Georgia Books

I included Puttin on the Peachtree in the gift bags for guests at my wedding. We got such fabulous comments from everyone about the cookbook. My guests *loved* it.

This a fabulous cookbook to have onhand -- lots of terrific recipes.

The Pizza Popover on p. 111 is one of my faves!

Of all of my cookbooks that I have collected over the years, this is one that I turn to time after time... it is one of my all-time favorites! The recipes are super and I can always find inspiration when I need something yummy and special. Try the "Flawless Hollandaise" and you will be assured that this recipe alone is worth the price of the book! (I'll be making Eggs Benedict for New Years Day brunch using that recipe and will, once again, get raves from my guests!)

This biography is a must have for all Ellison fans. I could barely put it down to sleep!

I loved this bio of Ellison, the first to be published, and its focus on the early years. The writing is top-notch and Jackson has clearly done exhaustive research to uncover an amazing amount of fascinating detail. Belongs in any reader's collection devoted to American and African American literature and history.

This is the most detailed look at Ellison's life that I've seen. This biography covers his path from poverty in Oklahoma to becoming part of the literary elite in the early 1950's. The author examines Ellison's involvement in the black rights movement and his relationships with Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. From start to finish, this is a fascinating read.

An excellent reminder of the values that shaped our parents and grandparents. The stories are told in such a positive light, such that I long to live in those times that seem less harried, more focused on the importance of family and relationships.

I came away wanting to know more about this unique blend of personalities and their charm, and at the same time resolving to incorporate these ideals into my personal living.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this charming book. The author's style of writing paints such a vivid picture that I felt transported right into the story. Every chapter made me smile as I read about each new childhood adventure and about living in the warm embrace of a big,loving family. The author's light hearted and humorous words delighted me as I read her wonderful portrait of idyllic small town life in the south.

What a delightful book! Reading about her adventures and the family members that helped shape her life, I couldn't help but reflect on my own childhood. Her story brought back memories that I thought were long lost.

Highly recommended!

Nigel Slater has a great sense of humor and personality to spare. I like knowing what kind of food will "stand up to a cheap bottle of red wine," myself. Though I use only his vegetarian recipes, I haven't had a miss yet. His recipes are simply prepared with ingredients you are likely to have. Most importantly, of course, they are delicious. Reading this book is like having a chat with an old friend. It would make a great gift.

Delia Smith books are a bit of a cooking institution in UK and usually form the foundation of most cook book collections. Endearing image - Delia holding an egg smiling. It's a very useful book but I personally find her style a bit sterile.

Nigel Slater's book on the other hand offers some truly mouth watering and relatively straight forward recipes that will impress at a dinner party. There's none of this "1/2 tsp of Something-you've-never-heard-of-let-alone-know-where-to-buy-it-from" etc and this means his meals are relatively easily shopped for from a good supermarket. This is a rare feature of cook books I find! N. Slater's suggestion for cooking a roast leg of lamb with Rosemary and garlic is the best I have ever tried! This book like Delia's covers a wide range of recipe's and is more of a Jack of all trades book compared with REAL FOOD. If you already like Nigel Slater's style or you're looking for more specialised recipe book with fewer but comprehensive sections on "Chocolate" and "Cheese" then go for the authors REAL FOOD book which is again very inspiring with some excellent photo's.

Throw a dinner party, use the book and your friends will love you forever!

`Real Cooking' by Nigel Slater (name above the title, of course)and 'Nigel Slater's Real Food' are two great expositions on the real joy of cooking. Slater characterizes his point of view in the motto to `Real Cooking' as `There is too much talk of cooking being an art or a science - we are only making ourselves something to eat.' With this sentiment, Slater dismisses the Shirley Corriher / Alton Brown `kitchen science' camp on the one hand and the Keller / Boulud / Girardet `haute cuisine' camp on the other. In some ways, this also dismisses the high-end culinary magazine crowd as you may find in `Bon Appetit', `Gourmet', and `Martha Stewart Living'. While this seems to dismiss a goodly portion of the modern culinary establishment, it really does not. Slater is certainly in the same camp as his nibs, Jamie Oliver, his good friend, Nigella Lawson, and Oliver's mentors, Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers of London's River Café. In fact, if I did not know that Oliver was primarily influenced by Gray, Rogers, and Gennaro Contaldo, I would have guessed that Oliver was a Slater disciple from the word `GO'. I am happy to say that there are plenty of important cookbook writers in the United States who can easily be considered to be in Slater's camp. Leading the list is probably Jacques Pepin, especially with his various quick cooking books such as his latest `Fast Food My Way'. I do not wish, however, to give the impression that Slater is all about fast cooking. He is certainly about simple cooking in the same sense that Richard Olney describes in `Simple French Food', but he is a whole lot more about being in love with the sensual qualities of food and how well those qualities of various foods mix together in the most effective way.

What is certainly true is that both Slater and Oliver represent the kind of cooking I enjoyed on my two trips to England, primarily the kind of cooking I saw at some of the better pubs in Hampshire and in London suburbs.

Both of these books are primarily about recipes and the salient qualities of particular classes of food. For a study of Slater's `philosophy' of cooking in depth, see his recent book `Appetite'. These two books are even organized in very similar ways, in that each chapter presents a particular raw material or class of raw material. The more traditionally organized `Real Cooking' has chapters on:

Fish & Shellfish
Chicken & Other Birds
Pork, Bacon, and Sausages
Lamb and other Meats
Pasta, Beans, Rice & Grains
Vegetables
Cheese, Snacks & Puddings

The later book, `Real Food', which is also the tie-in book for a Television Series (not seen in the US, to my knowledge) is more to the point, with chapters entitled:

Potatoes
Chicken
Sausages
Garlic
Bread
Cheese
Ice-cream
Chocolate

The chapter on bread is a good indication of Slater's point of view, in that he gives us nothing on baking bread, but just about everything you may want (this side of Nancy Silverton's sandwich book) to know about making some really interesting and unusual sandwiches. Similarly, the sausage book says nothing about how to make sausages, only how to make the very best use of them.

True to his word in his `motto' quoted above, you will find not one word about the relative fat content of milk and cream, the emulsifying power of an egg, or calibrating the temperature of your oven. On the other hand, you will find much about, for example, the relative tastes of pork, beef, and lamb fat and the virtues of free range raised poultry. Here is one strong point of contact between the articulate and reflective Slater and the ebullient and emotional Oliver (or our own Emeril Lagasse, if you wish). Both will rhapsodize at length over the qualities of a nice thick layer of fat on a chop from an artisinally raised hog.

For those of you who do not like `chatty' cookbooks, both of these books may be preferable to the very discursive `Appetite', although both of these books do have their share of culinary poetry before the recipe details. Neither book is as extreme as `Appetite' in the direction of teaching us to cook without a book. You can easily pick out a recipe from these books and make them without a lot of background reading or culinary skill. But never confuse `simple' with `easy' or `fast'. While Slater may do the Rachel Ray gig in other books, these books have their share of slow marinades and braises. They also have their share of whisking, filtering, and thickening techniques.

The other side of the coin is that Slater's palate is extremely simple. Aside from his protein or starch of choice, few of his ingredients go far beyond the simple pantry of milk, cream, butter, basic cheeses, parsley, flour, lemon, lime, bacon, sage, thyme, bay, bread, olive oil, rice, stock, garlic, and mushrooms. Unlike Sir Jamie, Slater is about as down home English cooking as Paula Deen is about Savannah cooking.

The biggest difficulty an American is likely to have with Slater's recipes is that they are all make heavy use of metric units for weight and larger volumes in place of ounces, pounds, and cups. Even though I was a chemist thoroughly familiar with the metric system, I had to dig out a good conversion table to remind myself that a pound was about 450 grams. A lesser difficulty may be with Slater's names for common food varieties such as potatoes, although he almost always specifies `waxy' or `floury' potatoes rather than the English varietal name.

The other main difficulty with Slater's recipes is that they are all paradigms of high fat, high sodium, and high cholesterol preparations. They are definitely dishes to be eaten when the occasion calls for serious comfort food.

If you like Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson, you will really like Slater!

A gorgeous reflection of what the island excels in. Mr. Whitehead's photographs beautifully depict the nature of and on the island. When I can't be there, I fantasize through this book.

The photography of this naturalist, Fred Whitehead, capture the four season beauty of Cumberland Island. I met this author, who led a tour of the island one April morning, and actually asked him whether the island had 'seasons.' He humbly answered,'yes', without mentioning his book, his photography, or his experience. An hour later I found this book in the gift shop of the inn, and my question was answered in detail. Few can experience a long stay on this island, but no nature lover should fail to visit this place and see a nearly undeveloped barrier island larger than Manhattan. This book is a true souvenir of my visit, and the tour led by the author.

I recently returned from a visit to Cumberland Island and I had already purchased and admired all of the photos in the book. When I returned from my trip I again looked at the book and it made the island come alive again in my mind. The photographer has captured the entire essence of Cumberland Island and brings it to life. The book gives a preview of all of the things the island has to offer: wildlife of every description and vegetation scenery that takes you back in geologic time before man set foot on the island. The photos in the book show the diverse creatures such as deer (including 2 white ones); alligators, racoons, wild turkeys, bobcats, birds, waterfowl, armadillos, pigs and wildhorses (not native to the island) etc. The diverse vegetation and wildlife is featured by seasons in the book. The photographer is a wildlife expert and also gives tours to the guests of the incredible and comfortable Greyfield Inn. Buy the book and then go see the island!

Since few people in respectable circles today would admit to having supported segregation, it is rare to read honest accounts from White southerners who admittely accepted the system and went along with it, as most did at the time.

This book is an interesting read for that reason. He speaks matter of factly about his own acceptance of the prejudices of his era and area, as he punches a black boy who uses his mouth on the same needle that he does to blow up a basketball without realizing why at the moment, although he is usually pleasant in hiis relations with the black customers who frequent his grandfather's general store in Wade, NC in the 1950s.

However, he comes across people who challenge everything he is led to believe about Blacks. There is the African-American schoolteacher who forces him to refer to her as "Miss" and most of all, his unlikely friend Street. Street is a self-educated free spirited intellectual who is amazingly accurate on biblical, astronomical, and constitutional facts who lives in a cave by himself. The local Whites dismiss him as crazy and eccentric, but Melton comes to see that Street is not only accurate in his facts, but represents the tragedy of racism through the inability of Street to make a living from his knowledge. One of the most interesting characters in all of Southern biography, one could easily picture Louis Gosset Jr. or James Earl Jones portraying Street in a film version of this book.

I would strongly recommend this for exposing young people in particular to a seldom-heard side in writings about the segregation era.

McLaurin has written a valuable and beautiful book. It deserves a place on the shelf with "Coming of Age in Mississippi" as a document of life in the segregated South and of the moral challenges that segregation presented to those who lived in the system.

McLaurin's book is a touching recollection of growing up in the South during the 1950s. His rich narative describes not only the difficulties all teenagers face, but explores how these difficulties are made even more difficult in a changing environment. While so many imagine the white teenagers of the Little Rock school integration as pictures of young whites during the 1950s, McLaurin paints a picture of a young man sensitive to the plight of blacks in the Jim Crow South. A very good book, highly recommended to those who wish to get a detailed portrait of the 1950s South

On my bookself sits a number of volumes on voluntary simplicity. This one is simply one of the best. It is so good in fact that I am considering giving the other books away. In this history, the author chronicles three centuries of simplicty in America.

This is the best book I have ever read on simple living. The writer not only knows his history, but he can write. I especially liked the chapter on Emersonian views of simple living.

Richard J. Lorenz

The Simple Life: Plain Living And High Thinking In American Culture by David E. Shi (President and Professor of History, Furman University) is a candid, informative, scholarly examination throughout American social history of the drive to simplify one's life and find meaning by the means of deliberately giving up excess material vanity, as embodied in the writings and lifestyles of Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, Jimmy Carter, and others. Individual chapters discuss the simple life concept from the Puritan, Quaker, Republican, and other points of view, and the importance and value this way of thought, behavior, and culture retained even in today's increasingly fast-paced electronic world. A thoughtful book, filled with carefully assessed observations, The Simple Life is strongly recommended reading for anyone contemplating simplification of their personal lifestyles and circumstances as a means of improving the quality of their lives and themselves.

Vicki Armour-Hileman's auto-biographical tale, Singing to the Dead, would be an astonishing success as a novel. Here the human heart is opened for us to see in a most illuminating manner, using the novelist's tricks of suspense and phraseology to keep us turning the pages. And we do!

I fear the title might be off-putting. Not that it is inappropriate, but when one reads on the jacket that the book is about oppression in Burma and Thailand of the unheard of Mon people, and written by a Catholic Missioner, and with such a title, the temptation is to give it a pass as probably rather dreary. Wrong impression. The author interposes herself and her humor between us and the suffering, and we come away enriched by sharing in this, her distillation of an extraordinary experience.

The author is comical, insightful, and witty. She minces no words in telling a delightful, though often tragic tale of her mission in Burma. The characters in this book are so inspiring and left me wondering what I could do to help people like them who suffer so much at the hands of ruthless governments. This book should be better publicized than it is. I had never heard of it, I just happened to see it at a local book place. I'm so glad I found this treasure of a book, it is absolutely beautiful.

Having spent a lot of time visiting friends in Burma over a ten year span of time, and having been priviledged to travel more than the ordinary tourist, what Armour-Hileman writes about the Mon refugees escaping into Thailand, the torture and privations and suffering a so very real. She doesn't make light of these sufferings and is very accurate in presenting them to us.
having visited the magnificent Kingdom of Siam (Thailand) often as a "rest stop" on the way out of Burma, the author showed me an entirely new facet -- the underbelly -- of this lovely country and its proud People.
I found it difficult to put the book down and it will live for a long time in my mind and heart.

It was even more "sharp" after having read Paschal Khoo Thwe's book "from the land of green ghosts" which was marvelous and a must read for anyone interested in recent and present Burma!

I love this book, and I've also ordered 2 more for gifts! It has all the old rides and pictures of almost all of the scenes from the Okeefenokee. It's also a great coffee table book, because everyone loves to look at it. The only thing that I remember about Six Flags as a child that is not in this book is the employees that rode around on roller skates with the little broom and dust bin picking up trash--that's what I wanted to be when I grew up!

Wow! the tar smell in lickskillet as the previous reviewer described it, truly brings back memories. I love remembering the old attractions that are no longer there:
Momo the Monster
The 2nd log flume
Chevy Show
Tales of the okeefenokee
Jean Ribault's River Adventure
Drunken Barrells
Spindle top
Flying Dutchman & Jolly Roger Island
and particularly THE HORROR CAVE!

If anyone has any specific memories about the horror cave or old SFOG attractions in general, contact me. I love to talk about it!

Tim Hollis, an Alabama native, beat me to it. He has compiled the photos I saught, wrote the facts that I too learned in my studies, and recalls the physical body that became the world famous theme park that it today.

Remember when going to Six Flags Atlanta was like planning a vacation? Remember how a day at the park some how fancied all of your senses (the scent of thick black tar that covered the Lickskillet section in the rear gated section.. oh how that smell recalls the presence of the Spindle Top and Drunken Barrel rides)? If you don't remember, Hollis will bring it all back. He captures illustrations of former employees, park characters, vintage rides, and many park landscapes that are still prevalent today (for example, the waiting station for the Wheel Barrow that is now the waiting station for the Wheelie). However, it isn't just the photographs that makes this book so rich; it is the details behind the history of the park and attractions that we didn't know that is so engaging. Each photograph not only tells it's own story, Hollis' invaluable commentary supporting each picture is brilliant.

Before I read SFOG, I had classified myself as an expert in this field of amusement. However, Hollis gets to the core and peels off the layers, year by year, highlighting the attractions that have been forgotten (Sky Hook, Satellite Rides, Mo Mo the Monster) while providing enough trivia to keep the reader engaged from page to page. Today I am thankful that Hollis set me straight and wrote the book that I wanted to write, yet lacked the resources to write.

A wonderful black-n-white artifact collection bound into one book. Finally, someone tells the story of Six Flags over GA and they tell it the way it was meant to be told.

This collection of stories is not to be missed. A romp around the world about curious and intriguing people. The characters will stick in your mind like the rather scary and funny guy who eats remorras.

Sky over El Nido is an amazing collection of short stories,not only because the writing by C.M. Mayo is superb,but also because it is a "box" full of surprises.The author (she or he?) provide us with continuous examples of a masterly use of ímage patterning,which keeps the reader wondering what will come next.No wonder C.M. Mayo won the Flannery O'Connor Award!

C.M. Mayo has the unique voice that enables you to not only envision the setting but the emotional swings and feelings of the characters. She writes of characters we wish we knew for pieces of them have been in our lives. Sky over El Nido is a perfect gift for the lover of the writing craft. Each character jumps up and is alive in the first paragraph. You wish you could revisit them sometime again in a longer story. Simply marvelous.