Missouri Books

This easy-to-read book provides a unique perspective on guerilla battle tactics and how the outlaw rebels of Missouri saw the Civil War conflict. As a former Kansan, it gave me an insight into the slaughter at Lawrence that I was unaware of. Other than John Brown, this subject was rarely discussed in the Kansas history classes I took! And, the viewpoint certainly would have been taboo. The story filled a void in my educational background. Should be required reading for high school students in the Plains States. No wonder the sports rivalry between KU and MU is so bitter! Ironically, published by the University of Oklahoma Press (1992), 232 pp.

I Highly recommend McCorkles first-hand account. It is not often that we can resolve much of the differing views of history with first-hand accounts by those that were there during most of the events. I would have given this book a five had it not been for the very "out-of-place" commentary at the front of the book by someone named Hattaway (of West Point New York). I taped the aprox 25 pages together with an adivosry to skip this section as it only appeared to be added to censor McCorkles account and done in very poor taste. Why would someone want to take the time to distort someone's personal account of history. The Introduction by Barton is done very well however. Why would the publisher think that a commentary should be added when the work already had an introduction? I think the Commentary might have been added after the book was submitted just to try to promulgate a pre-conceived notion of history. Skip the commentary and its a great short work.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Any interested individual or serious student of this era must read this book. I am fortunate enough to live in the present day setting where the author's story took place. This is the real thing. I only wish there had been more works of this quality produced and saved. We would have a much better insight to those times.

Although I don't like giving a 5 star rating to any book this book deserves 6! This is the real stuff, pre WWII, pre WWI, PRE-TV! It was written at a time before historic brainwashing by movies and television existed. Before people were self conscious about telling the truth. We can see the actual format of the "Civil" War sentiments. He reveals the concepts of dying, of The North, Slavery, and other aspects of the era that we are usually forced to accept from modern day writings, reflecting only current, politically correct viewpoints. The down to earth flow of this book is very enjoyable and is great reading for anyone with interest in this subject matter.

Quantrill is often maligned as a psychopathic killer and a despotic guerilla. John McCorkle not only refutes this common claim by the writers of the winner's history, but shows that Quantrill was a compassionate and honorable man. He shows a side to the War of Northern Aggression that is rarely told.

The introductions decry the author's side of the story, but they provide no evidence that is substantiated. The factual errors that McCorkle relates can easily be relegated to the fact that he was in his 80's when he told his story to O.S. Barton and the ravages of time on the memory are well noted throughout history.

This book is a rare glimpse into what made the Missouri Bushwhacker, or Partisan Ranger as they were properly known, what they were. What they did, how they fought, for what and whom they fought: it's all in here and with a lively color that brings to life the way life was in those most trying of times.

Westmoreland, Joe. "Tramps Like Us", University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.

On The Road

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

I just revisited Joe Westmoreland's "Tramps Like Us" and found it to be as wonderful and as honest as it was when I first read it. It's a novel written in the first person, a gay odyssey across the United States. It reads like a memoir and a travelogue rolled into one. We visit the gay scenes in various cities--the New Orleans and San Francisco undergrounds and also spend time in New York, Florida and Kansas City. The details are extensive as are the drugs and sex. We get a look at a wasted life but one full of humor and it works beautifully.
The book is the story of a modern Huck Finn--a guy who searches for a place to call home, for a better life. It is a novel in the style of the American picaresque tradition. Written in straightforward prose which at times is lyrical, its humor takes the reader on a tour of America during the 70's and 80's. Things were wilder then, before AIDS, and out narrator took full advantage of his sexual freedom.
When one feels like a refugee in his own country, he tries to find a place where he can fit. Here is a story of coming-of-age at that era when gay liberation began and the epidemic had not hit.
Simply told in simple sentences "Tramps Like Us" embodies both sophistication and purity (not of body but of mind). Possessing the idea of America's manifest destiny, there is an endless search for spiritual truth. Out two heroes--one who has seen and done it all, the other, a naive beginner remind us of the classic road stories.
During the 70's and 80's, the young traversed America having random sex and experimenting with drugs, concerned about music and style and living only to live. That world is gone now, we have been tempered by the threat of disease and drugs gone bad but as Westmoreland writes of it, it sounds like a place that we should all want to visit. His voice is original yet controlled. Everyone has that desire to run away but few actually do it. It is always interesting to read of someone who is running from something to something. Here our narrator (we never know his name) is running toward self-discovery.
Westmoreland gives an epic look at gay life in America with intensity of vision. Aimlessness was the way during the era of the book and the meanings offered in the book give definition to an age altered by the AIDS epidemic. I remember these years ad how things were. We lived hedonistically and without apology and it was both amusing and appalling, but it was real. Westmoreland shows us that.

What got to me most about this book is the author's absolute pureheartedness, despite the hell he's been through. (It's obvious that this is a memoir, despite the disclaimer.) To grow up middle class in the middle west in seeming normalcy, but actually with a psychotic tyrannical father who rapes one's sisters and a mother who does too little too late--and then to maintain one's goodness, well, that's a real achievement, that's something we really should take note of. In that sense, this book reminded me of Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot" because it's about someone who remains good in a world of evil.

There is a good deal of wonder in Tramps Like Us, Joe Westmoreland's engaging, accessible and only occasionally monotonous first-person novel, a work of fiction that reads like a memoir while functioning like a travelogue. Ripping through a series of fevered gay scenes, mainly in underground New Orleans and San Francisco, and briefly in Florida, Kansas City, and New York, Westmoreland's nose for telling detail is always keen, even as his narrator's stays buried in an endless supply of heroin, coke, and whatever other drugs he can get his hands on, along with a non-stop catalogue of frantic sex, dead end jobs or simply joblessness. Combine these trappings of a wasted life with the raging humor evident on nearly every page of this book, and you have a brilliant mix.

The United States of the 70s and 80s that comes across in Tramps Like Us is a relatively easy place for the aimless, good looking, young men and women who fill its pages, so it's especially fitting that Westmoreland let's his characters' actions speak for themselves. It's admirable also that there's a minimum of authorial comments and editorializing, though Westmoreland does spend a great many words on his own thought processes -- as his drug-addicted narrator, who it's impossible ultimately to separate from the author-would be prone to do.

And it's only initially disconcerting that episodes seem to bog down as if with no discernable trajectory, because it's not until the book's last quarter - and the onset of the AIDS epidemic - that one sees, horrifically, that there has been an ongoing and unspoken direction. What happens to the narrator and his circle, who are not passive so much as resolute in their addictions, does have a cumulative effect. Details do not merely agglomerate: they evince meanings greater than the sum of their parts.

If you're young enough to have missed these turbulent years and this lifestyle (no doubt persevering somewhere), this book may be a welcome and probably rude eye-opener. If you simply don't want to believe that people ever lived as hedonistically and unapologetically as they do in Tramps Like Us, you will be amazed and probably appalled. But you won't begrudge the read.

What a wonderful book. Honest, funny, poignant, and ultimately full of the sorts of things that sees a thinking person to actually come through rough experiences to some sort of peace. If you ever wanted to read "Candide" hits America in the late 70's and early 80's this is your book. Joe Westmoreland really has something here. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

This is a wonderful book in the American picaresque tradition, a great read that I couldn't put down. Westmoreland's clean, straightforward, often lyrical prose and deadpan humor carry the reader along on his journey through the America of the mid-70's to 80's. It's a tender reminder of wilder times, told by a narrator who you can't help but love whether you're gay or straight, male or female, or ... whatever!

In this collection of essays and articles, John Shelton Reed tackles the zeitgeist of the South. He goes about it with an academician's skill that enables enlightened humor and sound argument while avoiding cheesy, low-grade cliche.

Reed emphasizes the importance of cultural/regional distinction. He acknowledges that the South, like any other region, has its problems; however, when it comes to culture, it rules the world. In a country becoming more and more like the James McMurtry song "I'm Not From Here, I Just Live Here," this distinctiveness is more important than most people think; therefore, Reed takes great pride in it.

If you live in the South, Reed will articulate things you've always felt and will give you an appreciation for what makes your homeland unique. If you're from somewhere else, perhaps you'll gain a new understanding of what makes Southerners tick. But whoever you are, I think you'll like this book and I highly recommend it.

This book cannot be recommended too highly to anyone with the slightest interest in the South. It is, in every sense, a delight to read and will easily withstand repeated readings.

This is the third of John Shelton Reed's books that I have read and its style sits somewhere between that of "1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the South" and "My Tears Spoiled My Aim". The book comprises a collection of dispatches culled from Reed's contributions to newspapers, journals and magazines between 1979-1990. Most of these are 1,000-1,500 words long. The book begins with observations on two of his favorite themes, Southern identity and the New South, before moving on to Southern culture, food, politics and religion. Reed is a favorably prejudiced but acute observer of Southern manners, quirks, oddities and behaviour.

The dispatches are written to entertain and don't disappoint. I found plenty at which to laugh out loud. However, this is not to say that Reed is not surreptitiously engaged in a secret mission to raise his readers' awareness of the character and virtues of things Southern. There's plenty enough here even to make a Yankee laugh - especially some of his more elliptical humor. I particularly liked his comment on Ted Kennedy: "For my part, I rather like the fellow. He's certainly the closest thing to a good old boy that Massachussetts will ever produce - which isn't to say that he ought to be president, merely that I think he'd make a pretty good drinking buddy as long as somebody else did the driving."

Reed is exceptionally good at capturing the spirit or the essence of something and making it seem familiar to you. I have never visited Bob Jones University but, in just over three pages, Reed made me feel I knew what kind of place it was. He does the same for a number of Southern characters and institutions.

Reed is a gifted cultural interpreter who appraches his topics with respect, affection and good humor. It's tempting to say that Reed is a popularizer but that belies his considerable writing talents. Whilst everything is written in an engaging style, Reed makes few concessions to his readership - he delights in his use of language and deploys an extensive vocabularly that would make some of my students reach for their dictionaries.

All in all this book is an unqualified delight. Go buy it now - you won't be disappointed.

Mr. Reed sure can write. I don't always agree with him; to turn around what he says about Steve Earle, Reed's politics are suspect. And more importantly how can he believe that Randy Travis is better than Earle and Dwight Yoakam? Still even when I didn't agree with the book I enjoyed reading it. The essays on country music and Ted Kennedy are worth the price of the book by themselves. Best of all it's wonderful to see someone defending my home region who isn't a confederate flag waving idiot.

I've long been a fan of John Shelton Reed's "Letter from the Lower Right" in Chronicles magazine, and gave very high marks to "1,001 Things Everyone Should Know About the South," which he wrote with his wife. But for some reason, I had never made an effort to track down and read any of the collections of his essays. I see now what a mistake that was. I wish I'd read this back when it was new.

It was some consolation to find that the articles and essays here assembled were definitely worth the wait. Reed is a very funny writer, but he's not a "humorist" or humor writer in the sense of, say, Dave Barry or even (to move outside the region) P.J. O'Rourke. You'll definitely get a laugh out of many of these pieces, but you'll also find them deeply informative. Reed is, after all, a serious researcher and thinker, and the two indisputable facts that define his writing -- that he loves the South, and he *knows* the South -- feed off one another.

Granted, many of the essays here are more than a little dated (some date back to the Carter Administration), and I'd love to know how things have changed in the thirteen, fifteen, or almost twenty-five years since some of them were written. But that's no doubt just one more reason to track down Reed's more recent collections.

Southerners, including expatriates, will nod knowingly at much of what Reed says, and will get a kick out of seeing themselves depicted so accurately in print. I hope they'll also take to heart his commitment to preserving many of the things -- from culture to accent -- that make the South truly distinctive. Folks from other parts of the country will find that Reed has not only made that sometimes-puzzling region a little easier to understand, but has made the trip a remarkably pleasant one.

When I took Sociology of the South under Dr. Reed at the University of North Carolina, he immediately won the respect of everyone who heard him speak, by virtue of the mix of humor and humble generosity with which he offered up quite a prodigious wealth of knowledge, and because of his graceful personal style. These qualities are evident in his writing.

Now that I live in gritty Gotham, and am faced daily with a culture amazingly alien to the one in which I was raised below the Mason-Dixon, I think every day of the issues he explored in his class (and in his books). He has done depthy and earnest sociological study of issues which plague the minds of Southerners and people who know them: Why Are Country Lyrics So Sad? Why Are Cheating Husbands More Likely To Get Shot Down South? What Exactly Is A 'Southerner,' and Why Won't They Shut Up About That Old War? (and) What, Exactly, Is The Big Deal With Kudzu? I highly recommend this book, as well as My Tears Spoiled My Aim.

I found THE BUSHWHACKER to be readable, interesting and informative. Although the setting is the Civil War, the book opens many opportunities for discussions as the situation is similar to events in many parts of our world today (such as Kosovo, N. Ireland). The theme of forgiveness and peacemaking can never be emphasized too often. Though I am an adult, I found the book held my interest to the very end.

J.J. Garrity's book The Bushwhacker is the story of a young boy and girl in war-torn Missouri during the Civil War. After being burned out of their home by a Rebel-sympathizing Bushwhacker, Jacob and Eliza learn important lessons about forgiveness and looking beyond stereotypes and prejudices.

Jennifer Johnson Garrity has given us a wonderful gift in this juvenile novel. The Bushwhacker tells of events in Missouri during the early part of the Civil War from the perspective of a young boy who has been forced from his home by bushwhackers (rebel sympathizers who were intent on pushing Pro-Union folks out). The story does not take the easy way out on any of the real-life issues that are at the heart of this story. This reader (an adult) found the story wonderfully paced and very thought-provoking. The Bushwhacker is highly recommended for young readers, especially those interested in the Civil War. Adults will enjoy the story as well.

Jennifer Johnson Garrity has captured the hearts of my children with her true-to-life Civil War story, "The Bushwhacker." American history, to them, used to be filled the drudgery of memorizing dates and names, but through reading "The Bushwhacker," the Civil War has come alive through the story of two families and their struggles.

The story is of Jacob and Eliza Knight, two children severed from their parents by masked gunmen with torches, as they fled their home being engulfed by flames. Finding themselves alone, they struggle to survive in the war-torn state of Missouri, where a bushwhacker's mask at night hides the smile of a lifelong neighbor by day. They're forced to take refuge in a home of an enemy sympathizer where Jacob learns through the bitterness of revenge the freedom of forgiveness.

Through Eliza and Jacob's trials, my children gained an understanding of both sides of the war along with a message of forgiveness and unity that is powerful and engaging.

My ten-year-old is studying the Civil War this year at school, and shared her copy of "The Bushwhacker" with her teacher. Her teacher not only enjoyed reading it herself, but has also added it to her class curriculum.

I am a home-school tutor and have read this book to some of my students. Besides thoroughly enjoying the storyline, they were able to grasp what life was like during this terrible time and understand that the Civil War was not just about slavery as so many people believe. They were also able to learn about forgiveness and that there are always two sides to every story. My students begged me to read it each day and were wanting more books by this author when it was over.

General George S. Patton's younger daughter, Ruth Ellen, has written an interesting and readable memoir about growing up in this military family. The hero is her mother, Mrs. Beatrice Patton.

Beginning before World War I, the author takes us on several tours; life on military posts, growing up before radio and television, the folkways and mores of a society where children were raised by nannies.

Although replete with anecdotes and family myths that reveal Mrs. Patton's role in the success of her husband, the events and relationships which give her substance in her own right are a major and significant part of the story. Not a hagiography, the author easily and with good taste recounts family matters that would not have been shared with outsiders.

For some, the connection to 'Patton' will be the reason to read this book. I think, however, the publisher, The University of Missouri Press, saw this memoir in a much broader context.

If you think you've read everything there is on George Patton as I had, then you owe it to yourself to read this book or you will never really understand his life's story. His daughter did a masterful job of putting the family story in a readable fashion and I could only dream of having such an adventurous life as their's was.

Great Read for any Patton fan. Reads quick and is insightful.

What an amazing window into the true lives of the "Cold Roast Boston" aristocracy, and what a tribute to a strong, multi-talented and insatiably curious woman. Hilarious, insightful, poignant, historical, and best of all...completely uncensored.

Ruth Ellen Patton Totten has left us with an extraordinary insight into the lives of the Patton family & most especially a wonderful tribute to her mother, Beatrice Ayer Patton. This book does more than present facts as a biographer would. Ruth Ellen tells the story from an insider's perspective. She not only tells the story but more importantly gives her mother's reaction to some of the most trying events in her lifetime & how she handled those events. The underlying theme of the book is the way Beatrice faced life; positively. She summoned courage, dignity & perseverance in the face of trials.

Ruth Ellen makes a great point by saying that soldiers are not the only casualties of war & it is evidenced by the sufferings which Beatrice, Ruth Ellen & Little Bea (Beatrice's daughter) endured, each of them being married to husbands in the Army.

This is an inspiring book that makes you wish you had met Beatrice Patton. Ruth Ellen herself is an incredible story teller & must have been one amazing woman in her own right. The Patton family has much of which to be proud because of the courage & strong character of Beatrice Patton. You don't have to be a fan of General George S. Patton Jr. to read the book. If you simply want to read a great book about a great woman, read this book.

In this third outing, Torie finds that there has been a murder in her family tree, but could there also be a murderer? While hosting her annual family Christmas party / reunion, the whole clan turns up in New Kassel just the perfect occasion to find out who the killer could be and why. Both Torie and her mom have big plans coming up next summer so I can't wait to see what book #4 has to offer.

This is definitely a cozy, because the small town on the Mississippi River and the extended family that MacPherson describes make you want to live that kind of a life. Her detective is Torie, who is a wife and mother particularly family-oriented: she has a major interest in history and in particular, her own family's history (genealogy). She is hosting the annual family reunion for her father's family when the book begins, and the mystery centers around copies of newspaper articles that she receives anonymously in the mail -- articles about the murder of her great-grandfather (who she thought died in an accident). Torie decides to try to discover what happened, but she's haunted by the fear that it will turn out to be a member of her family -- who are in town for this reunion.

I was genuinely surprised by the solution to this crime, although it all made sense. This is my second book by this author and I intend to read more.

Rett has done it again, given us a great little mystery to enjoy. I felt right at home with Tori and her family. Cousins, aunts and uncles crawling all over Tori's house for a family reunion and her reactions made me smile. Of course, Tori's reunion wouldn't be complete without the family skeltons and a murder. I love this series and can't wait to read Misty Mourning. I am hooked!

In New Kassel, Missouri, genealogist Torie O'Shea wonders why she agreed to host her family's annual Christmas Party. Seventy relatives will soon invade the small town to attend the festivities. However, Torie's troubles take a wicked twist when an unmarked package of newspaper articles arrives at her house. The clippings claim that her great- uncle Jed murdered her great-grandfather. This contradicts the family account that her ancestor died in a hunting accident.

Though the incident occurred in 1948, Torie feels compelled to learn the truth. Being an expert at shaking a family's tree, Torie investigates her own kin. The documented evidence points to her relative as being an abusive individual commonly hated by all. First hand accounts from her living relatives affirm that information and add even more grisly accounts to the growing facts in which anyone alive five decades ago wanted Torie's great- grandfather dead.

The third Torie O'Shea mystery is a fabulous tale in which the genealogist looks inside her family for answers to an old mystery. The story line lives up to the title, COMEDY OF HEIRS, as the support cast are an eccentric, often humorous bunch. However, the plot actually goes beyond just a simple comedy as Torie never loses sight that murder may have happened with a conspiracy by her beloved family to hide the facts. Rett MacPherson provides readers with an innovative and entertaining who-done-it that readers will fully enjoy.

Harriet Klausner 7/27/99

This is a nice, easy-going read. The author continues the Tori O'Shea series in fine form. Again, we have wonderful character developement, nice twists...all presented with a wonderful wit.
I highly recommend this one and the rest of the series. Well done!

If you're a Royals fan (like I am), if you can remember the disappointments of 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981 and 1984 (like I can), if you were on top of the world when the Royals won it all (like I was), this is a book to buy. It is chock full of memories of the 1985 Series, with little interesting facts thrown in about various player's lives after the Series, (where have you gone Buddy Biancalana is answered among others), and neat insights into the running of the Royals that year. "The Call" warrants a chapter of it's own, as does a member of neither team, Don Denkinger.

The only reason I didn't give this book a "5" is that the writing of the book itself is only average, even for a sports book. It doesn't come up to the level of some of the great true-sports authors of our time such as Halberstein.

If you are a true-blue Royals fan, you need this book. If you aren't, it is still a nice story of a team that came together at the right time to win the World Series.

The Kansas City Royals won the World Series in 1985. Most people aren't aware that the team had a few occasions when they were really good and competitive. Sure, those were many years ago, but you can't take away a World Series victory for a team that truly deserved it that year.

The opinions and memories that this book provides is worth a serious read. Every baseball fan should order this book right away.

I am a lifelong Royals fan and like many Kansas Citians, I have vivid memories of the games that year. However, I have very limited information about what this series meant at the time to the actual players. This book transcends the box scores and recaps to provide true insights to the thoughts and emotions of the players and the fans. The importance of this series to this team and city is epitomized by the graphic descriptions of players' mental impressions surrounding the key plays in that series. This series was the greatest sporting event in this city's history and this book is a wonderful way to relive the splendor.

It's a shame that any Royals team wouldn't be inspired by reading this book. Former Kansas City Royals outfielder Frank White is right, "You've only got a few chances in life when a special challenge is put before you." So I hope future Royals teams will read this book, and maybe that inspiration will help improve the franchise. It was wonderful to experience what the former Royals are up to now-a-days, and Mr. Spivak did a great job in describing the feel of all seven World Series games. Finally, "The Curse of The Call" was a brilliant twist.

As a faithfull and lifetime Royals fan, this book is amazing. The stories and memories of that faithfull series are brought back very vividly. The author does a very good job of re-creating the suspensefull moments of one of the most exciting times in Kansas City History

This book is well written, and an easy read. It has great theology, with points made well supported with Scritpure. Excellent points on the central theme of the Bible.

Senkbeil begins this engaging book by showing the loneliness and worry that faces us in today's world. Written in a down-to-earth manner, Dying to Live opens with an examination of our society's desperation for life. Our frantic lives are lived in constant pursuit of happiness, and are full of communication. But all too often we seek happiness in materialism, and our communication is superficial, leaving us feeling empty and lonely. Instead of this, Senkbeil points us to the often over-looked simple answer. Christ offers forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation freely. Rather than "a crutch to escape reality," Christ is the eternal life present in this dying world (p.28).

Pastor Senkbeil continues the book by explaining the amazing reality of Christ's coming into the world as both God and man, facing our same trials and sufferings, and enduring the punishment for the sins of all humankind at the cross. Yet our glory and hope is in the knowledge that Jesus Christ did not remain dead, but overcame the grave and promised the same resurrection to all who believe. Senkbeil shows us how this grace is carried to the church through the Word and Sacraments (the tangible means by which we receive God's forgiveness), which equips us to face this earthly life.

In the last section of the book he overviews the fellowship we have in the church and how it is centered around God's word. This builds the way we worship, as God serves us (God's service=divine service=meaning of "liturgy"). He also shows the implications for our prayer life and for our daily life in the the world. Overall this book points us to the comforting truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His gift of forgiveness and salvation. Dying to Live would be an excellent read for any Christian or even a non-Christian interested in learning about this hope that we have.

Senkbeil stands at the forefront of writers in Confessional Lutheranism. While often a sharp critic of many perceived sins, evils, and errors in modern society and Christendom, he is still at heart a parish pastor with a pastor's heart for those in need. While not a "how-to" book, ~Dying to Live~ certainly shows how a true Christian lifestyle flows from a life of forgiving and being forgiven.

Senkbeil has blessed the body of Christ by penning for us in his own tight, creative style, what should become a basic, classic work for Christians. The problem and solution are quickly laid out for the reader, then all the other elements of a believer's life are revolved around this center. Explains concerns that many pastors have with the "hot tub" christianity that so permeates our times. His sections on sacramental focus and liturgical shape are brilliant!

I have read "Dying to Live" once and I am currently reading it a second time. The book is unusual in that it tackles a difficult subject in a down to earth manner. Senkbeil, a pastor in Wisconsin, knows the Bible and he knows people. He does a wonderful job of making theology understandable. Forgiveness is at the heart of the Christian faith, Senkbeil explains, and thus of the Christian life as well.

The turnaround of the St. Louis Rams was remarkable--from doormat of the NFL to World Champions in a single season. And they managed to accomplish this after losing their starting quarterback, Trent Green, and having to settle on a little-known back-up quarterback that had been previously cut by the Packers, spent time playing in NFL Europe and in the Arena Football League when he wasn't stocking shelves in an Iowa grocery store on the nightshift.

Of course, that back-up quarterback was Kurt Warner. Coupled with Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce, Tory Holt, Ricky Proehl and a tough, dominating defense, Warner blended the team into a force to be reckoned with. The offense became the Greatest Show on Turf and was unstoppable. The defense continually handled every other offense in the NFL and rose to the occasion when needed. This team was a team that was just that--a TEAM. Everyone on this team contributed to the team chemistry and several heroes were made weekly.

This Rams team was exciting and fun to watch as it was almost impossible to ignore the feeling there was greatness and a destiny for them. This book is the story of this Rams team and contains great photographs, inspirational insight into the team and its players and coaches, and recounts the entire season through stopping the Tennesee Titans at the 1-yard line to in the final seconds of the Super Bowl. In short, this book is a great read with great photos. Enjoy!

A great book about a magic season (comparable to the 85 Bears).That season made me a rams fan and with that book i can re-live the moments any time i want. it helped me over the last few dull seasons where the defense guys woke up for telling the boring saga of defense wins championships.
This book reminds me of all the blow-outs, the 300 yard games of Warner, the catches of Bruce and Holt, the thrill of the Super Bowl and so on.
Great pictures, good stats section of every game. a complete book, actually i wish it was twice as big. i was reading it in ONE day.
a must for all rams fans, new rams fans, Martz fans and Offense-fans.

This is great book that will allow you to re-live the Rams amazing turn around. Go ahead and get the hard back, you'll want to keep this book for years to come.

This book is everything it's cracked up to be. Forget that Sports Illustrated book, the subscription will cost you $80 and for what? Baseball yak-yak-yak for the next 6 months till The Man and his Warner Bros. return to action on Monday Night Football! This book will help you relive every moment from the sick feeling that you felt upon hearing that Green went down, all the way to the exhiliration of hearing that Super Bowl ref say "The game is over." Great gift, great book, great team! RAMS!

could a supermarket stockboy with almost no previous NFL experience who had been cut go from back-up to league, Super Bowl, and Pro Bowl MVP - and become only the second player to throw for over 40 TDs in a season.

Only in America could a team that was 4-12 one year make one trade - for Marshall Faulk - and go from mid-level to the Greatest Show on Turf

Relive it. It will make you pull for the Rams. Kurt Warner is an inspiration to every kid who ever had a dream.

The Western Writers of America awarded "Leaving Missouri" the 1998 Spur Award for Best Paperback Original! Since only 6 or 7 Spurs have been given to female authors of book-length fiction in the past fifty years or so, I thought this was worth mentioning. "Leaving Missouri" is a hoot! It's funny and charming and scary and sad, a book you'll want to read over and over. Bring Kleenex!

A good story of "Hush Up Clutie Mae Chestnut" Initially, the dialect was a bit overpowering, but the storyline soon puts that out of mind. The book reads quickly and well; I found myself amazed at the number of events occuring within a short period of time. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Recknor's works.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It made me sad and made me laugh- what a good book! Clutie Mae is quite the character and her story is unique

Ellen Recknor's "Leaving Missouri" has surpassed standard western fare and shapeless pulp fiction, and has earned the right to keep company with the great literature we remember from the good old days (the quality of which we were sure would never again be found in the new release section). The lushly detailed characterization and slick-as-a-whistle comedy, go hand in hand with an immensely moving story. This young heroine moves not only beyond the state line, but beyond her small-town ideas and limitations, as she gains wisdom and strength on the journey to adulthood. You will laugh, you will cry, you will cheer. And by the end, you will have lived a lifetime through the eyes of Clutie Mae Chestnut.

I've bought copies for everyone I know who's interested in westerns. Leaving Missouri is a genuine hoot.