Mississippi Books

This book made me laugh soo hard! I can totally relate to seeing people in my own church act just like this!
Oh what trouble Dem Church Folk can be! I am passing it on to all of my friends.

The author was chosen to write this account of his experiences in the Spiritual Realm and where Spiritual Warfare goes on in the Physical Realm. Before he was a Christian, he was transported in the Spirit to witness these things while he was in a near-death state in the hospital.

A treasure trove of information to aid the Christian in Spiritual Warfare.
Each chapter deals with a different aspect of the spiritual realm and how it effects the physical realm.
Satan: Where he is, where he can go and what he is doing. How the Christian has power over Satan and how to defeat him successfully and with complete confidence.
Demons and Demonic Forces are described in graphic detail.
Battle plans of the enemy are outlined and the methods employed in order for the World to accept the Anti-Christ.
One chapter discusses the "social order" in the demonic hierarchy.
Find out the little known types of demons that work actively in the world: The Unameable Ones and the Most Ancient Ones. Find out the True Appearance of these demons and how they can alter their appearance.
The author deals with casting out demons and how healing can be either God or Demon inspired.
The book tells how parapsychology is involved in Satan's Plans and also the parameters of ghost and spirit activity.
Learn the criteria of how a person or animal becomes Demon Possessed.
Lastly the author was graced with an experience of the entryway into heaven and reveals the unbelievable details. This eyewitness trip caused the author to be saved and become an on-fire, spirit-filled soldier for Christ.

The Spiritual Warrior will want this book on their shelf to consult.

I just finished reading this book and cannot recommend it highly enough. Goodman has written a concise and accessible history of the great explorer La Salle, and Tom McNeely has done an equally good job in complementing the text with his illustrations.

Beginning with his childhood, Goodman briefly explains La Salle's titles and education before going on to portray his great expeditions and troubles. Written with children in mind, the book lightly touches upon the topic of politics within the court of France, between the great powers of the day -France, Spain, and England-- and amongst the various American Indian tribes and confederations. However, the overall tone is not so academic and the book maintains a quick pacing and a definite sense of adventure and discovery.

Nicely enough, what the author does not do is whitewash peoples or individuals. For example, I particularly like the balance Ms. Goodman maintains between La Salle as 'hero' and La Salle as a 'flawed individual'. Her portrayal of him as a determined man that keeps plugging away, despite adversity, is admirable. So is her point that it was La Salle's natural aloofness and inability to understand the weaknesses of others that inevitably led to his death at the hands of his own men.

One other note -- I would be remiss if I did not point out that there are many facts and issues that Ms. Goodman leaves out and/or glosses over. She does not mention, for example, that some of La Salle's contemporaries thought him mentally ill during the time of his last expedition. Nor does she explain that the men hated La Salle's nephew because he punished them for sleeping with the Indian women. Topics perhaps best left to older children and adults.

Five Stars. Wonderful book. Excellent writing. Good Artwork. Goodman makes history live by touching upon details, such as cannibalism by the Seneca, that tend to engage younger readers. She makes La Salle very accessible by pointing out both his strengths and his weaknesses.

pam t

The Devil Has Slippery Shoes, written in the 1960s and reprinted here with new opening and ending material, and a new foreword by Sheldon H. White of Harvard University, is of inestimable value as an inspiration, blueprint, and mind-blowing insightful guide for today's professionals in Head Start and other programs for low-income young children and their families, as well as for faculty and students in early childhood education, social work and public health; grassroots projects specialists; and indeed all citizens who sincerely want to play an active part in helping our troubled country get at the root of its greatest domestic problem - its greatest shame - poverty.

This glorious "story" has more drama, emotion, suspense, excitement, plot, fascinating analysis, sharp social commentary, and magnificent characters than most prize-winning novels. It can be read as
* a seminal report on a successful model for the development of poor children and parents,
* the ignored chapter in sixties Mississippi civil rights history when protest became program and black people were finally freed from a form of foinancial slavery, or
* an enormously stirring personal document of inner and professional growth.

Read this dramatic documentation of the next step in rapid social reform toward democratization of the old slave-holding South. This is the next chapter in a centuries' long story - when the life-risking protest of the 1950s and early 1960s became, in 1965, federally funded program - CDGM's unique HEADSTART - economically releasing black people from an entrenched peonage system, thus forging the link to the future.

Slippery Shoes presents a major missing piece of 1960s Mississippi history.
--- from publisher's notes

Haynes presents a beautifully integrated view of 19th century religious thought. She uses the idea of 'voice' as a central theme to show how people of different race and gender made personal sense of dominant religious views.

I wish I had had this book in my college course on the History of Protestantism because its approach offers insights into psychological reaction to social pressures. The personal dimension was lacking in the course, which focused on the sociology of religion. Additionally, Haynes' use of the concept of 'voice' to inspect gender and race in religious context helped me gain a different perspective on major events in the evolution of Protestantism: the division between of Calvinism and Arminianism during the Reformation emerging from the still earlier schism between Protestants and Catholics. John Calvin and Johannes Arminius made spiritual journeys reacting to the dominant Catholicism of their century, then found their personal and public voices in a manner which showed a remarkable symmetry to the process that Haynes describes.

From the opening chapter on options a native American found in Protestantism to the concluding chapter, this book makes sense of diverse material. I recommend it to anyone's library on religion, literature and American history. Readers interested in literature will appreciate the author's discussion of approaches to gender and race by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom's Cabin) and her sister, Catherine. Its technical sophistication and good writing make a widened understanding of history accessible.

I read this book a few months ago, and recently picked it up again to reread pages that intrigued me: what I was interested in was Delana Mae's ability to assess her surroundings, contemplate, act, and survive. McCoy writes clearly and with passion. Her language, rhythm, pacing, and characterizations make this novel a brilliant work. I am less concerned about absolute plot (resolution, etc.) because I do see a character change, and I do become, increasingly, even as I re-read, more interested in the fine details of McCoy's portrait of what it takes for the human spirit to endure. If you like art, are not necessarily into commercialism (perfect plot and tying up every thin string), I recommend trying to get your hands on this book. McCoy is funny and wise. Be assurred that under her genius humor there is a beautiful, deep dark line running throughout. McCoy's characters, particularly Delana Mae, are absolutely unforgettable.

Dickerson, who is something of an expert on the area, looks at the Delta's dark underside in this highly readable and admirably researched investigative report.
He labors to weave together rednecks, the Mafia, wealthy Memphis businessmen, politicians, and cops into a coherent web of conspiracy against Civil Rights and war protest, but his results tend to be suggestive rather than conclusive.
He does seem to have read everything ever written on the region, and in the face of such impressive effort it seems almost ungrateful to point out that the Little Rock Central High School crisis took place in 1957, not 1954, and the Vietnam War did not end with the American withdrawal in 1973, but such lapses will serve as useful reminders that sweeping exposes must be received with a degree of caution.

I have the honor of working at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Georgia. Named after Mr. Elliott, who is now 91 years old, this center is dedicated to education of people about the outdoors and all things that make the outdoors thier home. Mr. Elliott is an encyclopedia of knowledge and a Master in the world of environmentalism.

Written by National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium consultant Katherine Fisher, Dreaming the Mississippi is part memoir, part cultural reflection, part celebration of the mighty Mississippi. From the author's daily life in a house so close to the Mississippi banks that each spring she must open her basement doors to accept the regular floods, to tongue-in-cheek accounts of river rats and towboat pilots, to tales of desperate sandbagging against unruly flood tides, river hangouts, choice waterfront taverns, and more. A chapter especially devoted to the river's mouth considers not only the natural gulf itself, but the gulf as a metaphor for the gulf between engineers and naturalists, America's haves and its have-nots. A handful of black-and-white photographs, and somber reflections upon the outcome to Hurricane Katrina's wrath round out this reverent reflection upon not only the celebrated Mississippi, but also humankind's inextricable bond to the natural world.

This is a book written for the lay person. It explains the geologic processes that made petroleum and hid it in layers of deep sands and porous rock. It describes the art, science and luck involved in finding oil and natural gas, along with the evolution of techniques for extracting it from underground structures that would rather not give it up. It acquaints the reader with the sometimes complex deals that organize land owners, speculators, drillers and producers around a common goal. It also introduces the lingo of the oil business.

Works about the history of technology risk focusing on technology to the exclusion of all else, limiting their audience and making them tedious. Not so with this one. Cockrell weaves a rich tapestry of concepts and chronology around the characters, producing an engaging and eminently readable account of every major oil find in Mississippi, Alabama and northwest Florida.

The stories of the oil industry people are likely to remain with the reader far longer than the history, geology and technology. These independent spirits, wild with enthusiasm, chased their dreams, sometimes for decades. Some got rich; some died trying. It is clear from how Cockrell tells their stories that has great affection for them.

A glossary, references and an index are provided.