Wisconsin Books

Written by Mary Carpenter with the collaborative assistance of Quentin Carpenter (veteran vendors at the Dane County Farmer's Market since the year 1983), The Dane County Farmer's Market: A Personal History brings together black-and-white photographs, oral histories, anecdotes, insider's tips, recipes, and more concerning this engaging tradition of commerce, confusion, fun and fresh food. A warm and inviting testimonial and celebration, The Dane County Farmers' Market is a unique and welcome contribution to personal reading lists and Wisconsin Historical Studies library collections.

Now in a newly revised and expanded edition, Danes In Wisconsin is a brief history of Danish immigrants and their contribution to Wisconsin settlement and history during the 1800's. Vintage black-and-white photographs illustrate this fascinating introduction, written for lay readers, to how Danish settlers lived and how they struggled to preserve their culture. New to revised and expanded addition are the letters of Andrew Frederickson, written over a forty-year span, which succinctly capture the personal experiences of a Dane who made a new life for himself in Wisconsin. A brief yet savory and entertaining tidbit of Wisconsin history, especially recommended as a gift or souvenir book.

Lucretius isn't an author most come across, but nevertheless the DE RERVM NATVRA is truly a classic. In it he explains his version of epicureanism, taken from Epicurus and tweaked by Lucretius himself. Don't think our word 'epicurean' and this epicureanism are the same thing: epicurean has taken on a set of meanings that usually aren't present in the early philosophy, or in Lucretius's laying-out of it. Epicureanism should appeal to moderns as a very scientific view of the universe (L. offers scientific explanations of natural phaenomena, and isn't afraid to suspend judgement), including early atomic theory. On the other hand, the poetry and storytelling are moving. It is philosophy rimmed with the honey of poetry (as Lucretius puts it himself). As per this edition, it's pricey, but well worth it to completely understand the poet. The book itself is handsome and just the right size, and layed out well. The commentary is actually useful, unlike so many classical commentaries. It's advanced, but doesn't neglect or take for granted too much. At the same time, it doesn't concentrate on matters with a specialistic or only tenuous connection to the poem. In all, this is the place to study Lucretius, and to read a beautiful poem containing a beautiful (because thoughtful and insightful) philosophy.

THIS BOOK WAS VERY WELL-WRITTEN, IN DETAIL, OF GERDA'S HUSBAND GOING THRU THE LAST STAGES OF HIS LIFE WITH AN ASTROCYTOMA TUMOR. SINCE MY DAD IS NOW AT THIS POINT IN HIS LIFE, IT GIVES ME AND MY FAMILY INSIGHT AS TO WHAT MAY HAPPEN NEXT AS HE LIVES EACH FORTHCOMING DAY. IT IS A NEEDED BOOK FOR INSIGHT FOR THOSE WHO ARE CARING FOR ONE WITH THIS TUMOR. WE WOULD NEVER HAVE KNOWN OF ALL OF WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING, AND IT'S RELATIONSHIP TO THE BRAIN CANCER IF WE HAD NOT READ THIS BOOK. THIS IS OUR SECOND COPY WE ARE GETTING! A MUST-HAVE BOOK!!!THANK YOU FOR KEEPING THE JOURNAL, GERDA, AND FOR HELPING THE REST OF US COPE.

When reading of the locations Dennis goes to you feel you were in the back seat with him. He gives very vivid detail of exact places.
One place he reviewed was Manistee Michigan the Victorian Port City. the Milwaukee House was owned by Great Grandfather and Grandfather Diefenbach and we know the information was factual and interestingly portrayed.
There are many such articles that make you want to go to these byways he deplicts.

This is an atlas put out by Oxford that depicts wonderfully global flows of everything from cars to copper. Inexplicably, it has not been updated since 1972 --and so much has changed since then.

But that too, makes the old edition fun to look at --to see how much the world has changed. Eg, under global sales of autos, there are huge think bands emanating from michigan and reaching all around the globe denoting the volume of exports of autos from the US. The flows out of Europe are also very large.

--And from Japan/Asia they are tiny. Korea I don't even think registered. What a difference a few years makes.

I'd be interested to see what the flows are now, as so many Toyota plants [eg] are based in the US and other local markets.

This book is crying out to get back into print.

If by chance an Oxford editor reads this, I would suggest more attention to human labor force flows, and would include, by way of comparison, maps from the earlier edition ['then and now' comparisons].

##

This is one of the latest volumes of the definitive collection of all the most important works from the Founding Era of the United States that bear on understanding the original public legal meaning of the Constitution. As such, the complete collection should be a part of every university and college library in the U.S. Alas, it is not. Many schools don't have all the volumes, and many of the earlier volumes are no longer in print.

There has also been a problem with some copies that the printing process caused the omission of punctuation, especially periods, commas, and semicolons, so that someone quoting a work might have to guess at punctuation, or else consult another copy. I have reported the problem, and hopefully it will be corrected in further publication, but it is still a problem for some copies already on library shelves.

It should also be noted that while each volume arranges its writings in chronological order, the collection as a whole is not strictly chronological, so one may have to examine several volumes in trying to find a particular document.

Anyone with a serious interest in the Constitution should try to assemble a complete collection and subscribe to new volumes as they come out. The editors are to be commended for their fine work, and it is to be hoped that volumes now out of print will be reprinted and made available.

This is one of the latest volumes of the definitive collection of all the most important works from the Founding Era of the United States that bear on understanding the original public legal meaning of the Constitution. As such, the complete collection should be a part of every university and college library in the U.S. Alas, it is not. Many schools don't have all the volumes, and many of the earlier volumes are no longer in print.

There has also been a problem with some copies that the printing process caused the omission of punctuation, especially periods, commas, and semicolons, so that someone quoting a work might have to guess at punctuation, or else consult another copy. I have reported the problem, and hopefully it will be corrected in further publication, but it is still a problem for some copies already on library shelves.

It should also be noted that while each volume arranges its writings in chronological order, the collection as a whole is not strictly chronological, so one may have to examine several volumes in trying to find a particular document.

Anyone with a serious interest in the Constitution should try to assemble a complete collection and subscribe to new volumes as they come out. The editors are to be commended for their fine work, and it is to be hoped that volumes now out of print will be reprinted and made available.

This is one of the latest volumes of the definitive collection of all the most important works from the Founding Era of the United States that bear on understanding the original public legal meaning of the Constitution. As such, the complete collection should be a part of every university and college library in the U.S. Alas, it is not. Many schools don't have all the volumes, and many of the earlier volumes are no longer in print.

There has also been a problem with some copies that the printing process caused the omission of punctuation, especially periods, commas, and semicolons, so that someone quoting a work might have to guess at punctuation, or else consult another copy. I have reported the problem, and hopefully it will be corrected in further publication, but it is still a problem for some copies already on library shelves.

It should also be noted that while each volume arranges its writings in chronological order, the collection as a whole is not strictly chronological, so one may have to examine several volumes in trying to find a particular document.

Anyone with a serious interest in the Constitution should try to assemble a complete collection and subscribe to new volumes as they come out. The editors are to be commended for their fine work, and it is to be hoped that volumes now out of print will be reprinted and made available.

Have a pilot to fly you out to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, whereupon you will skydive. Not a parachute on your back, mind you, but instead, a thousand pound anvil strapped to your ankle. Into the briny water you descend, past sharks, giant squids, down to area where the sun's glow is as foreign as another universe, all the way until you reach the bottom. Your feet connect with a ground you had almost forgotten existed within this beautiful netherworld. Welcome to "Don't Explain".

It makes me cringe, having the first review of Betsy Sholl's "Don't Explain", quite simply the finest work in poetry this past quarter century. Great penmanship has become lost in an increasingly stupid and commercialized society. And thus great writers a sadly unable to gain even the smallest snippets of recognition.

"Don't Explain" isn't for the casual reader. Nor is it for the beginning poetry reader. Betsy Sholl writes in a style unwitnessed in the works of any other. If one were to make a seismograph of the bodies of Sholl's poems, they would be charted as a 10 on the Richter scale; thoughts and conveyed ideas constantly diverting from the center, yet always managing to come back to the main point. This is literary brilliance which simply can't be mimicked. She writes in a similar style that her jazz idols such as Coltrane played sax/trumpet: mind bursting, seemingly sporatic, yet all the elements adheasing together in ways one would think impossible. Sholl's trademark style is most well executed in "Don't Explain". I have the impression that this is what Sholl was aiming for in "The Red Line" and other older works, yet "Don't Explain" is when all the elements of her writing seem to congeal into it's most solid state. This is writing at its highest peak, which in Betsy Sholl terms, amounts to the deepest depths of the human experience.

"Don't Explain" is a bit different from Sholl's other works. While its predecessor, "The Red Line" dabbled relentlessly in sociological issues, and its follow up, "Late Psalm" was a bit more timid and mellow in tone, "Don't Explain" seems to be the one which Betsy Sholl wrote for Betsy Sholl. Such courageous leaps of addressing personal issues, untouched for far too long, ultimately amount to the finest caliber poetry collection possibly ever written.

Highlights of the book include WITH YOU IN DARKNESS (a stark and poignant poem about the suicide of her schizophrenic friend, somber in its tone, yet peppered with magical, almost hallucinatory language), CHANCES, and BETWEEN PICKETS (my personal favorite, and certainly one of my top three poems ever).

Like the deep, however, "Don't Explain" will be too far over the heads of most readers. This is a very difficult read, yet one of the most rewarding experiences one could receive from language. Betsy Sholl is a goddess, though she'd probably be the last to admit it to herself.