Virginia Books

After spending my first ten years of life in Ohio I lived with my parents in New Market, Virginia until after college when I became a teacher in the Roanoke, Valley of Virginia. I have never seen a small town so riddled with great history and this is one of the things that inspired me to be a history teacher and supervisor. The book is excellent and even has the store in it that my parents owned and ran. I especially liked the coverage of my old school, the Shenandoah Valley Academy. I'll be soon going to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of that school and actully bought extra copies of this book to give to classmate who I'll be seeing. I realize the company does this sort of thing for many communities and for one raised in the Shenandoah Valley it was a great service. Many thanks to them and the local people who cooperated in this project.

Art and Enterprise: American Decorative Art 1825-1917: The Virginia Carroll Crawford Collection at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta is a catalogue of the collection as of the date of publication. Catalogues of exhibits and collection have always been a wonderful source of knowledge and this one is superior even in this elite category. The collection's goal has been to represent the period from 1825-1917 in American Decorative Art with masterpieces whose superior quality is matched by their historical significance. This goal is key to this book as a major focus in not just the object but the history of the manufacture or of those involved in the object. With a total of 227 objects arranged chronologically by style, this book is a wonderful reference for this period.

The Kluge-Ruhe collection, housed at the University of Virginia, is among the largest and most diverse Aboriginal art collections outside of Australia. This book, the first published guide to the collection, highlights many of the important works held by the Kluge-Ruhe, covering many Aboriginal cultures and regions with a strong focus on Arnhem Land and the central desert. Thought provoking essays by many of the top scholars in the field accompany beautiful color images of many sigificant pieces. Unlike many introductions to Aboriginal art, this guide discusses themes in depth, providing solid meaningful analysis which places the art in its social context, rather than the usual 'Bark Painting of a Bird' type annotation, which provides no insight into the culture which produced it. Highly recommended--you will not be disappointed.

Jeanette Wright has done a most interesting, difficult and helpful thing. THE ART OF ATTENTION is a work which does not fit neatly into any particular genre of literature. It is, but is not solely, memoir. It is, but is not solely, instruction. It is, but is not solely, artistic critique. It is, but is not solely, a very good "How To" book. It is, but is not solely, an introduction to and interpretation of one of America's most gifted and neglected philosopher/psychologists, Silvan Tomkins.

Ms. Wright is 23 pages into the Chronicles before attempting to express the theory upon which her understanding is based; the affect/script theory of Silvan S. Tomkins. True to life as it is lived she immerses the reader in her own experience, her remembered anguish at the childhood loss of her mother and that anguish re-experienced. Long hidden inarticulate memories flowed down her arm and through her fingers on to a page and now addressed her in those drawn images as cryptic revelations.

Those inarticulate and somewhat misinformed memories have guided so much of her behavior. Her childhood appraisal of her mother's death and the way in which her emotional life was thereby conditioned provoked so much unnecessary anguish. What those drawn images revealed finally led Jeanette to write letters to her mother. One of them begins, "Dear Mother, I thought I killed you. No one said I didn't." And in another she writes, "This core belief that I was unlovable because my mother died was a major and continuing source of shame for me." Now as an adult those powerful hidden images could be looked at, examined, expanded and reappraised and the power of what they symbolized transformed. She could now begin to attenuate the strength of that childhood misinformation which had been made a part of the bedrock of her life so long ago.

It is a process, of course, this re-scripting of the rules by which our affective life has become habituated. Realistically, but hopefully she writes on page 50," I have learned.....that a transitory peace must be repeatedly earned." But the gains have been salutary and she shares with the readers not only what has happened to her and many of those whom she has had in treatment, but also in her protocols on the several affects and her instructions for non-mimetic drawing she leads the reader to see how through the drawn image troublesome implicit elements of scripted memories can be symbolized and refashioned.

The drawn image, under the guidance of Jeanette Wright's unique system can `draw' from implicit memory vital clues for unlocking mysteries of the emotional bondage from which so many people tragically suffer.

Silvan Tomkins and I were close friends and a rather thorough knowledge of his work has helped guide my thought for many years. I know he would be gratefully surprised and keenly heartened to see what has become of his ideas in the creative imagination of Jeanette Wright.

This book teaches the latest in parli debate while still being down to earth and really easy to understand. You'll laugh - you'll cry - you'll learn a lot. It comes with easy drills and things as well to get you started as well as a host of topics to try. All in all - I couldn't do without it!

This is an excellent book, written by a very knowledgable and good teacher. I was lucky enough to take a class from him, and from what I have seen of his book, it is just as a fantastic survey of art in India as the class was.

This book is written by a missionary to the Congo. It is very encouraging for "new" widows.

You will never know what a joy your book has brought to me. For you are long gone from this earth, and I cannot tell you. This book is a rare treasure giving details about the city of Buena Vista and Rockbridge County in the early days. Mr. Robey, a pure bread southern gentleman, recalls pigs running down Main Street of Buena Vista. He tells about the Opera House in her days of glory where celebrities came and went. Gives great details regarding Southern Seminary College, now know as Southern Virginia University. What a jewel for my bookshelf.

--JC Pinkerton

The purpose of this book is to help practitioners and policy makers understand how important assisting beginning teachers is - and what it involves in terms of policy, procedures, pitfalls, personnel, price in time and money, and prospects....

A case must be made for beginning teacher assistance programs. The purpose, the process and other requirements of such programs are not well understood by lay policy makers or educators.

Beginning teacher are part of a larger continuum of learning to teach. They must be considered in terms of what occured before and what is apt to occur after the phase of teacher education they represent....
--- excerpts from pages 1 and 2 About This Book

I highly recommend this book to any wildflower enthusiasts in the region. A great addition to anyone's reference library.