Literature Books

I read this book because it was a book club choice. I don't know what I was expecting however the first line of the book totally turned me off. I thought, "Why are we picking such bad books to read?" (the last few book club selections have not been very well received) However I kept on reading and was so glad I did. Throughout the book I kept thinking I really don't like this book, but I couldn't put it down. I found myself bringing it with me while I was doing errands in hopes I would get a few moments to read a little more. The writing is compelling, if not a tad transparent. I was able to guess what was happening as I was reading along. Except for the ending. The ending is a twist I never expected and was chillingly well done.

This is a book I would have never read if I had not been in my book club but I am so glad I did. It is a well written mystery/love story/western type book that is vibrant and dark at the same time.

In our book club we rate our books from 1 - 5 (5 being the best). The book received an average 4.8 - the highest of any book we have read in a very long time. I would highly recommend reading it and it makes a most excellent book club read. Our discussion about the book was one of the best we have had, with many different opinions and observations being shared.

I am stunned by all of the wonderful reviews for this book. I thought it was by far, the worst book I have read since high school. It could not have moved any slower. The thing I did like about it was the ending and things turn around to get you. Just so much of it was completely out of left field. Boring! Boring! Boring!

This is an unbelievably wonderful novel to sink your teeth into. A page turner of high literary merit, accessible and intelligent. Fabulous craft and language, a most diabolical villain who drives even saints to wish him ill.

Yes he is intelligent, arrogant, rough, caustic, poisonous, and evil, all to hide one tiny chink in his armor that nonetheless, one person manages to find.

Read this book! My one regret is that Thomas Savage doesn't know how popular he is today.

The afterword by Annie Proulx reveals even more about Savage's motivation for the novel, and provides an extra ounce of satisfaction to to novel's end.

Read this novel as slowly as you possibly can, for every paragraph is painted with no fewer than two rich coats of molasses-thick paint, and sometimes silver paint in one layer reflects off of another.

Hunted by a dog, chasing prey as a dog, or dog pursuing dog?

Savage leaves nothing to chance, for this novel will speak to all three.


Skip the after-word, initially.

A completely unexpected and disturbingly powerful character study of a small group of characters in the West, circa 1940s. The prose here is incredible, and the plot unfolds slowly and myteriously. Palpable tension-- the author knew precisely what he woas doing-- with an ending I truly didn't see coming. One of the most remarkable books I've ever read.

My friend Mary Sue sent me Precious Bane when I was very ill, hoping it would get me reading again. She was right.

The time of the tale is not clear. It was written in 1926 but has a Hardy-like tone which would place it in the mid-to-late 19th century. The location is Shropshire, England. You can reference a Shropshire word list on the Internet, but after a while I preferred to let the dialect flow over me and learn some of the meanngs the way we first learn a language.

The premise is that it is customary in Shropshire to hire a sin-eater, usually someone poor, when someone dies, who will take over the sins of the dead person. The Sarn family is too poor even to do this when the father dies, so the son, Gideon, offers to be the sin-eater in return for taking ownership of the family farm. He works the farm with his sister Prue.

The second plot is a love story. Prue is a woman with a hare lip, a beautiful body and character above reproach, who is struck by lightning with love when she first sees Kester, an itinerant weaver.

Other scenes of interest take place during market which introduce various characters, reveal through gossip the attitudes about them and explain customs.

I read that Precious Bane is tobacco, but it seemed rather to refer to foxglove, which takes an important turn in the plot.

The writing is excellent. The characters are true. Some readers compared this book to Cold Comfort Farm. I have read Cold Comfort Farm, and although I enjoyed it didn't find it to be similar, as the heroine is a flapper in the 20's.

The only thing that might have perfected the book would be to liken Gideon's sins specifically(he had many) to the sins of his father, which she didn't do. The lack of detail didn't seem to detract much, as the point was explained at the beginning.



Thank you, Mary Sue.

This is one of those rare stories that seeps into your soul and leaves a lasting impression. The language itself, while a bit difficult at first becomes a song you want to sing and long to hear it spoken. The story, sometimes achingly sad and violent is ultimately triumphantly romantic - with a sequence of events that leaves the reader breathless and yearning for more. Shortly after reading Precious Bane, I was lucky enough to discover a small theatre group in Chicago performing the stage version. My husband and I were in a packed theatre of about 30 people, where I sat front and center with the actors not more than two feet in front of me. Knowing the story line as I did, I made a spectacle of myself sobbing through the second half of the play. I'm sure the actors were gratified that they had such a strong effect on their audience. Suffice it to say, no one who picks up this book will be disappointed, nor will they ever forget it.

The story is this: A young woman, Prudence Sarn, is born with a harelip, which makes her subject to superstition and ridicule from the small-minded country folk who surround her in early 20th-centry Shropshire, England. Because of her deformity, Prue is told again and again that she will never marry; her brother, Gideon, more or less conscripts Prue into serving him on the family farm, telling her that if she follows his plan that she will at least have money and respectability someday. Prue follows along with this plan, envisioning the day that she will have enough money to make herself "beautiful as a fairy" - a dream that takes on concentrated exigency in Prue's mind when she falls in love with the handsome weaver Kester Woodseaves. Prue thinks that no man could ever love her as she is, "cursed and hare-shotten," and when one tragedy after another strikes the Sarns, she wonders if true happiness will ever touch her life.

It's rare that a book moves me to tears, but in the course of reading this novel I grew so attached to Prue that I felt as if she were speaking to me as a sister. The delicate, simple distinctions of this story ring true in every word; it was as though the secrets, disappointments, and beauties of the English country were visible in the spaces between words on the page. At first the language, written in vernacular of the time, was hard to read, but once I grew accustomed to it I was transported to a remote and seemingly miraculous place where Prue discovered and treasured profound beauty in unlikely places. The same can be said of discovering Prue herself, whose compassion, wit, love, and faithfulness shine in everything she does. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone - it is undoubtedly a story about love, but not in the conventional rom-com or Harlequin-paperback way that's so prevalent nowadays. This is a story about strength of spirit, about unconditional goodness in the face of cruelty, mockery, and calamity. If that's not a real "love story," I don't know what is.

Once in awhile, you run across a book that's like coming home, that places you in a persona and setting that is hazily familiar. Mary Webb's Precious Bane does that for me. Set in rural England in the early 19th century, it tells the story of Prudence Sarn, a young woman whose mother encountered a hare while she was pregnant with Prue. The baby was born with a harelip.
For those who knew her, it meant that Prue would never marry--what man, after all, would want to kiss her? For those who did not know her, it was an excuse to make up tales that she "roamed the country at night in the body of a hare" and that she could curse with a look. For Prue, it was reason to hide from the man she loved, the weaver Kester Woodseaves.
Prue worked like a slave for her brother Gideon's dream of wealth and power in exchange for his promise of money to have her affliction cured when they were rich. But Prue took moments to appreciate the lilies on the lake's edge, the molting of the dragonflies, and the heady scent of apples in the attic where she retreated to write in her diary.
Mary Webb (1881-1927) lived most of her life in Shropshire County, England, where she and her father wandered the hills and lanes, a pastime she continued after he died. Later, Webb--who was also a poet--enhanced her stories with the naturalism and mysticism she learned from her father and the land.
Shropshire English is heavily influenced by the Welsh language, creating a lively and colorful dialect that Webb has distilled in her novels. It takes some getting used to, but once you catch the rhythm, it's hard to let go. Webb's prose will sing in your mind days after the book is closed.
She also used local traditions such as telling the bees when someone has died, and the employment of a Sin Eater, who, for a fee, consumes the sins of the dead person in a glass of wine and a crust of bread. When Gideon's and Prue's father died, Gideon agreed to eat the sins of his father if his mother, who was upset because her husband "had died in his wrath, with all his sins upon him," turned the farm over to him.
But it was the people she met on her wanderings and trips to the market where she sold flowers and produce from her garden that proved Mary Webb's greatest resource. Her novels are enriched by minor characters like Isaiah in Seven for a Secret, who said little but "Ha!" That one syllable was enough to make him a wealthy farmer because people felt they had been found out and out of guilt gave him their best prices. Sarah, the housekeeper in The House in Dormer Forest, broke the favorite china and vases belonging to whomever she was angry with.
Mary Webb's protagonists make her novels shine. Hazel Woodus in Gone to Earth seems more animal than human; she is as wild as her beloved Foxy. Deborah Arden, in The Golden Arrow, loves deeply and totally with all her soul. Robert Rideout, in Seven for a Secret, composes music and poetry while he herds sheep. Prudence Sarn is Webb's greatest achievement as she brings the reader to care passionately about Prue .
The novelist was able to draw from within herself to create Prue Sarn because she suffered most of her life from the facial disfigurement brought on by Grave's Disease.
Precious Bane is a masterpiece. Mary Webb's other novels do not reach that pinnacle--they are too didactic and sometimes simplistic, but they are well worth reading as they poetically explore love, passion, and social norms.

This is an amazing book which should be read by all those who enjoy British literature. It is a touching, romantic story. The writing is sensual in that there are sounds, smells, sights, tastes and textures to be experienced in its textual descriptions. The natural setting almost becomes a "character" in and of itself because you could not take the story out of the beautiful, natural, country setting Webb creates.
Look at other reviews to understand the plot. However, it truly doesn't make sense to try to recount it. Be patient when waiting for the "hook", when you won't be able to put the book down, it will come. Also, allow yourself a bit of time to learn to read and hear in your mind the syntax and sound of the words. Mary Webb takes you to a different place and time and you come to understand what it would be like for a young woman with intelligence, family devotion, character and longings who happened to be born with an external defect.
May this book become one of your favorites as it has become one of mine. (If anyone knows how I might obtain a video/DVD of the Masterpiece Theatre version with Janet McTeer and Clive Owen, please let me know.)

Maybe to that limited set of writers who thinak they are the Homers of today.

But a great american novel would be read by many people with differing levels of appreciation and determined to refelct the CURRENT and essence of America (oh what about south america) not just the mythical past.

THe words may flow as a poem, and cover or expound cleary or lyrically the points of life in this country but that alone does not make it a great story. Or a timeless one.

In preface to my review, I have to say that my favorite writers are Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Boll, Arthur Rimbaud, etc.
Many of the reviews here have bandied about the name of Thomas Wolfe (whose "Look Homeward, Angel" was brilliant); and the comparison is richly deserved; but the most insightful comparison came from the person who said it reminded him of an American version of Tolstoy's "War and Peace".
I've actually read "War and Peace". Lockridge's "Raintree County" rises to that level--and, in my estimation--surpasses it. I love the Russians--Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev. And I love Walt Whitman and Ross Lockridge for the same reason. They all have what the Spanish call "duende," what the American blacks clamor to express by the word "soul". These aren't weak, spineless, effete Victorians afraid of beauty, passion, shame and awkward emotions.
They cast light into the dark corners of the human soul and throw open man's collective experience for all to see--something rarely achieved in typically dryer Anglo-Saxon literature.
Ross Lockridge's "Raintree County" astounded me. It left me wondering how this great American genius has been ignored, neglected. The only thing I can think of is that Lockridge makes the fatal mistake of being honest, of writing too accurately about the time-period, of not lying and indulging in historical revisionism. As a result, spineless readers wince when the "N" word is used, or terms like "pickannies," "darkies" or various other period vulgarities are employed by despised side-characters.
For this reason geniuses like Booth Tarkington are banned and suppressed.
It's sad. They want to revise the past and make it "acceptable" for modern audiences. But if you sanitize, you gut, you neuter, you destroy the hard edges which give the time-period texture, verisimilitude. (I mean, if slaves were well-treated why did we fight the Civil War?) But modern hacks would have writers keep all profanities out of it, re-write it so that nothing crude or insensitive made its way in.
If you want lies, watch a Hollywood movie, read a trash novel; if you want genius, poetry, brilliant insights and literary talent, give "Raintree County" a try. Maybe, with enough of us protesting, the prude schoolmarms with tenure at universities will be nudged from their slumber and realize that they have neglected one of the titanic achievements of modern American literature.

Raintree County is the anatomy of a fall from Paradise-with all the Edenic metaphors placed in a fictional county in Indiana-and the process by which it is regained. The structure and scope of the book are extraordinary, a system of telling and suspension that turns one day into a hundred years, all hinged upon the American Civil War (and the allegorical death of the principal character). Like another great contemporary American novel, All The King's Men, Raintree County was built upon the wreckage of a failed epic prose poem. Also, like Robert Penn Warren's glittering classic, Ross Lockridge's best-selling masterpiece deals with a gifted primary character caught up in the vortex of human history (though Penn Warren was more interested in the problem of power than he was in the cataloging of the life of Huey Long).

Raintree County should be a standard of 20th Century American literature. It is perhaps the greatest novel ever written. I'm mystified as to why it doesn't make Random House's Top 100 Novels List. I think in all honesty that Raintree County is too straightforward, too compassionate, too wise, too loving, too optimistic, too gently humorous, and too accessible to please the moldy and myopic listmakers. Really "great" books, as everyone knows, are dry game puzzles, smug literary fogs, brutal crayon travelogues, or ancient misanthropic sphinxes that museum directors and tenured professors of the academies alike can dust off occasionally without fear of ever having to update their pamphlets.

The texture style and meter of this work is astoundingly lyrical yet clear. To wit: "The world is still full of divinity and strangeness, Mr. Shawnessy said. The scientist stops, where all men do, at the doors of birth and death. He knows no more than you and I why a seed remembers the oak of twenty million years ago, why dust acquires the form of a woman, why we behold the earth in space and time. He hasn't yet solved the secret of a single name upon the earth. We may pluck the nymph from the river, but we won't pluck the river from ourselves: this coiled divinity is still all murmurous and strange. There are sacred places everywhere. The world is still man's druid grove, where he wanders hunting for the Tree of Life."

As long as I have a mind, I won't forget this profound and wonderful book or the characters who inhabit it: Perfessor Stiles with his pince-nez and Malacca cane, the cigar-chewing bighearted phony senator from Indiana, Garwood Jones, sweet Nell Gaither, the dark lost and deranged Susannah Drake. Carefully researched (it took seven years to write), it is also an excellent freshener on historical events of the nineteenth century, especially the Civil War. Contained within, for all you philosophiles, is the added bonus of cogent and detailed arguments for free will over predetermination, the triumph of spirit over matter, a solution to the riddle of the Many and the One, an explanation of the Word, and many more.

Born four years before J.D. Salinger, who still breathes at this writing, Ross Lockridge Jr. ended his life by carbon monoxide poisoning March 6th, 1948, two months after the publication of his one and only novel. He was thirty-three. He left behind a wife and four children. His second son, Larry, five years old at the time of his father's death, has written a book (Shade of the Raintree) attempting to explain what he calls "the greatest single mystery in American letters." He largely blames success in combination with a "biological (possibly genetic) predisposition to depression" along with "suicide-personality disorder (narcissistic)." It's easy to see why a John Kennedy O'Toole battering his manuscript (Confederacy of Dunces) against the unbreachable ramparts of Harcourt Brace and Get Lost, might do himself in (and then of course win a Pulitzer). But to receive a Harvard scholarship, publish an immediately successfully and lavishly acclaimed book which wins several major prizes including an MGM contract, and then to take your life as a proclaimed lover of life and a protector of four children, is a riddle beyond the ken of my meager imagination.

You may have once wandered through an art gallery and
while walking between images both beautiful and banal
happened upon a painting unlike few you have ever seen before.
It was found placed in a more remote part of the exhibit
and poorly lit thus causing you to give it a brief glimpse.
At first glance, the quaint simplicity caused you to smile yet upon
a second look you noticed the unmistakable quality, the rich
shadings, the subtleties, the emotion upon the faces of the characters,
and within a short time you realized that the artist had captured the
very essence of humanity. Shades of life both light and dark and all
the hues in between, this is what Ross Lockridge has placed upon his canvass for
posterity. This is Raintree County.

Raintree County; a mythical place, a gentle and beautiful tale of an
age and culture that has long since been harrowed under and paved over.
A verdant and pastoral county whose heart is found at the crossroads of
two dirt roads, whose inhabitants are poised at the intersection between a young
and thriving republic and greatest wrong every allowed to fester within
its expanding frontiers. The sunny days of community existence intertwined
with the political complexities surrounding the greatest rift ever to divide a
nation. A portrait of the land and its people in the midst of life and the
trials and tribulations of life's inescapable vicissitudes.

Within the covers of this book are found the joys of love upon the banks of
a river, the excitement and pride of a community during the celebration of
Independence day, the pungent smells and prolific yet depraved lifestyle during
the last days of antebellum New Orleans, and the songs of the slaves in their
agony, joy, and uncertainty. An epic, a day in the life of a ordinary man and
how he came full circle-if that is indeed possible. A reminder of the nation and
her people who were deeply shattered by the violence of a Civil War.

Within the prose are whispers of Plato, Poe, and Shakespeare. Characters
of well developed intellect and humor coexist amid the turgid and the
unlearned. At its core is love, insanity, birth, death, family, war,
and a river that courses through the county to both nourish the smiles and
drain the bitterness. Indeed perhaps the "Great American Classic," and a
sadly overlooked book. Lockridge is of the same ilk as Wolfe, Faulkner,
and Emerson. It has been said that each of us contains a book. To have this
as your only book is a majestic feat. Raintree County can be analyzed at many
philosophical levels and I am sure subsequent readings will reveal a multitude
of lessons. To me, my first time just staying at the surface brought me
the great joy that a masterfully written novel must impart.

I have positioned this book as "The" Great American novel - in reccomending it to a dozen friends. Only one has disagreed. Nuff said.

Grandpa bought this book to read to his 21 month old granddaughter. She loves books. We have a good time reading this story. Not too short, not too long. We enjoy looking for the animals hidden in the jungle flora on the opening pages of the book. The rhyming verse story is well done. The pictures are big and colorful. Grandpa has to make the sounds that each animal makes, especially the sound of the big, hairy gorilla thumping his chest. We have a fun time looking for the small ants that are found on each of the story pages (added bonus). There are other similar books written by this author that I would consider purchasing.

My son loves this book so much that when it started falling apart, I bought another one! He asks for this book every night. Highly recommend!!

This book is beautifully illustrated. The vibrant colors invited my students to be actively engaged while we were reading it together. The rhyme scheme of the book made my students laugh and learn at the same time. Humor is always a good way to learn. I would reccomend this book to anyone.

This book has been a favorite in our home since we got it over 8 years ago. The pictures are beautiful and fun. The rhymes are great. It is one of the few books that I do not tire of reading over and over and over again to the kiddos.

Only draw-back is that it is permanately stuck in my head. Can't go to the zoo without finding myself saying the rhymes. Oh, who am I kidding, that's not a draw-back...it is kinda fun! hee hee

This is such a cute book. Bright and colorful pictures to look at, with a story that isn't too repetitive. Readers will not mind reading time and again to children

It was a nice surprise to discover Dr. Seuss' "other" art, the art less known by the public. Theodor Seuss Geisel created wonderful paintings and sculptures, of which I was not aware prior to hearing about this book. Of course, his "other" art is just as imaginative and creative as the art seen in his children's books. "The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss" is a beautiful addition to my living room coffee table.

Betsy Hammer

A visually stunning body of work. This book shares rare and unusual images not seen in the series of children's books Dr. Seuss penned. Some of the images are dark and disturbing but then that's what makes it worth seeing. A wonderful and beautifully written forward by Maurice Sendak, another children's author, adds an interesting insight to the quirky and unique personality, of my beloved childhood hero, Theodore Geisel aka Dr. Seuss.

I recommend this book for kids and adults and anyone interested in animation or comic art.

this book is moving. in the way that a rainy day or a kitten effect your mood, this book too, will leave you changed.

i love this book.

This book gives you some of the everyday images from Dr. Seuss' children books and sketches for those characters, but also invites you into a secret world of other at that he created, some reminiscent of his popular books, but some much more abstract and interesting.

This book is a good buy for those who want to see more of who Dr. Seuss really was and what other art he created.

Ted Geisel, more widely known as Dr. Seuss, was a consummate writer and illustrator. His children's books have sold millions of copies; it is a near certainty that few children grow up in the United States without being exposed to Seuss books. This book contains some of Seuss's art that has not had a great deal of exposure. Most are paintings, although there are some works of three-dimensional art.
There are some very subtle messages in these paintings. On page 67 the image has the title "A Man Who Has Made an Unwise Prochess (sic)." A sad-looking man is walking from a distant building along a trail where there are sharp drops on both sides. The image caught and held my eye as I tried to determine what was so familiar about it. Then I realized that the man looked a great deal like Adolph Hitler. The eyes, hair, mustache and shape of the face all match.
Most of the other works contain characters similar to those that have appeared in his books. They are all well done, exuding a brightness and joy so typical of the Dr. Seuss books. Geisel was just as much an artist as he was a writer, perhaps even more so. If you examine this book, you may also reach that conclusion.

As an event manager for Jan Mulder and orchestra, website: www.janmulder.us I purchased three copies of The Story of the Orchestra which will be given to young people to learn about the orchestra's various instrument. I highly recommend this book for both adults and younger people.
Hans Goede

Excellent tool for teaching your children about the Orchestra. The CD that comes with it is great.

"Santa" brought this book for our 4 year old. She loves it! It is layed out in a way that we can read just portions of each page without her getting overwhelmed. It is definitely a book she can grow with. Because a mom has to brag: My daughter can now easily name each instrument and knows which "family" it belongs. She laughs hysterically over Beethoven's picture, knows Tchaikovsky composed Swan Lake and the Nutcracker (the sweetest thing is hearing a 4 year old rattle of Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi!) etc. Highly recommended!

I purchased this book in preparation for teaching a group of homeschooled students (ages 7-14) a short course in music appreciation. It was a terrific resource for them. The text was brief but engaging; the cartoons were entertaining; and the photography was so eyecatching. It covered the musical periods, with information on several representative composers. Then each of the orchestra sections was covered, with a helpful CD included to hear snips from pieces that featured the instruments. The students all learned quite a bit from this book. I recommend it highly.

I was looking for resources to help make teaching about classical music and composers to primary grade children more entertaining and I found what I needed all wrapped up in this book and CD combination.

Part I of the book concerns composers and is separated into the periods in which they composed, ie., Baroque, etc., with a brief description of art, architecture and feeling of the period. The composers covered for all periods are Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Gershwin, Copland and Bernstein.

Part II of the book is about the instruments of the orchestra. Again, this is further broken down into the different sections of the orchestra such as strings, woodwinds, etc. Then within each of those sections a feature on the individual instruments.

The accompanying CD has brief examples of the compositions introduced in the composers section and for each instrument. It really helps the kids hear what they've been discussing.

One of the best things about this book are the illustrations. They are colorful and entertaining. Sometimes there are humorous illustrations such as a drawing of the ideal Baroque instrumentalist needing 2 right hands, 3 left hands, and 3 eyes which really had my 3rd grade kids in giggles after hearing the intricacies of "Spring" by Vivaldi. There are also entertaining illustrations showing how an instrument produces its sound and they are mixed with photographs of the instrument itself. I highly recommend this book for music teachers to use as a reference and for parents who have children interested in learning an instrument.

This book is so mind catching.... Eyes were glued to the pages! I reccomend this book to anyone who has ever dated a D-Boy or just in the mood to be entertained by the street life.

THIS BOOK WAS VERY GOOD I ENJOY EVERY PAGE OF THIS BOOK KEISHA ERVIN IS A VERY GOOD WRITER ENJOY ALL HER BOOKS

This book let me down a little because it wasn't what I anticipated. It really wasn't about Love or the gangster girl with the gangster guy so if that's what your looking for this is not the book for you... CREAM which was a Triple Crown publication was much better and a lot sexier.

The 1st story is simply an excerpt from TORN by Keisha Ervin which I had just finished so I didn't even read it in Street Love....

The 2nd story by Danielle Santiago's was some what sexy but moved really fast and ended dumb and unrealistic.

Quentin Carter's story the FINK was all about snitching and some lying skank! Lol

T. Styles' story cold as ice in my opinion was the best.. it was very different not what u expect and is suspenseful. It was like a movie! I loved how he wrote it and how in the end ALL of the open ended questions were answered the story will leave U satisfied.

Sullivan's B-More Love was straight it was more so about family tragedy, love, over coming negativity, and opposites attracting. I know its fiction but this story was just a little too FAKE 4 me I mean really nobody would get away with certain things that Jamal was doing without being locked up! But it was an okay read.

I would suggest this book be borrowed not bought! Lol

When you have the right ingredients and mix them well, the end result is a extraordinary product. And in the case of Street Love that's exactly what happened. Street love in a combination of five good authors who bring spark and interest to the literary world. While I have had this book for a minute, it is only of late that I read all of the stories. I found favor in each of the author's stories and wish that all of them were full novels. Each author, is truly worthy of Kudos...so my hats off to Keisha Ervin, Danielle Santiago, T. Styles, Quentin Carter, and Leo Sullivan. If you want five great short reads than this is what you have been looking for!
Great Job!

STREET LOVE, an anthology by Triple Crown Publications contains
five dramatic, explosive short stories.

Keisha Ervin brings the heat with Mo and Quan in After the Storm. Mo
and Quan have been together for eight years. Even though the magic
has left the relationship, neither wants to be the first to say
goodbye. All of their respective secrets are about to be revealed
and this time, their relationship may crumble from the aftershocks.

The Game by Danielle Santiago is the story of Butta. He has fallen
in love with Arnessa, a drug dealer who enters the game to take care
of her younger sister. Arnessa catches unwanted attention from
rival, Suef and is focused on eliminating him. Will The Game catch
up with her when her little sister gets caught up?

Quentin Carter's contribution to STREET LOVE is The Fink, a story
about the trials and tribulations of being a snitch. After spilling
the beans on his best friend and business partner for a reduced
sentence, will Phelix be able to stay alive long enough to enjoy the
fruits of his labor?

Cold as Ice by T. Styles gives readers a glance into the life of
Pepper Thomas. Pepper is a young girl frustrated by the lack of
funds in her household, but a golden opportunity falls into her lap
after her criminal neighbors are robbed. Does Pepper have the heart
to go through with her plans?

Leo Sullivan provides STREET LOVE with B.more Love, the love story of
Ashley and Jamal. Ashley is a straight A student with no desire to
be with a baller and Jamal is a stick up kid. Drawn together by a
series of tragic events, will their newfound love last?

STREET LOVE is a complete anthology of some of urban fiction's
hottest authors. Each story is a love story with a twist on the
timeless themes of love, loyalty and honesty. All of the stories
included are strong enough to stand alone as a novel. Keisha Ervin's
newest release, Torn, is the continuation of After the Storm and is
one of the best books I have read in 2007. Vickie Stringer has done a
superb job of selecting the hottest stories to be included in STREET
LOVE. If you are a lover of urban fiction, you definitely add this to
your to read list.

This book had all the right ingredients but the author just did not have the necessary skills to take this book where it should have gone. The characters were not fully developed. Many issues are introduced but left unexplored until finally there is a real bombshell that gets dropped but nothing explodes in the story. I was left feeling that a promise to me had been broken. The romance between the two main characters was boring. The book is just OK. It could have been so much more.

A fine read and repeated read. Highly recommended...it's good enough to be enjoyed by straight readers as well :)

I stumbled upon this book as something to read on vacation when I had read everything there was already by my favorite authors. What I found was a book I could not put down. It was beautiful, intriquing, true to the challenges in the lives of so many, and wrought with history! I hope that everyone meets someone in their life that cativates their hearts like Nessie. This book was of the best I have ever read and I hope there will be others like it from Marianne in the future.

If you have any interest whatsoever in the Civil War or just like stories about life, friendships, and love....this novel is a MUST READ!

This is Marianne K. Martin most enjoyable book so far. It is mysterious and conflictual. The character are unique and this is a tale told well.

Dhari Weston inherits an old house by a distant relative, an aunt she didn't even know. So why in the world would she leave the house to Dhari? Dhari is convinced no one would want to live there when she sees what condition the old house is in. But someone does.

There she meets an old woman by the name of Nessie Tinker. Nessie has lived near the old house all her life and knows its secrets. One of which could be that the house seems to be waiting for someone. Does Nessie know who it is? Does she know what event a majestic old tree, known as a "Witness Tree", growing near the house might have bore silent witness to? If she does, will she tell?

University professor, Dr. Erin Hughes has a love of the Civil War era frequently lecturing on the era and the role of women during the war. And she loves old houses. Dhari is pointed in Erin's direction when she seeks information on the old house and the possibility that the house could be pre-Civil War. Upon seeing the old house, Erin is immediately captivated by both the house and the witness tree. Dhari, whose life back home has its own set of problems, is only interested in selling the house. But something - or is it someone - keeps drawing her back to the old house. Could it be the house calling to her?

The house it seems may also be calling to Erin. Together both women begin to explore the mystery contained within. As they spend more and more time together, a friendship is formed. A friendship that could lead to more if only both women would let feelings they are holding close to their own hearts surface. Will they or will the secrets of the old house be too much to overcome?

Under the Witness Tree is a fantastic book. The author blends a truly terrific mix of romance, with just the right amount of intrigue and suspense in a tale that keeps you guessing until the very end. Sit down and rest beneath the witness tree and let the secrets unfold to your heart's desire.

This short book should be required reading for all politicians. While there may be valid reasons for starting a war, the unintended consequences are not always considered, including the impact on families and the innocent. We should all temper our patriotism with a little dose of reality.

No other book has ever hit me this hard with its message in so few pages like Twain's The War Prayer. In our troubled world today, this book should be read by everyone. The book portrays the unspoken side of a war prayer, the consequences of victory and conquest. This dark tale of Twain is bound well into a small book that is accompanied by illustrations. The drawings here (just look at the cover page) are eloquent as they are haunting and accompany the grimness of Twain's piece absolutely beautifully. A buy you will never forget. After you read it, buy a few more copies, and give this to family and friends. To ignore such a book with a powerful message, bound in a beautiful edition with illustrations as melancholy as the story itself, would be a sin.

Twain's _War Prayer_ is a classic piece of anti-war literature. Written during the Spanish-American war, the sentiments Twain expresses are still relevent today. As a combat vet, I always struggle with those who invoke the name of religion, morality or righteousness with war. War is obscene - Twain's vivid poem illustrates what that is. The power of Twain's words are supported by the drawings of John Groth, which fit the tone and time of the story.

As a previous reviewer has noted, the printing quality of the book leaves something to be desired; with that said, I strongly recommend this powerful piece.

This short narrative is simple and to read an understand. It gives the dramatic account of a blindly patriotic church service being interrupted by a "messenger of God," who proceeds to reveal the unspoken prayer of the congregation as heard by the ears of the LORD. It is, to put it breifly, a caution against self-centered prayer and/or a reprimand against needless bloodshed. This should be standard reading in schools and churches across the globe, especially here in the good 'ole war-mongering USA.

OK - A note from a middle american man on the War Prayer. This book should be read every morning at schools rather than the pledge of allegiance. It takes the american psyche of war and turns it on its ear, with no need for the author's typical wit. I have bought and given away many copies, but more importantly always have a copy hanging around somewhere in your house where visitors or your kids might come across it. They might pick it up, and to pick it up is the same as to read it for the ten minutes it would take anyone to get through it. If more and more people read this book, our culture could perhaps find a more humane view of what warfare truly is. Are you truly willing to pray that your enemies children will be left wandering, wounded, trying to find enough food to survive? I sure hope I know your answer.

Bought this book at 4 months pregnant to start getting my son used to another sibling in the house. He loves this book. Not sure why, but it does a good job explaining that the baby will cry and take up lots of time. This was also recomended by a peadiatric website.

This is a well explained chidrens book about getting another baby in the family and preparing a child for that. If you bottle feed though, you'll have to skip two pages or skip the book.

We bought this book for our two year old boy when I was a few weeks away from expecting our second baby. We started reading it to him then and have continued to do so through his sister's first year. I love that the text and pictures portray our parenting style and have taught him about how we take care of babies. I've bought this book for my friend who is expecting her second.

I got this book (among others) to introduce our 2 1/2 year old to the concept of babies, and what they might need. He's reading it with interest, and I'm glad it was recommended to me. I like that it promotes attachment parenting, nursing, etc. while making it clear that there's always room for more love in a family.

This book is, in my opinion, an absolute must-have and perfect gift for any family who plans to breastfeed, especially if practicing other forms of attachment parenting, like babywearing or co-sleeping.

This book makes me tear up every single time I have read it, to myself or my daughter. It's just superbly done. The text just assumes that baby will be breastfed, or acknowledges the possibility of pumped milk in a bottle ("when baby is older"). Baby is pictured fitting into the family's activities with the older child in a ring sling and sleeping next to Mommy in a sidecar co-sleeper. It was such a beautiful thing to show my daughter a book that reflected pictures of what her family looked like!

There are fantastic little insets that speak directly to the older sibling outside of the story, many called "What about me?" that address how the older sibling may be feeling and acknowledging those feelings are ok. For example, that it's ok for the older sibling to be still wanting and expecting time and attention from parents, and that it's ok to feel angry towards the baby sometimes (but not to *hurt* the baby). It reminds children that the sort of needs the baby has are the same needs they had.

The book offers advice to children on how to make friends with the baby, and gives realistic expectations of what a baby will and will not do. My favorite illustration in this area is the one of the baby squeezing the older sister's finger - this is the one "game" we had prepared our daughter that the baby *would* be able to play with her right away, so it was fun to see it in there!

There are also incredibly helpful passages about what the older sibling can do to be helpful and feel included. I especially like where it tells children they can help by getting into the car seat quickly when going out and staying close by at all times!

There is also some really helpful information and advice for parents and caregivers about helping siblings prepare for baby written for adults, as well as information about attachment parenting and more resources at the end of the book.

All and all, I give this book my highest recommendation for children and adults in families who plan to breastfeed a new baby.