Ohio Books

Ned Middleton is incorrect to say that the destroyers were reluctant to go along side the Ohio. She was dragged into Valleta harbour with a destroyer lashed to each side.You cannot get any closer than that.

Geographically, Ohio may be a long way from Malta but the two became forever linked through the historical events of WW2. The Ohio was a ship - at that time the largest (and fastest) Tanker ever built, and Malta a country under siege. Malta's position in the Mediterranean meant she played a vital part in the war in North Africa - with aircraft based there attacking Rommel's supply lines at every opportunity. In order to maintain those attacks, however, it was imperative she continued to be re-supplied by convoy.

By August 1942 Malta was in dire need of help. Unless substantial supplies were delivered - and soon!, Malta would have to be surrendered by 7 September at the very latest. In the meantime the German campaign in North Africa was going from strength to strength because aircraft based at Malta had no fuel to continue their campaign. They were also running out of aircraft.

Operation Pedestal comprised 14 commercial ships which departed the Clyde on 2 August 1942. By the time they entered the Mediterranean on 10 September such was the importance of this convoy that no fewer than 4 Aircraft Carriers were assigned to the overall defence. From here on those ships came in for attack after attack from air and sea and they pushed ever closer to their destination. Almost immediately the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle was lost and the next day the 8,000 ton cruisers Kenya and Nigeria were put out of action and the 4,190 ton light cruiser Cairo sunk. It was at this time the Ohio took a direct hit from a torpedo. For a long while she was stopped in the water with her crew making frantic repairs and an easy target. In spite of her extensive damage, however, the ship got under way and was soon making 15 knots. By the morning of the 14th she had caught up. In the meantime, however, the 9,400 ton cruiser HMS Manchester was lost.

The loss of so many capital ships on a single operation only served to underline the importance of this convoy. One at a time the freighters with their valuable cargoes were being reduced in number as they were attacked and lost. From now on the Ohio received greater attention - from both sides. Firstly she had become the primary target for Axis forces and secondly she was regarded as the most important ship still afloat as far as the convoy was concerned. In short, the Ohio must reach Malta at all costs. She was torpedoed, she was shot at, she was bombed with explosives and bombed with fuel in a bid to set her alight. The many near missed she suffered twisted her hull and with her cargo of fuel oil and kerosene leaking in all directions she could have simply blown apart at ant time. She was abandoned and re-boarded (twice), her steering gear was first damaged making steering impossible and then it was blown away altogether. She lost countless tows and was so badly damaged that Destroyers were loath to come alongside less they sustain damage from the ship itself.

But come alongside they did and, re-boarded yet again and - when any lesser ship would have been sunk several times over, the Ohio was finally berthed alongside Parlatorio Wharf, Malta at 0930 hrs 15th August 1942. Only four other ships from the original 14 also arrived. Incredibly, very little of the Ohio's cargo had been lost and as a direct result of this incredible feat of human endurance, the fuel carried by this one ship helped turn the war in North Africa in favour of the Allies.

This book tells the tale of a single ship. In bringing Operation Pedestal to life in a thrilling and readable style, Michael Pearson skilfully draws the reader into the events aboard other ships at key moments in the voyage. He also includes just about each and every many who played a key role at various times. All the facts and figures are there including brief technical details of every ship. For those who wish to study the many pages of bibliography, his account is also exceedingly well researched and I congratulate him on a job well done.

NM

A great true story about the trials and tribulations of a tanker and its crew trying to get their ship to Malta through the gauntlet of German and Italian planes and submarines during ww2.

A great asset to your research in Ohio. Check out her other book(s) too!

One might think this type of "resource book" would be scholarly, loaded with information, and dry...dry..dry. Well, it's definitely scholarly, super"loaded" with info, and much more. Not only can one learn about the different types of "captured images", the dating of photos, the different types of cameras, but also the style of different periods found by analyzing the photos, the backgrounds, the clothing, and even the way the subjects are posed. There were tender moments in this photography lesson such as when parents who are holding a presumed sleeping child are actually having a photo taken before the funeral of this loved one; there were riotous ones(but that would be telling and reading is believing) as one flips the pages of the book transporting the reader back in time. I would "shutter" to think anyone interested in family history would let this pass by without "glimpsing" this labor of love from an outstanding writer and lecturer. She writes just like she talks with a wry sense of humor that is pure delight.

Most resource books are usually educational and informative..this outstanding work is much more than that-it's written just like the author talks in a straightforward manner with lots of good material and a wry sense of humor thrown into the mix. There are moments the reader will find him/herself chuckling out loud and there are moments when the reader may experience sadness at some of the stories told about deceased children and the need for parents to have them photographed before burial. One learns much about the different types of captured images, the wide variety of cameras and equipment along with the dangers inherent to the time period, some subtle ways to date pictures, and tell family relationships through the posing of the subjects, the clothing, the backgrounds and props, the watches and jewelry, etc. This book was a delight from page one and will keep the reader both informed and motivated to take a "second look" at his/her old photo momentos.

Old Leather provides an intimate glimpse at pro football's early days. In the tradition of Larence Ritter's baseball classic "The Glory of Their Times," this book provides first person accounts from players, coaches, and executives from the NFL's first two decades. From Hall of Famers like Dutch Clark, Fritz Pollard, and Link Lyman to relatively unkown figures like Ike Roy Martin and Cyrus Kahl, all of the stories are fascinating. Until the mid-thirties, Ohio was the center of the pro football universe, and the interviews that Chris Willis has collected provide a unique insight to that time and place. For anyone interested in football history, this book is indespensible.

For football fans and general football buffs this is a great book. Not many books touch on early pro-football with such knowledge of the game. Great quick read!

This is one of the best football books I have ever read. Well worth the money spent. Unfortunately, the history of football infancy has been largely ignored over the last several decades. Old Leather has actually unearthed interviews from the men who created the NFL we know today - and all it all happened, largely, in Ohio. There's no filter here, just the actual words of pioneers like Fritz Pollard, the first African-American to play and coach in the NFL and graphic accounts of the brutal, masochistic violent nature of football before it was "civilized" for mass consumption. No football library is complete without a copy of Old Leather on shelf.

Most other books on holistic medicine simply tell you what you should be doing. Dr. Torok's book explains WHY you should be doing these things. He gives a thorough background on the principles of homeopathy and helps you understand why it works. Then, he give examples of how his own patients have healed themselves using these principles. A truly fascinating book!

Open Your Mind And Say "Aha": The Guide To Discovering Your Healing Powers by Leonard Torok (Medical Director of Ohio Holistic Medicine and the President of the Ohio State Homeopathic Medical Society) offers the reader a comprehensive understanding of the universal power of self healing. Drawing from ancient wisdom of Chinese and Homeopathic medicines, Open Your Mind And Say "Aha" informs readers on the fundamentals and ideals involved with the variations and intricacies of self-healing treatments and methods. As a detailed guide for its invaluable knowledge and "reader friendly" text, Open Your Mind And Say "Aha" is very strongly recommended for all readers seeking to study homeopathy .

Open Your Mind And Say "Aha": The Guide To Discovering Your Healing Powers by Leonard Torok (Medical Director of Ohio Holistic Medicine and the President of the Ohio State Homeopathic Medical Society) offers the reader a comprehensive understanding of the universal power of self healing. Drawing from ancient wisdom of Chinese and Homeopathic medicines, Open Your Mind And Say "Aha" informs readers on the fundamentals and ideals involved with the variations and intricacies of self-healing treatments and methods. As a detailed guide for its invaluable knowledge and "reader friendly" text, Open Your Mind And Say "Aha" is very strongly recommended for all readers seeking to study homeopathy .

This was a great book. All Farrell devotees should read it. As for one of the other comments. Dorothy B. Farrell, James' wife is still very much alive, trust me.

James and Dorothy Farrell are dead. They are not co-authors of this book. They are the subject of the book. Someone was either asleep or smoking funny cigarettes when they prepared this entry, which needs to be fixed. The only author is Edgar Marquess Branch. After you get this fixed, you might also note that the book is a finalist in this year's Society of Midland Authors Awards for biography. Thank you.

This fine book is remarkable for many reasons. It presents an excellent portrait of Farrell just as he was getting underway as a soon-to-be prominent novelist. Additionally, it offers an unusual and refreshing look at literary Paris in the early 1930s-recreating the scene as the Farrells (still in their 20s) saw and experienced it. Previously neglected writers such as expatriate Bob Brown (and his wonderfully zany Roving Eye Press) are given their due here. The amount of day-by-day detail in this book is amazing; what's more, it is both scholarly and loving. As always, Edgar Branch has done wonderful field work too (in both Chicago and Paris) with his trusty camera. This book is a must for JTF devotees. Further, it ought to be read by anyone with an interest in the intense American/Parisian literary and publishing scene of the late 20s and early 30s; or the making of American literature, period. It reads like something of a novel itself.Dorothy Farrell, who is still very much alive, must have been amazed by it. You will be to when you buy the book.

The book --Ride guide to Ohio's covered brdiges is a very well done book regarding covered bridges in Ohio. I bought this as a future Christmas gift for a realtive in Ohio who studies ciovered bridges--a senior citizen--who loves old Ohio history--this will be a good book to read through for my Aunt. Glad I found it listed in internet. Thanks.

I have ridden one of these rides, and found it to be a very pleasant ride. Nice scenery, little traffic, and great flat straightways mixed with some hills (which my riding partner had trouble with). It was by far the best ride I have been on this season. Cyclists who have been waiting for a book of Ohio/Midwest rides should definately put this book on their list.

Authors Kurt Leib and Steve Butterman are "Bridgers," that is, "bridge-hunting fanatics." Taking it one step further, they could be termed, "Covered Bridgers." And how can one blame them? They live in a state where there are still 37 remaining covered bridges, structures of beauty and interest to even the most humbug of travelers. You match that presence with an already seasoned, cycling-friendly state known for its small towns with neat, tidy squares, and you have great fodder for a terrific ride guide. Leib and Butterman have done us a long due favor.

And they are well-groomed to pen this guide. Leib is a journalist and a frequent contributor to the regional cycling tabloid, Bike Midwest. Butterman is a historian. Both love cycling. And covered bridges.

The meat of the book is the very thorough description of 11 suggested tours that are charted within seven Ohio counties. The tours vary in length (24 miles is shortest, 60 miles is longest) and in degree of difficulty, so even a beginner teen or adult cyclist with a handful of 20-mile rides under the belt could find one to enjoy. On the flipside, there are some longer, more hilly, and downright tougher rides, many of which include gravel roads, a better fit for a mountain bike. Some include all paved roads but most have at least some stretches of dirt road, making a "hybrid," mountain bike, or road bike with wider tires the best fit.

At the beginning of each tour chapter, to the right of the book crease, the authors give a quick description of the terrain, road conditions, traffic level, and points of interest. Printed to the left of the crease is a simple map of the route, leaving out just enough details to keep the "lightweight" map readers from getting confused. This gives a quick synopsis of and look at the tour. What I thought was missing from this quick snapshot was a little, square map with a dot pinpointing the tour's location in the state. Instead, I had to flip back to the beginning of the book to find the one larger version of the Ohio map, which has the location of every tour in the book marked with numbered dots.

This missing, small map, however, was my only complaint. Following the one-sentence descriptions of terrain, traffic, etc., the authors provide an interesting, several-page read on each tour, covering the history of the area and of the specific covered bridges in the route. This was the most interesting part for this reviewer-HistoryChannel fanatic. Immediately following this text in each chapter is the all important route cue sheet. The sheets are very thorough and include: point to next point mileage, cumulative mileage, street (and route) name and important landmarks.

Each route is well-covered and quite detailed, but where the book really delivers for the connoisseur is in the Glossary and the Preface. The glossary provides simple diagrams and definitions of at least a dozen types of bridge designs, so amateur carpenters and would be engineers get a special treat. In the "Basic Data on Bridges" section of the glossary, the list includes each bridge in the book, its date of completion, its length and its "truss type" (explained earlier in the glossary). The preface gives the rationale for touring these bridges via bicycle and provides a short, interesting history of the emergence of the covered bridge, her rise to prominence, her gradual, nearly wholesale replacement by new structures, and her preservation and great admiration in recent decades.

The book is slim (107 pages), easy to pack, and specific information can be easily found within despite the absence of an index.

I have always lived within an hour of Ohio and I have been waiting for such a book for a long time. I love the subject and I love riding in Ohio. I've already picked out my first personal tour--Ashtabula County, Eastern Leg. This small book will "loom large" on my shelf of regional touring guides.

Pop this cassette into your dashboard, and you won't miss a single site in northern Ohio. Ms. Davies points out everything you could ever want to know and tells you every stop you should make as you travel the Ohio turnpike. I never realized Ohio had so much to offer.

Travelers heading east, take note. The book, Ride With Me, by Melinda M. Davies is nothing short of exceptional. Her detailed prose regarding life and living along the Ohio Turnpike made me feel like I was riding in the passenger seat next to her. As I have traveled this stretch countless times, I can attest to the accuracy and of this account. A helpful reference for any traveler. An interpretive, well-written, useful legder of this pictorial landscape. Thumbs up, Ms. Davies.

Travelers heading east, take note! The book, Ride With Me, by Melinda M. Davies, is nothing short of exceptional. Her detailed, thoughtful and informative essay describing life and living along the Ohio Turnpike made me feel like I was sitting in the passenger seat next to her. It is a vivid description of this picturesque landscape. As I have traveled this stretch countless times, I was charmed by this merry, yet, interpretive sample of journalism. Thanks, Ms. Davies.

Ripsnorting Whoppers is a great book to read!It's really funny & enjoyable.I got to eat lunch with Mr.Sowash last year at my school.He has a good way of putting things,and he is really funny.I think everybody should get a chance to meet him.He also has another good book out that you should read called Ohio hero's.They are both Great books & once you read them you will be temted to put in a revew!

Rick Sowash is a very intelligent and unique individual and I am glad that he takes interest in the history and the famous people that have come from Lebanon. He taught my whole school about the book for right to read week and it was very exciting.

Enjoyed this book. The stories are appropriate for people of all ages. Definately recommend this book.

For most books ive read on salamanders they describe them, then spend a line or two with general info. This book has multiple pages on each species, and great detailed maps(one of my favorite parts are the maps). Only downside would be the photos in the back which can still be used but having another book or internet for pictures come in handy. None the less this book is the best ive read on the subject.

Pfingsten and Downs have put together one of the best books on salamanders a person can find. The amount and detail of the information collected is great, and is useful to anyone wishing to learn more about salamanders. The books focus is obviously on Ohio salamanders, which for me is great, but anyone anywhere will find the book useful as a great source of information on the various species. Includes both larval and adult identification guides, and color photos, which are a great help to everyone, novice and expert. I highly recommend this book.

This is a great book for individuals serious about finding and identifying salamanders. A bit of previous knowledge of salamanders is helpful but not necessary. The amount of life history information given for each species is excellent. Although the book is written specifically for Ohio, most of the identification keys apply to the surrounding states as well. The key to larval salamanders is especially helpful as keys of this nature are difficult to find. Although the book lacks color photos, the black and white photos are good, and the diagrams are quite clear.

James Smith's captivity narrative about his capture and life among the Canawaugha Indians is the best I've read among this gendre of literature. Smith presents his captors as human beings making their way in a beautiful, but harsh environment.

His prose is surprisingly clear, lively and straight forward for a mid-eighteenth century writer.

Very authentic insights into native-american life and the life of a captive. Best parts: How James learns native- american knowledge of the forest to save himself when he became lost. (Treetops point south toward the sun, there are more branches on south part of certain trees, etc). He spends a night inside a hollow tree during a fierce blizzard and survives. Unbelievable story! How did these captives ever survive such ordeals? READ THIS BOOK! A good way to gain insight into native-american culture!

This is without a doubt the very best book ever written about Indian captives of the French and Indian Wars or Indian captive narratives in general. It is a first person account - sharing a realism no others can match - written over 200 years ago by James Smith. The vast majority of works on this subject are filled with racial hate, a measure of Early American attitudes towards Native Americans, masking the realities of war, captivities and white- Indian relations. Sadly, this perverse formula of writing tales on the captives of native Americans is still alive and well today as we approach the 21 Century - ignoring the actual histories and huge amounts of primary research material available. This book should be read by every 7th or 8th grader in the US studying American history. American history text books used by middle and high school children should all contain excerpts from this book. Anyone interested in Native American history should read it. And, anyone interested in an easy read, something beautiful and inspirational, should buy this book! Michael C. Cohill