Georgia Books

It could only have been written by a Canadian! No mainstream Brit or American journalist would hold up the dirty underwear of the East European "democratic transition" in broad daylight - if only because so many of the stains orginated in London and Washington.

Mark MacKinnon has done an excellent investigative job in portraying the packaged "democracy" of the color-coded pseudo-revolutions that swept through the former Soviet bloc (and, later, targeted other sites from Lebanon to Venezuela) within the last decade: how they were spawned in "think tanks" funded by Western governments, and their agendas formulated to serve strategic Western agendas. Ironically, MacKinnon sees no difference between this subsidized subversion and the Putin-style "managed democracies" they target. And of course he's right.

Promoting "democratic revolution" has become the surrogate for direct armed invasion - though, as in Iraq, both can work well together. The strategies these ersatz movements pursue are no different from Communist Popular Front tactics in the same region after World War Two - in fact, the Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" resembles nothing so much as the Czechoslovak "Communist coup" of 1948: a great betrayal of democracy when committed by Them, a flowering of the democratic spirit when choreographed by Us.

Of course there is real frustration and disappointment in the targeted nations, and the revolutionaries of color can find fertile fields for sowing. But the end result does not serve the people whose anger has been manipulated, but invariably the economic and "security" interests of major Western powers, principally but not exclusively the United States. The danger of raising false hopes in these client regimes has been all too plainly illusttrated in the case of Georgia, whose US-installed president launched an armed quarrel with Russia banking on the broad American support he'd grown used to, hoping to force his country's inclusion into NATO. When the US didn't "come through" pro-US feeling quickly turned sour, the disillusioned backlash inevitable after starry-eyed adolescent puppy-love meets the real world. Beyond doubt more such knee-jerk little wars and subsequent bad feeling await other "successful" color-coded regimes described in MacKinnon's book.

Iwo Jima, Pearl Harbor - everyone knows of those battles, but there was much more to World War II in the Pacific. "New Georgia, Bougainville, and Cape Gloucester: The U.S. Marines in World War II" is a pictorial history of these forgotten battles and the men who fought and died, only to be lost in the sands of time. Filled cover to cover with countless black and white photos and accompanying explanations, "New Georgia, Bougainville, and Cape Gloucester: The U.S. Marines in World War II" is a top pick for community library photography and history collections.

Doyle traces the transition years between Old South and New South in Atlanta, Nashville, Charleston and Mobile between 1860 and 1910. Wonderful compilation of both quantitative and qualitative sources; the sources from newspapers during the time act like time capsules into the period. The newspaper sources combined with some photographs and maps make Doyle's book a well-researched place for students of Southern history and culture to enjoy an insightful glimpse into particular loci in the south. Chapters include:
Preface
Acknowledgments
Urbanization of Dixie
The New Order of Things
Ebb Tide
Patrician and Parvenu
The Atlanta Spirit
The Charleston Style
New Class
Gentility and Mirth
The New Paternalism
Paternalism and Pessimism
Epilogue
Notes
Index

Students interested in the too-often forgetten urban south should get this book

New Wave Asian: A Guide To The Southeast Asian Food Revolution showcases 125 classic and contemporary recipes drawn from the fabled cuisines of Asia and adapted for American kitchens. From Fresh Shiitake Stuffed with Vegetable Tartar; Vietnamese Hot-and-Sour Soup of Duck and Bamboo Shoots; Fried Snapper and Egg Noodles with a Coating of Parmesan and Chili; and Burmese Chicken Curry with Limes and Tomatoes; to Parsleyed Soba Noodles with Tofu and Avocado Tempura; Steamed Coconut Cupcake; Pan-Seared Bonito on Green Lentils; and Deep-Fried Squid in Rice-Powder Batter, New Wave Asian offers exotic dishes that are as palate pleasing as they are appetite satisfying. Enhanced with fabulous color photography of finished dishes, and a very useful basic cooking instructions, New Wave Asian is the perfect choice for any personally or professionally adventurous, multiculturally oriented, kitchen cookbook collection.

May Castleberry's informed and informative text comprising New World's Old World is wonderfully enhanced for readers with exceptional black and white photos of ancient American cultures before the Spanish conquest. These archaeological sites have survived to be photographed in the 19th century and beyond: individual photos capture the pre-Columbian Native American monuments, their landscapes, and provide clues to ancient cultural customs. A fine visionary approach to archaeology and early Native American peoples.

This book is one of the most important studies that uses oral history and folklore research. Beginning with stories about night riders and beliefs about the supernatural, Fry documents stories about white people's use of folklore to attempt to intimidate African Americans. The book traces out stories of night riders and legends throughout American history as it demonstrates how the stories began with the patrollers and the KKK. She demonstrates how the stories continued into the 20th century and how the old beliefs transformed into plausible scenarios that make sense in relation to contemporary social tensions. The book has been critiqued for not dealing with black people's resistance to oppression, but this criticism misses the mark of what Fry accomplishes: namely, she has written a careful analysis of relationships between belief, oral history, and systems that establish hegemonies. To further balance out the aspects of resistance that show up in these complex belief systems, I would recommend reading Patricia Turner's excellent study "I Heard it Through the Grapevine."

O Wheel is a collection of powerful, visionary, aesthetically intricate poetry by a master wordsmith who contents with nihilism, extracting hope from even the most desperate aspects of human nature. The poetry of Peter Sacks is superbly engaging, profoundly moving, literate and memorable. Look In Your Heart: Unshelled/floatrock and mother-lode./The mountain sagged then broke apart,/each ounce so concentrated nothing held/whatever stamp of its disfiguring/the mind made uncontainable./Gloved tongues./The body wrapped and set where space had been./Crush out the breath crush out the words/they feed and carry it away./Where we have fallen./Crawling out.

This book is outstanding. It provides the reader, or viewer, with the opportunity to enjoy and study many of O'Keeffe's works, in watercolor, pastels, and charcoal drawings. I was very satisfied with my choice. I searched and searched for a book that contained works other than her standard oils and watercolors, that have been so available in other books for years. As an art student, this one fits the bill as a great book to study one of my favorite artists and her varied use of techniques and mediums. Who else could make an avocado look so asthetically wonderful. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the work of Georgia O'Keeffe. You won't be disappointed.

This guide book is the best of all the ones I have for GA mountain bike trails. The maps and descriptions are the easiest to read and the most accurate.

Fantastic coffee table book, that gets lots of attention. Wonderful photographs of the Savannah, GA area.. that take you to bygone days of childhood. We love it!