes" is AWESOME!! It is important that people will be better informed about snakes and see that they do not live up to their unwarrented reputation. This section of the book does a great job in communicating this message to the reader and also how benificial snakes are to our ecosystems. At the least, this book is a fascinating read and should be accessible to anyone living in this region. The Southeast region is one of the best places, in my opinion, for finding some of the most unique and beautiful snakes in the country. If anything, there is much more to learn from this book than there is from "People" magazine by a long shot!! The only snakes you'll see in those magazines is their skins formed into purses and clothes :( If only idividuals of that sort were not so ignorant. Its a Great Book!!

A worthy successor to Snakes of Georgia & South Carolina, also co-authored by Whit Gibbons. This earlier volume, now out of print, was superb as well...though brief and exorbitantly priced.

The current work is logically organized, user-friendly yet comprehensive. The color photos are tack-sharp. For the amateur naturalist, teacher or student alike, or for the common sojourner this is the perfect reference--liberally illustrated but detailed as well. Plus--the price is right.

This book has everything a child and/or adult needs to know about the snakes that can be found in any given area of the Southeast. Even down to the parish/county you may live in. It gives you hints that let you know which snake is which (enormously helpful for venomous ones). It also shows a way, with only 1 exception (the coral snake), to determine if a snake is venomous by looking at it's shed skin. Now how many times have you or your child come across a snake skin and wondered if it could have been a harmful snake? I bought this book for my 6 year old son who, like his mother, has an interest in snakes and curiosity. I recently noticed my hubby perusing through it & he despises them. Matter of fact, my neighbor has already borrowed it for identification. He then decided to read through it the rest of the way...it's just that insightful!

What a beautiful memoir! The setting, a small town in central Canada, was almost exotic to me. The writing is poem-like, clean and meditative. With his gentle voice, Mr. O'Connor takes you to the world of the sensitive boy whose longing and wonder towards his mysterious father is so vividly felt. The beautiful images in the book will remain with me for a long time. I highly recommend this special work.

What a fascinating story! And so well written. It brilliantly brings the author's world to life in all its wonderful and awful detail. The people are portrayed so artfully, both as individuals and collectively, that you feel you are among them. And the central story is beautifully touching.

I work with the author. So much for full disclosure. And I had been told by another colleague before I read it that his book was wonderful. I wasn't prepared, though, to be overwhelmed, and I was: by the richness of its style, the honesty of its emotion, the entertainment of its anecdote, the relief of its humor amid pain and personal discovery. O'Connor travels two paths in search of answers about the emotional chill in his childhood home in Canada and the strange allure of cold climes. This yields on one side beautifully drawn pictures of smalltown life in which O'Connor's growing self-awareness and his tracking of family history coalesce. On the other, its offers perfectly rendered vignettes and lore about famous explorers, plain life and survival in the frigid north. Sometimes the juxtaposition seems impossibly apt, yet never forced. Along each trail run themes in varying proportions of love and hurt, sacrifice and estrangement, distance and intimacy, ambition and constraint. Through it all runs a classically balanced voice, blunt and eloquent and wry in confronting simple or hard truths. There is finally and happily about the book a physical irony in which I regretted its ending so soon but relished the knowledge that I could always find time to return time and again to a book as modest in size as it is grand in reward.

O'Connor's beautiful language is as smooth as ice, as clean as fresh snow. This is a haunting, mysterious story of family secrets, which the author tells partly through direct memoir narrative and partly through metaphorical history and legend of the far north. I found the scenes of O'Connor's boyhood to be particularly well drawn: the ways in which he conjures child logic and perception are magical. Touching, strange, cathartic.

I thought this was just beautifully done. The father, both of the parents, are so well-drawn in it. And the alternation of northern lore with the author's personal story works perfectly: O'Connor's voice is so specific and true, you stay with him as he swings between eskimo legends, a natural history of the northern parts of the continent, and a wildly funny drunken bar room contretemps, easily finding meaningful connections between it all. The main story is wrenching with a beautiful payoff. Read this book!

I've just finished this book, and loved it. I laughed out loud many times, and was also saddened many times.

The book is written in the first person by someone other than the central character, and the storyteller was a very kind and gentle soul. He was basically a wonderful human being, and someone I would love to have known. I actually liked him much more than Jenny Dorset.

Just one thing: I don't understand why the book jacket shows a brunette of only average looks. Obviously the artist didn't read the book - it clearly mentions, and many times, that Jenny was uncommonly beautiful, and had golden-blonde hair...

This book is a treasure to read!! Very funny, full of wit and charm. I fell in love with this book while on vacation in South Carolina and read it in a 12 hour marathon!! This book is a delight!! Thank You Mr. Phillip Lee Williams for writing such a gem of a book!!

This book is funny and I loved it.

Mr. Williams' story is filled with rollicking humor, wit, and wisdom. Vividly written, the reader is drawn into 18th century Charleston, and into the lives of two families, the Dorsets and the Symthes. Each and every character is memorable. You will laugh and cry reading this book. It has a permament place in my personal library. I loved it so much, I rushed out and bought several copies to give to friends and family. Mr. Williams deserves far more credit for his writing genius!

Williams' ambitious novel The True & Authentic History of Jenny Dorset is a refreshing medley of life in Charleston's 18th century, seasoned tastily with charming wit and intriguing characters. A truly enjoyable read, the tale is written with a sincere flare and comes alive to the reader.

More notably is the method in which Williams characterizes each member of the families involved in the story's plot - from the dueling heads, Mr. Dorset and Mr. Smythe, to Old Bob in his amusing stages of senility, and the ostentatious Jenny Dorset herself.

The reader will undoubtedly find the rich story line is highly entertaining, and written in a very lively manner. The tale is penned from the perspective of Henry Hawthorne, the Dorset's discerning and subdued family man servant. Hawthorne patiently abides by the family's somewhat eccentric and unruly lifestyle, and writes about his experiences first-hand, in memoir-like style.

Indeed, this novel is a great story-tellers' delight! The True & Authentic History of Jenny Dorset manifests very engaging humour with every flip of a page - more than once have I been in the throws of violent chuckles over it's whimsical comments and situations. It has quickly grown to be one of my favorites. I highly recommend it.

I finished this book in one day. After starting to read I just couldn't put it down. It was very well written that I actually felt I was there, visualizing every scene. It also was a eye opener for many of us who did not understnad the depths on how colored people were treated back in the days. It also had a positive side where black and white could get along. Reading this book was a great surprise at the outcome. I agree with one of the other posters on this board, this book should be an HBO special. The story line was excellent. In fact so good, I bought 2 books, and plan on buying another for my sister who is in to our black history and culture. If this is the first book for Nathaniel Lumpkin, I am anxioous to read more. I wish him the best!!!!

The title "WADE IN THE WATER," says it all! A really enjoyable read.

Has anyone taken the time to notify HBO, TNT, SHOWTIME, CINEMAX or BET? This book has the potential for a really good Movie. The characters are well developed and story is universally appealing. Reading the book was just like watching a movie, without the sticky stuff on the floor. I loved it. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. It is easy to read and even easier to understand.

This story has passion, honesty, intrigue and adventure. The main characters Billy Ray Horton and Jeremiah Liggons will take you on a trip back to a place long forgotten by many and to a place others will never forget. The dialogue between the two characters was great and I could visually picture every step of their journey.

I've read many novels over my lifetime including "The Catcher In The Rye," by J.D. Salinger, "A Thousand Acres," by Jane Smiley, "The Color Purple," by Alice Walker, "Macbeth," by William Shakespeare, "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine," by Bebe Moore Campbel, "Devil in a Blue Dress, Black Betty, and A Red Death," all three by Walter Mosley, "Roots," by Alex Haley, "Their Eyes Were Watching God," by Zora Neale Hurston and "Beloved," by Toni Morrison. All of which I cherish and loved reading very, very much, in most cases I've read several times. "Wade in the Water," by Nathaniel A. Lumpkin II, is a wonderfully written novel with well defined and developed characters that seem to jump off the pages into your living room. Jeremiah Liggons and Billy Ray Horton come of age during the great depression in a world that's already divided by race, and forge a friendship that must stand the ridicule of racism, murder, deception, betrayal and rape. Family love, loyalty, and God fearing ways are never questioned as Jeremiah's spiritually grounded mother calls forth a heavenly Angel to guide and protect him where ever he goes and whatever he does. This story touched my every emotion including, anger, happiness, sadness and grief. Wade in the Water is Nathaniel A. Lumpkin's debut novel, and it is a fantastic way to come out to the world. He is a writer that's easy to follow and understand, and his passion shines through his character's dialogue which is purposely written with a southern drawl. While reading this novel I could almost smell the Georgia pine trees down by the Ginsburg river, and I could vividly see the bright blue southern skys above as well as the red clay ground below, just as Nathaniel described it. This novel surely ranks up there with some of the other novels I've read and I most definitely recommend it to everyone. I read some of the other readers reviews, and I certainly agree with one reviewer that said "Oprah Winfrey," will LOVE this book. Somebody send her a copy or call her staff.

This book is THE BEST!! My absolute favorite wildflower book for the North Georgia Mountains... and I have tried MANY. I am a professional naturalist and lead wildflower hikes all spring. This book is my bible! I carry it everywhere I go. Easy to use, lots of species covered, wonderful ethnobotany information (great "stories" to use while leading hikes). Detailed enough to get the ID right, general enough for anyone to use. Wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful book... (as are Lone Pine's other plant books covering other regions.) HIGHLY RECCOMMENDED!!

I've been cataloging thousands of wildflower photos over the past six years and probably own or have "borrowed" most wildflower field ID guides that are out there. This book is easily my favorite. Why?

Easy to use: A color key w/thumbnail images for more than half of the flowers in the book makes finding the right flower much easier if you do not know which family of flowers to search in. If you do have to browse all the pages then the placement of flower photos along the outside edges of the pages makes thumbing thru the book easier than most. The pages are substantial enough to make for easy browsing too.

Ethnobotanical info: Most flowers have a special paragraph about the historical and current usages of the flowering plants for purposes other than visual pleasure, i.e. medicinal, food, ceremonial, dyes, etc.

I'd been using Jack Carman's book "Wildflowers of Tennessee" as my "bible" for TN wildflowers but now this book with a similar name is my favorite. I still use the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers as a "family locator" because of its easy-to-use key (flower color plus bloom type) when searching for that unknown flower. One big aggravation with the Audubon book is that the details are in the "white pages" somewhere in the back of the book. The Wildflowers of Tennessee book has all of the info right there on the same page as the photo.

For newbies the color key makes this book user friendly--even though the flowers are grouped by family, genus then species (as are most wildflower field guides).

Downside? There are still many, many species flower flowers that have only a description rather than an actual photograph. However, this book is small enough to be practical in the field.

The price is great! I paid almost thirty dollars for the Carman book and it was worth every penny. I don't know how they can sell this fabulous book for such a low price.

Highly recommended. If you want to buy only one wildflower ID book for the Smokies then this is it.

I love this book. Great photo's. Easy to use. Small enough to take along. Interesting plant lore on every page.

I purchased this book for a friend's birthday and after looking through it, nearly kept it.

This is the absolute book for wildflowers. Pictures are clear and precise, the information is a bonus. What a book!

"Bound by Red Clay" continues to astound the contemporary poetry market! It has been nominated for these awards: Georgia Writers Inc. Book of the Year--Poetry Category, Tufts Discovery Award, and the poem "Gopher Tortoise" was nominated for the coveted Pushcart Prize. The first run sold out in 6 months, and the second printing has sold 50% in only a month. Neca Stoller's work is indeed slated to become one of America's best.

When I ordered Neca Stoller's book I wondered if the high standard I had admired in examples of her work I'd seen on the net would be sustained through a book. It was.

My other concern was whether poetry specifically drawing on a Georgia, USA, landscape would be relevant in Australia. It was. Australian friends have validated my opinion on this.

Like the book itself the poetry is spare, direct and captures the essence of her subjects. Her focus is not distracted by any vanities. The discipline of Japanese genres shines through. The poetry is strong and credible.

I commend it to anyone with a sense of place and community, no matter where in the world they are centered.

Neca Stoller is a poet rooted in the soil of the rural South. Her latest volume is filled with images of the red clay of her home state, as well as characters from her family, uncles and aunts and cousins, former college roommates, and others who populate the Georgia backwoods.

Stoller, born in Savannah and educated at the University of Georgia during the tumultuous 60s, has spent the past several years living, working, and writing on a Georgia cattle farm. Her love of the land and the gentle rhythms of rural life sparkle in her poems. Bound by Red Clay is a slim volume of 60 selections, arranged in five titled chapters. It comes after numerous accolades for her verse from such diverse organizations as the Palomar Showcase and the Haiku Society of America.

Ms. Stoller is at once both peaceful and poignant when she focuses on the slow and repeating meter of country life. "Sultry Evening" is an evocative short poem about the pleasures of rocking on a porch hammock while crickets harmonize on summer evenings. In "Red Clay," we follow along as she wanders through sites of the Civil War, still heavy with memory. "Baling Hay" reminds us of the heat of such summer work, but rewards us with an image of " an iced mason jar/ black tea thick with sugar."

Stoller's themes throughout the book are telling: homecoming, death, lost love, the summer's heat, rural life, the social history of the South. She obviously has roots in her homeland, and that foundation creates lovely verse. The truths she finds among Georgia's red clay and pine forests ring true through time and space.

Even the title of Neca Stoller's first book of poems--Bound by Red Clay--tells us we're dealing with a Southern poet who deals with solid images. Many of these pictures painted by this Savannah poet are Southern and specifically Georgian: magnolias, lowland graveyards, 1960's protest marches, Cherokee excavations, front porches on sultry evenings, even a moonshiner by the name of "Flem." Red clay is a good image for the poets of Georgia, especially those who have left the land: Anyone who has tried to scrub the knees of a child's pants or footprints left on a beige carpet knows that red clay stains will always remain. One might be able to dull their immediate brilliance, but the brick-red trace will remain truly bound to the material.

That fading but "bound" sense of images propels the poet--and then the reader--through this book. The volume contains poems that are slim on words and fat on images. Stoller paints tiny pictures that loom large in one's verbal and pictorial memory. A pair of pinking shears "left marks like a bobcat's bite." Corpses are freed from their graves during the Flint River flood of 1994; "their hands rose and waved . . . they sat in the mud, naked-- / grinning--not a bit shy." On the morning after a lovers' tryst, the poet bittersweetly proclaims, "Such a short night, / still out of breath."

The poet reminds us we are tourists passing by a world full of scenes; the most important admonition someone can make to us is simply to look. Her haiku-like poems resonate with ideas and emotions that emerge out of the things pictured here. For instance, there's "White Chrysanthemum": "tucked between / fallen leaves / a white chrysanthemum / once pinned to my lapel / by your unsteady hands."

After a while, the poems begin to resonate with each other. Arranged into sections that Stoller calls "Chapters," the volume is like a collection of minimalist short stories: The poet's youth, a set of scenes with a former lover, her experiences during the University of Georgia's first year of integration, scenes from nature, and Stoller's own shifting and meditative identity as a poet.

Every semester, I post a new poem on my office door. I try to find one that immediately charms and then provides an opportunity for me, pausing with keys in hand, or for my students waiting for their office conference, to reflect. Stoller has given me a new volume's worth of poems to place on my door; this book will provide you with a similar opportunity to recognize and meditate.

"Bound by Red Clay," by Neca Stoller, is a collection of poems which allows the reader a brief peek into Stoller's life in Georgia during the 1960s. Stoller recounts moments through lively, visual poetry. She is unusually attuned to her surroundings and is able to describe scences with sharp detail and flowing verse. A poem titled "The Shrimp Boat" displays this talent. "Pushing through, past the channel markers, her name so faint, blurred by salt and time the bow appearing then reappearing, as her distant, tall mast crosses the marsh... Docked; still the boat' hole brims with shrimp, as the sunset slips down through the rigging, and as the full moon rises to surf the black waves." This careful attention to minutia draws the reader into Stoller's Georgia, puts the the reader right on the deck of a coastal shrimp boat. Another fresh aspect of Stoller's writung is the absence of too much emotion. Some poets go so deep into their inner thoughts the reader can become derailed and miss the meaning. But Stoller incorporates just enough feeling to touch her audience without overwhelming them. "Never meaning to grow old, in the mirror I am astonished to see age spots in a face more my mother's than my own...,"writes Stoller in "The Fire." With only a few words, Stoller captures the experience of aging. "Bound by Red Clay" is an ensemble of mature and well-written poetry which parallels life, detailing a range of experiences, experiences that run from disturbing events to moments of calmness. In one poem titled, "Sand Dollar," Stoller describes the last moments of a young soldier's life, and in another, "Rain," she explains how rain falls to the earth. It is apparent poetry for Stoller is a craft and for lovers of poetry she is a great gift.