North Carolina Books

An hilarious folk tale told in the vernacular. "Oh law!" Must be read it out loud for maximum hilarity and it'll "witch ye sure." My 4 year old loves it so much she has learned to read it, hillbilly slang and all. There aren't many children's books this delightful. I just wonder why it was allowed to go out of print, and why it hasn't won any awards.

The Green Gourd is hilarious. I enjoyed reading it because the dialect was fun to do. The kids adored the silliness of a "witchy green gourd" chasing the old lady and "fumping" everything on the way. We both loved the illustrations. I love this book so much that I'm going to see if I can locate a used copy (it's out of print). Someday I'd like to read it to my grandchildren.

This children's book is so funny, that it is hard to read out loud. My children loved the story, of an old country woman who needs a gourd and picks one before it's ripe. It is bewitched and proceeds to "fump" her and anyone & everything else in its path.Each time the fumping episode occurred, I laughed out loud and my kids asked me to read it to them each night ("one more time, one more time!!!" Expect to be delighted as the illustrations are beautiful, too.

I was excited to see a book published that was specific to the coastal area of the Carolinas. The book contains information on all of the most common landscape plants used in the area including a month by month guide to the care for each species. It has been very helpful to me in planning and caring for my "garden."

I love this book! I picked it up at the library and had to buy a copy of my very own. Detailed, month-by-month directions for caring for the best southern plants. I highly suggest this for anyone in the south for easy to use, definitive directions for keeping your plants happy and healthy.
Go Will Rehder, Jr.!

Profusely illustrated with more than one hundred color photographs by Freda H. Wilkins, Henry Rehder's Growing A Beautiful Garden: A Landscape Guide For The Coastal Carolinas is an informatively written, superbly presented, "reader friendly" compendium of horticultural advice and insights for establishing a flourishing and esthetically pleasing regional garden landscape. Gardening expert Rehder offers a wealth of practical ideas and suggestions for choosing and maintaining plants that will thrive under coastal conditions and offers a step-by-step, month-by-month guide for more than a hundred ornamental shrubs, trees, perennials, and lawngrasses. Very highly recommended for personal and professional gardening, landscaping, and horticultural reference collections, Growing A Beautiful Garden also covers the mechanics of plant installation, weeds, insects, diseases, animal pests, and fertilizers.

This is a first-rate history of the Communist Party and its fellow-travelers in Alabama during the depression. It describes the Party during the "third period" and the popular front era. While it does not discuss the ulterior motives of the Party in any great detail, it does help to establish the positive role of the Communists in the prehistory of the civil rights movement. It also gives glimpses of the life in the Party in Alabama including Communist songs sung to the tune of spirituals, and African-American Young Pioneers. In addition, book discusses the courage of the Communists in resisting racism.

The attempt by radicals in the 1930's to change this country for the better has not found its rightful place in popular or high school history. This book helps to remedy that omission.

Kelley has produced a powerful and startling history of the deep south in the 1930s. He tackles a difficult subject both historically and ideologically (the relationship between poor black sharecroppers and the American Communist party). His tireless efforts at writing this book shine out of the pages unquestionably as does his deep, thoughtful intelligence. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in subversive U.S. history or just in a good read.

This book is great, it undermines the conventional treatments of afro-american history and although it is focused in the south it takes a genuine look at the struggle to free the shackles from Afro-americans and lift the blanket of opressions.

Years ago at a writers' conference in South Georgia, I met Ms. Shivers. She read an excerpt from her tiny novel and I was hooked. Now I read it often, especially when I've had to be around people who butcher the english language. Shiver's beautiful prose is like a soothing salve. Ex: "There were trees along the main street, real tall elms as old and lofty as the Confederate monument on top of the mound in Elmwood Cemetery. In the summers any little stir from the branches fanned the cured tobacco smell from the warehouses and sealed it over the center of town like a jar lid." Now, who in their right mind, after reading those words, wouldn't want to catch the next bus to North Carolina just to find such a place? Shivers writes like she's sitting in a porch swing, talking. Don't have time for a long book? Pick up a copy of this little jewel. Its rich, southern voice will lure you in and you won't want it to end!

If you read only one book this year, make sure it's Louise Shiver's lovely little book. Yes, it's out of print, but worth the effort to hunt for. There is a treasure awaiting whoever goes to the trouble. I heard Ms. Shivers read an excerpt from this book when it first came out, and the memory still brings up a sense of incredulity at the beauty of the language she used. I consider it among the top 3 favorite books I've ever read. Get it! Read it! Then read it again. . . . and again. . .!

This obscure novel is one of the best books I've ever read (and I've read many, all genres). In a deceptively simple story of an illicit love in tobacco country, the author deals with the deepest mysteries of life, death, and redemption. I wish Louise Shivers were more prolific, and so will you after you read this slender but astonishing book.

This book is covers the development of African-American Business from The Colonial times to the present. It covers corporations, partnerships, banks and various other enterprises. You will enjoy this book.

This work fills a void in African American and general U. S. History. It is important for the general public, not just academia. Business success has became a negative image for too many youths, and this work shows that African Americans have always been successful within the capitalist system as entrepreurs, not merely consumers. It also demonstrates how African Americans have been a vital part of the economic development of the nation!

This book traces the development of black enterprise in America. It is a return to the days when communities, including those in the tradition of black Americans, placed enterprise at the very center of their activity. It also reminds us of the blue-print for success in America. More importantly, it is a return to scholarship which concentrates on the importance of self-help, enterprise building and the ability to think and act like a free person. Since the early 1960s, studies of failure have dominated literature on black Americans. This book returns us to literature which examine how people actually created economic stability in hostile situations. It also reminds us that the excellent literature on present day immigrant groups share a lot in common with the ealry literature on black Americans. A great piece of scholarship. It is also instructive to note that Madam Walker, Booker T. Washington, and Mr. Johnson are pictured on the cover. This denotes a time which entrepreneurs, rather than politicians and ministers, were the most important leaders in the black community.

Hiwassee is a gem of a novel set during the Civil War in the mountains of North Carolina where undisciplined regiments, home guard, and bands of renegades terrorize people who have little to gain and everything to lose if trust is misplaced. Major characters are introduced in this novel, showing their best and worst impulses during a time of trial and tribulation, but the best is yet to come when they are fleshed out in the three novels that follow: Freedom's Altar, The Cock's Spur, and Where the Water-Dogs Laughed. Price's novels are textured with all the elements of good historical fiction overlaid with his own remarkable style and voice, and the result is a body of work that is beautiful and lyrical. I recommend you treat yourself to a real feast by reading all four novels in the order they were written.

This book grabs your interest from the beginning and leads one into caring about each of the characters and what they suffer as a result of the Civil War as experienced by families living in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. It is a rare view of what took place because of deserters from both sides and their raids of family farms. It also gives a more realistic picture of the thoughts and actions of the common soldier than is usually found.

This book was especially interesting to me since I live in the area where this story took place. It was fascinating to see how each family dealt with war, family upset, loss and neighbor against neighbor. This is a book that should be read by every student in America. Everyone can relate to the turmoil and tragedy of the Civil War (or as they say down here - The War of Northern Aggression) on a personal level through the skillful writing of this author. Tremendous first book!

A great "story" based on obviously a thoroughly researched topic. I knew little about the subject at first, which is why it got my attention. My wife was also a little incredulous at first, but then we realised it was all factually based. I will be looking out for this author's next book.

I also wonder if this book will turn up as a swashbuckling movie down the road. I plan on sending copies as presents to friends who love history based books. It makes one want to go to the Carolinas to check out the scene - perhaps we have our next vacation destination determined.

I waited over a year for this sequel to Invasion and Conquest of North Carolina: Anatomy of a Gunboat War to become available. Being from Elizabeth City, NC, Lt. Flusser's exploits were of great interest to me. (He played a major role in the Battle of Elizabeth City.) I was surprised to find out how much action took place on the local waterways during the war. The best part of the book is the emphasis on the people involved in the action. You get to know the characters personally. They become real.

This is a unique and fascinating book about the most successful Confederate ironclad of the Civil War. The book is rich with detail, much of which has never been seen before. Being a resident of Plymouth, NC where the events took place, my reader's copy of this book is filled with highlighted text that reveals facts that had not been brought to light, including never before published letters between Commander Cooke and his wife!

Mr. Hinds provides a new perspective by focusing on the personalities of the opposing naval commanders as well as the events that forever changed people's lives. Have you ever read a non-fiction book and wondered what happened to the characters later in life? Well Mr. Hinds does a great job of telling the "rest of the story", not only the major players, but also many of the minor characters.

This is a timely written book since a replica of the CSS Albemarle was recently launched in Plymouth and there is renewed interest in the subject. I highly recommend the book!

I really liked this book except for two things.

First the title. Ironclad is to me a basically wooden ship that is clad in iron. 'Merrimac' was an ironclad. 'Monitor,' in my mind was not. It's turret, was all iron. This book is mostly about the Monitor. 'Monitor' would have been a better title.

Second is the comment that bringing up the 200 ton turret was the largest, most complex and hazardous ocean salvage operation in history. Bigger and more complex than the 'Glomar Explorer' bringing up the Soviet Golf-II sub in the mid seventies. The Glomar Explorer venture cost in excess of $200 million. I can't believe that we spent that much on the Monitor turret. As for hazardous, what about the rescue of the crew of the 'Squalus?'

Now having finished bitching, this is a great book. Paul Claney has been involved with naval writing, naval history and underwater operations for a very long time. He knows whereof he writes. Living in the Virginia area, he was in the area where the story was happening so he had some personal insite. And finally he is a good writer, able to make this story almost read like a novel.

Anyone interested in the Civil War should find this of interest.

Now, one question I've never even seen asked. During the middle of the battle between the two giants it should have become clear that it was unlikely that they would be able to hurt each other. Why didn't the Confederates simply ignore the 'Cheesebox on a raft' and go sink some more yankee ships?

Warning; once you start this book cancel your other plans. This is definitely a cover to cover read. Clancy skillfully weaves the tale of Monitor from its conception to the Battle of Hampton Roads, through its untimely demise to its remarkable recovery. His approach it unusual in that he weaves the two tales of the 19th century Monitor against the drama of the recovery of the ironclad's turret.

While Clancy is admittedly not an engineer he is an accomplished sailor with a sense of history. He draws extensively on this knowledge to explain the Battle of Hampton Roads, why the ironclad sunk and how it was recovered (not salvaged). His descriptions of the rising seas and pending storm off Cape Hatteras and how the 19th century sailors judged the weather gave one an insight as to why this area is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

Equally as insightful is the story of the recovery which was woven directly in with the history. This part too is a tribute to brave and dedicated sailors and archeologists whose willingness to commit everything to the task made you race through one chapter if for no other reason than to find out how the "other" story was unfolding.

It's a masterful book, full of information well told. Look out Tom, there's another Clancy on the radar screen.

Anyone who knows a little bit about the Civil War knows something about the battle between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimack_, the novel ironclad ships that dueled in the waters off Norfolk in 1862. The story has been told many times, but recently there was a high tech twist as the _Monitor_'s turret and other artifacts were reclaimed from the sea bottom. The story of the ship and of the successful salvage operation 140 years later are told in _Ironclad: The Epic Battle, Calamitous Loss, and Historic Recovery of the USS Monitor_ (International Marine / McGraw-Hill) by Paul Clancy. Clancy is a journalist who was a witness to the recovery of _Monitor_ artifacts, and thus can tell of the excitement and dangers of the dives, as well as of the large egos involved, but his look back at the revolutionary ironclads is equally fascinating. He has cleverly combined the stories, devoting alternating chapters to each, so that there is a satisfying build up to the paired climaxes of the sinking of the _Monitor_ and it's re-arising.

The Union answer to the challenge of the _Merrimack_ was found through the inventor John Ericsson, who presented his invention to the Navy's "Ironclad Board" in 1861, which approved the strange vessel. It was really more of submarine, with only thirteen inches of freeboard. A Confederate sailor eventually confronted with the _Monitor_ gave a description that stuck: "an immense shingle floating in the water, with a giant cheesebox rising from its center." That cheesebox was Ericsson's chief innovation (of possibly forty patentable gadgets on the ship). It was the 120-ton turret, a cylinder 22 feet in diameter, wrapped in iron plates, and able to pivot so that its two eleven-inch cannons could fire 168 pound shot at will. Its four-hour battle with the _Merrimack_ was a stalemate; no sailors were killed, and the armor kept either vessel from being seriously damaged, but all navies thereupon realized the advantage of iron over wood. The ship was sunk in transport to the Carolinas, but was found in 1973. The modern part of Clancy's book has to do with the effort to bring up the turret, mostly by skilled Navy divers in saturation diving, breathing just the right combination of oxygen and helium. The area of the dive is one of cold, silt, and fast currents, and there is the constant threat of rough weather, as well as running out of funds, that make the recovery, even if we know the result, exciting.

A wealth of artifacts were brought up, as well as two skeletons which are being treated to the best identification procedures government pathologists can muster. The turret would have slowly and gracefully continued its deterioration in the sea, but in sunlight and air, the salt crystals within the metal were ready to expand and cause the iron to break away; it has had to be bathed in an electrolytic solution to leach out the salt crystals. It and the silverware, guns, engine parts, and more are to be shown in a special hall for the _Monitor_ at the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, opening next year. Clancy's book is a satisfying recounting of the _Monitor_'s important history within the Civil War and within naval history, as well as an exciting tale of a technologically advanced mission to bring the artifacts of that history back for research and display.

In the contemporary professional world of academic writing current history professors have unfortunately succumbed to falling back on the traditional stereotypical role of pretentious writing, utilization of uncommon vocabulary, complicated imagery relating to their historical subject, and hard to understand primary evidence that the general public can not relate to in their own lives and era.
However, Jonathan Earle effectively demonstrates in his book with superlative ease how past U.S. politics, its parties, and the era in which they were at it's apex, can indeed be interesting to the general public again. Jonathan Earle counter poses the traditional stereotypical role by using interesting primary evidence through out his book, in which he makes you feel like you were actually participating in the events and conversations that took place almost 182 years ago.
Earle uses fascinating historical imagery that not only correlates to what he writes about, but makes you want to explore the images away from the fascinating and important emergence of the Free Soil Party, which defied the traditional system of U.S. politics up to that point in our brief history as a nation. With just a brief emergence of a new century this book shows that our young nation was already facing dire dilemmas that would eventually divide a nation into half for four bloody years. With more men, women, and children who were murdered on both the Union and Confederate sides, then both World Wars and contemporary wars that the U.S. has been involved in to this day.
This is an outstanding read that will take your imagination on a wild adventure back to a time period and political party that is too often negated in U.S. history. In my view Jonathan Earle's book and his writing has triumphantly pounced the traditional stereotypical role. That historical subjects and academic writing can not only appeal to the general public again, but more importantly Earle's book shows just how significant past key historical events and U.S. politics have shaped our lives to this very day.
Erica Hare

Jonathan Earle's deftly written, lively account of the Free Soil Democrats' role in the antislavery effort challenges traditional interpretations of the movement, showing these politicians played a critical role in this country's push toward equality. But more than that, Earle makes you feel like you were at the dinner table with these folks as they debated the central issue of the day, and that's worth the price of the book alone.

I picked up this pounder in hopes of gardening on the cheap, but little did I know what pleasure I would find delving into this well-written account of a fertile time in our nation's history that doesn't get much play in the schools. And, so informative for any one interested in history, and history of the US. Even the garderner in me was gratified: I never knew that hickory needed a split to thrive. What's the sequel?

The closing book of T. R. Pearson's Neely trilogy, "The Last of How It Was" seems to ramble, but is tight as a drum. Does murder run in the family? Young Louis Benfied, Jr., listens raptly as Daddy and Momma and Aunt Sister explain.

The closing book of T. R. Pearson's Neely trilogy, The Last of How It Was seems to ramble, but is tight as a drum. Does murder run in the family? Louis Benfied, Jr., listens raptly as Daddy and Momma and Aunt Sister explain.

The town of Neely, North Carolina is just as Gothic as anything Faulkner ever wrote, with murders, adultery, accidentally slaughtered mules, Stonewall Jackson, escaped convicts, dropped coffins, and Injun fights, but T. R. Pearson makes Neely one hell of a lot funnier than Yoknapatawpha County. In the final volume of the trilogy that also includes _A Short History of a Small Place_ and _Off for the Sweet Hereafter_, narrator Louis Benfield relates stories of his family as told by Louis's daddy Louis, with interruptions, corrections, and emendations from Aunt Sister, Louis's maternal great-aunt, and from Louis's mother. The story rambles like a footpath through the North Carolina hills, with sentences that continue for whole paragraphs and paragraphs that continue for pages, creating a style that seems incomprehensible on the page but which reveals its meaning when read aloud, in all its Southern baroque glory.

_The Last of How It Was_ has the flavor and feel of a long Sunday afternoon visit, sitting on the front porch, listening to family tales that don't go anyplace much or have any enormous meaning, but which, for that very reason, are nonetheless a delight.