Missouri Books

_Gray Ghosts_ is an excellent foray into a chapter of the Civil War that does not always garner attention -- the establishment of a police state in Missouri and the subsequent backlash and ensuing war of sabotage by local guerrillas. Complexifying the historical landscape, Missouri and Kansas had shared much animosity in the years leading up to the Civil War, and Kanasas, who was a steadfast Union state, used the War as an opportunity to raid Missouri towns as Union Army representatives. Missouri to this point had been a borderline state. Many of the bands of Guerrillas, while they received aid from the Confederacy, never considered themselves a part of any Civil War cause. As Bill Anderson wrote, "I am a guerrilla. I have never belonged to the Confederate Army, nor do my men . . . I have chosen guerrilla warfare to revenge myself for wrongs that I could not honorably avenge otherwise" (201). These "wrongs" included the murder of his father and mother and the imprisonment of Anderson's sisters. The book is excellently written with thorough footnotes and documentation. Most of Brownlee's sources are either primary from newspapers and accounts of the time or secondary dating from the early 1900's. Brownlee also shows himself to be an excellent writer, stringing together the accounts into a vivid portrait of the time. His conversations with such characters as Jessie and Frank James, Bloody Bill Anderson, and William Quantrill represent Lazaras-esque scholastic resurrections. I found the author to be very opinionated, although his judgements are generally limited to the realm of speculative ethics and do not seem to fall along Blue/Gray or political demarcations. As he remarks in the preface, "In dealing with the characters involved, the author has not hesitated to credit each with personal responsibility" and seeks to give them the "praise or condemnation they deserve." From such a perspective, Brownlee comments on both the contextual factors shaping the guerrillas and the decisions they made that in turn shaped history.

focused particularly on events, dates, places and names in Missouri, with some mentions of the border battles involving Kansas

Brownlee does a good job of not letting his personal feelings get in the way. Unlike many authors who don't let truth enter into the fold. Brownlee uses numerous firsthand accounts of people who lived at the time and not his own opinions or that of a college professor from Kansas. Good historical book. Not to biased.

Fascinating reprint of a extremely interesting famous disaster in Saint Louis Missouri.Great for weather buffs!

So much has been written about this storm over the years and so much erroneous. Major tornado histories have stated there was no funnel cloud but as we know from this book that was true at the start of the storm but later in its path there clearly was a funnel--the book even describes its location at cloud level AND ground level--and then multiple funnels were evident. This contemporary account from more than a century ago still provides riveting reading. Perhaps one day someone will likewise document the Sept. 29, 1927, tornado which similarly has been misreported over the years (no funnel in that one, too, reportedly except I've spoken to people who SAW it).

Bravo to the Southern Illinois University Press for reprinting this wonderful historical account of a horrific natural disaster. The pictures alone tell an incredible story of destruction. Interviews with people show the biases of the time, and it is written in melodramatic tones typical of the 1890s. It is hard to read this book without picturing yourself as being a part of the event then, or picturing such an event happening today. This event changed thousands of lives a century ago, but its significance has faded with passing years. It is a valuable reality check to have this account reprinted, so that we can be reminded that battling nature, overcoming devastation, and exercising a will to rebuild are common themes which reach back far beyond our world today.

Please don't take the fact that I gave this only three stars to mean that this book isn't very good. I gave it three stars because I am comparing it to other works by Charles Baxter.

This collection of short stories highlights the human condition, for better or for worse. What is true about Baxter's fiction is that he makes characters interesting, especially those characters who, if they were real people, I would have nothing to do with in reality. That is a good thing.

One story, "The Crank", acts as if it doesn't belong in this collection, but in another collection of Baxter's called "A Relative Stranger." In "The Crank", a loner meets a crank caller and discovers something about himself along the way. The protagonists in these stories range from lost college students to elderly persons who seem just as lost. The title story reminds us that we share the same griefs and joys that everyone else does.

Overall, this collection is worth a read, especially if you love short stories, or if you want to learn how short stories are crafted.

Sifting through "Harmony of the World" is like panning for gold. Each page is an exercise in patience and endurance, but when you happen upon a nugget of Baxter's comical insight or warm compassion, you know you've struck it rich. Baxter does a wonderful job of balancing intelligence, humor, and believable characters. The title story alone is worth the price.

Originally published in 1984, this collection features Baxter's least middle-class, most internally-troubled characters. They are senile, depressed, chronically lonely. The finale, "The Crank" is a gorgeous study of plot. The recently divorced protagonist's interactions with a similarly lonely guru are magical and uplifting. Baxter went on to mature considerably in terms of craft, but these stories are emotionally generous and smart.

This is a complicated essay; like the previous reviewer mentioned it might be a good idea to have some Thomas Mann and Hemingway under your belt.

That being said, this is the most witty, insightful, coherent and thought-provoking essays I have ever read. Not only is Murray's style pure thrilling joy to absorb, but his examinations into aesthetics, the blues, tragedy, and improvisation are masterful. This book entirely changed the way I view the role of literature and art in life.

That is about all I can say. Murray knits a view of confrontation with life in art that nimbly leaps between Hemingway and Duke Ellington. I found his conclusions about the role of the blues and books in life endlessly compelling. I consider this book to be a treasure, from one of the unsquarest cats I've ever read.

This book is a great example of Murray's witty and lucid writing style. However, you'd better read up on your Mann, Hemingway, and Faulkner before you read this.

This is a complicated essay; like the previous reviewer mentioned it might be a good idea to have some Thomas Mann and Hemingway under your belt.

That being said, this is the most witty, insightful, coherent and thought-provoking essays I have ever read. Not only is Murray's style pure thrilling joy to absorb, but his examinations into aesthetics, the blues, tragedy, and improvisation are masterful. This book entirely changed the way I view the role of literature and art in life.

That is about all I can say. Murray knits a view of confrontation with life in art that nimbly leaps between Hemingway and Duke Ellington. I found his conclusions about the role of the blues and books in life endlessly compelling. I consider this book to be a treasure, from one of the unsquarest cats I've ever read.

It's an interesting book. There are several stories about how Monkey's Eyebrow, Ky., got its name. The one in the book isn't my favorite. Find out more about Monkey's Eyebrow at http://monkeyseyebrow.org

This is a pretty fun book to read while on road trips or looking at maps. My biggest complaint is that the book is probably 70% focused on Missouri and Kansas. I personally try to avoid driving across both of them, so the road trip value is minimal to me. The history is pretty interesting though, and the state section is great. Overall, this is a fun book for trivial knowledge- it would be of particular interest to someone who enjoys cartography and US History.

I always wondered how that town got that funny or unusual name. A great book for your trivia friend or for the next time you take a road trip. There is a lot of interesting and humorous stories in this book.

Jerry Eskenazi, sports writer for the New York Times, among other papers, relates what it was like growing up in New York in the pre-war years. His mother was divorced, and worked full-time, making young Jerry somewhat of an outcast, although he grew up under the watchful eye of his immigrant grandmother. Radio became his solace in the hours at home alone after school. Like all kids in Brooklyn, he discovered and enjoyed baseball, especially when he realized that Ted Williams was also the child of divorced parents.

With considerable glee, Eskenazi writes of his introduction to the [then] rough-and-tumble world of newspapering, first at the New York Mirror, then at the Times. Along the way to writing this book, he compares radio memories with Tom Brokaw and Colin Powell.

Although the book is nominally radio nostalgia, it paints an excellent picture of the way both radio and newspapers shaped the American experience in the pre-TV era.

An interesting companion book to this would be Stud's Terkel's autobiography, Talking to Myself. Terkel, fully a generation older than Eskenazi, grew up in Chicago in similar circumstances (an immigrant family), and by the time Eskenazi discovered radio, was a bit player on many of the latter's favorite shows.

This is a very enjoyable book. It's a little difficult to categorize -- a memoirs that revolves around radio. If you are looking for an encyclopedia of old time radio, this is not it. This is radio as heard through the ears of one boy at one place in time. But it also presents a window onto what this device was in people's lives in a different error. There is a lot of information on the history of broadcast radio, the range of shows on air in the 40s and 50s and who listened to them, but this book is more about the role it played in the author's life (including a lot of coincidental meetings between the author later in life with many of his childhood on-air heroes).
It is particularly poignant because the writer was the only child to a single mother and found himself relying on the radio for company.

The 1930s, 40s, and early 50s were the age of Radio. This is when most of America would tune in nightly for their favorite comedies, mysteries, westerns, science fiction, adventure, news, culture, and entertainment programs for children and adults. This was the ultimate era of "theatre of the mind" entertainment that took place in front of the glow of a radio dial. I Hid It Under The Sheets: Growing Up With Radio is Gerald Eskenazi's personal account and recollection of radio's broad impact on his generation and explains how and why it became such a major factor in shaping American and Americans during the years of the Great Depression, World War II, and the first decade of what was called the Cold War when the United States and the Soviet Union had the power to exterminate the human race in a nuclear holocaust. I Hid It Under The Sheets is a simply fascinating, original, and highly recommended contribution to mid-twentieth century American Cultural History library reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Well written and informative bio of a very great and gracious lady. I have been an admirer of the froman sound for many years and it is wonderful to get to know the singer. It is to bad she is not known to more generations who sing today, they could learn a lot about there craft by listening too her.

As a fan and friend of the late Jane Froman, I found Ms. Stone's book factually accurate and researched thoroughly. As I had lost touch with Ms. Froman, I was pleased to learn about her retirement years and sad to learn how ill she had become. My only adverse comments is the tone of the book. Jane Froman was a kind, compassionate, warm human being that only one having known her could capture the essence of her personality and character on paper. I feel that "Jane Froman: Missouri's First Lady of Song" is a wonderful research essay, great for public libraries, but does not capture Ms. Froman's personality. But at any rate, I'm happy that after all these years. there is something concise in book form for Jane Froman admirers to read and own. Thank you, Ms. Stone.

Having been an avid fan of Jane Froman for many years, I was pleased to see that a long overdue biography has finally been written. Jane Froman was an outstanding entertainer and an inspiration to those that met her. Now sadly almost forgotten outside the USA her recordings to the few of us that know of her talent are prized additions to any collection of popular music. Now to the book, Ilene Stone was able to draw on the limited ammount of resourse material available from the Froman papers and Jane's few surviving friends. Given the fact that the subject died over twenty years ago Ilene has done a commendable job with her biography. This book is a mine of information about Jane, I do however wish that Ilene had expanded on some of the facts she quoted in her book, for example why was Jane Froman's hand held microphone technique famous? Bing Crosby, Marlene Dietrich and many other used hand held microphones after all.
All in all an excellent attempt to bring to public attention the talents and bravery of one of America's greatest entertainers. Perhaps that now Ilene has led the way Fox studio's will now make available "With A song In My Heart" on VHS and DVD.

Live from South St. Louis: Joe Baker is Dead by Mary Troy

It's not the first time an author has interwoven short stories in a collection, setting them all at the same place, or centering on the same characters. But Mary Troy's Joe Baker is Dead [U. of MO Press, 1998] does things a bit differently: while these stories make brief references to characters in its other stories (usually as part of this South St. Louis City neighborhood's character), every one of them is touched by this dead grocer Joe in some way. Although there is no story for Joe Baker himself, by the end of the collection, the reader gets to know the departed through all of the other characters' references to him.

It begins with a lumpy, middle-aged woman Joe had an affair with, and it ends with Baker's own twitchy, depressive son. In the other of these nine stories, we learn of Joe through both nosey and self-absorbed neighbors, customers of his lousy produce market, hopeless hairdressers and bad open-mic poets, insane preachers and every other type of local color the gifted Mary Troy can snag off of South Grand and hold captive in language.

But it's not really about Joe, and one doesn't need to read the whole collection to garner some larger truth. These are individual stories, in the best sense of the word. Each one is full of emotion, detail and personality that makes it an event to read on its own, sit with, and wait for the aftershocks before rushing into the next.

Perhaps most impactful and entertaining is "On Iron Street," which may just be one of the finest short stories this reviewer has ever read by anyone. Why it hasn't been at least nominated for a Pushcart Prize is beyond me.

As in Troy's follow-up collection of stories, The Alibi Café [Bkmk Press, 2003], a dark humor creeps through each tale in Joe Baker is Dead. But Joe Baker steps away from that predominant first-person, sassy female protagonist voice in the second book (which isn't to slight that voice in the least). Rather, her debut collection first shows her readers her great range with a more diverse character and perspective.

Indeed, Mary Troy's talent is inspiring and worth the extra effort it may take to find a copy. We all know a Joe Baker. Do it to remember him. You won't be sorry.


[this first appeared on Nighttimes.]

Mary Troy gives a wonderfully honest look at the lives of many different people in her debut collection of short stories set in and around the city of St. Louis. Each of the stories offers an insightful look at what it is to hope, dream, want, and live. Her characters are deeply sympathetic and powerfully portrayed, and at the end of each tale Troy leaves us wanting to get to know these characters that much more. This is a terrific book.

One of Mary Troy's sympathetic and world-weary characters says near the end of the book that understanding your luck in being alive makes you "want to live it up." So does this collection of stories set in St. Louis. Though many of her characters are lonely, confused or down-at-the-heels, Troy portrays them full-on, with their own humor and grace to console us in the reading. To write simply is like hitting the bullseye--it's always harder than it looks, and Troy shoots for the targets of Welty, early Faulkner and even Chekhov. Buy and enjoy.

If you enjoy reading history then you'll enjoy this book. Especially, of course, if your from St. Louis or have a particular interest in the city itself and its surrounding area.

Though obviously well written and deeply researched, Lion of the Valley is so incredibly dense it's a challenge to read. Every page is so packed with tiny factoids about people, associations, political developments, bond issues, etc., that only a few topics rise above the clutter to stick with the reader. (I found myself frequently going back a page or two to reestablish the identity of a person, place or thing.) But then again, in covering 200+ years of history, how does one limit the subject matter?

Having read other city-specific histories (namely, Chicago and NYC), I view Lion as more of a textbook than an engaging narrative. Informative, enlightening, yes. But not an easy read.

This is simply one of the best books I have read on the history of a city. Not a simple tour of neighborhoods, architecture or ethnic groups that settled in various enclaves of the city, but rather a comprehensive and intelligent look at a city from its earliest days, placed against the backdrop of its development in the region and history. the only comparable book on a city that i have read which is better from an economic and regional development standpoint is nature's metropolis about chicago. one wonders why we do not have more gems like these about all american cities. perhaps we would take better care of our hometowns if we knew more about their past from a thoughtful perspective. anyway, lion of the valley is superb.

j. martignon

This hymnal has a fantastic collection of useful hymns, services and prayers for both public worship and personal or family devotion. The Liturgies are complete and easily learned, and yet provide for great variety. There are possibly too many options, however, which makes it more difficult to get through the first time. The Psalms (NIV translation) are set to simple chants that even children can easily learn and use. The hymns are some of the best in Christianity, although some of the translations are inferior to older translations. I highly recommend this hymnal for use for either congregational or family use.

This is an ok Hymnal for use at home and church. But it use of
modern language weakens it much in my option. Some good things
about it is that is has both a 1 and 3 year lectionary. It has
the text of Luther s Small catacism (but any good LCMSer should
still have their copy, maybe Luther s large catacism would have
been a better one to add). They try to hard to have LW used at
home, unlike TLH (The Lutheran Hymnal 1941) they break the
service up to much, in TLH you just drop the last part of vespers
and matins. LW has to many prayer services that could be
reasonably used in a home setting. But in its divine it does
have a simple form for Private confession and absolution, which
TLH sadly lacks. Also it has to many or s this leaves the user
having to jump around a lot.
Another problem is the inclusion of Amazing Grace in the hymn
section, Amazing Grace is a nice song, but it is no hymn, it
does not mention Christ in it at all.
LW is a very good resource, but I would suggest TLH for daily use
in ones prays life.
But again in its defense they did add some very good hymns.

This is an excellent hymnal which sets up the order of service for everything from early morning to prayer late at night. Matins and Vespers are two of the best services. The prayers outlined in this hymnal include prayers for everyone in the world, from your friends and family to the leaders in the church and nation. One of the best things about the hymnal is that all of the words in the hymnal are taken from the inerrant and inspired by God. This is truely the best hymnal ever written. The Commission of Worship of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod truely accomplished alot with the help of God. Please prayerfully consider this hymnal for your collection, I enjoy it and I thank God for helping to add it to my library. Take care and God Bless.