Mississippi Books

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.

This lavishly illustrated book is aa source of delight to anyone who has a feel for local history, and will be enjoyed by all who have any connection with Dubuque. It begins in earliest times and goes through to 1988, with the sure touch of one who has mined the records and has the scholar's respect for what he has found. I know of no local history book which is its equal.

Precise detailed listings, excellent index, should be in every rock-hounders back-pack. However, it's only failing are the rather crude maps. The maps would be more helpful if they included topographic elevation bars. But, all in all, a very delightful reference tome.

Scott Ely's characters are not quite right. There is a line in an old Neil Young song: "Your Cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch and wheel on the track." Scott Ely's characters are like that. They are situated in the world, but they don't quite fit. They have jobs. They play tennis. They have friends. From the outside, they appear to fit (sort of). But they have this strange interiority. It is this odd and densely human interiority that lights up Ely's books and stories.

I like everything Ely has written. Although I am a big fan of Pitbull, I think Eating Mississippi may be his best book yet. As this unlikely group travels the river they are transformed and transform one another. As the story draws to a close, you will try hard to imagine how it will end. I won't spoil it for you, but let me just say: Scott Ely has written the perfect ending. It is a great story with a perfect, and I mean perfect, ending. Enjoy.

The Education Of Annie by Angie Cameron is the story of Annie Rochelle Lee, a college-bound young woman who is caught between a dysfunctional home life and intense pressures to succeed in the outside world. When Annie falls in love with a young man, her habit of lying to herself about how things are (a survival tactic adopted while growing up), threatens to destroy any hope of a meaningful and successful relationship. The Education Of Annie is recommended as a powerfully written "coming of age" story about a young woman's heart-felt search for emotional stability and personal independence.

With Economics gaining a greater spotlight in our world, a basic understanding of it is necessary to be an active and informed participant in society. As a high school student with a special interest in economics because of recent waves of discontent washing over the world in the form of protests against free trade and international bodies, I found this text a good general introduction to economics that would allow me to better understand some of the complaints of said protestors. Although the book is certainly dated, it holds up remarkably well - it discusses many current issues from the American perspective that are as relevant today (OPEC, NAFTA, etc.) as they were when the book was written. The special focus on sustainable development and policy that is alternative to the mainstream growth-oriented view is also appreciated. The book is able to have an alternative view while still maintaining the pretense of objectivity. I felt that the book did not focus enough on some of the recent complaints directed towards trade policy such as arguments related to the so-called 'race to the bottom'. Additionally, it could have used the term 'deflation' more and specifically addressed issues relating to deflation as an aside to discussions of recession. Finally, I would have liked to have seen an expanded discussion of competition policy. That said, my wishes for an expanded text are not jeers, but instead cheers. As a high school student, this work has done an excellent job of engendering an interest in the subject. Because I am interested (I read this book in preparation for an Economics course that I will take in an upcoming year) I am demanding a greater and more expansive book. This book, as a fast-paced and broad-based introduction to the discipline is highly recommended for its readability and ability to simplify complex concepts. It has successfully avoided that trap of being dry, dull and overly detail-oriented that so many other introductions fall into, and has given me an interest in furthering this pursuit and learning more.

This book may appear like it would only appeal to southerners, however, its about growing up and how we some things change and others stay the same. The feelings of a woman opening up regarding race are what makes this book. Read it and see if you don't agree.

Only five of the 1800 photos from which these were selected had been printed before. The photographer had put them away, after spending a summer in Mississippi, with a Whitney grant. As an artist, the time had never been ripe to look at them again. This is the only record of a single town in the midst of the Civil Rights revolution in America. It is the record of the largest project in Mississippi, which was overlooked and unpublicised at the time, probably for reasons of personal conflict & sexism. It is also a moment in the civil rights revolution preserved with the sensibilities of a participant, who is African-American & American Indian. It is a loving but never sentimental look at the people of the town in the midst of change, and of the young white college students & middle-aged, middle class African-American professionals who volunteered their services in aid of that revolutionary movement. One bookseller has called the introduction to the photographs "the best I have ever read." It is a good introductory history for the majority of this country who were born after that time. And it is a very beautiful book.

Recently I was looking through Ellen GIlchrist's Falling Through Space trying to find the passage where she writes about getting down on the floor to play with her books. Well, I couldn't find it, but in the process, I discovered that Falling Through Space had been republished in 2000 with the addition of fifteen new esssays. I ordered a new copy. It came yesterday, and I read the whole book again. I couldn't stop. I love the way she writes, her honesty, her outlook on life. I may read it again today.

I found the passage, by the way. Apparently she had said on a radio program that "we should all learn from two-year-olds and go to work by different routes and take all our books off the shelves and throw them on the floor and play with them." She writes, "I can talk a good game but where is the action." Then, "...I walked on home and went into my house and started pullng all the books off my bookshelves and piling them up on the living-room floor. Pretty soon I had a carpet of books." She describes it as "one of the best weekends I've ever had." This process of "being into everything" is so important to her that she mentions playing with books again later in the book.

Ellen Gilchrist shares several of her life's experiences in an amicable and pleasant way. Her style is relaxing, and it is pleasant to read this book and share her life in doing so. The reading is not heavy, instead very light. And Ellen is rich in experiences, which she has a pleasant way of sharing with her readers. Two pleasant examples are her flight from New York to London aboard a supersonic jet and her intimate relationship with a man much younger than her. I enjoyed every minute of reading this book.

"Fannie Lou Hamer and the Fight for the Vote," by Penny Colman, is a powerful tribute to an important American leader. Hamer (1917-1977), a poor Mississippi sharecropper, was a driving force in the struggle to secure voting rights for poor African-Americans. This book, directed towards younger readers, effectively tells her story.

Colman combines a straightforward text with many historic photographs. The book begins with the dramatic story of the 1964 Democratic Convention, during which Hamer took a stand against the suppression of black people within the Mississippi Democratic establishment. An interesting supplement within the text describes Hamer's influence on singer/songwriter Bernice Reagon. Another such supplement discusses the "freedom songs" that inspired civil rights heroes like Hamer.

Hamer's story is an important one, and more children and adults, regardless of race, should be made aware of her achievements. My thanks to Penny Colman for this well-done book.