Illinois Books

Biographies of entertainers are usually pretty shallow, just part of the marketing effort. This one is a little unusual because it was written by a scholar who put a lot of effort into making it both as complete and interesting as possible. The author, Dr. Charles Townsend, also became, to a small extent, part of the story. On Bob Wills final recording with his Texas Playboys, For the Last Time, Dr. Townsend kicks off the music as the announcer, saying "The Texas Playboys Are on the Air!"

My Dad loved this book! It was a great gift for him

I was a little dubious at first because the book seemed kind of thick and was written by a professor. However, the more I got into it the more I loved it. Thick with detail, yes, but the story constantly moves along and we get a rich, complete picture of the man and his music, his triuimphs and his foibles. I could just picture being in a ballroom back in the day listening to Bob Wills and his Playboys as I read through. Truly a labor of love, this book. I picked it up because I'd just recently purchased a four-CD boxed set of Wills' music -- far more than I thought I wanted to hear, but I was wrong, and after reading this book I just want to hear more and more. Truly an American musical hero, and this is one of the best musical biogs I've ever read.

Charles Townsend has captured the real Bob Wills. A fine job, a detailed account on the life and music of the one of the greatest Texas stars to have evolved on the American western scene. Well written and exhaustively researched. Worth buying and reading.

OK. I'm a little biased. My grandfather J.W. Shafer, otherwise known as "Bub Shafer" (don't ask me why...nobody knows why), was a second cousin to Bob Wills. In this book, there's a photo of Bob standing in a cotton field near Turkey, Texas and he's got his arm around a young boy that looks about 13-years-old at the oldest. The young boy was my grandfather, and the caption beneath the photo states that Bob is posing with a relative in the cotton fields near Turkey, TX.

I didn't read this book until a few years ago, and I read it cover-to-cover. It details EVERYTHING, including a consistent barrage of extensive notes and details about the writing and progression of almost every song from concept-to-recording, and all the events surrounding anything that Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys must have done. In fact, you almost feel as though you are reading a virtual daily journal as if the author walked side-by-side and recorded the details as time progressed over many decades of Bob Wills' life. It's all documented perfectly, as most of the documentation came from bandmembers or friends or relatives...and 99% of each person's accounts were cross-checked against other sources for authenticity. Mr. Townsend definitely wanted to get the real Bob Wills rather than a comic book version pieced together by wild tales and drifting imaginations.

My favorite parts of the book deal with the intertwined perfection and imperfection of Bob and his life. Here's a guy who was born into poverty, ran away from home as a young teenager to escape poverty, almost became a preacher when he was found by a Godly family after running away, went back home to help out the family on the farm, almost got thrown into prison had it not been that for the local policeman recognizing who he was and letting him go after a failed robbery of a tire at a closed gas station, and then you've got repeated failures in almost every line of work you can imagine. And all along the way, through all of the misery and the rejection, he always had his fiddle (known as a "violin" for people north of the Mason-Dixon line) that bailed him out of trouble.

Bob didn't WANT to use his fiddle for gain, but it always saved his rear when he was in a real pickle. He finally travels to the Dallas-Fort Worth area during the depression, which wasn't a good place to be, to tell you the truth. He gathered up a couple of guys to audition for a spot on the Light Crust Flour radio spot--Back in those days, companies hired musicians and various entertainers to perform on the radio and at live concerts. Usually, the name of the band was surprisingly enough the name of the product being pitched. In this case, whomever played for the Light Crust Flour company was named "The Light Crust Doughboys." Funny-sounding, yes, but back in the day it was a sure-fire way to make a connection with the blue-collar families that listened to the music on the radio while also being spoon-fed a healthy dose of advertising.

To make along story short, Bob and his boys were a hit. Contract disputes; however, with the head honcho of the Light Crust organization led Bob to lure his bandmates away to Tulsa, OK, where they set up shop and were known as "The Texas Playboys." Huge fame came to Bob and his band. He had the largest band in the world, and had many people laughing at the sight of anywhere from 20-30 bandmembers lining up on stage at one time on any given night. His band rivaled, and probably even surpassed, Benny Goodman and any other mainstream Big Band-style band. Almost like our nation's standing army, if you were approved by Bob Wills to be good enough to be in his band, you were "on call" and could travel and make good money whenever the opportunities presented themselves. Bob was driven, and was a definite Type-A personality who had everything done his way. I can't remember the real number, but he made sure his entire band knew BY MEMORY hundreds of songs, if not thousands. He wanted to be able to play a dance anywhere in Texas, or any other state for that matter, and he wanted to strike up his band in an instant if a spectator from the crowd hollared at Bob to play a certain song.

This brand of customer service made Bob Wills a legend. Every band member knew his role. Every band member knew he'd be cut from the team like a washed up NFL player if he didn't measure up. They practiced all day long, almost every day of the week. They would sometimes travel way out of the way on the way back home from a tour to go and play a funeral for someone, and then REFUSE to be paid for the performance and even for expenses of traveling out of the way. Bob would slip a down-and-out person a few bucks so they could buy their child some food or some shoes...and he'd make sure it stayed a secret as long as it could. In the book, there are countless witnesses who say they knew Bob was so generous because he knew what it was like to go days without a meal and have nothing but what he had on his body at the time. Bob was never consistently financially wealthy because he gave most of it away over the years.

Sadly, Bob had severe faults that often outweighed his good deeds. He was a drunk, sometimes missing performances and thus placing a huge burden upon his band to let the crowd know that "Bob has the flu and can't come out of the tour bus to play." People must have prayed for Bob a lot, wondering how one man could contract the flu as often as Bob did. He had a knack for anger and foul language, and he could "let you have it" (as we say in Texas) at a moment's notice. He couldn't stay married for longer than a day or two, though a couple of marriages were longer than the other three dozen that had failed miserably, and it was mostly due to his overly possessive handling of his wives. His wives were made to stay in the home all the time, especially when Bob was away on a tour. He feared his wife going out and potentially striking up a relationship with another man while Bob was away. The same thing happened every time: The wife couldn't stand Bob's suspicious nature and lack of trust, and who could blame them? If a bandmember stepped out of line on the tour...he'd find himself with a one-way ticket home and he might not ever be asked to go on future tours ever again.

Lastly, the attack at Pearl Harbor paralyzed his career. Almost all of his bandmembers signed up to join the military in the days after the attack. The good 'ole days were over for good. He drifted away. And then as time went on, several country-western artists (Merle Haggard) paid tribute to Bob and recorded a reunion CD with some of Bob's surviving bandmates. At this time, Bob was crippled from a severe stroke and sat in a wheelchair in the recording studio. "Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys, For The Last Time" has Merle Haggard at the helm for many songs, and he does a great job. During one song, "When You Leave Amarillo, Turn Out The Lights..." Bob breaks his paralytical silence and moans audibly on the CD at different points throughout the song. It's a sad sound, and I think it's due to the fact that Bob's memory was not as plagued as the body was at the time...Amarillo held a special place in his heart because his one "true love" lived there when he was a young man. He had lost track of her, but found her in Amarillo and went to her house with flowers for what he knew would be a great reunion of two kindred spirits. The father greeted Bob and told him she was just engaged and the soon-to-be-groom was on his way at that very moment to see her! It crushed Bob something fierce, and he stayed until the young man got to her house. Bob stood right up in the man's face and let him know that he better treat her well. He assured Bob he would, and then Bob wallked out of the door and back into the cold Amarillo winter...crushed, heart-broken, and without anything to really live for. To me, this incident was the beginning of a dark and terrible time for Bob. He went a long time before clawing his way back to the top, and I seriously doubt he ever forgot that cold Amarillo evening. Listen to the song, and hear Bob's groaning when the lyrics say, "...when you leave Amarillo, turn out the lights..." There's something there that says Bob might as well have died in Amarillo than continue on with the thought that he missed marrying his true love by only a few days or months. I am married six years now, and thank the Lord I will never know what that feels like. It must be awful.

Bob represents all of us: We want to do good for other people, even when we have nothing to give or everything to lose. But we also do bad when we know we shouldn't. And through the good and the bad, what's really important is that we never give up trying to do what's right in the face of wanting to do what's easy and convenient for that part of us that desires to do bad. Bob was so eerily conflicted inside: "Do I use my fiddle like some bargaining chip, as a cheap trick to dodge the bullet? Or am I really playing the fiddle because I love it and I want to spread joy to people who love this music?" I think he loved his fiddle, and he loved the music he made--it shows in the quality and in the passion of his music. It was that hint of suspicion that he had of himself, the part of him that said, "Bob, you're using the fiddle as some sort of tool to get what you want, and it's wrong for you to betray the true nature of music to do so" that tore Bob apart all his life. I don't think he ever found peace with himself. He was his harshest critic, and that's a sad thing. When you see older folks from his era get all misty-eyed when they hear his music or when you ask them about Bob Wills and what he meant to them when they were younger in Bob's era...you know he was way too hard on himself. But he couldn't enjoy it to its fullest potential. Born a victim, died a victim. Born to physical poverty, died with emotional poverty. And it was Bob who robbed himself and made himself poor in the end.

The music? It lives on. In dance halls across Texas. On classic country radio stations. In the books. On the CDs. In the hearts of people who know a good fiddle lick when they hear it. As Waylon Jennings sang one time to the enormous cheering of some dance hall's patrons who were listening and dancing to Jennings' live performance, "...In Texas, Bob Wills is still the King." For that, Bob should be proud had he lived a little longer. He would have been a richer man for it.

You would do well to get this book, and read it. It'll teach you a lot of life lessons. Some day, when I have the money...I'm going to make a movie out of it. And what a masterpiece it will be. "The Texas Playboys are on the air!"

-- Pecos Shafer of Amarillo, TX.

Jill Churchill's mysteries are great. Jane Jeffry is the friend we all want to have.

Jane Jeffrey's oldest son is growing up. He is graduating from high school and working part time at a local deli to earn some money. Jane thinks the only thing she needs to worry about Mike is that he be careful while driving the truck she gave him as a graduation present. But when obnoxious attorney Robert Stonecipher is murdered at the opening party for the deli, she's not sure she wants Mike working there. But he insists he'll be okay and Jane relents. When there is a second murder, Jane can't help investigating the deaths even if her boyfriend, homicide detective Mel VanDyne, doesn't like it.

"Silence of the Hams" is yet another great cozy mystery by Jill Churchill. As always, what makes the Jane Jeffry series so enjoyable is not necessarily the mystery but the details about Jane's family life. Jane's kids are growing up as the series progresses and Mike especially has grown. With his father's death he considers himself the man of the house and Jane is learning to treat him as an adult. Some of the best scenes in the book involve Mike, either directly or indirectly. One of those scenes is when Jane buys the truck for Mike. Her friend, Shelley Nowack, is great at wearing down the salesman and it is a very funny part of the book (wish I could take her with me next time I buy a car!) Equally well done is Mike's graduation party which sounds like a lot of fun. Jane's other children, Katie and Todd, are also well written, Katie especially so as she is going through the growing pains that come with being a teenager. Churchill does an excellent job of capturing the little things that make up life in the suburbs. The mystery itself is okay. Parts of it were a bit unbelievable and it's pretty clear from the beginning who the murderer is. But it's still a fun mystery to read.

Cozy mystery fans will enjoy "Silence of the Hams".

Jane Jeffry is one of my favorite mystery series characters; I return to her "world" when I need a reading treat I know I can count on. As many reviewers have noted about this series, the novels feel like visiting a couple friends in their homes. Opening a Jane & Shelley book and beginning to read is as easy and welcoming as opening a kitchen door from a neighbor's back porch and walking right in without needing to knock. You know these two friends will always have at least one shenanigan in contemplation or neighborhood issue to bat around over coffee and snacks or lunch, dinner, whatever.

In SILENCE OF THE HAMS, neighborhood political economics are brewing from the base of a few haughty residents attempting to control the direction of life-and-livelihood of everyone in the area, and the plot pacing is especially natural and seamless as Jane and Shelley's involvement (along with the reader's) in the brew percolates and is intensified by a quickly dispatched murder of the most appropriate character to kill.

As usual, I enjoyed the easy way Jane relates with her kids, friends, and significant other. Loved the entertaining sensitivity in which Jane & Shelley went about getting a new black pickup truck for Jane's son, Mike, and the way he responded to the gift.

The plot in this one has a few unexpected twists midstream, reversing direction, in a sense, then beginning again at an unexpected point. With Jill's seamless scene maneuvering, the twists and abrupt new deals flow like, "Oh. Didn't expect that. Interesting."

There's more deductive-reasoning-detecting dancing through this plot than previous ones; a lot of brain wracking for Jane, Shelley, & Mel stretches through easy-going, daily routine machinations. It feels almost as if this solving crimes deal has now become old hat, yet it's no less entertaining as a perk-along read. The surge in detecting in this offering intrigued me, especially as it was brought to a peak of fun with Jane & Shelly slithering into a delightfully silly tangent of suspects and motives, using formula letters (X, Y, Z, Q, P, S, K). You have to have been there (which you have the option to be, of course, by reading this one). At the culmination of the Gordian Knot of Alphabet bits, Shelly concludes:

>> "I like it, Jane. Mel, we've solved it. You can probably still make your arrest this evening if you hurry." <<

You can probably guess Mel's response, but you might want to read his exact words in reply to this Alphabet/Algebraic Formula discussion after Shelly capped it with the above statements.

I have my own guess guess for what may have brought on this major increase of detecting discussions in this particular novel in the Jeffry series. But, I'm not saying; wouldn't want to spoil your brain racking fun.

I enjoyed this surge of "who done it" conversations in HAM, driven by the intriguingly increased complexity of the mystery machinations; and I enjoyed as well the other novels I've read and reviewed in this series which focused different entertainment draws of a good work-of-fiction (see my Listmania). Jeffry novels have just the right amount of variety of style and venue, along with just the right amount of sameness to keep a (thankfully) long series from getting stale and to continue inviting readers into the story with the comforting feeling of familiarity.

Deftly dealt with, worthy ongoing themes in this novel include community politics around retaining property values, opening a new gourmet deli in Jane & Shelley's neighborhood, blackmailers running rotten personal agendas by using their professional standing to gather dirt from unsuspecting clients, celebrating school ceremonies from hell or from heaven (with Jane's "right-on" guidance on which slants were silly and which were angelic). As usual, Jane & Shelley's opinions hold the prizes for common sense sanity Vs overboard or inappropriate, controlling mania which is out-of-touch with the reality in which Jane & Shelley live with relish and easy-rambling-routine (which is uncannily just like the one many of us work to live in with a slip of sanity).

You won't want to miss HAM if you're raising teens into adulthood in this age of political insanity with gory causes galore (giving unearned glory to the agendas' pushers in the media, school systems, literally permeating every cultural outlet for opinions founded in innumerable pseudo sciences gone amuck). The scenes are so simply right on, in which Jane deals with Katie's toes slipping into the slimy water of band wagon mania, "Don't you CARE about the environment, the X's, Y's, Z's, Q's, P's, S's, K's (in this case the algebraic letters are referring not to suspects, but to various political agendas (causes), all of which contradict the interests of the others.

What ever happened to watching (only) your P's & Q's? Have they been lost in the murky waters of Quantum Physics, where observing a tiny particle of energy makes it dance to your music or become "beauty in the eye of the beholder"? The P's might even "spit in your eye" if you don't "watch out."

Pseudo science continues to slice-and-dice Common Sense in a never ending battle of bumbling idiots using sentimentalism to divert attention from their feathering-of-their-own-nests-and-manias. Take heart, though, Jane & Shelley continually resurrect that beat-and-battered Common Sense Thing, which most humans carry dormant in their DNA. The battle of extracting it from the soul and attempting to execute it begins with the second breath.

Returning to the REAL issues in HAM, here are a few fun questions to answer as you read:

Was the bad guy (the one who was squished under the ham rack on the new deli's opening day) killed before he was killed, or did he die "innocently" of natural causes, THEN get murdered? And what about the second murder, or was it the first, last, and only murder (at least for that week in the Jeffry/Nowack neighborhood)?

In some ways this plot, even as entertainingly convoluted, back-stepping, and back-stabbing as it was, read like a fun & fancy, well-choreographed line dance with each stepper in sensual-rhythmic-synch.

Appreciating An Author-in-stride,
Linda G. Shelnutt

As usual an excellent book!!!!!!! I loved it and highly recommend it to everyone. Hard to 'put down'.

Hams are relevant to delis and lawyers. A lawyer appears under a rack of hams. Robert Stonecipher has made a nuisance of himself in the community trying to shut down people's businesses. Two mothers, Shelley and Jane, are bored with Cub Scouts and school awards assemblies and decide to team up to thwart Robert Stonecipher. Everyone shows up for the opening of a new deli and, as previously mentioned, Stonecipher is discovered under a rack of hams.

Under the circumstances nearly everyone in the community is a suspect until it is learned that Stonecipher died of natural causes. Next his secretary departs life and her death renews the efforts of the police officer, Mel, Jane's friend, to trace the possiblity that some people were being blackmailed by the pair. The solution to the mystery is of the psychological kind and is well done. The women, Jane and Shelley, along with Jane's son Mike, and Mel are delightfully rendered by the author.

Rigoberto Gonzalez makes it seem so easy: his poems sing with a clear, uncluttered voice about our quotidian existence. But don't be fooled. There is great craft in those easy, flowing lines. This is a beautiful, slender book of poems; a dazzling debut.

I read this book for a summer class in college and I was blown away! The poems are definitely a cut above. And I'm one of those hypercritical readers of poetry. This one you can't put down. A warning to those who scare easily. Don't read these right before you go to bed they will haunt your dreams. Check out that man who distributes nightmares poem.

I am amazed how this poet manages to find the beauty in his community; how he manges to shape the darkness, like clay, scattered throughtout the experiences of people often left out of American literature. Fieldworkers, widows, migrants all are given room to exist on the page. The lives of these people are explored and reconstructed in a manner that doesn't scream "victim". Instead, the poet makes the reader aware of the almost casual beauty surrounding these characters. It is this insistence on protraying these characters in an "honest" light without injecting ethnocentric values into the poems that makes the poems resound, even after the pages rest on the shelf. These poems remind me of a line by Paul Monette--"people who were always singing and we were the song". Other Chicano poets have, lately, failed to remember in a way that seems new. Gary Soto, Alberto Rios, and Lorna Dee Cervantes, to me, are the holy trinity of Chicano poetry because they posses the tools of the poet: craft, beauty and a community to write about. Rigoberto Gonazlez will join the ranks of these three.

Reading Rigoberto Gonzalez's poetics was a feast, a delight on a snowy night in New England. Having just returned from Michoacan, I savored the poet's use of space, diction, and lyricism, mapping a necessary poetics in the American imaginary.

It is clear that the poet is meticulous with language. He uses the senses to their maximum potential and creates something wonderful that is poetry. As an aficionado of poetry, I so anticipate such caliber of poetry and prose from Rigoberto Gonzalez in the future.

In the poem "Philandera..." the poet writes of "crocheted creations...extended only with the failure of crops: six doilies bought a week's nixtamal; a tablecloth kept even the chicken feet fat." This metaphor-izes how I felt about this marvelous collection. When one is feeling low for some reason, one can read these poems to still feel the beauty of the universe, in those details right under one's nose. A hint of sadness lingers throughout the book, only to heighten the redemption found in lucidity. If one sees as this poet does, one can never become nihilistic. Rigoberto Gonzalez's poems are "crocheted creations" which are like his Morelos: "puckered and kissable."

Cris Mazza has for many years now been on the radar of readers who admire technical skill and innovation. Her latest, Waterbaby, demonstrates the same technical mastery of her earlier writings, but adds an imaginative dimension to result in her most satisfying effort to date. She begins, not unusually, with a character flawed in body as well as spirit. Tam suffers from epilepsy and has been tormented since childhood by the memory and consequences of a seizure during a swim-meet. She would have drowned had her athletic brother Gary not saved her--or possibly he selfishly used her to appear the hero, in the process dahsing Tam's own girlhood dreams of athletic excellence. Tam has been haunted by this early memory and its consequences for the long forty-something years before the novel begins. Through another series of mishaps (also perhaps resulting from personal failings) she ends up in the rich setting of a Maine lighthouse, haunted by her memories, by a hard-luck single mom and kid she chooses to harbor, by a distant ancestor she researches, and, finally, by an actual ghost. Mazza pieces the various stories together in a pastiche of different verbal media (including letters, emails, websites, and traditional past tense narrative). So much for the technical mastery, which is accomplished and assured as usual. The great achievement of Waterbaby is the investment the reader comes to feel in Tam, in wanting her to accept/transcend her past and become a more whole person. The magnetism of this main character keeps the many different quirky minor characters, asides, episodes, from eroding reader interest.

"Waterbaby" is somewhat of a departure for Cris Mazza. While she generally sets her stories in Southern California, or at least populates them with people from that region, this novel takes place in a Maine coastal town. The other side of the country though has some similarities to the hardscrabble desert; the landscape becomes a character as much as any person in this novel. The continuity of the rocky shore and lobster industry across generations makes up a large part of the main character Tam's dilemma. As she tries to find her place in her own family, the various family dynamics of past generations intrudes on her psyche as well. The story then incorporates several lost baby stories as Tam investigates her ancestors and her relationships with her family, especially her brother. As in several of Mazza's works, the theme of regret and the conflict that arises from trying to negotiate being a woman play a large role in the novel. Additionally, like other American writers (i.e. Cormac McCarthy, Annie Proulx, Faulkner), Mazza merges style and place in a masterful way. Family relationships, sex, and self-reliance might be as dangerous as the rocky shore of Maine. Mazza does a wonderful job of portraying these dangers with honesty and engaging storytelling.

What a deliciously conceived novel about personal redemption! The protagonist, Tam, suffers her first epileptic seizure at 12. Her condition will steal her swimming career and estrange her from her brother, Gary. But it will not impede her journey into her troubled family's complicated past, a journey that takes her to the Maine coastline, going back to the early nineteeth century. Here tales of thwarted love and shipwrecked babies haunt the landscape. Tam will unlock more than one story, connecting newspaper acounts, oral history and her own search for understanding until she unfolds a broad historical panorama, a fascinating past. Particularly terrific is Mazza's interweaving of contemporary tools of communication, from websites, to blogs, to email mixed with archival accounts. Reading Waterbaby is a thrilling intertextual adventure that feels immediately ours, but simultaneously layered with a fresh understanding of nineteenth century economic and legal conditions for women and their children. As always, Mazza, is a wise voice, deeply concerned. This novel is a thrilling non stop read.

Filmmaker Werner Herzog has written, "There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization."

Cris Mazza takes this one step further with her seductive book Waterbaby, giving us a protagonist who seeks to create a present by recreating her past -and the possible pasts of her ancestors as well. Tam not only attempts to piece together her ancestor's lives through research and genealogy, she delves into lore so thoroughly she finds herself literally recreating the sea-legends that are intertwined with her own familial history. Mazza is able to juggle the various stories and mix them with imagined pasts and historical pasts, even using the occasional cutaway page of a blog or an electronic archive. Links between legend and historical fact--as well as Tam's personal past and her family's history--begin to accumulate pretty quickly, leaving the reader dazzled by Mazza's ability to keep all the plates spinning without wobble.

All this plus Waterbaby is a funny and compelling page-turner to boot.

The greatest pleasure of "Waterbaby" is the sense of being in the hands of a master storyteller. The voice alone, deceptively simple and straightforward, intrigued this reader to relax and let it take me. This is a rare quality, quite independent of compelling character or driving plot. Yet "Waterbaby" provides characters and plot aplenty. It has been called a ghost story, which it is, even an erotic ghost story; but of a surprising post-9/11 kind. (One character, a search-and-rescue professional, is more than haunted by what he and his search-dog find in the still-burning ruins of the World Trade Center.) In Shakespeare, ghosts are the past penetrating the present. In Mazza the present invades, recreates the past, in every sense. One ghost, Tam, the main character herself, a relatively young (late 40's) retired stockbroker, takes imaginative and spiritual possession of an unremembered, long-dead ancestor who once helped keep a light-house on the dark and stormy coast of Maine. Family is the mysterious presence disturbing Tam - not only the hostile "hero" brother who disappears to pursue her, but all the alien great-great aunts and uncles, grandfathers and grandmothers who never knew her but now will not leave her in peace. Central to her exploration of who they were and how they persist in her are a shipwrecked baby, a newborn found in a toilet, and a drowned woman whom the locals continue to see walking at twilight the light-house rocks. Not the least ghostly of the people leading Tam into her terra incognita is the graveyard lover who insists she play the drowned woman - for prospective renters of the modernized light-house. No one writes with more comic poignance about the guerilla warfare of intimacy between women and men than the author of "Your Name Here_____" and "Is It Sexual Harassment Yet?" But I have long hoped she would enlarge her canvas and here she does: reaching out to the loves and wars of siblings, children, and parents - Maine to California - and 21st century back to 20th and 19th, with assurance, depth, compassion, and inexhaustible, penetrating wonder.

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth, Williamson County, Illinois became a byword for lawlessness. The county first came to nationwide attention in the 1870s, when a bloody feud, comparable to the worst that the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee had to offer, wracked the area. Then in the 1920s, the town was beset by union and Ku Klux Klan violence to a shocking degree. Indeed, the rest of the country, and even the rest of the world was appalled at the violence, and the townspeople who condoned it.

This is a wonderfully interesting book. The author does an excellent job of bringing bloody Williamson to life, and showing it in all its lack of glory. This tale of union murderers and KKK hoodlums (often the same people) is sure to shock you, and make you very glad that you didn't live then and there!

I highly recommend this book!

If you are a history buff, you will almost certainly enjoy this book immensely as I did. It tells the incredible but little known story of one of the most violent chapters in U.S. history. In fact, some historians believe that the gangs of Williamson County were the most dangerous and violent gangs in U.S. History. Paul Angle does a wonderful job of telling this fascinating story which covers a period of about 50 years. I was particularly interested in it because my father lived through it. He lived in Marion, Illinois at the time and the Sheriff who plays a large part in the book was the father of his best friend. He also personally witnessed some of the things mentioned in the book. My father is 99 years old now and he still remembers it all clearly. But even without that personal connection to the story of Williamson County, I would have been just as fascinated.

I was amazed when reading the review by Alan Mills. How could someone get the most basic facts presented in the book so wrong? He claims that the mine owner hired thugs who killed the miners when, in fact, the mine owner hired guards and non-union miners to work the mines and the union miners killed them! And the "thugs" did not hang around because they were dead! Also, Williamson is a county not a town. Another reviewer guessed that Alan had just read the back cover but he couldn't have even done that based on his "review."

This is a true gem, which depicts the violent history of a rural southern county in Illinois. The author tells of organized labor, bootleggers, gangs and the KKK of the 1920s in Williamson County, Illinois. Angle writes in any easy format for most readers and his book is well indexed. I would highly recommend this book to all readers!

Mike Koch, author of "The Kimes Gang."

While working near Marion, Illinois (Williamson County) in the winter of 2002 and spring of 2003 I was (at first) completely unaware of the history of the area. Finding that I was a history lover, a co-worker, native to the area, told me about "the troubles" and recommended this book. I quickly decided that Bloody Williamson was one of the better books I had ever read concerning this violent era in American history. While reading the book, I rode over many of the roads and visited as many of the old sites as I could find.

Williamsburg County had an unbelievable amount of violence, in both variety and magnitude, in such a short period of time. In less than fifty years this one county had labor wars, Ku Klux Klan wars, gang wars, and one of the worst feuds in American history. Paul Angle is a good writer, but that is only an added benefit. Reading the media accounts of these events would be fascinating enough. Anyone interested in a case study of a dysfunctional community should read this book.

charlie has a very interesting way of expressing his thoughts only 1/2 way threw but i do want to see whats going on in the main characters life well worth a read so far mike

There are certain books that I may sit on for year because once I start them I can not put down, well I did not do that and started to read this book and again I could not put it down! this is one of the best books I have read in years, considering I read 2 books a week this is saying something. I am from Chicago and am fimilar with the places this book takes place and the atmosphere is just great and really gives you a chill and a sense of reality and fear yet believe, it reads more like a true crime noval than a fiction! I can not wait to read more by this autor whom I understand this being his 1st book, great book I recomended to everyone who is intrested in a great suspense novel! Bill Owens

It usually happens somewhere in the first hundred pages: I, reader, get the idea that I trust the author. I relinquish some measure of control and let him/her take me along on the river of plot, wherever it leads. I don't care, because I trust the author to treat me right.

It's usually a comfortable trust, an old worn armchair of a thing, molded to my butt and unwilling to part company easily. It's casual, sometimes friendly, sometimes with a twinge or two of excitement, but nothing - ever - to betray that trust.

That's the mark of good writing, imo.

Reading Calumet City was different. Oh, I trusted the writer of course, but it was the kind of trust that you hold for someone who's got you suspended by one ankle over an abyss so deep that you can only remember the jagged, hungry rocks at the far bottom. Now I can only hope that I'll be able to return to my old, relaxed ways, sitting in my easy chair, trusting the author with his story.

Maybe it helps that I live in Chicago and that my husband is from Calumet City...I really enjoyed this book. The author hit just the right note describing the North Side/South Side rivalry that exists in my city which further added to my enjoyment. Cal City isn't quite as dark as the author portrays it. But once you "know" the heroine,Patty, and what she has experienced you can understand why she sees Cal City that way. Patty is incredibly tough, smart, and flawed...very human and well drawn. The action was truly heart pounding. This book had me involved from beginning to end. I've passed it on to a friend who never lived anywhere near Chicago and she loved it, too, so you don't have to know the towns to enjoy the book.

People I respect such as Lee Child and Jeff Abbott gave this book high praise. When I concentrate on Charlie Newton's writing alone, I can agree with them. Newton is a solid writer, though his faux noir style becomes grating over time. The talent is there, but it clearly needs to be polished.

Evaluating the plot and characters, though, leads me to a different place. I didn't find the plot compelling or persuasive and the characters struck me as lacking depth and credibility.

Patti Black is supposedly Chicago's most decorated police officer. Too much is made of the character's being a woman. She spends way too much time engaging in machismo posturing that adds nothing to the story.

A career officer, Black is hiding a horrible story of being orphaned when her alcoholic parents die in a car wreck and being abused by foster parents, carrying the child of her foster father. The child is taken from her. Supposedly the foster father died a couple of decades back - supposedly. A raid on a gang turns deadly and Patti learns that a skeleton in the wall of a neighboring building is that of her foster mother. Than an assistant State's Attorney is kidnapped. Just happens that the guy is Patti's foster brother. Next an imprisoned murderer asks for Patti to visit him. Gee golly, it's a reunion. He too is from the foster home.

All of it is more than too much. Patti is frightened of being found out for her youthful sins, wants to reclaim her long lost son, has an aggressive and utterly unconvincing FBI agent on her case and so on.

If Charlie Newton had left out about half his plot, he would have produced a novel four times better, in my opinion. Newton's writing is strong, but not strong enough to carry the Byzantine plot.

Still, there are repeated flashes of brilliance and near-brillance throughout the book. As I mentioned, Newton tries too hard for a noir style, his imitation noir simply coming off as imitation. His characters are painted too broadly and lack depth, a couple of them approaching the ludicrous.

I caution that all this is simply my opinion of this particularly story: from the outset I was uncomfortable with it and quickly grew bored with the plot. But I suspect that many will find the story a compelling read and the characters more believable than I did.

It's that kind of book. My suggestion is that you browse it before you buy. Although it wasn't mine, it may be your cup of tea.

Jerry

I was given this book by a friend. I am not from Chicago nor am I a nurse, but I sat down with it and read it from cover to cover in one sitting in an afternoon. I was particularly interested in the time frame of the early 1970's and her descriptions of the various social and political changes going on at the time. I was in secretarial school at the time, and her description of the preciseness of the uniform hemlines and tea time at the nursing school made me think of the white gloves we were required to wear and the "etiquette" of the times we were required to learn. I came away with a newfound respect for the nursing profession and for the challenges she faced. I was particularly stunned to read the current statistics regarding the shortage of nurses in our nation. Karels wrote this book 20 years after quitting the nursing profession. I give her kuddos for the thoroughness of her memories and research.

For anyone who has ever been a nursing student this book will bring back memories, of happy times and stressful experiences. For those examining the historical struggle in nursing education this book provides good insight, not only into the student experience, but also into the larger economic and political domains during the early 1970's. The book is written with intelligence and compassion. Readers will marvel at the endurance and wisdom of nurses and the nursing profession.

Not coming from a nursing or health care background,I nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Karel's book. Each chapter was a new vignette that helped me to identify with the challenging,sometimes shocking life of a novice nurse in an inner city hospital. Its full of passion, joy, humor and wonder. I enjoyed it so much that I have encouraged some friends and nurses that I know to read it, and they have all told me how much they appreciated my recommendation.

I received a copy of the original release of this book from a friend and had to order my own to be a permanant part of my library. I worked at Cook County Hospital and was impressed with the accurate depiction of the condtions and atmosphere of this incredible institution at that time. It was not perfect, but I remember people striving to make it so along with the great compassion of many dedicated professionals working wth limited resources.

This book took me on personal journey of remembrance, but I feel it can give anyone an insight into the workings of a hospital designed to serve the most needy in a big city.

Carol's book was just fabulous - I have read it many times and found it very difficult to put down. I am also a Cook County grad,and Carol has done a great job of helping those who were a part of the that experience stay connected. Memories of CCSN will live on forever thanks to her great skills as a writer (as I recall, she was also an excellent nursing student!) All of us who were once a part of County loved and hated it so much and all at the same time. Thanks, Carol, for sharing with all of us who were part of that great time. Mary Jane(Pratt)McWilliams RN

This episode of "...stuff" was better than the first book. The main character and her cast become more developed and the story flows more smoothly. Jane Wheel is unlike any character I have come across. I look forward to more adventures.

Maybe it's because I'm not into antiques and can't understand why someone would want to spend all their time going through and buying other peoples' junk, but I found the whole premise of a "picker" to be silly and boring.

As for the story, I did find the whole thing somewhat confusing with all the saloonkeepers and various characters. It was an easy late-summer read...although I really don't think I'll be continuing with the series.

.
a Six Pack to go! o/~
Jane Wheel, Kankakee saloon owners' daughter, former ad exec, Charley's estranged wife and Nick's momma, now antique "picker," sentimental "junquer," and ameuteur sleuth, bought a whole room full of old bar Stuff at a going-to-the-assisted-living-home sale. Included in the Dead Guy's (former Chicago tavern owner Oscar Bateman's) Stuff was a grusome discovery which gives new meaning to the phrase "giving one the finger." Jane has bought herself another bushel of trouble in this second installment of Sharon Fiffer's fun and witty "Stuff" series. The gang from her first foray into the cozy colorful world of collectors and collectables is all here, as well as the, er, "mature" ladies from the old Shagri-La Lounge. Is it true, what she says, that "the jadite is always greener on the other side?" It's MIB: mint in book!
TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer, former patron, Peg's Tavern, Hinckley, IL.

Dead Guy's Stuff continues the story of Jane Wheel (Killer Stuff), an antique "picker" who has made a career of going through old stuff and finding treasures to sell to dealers. However, Jane is not that successful yet because she has a hard time letting go of her finds and she has a tendency to buy memories instead of valuable items, such as Elmira's old schoolwork. Needless to say, Jane is ecstatic when she finds a whole room of 1950s saloon ephemera - just what she needs to redecorate her mother and father's tavern in Kankakee. She loves the Bakelite darts and dice, advertisements from long-defunct liquor suppliers, old bar games, bowling trophies, old photographs and a severed finger in a jar? Jane immediately calls her friend Detective Oh and asks him what she should do. Oh graciously comes over and takes a look, but, while a little macabre, it isn't as if Jane found a dead body or anything. So Jane tucks the finger away in the glove compartment of her car and heads for home to redecorate. There she finds the dead body of her parents' former landlord - with a finger that is almost completely cut off. Jane is positive that there is a link between her finger and the dead guy. Now she just has to find it while dealing with her parent's attempts to keep their past secret, decorating her friend Tim's kitchen for a house show, rooting through the dead guy's three houses of stuff, her mother's kidnapping, her friend's suicide and a fascinating group of little old ladies...

Once again, Sharon Fiffer has presented readers with an absolutely fabulous book. Those who were captivated by her attention to detail and great characters in Killer Stuff will not be disappointed with this follow up. Again, there are great details about antiques and collectibles, as well as fascinating glimpses into small town life in Kankakee. Jane Wheel's associations with her fellow characters are always entertaining and her mother is a real kick. Don't wait for this one to come out in paperback - it is well worth the cost of the hardbound price!

...so I could run off to garage sales and flea markets like Jane Wheel does! That's the hazard of reading Sharon Fiffer's series during the dead of winter. If you've ever been even temporarily addicted to sifting through other people's wretched refuse, you know what Jane's weekends are like, and you know what her house looks like. You might even know the touch of Bakelite, or feel your heart a-poundin' as you thumb through a box of old discarded photos and papers. It may sound awful or silly to the unexperienced picker, but the sights and sounds and smells of this diversion are wonderfully portrayed in these mysteries. In most instances in real life, you don't find EXACTLY the same things Jane does. (Thank goodness!) Read the books; they're almost like being there.

This truly is a wonderful book and the reviews so far have been right on the money but in case anyone's still looking to visit the exhibit, it now resides in The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. I'm privileged enough to work in the Lanzendorf Gallery (as well as the rest of the amazing Dinosphere area of the museum) and I can tell you that it's well worth a visit to see these beautiful pieces.

This is one of the finest dino-art books I've come across to date. Johns collection is by far amazingly complete in regard to his T-Rex's. Beatuful work by all the artists and excellent job of collecting them by John. Highly recommend this book for any collector.

...I had this man's collection! But, short of that impossible dream, this book is the next best thing. John Lanzendorf shares his more than impressive collection of dinosaur art with dinosaur lovers the world over. From some of the better know "paleo-artists" (James Gurney, Mark Hallett) to others I, personally, have only discovered thanks to this edition. It is an interesting expedition to discover the various interpretations of the same dinosaur by different artists; Tyrannosaurus, bulky or lean? Raptors with feathers? Amazing stuff...

Well,I did received this book for my birthday,and guess if I was happy!It is probably the best birthday gift I've ever received.
The title sounds exciting and suggestive,and so is the book itself. It features parts of the Lanzendorf Collection,which is the largest dinosaur art collection in the world. This 160-page book features about 20 per cent of the collection,but it is still amazingly much. Of course,it would be impossible to collect all dinosaur art beeing made today,but if anyone did,John Lanzendorf would be the one to do it. His apartment contains only dinosaur collectibles and artwork - no other decorations!That must be a really amazing home to live in!
With this book,I have the option to view some of the work hanging there. Although this book has some pictures of beautifull,triassic dinosaurs and jurassic ones as well,it focuses mainly on the cretaceous period,which is called "A Cretaceous End to A Lost World". And that is may be because most of the really fantastic dinosaurs lived during the mid-late cretaceous. There are a lot of pictures of T-rex,which is particulary my favorite dinosaur,and the most inspiring one in this book. Some of the other amazing dinosaurs featured here are Sinsauropteryx,Carnotaurus,Lambeosaurus,and many more.
It does have some inspiring,peacefull pictures of plant-eaters,although the pictures of theropods are the highlights.
Each artist has their own,unique style. John Sibbick has an immidiate sense of detail,and is one of the best. Luis Rey has a little sense of surrealism in his detailed,a little strange paintings. Mark Hallet has the classical style in dinosaur painting. John Bindon is the master of black/white dinosaur art.
Donna Braginetz always make it feel so real you believe they are really there!
Of course,the bronze sculptures makes a nice addition to the artwork,and they look very real. Must be nice decorations!
Over all,the combination of the artists`s different talents makes this book a wonderfull coffee-table book,and a unique collection of dinosaur art that should be a part of every paleontologist`s or dinosaur maniac`s library. I know it is quite expensive,but believe me,it`s worth every penny you spend on it!It has been very helpfull to me when learning to paint good dinosaurs,and the different talents makes me take little inspiration from every painting in the book.
So,if you like dinosaurs seriously,this is a must-have!No dinosaur artist should be without a copy of this book.

"Dinosaur Imagery: The Science of Lost Worlds and Jurassic Art" (The Lanzendorf Collection) photographed by Michael Tropea is a wonderful art collection book by John J. Lanzendorf, with the imagery of dinosaurs that are awe inspiring. Small as coffee table books go, but the art contained within its pages is rather breathtaking.

There is statuary, hanging art, and sculpture all depicting dinosaurs of museum quality artwork of different settings. If you like "dino-art" then you'll truly love this book as you get to see just a fraction of the John J. Lanzendorf collection. Lanzendorf has collected "dino-art" for decades and has amassed quite a collection. I've seen part of his collection exhibited at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois on a past visit to the "Windy City" and it is a sight to behold. This book does a good job at depicting the art in a favorable light.

But, if you ever get the chance to visit the Field Museum and they have the Lanzendorf collection on display it is worth taking a look. This book about the Lanzendorf Collection does an honorable job of displaying the art so the masses can see what is in the collection. There are numerous contributors to this book, far to many to mention ing the short review, but all of notarity. The book has four distinct chapters and they are as follows:

Extinct--but not Dinosaurs
"Fearfully Great Lizards" of the Triassic
Jurassic Art
A Creataceous End to and Lost World

There is an excellent epilogue and related references and credits and contact information contained in this book. All in all, I gave this book the full and strong 5 stars that is deserves for depicting excellent art and presentation.

Must rate this volume as the standard reference on the topic. This current edition supplants Ripley's "Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War." I actually own copies of the original and revised editions. There are a few notable updates, making the second purchase worth the expenditure. While I have found some minor omissions in the listings (particularly discussing some of the poorly documented Confederate gun makers), the authors seem to leave few stones unturned.

Book was not what I expected it to be. I anticipated a thorough study of specific artillery types with color plates and detailed drawings, and with specific histories, usage, success, etc. This is not what I received. It was a hugh disappointment, considering the high price I paid for this book.

A very concise and thorough (almost an encyclopedia) book of the weapons of the civil war.

"Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War" is the definitive reference work for civil war cannon used in the field. Nothing else approaches its structured grouping and organization of the diverse and confused world of American Civil War field guns. However, this is not a book for everyone since it is quite focused on the specifications, manufacturing origins and methods of the tubes themselves, not on the tactical employment, range charts, the batteries, or the projectiles they fired. (Understandably, many readers will be shocked if they don't realize this before purchase--including me!)

It is hard to over emphasize what a fine job the authors have done in bringing order out of chaos. Their encyclopedic inclusion and explanation of all known types solves many riddles. The complexity and nuances will still require considerable study by the reader to reach a full understanding, but at last it is logically and rigorously catalogued.

The chapter list is as follows: 1. Fundamentals. 2. Federal 6-pounder Guns and 3.67" Rifles. 3. Confederate 6-pounder Guns and 3-inch Rifles. 4. Federal 12-pounder Field Howitzers. 5. Confederate 12-pounder Field Howitzers. 6. Federal Napoleon Guns. 7. Confederate Napoleon Guns. 8. Parrott Rifles. 9. 3-inch Ordnance Rifles. 10. False Napoleons and Gettysburg Replicas. 11. The Small Ones. 12. Boat Howitzers. 13. James Smoothbores and Rifles. 14. The Rare Ones. 15. Too Big for the Field. 16. British Rifled Cannon. 17. Carriages. 18. Conclusions.

The chapters are well illustrated with photographs and schematics of the gun tubes. There are also detailed dimensional specification tables, and some estimated production counts of various types. Following the main text is an extensive set of appendices that serve as a catalog of known foundries, inspectors, designations, foundry numbers, weights, and locations of known survivors,

I highly recommend this work to anyone who wants to be able to identify nearly any Civil War field gun he/she comes across. However, I don't recommend it as a detailed work on the employment of Civil War field artillery--that is not the objective or nature of the book.

Note: The companion work for the heavy artillery is "The Big Guns. Civil War Siege, Seacoast, and Naval Cannon" by Edwin Olmstead, Wayne E. Stark, and Spencer C. Tucker. It follows the same format and style, but its availability is limited.

A comprehensive source of information on the field guns used by both sides of the american civil war. Provides each weapon's history and statistics. Extremely informative.

No civil war library should be without it.

An excellent companion to other book The Big Guns by Omstead and Wayne E. Stark and Spencer C. Tucker which covers the big guns of the conflict.