South Carolina Books

Brookgreen Gardens is an outdoors public sculpture garden and wildlife preserve near Myrtle Beach, S.C. Begun by a wealty businessman and his sculptor wife to showcase her work, it expanded during the Depression by buying other works, to help support other artists. This book has wonderful pictures and descriptions of some of the collection. There are works by artists we are all familiar with, it's an enjoyable book and the next best thing to going there yourself.

Dr. Fox accomplishes many things in his treatment of Esther and brings along a few negatives. First of all, it would be foolish to not see this commentary and character analysis as one of the most creative, novel treatments of Esther to come to the Esther studies in English in some time. The utilization of the "close-reading" style of narrative criticism to get at the author's utilization of themes and characterization will enable most (if not all) to read this narrative in a fresh light.

Fox's honesty when dealing with the "heroine (?)" Esther is a must read for all traditionalists and those who read the story with gilded pages. The methodology on the whole is thorough, though there were a few areas that had me (and my seminar group along with me) scratching my head concerning certain inconsistencies in weighing data for conclusions. In certain areas said conclusions could be more prominent, with Fox sometimes settling to present the case for multiple options and not definitively defending a certain point of view. One may also find fault that Fox does not deal with any issues at length in Greek Esther(s) (eg Alpha text, LXX, etc) which may have helped inform certain aspects of his character portrait (eg, What does the Greek prayer of Mordecai addition (?) add to the earliest perceptions of him as character?), but this is his prerogative.

Despite little percieved problems, on the whole the book is excellent, and along with the JPS commentary by Adele Berlin and the monograph by JD Levenson I believe this book composes one third of the best and most recent mainstream Jewish scholarship on the Hebrew text.

The Harcourt Street Line was a double-track suburban railway that ran in Ireland from Dublin through Dundrum and Foxrock to Bray. It was shut down and abandoned in 1958. Some forty years later in May 1998, the Irish government launched a major investment of capital to create a new railway (Luas Line B) that would run along the identical trackbed of the old Harcourt Street Line as far as the Sandyford Industrial Estate (a distance of about eight kilometers). In The Harcourt Street Line: Back On Track, County Dublin native and railway enthusiast Brian Mac Aongusa presents the reader with an informed, informative, and colorful history of this local railway. Highly recommended reading for all railroad fans and a unique contribution to Irish transport history collections, The Harcourt Street Line is so well done that it could wonderfully serve as a template for others wanting to capture the history of their own local commuter lines.

This cookbook has traditional southern recipes mixed with beautiful photography of some historic Charleston homes. There is also a bit of history included with each menu. I highly reccomend this book.

An interesting collaboration between an older pilot and a young photographer making for an excellent book. Having been raised in Charleston, I especially enjoyed it.

Wonderful book about furniture of this period. Especially interesting for me as I had numerous relatives living in Charleston during this period and up to present. It gives insight into how people lived in Charleston during these times.

Accomplished gardener Louisa Pringle Cameron and free lance photographer Lauren Preller Chambers collaborate in The Charleston Gardener to explore the lush and varied private gardens that have made the city of Charleston horticulturally famous, -- along with its numerous instances of Georgian and antebellum architecture. Brief yet thoughtful commentaries on the individual gardens showcased, along with the wonderful full-color photography, work in perfect tandem. Also very highly recommended is the previous and companion volume: The Private Gardens Of Charleston.

Without a doubt, this book is one of the best information sources on Charles Town in the 18th Century available. As a living history interpreter, I am constantly on the lookout for books which fill in minute details for my character. This book provided some of the best base information I've found to date on day to day life and events in the port city. I strongly urge anyone doing living history for characters in SC in this period to read and absorb this work. It's outstanding!

Hamer does an excellent job in this work of describing the challenges faced by Charleston and its residents on the eve of World War II. Hamer's research is impressive, but it is the stories from those who witnessed the changes first-hand that stood out and stayed with me after reading it. I would definitely recommend it to any reader, you don't have to neccesarily be interested in history to enjoy this book.