Gray Books

Most books about history tend to be boring and flat. A Dry Dusty Wind is truly an exception. Huntsville resident, Jacquelyn [Jacque} Procter Gray, has compiled an interesting collection of historic short stories. Her expertise as a story teller transports the reader to the scene, right along with the people who experienced each event.
Jacque has rolled up her sleeves to dig deep for very interesting and little-known information. Her stories about North Alabama include the background of a Lawrence County slave cemetery. The cemetery contains a massive headstone and smaller footstone, erected by the slave's owner who grieved for him. Jacque has also answered the mystery behind the small cemetery behind Morton Hall on the UAH campus, and traced the ancestry of the people buried there back to the last real Prince of Wales, whose severed head was displayed on a stake at the gate of the Tower of London.
Some of the more interesting stories are about WW II prisoners-of-war, written from their own accounts and historic facts. The war tragedies suffered by Huntsville resident Ken Barker and Decatur residents Odell Dobson and George Mills are extremely well-told. Big Cove resident Luther Tidwell's story about having two ships blown out from under him - on the same morning - is action written at its best. Another Big Cove resident, Clayton McQuay, remembered his experience at Pearl Harbor during the bombing of his ship. Sadly, Mr. McQuay died just before the book's release.

Jacque has proven her ability to write about a huge variety of subjects, including the humorous story of Decatur's madam Kate Lackner, who got cross-ways with the U.S. Government for overcharging for sodas. Also included are stories about residents of Athens, Mooresville, and even legendary Wild West lawman Pat Garrett, who was born in Alabama. Greenbrier resident Ed Horton's WW II story is included, as well as that of his famous father, J.E. Horton, Sr., a judge who presided over one of the Scottsboro Boys trials of the 1930s.
One of the most interesting stories is about the ancestors of Huntsville resident Harry Pennington. They left Alabama to move to Brazil where they tried to duplicate the pre-Civil War plantation life. The descendants of those Confederados still celebrate their Southern heritage.
Her stories are not limited to Alabama. A Dry Dusty Wind includes the fabulous true story of Tom Dooley, the subject of the song recorded by The Kingston Trio. One story, "A Ghost Town Called Dawson," is about a coal-mining town in New Mexico that was devastated by two explosions in the early 1900s and the strange fate of the boom town.
While the stories in this book range from the 1300s to the present, two of the most interesting chapters are excerpts from WW II letters. Limestone County resident John Stewart wrote to his sister in Greenbrier. Though he tried to be optimistic, the handsome farm-boy can't wait to get back home to his beloved Alabama. You'll have to buy the book to find out the ending. Another series of interesting letters are written to two brothers in "Cowboys, Operas, and Marines." The excerpts range from hilarious to heart-breaking.
Jacque's abilities to put the reader at the scene and evoke emotion are two of her greatest writing strengths.

Les Roberts' Cleveland settings were what attracted me to him in the first place: I went to college near Cleveland, and have family there. But having been attracted, I found myself delighted as well: this is a great series of detective novels...good plot, interesting characters, and some very masterful writing. I recommend the whole series--highly.

Jim McClure, editor of the York Daily Record newspaper, has written a very readable, interesting account of York County, Pennsylvania during the American Civil War. Relying heavily on newspaper accounts, diaries, local journals, and the files of the York County Heritage Trust, McClure has weaved together a nice collection of vignettes and anecdotes regarding this Scotch-Irish / Pennsylvania German county and the impact of the war upon the citizens.

While heavily focused on local material, this book is still an interesting read for anyone interested in how the rebellion affected the lives of small town citizens. McClure's anecdotes regarding the Confederate invasion of York County during the Gettysburg Campaign offers some information and material not often encountered in other studies of Stuart's Raid, the burning of the Columbia bridge, and the fighting at Hanover.

York County produced several important Civil War figures, most notably Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin of Union Sixth Army Corps fame. Typical of many counties bordering the Mason-Dixon line, York saw its fair share of Copperheads, as well as fervent Yankees. McClure takes an objective, newspaperman's view in presenting the stories and anecdotes, although his lack of detailed footnotes is often disconcerting. Still, he has not intended to write a book for the historian, but rather a well-researched and interesting account of local history to initiate the non-history populace into what transpired in the Civil War in York County.

This book focuses on domestic life in the South during the period of European settlement. It makes clear that many of the white farm families would not have survived had they not had the cooperation and instruction in practical living techniques generously provided by their native neighbors. I was amused at how many of the "Southern" traditions of food and cooking that I grew up with are really Native American traditions that were adopted by the settlers. Gray is an entertaining writer who has gathered many facts that may appear trivial, but which help to develop a detailed picture of what life was like on the frontier when the frontier was east of Atlanta.

Bede (Latin Beda), also known as Saint Bede or, more commonly, the Venerable Bede (ca. 672 - May 27, 735), was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Wearmouth (today part of Sunderland), and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow. He is well known as an author and scholar, whose best-known work, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) gained him the title "The father of English History". Bede wrote on many other topics, from music and metrics to Scripture commentaries.

His works show that he had at his command all the learning of his time. It was thought that the library at Wearmouth-Jarrow was between 300-500 books, making it one of the largest in England. It is clear that Biscop made strenuous efforts to collect books on his extensive travels. Bede was proficient in patristic literature, and quotes Pliny the Younger, Virgil, Lucretius, Ovid, Horace, and other classical writers, but with some disapproval. He knew some Greek but no Hebrew. His Latin is generally clear and without affectation, and he was a skillful story-teller. However, his style can be considerably more obscure in his Biblical commentaries.

Bede practiced the allegorical method of interpretation, and was by modern standards credulous concerning the miraculous; but in most things his good sense is conspicuous, and his kindly and broad sympathies, his love of truth and fairness, his unfeigned piety, and his devotion to the service of others combine to make him an exceedingly attractive character

Bede's writings are classed as scientific, historical, and theological. The scientific include treatises on grammar (written for his pupils), a work on natural phenomena (De rerum natura), and two on chronology (De temporibus and De temporum ratione). Bede made a new calculation of the age of the earth and began the practice of dividing the Christian era into BC and AD. Interestingly, Bede wrote that the Earth was round "like a playground ball", contrasting that with being "round like a shield".

This book is the most important and best known of his works and is also known by its Latin title as the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, giving in five books (about 400 pages) the history of England, ecclesiastical and political, from the time of Caesar to the date of its completion (731). The first twenty-one chapters, treating of the period before the mission of Augustine of Canterbury, are compiled from earlier writers such as Orosius, Gildas, Prosper of Aquitaine, the letters of Pope Gregory I, and others, with the insertion of legends and traditions.

After 596, documentary sources, which Bede took pains to obtain, are used, as well as oral testimony, which he employed with critical consideration of its value. He cited his references and was very concerned about the sources of all his sources, which created an important historical chain. He is credited with inventing footnoting. (Due to his innovations like footnoting he was accused of heresy at the table of Bishop Wilfred, although the actual accusation was for miscalculating the age of the world, his chronology being contrary to the calculation of the time. The controversy is linked to footnoting because Bede cited another source in a note, rather than opining himself; others misunderstood the significance of citing another source).

So brush up on your Old English and don't be deterred by some of the spotty pages - this is a very important work!

More than twenty years after Beattie's masterpiece (1985) (The Evolutionary Ecology of Ant-Plant Mutualisms (Cambridge Studies in Ecology)), a considerable amount of data has been accumulated on this topic. A new review was then necessary, and this book fill perfectly this gap. Moreover authors developped an original perspective by placing ant-plant interactions in Thompson's conceptual framework, i.e. in a continuum between antagonism and mutualism, opening exciting perspectives Interaction and Coevolution,The Coevolutionary Process, The Geographic Mosaic of Coevolution (Interspecific Interactions). As a researcher working on this topic, I found this book very useful.

This is a lovely little book. Delightful, funny and gentle. Magic, magical creatures and the occasional wayfarer from Camelot.
Don't read it to your kids - read it to yourself.

This collection of 25 years of writings describes Gray's approach to "close following" of the immediate present in "essential psychoanalysis" and intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy. His method is difficult but the results are compelling. All therapists should read this. People who consult therapists might also be interested in matching their therapies with Gray's admittedly difficult standard.

Eileen Gray is an inspiration to any woman who aspires to become an architect in this male-dominated field. This is an honest, enthralling, and wonderful book for anyone remotely interested in architecture!

Esta biografía escrita por Francine Du Plessix Gray es bien completa. Posee todos los datos de la vida de Sade de una manera muy completa. Lo bueno es que va asociando los sucesos unos con otros haciendo mas fácil la comprensión de los mismos. Muestra muy bien la manera de ser de las personas que rodeban a Sade y de él mismo. Además explica de tal manera la localización de sus actividades que parece que uno se encontrara en el lugar. El libro es perfecto para quienes desean comenzar a estudiar la vida de el Marquez, y perfecto para antes de comenzar a leer sus obras. Es preciso tenerlo si se desea conocer la vida de Sade a profundidad. No puede faltar en una buena biblioteca personal!