Virginia Books

Morell's astounding level of research reveals the Leakeys individually, as a family, and as dogged searchers for the truth about man's origins--and as living, breathing humans. Through letters, diaries, journals, personal interviews, and family archives, they speak to the reader with unprecedented candor about their personal travails, but more importantly, about their early struggles for funding, their fossil discoveries in remote desert locations, their constant surprise by the historical record, and their uncertainty, to this day, about modern man's exact lineage.

Some Leakey peccadilloes, never secret, are fully documented here: Louis's constant womanizing and his "adoption" of young female researchers, such as Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas; Mary's scotch-drinking, her cigar-smoking, and her intolerance of those on her Stinker List, some of them other researchers; and Richard's boyish brashness and arrogance, along with his health problems and dislike of Donald Johanson. Less appreciated, however, is the fact that before Louis's work and significant discoveries, people still believed that early man was from China or Europe, not Africa. Mary Leakey was the first person ever to excavate a Paleolithic site, and her meticulous care about documenting the tools and animals found in the same stratae as her hominid fossils, told here in detail, revolutionized the way fossils were recovered and catalogued. Richard found as many hominid fossils in two years (1971 and 1972) as Mary and Louis found in 36 years, and his level of dedication to research since finding his first hominid fossil at age 6, his mentoring of young researchers, and his creation of museums and foundations in Nairobi have perhaps received less attention than they deserve.

The Leakeys believe at least two and perhaps three or four different hominids may have lived in certain areas simultaneously, sharing space for a million or more years, and that the exact line of descent to modern man is still unknown. Tens of thousands of extinct, fossilized species of hippos, elephants, saber-toothed cats, crocodiles, antelopes, and even insects, unearthed by the Leakeys, are overwhelming evidence that if species, including hominids, do not change and adapt, they die. While some may argue about how certain hominids are labeled, no one can argue with their existence in the historical record, and nearly all of them have been unearthed by just one family. These contributions continue beyond the purview of this book into a new generation: Dr. Louise Leakey and her mother Maeve (Richard's wife) found yet another completely new hominid species in March, 2001. Mary Whipple

This is an engrossing story of archealogy's first family. The title hints at their adventures, loves, intrigues, battles, all most passionate. I could not put the book down. The landscape of archealogy will forever be, for me, after this book, a color filled map with the land of our ancestors fully pictured in my mind. No longer will archealolgists seem to be dull digging tan people,but exciting real people, made of the passion of us all. A superb read

Amidst the splendor and corruption of Africa, this family battle the weather, the government, the prejudices, the lack of funds, and even each other. Their intelligence and love for the country is evident as they search for prehistoric evidence of earliest humans. The more I read about them, the more I admired their contribution to East Africa and to the world.

This is a long, engrossing, detailed book about the Leakey family and their impact on paleoanthropology in Africa. It's a real pot-boiler of a book--hard to put down and a totally fascinating study of the family. You get a real sense of their human failings as well as their triumphs. The family comes across as stubborn, intense, egomaniacal and prickly, as well as totally dedicated to their pursuit of man's ancestry in Africa. Although the author has a higher opinion of the Leakeys than some of their rivals (Donald Johanson), she by no means glosses over the more unsavory aspects of their characters. I would highly recommend this book, regardless of your level of familiarity with paleoanthropology.

This important study is highly astute in its analysis--and very accessible. Ratcliffe is a first-rate thinker and writer.

Three great geniuses are presented here. Where would we be without the unbelievably courageous Mary Daly? And Virginia Woolf is still an important early voice, especially as presented by Jane Marcus and other brilliant radicals. As for Rich, is there a more brilliant writer in "America" today? I think not.

This book dares to include three of the very greatest writers of the century. Mary Daly is the incredibly courageous voice of contemporary radical feminism, Woolf is still valuable for her essays, and Adrienne Rich is a truly visionary poet who has changed the way contemporary discourse is conducted. A wonderful book.

It's a little hard to see how Mary Daly can even be mentioned with a great genius like Virginia Woolf, especially when one considers that Woolf was able to make a new rhetoric apart from patriarchal language, while "theorists" like Daly have only succeeded in questioning contemporary discourse. Nevertheless, a worthwhile book that, when dealing with a major figure like Virginia Woolf, deserves to be read.

I gave my rheumatologist a copy of this book. I have not finished it as yet It does make some stunning statements.

This book is well presented and full of interesting facts. Although aimed at the layman it uses rather a lot of medical terminology and certainly hits hard. If you have the misfortune to have one or more auto immune diseases and want to be informed about the course of your illness, the medication available and the research into new medication and possible cures, I would certainly recommend this book. However it is not for the faint hearted!

Pam Newman

I found this book quite helpful in sorting through the maze of symptoms of various autoimmune disorders. It even helped me to self-diagnose one I did not know I had. The information is well laid out; it is comprehensive and current while not overly scientific. The cross reference of other automimmune diseases is particularly useful.

This book is a must-read for all who have or suspect they or family members or friends have an autoimmune disorder. It is presented in a very organized and efficent manner and is helpful to the patient as well as the health care professional.

It is obvious that the authors have throughly researched all the materials necessary to present accurate, unbiased and essential information. The book is well organized, cross-referenced and covers autoimmune disorders from A to Z.

In addition to the book itself, the resources listed in it are priceless!

Even after being a Myasthenia Gravis patient and coping with the disorder for years, I learned more about Myasthenia by reading this book. I also gave my doctor a copy! Those of us with autoimmune disorders should make it priority read!

The interviews with patients were especially helpful and those with health care professionals were excellent. The possibility of a female having an autoimmune disorder is much higher than that of a male, so the book's main focus is on women. However, it is extremely helpful to men, also.

My family and friends now understand much more about my disease. Congratulations to the authors on a much awaited and much needed book.

While this is a must-read book for the health care and emergency response fields, everyone who works in any office environment should have this book on hand. In the legal field, I work daily with clients who are under pressure. This book gives clear, concise and easy-to-access advice for dealing with individuals who are in stressful situations or dealing with a crisis. And you can apply the information/advice not only in the office environment, but when dealing with individuals in any daily situations, anywhere you go. Keep this book handy!

I thought this book was great - have been an RN for 33 years (an ER RN for 29 of those years) and I found this book right to the point!! Even asked my director to order some!!!

This book provides basic information on crisis intervention. Unfortunately it does not seem to provide any new information for experienced mental health professionals. For those who are not well versed in mental health issues this book might be very helpful. A good addition to disaster planning or in preparing to deal with a mental health crisis.

As a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, I found this book to be an excellent resource for emergency personnel.

This book was displayed in the Welcome Center at the Virginia State line.
I looked through it and decided it was one I HAD to have. I made note of it in my little "black" book and when I returned home to the Northwest I knew I could count on Amazon.com to get it to me.

This is a wonderful book loaded with recipes, pictures and Virginia history.I ahve tried many of the recipes and they are delicious. This is a great book to give as a gift to everyone you know.

I rarely buy cookbooks, and I was glad to have purchased this one. Not only are there a variety of recipes, but there is also lots of Virginia-related history and information to read as well. I think this will be the first cookbook that I actually read cover to cover!
If you are familiar with Virginia restaurants, there are recipes from places like Baliwick Inn and Shields Tavern.
The one thing I wish was different about this book is the way it's organized. For example, there is a chapter on cheese and eggs. There could be a variety of recipes in this chapter, from quiche to creme brulee.

Much more than a cookbook, The Best of Virginia Farms contains intriguing automobile tours to plantations and historic farm sites in the Old Dominion, some I didn't know existed and most I hadn't visited but will now. There are 8 (36 by 12-inch) full color foldout panoramic photos of Virginia, interesting interviews of Virginians who had a great impact on agriculture, and so many interesting facts I didn't know -- either about food, agriculture or Virginia history. Best of all, the recipes are delicious and easy to make with clear directions and background information about the Virginians who created them. Anyone who likes good food and likes to learn will really enjoy this book about America's first farm state.

The best book I read in 2007 was originally published in 1925. And, as a bonus, it was actually read for me. The plot of Beyond the Outposts is unlike any I have encountered before: young Lew Dorset runs away from his uncle (looking after him since Lew's father went to prison) in search of his father.

Along the way, he makes a great friend in Chuck Morris (and that's Morris, not Norris, in case you weren't really paying attention yet), and fights Indians, later befriending them. There's a lot more that happens, but I don't want to ruin this epic experience for you. This is one of author Max Brand's most ambitious plots and he handles it deftly. Also, the complexity of the father-son relationship (even in the absence of the father) is dealt with especially well, giving Lew a depth that is not found in many characters.

As for the audiobook of Beyond the Outposts, let me begin by saying that it is a special occasion when an actor you were previously unaware of makes an impression -- and to do so twice is extraordinary -- but that is just what happened to me with an actor with the distinctive name of Kristoffer Tabori.

The first time I saw Tabori, he was truly inhabiting the usually thankless role of Henry Baskerville to Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles. (In fact, I defy you to name anyone you who has ever played that role memorably.) His portrayal, I wrote at the time, "offers up a sympathetic rendition of the lord of the manor that actually makes the viewer care about his safety (and his heart)."

Fast-forward a year. I came across this audio of Beyond the Outposts (Brand is one of my favorite authors, and one whose audiobooks, for some reason, I have a good deal of trouble tracking down through the library) -- read by Kristoffer Tabori. Well, I knew the name rang a bell and looked up the Holmes review to reread it. Interesting, I thought, a Briton reading a Western, but I decided to give it a go anyway. (It turns out Tabori is actually an American, and the son of director Don Siegel and actress Viveca Lindfors, but I was ignorant of this at the time. Thanks, Wikipedia!)

The voice that came from my car's speakers was so different from that of Henry Baskerville that I had to do some Googling to confirm that it was in fact the same person. Tabori's reading reeks of the Old West. His personification of narrator Lew Dorset surpassed even my expectations for a Max Brand character. And his voice never falters as he gives each character a voice distinct enough to be different, yet similar enough to remind us they are all from the same area. Tabori makes these people live in a way they simply cannot on paper. And anyone who can actually improve on a Brand story gets high marks in my book.

Wow! This story is char-broiled!

I'm not sure how accurate the portrayals of the Sioux and Pawnees are, but the white Virginian who narrates his life story winds up living with the Sioux to his delight, and being a captive of the Pawnee. It's a real rip-snorter. Fleeing from an abusive uncle, searching for his father, he meets up with a colorful cast of characters from the pre-Civil war West. Initially it has tones of Huck Finn (abusive parental figure, misguided racism from the South) but becomes a dramatic, rip-snorter of a tale, fighting and living with Native Americans, hunting an almost mythical white horse, and telling a tale of great friendship and disaster.

The reader of the CD audio book is a perfect match - one of the best I have heard. It's like you are sitting at the campfire with him.

Reading Max Brand will spoil you for the insipid pop fiction being written today. Here was a guy who knew how to tell a story! What a craftsman! Kristoffer Tabori -- who won an Audie Award last year for his version of J Eugenenides' "Middlesex" -- does a nuanced, exciting rendition of this vintage Western.

Best western I've ever read from any author.

Blind Singer Joe's Blues is a novel set in the birthplace and time of modern American music. The complex and all-too human characters whose live play out against this backdrop are the musicians who create what we now call blues, rag-time and country music.

The author's deep knowledge of the music of that era is obvious throughout. It complements his ability to draw strong portraits of the characters and an engrossing story line.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Highly recommended.

I couldn't put this beautifully-crafted book down once I started it. Robert Love Taylor's masterful handling of perspective and dialogue, his insightful and sympathetic development of characters, and the precise perfection of the language throughout make this a rare gem. You won't find its match in evoking the feel of music. I loved it.

More truth in reviewing: I know the author too, and I knew he could make a fiddle sing like God's choir of spring-morning birds -- but I had no idea he could do the same thing with mere words of clay. Blind Singer Joe's Blues sings through hard-bitten characters and hard times; through soul-searching, generosity, orneriness and forgiveness; and through the greenbrier thicket of family ties.

Taylor eases the reader through viewpoint, time and place, just as a tune effortlessly weaves from chorus to verse and back again. The plot unfolds so sparely that you wonder at how he creates such a complex tapestry in such a small space.

His characters -- Hannah Ruth, Pink Miracle, Dudley Crider and his mama Pearlie, Mama Bayless, Emmett and Amelia Holt -- reveal themselves, their stations, their hopes and beliefs through their language, all of it sounding as true as a tuning fork, as when Dudley gives a piece of his mind to the toddler, Singer Joe: "We are Criders and don't have no fear, he told the boy, and he imagined some of O.T., some of Uncle Crockett and Uncle U.S., some of Daddy, some of himself, yes, and then all the Criders before them, grandaddies and grandmamas by the score, crowded up in Singer Joe's veins."

Religious passion and personal passion meet sorrow and self-denial and all of it makes up the blues that are the fabric of Singer Joe's life.

Start this book on Friday night; you'll want the weekend to finish it.

Truth in reviewing: I am acquainted with the author, but haven't seen him in ages. Years ago he promised another novel with the old-time fiddler character Pink Miracle from his earlier book, THE LOST SISTER, and he has finally delivered. It is well worth the wait: it is highly readable and atmospheric, filled with memorable people. It's about souls who may seem kind of marginal in global and universal schemes but who find a way to be heard, to matter in the middle of it all.

Taylor has drawn on family history and legend out of his ancestral territory of Oklahoma and the mountains of eastern Tennessee for his past books. In this new work, in which he is at the top of his powers as a storyteller and fiction stylist, he looks at the early 20th century country folks who poured their lives into the songs that became the modern bluegrass, jazz and folk traditions. The jazz musician of the title and his blues are the legacy of the stories that flow together in this narrative, swirling around a restless songbird teenage mother who deserts him as well as everyone else in her life.

I confess to having been haphazardly acquainted with bluegrass music through occasional street festivals and local arts events. Coincidentally, as I was reading BLIND SINGER JOE'S BLUES, an Alison Krauss concert video was brought into the house. Listening and reading at the same time, I realized just how much Taylor's novel is alive with the music and explains how it got that way; and Krauss, well, she and bluegrass have a new fan.

There are very few books on the market about this subject. Luckily, this one is excellent. The author covers all topics very extensively-- supplies, techniques, color theory. The variety of flowers is phenomenal, and the directions are easy to follow. Many of the illustrations are in black and white, but the color plates (there are 21 of them) are beautiful. If you are at all interested in creating lovely flowers from beads, you need this book.

This is a phenomenal book for the beginner or intermediate flower beader! I tried other "newer" booklets when I first started beading and was so confused. This book is very easy to understand with concise illustrations and instructions. This is a must have if you want to learn the beautiful Victorian craft of beaded flowers! Happy beading!

This book is a huge help with color, design and balance. Thanks.

Although it is dated from the 1960's nothing about this forgotten craft has changed. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. The pictures, although mostly in black and white, are large, and show what the flower is supposed to look like when you are done. Each and every phase of the process of making French Beaded Flowers is discussed in detail. There is a section on arrangement and the kinds of containers you can use. I bought this book to add to my collection of books on this subject and was pleasantly suprised by how good it was.

this good is so good. it's about a 16 year old girl name Kitty- Lee Carter who needs money, so she gets a summer job at DQ. Kitty Lee lives in a small not wealthy town and when a man w/ a nice car pulls up and askes for her to baby sit his 3 kids b/c the mother is ill. Kitty- Lee doesn't want to leave her friend but when he offers her dubble what she gets @ DQ she takes it. Then she finds out he likes her!! well u gotta read the book for the rest but it's so good!

This was the cutest book I have ever read! The author did a marvelous job at writing the story! It made me wanna keep on reading and readin! I thought this was a great book!!!!!!! The ending was really nice and I like the way the book was foreshadowing! I thought the cutest part was the love part at the end!

The novel The Brightest Light was a heartwarming book. It had its sad times like when Kitty's (main character) grandma was talking to her about how her mother died in a car accident.I love how the author kept me hanging at the end of each chapter. It made me want to read the book all at once. The author did an excellent job in describing the characters' feelings. This is a great love story. I recomend this book big time.

Have you ever faced confusion, disapointment, and excitment at the same time? In The Brightest Light by Colleen McKenna, a 16-year old tells her story of a time that her childhood friend is abandoning her, her "cousin" seems to hate her, and a very handsome, older man doesn't discourage her liking him (not to mention he has a wife and three small children). My discription may not impress you, but the book is just indescribable. I hope that you will purchace this wonderful and unexpensive book that you will enjoy over and over again.

A compelling and very well-written account of Jim Crow and minor league baseball in the American South. The book is a fascinating cultural and historical study. The author clearly devoted a great deal of time in researching this book. His presentation of the oral histories is fantastic.

This is a wonderful book, recounting a largely unknown story of American and baseball history - how the southern minors' integration was part of the larger civil rights movement. 20th century baseball integration began but did not end with Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby. Unitl now, no one had taken their legacy to the next step. Bruce Adelson now has in a powerful account of what it was like being on the front lines of baseball and civil rights in the Dixie of the 1950s and early 1960s.

The author does a great job of capturing both sides of the integration battlefields (ballparks) of the South. He effectively uses narratives of former players, both the famous (Felipe Alou, Billy Williams, etc.)and the not so famous (Joe Durham, Percy Miller Jr., etc.) to detail exactly what those pioneers had to endure. Those narratives are interwoven with clippings from various newspapers of the day to tie the intergration of minor league baseball in the South with the overall racial climate of those cities. This book, I believe, would prove to be an interesting and informative read, even for those who are not baseball fans. Adelson obviously did a lot of research and successfully shows how baseball "broke down the walls" for total integration in the South. Spend the money and the time on this book - it's worth it!

The author has done an excellent job documenting the experiences of Hank Aaron, Billy Williams, Felipe Alou and others who broke minor league baseball color lines down south in the years after Jackie Robinson opened up the major leagues. His book includes poignant and compelling interviews with these and other ballplayers who relate their painful experiences of enduring Jim Crow racial restrictions while playing baseball. The author also places their achievements within the historical context of the times, the 1950s and 1960s. These players were truly civil rights pioneers, helping to integrate a closed society. This is a must read!