Kansas Books

The following review appeared in the Winter, 2006-07 issue of Kansas History Journal.

Although Moonshine Harvest is a work of fiction, readers will value this excitement-filled adventure set in post-World War II Kansas. The author was born in Marion, Kansas, which serves as the basis for his fictional town of Afton; his memories of being a teenager during this historically significant time period are the foundations for this work. By cleverly using the murder of the town drunk as his central plot, Hayen is able to explore important issues such as political attitudes, fundamentalism, and bigotry through his characters. Both humorous and insightful, this novel can be enjoyed by everyone from young adults to those who actually recall the Truman era. In writing about small-town Kansas in the late 1940s, Hayen tries "to give the reader a fell for that time and place." For those Kansas who remember that time, Moonshine Harvest will be an enjoyable journey back to their early years; for those too young to remember, this book will be a pleasant look at what they missed.

Don Hayen is from a small town in Kansas near where I grew up. This book captures the essence of these places. I don't know if it is autobiographical or not. At any rate it is a slender volume, well written with a story line which kept me reading.

I found the book hard to put down. Each chapter left me hanging, wanting to read further. A great insight into another time and place in America. Very different from my boyhood!
Very well written - moves right along, with seemingly simple plot, but paints an interesting image of the actions, places and emotions of the characters.

This novel should be read twice. At first glance, the book has the standard earmarks of a well-written Young Adult novel: a blow-the-doors off opening; a young, confused protagonist; a plot full of trouble that forces the hero to grow. Hayen's simple, steady narrative delivers an excellent read.

The second time through, however, Hayen's true command of his craft becomes more obvious. Through Johnny's simple, first-person narration, he shows the dark shadows behind the brightness. Not a character, not setting, not a scene is cut from cardboard.

1948 Kansas seems idyllic only on the surface. The characters in this novel have histories, faults, anger, despair and loneliness. Johnny's difficult task is reconcile his youthful, idealized view of his world, with the more complicated reality, and take a step to manhood.

Hayen does an astonishing job recreatring the look and feel of a (supposedly) simpler time and place, in a book that will be read again and again.

The Marylanders: Without Shelter or a Crumb I strongly recommend this book. Dr. Batvinis has thoroughly researched the topic of our government's efforts prior to World War Two to create a system to counteract Axis and Soviet espionage. His historical research and conclusions are very relevant to the current issues we now face in our post 9/11 world. The issue of Constitutional law versus our need for national security is explored through the author's thorough examination of the decision making process between government appointed and elected officials.

This book is a wealth of declassified information on the pre-WWII FBI and their efforts to keep America safe from Axis spies bent on causing chaos on the homefront. As a retired Special Agent in counterintelligence Batvinis' knowledge and a storyteller's skill, provides a rich historical narrative that has some eye-opening information. An interesting part of the narrative is how Hoover fought fiercely over the control of counterintelligence, and tells how the agency combined its crime-fighting expertise with its new wiretapping authority to spy on foreign agents. People opposed to the FBI's current war on terror should read this book and imagine what if the FBI was not as proactive. Where would we be today?

This is a fine volume that offers a timely appraisal of how one of the nation's oldest and most revered law enforcement organizations restructured itself to execute the counterintelligence mission that became so critical as the world careened toward war in the 1930s. In the process Herbert Hoover took the opportunity to greatly expand the scope and power of the FBI to undertake surveillance across a much broader front than ever before. The author, Raymond J. Batvinis, does much to show how the FBI transformed itself, played politics, and became a publicly revered entity through its emphasis on counterintelligence.

Raymond Batvinis also does a fine job of exploring the bureaucratic battles within the government--especially between the FBI and the State Department--over who performed the mission and how it would be executed. The combination of the FBI's criminal investigation skills coupled with new techniques and objectives--for example wiretapping and domestic surveillance--presages some the debates and abuses of the post-9/11 era. In this regard "The Origins of FBI Counter-Intelligence" is highly instructive.

While an excellent book in overall, I was taken by the lack of depth in discussing the beginnings of the dispute between J. Edgar Hoover and General William Donovan of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, over jurisdictional issues involving counterintelligence from the onset of World War II. This is why I gave it a four instead of a five star review. Nonetheless, this is a very fine study of an important topic.

This book is a fast, easy read with lots of details and facts about the early history of FBI. It is a must read for students of the pre-WW II era. Batvinis has done some supurb primary reasearch, even gong back to FDR's personal files to see what he said about the threats against our country. I just retired from the FBI after 30 years and I didn't know half the stuff in this book.

As a former longtime employee of CIA, I can attest that this book conveys a true picture of the goings on within the agency. The story focuses on the life of Win Scott, who rose to become station chief in Mexico City for many years. Meticulously researched and documented, the book relates how the "company" evolved from wartime OSS in London. We learn about some key operations in postwar Europe and in Central America, and about how counter-intelligence works.
Building his story by telling exactly who did what and when, this author has achieved an authentic history of the period through the assassination of President Kennedy and afterward. The CIA's contacts with Oswald in the weeks before the shooting in Dallas,
and the subsequent stonewalling, withholding and even destruction of information are all spelled out so the reader is aware of what pieces of history are still hidden.

A critical question makes the Kennedy Assassination perhaps more relevant to today than ever:to what extent is the nominal leader, the President, really in control of the permanent military, political, and communications bureacracies that shape his options? In 1961, when Kennedy became president, key components of this permannent bureacracy were thirteen years old. As a parent with a teenager there were moments of tension when one can wonder who or what called the shots. This was uniquely the case in 1960, as for eight years-- the truly formative ones in the developement of the entire post-war US society-- the CIA had been given extreme lattitude. Kennedy's relations with the permanet political and military bureacracy can serve as basis of comparison for how matters of war and peace are decided today, when blame-game controversies sometimes seem mere PR strategies for plausible denial 10.0

Jefferson Morleys book leaves little doubt that no matter what our betters tell us, the CIA was to a very significant degree doing its own things in 1963. The reason this emerges far more clearly than in other books, is that Morley's never allows the ocean of detail to alter his camera agle. It is not a totalizing focus like some other books that mistake thickness for ambition. Rather, it sticks to the Mexico City CIA station, its chief Winston Scott, and his close World War Two friend and possibly his own privatest Idohaon-- the only one weirder than fellow poet and contemporary Ezra Pound-- James Jesus Angleton.

Morley is carefull. When your asking about unauthorized actions of the CIA people who normally talk freely in the New Yorker have a way of clamming up. It is hard to find sources in the middle ground, for example on the question of who knew what when about the Bay of Pigs. Far easier to treat this grey area as the blacktop of the Langley 500, the way Tim Weiner does in his childishly simplified and baldly propagandistic narration of Kennedy relations with the CIA.

How does he get insiders to talk for a book that is lethal to the government sanctioned version of the assassination? By not oversating things. By mentioning enough right wing cubans without so many as to lose sense of thier handlers. By clearly delineating who was in charge of what CIA operation, and who didn't know about them as well. We can see the critical wires cross, and are not confused in a whirl of unessential relations. We can see the extra piece-- George Joannides-- being added like one too many bones in an ankle and the clarity with which one could mistake treason for the logical coorination of a counterintelligence
operation. Individuals are not blamed here, but the flow chart that teaches how the Cubans were "turned" is clear for the first time. At least for me, but I'm gradual.

Also Morley tells the story from the persepctive of Win Scotts family. This "works" in many ways. It might just be the footwear necessary for treading accross one the most contested and and important middle grounds -- between president and permanent bureacracy-- in twentieth and 21st Century history.

This work stands in welcome contrast to recent books that mistake the shere number of mafia people who were involved with anti-castro opperations between 1959-63 with actual causal importance in the assassination of JFK. So often books like Ultimate Sacrifice emphasize the Mafia unconvincingly, because their CIA contacts merely seem outnumbered on the page. Morley goes to the quixotic center of the maypole: one has little doubt of this as he reads about Angletons very different, and very compartmetalized relations with Winston Scott and his secret sharer within the US embassy in Mexico City, David Atlee Phillips.

...peeling off layer after layer, we (well, those who still care, but I understand there are quite numerous around the world...) can now forty five years after the facts have a much better, much clearer understanding of what took place in Dallas.

The review above says it all. The book is on one level, the personnal history of the search of a son (adopted, it turns out..) for his mysterious, elusive father.

The fact that the father in question happenned to be Win Scot, head of the CIA Mexico station in the Sixties (the biggest CIA operation targeted at Soviet and Cuban interest outside the US) when Oswald, according to the official story, popped up there and started making himself noticed just a few weeks before Dallas, transforms what would be a mere personnal quest into something of historical importance.

Author Morley is known, appropriately, for his groundbreaking work bringing to light most notably the very strange story of George Joannides' s dealing with the DRE. Morley's work definitely showed how the CIA, deceptively, put Joannides in charge of contacts with the HSCA regarding Cuban matters, without ever mentioning his previous responsabilities as Focal Officer for the DRE during the latter part of November 63...

Students of JFK's assassination may remember that the DRE was very heavily involved in the early attempts to paint Oswald as a Communist Pro-Castro assassin, participating in a conspiracy.

Joannides's field reports on the DRE activities for the relevant period are still missing, and are the subject of a FOIA lawsuit by Morley....

A few pieces are still missing, and we still have a few open questions, but the picture is now getting clearer and clearer:

*the official story of the assassination is a fairy tale

*the events in Mexico City (most notably how the station and HQ handled the visits of a known "intelligence risk" to ennemy embassies..)are crucial in understanding what took place

*the inner workings of the CIA (need-to-know, etc..), and most notably the total autonomy and secrecy of Angleton's group (CI)made feasible any type of obscure intelligence operation whithout the slightest possibility of outside control or supervision.


Great, great book.

I would recommand as a companion Peter Dale Scott "Oswald in Mexico", which is the ultimate post-mortem on Mexico.

If you never thought reading administrative cables could make for a riveting read, or draw the outline of the most-wanted "smoking gun", brace yourself...

This very well-documented book tells you in precise and unnerving detail how C.I.A.operatives work and what they knew about Oswald in Mexico before the Kennedy assassination -- a lot more than you knew befoe. It is particularly convincing because it's personal, the real story of a man who lived his life inside that system of power, accountable to no one. It's a page-turner with unrecognized spies (everyone?), double agents, stolen loves, a son wants to know his father, a loyal secretary, a dangerous wedding, enough destroyed documents to make you weep and an ending that sets up for a sequel we hope can come from further investigation by this diligent author. Highly recommended for everyone, not just specialists, but there is plenty here for them as well.

For those of you who are interested in philospohy in general, this book is an excellent collection of briefs from philosphers from Plato to Firestone. The most interesting aspect of this text is that it addresses the subject that most philosophy books refuse to touch upon - LOVE. Most often, philosophers are associated with their views on religion, politics, or the basic human existence. This book is such a great treat to read because of the subject matter. Love is a subject in which we can all relate. The book is approximately 3 inches thick, with excerpts from many different philosophers, but the great thing is that you can pick it up at your leisure, read a few different excerpts, ponder the subject of love, and put the book back down. It is not a book that you read cover to cover. Another interesting aspect of the book is that no matter what your views on love or romantic love are, you will find essays that will either reinforce your views of the matter, or challenge your present thinking of the subject of love. It covers topics such as misogyny, feminism, romantic love, marriage as more of a friendship than a romantic love, etc. I have been tickled, angered, saddened, pleased, and intrigued by this book. SO much so , that I have recommended it to friend after friend, and all have enjoyed it. It is not necessary that you be a student of philosophy to understand this book. You just need to misunderstand love to gain from it's teachings. I believe you will enjoy this book for years to come. I know I have.

After having read a bit on the Greek's philosophy of love, I wanted to find something addressing heterosexual love. This book has a vast representation of theories on the topic of love. It is one of those books I will pick up often. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a place to begin your philosophical query regarding love.

Solomon, the Anglo-American philosopher, who takes Continental philosophy seriously, is the editor here, not the author. This wonderfully eclectic book surveys the Western perspectives on romantic and erotic love, starting in antiquity and continuing up to the modern day. While the focus is principally philosophical, other fields of inquiry like psychology, literature, and theology are included: E.g., Plato, Augustine, Milton, Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Freud, etc. I couldn't imagine a better selection of primary texts.

Certainly, the primary intent of the book is to offer a comprehensive survey of romantic and erotic love for students enrolled in a philosophy of sex course. No better book exists for providing primary texts on this subject. (Cf., Sobel's "Philosophy of Sex.") But, in a general sense, we're all students of philosophy, and of all of philosophy's myriad disciplines, certainly love is the subject of widest appeal. In other words, this book is by no means limited to academia, although that's it's target market. We're all students of love.

Unfortunately, the best writer on the subject of romantic and erotic love is our editor. Solomon's own book titled "Love" is absolutely extraordinary (see, separate review). But that doesn't make this present volume any less valuable. In fact, I think that "Love" will be better understood, having this contextual survey under one's belt. Solomon's variety of primary texts is so diverse and highly representative that it's appeal should extend to all inquiries on romantic and erotic love.

This volume is one of the very best for its presentation of the wide varieties of writings about erotic love. The text is divided into four parts. The first includes classic writings on erotic love from authors living prior to the 20th century. Included among the authors are: Plato, Sappho, Theno, Ovid, Augustine, Heliose and Abelard, Andreas Capellanus, Shakespeare, John Milton, Spinoza, Rousseau, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Stendahl, and Nietzsche.

The second part of the book includes classic writings on love from those in the 20th century. Included here are the writings of Freud, Jung, Karen Horney, Rainer Maria Rilke, Emma Goldman, Denis de Rougemont, D. H. Lawrence, Sartre, Simon de Beauvoir, Philip Slater, and Shulamith Firestone.

The third section of the book offers contemporary essays that advance theories and notions proposed by authors of antiquity. Writers included in this part are the following: Irving Singer, Martha Nussbaum, Jerome Neu, Louis Mackey, Emelie Rorty, Elizabeth Rappaport, Kathryn Pauly Morgan.

The fourth part of the book includes essays that are more theoretical, including a number of new attempts to define and understand love. Authors in this section include Robert Nozick, Annette Baier, William Gass, Laurence Thomas, Ronald de Sousa, Robert C. Solomon.

Thomas Jay Oord

This was a fabulous book, and just as good as the first. This series is turning into a beautiful collection and I'm even more encouraged to read the third addition. It was a gripping story of Jack Cornwalll and his family, trying to make a new home on the Kansas prairie in a town called Hope. His original plan was to find his nephew Chipper and bring him "home." But then he meets Caitrin, a fiery Irish woman that catches his heart, and makes his second guess the life that he's been living. With a less than common circumstance and meeting grounds, it turned into a beautiful angsty romance for Caitrin and Jack. The story wore on as the townsfolk refused to accept Jack because of his previous actions, his family and his heritage. It's a riveting story that I read in one sitting; I simply could not put it down! My only issue with the book was Jimmy O'Toole, his hardened heart and blind prejudice. It boggles the mind that some people actually are that blatantly racist, even with the understanding Jimmy had that we are all children of God. That message was portrayed beautifully and every character eventually came to that understanding. Catherine Palmer shines as an author in this spectacular novel, and I can't wait to read the sequel.

Can people who claim to be Christians hold grudges against people because of their religion, ethnic origin, or handicap? In Prairie Fire, Palmer shows an entirely different side of the citizens of Hope than she did in Prairie Rose. When Caitrin Murphy falls for Jack Cornwall, her sister, brother-in-law, and the other citizens of Hope do not approve because of his Cornish heritage, traditional enemies of the Irish immigrants of Hope. When Caitrin tries to point out the irony of Hope residents who accept German and Swedish immigrants but not Cornish, her brother-in-law Jimmy O'Toole won't listen. He tells her not to forget her Irish heritage and her allegiance to it. Caitrin replies that she is now an American and "won't be bound by petty prejudice." Jimmy refuses to listen, even when Jack gives his life to the Lord and changes his previous ways. When Jack's mother and sister arrive in Hope, the townspeople become even more suspicious. How can a family keep one of its members in chains? The townspeople resolve to force the Cornwalls to leave. The drama builds to an exciting climax at an emotional prayer meeting of dedicated Christians that ends up in a scene not unlike a bar room brawl. Can these so-called Christian citizens ever accept those who are different? I found Prairie Fire an enjoyable novel, one that teaches as great a lesson to Christians today as to those of the town of Hope over 100 years ago.

As Rosie and Seth Hunter begin their married life, the town of Hope flourishes. The mercantile and post office are now run by Caitrin Murphy, sister of Mrs. O'toole, and the focus shifts. Jack, the bully and the outlaw of book one, is attempting to escape town after being shot in the shoulder. He hides in a barn and encounters red-headed Caitrin for the first time. Both are firey, opinionated, mouthy and fiesty. The highlight of this book for me was when Jack learns that God loves him and he is so humbled by that realization. When he heals, he tries to return to Hope, start anew and make peace. The people of Hope do not intend to make peace with the likes of Jack, and bigotry and prejudice especially in Jack's mother and Caitrin's brother in law keeps the town in an uproar....mostly against Jack. He has brought with him his sister, Lucy, who seems like a mad woman. She cannot relate to normal people...but no one except Caitrin makes any attempt to reach her. Lucy's family's dark, ugly secret is kept for only the 3 of them to ever know. It is not until Jack is actually threatened himself that Lucy has to decide whether or not to break her silence, admit to her dark past and save her brother. The author does a superb job in identifying the ugly and mean side of some of the townspeople, and the good and the gentle side of others. She manages to elicit fear, anger, sympathy, hope, despair and excitement in the reader. Familes are divided, loyalties are questioned, love seems destined to die and the town struggles to stay alive in the drought. The reader is left to wonder whether the real "Fire" is the prairie fire, or the fire of hate and dissention which burns out of control several times in the book. I could hardly put the book down, and I am sooooooo anxious for "Prairie Storm" to be released!

I loved this book and don't plan on exchanging it any time soon. It was always exciting and it made me laugh. There were some good lessons to the book too, but even though the morals were serious they were mixed in with a cheerful and happy tale. It was a funny book that takes you away and doesn't bring you back until it's over! You should read it!

Fourteen thousand civilian Americans spent the years of World War II as "guests" of their Japanese conquerors. The author tells the story of more than a dozen American women who were interned by the Japanese or took to the hills to escape being captives. Most of the Americans were residents of the Philippines, but one was interned in Borneo, another on Celebes and a third in Hong Kong.

The best known of the internees, Agnes Newton Keith,was a well known author before the war and wrote a chilling account, "Three Came Home," of her three years in captivity. Several of the other women also published their stories or were interviewed by the author.

I can't think of anything more frightening than to be stranded with your children ten thousand miles from home in wartime and being totally at the mercy of a cruel enemy. Fortunately, the Japanese, for all their savagery in China, did not usually physically abuse the Caucasian women. However, hunger, isolation, and the fear of the unknown were potent factors. Perhaps the most amazing part of this story is how well and effectively the women coped with their fate.

There is a bit too much of academia in the narrative. The drama of the lives of the captives -- or those who evaded captivity -- could have been better exploited. The thematic approach taken by the author involved much skipping around from woman to woman and made it difficult to become familiar with them individually. But, the story is good and interesting, the research impeccable, and the book well worth reading by World War II buffs, feminists, and people interested in the impact of extreme stress on human beings.

Smallchief

A good book informs and entertains. A great book informs, entertains and forces us to ask questions. Kaminski's book cannot be read without introspection. As she details a horrifying scenario, military detention of women and children on foreign soil, and delves into how that situation affected women's roles, the reader is compelled to ask, "What if this happened to me?"

Is it better to keep one's head held high or better to feed your child? Is it better to uphold the vestiges of social class and civilization or is it better to put a roof over your children's heads? Over and over, Kaminski forces the reader to wonder, "What would I do in a similar situation?"

Kaminiski's depth of research and understanding of the topic shines on every page. These heroic women, until now so disregarded by history, owe her a great debt.

For any person who marvels at the power of roles to dictate worthiness, this book is a must read. I wish we'd had this book when I attended women's studies classes. Thank you, Dr. Kaminski, for bringing this unknown part of history to light.

...one of hope and survival. The women come to life as their story is told of how they went from a life of leisure with servants to do the work for them to doing everything by themselves with little help from their men. Ms Kaminsky does an excellent job telling these women's story and her book is a great addition to my bookshelves.

What does it take to survive? What does it cost? This brilliant, fearless, absolutely page-turning book examines the plight of American women caught in the camps. The women in this book burst alive on the page with stories you just can't forget. Just beautifully written! Can't wait to read more from the very talented Kaminski.

Gary Wilson's Sing, Ronnie Blue grips you from the get go with the inevitability of small town destiny. We've heard it before-- best friends take different paths--but you've never felt it like this. Wilson's terse, almost poetic language propels his characters toward their unavoidable destiny, with a tragic climax written in the script of their youth that must be played out in the present. The characters are so well-drawn that you track with them on this collison course hoping they can change, that a circumstance will save them, that they can overcome what their Bartlett's Junction heritage simply will not allow. In the end, if you have a heart, it will break.

Ronnie Blue is an anachronism. He still looks the same as he did in high school and still drives the same car. He is "not the most wholesome person you could be spending your time with." He is a junkman's son.

It is the Fourth of July, Ronnie's 23rd birthday. He has recently lost his job at Carl's garage. Feeling persecuted, he decides to return to his hometown. With his girlfriend Charlene, he climbs into his anachronistic car and heads off towards Bartlett's Junction, Kansas, a small town that "came to a dead stop, where it has rested for eighty-eight years."

Back home in Bartlett's Junction, it is inevitable that Ronnie's path intersect John Klein's. John now works in his father's bank but during high school he and Ronnie sang duets at assorted club meetings and parties.

In Sing, Ronnie Blue Wilson explores small town life at different social levels. He examines the pressures placed on Ronnie Blue by an abusive father who has constantly told him he would amount to nothing. He also examines the pressures placed on John Klein by a father who has always wanted him to follow family tradition and become a banker.

The predictable, inevitable clash between the opposing social levels is fated to happen in Bartlett's Junction when Ronnie returns to discover that there is no longer harmony between him and John Klein.

Sing, Ronnie Blue suggests that contrary to Thomas Wolfe's adage, not only is one able to go home again, but one is never able to leave home, a person is defined by one's home. Ronnie can no more not be a junkman's son than John can not be the banker's son.

Wilson's short novel is compact and concise. His language is as solid and forceful as a rabbit-punch to the kidneys. The book has echoes of stories that have become part of American culture. While reading it, I could not help hearing, with the same tragic irony, Jimmy Cagney in the movie White Heat yelling, "Made it, Ma. Top of the world."

Armchair Interviews says: Everyone has a story of people in their hometown.

Gary D. Wilson's debut novel sold out its first printing right away. As a result, I had to wait for its second printing nearly three months before I held its handsome paperback copy in my greedy hands.

"Sing, Ronnie Blue" was worth the wait. Its publisher's jacket copy compares the book to "The Great Gatsby." Rather than Fitzgerald, the book seems to me to more closely resemble Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." To be sure, the characters in "Sing, Ronnie Blue" aren't migrant workers. Wilson's conflict between a local junkyard dealer's 20-something son, Ronnie Blue, and his former best friend in high school, now the heir of all-American small city banking fortune, John Klein, pits a working-class grease monkey against a young man with money. Because Blue is the main character, however, this book seems to have its roots in 1930s Great Depression fiction moreso than in that of the Roaring Twenties. If John Klein and Ronnie Blue are no George Milton and Lennie Small, neither are Wilson's characters Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby.

The wonder of this taut, riveting novel is that Wilson creates a believable, if not lovable, protagonist. Ronnie Blue, who formerly teamed up with John Klein in a singing duo, returns years later with a hayseed teenage girlfriend after being fired from his job as a car mechanic in Witchita, to Bartlett's Junction, Kansas on Independence Day. In a series of hot-headed shenanigans - break-ins and burglaries reminiscent of the misdemeanors in a novel like Denis Johnson's "Angels" - Blue carves out his name and declares his independence in spades. Nowhere does Wilson bemoan Blue as a lost son or an unsung hero. Instead, the reader follows Blue's hell-bent journey as a revenant, disproving the platitude that you can't go home again. Blue comes back home all right, with a vengeance we understand, given his steely dad and cringing mom, his self-aggrandizing meanness. Throughout, Wilson manages to turn his novel into a paean for what must have been the stomping grounds where he grew up on the prairie. No matter that there is no actual Bartlett's Junction in Kansas. Wilson has lovingly sketched in its streets and fields, its carny fairground, as a kind of personal paradise lost.

I won't give away the plot of this spellbinding thriller. I'll only point out Wilson's extremely coy use of two authors' names as monikers for his fictional creations. Josh Billings, a renowned humorist back in Mark Twain's day, comes up on Wilson's page 37 as a local yokel, "a mean and cranky old man." Ron Padgett, a member of the so-called New York School of poets, comes up on page 53 of "Ronnie Blue" as an employee in John Klein's bank. Are these coincidences? Is Wilson playing games with us? Perhaps he knows Ron Padgett the poet personally. In Josh Billings's case, perhaps Wilson wants us to peel back the layers of his mid-American tragedy to see its comic underpinnings.

Overall, I can't sing the praises of "Sing, Ronnie Blue" loudly enough. As Stephen Dixon states in a blurb, "Wilson is one of the best fiction writers around." To top it off, Wilson's mother-in-law provides the funniest, most wonderful blurb: "I will not be recommending this [novel] to my Sunday School class"!

Excellent read! Explores the friendship of two men, class-structure in small town America, (mis)perceptions of who we are and who we will become, and, ultimately, the inevitable outcome. Masterfully written. Hauntingly real.

This book is remarkable. It is very apparent that Mr. Morrison did his research well. A must read for any history buff.

In his introduction the author tells us "this book examines the relationship between the territorial issue in the origins of the American Civil War. This story is familiar; this telling has not.... The debate between Democrats and Whigs over Texas in 1844 were based on economics and divided the parties along national lines. By 1860, the struggle over westward expansion and settlement issued in sectional arguments and a fragmented political system. This transformation is the story here and told.[p. 4]"

The expansionists quickly realized that the problem with moving the boundaries of this country westward was going to be slavery. And not so much slavery itself, but demagoguery, used by radicals on both sides to inadvertantly hinder the progress of the westward movement. The author quotes the extreme expansionist Thomas B. Stevenson, "it is not, I fear, either the actual status of the actual settlement of the slavery question that the antagonistic agitators really wish to effect. It is the use they can make of it as it exists."[p.1] The acquisition of Texas and the subsequent territory obtained through the Mexican War became the hobbyhorse of the extremists during the 1840s. The 1850s opened a decade of extreme agitation on both sides of the question of opening territory or closing it forever to the peculiarinstitution. "Republicans [the North] used slavery to define broadly remaining and limits of freedom not only within the North's free labor economy but, more important, within the nation's republican political state."[p. 167] In the South the European class system was extolled by some of the most radical proslavery elements. A major portion of the expansionist program was the example to be set by a union of the nation reaching from sea to sea. It is because the South felt so strongly toward the Union that states rights activists were compelled to remind their southern cohorts, "the Federal Union is not a god -- it is a human institution. So long as it answers the hands of its creation, it should be and will be carefully preserved. When it fails those ends, it should be discarded."[p. 184]

In 1856 James Buchanan, the second worst president this country has endured, entered the fray. Stephen A. Douglas, the famous Chicago politician of the Lincoln Douglas debates, decried the sectionalism of the Republicans. He maintained that the founding fathers, recognizing the diversity of economics and social institutions of the several states, and established a union of the fundamental right that every state could do as he pleased without his neighbors interfering. The Compromise of 1850, the Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act all reaffirmed the right of the state to settle its own local problems and decide what is best for its free existence. The Democratic Party attempted as far as possible to allow this operation. And Douglas, one of the major proponents of expansionism, defeated his own goal by not recognizing the importance of the slavery issue to the westward movement. Most people wanted a union as extended as possible, but half of them, not especially for humanitarian purposes but rather economic conditions, were dead set against the expansion of slavery into these areas, these new territories to be carved for the Empire.

The author goes on to state, "because secession had transformed the sectional conflict over the territories into an ominous controversy over the preservation of the Union, Republicans refuse to sustain the latter by conceding their principles on the former. It is a view that, the issue of 1860 -- 61 was 'not union or disunion; but new guarantees to slavery or disunion.'"[p. 274] this comment pretty much sums up what the author has said In the whole book. His promise in the introduction to connect expansionism and slavery can probably be written off as poetic enthusiasm. He writes a very good book combining the two subjects but offers nothing really new. Readers who are already acquainted with this period in our history won't find anything very new. Someone new to the field will find an excellent introduction to the general subject of slavery and its effect on the westward movement. It fails to separate the political, economic, social aspects of this time in American history.

I give this book 4 stars because it is well-written, well researched, and the author faces the same problem that we all do in writing on a time has been so well covered by so many for so long. The fifth star is withheld at the fault of the publisher. The format of the book and the text make it very difficult to read this book without strain I hope when a reissue the book is our hope that they will continuously something will be done to correct this fault.

It is apparent that Mr. Morrison spent many long hours slaving over this book. It is well written, interesting, and a must have for civil war buffs. I only wish Mr. Morrison would write more books. It's heartwarming to see that Mr. Morrison credits his parents Al & Joan Morrison, and his siblings - Chris, Nancy, Jim, and Tony with the fortitude, intellegence and support to get this book completed. Keep up the good work, Mr. Morrison. I want to read more of your books in the future!

An incredibly well researched, well written account of the causes of the American Civil War! It's actually worth the high price!!!

Ok, so not everyone is into the "darker" side of life. We prefer to focus on sunflowers, streams and good old-fashioned values here in the midwest.
To many people, gravestones are just plain creepy. Haven't we all watched horror movies where the dead crawl out from beneath a cracked headstone and kill innocent lovers?
Mr. Brown's book made me look at the gravestones in a brighter (although not unentirely SAD) light. I saw the loss that families suffered through in the intricacy of massive stone mausoleums. I felt the emptiness of parents in the lifelike sculptures of their children. And I shook my head at the quirkiness of folks whose death markers are every bit as weird as they themselves must have been.
I've had this book for 5 years and I STILL pick it up now and again to read the stories behind the cemeteries. I have also given it as a gift to people in my life who I know won't get totally freaked out by it. They LOVE it.
It is a wonderful read/lookat/whatever.... just try it!--

My husband John and I love tombstone art and stomp around the countryside taking photos of cemeteries. This is one of our favorite books, with lots of wonderful photos of cemeteries around St. Louis and so forth. The author also writes a wonderful commentary on the nature of cemeteries, their conditions, and how we view them today as a modern American society. The photos of the children's graves are especially haunting. A must for collectors of tombstone art.

John Gary Brown, does an excellent job at showing the eccentricity and beauty of grave markers. He uses different angles, and points of view in his compositions, to bring out a morbid beauty, that is rarely seen by the naked eye. A truly impressive collection of masterpieces. Just when you think the works speak for themselves, Brown also includes wonderful poetry, which co-exists perfectly with the photographs. A must for anyone's artistic anthology collection.

While the photography is excellent, and the author offers several interesting insights into symbolism and customs, the facts about particular monuments are incorrect. He gives the wrong locations for several monuments (placing them in cemeteries across town), and the descriptions of the cemeteries themselves contain errors

Few books approach the topic of small group ministry with the depth, clarity and practical insight that Teena Stewart has included in here work Successful Small Groups. With the input of her husband Jeff, a discipleship pastor at Northgate Christian Fellowship Church in CA, Teena, has written a step by step guide to creating a sustainable small group ministry. She begins with the big picture of why and how small groups impact the life of the local church. The body of the book walks the prospective leader thorough the lifecycle of a small group ministry, and concludes with lists of valuable resources. Throughout, Teena points out significant milestone, pitfalls, and other issues regarding small group ministry which only come to light through experience.

What sets this book apart on the subject is the input she has collected from experienced small group leaders around the country. By adding their voices to hers, the reader can see that the principles in this book are well thought out and insightful. Her words don't grow from ground of untested theory. Rather, Teena communicates what she learned from the trenches regarding how to plan, launch, grow and mature a lasting small group ministry.

As someone involved in discipleship ministry for over 20 years, I recommend Teena's book to anyone looking to create, or expand an existing small group ministry within the life of their church. Her wise advice and thorough treatment of the subject will help you create successful small groups that make a lasting impact for Christ's Kingdom.

Successful Small Groups covers it all from size to benefits, from coaching leaders to outreach to the unchurched. This is an excellent "how to" book if you're wanting to start any type small group. In my work as a speaker on family issues, I often speak to groups of moms and their leaders. This is a resource I can recommend to them for encouragement.

The Birth to Five Book: Confident Childrearing Right from the Start

Some people simply work better in small groups - why should worship be any different? "Successful Small Groups: From Concept to Practice" is a complete guide for anyone who is seeking to make a successful small-group ministry granting its readers the information and skills they need to run their program as if they were a seasoned veteran. The guide encompasses methods for training, mentoring, and equipping your ministry's leaders, innovative teaching techniques, ways to keep your groups energized and fun- among other invaluable tips. The founder of Dream Builders Ministry in Motion, Teena Stewart serves as author of "Successful Small Groups: From Concept to Practice", lending it her grand expertise. Any small group that wants to stay strong needs "Successful Small Groups: From Concept to Practice."

Successful small groups from concept to practice is a religious book that can help anyone who is starting or running a small group, religious or not. Great tips and advice on energizing and getting your group involved and enthused in order to help make your group successful. The book is very well written and organized and includes specific examples to help you no matter what size or type of group you have.