Kentucky Books

This is an excellent book. Gives a lot of great detailed information on the history of that era.

I was on vacation spending the week at our family's river cottage and this book, dusty and long-forgotten, set upon the shelf. After spending an idle week reading this book, I feel like I have a better understanding of the history and human forces that shaped this region of the United States. This book is a rare treasure that offers an eye-opening historical perspective which is easily accessible and well-written. While the publication date is over 40 years ago, if you are at all interested in the story of the Cumberland area, about the path towards industrialization brought about by coal, and the tragedy that befell a once proudly individualist and free people, you should read this book. You won't be disappointed. Be warned though, it's not a book for historical revisionists and it uses language in use during the time it was published, so check any political correctness before you open it.

I found the book to be a bit long-winded and belaboring certain points. The author was passionate about his subject - helping the people in the area - but just wrote in a manner that got tiring. He went into details on the mining operations that we really don't need to know about.

Nevertheless, it was a book worth reading, I am just glad I have finished it!

When reading this book, one must keep in mind that it was written in the 1960's. Caudill's history has some inaccuracies. One such problem is the idea that the original mountain people were the "human refuse" of Europe. In actuality, many of the people who move into the mountains did so by way of Revolutionary War land grants which Caudill admits later in the story. Most of the people who fought for the Continental Army were from the middle or working class of American society--hardly the "human refuse" of Europe. This is just one instance of Caudill's inaccurate claims.

There are some good things about the book, i.e. a discussion of Indian/Anglo crossbreeding. However, I can definitely see why people from Eastern Kentucky have such a low opinion of the book. The author makes Appalachians look like animals who need to be saved from themselves--a common liberal stance of the 1960s.

The book, however, is worth reading. Just do so with a very critical eye. In addition, read a solid Kentucky history book before diving into this one in order to better separate the wheat from the chaff.

Harry Caudill's account of Eastern Kentucky's "untamed children" takes the award for the modern era's grossest stereotypes, excepting perhaps the SNL skit, "Appalachian Emergency Room." Yes, this coal country history is rife with the most insulting characterizations of mountain people. Caudill extends beyond the ubiquitous moonshiners and feuders by asserting that this area was settled by "embittered outcasts and rejects from the shores of Europe" who were lawless and, of course, fiercely independent (13). Then between 1870 and 1960, the region became plagued with inbreds, idiots, people lacking any artistic creativity and, God forbid, appreciation for Shakespeare or other expressions of "real culture," women who procreated out of wedlock to obtain government money, and wastrels incapable of pulling themselves out of the squalor that befell them upon King Coal's collapse.

This book is a depressing account of a depressed area scarred and wounded by industrialization and allegedly locked in the past by despondent people, corrupt corporations, and a negligent government. Caudill chronicles the regional cycles of boom and bust from the 1870s to the 1960s and seeks to explain the causes of the vast poverty surrounding him when he wrote this book in 1963. His most prominent and unfortunate explanation is the heritage of the mountain people, who, as mentioned before, were supposedly Britain's social outcasts. In Caudill's eyes, they only became more barbaric and unruly as they lived in the Eastern Kentucky wilderness and mingled with Native Americans. Their progeny later responded to post-Civil War political animosity with feuding and violence. This constant warring chased off the virile men that it didn't kill, so women began marrying their cousins as a result of the decreasing gene pool. Their "mentally inferior" children were the ones who entered into the mines. Once these "fantastically inbred" mountaineers were integrated into coal mining communities and culture, they then became subject to the vagaries of industry (84). As the coal boom collapsed into the Great Depression, the mountaineers-turned-miners became shiftless and despondent and began relying heavily on government handouts. During a later coal collapse, they also began seeking government-sponsored relief by manipulating local leaders through votes. Caudill's insulting explanation does not solely blame mountain people, for he also denounces coal operators and local politicians, but not nearly to the same extent. In fact, he is sometimes sympathetic to the capitalist designs of industrialists, even when he admits that they abused their workers and stripped the land of all of its value.

No references are included in this work, so the information Caudill presents is dubious at best. Some of his assertions are naïve, like his insistence that miners and coal operators were, almost without exception, friendly toward each other until the Great Depression. Other claims are completely outlandish. He insists that many mountain people, "literally starved for compliments and for some outward show of appreciation," readily sold their mineral rights after being wooed by slick-tongued mineral buyers (73). Caudill also argues that during WWII, coal companies struggled with labor shortages. Many able-bodied men had either gone to fight or had left the region seeking higher paying jobs in industrial cities, leaving in their wake those who did not qualify for military service due to health reasons. He cites malnutrition as a key problem, a valid assumption considering that the war followed twelve years of extreme economic depression. However, Caudill again resorts to a common misconception about mountain people when he interjects, "Illiteracy and low mentality - the latter induced in part, perhaps, by generations of inbreeding - also caused the rejection of hundreds of others" from military service (226). Comments such as these make me doubt even further the veracity of his arguments or the extent of his research.

I was warned that Night Comes to the Cumberlands perpetuated stereotypes, but I wanted to read it because of the influence it exerted on America's perception of Appalachia. According to regional historian John Alexander Williams, this book was a non-fiction bestseller. It was massively influential and initiated the idea for what became the Appalachian Regional Commission. I do not regret that Caudill called attention to Eastern Kentucky. Indeed, the land and people were suffering and their plight warranted national action. Even now I stand amazed at how little attention is paid to Central Appalachia in regards to the destruction of mountains, streams, and peoples' homes and health because of mining. But I ultimately fault Caudill for failing to acknowledge the diversity, intelligence, and industry of the people who chose to remain in Eastern Kentucky. Widespread activism that called attention to strip mining and black lung did not emerge in the region until a few years after this book was published, but one can certainly assume that the seeds of discontent had been sewn by 1963. What of the teachers, doctors, miners, and other proud men and women who pushed their youth to achieve, felt empowered by their local churches and community groups, or served as Union leaders prior to the 1960s? Their inclusion would have changed this book from a "biography of a depressed area" to a more inspiring call for social and environmental justice. Caudill's intentions were good, but he missed the opportunity to change the way that the region was viewed. Needless to say, I only recommend reading this book in order to understand how different eras have perceived Appalachia. Anybody seeking an introduction to the region should look elsewhere.

This book was well written. The naturalistic setting and expressive use of slang transport you back to the nasty means streets of New York at the turn of the century. Some of their values seem kind of quaint and rustic as compared to 100 years later, however the realism is staggering. One can feel the despair of a terrible life that never gets better. Death and disease are the only fates that await and there is no release.

This is not just a book to be read as an assignment, read it for the realistic view of history as a slice of life to understand what New Yorker's were going through then, and as a parable to ghetto life today. Some things have changed but some still stay the same......plus ca change.......

I reread Stephen Crane's "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" yesterday. It was the first time that I had revisited the book in almost thirty years. Originally, I read Crane's writings in a seminar course which compared his pioneering works to those of Ernest Hemingway. There were common themes in the works of both authors and they both employed a naturalistic style. Crane was more poetic, however, while Hemingway was more workmanlike in his choice of words and phrases.

This tragic story takes place in the slums and the garment district. Maggie is the daughter of two alcoholic Irish immigrants. Her youngest brother dies during early childhood. Her older brother spends his youth fighting rivals in the streets and enduring beatings at the hands of his intoxicated parents at home. In adulthood, Jimmie becomes a teamster and introduces his sister to his friend Pete, a well dressed local bartender. Pete is taken with Maggie's shape and begins courting her. Eventually, Maggie quits her five dollars a week job at the cuff and collar factory and leaves home with Pete. This ill considered decision is the beginning of her ruin. Pete cares nothing for Maggie. She is a only a passing fancy.

Environment determines everything in this sad tale. Alcoholic rages and casual acts of random violence occur on almost every page. Crane employs dialect to reflect the speech patterns of his characters. When Pete abandons Maggie for Nellie, a stylish prostitute, the saddest line of dialogue is Maggie's question: "Where kin I go?" Disowned by her widowed mother, who is herself a frequent defendant in the police courts on account of her drunken behavior, and brother, whose own relations with women are not much better than those of Pete, for having gone to the devil, Maggie begins walking the pavements alone and becomes one of the scarlet legions.

Initially, Crane had to self publish this book since it was considered to coarse and profane to print. It proved to be unprofitable and he gave many copies of the limited first printing away. Unlike "The Red Badge of Courage," there is no place for heroism and redemption in the Bowery streets inhabited by Maggie, Jimmie and Pete. This sad account of an unfortunate woman driven into a life of prostitution is far removed from the nightly celebrations at the opulent Everleigh Club.

It is humbling to think that Crane was capable of creating such a novella while he was scarcely over the age of twenty and that all of his poetry and prose was completed before his death at the age of twenty-eight.

This is a great book,I love this book,though it is almost unbearably sad.The novel's uncompromising realism in its portrayl of stunted,wasted and degraded lives in the New York tenements of the 1890's,horrified many of Stephen Crane's contemporaries,and he initially had to pay to have it privately published(it was his first novel).Only when he became famous as the author of "The Red Badge of Courage",was there a proper edition.Crane railed at "sentimentality",which he saw as an artistic curse.There is no sentimentality in this book,and Crane proved that a good writer could still move the reader to tears without purple prose.

If Edith Wharton captures the snobbery, superficiality, hypocrisy, materialism, and coldness of New York City's turn-of-the-century elite, Stephen Crane reveals the toughness, callousness, brutality, and violence of New York's working class. Ironically, Wharton's Lily Bart and Crane's Maggie Johnson, both romantics moving in anti-romantic spheres, share a similar fate--abandoned by their respective societies.

Unlike Wharton, Crane wrote from a primarily journalistic, dispassionate point of view. The settings, the situations, the speech, and the similes reveal the underbelly of life among the working poor. Maggie opens with "a very little boy," her brother Jim, serving as "champion" of Rum Alley, an aptly named area where life is centered on working, drinking, and fighting.

Maggie and Jim's father can't keep him from fighting because that's all the boy knows, and the torn clothes that his drunken mother bemoans cannot compare to the furniture and crockery damage that occur during their violent marital spats. The father, a drunken brute like his wife, does not understand the irony of his demand when he says, ". . . Yer allus pounding 'im . . . I can't get no rest 'cause yer allus poundin' a kid. Let up, d'yeh hear? Don't be allus poundin' a kid." The infuriated mother responds with increased savagery. "At last she tossed him to a corner where he limply lay cursing and weeping." Jim, Maggie, and even the baby Tommie seem to be as disposable as the rest of the household goods.

Life in the city is lived outwardly, and the strong do not question themselves. While "Jimmie had an idea it wasn't common courtesy for a friend to come to one's home and ruin one's sister," his contemplations of his own actions toward women are cut off by self-absolution before such introspection can lead to self-incrimination. Later, Pete will share this attitude when Maggie attempts, in his mind, "to give him some responsibility in a matter that did not concern him."

Maggie and Jimmie's parents represent an extreme. Everyone knows their family's business, from the residents who share their tenement with its "gruesome doorway" to the group of urchins who waylay the mother as she is ejected from a saloon for "disturbance." The Johnsons' troubles delight the neighbors; the old woman downstairs tells Jim that "deh funnies' t'ing I ever saw" was Maggie "a-cryin' as if her heart would break, she was. It was deh funnies' t'ing I ever saw."

In the midst of this squalor, Maggie does have an inner life. Combined with her romanticism and naïveté, it convinces her that Pete is the height of urbane sophistication as he bullies waiters, telling them to "git off deh eart'." Interestingly, as she toils over "eternal collars and cuffs," Maggie has a daydream that foreshadows Pete's final chapter in the novel; she imagines him with a half dozen women "and thought he must lean dangerously toward an indefinite one, whom she pictured with great charms of person, but with an altogether contemptible disposition."

In Maggie's final appearance, Crane does not use her name, which perhaps answers her question from the preceding chapter: "Who?" She begins her anonymous journey near a theater district, where the affluent emerge from "a place of forgetfulness." Her wanderings on this one night reflect her life over the previous several months, as she leaves behind the bright light and glamor on a trail of rejection that leads ever downward, until she meets a wreck of a human, who follows "the girl of the crimson legions." No longer Maggie, she represents those whose naivete, hopes, and foolish romantic dreams are crushed by the code of toughness that Jimmie fights for at the beginning and the hypocrisy that her lamenting mother exhibits at her fall.

These stories can be hard to read, partly because most of the relationships seem detached or distant at best and bitterly heartless at worst. Maggie's father talks about pounding "a kid" as though they are not his own and have nothing to do with him. Pete is "stuck" on Maggie's shape only until she gets in the way of greater desires. George of George's Mother is happiest when he has made his old mother miserable. At the same time his "friends," whose habits and exhortations have led to his downfall, abandon him, just as he turned on his mother.

Love is a rare visitor to Crane's pages, apparent mostly in the maternal indulgences of George's Mother and the rediscovered affection of Mr. and Mrs. Binks in "Mr. Binks' Day Off." It is only in the countryside of New Jersey that the battling Binkses find a moment in which to express genuine affection: "Mrs. Binks had stolen forth her arm and linked it with his. Her head leaned softly against his shoulder."

Notably, the other loving relationship, between a child and "A Dark-Brown Dog," is marked by the brutality of the one and the submissiveness of the other. Their friendship begins when "the child lifted his hand and struck the dog a blow upon the head"; the dog "sank down in despair at the child's feet." In the world both know, the more powerful must domineer, and the weaker must submit. Living by this simple rule, however, does not guarantee survival.

Crane self-published Maggie, and it is sometimes clear that his work could have benefited from an editor's counsel. For example, similes such as, "The little boy ran to the halls, shrieking like a monk in an earthquake," are ineffective and draw too much attention to themselves. Yet these stories are an amazing accomplishment of observation and writing that make Crane's premature death at age 28 even more tragic.

I am amazed at the fact that Stephen Crane was only twenty-one when he wrote this story "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets". I found it to be a genuine effort to tell a story from the inside-out instead of the usual outside-in.

I also found Crane's style very addictive. When I moved on to my next novel, I truly missed Cran's writing style. If you haven't read any of Crane's works, I suggest you start off with Maggie to see how you like him.

See ya next review:

www.therunninggirl.com

The books starts well, with a description of a man-made cave he discovered. It really goes downhill from there. Bill does seem to want to follow scientific method in his research, but the focus on his own experiences rob the book of any objective perspective. In addition, his drawings of the cryptids seen by others are disturbing, not from a " we saw a monster" perspective, but from the details he adds that could not possibly have come from a verbal description. They all look like the same thing; a demon-like creature with long claws and a bad attitude. I would not buy the book again. This is not in the same league with books from Lauren Coleman and Jim Brandon.

BM Nunnelly does an admirable job chronicling the strange and weird creatures that lurk in the hidden places of Kentucky. Although I found some of the reports very hard to believe myself, it is fascinating to read about the unbelievably odd encounters that average people are reported to have experienced in the pursuit of the mundane. Who would have thought that the Bluegrass State had such a rich history of UFO sightings, as well as those of other inexplicable creatures and oddities throughout the state? (I'm waiting for the History Channel to do a documentary about the 1948 UFO chase that resulted in the death of the pilot.) Although there are some typos, misprints and grammatical errors throughout the book, they in no way make the book difficult to read. (The publisher is supposed to catch those things!) Nunnelly is overall a good writer who knows how to tell a story well; however I wish he would have treated the purported accounts in this book with a healthy dose of skepticism; it would have made for more balanced reading. That having been said, I do look forward to learning more about Kentucky's strange creatures and undiscovered mysterious in his next book.

Fortean author and field researcher Bart Nunnelly warns us in the introduction that the stories in this book are not mere folklore but eyewitness reports of every conceivable anomaly, except for hauntings.
Chapter 1 guides readers on a tour of historic--or prehistoric--Kentucky, examining a catalog of eerie artifacts, strange petroglyphs, supposed remains of Roman legionnaires and Vikings, and giant humanoid skeletons unearthed at various spots between 1792 and 1965. Chapter 2 pursues aquatic cryptids, ranging from a turtle the size of a Volkswagen Beetle to various serpentine creatures reported from various rivers throughout the Bluegrass State.
Chapter 3 reviews a range of aerial anomalies, including unexplained rains of stones, dried flesh, cookies, fish, and coins. UFO sightings from 1869 to the present make up the bulk of this fascinating chapter. Chapter 4 brings us back to the realm of cryptozoology, with reports of tiny humanoids from all parts of Kentucky.
Chapter 5, by far the longest, draws extensively from Nunnelly's Kentucky Bigfoot web site, presenting both archival and modern eyewitness reports of unidentified humanoid creatures. While Bigfoot remains the most common subject, their competition includes scaly lizardmen, werewolves, dogmen, and an elusive goatman from the 19th century.
Chapter 6 completes the crypto roundup with black panthers and hyenas, giant snakes, huge birds of prey, "devil monkeys" that slaughter livestock, and hairy "gravediggers" who will not let the dead rest in peace. Nunnelly rounds off his tour with a brief biography of psychic Edgar Cayce, known to his admirers as "the Kentucky Nostradamus," who was born there in 1877 and lived there until 1920, when he moved to Texas
Fact or fiction? Nunnelly wisely leaves readers to judge for themselves. One fact is indisputable, however--fans and students of the paranormal should run, not walk to their nearest bookstore, to obtain a copy of this book.
--Michael Newton
Mysteries Magazine issue #20

I should have spent my money on another book of Kentucky. There was not one decent story of hauntings by ghosts. In other Whitechapel books, tagged with "Mysterious", you get a well rounded variety of history, mystery, spooks, and then some creapy creatures. One of the drawings of a sea serpent looked suspiciously like Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent from Beany and Cecil. I'm so afraid!
For those looking for good stories to tell around a campfire, this is a great book. I wish it were titled more closely to its content. I could have gotten Ghosts of Louiville instead, where I can assume I will read some good paranormal stories.
I've been to KY more than any other state than my own. I love the state. This book gave me nothing to look back on, and say... Yes, I yearn to go back there.
I would rather give this a 2.5, but that is not possible. Troy Taylor, please visit Kentucky and give us the ghostly lowdown! Please!

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys reading about scary, mysterious, events...you won't be disappointed. This unassuming looking book is full of some of the most terrifying accounts of every kind of weirdness you can think of (and some you probably can't).

Because it seems you can't throw a rock in Kentucky without hitting a Bigfoot, Goatman, Little Person or some other anomaly. The only problem was that eventually I began to wonder why none of the numerous subjects in this book, including the author, ever seemed to have a camera on them, or even think of carrying one, during any encounter, even though some of them, including the author, were described as having so many experiences that they had a good chance of capturing something on film. Instead, there are many very muscular drawings that, while demonstrating the author's talent, are not really adequate when there was photo op after photo op.

I have seen some of his drawings before on the internet, having read Jan Thompson's terrifying accounts before. Her presence in the book was definitely a point in its favor.

P.S. If you, like me, were wary of ordering another Whitechapel Press book because of the countless typos and non-existent editing that make so many of its books a pain to read, rest assured that this book does not have nearly as many of those types of flaws, though that might be thanks to the author.

4-star quality writing. However the dialect (which is integral to the story)... as in "chillern" and "tobaccer" is a little tiresome. So although it is well-written and insightful, I suppose it's a matter of individual taste regarding the novel's rural and stick-poor roots.

This is an interesting story of the early notoriety and heartbreak that surrounded the family of North America's first live birth quins, and an equally interesting study of how everyday people can be drawn into the excitement and tragedy of such an event. Descriptions of the times and early media interest are well done, but as the book progresses and the family sinks into tragedy, I feel the story loses some of its impact, and I struggled to finish the story.

This is not to say that the characters are unsympathetic, or that the reader cannot identify with their plight, but more that as they struggle to deal with their lives, interest in their lives begins to wane.

Sheri Holman's "The Mammoth Cheese" deals with a similar topic in modern times, but is by far the better book in my opinion.

What a dumb book. So slow you could skip pages and pages and still not get anywhere. A total waste of time.

When quintuplets are born at the beginning of the 20th Century in rural Kentucky, the parents are taken unaware. Misdiagnosed, Christie is amazed when she gives birth to five tiny infants. This is such a bizarre event, five babies at once, that people begin to arrive in droves to see the infants. Reporters, photographers, well-meaning neighbors, family: they see, they touch, they talk, touch some more. Long before medicine has achieved the sophistication to ensure the protection necessary to sustain the babies, many mistakes are made in their care and handling. One by one, the tiny babies die. It is a devastating loss, followed by a crop failure that dilutes the family's already fragile economic resources. With three small children to provide for, Christie and James, burdened by grief and financial hardship, allow themselves to be drawn into a tour with the quints, who are now encased in glass. At each stop in the tour, as the carnival atmosphere reaches a deafening roar, the bereaved parents finally cannot continue. They donate the five infants in their tiny glass coffins to a scientific institution. The story moves as slowly as the times, with enough historical detail to create a vivid portrait. It is a strange and sad tale that portrays the overwhelmed young parents as the saddest of all.

This novel will capture your heart; the dialogue, the characters and the setting take you back to the early 20th century in rural America. Christie Wheeler, mother of three, is pregnant again and believes she will birth a monster as punishment for having impure thoughts of another man. Instead, she has quintuplets, each with their own little personality and appearance. Tragedy strikes, though, and Christie and her husband, James, must learn to deal with the loss of their babies. Bobbie Ann Mason does a fantastic job of depicting family life, industry and the media in the early 1900s. I would also recommend Weeds by Edith Summers Kelley. -- Melissa Galyon

The title on this book is a bit of a misnomer--there are no dinosaur bones in the book, though there is a mention of some minor fossils seen in a coal vein. There is also an allusion to something that is dinosaur-like. So much for the dino connection...

Nevertheless, I liked the book. I got interested in the characters and the relationships. The plot was interesting. I found the philosophical aspects of the book to be banal, with the typical zen emptiness infatuation, but it was tolerable and not overly annoying. I guess it fit, somewhat, but it seemed shallow and sophomoric. Of course, I may be overstating it...it's just my opinion and others may not have the same reaction.

Though I suspect it was unintentional, it is humorously ironic that the web of relationships in the small town elicited a sense of being inbred and incestuous. I guess that may be an almost inevitable consequence of tiny-town life. As Stephen Stills said, love the one you're with.

I hoped to see more happen with the Ten Fifteen character. His presence was almost like he was the requisite friendly freak, but it never progressed as I would have liked. He was kind of like a post-it note--there but not really within. I wanted his character to develop, not just observe. He really only experiences one major change in the story, and though funny, it was ultimately minor.

I did end up caring about the characters, and the minor short-comings didn't detract from the enjoyable read this story provided. I suspect most folks won't even notice the things I mentioned, they will just appreciate the characterizations and plotting. The book kind of took a stab at a theme I could appreciate, but I found that the story overwhelmed it. I almost wish the philosophical aspect had been more deeply fleshed out, and that the big tension-building subplot had been excised. In my opinion it squelched the potential the novel had to be seminal and timeless, not to mention important. Still, I want to emphasize that the story was quite enjoyable.

*** SPOILER ALERT !!!: IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE THE WHOLE PLOT PLOPPED ON YOUR PLATE LIKE A SPOONFUL OF MASHED POTATOES, DON'T READ TOM LARSON'S REVIEW BELOW. Larson is one of those self-congatulatory dolts who relish their own comments about a book more than the book itself. Unfortunately, his type are rife on the Amazon site. A bit of advice to such plot ploppers: take a class at the local junior college if you want to wax eloquent on the details of book plot. Just because you like the sound of your own voice doesn't mean that you ought to SPOIL the book for those looking for advice on whether to buy or read a book.

I loved this book. I thought I was going to be reading a simple story about. Instead, Ms. Witt provided me with a love story, stalking, grave robbing, murder and a fight against the big bad coal company.

I enjoyed the author's style of having several things going on at once. It became a real page turner.

I do feel that the excitement of the book was over about 25 pages from the true end of the book. It's as if Ms. Witt wanted to end the drama and try up any loose ends -- although the ending is certainly not unimportant. I did enjoy every bit of this book.

I loved the plot, the characters, the setting, and the way the story was told. Gilman Lee is definitely an unforgettable man. I'm really pleased that I happened upon this book in the library one day. I found I needed to have it in my own library, so I tracked it down and ordered a copy at my local bookstore. (Didn't have access to Amazon at the time!) I'm presently, a couple of years later, reading it a second time, and enjoying it even more! This is a wonderful, quirky little story, and I'd highly recommend it.

A friend recommended this book to me and I could not put it down! I loved the characters and the in-depth description of the town. I can't wait to read more from this author. A very enjoyable story.

The title grabbed me when I was browsing the bookstore for a good summer read -- what a great surprise this book turned out to be! It's hard to believe this is Lana Witt's first book. "Slow Dancing on Dinosaur Bones" reminds me of the early novels of Larry McMurtry, Clyde Edgerton and Rita Mae Brown.

If you are interested in Smedley Butler, don't miss the book The Plot to Seize the White House by Jules Archer.

Author takes a fascinating story and dries it out into a less-than-stimulating biography. General Butler deserves better than this

If you like this book, you'll love The Plot to Seize the White House, which just came out from Skyhorse Publishing. General Smedley Butler is an amazing character.

anyone who questions the validity of going to war needs to read this book.

Smedley Butler was a great American, a two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, a General in the Marine Corps, and, in retirement, an articulate and famous pacifist, who could not be dismissed as effeminate or ignorant. His life is worth examining, particularly by anyone in the military.

Butler was also a skein of contradictions: a Marine from a Quaker family, a general who joined the Marines as a private, a critic of politics in the military whose congressman father just happened to oversee the department of the Navy, a soldier who spent most of his days maintaining order in America's colonies, official and otherwise, who then went to vehemently condemn the deployment of American troops overseas, and perhaps most importantly, a soldier who inspired fierce loyalty. This list could go on and on.

Unfortunately this biography reads like a police report and not like a measured and analytical examination of a truly fascinating American. Butler was a great man who deserves a much better biography. (Un)fortunately court historians who write popular political hagiographies seem to eschew the lives of quixotic Marines, however impressive, interesting, and instructive their lives may have been.

As there are not that many biographies of Butler extant, this one may well be worth reading for the facts, but do not expect greatness from this book.

Karen Harper agains gets your attention and keeps it until the last page.

I greatly enjoyed this book by Harper. I have read several books by Harper and this was right up there with the best. It had the right amount of suspense and realism concerning the black market for babies to make for a great read. It will definitely be a reread on my shelves.

This book has a great plot and some wonderful twists. Having the heroine be a midwife and the hero be a doctor was a wonderful idea.

I would have rated it higher if there weren't so many plot coincidences. Also, a couple of scenes, though exciting, didn't ring true because they seemed a bit contrived.

Also, I would like to know why the front cover blurb gives away a major secret!

I gave this one a B- a All About Romance.

The story in this book was interesting, but I found the style of telling it to be choppy and hard to follow. The description of a difficult childbirth was mesmerizing and really well-done, but the romance was too sparse. Mostly I objected to ends not being tied up....we never found out what happened to several of the secondary characters, people we had either come to like or wanted to be sure they got what they deserved!

I have read almost all of Karen Harper's books. I think she is a great writer. She really pulls you into the story. Like all of her other stories, she has a gift for making you feel like you are the heroine/hero. You feel like you are actually living in Apalachia (sp?).

I liked the character of Emma - the midwife/heroine of the book. Griff was interesting too. I wish Karen Harper would include more romance in her books. I always feel like she is holding back in the romance dept. There were so many opportunities in this book. I do highly recommend this book. Romance or not the story was suspenseful and the secondary characters were first rate!

Although I've only seen two of her movies "Les Girls" and "The Reluctant Debutante" I've known about Kay Kendall mainly because of reading about her love and marriage with the actor Rex Harrison who's a favorite actor of mine for several years. I remember reading about her death back in the late fifies and then I read about her marriage with Rex Harrison and how he'd kept her terminal cancer a secret from her. Well it was just so tragic and yet romantic at the same time. I've always heard about her but knew very little about her and thank God for this precious little book. Now I'm going to try my best to find more of her early movies. This girl was a wonderful comedienne just from seeing her in the two movies I've mentioned above. She was bright, quick minded and very funny, kind of like the young Katherine Hepburn in my favorite movie of hers that I like called "Bring Up Baby" I mean this girl had a bubbly sense of humour that to me was very endearing and so much fun. It's too bad such fun screw ball type comediennes are long gone.

After waiting years for a bio about the magnificent Kay Kendall, Eve Golden's effort is little more than tin. The book is a laundry list of Kendall's personality quirks and defects (film stars documented as self-centered is a revelation?) and completely misses the mark. Kendall was so extraordinary and special as an actress, and this book, tragically, misses that which clearly made her so memorable. Several of Kendall's films are watchable only due to her presence and there is no mention of that here. Golden has chosen to focus on the personal details at the expense of Kendall's charm and uniqueness as a performer. It seems that cooperation of Kendall's sister, Kim, was necessary to provide documentation about their childhood and early careers, however, this doesn't seem to have helped the book much. Previous bios on Rex Harrison have better captured the essence of Kendall's star quality (i.e. Alexander Walker's). Noel Coward's diary entry for Kendall's London stage performance in THE BRIGHT ONE does more to illuminate this great actress than this book: "Went to see a dreadful play in which Kay Kendall was enchanting..." THAT was Kendall's gift. This book does nothing to endorse that consensus.

This is Eve Golden's best book yet, and that's saying a lot. While many Americans are unaware of Kay Kendall's short, but significant, career, Ms. Kendall's popularity over the pond remains unwavering. Her life story is told in a style true to Kendall's off-screen persona: funny, witty, sharp, and always interesting. As the subject matter could have ended up a cliched tearjerker with Kendall's death, Golden instead takes the high road. Highly recommended for any fan or Kendall's, Golden's, or movies in general.

This was a book I eagerly anticipated and I was not let down. Entertaining show biz author Eve Golden weaves a fun story around show business's most glamorous comedienne. From day one, Kay Kendall lived a fast-paced, fun-filled life, mixed with a semi-successful career filled with interesting and witty friends.
As the world knows, Kay Kendall's life was cut short following a losing battle with leukemia, a disease everyone swears she never knew she had. Her marriage to Rex Harrison is honestly told and the author manages to bring Kay's story to print in a slender volume that is filled with reminiscences from family and friends.
A fun read, a delightful tribute to the Divine Kay.

Eve Golden is one of the best writers about Hollywood and about screen acting that we have. If I had my way, she would be declared a national treasure. I think of her as an American writer, but she has been able to get the gist of Anna Held's mysterious European origins and now she turns her gaze onto Kay Kendall, the epitome of postwar UK chic, and she comes up with another winner.

Kay Kendall's life, and especially her death, made her a legend in the late 1950s, and if she is pretty much forgotten nowadays it is not due to a lack of ardent fans who love her, like I do. Once more of her films are released on DVD perhaps we will have a revaluation of her work as an actress, sort of the way people started to appreciate Norma Shearer only within the last 20 years, based on the policy of going back to the films and seeing what worked, what didn't in them. Who among us for example has more than the vaguest of memories of ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, the Stanley Donen comedy which was Kendall's last picture. Poor thing she had to co-star with the film world's biggesr ham, Yul Brynner, while at home she was getting locked out of her hotel room by Rex Harrison, her husband, who was pretending to enjoy his tempestuous relationship with her while trying to keep the secret from her that she was dying of leukemia. Eve Golden and Kim Kendall try to give thhe devil his due, but by the end of the book you're thinking that meeting Rex Harrison was the worst mistake poor Kay ever made in her tragically abbreviated life.

Dirk Bogarde was a close friend to Kay, and Eve Golden apparently was able to interview him at great length in the years before his death. His contributions give the book a lot of depth, while the recollections of Princess Lilian are also important, historically. I also liked the memories of Kay's younger half-brother Cavan Kendall, who must have been around 20 when his sister died but who retains a lot of the crystal sharp memories of youth.

Yes, Kay Kendall had her faults, and chief among them was her inability to see that she was doing wrong when she wanted something (such as someone else's boyfriend or husband). In context, Golden lets us realize that some young women who grew up in London during the blitz had an amoral attitude towards grasping the brass ring. Because at any moment death might rain down from the sky, the feeling was, live for today, and damn the consequences.

Yes, Kendall had her faults but I do not see that it was the job of the biographer to gloss them over. She wouldn't have been hman if she was just the madcap clotheshorse she played in a handful of sophisticated flicks. She did sterling work for Muriel Box, Vincente Minnelli, George Cukor. For that I would forgive her many sins. And her death is still very sad. Hopefully Kay's sister, Kim, will live to see a day when the disease that carried Kay off will be eliminated from the face of the earth. "And there will be no more dying then . . . " as it says in Holy Writ.

Good storyline, and you'll enjoy the characters. I always like her books. I enjoy fun and sexy romance ...

I rate this book one star because norah hess seems to love to picture the male characters in her books as nothing but whoremongers.the male charachter in this book did not like nothing but ugly whores because of uncle's cheating wife who was beautiful.devlin the male character did nothing but sleep with prostitutes in this and treated d'lise like trash. The story line was interested expect the fact that devlin slept with a whore when he met d'lise and after she move in with him...he continued to sleep with indian whore...norah hess needs to stop making her male characters nothing but whoremongers..Trust I read 5 books of hers and all the male characters are nothing but whoremongers...the book ended with the delvin and d'lise getting back together after she moved out but the book was not that great

To the disenters - Have you ever been in Kentucky in 1781? grin!
One complaint - cover editor - hey, 1781, women didn't dress like that. Dumb!

Our big burly trapper, Kane Devlin is returning home from the wars [George Washington, remember?] He seemed to have survived with a fair decent attitude, despite the hardships he would have had to suffer. Along the way he picked up the mistreated dog "Hound", that should speak well of him. Now to stumble upon D'lise Alexander being attacked by her beastly uncle brought him to another rescue.

Now for a man's man being used to surviving in the wilderness and through a war, taking on a young girl was bound to bring complications. Being in a world where there were more men than good women his protective instincts were being kicked into high gear.

I found it hard to accept that they would be leaving 15 year old David and 10 year old Johnny behind to the mercy of that brute, Rufus. Picking up the woe-begotten Scrag brought about humorous results.

Yup! you're right, Raven was one nasty piece of work, but then she was jealous, afraid of losing an easy life of support and out for revenge.

Got a big kick out of Big Beaver and the way he wove in and out of Kane's life and proved to be a great friend of both Kane and D'lise. Was surprised as Kane when I found out he had remarried.

Loved the way the settlement ladies rallied around D'lise and chuckled at Kane's jealousy of Samual. Samuel was an educated man and ran the emporiam of ladies ware and had two small daughters.

Ah, but then David and Johnny showed up and Raven continued to cause mischief, claiming to be carrying Kane's child and then D'lise finds out that she is in the family way and walks out on Kane even though he has been wounded.

Ah, the vagaries of life. You must also meet the old gentleman, Tom who figures quite helpfully in D'lise's life.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED -- try it you will like it. Such a change from all the amoral heroines running around in the contemporary stories. [although too many b-witches thoughout the story but they probably did talk like that.]

You might enjoy this book if you've never read any of Hess's other books, but I have read several, in fact, I had just finished reading one of hers when I picked up this one. This book is exactly like several others of hers. It seems Ms. Hess simply changes the names and the storyline a bit but it is essentially the same book. The characters, the hero and heroine, the villains, they never change, they have no real depth to distinguish them as unique. They are exactly the same in every book. This is okay if you've only read one or two of her books, but it gets annoying after a while. They are all exactly the same in almost all her books. Another thing that bothered me is that one of the villains in this book is a woman named Raven, in another of Hess's books, her heroine is named Raven. It is not the same woman, but this still bothered me. Also, must she always name the horse Beauty? Can she not come up with something slightly more original? Also, in the book, she keeps emphasizing how the main villain, the heroine's uncle is fat. She keeps mentioning it and emphasizing it over and over again and I found it to be a bit excessive. Yeah, I heard you mention it the first time okay? I couldn't really like the hero or the heroine. The hero seemed to be selfish and have a tendency to jump to stupid conclusions as did the heroine. I enjoyed her other books better, I don't know if it is because I read them first or they were actually better, but I thought Raven and Wildfire were much better than this one.

Kane seemed to be a great guy-until he decided his crotch had more brains than him. Okay get this straight. He married her because he loved her-but didn't know if she loved him. It's not like they had don't anything to produce a baby-before the marriage. So why would this hardcore bachelor marry a woman who might never love him? And does this cause him to jump to stupid conclusions? I think it does. D'lise had a better reason. She had been beaten severly by her uncle and wary of all men-but didn't Kane prove himself time and again to be on her side. And the whole reason that things went to hell pretty fast-Kane made D'lise afraid of him after month's of marriage, went out got drunk, and went to their old house. Raven-ugly Indian woman-sneakes into his bed-she had been his "lady" and proceeded to make it look like he had been with her. D'lise gets made, doesn't ask for an explaination and leaves. Just dumb really really dumb. Jackass the lot of them. But there is a very good adventure to it read it. HEHEHE

Our children used Saxon from 54 to 87, then moved on to advanced math, calculus and physics and they have excelled with this method. Although my background doesn't include an emphasis in math, my husband's education and professional life is steeped in mathematics. He's enthusiastic about Saxon because it creates a strong foundation in the subject.

Admittedly, solving 30+ problems a lesson can be a challenge, however, this process increases one's speed and accuracy over time and as my daughter said, it helped her "to make peace with math." Math is like learning how to play a musical instrument; it takes practice and self-discipline, but it's well worth the effort. Understanding math, like being proficient at reading and writing, is one of those practical skills that make life so much easier.

Using this incremental method of learning made homeschooling through high school a breeze and our college-age children sailed through their college math courses as well. In hindsight, it would be easy to choose it again.

The negative reviewers have a common thread. Words like dark, macabre, evil.

These people obviously did not come to consider buying a math book, or even to relate their experience with them, because they have none with Saxon, but instead came to do a hatchet job on books, methods and people who dare to rise up out of the herd.

My children missed the part about endless rote, and dead love of math. They learned with Saxon. They do mental math better than myself, in fact better than anyone I know.

The public school and progressive math books and teachers killed my 'love of math', if there ever was a 'love' of math. Most kids hate math. Even now. Even in public school. Even with pictures and fun teachers.

These books break down the math learning process into easy step by step pieces. Saxon gives a kid time to master basics before the whole class moves on leaving the ones who did not get it behind.

And if they're homeschooled like mine they can go at their own pace. Having succesfully taught four kids math may not qualify me as a 'professional' educator, thank god, but at least my kids did not have to suffer through under one of those.

I have gifted sons that used Saxon Math from 3rd grade through Advanced Math. Both boys did great using Saxon. My now 20 year old is a math Major in college. He was taking calculus in 10th grade. Highly recommend Saxon for gifted or not.

Ok so if you have a child who has a problem in math, or even if they don't but they like math, this is for you. actually this book is even good for parents and adults. You learn a lot and it's fun. Here is an equation that is not in this saxon math book or any other math book, here it is: saxon math=fun=learning lots of math and info.
this book is worth it. The first time that I saw this book I was in school and I got into a higher math gruop, I loved this book at first site!The other reason I love this book is beacuase you don't concentrate on one thing for a long time then move on, you learn it in the begining of the lesson and you do some of those problems but every thing is mixed up there is multiplication,division,subtraction ect.
If you buy this book you won't regret it! ;)

The entire Saxon math series is full of step by step instructions on how to solve problems. Whether you find this dull or not, the books do not offer the critical problem solving kids need to reach their full potential.

Its a decent book if you need something to teach formulas - especially for home schooled kids whos parents are not A+ math students - but it should be accompanied by REAL critical thinking word problems, not plug-and-chuggers.

Alone, this book falls well short of the bar, and you're likely to find your child hating math.