Pennsylvania Books

For the beginning or backyard birdwatcher, this is the best book I have found. First, it limits the birds to your area, thereby ruling out a lot of birds you wouldn't be seeing anyway. Second, it shows both male and female photos if the bird is dimorphic. This makes identifying much easier. Large photos, "Stan's Notes" and organization by bird color make this book easy to use and informative.

This is a great book for the beginning PA bird watcher. Ideal for someone with a bird feeder who wants to know who's visiting.

The book is organized by bird colors which makes identification much easier. Other books require you to know what the bird is in order to find it.

Each description includes useful behavior and habitat info that more advanced birders might find interesting too. All images are good quality photographs. It's small enough to carry in a pocket. Don't hesitate, it's well worth the money.

This book is absolutely great. It takes you back to the `50s.When you didn't live in the `50s - it shows you how it was like - at least for the Diablos, the Kamikazes, the Renegades (all the greasers)and the jocks, eggheads and so on.
It tells the adventures of the gang "Diablos" and their rival gangs. Starting with little and harmless pranks the adventures grow not only more creative but also more dangerous.
Even though some members want these things to end before they can get out of control - as a Diablo you have to be loyal and stick by your friends.
And every time the other gang wants to get even with their foes - will there ever be an end of humiliation, destruction and violence?
This book also covers many other subjects like racism, prejudice, hatred and love, sex and how you might see things differently when you grow older.
This novel definately is a great read - being witty and full of amazing puns, it also makes you think about life and about how some events or people can influence you for years to come.
If you love to read about the `50s - you will enjoy this novel.
I'd really love to see this book made into a movie!

Reviewed by Jennifer LB Leese

Review

This lengthy novel Black Leather and Blue Denim (in a good way) of 147,000 words and with fifty-seven chapters, is adult literature that details the innocence of teenage life in the 1950's. It is filled with danger, adventure, violence between gang members, and even romance. BLACK LEATHER and BLUE DENIM takes place in the suburbs of Pennsylvania and depicts territorial and dominance struggle between two specific greaser gangs, the Diablos and the Kamikazes. The Kamikazes are a group of thugs that love to pick on eggheads, other wise known as nerds, jocks, and especially other greasers.

J.W., who organized the Diablos to protect him and his friends from the Kamikazes, likes a girl named Angie Palermo. She is the daughter of a Mafia drug and pornography distributor who has business relations with the Kamikazes. Because J. W. and Angie are on two different ends of the spectrum, so to speak, their affair is filled with lies, unfaithfulness, and hostility...

As I read the book, I was often taken to my teenage years when the movie "The Outsiders" was an often talked about event. I loved it. Mr. Dubya has successfully put together a book addressing touchy subjects such as: racism, sex, violence, and where males in the 1950's thought they ruled. He's added tons of exciting action, the characters are realistic, and the dialogue is perfect to the character's personalities and descriptions.

Reviewer: Jennifer LB Leese, It's Only Ink

From the first poem 'Snow Blind' in Amy Small-Mckinney's
arresting chapbook, you'll know you're in the hands of a ma-
ture poet--in this case one who is a wife and mother, one who
can transform the tragic, through the deft use of language,
into a lyrical hope:

How can I have begun as bone
Hard, unbroken, when I am soft
And layered with song.
-- Body of Surrender

Amy Small-Mckinney writes as powerfully on the injustices
of the world and the turmoils of the inner life, as she does
on her relationship with aged parents, her husband and es-
pecially with her daughter:

I love my life,
my mislaid child,
this century of tears,
life before life.
-- Voices

You have to pay attention to these poems, but you'll be rich-
ly rewarded for doing so. By the end, you'll find yourself
humming Small-McKinney's hard yet necessary tunes. Let her
have the last word--again from the poem 'Body of Surrender':

Refuse to die,
Fly on fire,
Resolve the irresolvable.
Because my song smoothes the world.

This is a handsomely produced chapbook and I have read these poems of Amy Small-McKinney's with delight many times and they DO repay re-reading, not always revealing their full essence the first time through. The poems are free verse, but finely rhythmic and written with a great love for and command of words and language. These are contemporary poems, about the world we live in now, but also ones where the poet writes about love, her husband and daughter, and which make connections and look beyond the obvious to touch on the mystical. There is much to admire and, indeed, envy in these pages and I can heartily recommend this book.

After centuries of Native American habitation, the Township of Bern was settled by German farmers and established by 1738. Initially encompassing most of north-central Berks County, the history of this area echos many of the historical themes in much of southeastern Pennsylvania.

This book delves into great detail on early families and taxables, historic architecture, the Schuylkill and Union Canals, mills, schools, and churches amoung other things. It also addresses the relatively newer aspects of the Reading Airport, Berks County properties, Blue Marsh Lake, and local business that were active during the first printing for the 250th year celebration of its founding. Now in its third edition, fully indexed, with additional maps, photos, and new format, this book provides an exceptional example of what a group of dedicated citizens can do who care about the special place that they live in.

I highly recommend this book not just to armchair enthusiasts, but to professional Historians who work in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Geneologists from around the country, and people interested in visiting the Schuylkill River State and National Heritage Area.

Review by: George Meiser IX
Historical Society of Berks County PA

"The Book of Bern, A History of Bern Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, 1738-1988" is again available!

This is a book of true substance. It's well indexed, has 325+ pages, and is handsomely hardbound. Moreover, it has been reformatted to make it more user friendly. Most of the views were rescanned to bring out detail in the photographs.
And best of all, you can actually read the maps.

Unlike some township histories that were prepared in years gone by, this is not a superficial overview of the area.
It contains a GREAT DEAL of depth---and illustrations of value.
Like the recently issued Muhlenberg Twp. history, those involved in the project really went digging, so that impressive quantities of fresh new material was unearthed for posterity.

These chapter titles give an idea of what is presented:
First occupants, early settlers, first taxables,
family histories:
(Baer/Barr/Bare....Blatt....Cullum....Epler....Herbein...Hiester....
Kauffman....Kissinger....Kramer....Kramer.... Leinbach....
Reeser/Rieser....Reichenbach...Rick....Stoudt)

historic homes, along the Schuylkill (good canal info and photos), along the Tulpehocken, early occupations, hotels, churches, schools, county properties, Reading Airport, ghosts, clubs and organizations, the township, soldiers of Bern, businesses, the Bern Song, maps, etc.

Content-wise, this volume ranks as one of the best township histories ever prepared.
Those really into local history will value the photographs, as there are some real gems interwoven within the text. The original Fairview Hotel and lock-tender's shanty at Buck's Lock come instantly to mind.

I first read about this book in the forward to another book by Christine De Pisan (Treasure of the City of Ladies.) I became wild to own several of her writings, and am glad to own this one. I find it interesting reading even though I am not really a scholar of military history, at least not in the usual sense.

As a member of an historical re-creation society I take particular enjoyment in this book, as I have stood on the sidelines of our "battles" and know a very little about field tactics from watching. As the organizer of our medieval version of the USO Canteen, I really, REALLY liked the parts about how to feed an army before battle!

This book from 1410 consists of two main parts. The first part deals with military strategy (mostly based on Vegetius), and the second (mostly based on Bonnet's tree of battles) with laws of war, and the concept of just war. I found this work much more enjoyable than Macchiavelli's Art of War, for one thing Christine doesn't dwell so much on the supposed superiority of the Romans in all things, and she adds some interesting original material, such as detailed lists of fortification and siege equipment (up to sizes and amounts of timber, nails, etc.). This book is unique, being the only military classic written by a female author. The translation to english is very readable.

This fast paced and nicely plotted mystery features an intriguing protagonist who has a young infant and an imminent marriage to the cop she loves. If that isn't enough to keep her going, she's faced with several murders and three of the groom's brothers, who take over her house. This book was a trip into the mind of a woman juggling everything in order to make things work, even as murder and mayhem explodes around her. And Merry Jones made this story work, and work nicely at that!

After postponing the wedding due to a high risk pregnancy, art therapist Zoe Hayes is in the final countdown to saying I do. Although she is run off her feet, she remains relatively calm as she deals with an upset hyperactive wedding planner and dodging her boss at the Psychiatric Institute. Her home is taken over by her fiancé's two brothers Tony and Sam, who look almost exactly like her beloved. She does not mind them monopolizing her home and her fiancé Detective Nick Silver, but she wishes they would include her in their discussions.

Zoe's tranquility is shattered when she discovers a gutted woman on her patio. The police think it was a drug deal that turned hideous as the suppliers worked her over to get to illegal contraband inside her stomach. That theory goes down in flames when the victim is identified as a Homeland Security Agent who Tony recognizes as the woman who bumped into him.

The forth Zoe Hayes mystery is hilarious as it is fun to watch the heroine jump from one crisis to another while also dealing with post partum depression, bridal anxiety disorder, caring for a disorderly baby, and trying to fit in with Nick's eccentric family. Readers are interested in the goings on of the cast as it seems everyone seeks something from everyone else even the dead agent. Chaos is the norm for Zoe and the guys while humor and excitement is the norm for readers.

Harriet Klausner

I read this book from cover to cover and then went back to the beginning and read it again. I really enjoyed "The Cough" and "Migraine". I look forward to reading more of his work.

These are first-rate narratives, told by a beautiful poet. Their settings -- the anthracite coal region of the speaker's youth, or the PA countryside of his adulthood -- provide perfect backdrops for him to ruminate on the meaning of family life. Humes is a skillful poet, and these sometimes dark, but always tender narratives prove to be some of his best work to date. After reading them, one gets anxious to read his next collection, The Butterfly Effect, which is due out from Milkweed Editions as part of the National Poetry Series next year.

This book follows the experiences of five Civil War soldiers from southwestern Pennsylvania. Utilizing very articulate diary and letter accounts from these men Robert Eberly has woven a superb story of individual soldiers' lives within a carefully researched and superbly written historical narrative. The Pennsylvania Reserves saw ferocious combat and this book takes you onto the battlefield. Eberly skillfully weaves the first-person accounts of the individual soldiers with the overarching 'big picture'. Most importantly, he lets the soldiers tell THEIR stories. The reader sees the battlefield through THEIR eyes. This book would be an excellent addition to the library of any Civil War devotee. The Forward is written by Ed Bearss which is endorsement enough.

In Bouquets From The Cannon's Mouth: Soldiering With The Eighth Regiment Of The Pennsylvania Reserves, Robert Eberly pays meticulous attention to historical detail. Five ordinary soldiers give first-hand accounts of what it was like to be embroiled in our country's most domestically devastating conflict - the American Civil War. The primary testimonies are often brief, and supplemented with narration concerning the fates of individuals, regiments, leaders and followers. Written to be accessible to the lay reader, yet smoothly laying out primary sources in context for the serious historian's in-depth reference, Bouquets From The Canon's Mouth is especially recommended for American Civil War and history shelves.

Brady Malone is rushed to York General Hospital having suffered a heart attack following an argument with his wife Laura over a newspaper article that accused him of killing women and babies in Viet Nam; she felt he needed to explain his side to their children, eighteen year old Sean and fourteen year old Kat, but he does not want to talk about his horrific military nightmare.

Laura blames herself for Brady's heart attack as they agreed years ago never to speak of his Nam tour. They met at an anti-war protest in 1969, fell in love and when he came back from overseas she was there helping him heal. As he recuperates from his heart attack, she and their kids are there for him, but the guilt he suffers from Nam and from the SIDS of their child Jason is tearing apart his marriage.

THE BRACELET is a deep family drama that focuses on keeping dark secrets inside turn them into a cancer that harms relationships. Lauren and Brady are realistic characters who hide their guiltiest feelings and fears from one another. The two teenage children react in a plausible manner to the accusations about their father and his heart attack. Readers who appreciate a strong character study that centers on internally holding guilty feelings will appreciate Karen Rose Smith's intense tale.

Harriet Klausner

Laura and Brady met and fell head-over-heels. Then he shipped out to Vietnam. When he came home, he'd changed. They found a way back to each other, but now, years later Brady's past is tearing their family apart. Sometimes love isn't enough...and Laura's not sure they can find their way back to each other again.

Laura and Brady's story tore at my heart. Smith is a master storyteller!

Wait Wait Her mom's sick so she goes up in the mountains to see her aunt who even isn't there? Well at least she as her spook yeast. What is spook yeast you ask. And who helps her along the way. There is only one way to find out... so read this awesome book.

The first of the Robin Moore trilogy of Maggie, and her adventures in early Pennsylvania. The strong female character is a wonderful role model for adolescent girls. Yet, many boys in my class are avidly reading the sequel, when Maggie is captured by the Seneca Indians. An exciting story, where the characters have a real depth, beyond what is generally available in children's fiction.

The author visited our elementary school, did workshops for our students, and told them to write from what they knew. All of these events relate to his family's history, of growing up in this ten mile area. As an author, he respects children, and values their ideas. By never talking down to them, he has made the life of Maggie Callahan come alive with a richness of the English language.

It is rare that a book can make you visualize exactly what you are reading, and in such detail.

Yes, most of my fourth graders, who are also hooked on Harry Potter are now finding a parallel universe in the Bread Sister Trilogy.