Virginia Books

This is an unusually perceptive and open first-hand account of an artist and her family's move to Umbria. Unsentimental descriptions of their everyday joys and frustrations are counter-pointed by the dramatic upheaval of major earthquakes. Ryan articulates connections between the natural and built environments and the adventure of the self; between ancient traditions and contemporary creativity. I found it highly engaging - a page-turner. I'll return to it.

It would be a mistake to place this book in the same category as that overworked genre - the foreigner who buys and does up a house in Italy or France. Virginia Ryan is married to an Italian, has represented Italy abroad as a diplomatic wife, has 2 Italian-Australian children. Her committment to the country, its history, customs and people show through on every page of this book. This is a year of her life that happens to be set in the hilltown of Trevi, Umbria as she sets out to make a new home and new friends, to begin to practice as an artist again, to help her children with yet another adaptation. She has an easy writing style; you feel you can trust her observations as she also admits her own shortcomings in settling into her new surroundings.

There's a lot of fun and joy of life in this book. And she KNOWS Italy and Italians, writing from within the culture, not about it.

Highly recommended for anyone who wants to dip deeper into the life and spirit of contemporary Italy, with all its paradoxes and pleasures.

One can't help be charmed by Ms Ryan's observations of rural italian life,in a region where people's lives, in many respects, appear untouched by time. It is sometimes funny,without being patronizing,and obviously written by a person who loves Italy but doesn't see it through rose coloured glasses. A good read.

Virginia Ryan gives what no standard travel book could even approach: the authentic feel, taste and emotions of Italy, all interwoven in a fascinating personal story. It reads like a novel, yet takes you into an Italy that few tourists could hope to glimpse. Frances Mayes pales in comparison. I'd recommend it for anyone going to Italy, or who would like to go there in their armchair. It's a great, adventurous, authentic read. I loved it.

The book reveals an intelligent and sensitive artist, who succeded, with a special talent, in matching, touchingly, life experience and inner feelings with Umbrian picturesque landscape, so calm and exciting, ancient and peasant. Her pages shed light on what can happen to a wanderer( the specially gifted female protagonist), going abroad and meeting what life arranges for her family and herself. This book informs our hearts about it and makes us to reread landscapes we suppose to know perfectly.

I wanted this book because 'Haller' is my mother's maiden name. However, there is no connection that I know of!

The book is great - the recipes and the history of the presidents during the time Henry Haller was chef at the White House are very interesting. I was hoping there would be colored photographs, but there are none except for the outside cover.

I do recommend this book.

I first purchased this book years ago, and it is still a cherished favorite. It is as much fun to browse through as it is to cook from, with well-written stories recollected of our first families. Mr. Haller included recipes which can easily be mastered by the average household cook, with photos to inspire and amuse. We enjoy this cookbook so well, we've purchased copies for family and friends over the years, and continue to do so. It makes a wonderful and thoughtful gift - a book of elegant and practical recipes, fit for coffee table display! This book has something for every taste and every occasion, and covers everyday recipes to the truly sublime, decadent to healthy, down home Southern recipes to European favorites, with everything in between. The White House Family Cookbook is truly worthy of America's talented First Chef - Henry Haller. It is also the only recipe book of which I personally own two - a "working copy" for the kitchen, and a more prestine copy for our personal library.

I got this cookbook on a Norwegian cruise ship.When looking it over,I recognized many of the recipes used on the ship!What does that tell you?I bought it for $40 and I've never regreted it.It is so packed with hundreds of top-notch recipes.It is the only cookbook you'd ever need,ranging from comfort foods such as macaroni and cheese,spaghetti and meatballs,pizza,and waffles to the effortless gourmet and seemingly endless variety of desserts,entrees,and salads.The best cookbook in my library.If you cook at all,buy this book!

This book not only has great recipes but it also talks about why the presidnet enjoyed them so much. Also included are photographs of presidents and their guests with descriptions of their time spent in the White House. More than just a recipe book!

surprisingly doable recipes- every one so far has been one of the best meals ever- family favorites- nothing even "OK" - everything fantastic. the history or personal stories included are fun as well. best cookbook i ever had- going to give as a gift to everyone who cooks. Can't help but love it!

This poetry anthology shows the purest of writing from the Appalachian region's best poets. All of the poets featured in the book had been previously published. My favorite poem of course...is the one that inspired the title of the book!

Wild Sweet Notes: Fifty Years of West Virginia Poetry leaves me in awe of the poetic achievements of West Virginia writers. Rarely does a poetry collection read as compellingly as a novel and possess the same power to hold a reader so strongly in its grip that it is nearly impossible to put the book down. But Wild Sweet Notes accomplishes this and more and in the process reveals that West Virginia is not an intellectual and cultural black hole but rather a place where poetry is a natural and necessary response to life in a harsh, unyielding and sometimes strange place. These poets could all be Welsh given the way they see and feel and touch their world and let it touch them; the way they use language and the music of words to capture the experience of the mines and miners, the black and barren waste of land and men, the mystery of the back-woods hollows and mountains and people who live there, the dreams of the young and the memories of the aged. West Virginia surprises the visitor in many ways - its beauty, its drama, the tenacity and strength of its people, its landscape where nature nurtures and destroys. It is a land where appearances are illusions, where the man who runs the little roadside grocery could have the wisdom of a sage and the heart of a poet. But who would know it from his rumpled clothes, his weathered face and gnarled hands, except perhaps by looking into his eyes and reading what they have to say. Wild Sweet Notes is not a simplistic down-home collection of local poetry, but rather a universal journey through time, the mind, landscapes, essences, and the enduring spirit of people and a place so little known, so misrepresented and so misunderstood. Few poetry collections are as satisfying, moving, enlightening and rewarding as Wild Sweet Notes.

During one of my too-infrequent visits back home, I bought a copy of this anthology at the West Virginia Writers' booth at the 2006 West Virginia Book Fair in Charleston, not knowing what to expect but willing to bet some bucks I would find it worthwhile. In retrospect I don't see any way I could have been prepared for the cascading ephiphantic experiences that followed upon reading it. I was up half the night, alternately laughing, crying and struck dumb by the sheer recognition these poems triggered in me. For several weeks afterward I felt as if there were a new dimension visible in the world as I experience it--I had gotten in luminous touch with the West Virginian I was forced to suppress when I out-migrated three decades ago, driven by economic and personal necessity.
To some extent, this effect upon me is likely due to the fact that the West Virginia in which I grew up is now largely extinct. This isn't necessarily good or bad, it's just the way it is; the government brought the interstates and the interstates brought drug trafficking, North Carolina drivers, AIDS, white-haired folks from Ontario passing through on their way south, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, gang fashions past their bicoastal sell-by dates but plenty fresh in these parts, and sometimes a little prosperity. First electrification, then the highways, brought the means of general and permanent change. So much change that it even became possible to elect a governor who's too young, too urban to know what "Open For Business" actually means. But the folks who created these poems--THEY knew the place I knew when I didn't know anyplace else. And they write about it in the first language I learned.
I thank them for reminding me that I am more than my last thirty years.

REVIEW: Wild Sweet Notes Fifty Years of West Virginia Poetry 1950-1999, 418 pages Publisher's Place, Inc., Huntington, W. Va. www.publishersplace.org

Today, for many people, home is a state of mind. Home of the past and the home of the future. "Wild Sweet Notes," Fifty Years of West Virginia Poetry l950-1999, edited by Barbara Smith and Kirk Judd is a literary treasure for not only West Virginians and others of the Appalachian region, but for readers of poetry and prose of any geographic locale. This collection contains a rich texture where universal themes are rendered with evocative voices.

The editors are to be complimented on their artful selections and placement of this diverse range of poetry and bringing together a cohesive book of superb quality. Certainly, the pride of West Virginia comes through; and as a West Virginian, I feel there is much to celebrate with this publication. The writers represented cry out on issues that are all about humanity.

The word "confluence" comes to mind--a word that the late Willie Norris used to describe his world of the South. Yes, there is a confluence in this collection where the personal becomes public and the public becomes personal because of the intense commitment to the landscape, family, and friends. A strong appreciation exists for what money can't buy--the feeling that a person is a part of something larger than the self.

Several of these writers have a national reputation as poets and as writers of fiction and nonfiction. However, every writer represented in this book is equally worthy and deserves the highest praise and recognition. Reading this book you say to yourself, "One is as outstanding as the other." When I studied creative writing with Lester Goran (Isaac Singer's translator) at the University of Miami, Goran repeatedly said, "The arts are not about a democratic process." It took a few years of experience writing and submitting my work to appreciate his words. Thus, I believe in giving equal tribute and praise when deserved, and I particularly feel this way in regard to this anthology.

Striking images appear in the late David Jarvis' poems that breathe with keen observation and emotion. I have a bias for what he created having read his chapbook, The Born Again Tourist. Jarvis' work leaves much for the reader to complete in his or her own mind. It is the same kind of feeling that I have when I view a Walker Evans photograph. Following is an excerpt:

Sometimes I hear them call my name at night.

Why do they make me wear these chains

And stake me to this land,

Land stained with their sweat and blood

And rich with their bones

This faceless choir that's chanting now from mountaintops

An ageless aria that penetrates the rock

And writes through hollows

Where streams rush like their ancient bloodlines. ***

Joseph W. Caldwell's, "BELLS ON PARCHMENT CREEK" resonates with an immediacy of the kind that lasts for decades, and you sense it will be handed down to the next generation as an historical document. Excerpts of the first and last stanzas are as follows. (Stanzas two and three are extraordinary in lending to the development of this poem but are omitted here because I believe it is unfair to reveal too much in a review).

ON THAT FEBRUARY MORNING

DINNER BELLS SURGED AND SWELLED ALONG THE CREEK

CARRYING SHARPLY IN THIN AIR,

SENDING THE WORD SOMETHING

HAD HAPPENED AT THE HANNING FARM.

EIGHTY-NINE YEARS LATER

SHE RETELLS THIS STORY

ABOUT A MOTHER SHE HARDLY KNEW,

AND THE BELLS STILL TOLLING.

Barbara Smith's Apple Pie Dying has a personal quality, the kind of a reflective conversation where, as the reader, you feel she is conversing with you and sharing intimate thoughts. She causes you to pause and think about your own life. An excerpt of the first stanza is as follows:

How I wish I had been with her

As she measured the flour and the salt,

Cut in the shortening

And sprinkled on water,

Baling the dough,

Rolling it out, lifting it--

Peeling the applies, slicing them

Spicing them and crimping the crust,

Listening to Paul Harvey or Cokie Roberts

Or Oprah in the background,

Mopping the floor and changing the beds,

Filling the birdfeeder while the pastries were baking,

Then cooling, then being basketed and backseated

And on to the church.

In Wilma Stanley Acree `s "At Honanki," she takes you on a journey with her where you examine the vastness of space and time--understanding that which flees and what still remains. An excerpt from the first stanza is as follows:

At Honanki (the Badger House)

the guide,

Arizona Hopi face

framed by gray braids,

leans against the red cliffs,

points at the pictograph, and recites, "This is

Kokopelli,

the Sinagua symbol

of fertility,

fertility of soil,

of woman,

of action and thought.

See the raindrops he scatters."

One of the most compelling pieces I have ever run across on the importance and the beauty of the written words comes in Grace Cavalieri's poem entitled Letter. This will be a piece that I will read at my writing workshops at The New School, in New York City where I teach. Excerpts are as follows:

If you ask what brings us here,

starting out of our lives

like animals in high grass,

I'd say it was what we had in common

with the others--the hum of a song we

believe in which can't be heard,

the sound of our own

luminous bodies rising just behind the hill,

the dream of a light which won't go out,

and a story we're never finished with.

We talk of things we cannot comprehend

so that you'll know about

the inner and the outer world which are the same.

Someone has to be with us in this,

and if you are, then,

you know us best. And I mean all of us

the deer who leaves his marks behind him

in the snow, the red fox moving through the woods.

The poetry and prose that is here is accessible and creative in form. This book can serve many purposes--the main one for the pure and simple joy found in reading. It also makes a lovely gift, which is how I came to know this book. It was given to me as a birthday gift from my brother, Sam Kessell, and Larry Halsted. They also happen to be friends with the late David Jarvis' brother. A West Virginia heritage is like that--we find one another, one way or the other, sooner or later. On another level,"Wild Sweet Notes," has tremendous academic and historical value, which can make a strong contribution in an academic setting. The voices are authentic, direct, and powerful. They serve as excellent examples of fine writing in terms of language and form.

--Reviewed by Mary Sue Kessell Rosen

Bio: I teach writing workshops The New School in New York City (An Essay Writing Workshop and The Bloodroot of Our Voices Workshop, a multi genre course).

Wild Sweet Notes: Fifty Years of West Virginia Poetry leaves me in awe of the poetic achievements of West Virginia writers. Rarely does a poetry collection read as compellingly as a novel and possess the same power to hold a reader so strongly in its grip that it is nearly impossible to put the book down. But Wild Sweet Notes accomplishes this and more and in the process reveals that West Virginia is not an intellectual and cultural black hole but rather a place where poetry is a natural and necessary response to life in a harsh, unyielding and sometimes strange place. These poets could all be Welsh given the way they see and feel and touch their world and let it touch them; the way they use language and the music of words to capture the experience of the mines and miners, the black and barren waste of land and men, the mystery of the back-woods hollows and mountains and people who live there, the dreams of the young and the memories of the aged. West Virginia surprises the visitor in many ways - its beauty, its drama, the tenacity and strength of its people, its landscape where nature nurtures and destroys. It is a land where appearances are illusions, where the man who runs the little roadside grocery could have the wisdom of a sage and the heart of a poet. But who would know it from his rumpled clothes, his weathered face and gnarled hands, except perhaps by looking into his eyes and reading what they have to say. Wild Sweet Notes is not a simplistic down-home collection of local poetry, but rather a universal journey through time, the mind, landscapes, essences, and the enduring spirit of people and a place so little known, so misrepresented and so misunderstood. Few poetry collections are as satisfying, moving, enlightening and rewarding as Wild Sweet Notes.

Wounded after intervening in a student's life, Faye Harper retreats to a childhood haunt to find respite. Rather than the expected peace, however, she quickly finds herself in the midst of a criminal investigation. Detective Aleksy Denko, also from Chicago, unofficially seeks answers in arms deal gone wrong that left a former partner dead.

Aleksy underestimates Faye's resilience, viewing her as a cream puff. Cute like Faye is not his type, although she can make him understand its appeal. What he really needs is a cover, and Faye can provide it. Unfortunately, Faye has to get involved with anything that involves risk. Too bad her own actions have already put her in danger.

A faced paced, heart pounding read, ALL A MAN CAN ASK provides unexpected twists that makes author Virginia Kantra's novels a must read. Unexpected courage and surprising compassion bring these characters vividly alive, even as drug addicted teens, stretchy bras, and romantic entanglement also intriguing elements that prove these character's all too human flaws. Indeed, the fast paced plot and the strong characterizations are nicely balanced, resulting in a tale that is at once deadly yet richly balanced by powerful emotions and physical attraction. ALL A MAN CAN DO comes very highly recommended.

Jarek Denko gave up his big city job as a detective and took a job as a chief of police in a small town for his daughter's sake. But big crime follows him to town and Jarek has a criminal to catch.

Tess DeLucca's brother might be a suspect, but she knows he's innocent. As she tries to not only report on the story, but protect her brother, she finds hereself drawn to the new chief. He's not what she expected...and falling in love with him wasn't what she expected either.

Jarek and Tess work together to catch their criminal, even as they see just where their feelings will take them.

Virginia Kantra writes a rich, emotionally packed story!

Jarek Denko didn't want to raise Allie, his ten-year-old daughter in the city, so he left Chicago, accepting a job as chief of police in small town Eden. He hopes this will be a better environment for Allie who lost her mother only a year earlier and is still worrying about losing her dad. However, when they get to Eden, Jarek finds that there are those on the force who are not overjoyed with the fact that someone from out of town has been hired as their superior, they would have liked it better if the new chief had been promoted from within.

Tess DeLucca is a local reporter, born and raised in Eden. She more or less had to raise her younger brother Mark, because her father took off when she was nine years old and her mother took refuge in the bottle. Time has moved on, but Tess is still looking out for Mark, now an ex-Marine and her mother, now a recovering alcoholic.

One night a nineteen-year-old girl is raped and Mark is one of the prime suspects as he had been seen with the victim. Tess is convinced of his innocence and Jarek doesn't want anyone butting into his investigation, but there is just something about this lady reporter.

So do they team up and prove the brother's innocence and catch the real rapist before he attacks again? And do they team up in a different kind of way, you know, like in a romantic way? Well, I suppose it's not that hard to figure out, but the story is told very well and it is a pleasure to read. Ms. Kantra is one fine writer and I'll be coming back for more.

A Harlequin Dreamers Review by Lori Napier Mayer

Jarek Denko gave up the big city streets to become a police chief in the backwater town of Eden. He hopes the small community can fill whatever is missing from his daughter's life. Then a red light assault casts suspicion on his department, and Jarek does not know who he can trust. His controlled demeanor has earned him the nickname Ice Man, but reporter Tess DeLucca easily sparks an inconvenient attraction. Worse, his best suspect happens to be her brother. Moreover,

Tess does not believe in the police keeping secrets and he does not believe in anyone getting in the way of his investigation. Tess questions why Jarek refuses to talk about his failed marriage or young daughter. Tess does not do cops, and she does not do families. She already raised her brother Mark, who is often irresponsible, unreliable and infuriating. For years she cared for her alcoholic mother as well. She does not need another family to add to her responsibilities. Unfortunately, Jarek's kisses can make her shudder and melt, causing her to forget her plan to remain dispassionate, objective and in control.

Author Virginia Kantra begins her miniseries Trouble in Eden with ALL A MAN CAN DO. While they might not have much else in common, Jarek and Tess share a profound need to protect their personal lives. I admit to thoroughly enjoying this mature hero and heroine who struggle with the emotional baggage that comes with age. Indeed, author Kantra deftly captures the deepest and most intense emotions with grace, exposing the most profound moments of living with compassion and intensity. Despite the gravity of personal challenges, however, the beauty of the growing romance between Jarek and Tess adds a sparkling hope and joy to Kantra's novel that makes these characters uniquely memorable. Add a suspenseful plot and the result is a highly entertaining read.

This gorgeous novel reflects many of the ideas found in "A Room Of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf, with whom Vita had a famous affair. After the death of her husband, the Earl of Slane, Lady Slane shocks her staid family by asserting her own will, leaving the house she kept with her husband, and settling into a small house in the countryside. Finally after seventy years, Lady Slane is determined to live as she chooses, with a life full of contemplation, dreams, and memories. She reflects on her lost ambition to be a painter, but knows that the life she lived was not without merit or value. She finds passion in the freedom to choose, and this gift she bequeaths to the one member of her family who understands its importance.

This curiously overlooked novel was revived by a Masterpiece Theater production starring Dame Wendy Hiller, which like this novel was superb. The gentle story of an elderly woman's retirement while her forceful children squabble over unimportant matters is at once comic and poignant. The author has peppered the tale with curious, memorable characters, among them the eccentric art collector who is allowed to eat in portrait galleries because museums hope he will donate to them when he dies; the benign landlord Bucktrout, who sees Lady Slain's desire for peace at home; and the coffin maker who pictures people dead to reveal their true characters. This fine little masterpiece deserves to be read today.

I meandered my way to this book through Sarah Ban Breathnach's treasure of self-excavation, Simple Abundance. I had read Anne Morrow Lindbergh because of her recommendation too. AML & Charles Lindbergh were good friends with Vita Sackville-West & her husband, Nigel Nicholson. So I finally got around to Vita Sackville-West & this book. It was so moving, wonderful, unforgettable, that I will reread it. I laughed & cried. I will try to find older copies of this to give away to dear friends, old & new. It's one of those books. I'm 41 & have sacrificed much for the men & children in my life that I nonetheless love so dearly. This book helped me bring those feelings of ambivalence into focus. It also helped me realize I'm relatively young & still have time to live the life I've dreamed of since I was a little girl. Maybe this "child-bearing years" thing was just a detour.

How effortlessly Ms. Sackville-West spins her surprisingly moving story of an aging aristocrat who, near the end of her life, decides to do those things she could never do before as she sublimated herself to her strong, successful and controlling husband. This classic British diplomat, who expected to be obeyed because such were the times, was, after all, so much more important than she was and what an interesting life she had in his shadow, didn't she - so conscientious and such a good wife and mother. What she does when he dies, how she perceives her existence and her place in her family - and how they respond - will catch you up in its wake and carry you to the ending, which is perfect and thus bittersweet. I found this a memorable novella.

This was a very touching book, hitting the most emotional parts of the heart. A must-read for all who enjoy reading about our history. A very inspiring story that says it all: God wasn't gone, He was with them on the planes.

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow this book didn't find its way onto my reading list until recently. If, like me, you somehow missed this one, don't wait another day to read this book. AMERICA OUT OF THE ASHES by Jeff O'Leary is a book you don't want to miss.

The book begins by asking the question, "where was God on September 11, 2001" then it goes about the business of telling exactly where God was on the fateful day. Many of the miracles of that day are chronicled here. The subtitle tells us these are stories of heroism and courage, but it is far more than that.

Indeed, many individual acts of heroism are told here. These are acts performed by people never before heard of. They were everyday people who did not set out to be heroes, but they found themselves in circumstances which warranted drastic measures.

This book is, at times, very difficult to read. Not so because of any fault of the writers. The sentence structure is fine and the prose hold no difficulty. This is difficult to read because it is very hard to focus with tears welled up in your eyes. At times, this book will tug at your very soul.

Add this book to your shelf. Read it with your children, and often. Remind them that heroes are not sports figures or Hollywood actors, but that heroes are everyday people who had the courage and the discipline to make impossible decisions and ultimate sacrifices.

Monty Rainey
[...]

Originally I purchased this book, as my brother's firehouse is in the book "Company of Heroes" pgs 59-66. My brother's name is also mentioned in the book. John Santore, FDNY, he was one of the firefighters who died on Sept. 11, 2001.

After reading the book, I felt it was well written and very touching to he heart.

Thank you to the publisher for printing such inspirational stories.

Awesome book! Chock-full of great stories, prayers, and quotes. Has an excellent section of color photographs as well as a timeline of events. This is more than just a simple book on the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. It is a keepsake, a reminder to all Americans who own this book, of what happened and our hope for the future. America Out of the Ashes has already hit the New York Times Best-Seller list within one week of its release!

I am the Grand daughter of Bernard Martof!!!! I have liiked a the book. It has beautiful photographs. Great facts too!! If you need a reptile question answered you should look at this book!!! If I ever do a reptile study I think I will look in this book. I like the frog on the cover too!

Excellent book! It's a little more detailed that a typical field guide but what I like most about it is that its specific to our area. So, while I have a larger field guide (for the region) I also really love having this one because it's more focused. In the beginning of the book there's an introduction to habitat with great pictures showing what the habitats look like. The book then goes into the specific species - I was particularly interested in the salamanders and amphibians but the sections on snakes, turtles and lizards are super too. The pictures are great, descriptions cover approx. size, colors/patterns, species that they could be confused with, habitats, and egg laying (timing, incubation etc). Great book to have on hand.

I've had and used this book since it came out in 1980. I always recommend it to all of the classes and seminars I give on reptiles and amphibians and to all of the people who ask for a good field guide because, for the size and cost, there are none better for this part of the country. Well worth the money if a handy, accurate, well-done field guide with great photos and range maps is what you want.

I love this book. We see a snake in the woods, and take note of as many characteristics as we can, then look it up later to learn more about it. Same with frogs, toads, lizards, skinks! The actual information provided for each reptile is slim but very interesting. This is a great book to have if you spend any time in the wild in Virginia.

Morell's astounding level of research reveals the Leakeys individually, as a family, and as dogged searchers for the truth about man's origins--and as living, breathing humans. Through letters, diaries, journals, personal interviews, and family archives, they speak to the reader with unprecedented candor about their personal travails, but more importantly, about their early struggles for funding, their fossil discoveries in remote desert locations, their constant surprise by the historical record, and their uncertainty, to this day, about modern man's exact lineage.

Some Leakey peccadilloes, never secret, are fully documented here: Louis's constant womanizing and his "adoption" of young female researchers, such as Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas; Mary's scotch-drinking, her cigar-smoking, and her intolerance of those on her Stinker List, some of them other researchers; and Richard's boyish brashness and arrogance, along with his health problems and dislike of Donald Johanson. Less appreciated, however, is the fact that before Louis's work and significant discoveries, people still believed that early man was from China or Europe, not Africa. Mary Leakey was the first person ever to excavate a Paleolithic site, and her meticulous care about documenting the tools and animals found in the same stratae as her hominid fossils, told here in detail, revolutionized the way fossils were recovered and catalogued. Richard found as many hominid fossils in two years (1971 and 1972) as Mary and Louis found in 36 years, and his level of dedication to research since finding his first hominid fossil at age 6, his mentoring of young researchers, and his creation of museums and foundations in Nairobi have perhaps received less attention than they deserve.

The Leakeys believe at least two and perhaps three or four different hominids may have lived in certain areas simultaneously, sharing space for a million or more years, and that the exact line of descent to modern man is still unknown. Tens of thousands of extinct, fossilized species of hippos, elephants, saber-toothed cats, crocodiles, antelopes, and even insects, unearthed by the Leakeys, are overwhelming evidence that if species, including hominids, do not change and adapt, they die. While some may argue about how certain hominids are labeled, no one can argue with their existence in the historical record, and nearly all of them have been unearthed by just one family. These contributions continue beyond the purview of this book into a new generation: Dr. Louise Leakey and her mother Maeve (Richard's wife) found yet another completely new hominid species in March, 2001. Mary Whipple

This is an engrossing story of archealogy's first family. The title hints at their adventures, loves, intrigues, battles, all most passionate. I could not put the book down. The landscape of archealogy will forever be, for me, after this book, a color filled map with the land of our ancestors fully pictured in my mind. No longer will archealolgists seem to be dull digging tan people,but exciting real people, made of the passion of us all. A superb read

Amidst the splendor and corruption of Africa, this family battle the weather, the government, the prejudices, the lack of funds, and even each other. Their intelligence and love for the country is evident as they search for prehistoric evidence of earliest humans. The more I read about them, the more I admired their contribution to East Africa and to the world.

This is a long, engrossing, detailed book about the Leakey family and their impact on paleoanthropology in Africa. It's a real pot-boiler of a book--hard to put down and a totally fascinating study of the family. You get a real sense of their human failings as well as their triumphs. The family comes across as stubborn, intense, egomaniacal and prickly, as well as totally dedicated to their pursuit of man's ancestry in Africa. Although the author has a higher opinion of the Leakeys than some of their rivals (Donald Johanson), she by no means glosses over the more unsavory aspects of their characters. I would highly recommend this book, regardless of your level of familiarity with paleoanthropology.

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.

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.

This important study is highly astute in its analysis--and very accessible. Ratcliffe is a first-rate thinker and writer.

Three great geniuses are presented here. Where would we be without the unbelievably courageous Mary Daly? And Virginia Woolf is still an important early voice, especially as presented by Jane Marcus and other brilliant radicals. As for Rich, is there a more brilliant writer in "America" today? I think not.

This book dares to include three of the very greatest writers of the century. Mary Daly is the incredibly courageous voice of contemporary radical feminism, Woolf is still valuable for her essays, and Adrienne Rich is a truly visionary poet who has changed the way contemporary discourse is conducted. A wonderful book.

It's a little hard to see how Mary Daly can even be mentioned with a great genius like Virginia Woolf, especially when one considers that Woolf was able to make a new rhetoric apart from patriarchal language, while "theorists" like Daly have only succeeded in questioning contemporary discourse. Nevertheless, a worthwhile book that, when dealing with a major figure like Virginia Woolf, deserves to be read.